Blair Called a Tough Act to Follow for Next S.D. City Manager

Have you ever seen Camelot? We want someone matching up to Sir Lancelot. --J. Michael McDade, chief of staff to Roger Hedgecock, on the qualifications for the next city manager.

Ever since City Manager Ray Blair’s surprise resignation announcement Monday, Rich Snapper’s phone has been ringing.

Snapper is the personnel director for the City of San Diego. Even though the city has not selected a private search firm, or put an ad in the Wall Street Journal about the job opening, people from around the country were calling Snapper this week asking how to apply.

Snapper doesn’t know if any of the applicants so far are qualified. The formal selection process hasn’t begun yet and, for all he knows, “these people could be unemployed coal workers,” he said.

While coal miners are not encouraged to apply, the city would like to receive applications from top public administrators around the country.

From the interest this week, one thing seemed clear: in the next 60 to 90 days, when council members sit down in executive session to choose Blair’s replacement, there will be plenty of candidates to choose from.

After all, the city manager’s salary is good--expected to range from about $70,000 to $90,000 a year. The job is impressive--chief executive officer, in charge of 7,000 employees, for the eighth largest city in the nation.

It is certainly challenging--not only replacing the respected Blair, who resigned because of failing health--but balancing the interests of eight council members and an ambitious young mayor to guide San Diego into the next decade.

Attracting high caliber applicants may be the easy part. The next step, deciding who should be city manager, is expected to be considerably more complex.

Council members say they want to continue the tradition of a strong, independent but politically astute city manager who not only knows labor relations and fiscal management, but also can work well with the City Council.

However, in recent months all eight council members and the mayor have frequently had separate, sometimes conflicting agendas. Some City Hall observers question if the council, in a year when four of its members are seeking re-election, can even agree on a new manager, much less select him by the 9-0 majority Mayor Roger Hedgecock desires.

And even if the council does find the city manager’s equivalent of Sir Lancelot, those same council observers question how independent he or she can be.

“They’ll go out and find someone as pliant as possible,” one City Hall aide said. “I’m sure eight council members and the mayor will all get something they want, but they rarely want the same thing. So if you don’t get somebody who’s very, very good, they’ll be at each other’s throats.”

But, council member after council member promised to hire someone who would be as independent as the city’s charter requires.

In comments echoed by several council members, Councilman Ed Struiksma said, “I’m looking for an individual who is strong-willed, who will speak his own mind and one who hopefully has had experience in a large city--if at all possible a Western city,” where the tradition of a city manager is a common one.

In Eastern cities, a strong political organization often creates “a subservient role” for the manager, Struiksma said. But he would prefer a manager who, “if he thinks something is right, will at least speak his mind on the issue . . . I don’t want him to be afraid to talk before the council has made up its mind.”

Since 1931, San Diego has operated under the city manager form of governance. That is in contrast to the “strong mayor” form of government many California cities used to favor, and which allows the mayor to direct city operations. Currently, the city manager in San Diego is the city’s chief executive officer, managing city employees, running city operations from parks to police employees and submitting an annual budget for the council’s approval.

The structure is a political version of a CEO reporting to a corporation chairman and board of directors, with the manager reporting to the mayor and council. The mayor and council are supposed to be the policy-making body, setting overall policy, but not meddling in day-to-day operation of city departments.

In recent years, however, a number of people, from city labor leaders to former city manager Kimball H. Moore, believe that the council has been usurping functions reserved by the charter to the city manager.

In an interview, Moore argued that, beginning with Mayor Pete Wilson’s administration, council members have increasingly allowed partisan politics to intrude into city affairs. And in response, San Diego’s city managers, including Blair, “have a tendency to look at the political partisan alignment and kinda count noses in terms of who belongs to which party,” Moore said.

In recent months, even the amiable Blair has exchanged angry words with council members because he thought they were interfering with his authority over the budget, staff assignments and other managerial affairs.

But this week council members said they didn’t intend to intrude on the manager’s authority. They said they wanted their next manager to continue the tradition Blair had set--that of an innovative administrator who would listen to council members’ concerns, work to resolve them, but still take charge of city departments.

Actually, they said, they’d really like to hire another Ray Blair.

Pat Barnes, executive assistant to Councilman Bill Cleator, said, “We’re looking for someone like Ray Blair--someone responsive and sensitive to the needs of different council members. And someone who walks on water.”

“I want someone who is a leader, who is an innovator--and not a yes man,” Councilman William Jones said. He added that he wanted someone who was honest and would continue San Diego’s reputation for clean government. “And frankly, I would like to have a Ray Blair.”

Councilman Bill Mitchell feels the city is seeking “a genius, an absolute genius. He should have Ray Blair’s attributes and then some--a knack for communications, starting from the top and going clear to the bottom and coming back up.”

Councilwoman Gloria McColl called Blair’s “a hard act to follow. He had the unique ability to be able to administer very, very well and yet work with the entire council. The thing I liked about Ray (and that she would like to see in the next manager) was his ‘I can do it, I’ll take care of it’ attitude, without stepping on anybody’s toes.”

Councilman Dick Murphy said he wanted someone with a strong record of experience in administration, in municipal government and, further, “someone who has got some political moxie, who understands when to take a stand and when not to.

“I do not think the city manager should bend to the council in most occasions,” Murphy said. “The value of a city manager form of government is that a city manager can make his best recommendation regardless” of what the council decides. “But there comes a point at which the council has made a decision with which the manager may disagree. At that point, he has to bend.”

Retired city manager Moore said he thought the city manager’s office has been doing too much bending lately. But given the circumstances, Moore had some advice for Blair’s successor.

“Stay cool,” Moore said.

“When the manager serves the mayor and the council, there’s nine bosses there and another constituency, 7,000 employees, and the third constituency is the public. Sometimes, these can be in conflict with one another. So it’s necessary to stay cool.”