‘Cream of Crop’ in City Managers Is Coming to San Diego

Sylvester Murray, city manager of Cincinnati since 1979, was selected by the San Diego City Council on Tuesday to fill the city manager’s job left vacant by the resignation last month of Ray Blair.

The council voted unanimously in closed session to hire Murray, 43, over five other finalists for the top administrative post in the largest city in the country to employ a city manager. Murray telephoned Mayor Roger Hedgecock and accepted the job subject to negotiations concerning his salary, which is now $80,000 annually and is expected to be about $86,000 in San Diego.

Hedgecock said Murray, who was unavailable for comment Tuesday, likely would begin work here the first week in September.

Murray, who will be the 16th city manager for San Diego since it adopted the charter form of government in 1931, replaces Blair, who resigned June 27 for health reasons.

Hedgecock described Murray as a “professional, dedicated human being who is very dedicated to following the policy directions of elected officials . . . the cream of the crop in city managers throughout the country.”

When Murray arrives to assume the city’s top administrative post, Hedgecock said, “nothing will happen to him in San Diego that will be new to him.”

Indeed, Murray will be greeted by problems similar to those he tackled in Cincinnati, including strained relations between the city’s minority community and police, downtown redevelopment, revitalization of older neighborhoods and troubled construction of a major convention center. In addition, he is taking the helm of a city bureaucracy in which more than a dozen top administrators are at or near retirement age and must soon be replaced, and one which operates in a climate of political uncertainty pending the outcome of Hedgecock’s second perjury and conspiracy trial, which begins next week.

One of Murray’s most pressing immediate concerns will be to improve relations between the city administration and the Police Department, and between the minority community and police. In May, the Police Officers Assn. called for Blair’s resignation after a particularly bitter round of labor negotiations, and recent community meetings in Southeast San Diego have focused on claims of police brutality against minority residents.

Faced with a similar situation in 1979 shortly after taking the job in Cincinnati, Murray formed a civilian-run Office of Municipal Investigation at City Hall to look into complaints by citizens against police and other city employees.

Councilman William Jones has suggested that the city manager’s office become involved in reviewing complaints against police, but the proposal has been harshly criticized by Police Chief William Kolender and Ty Reid, president of the Police Officers Assn.

Cincinnati Police Chief Larry Whalen refused to comment on the effectiveness of the city’s municipal investigation office, saying only that it was not warmly received by Cincinnati police when it was instituted. Whalen, a 27-year veteran of the Cincinnati force who ascended only last week to the chief’s position, characterized Murray’s relationship with police as “decent --good on some days, not so good on others. He’s a very tough negotiator.”

Councilman Uvaldo Martinez said Murray’s experience in police-community relations was the deciding factor in his decision to support Murray’s hiring.

Murray came to San Diego twice to be interviewed by the council, and his second appearance, on Monday morning, apparently was particularly impressive and the key to his being offered the job.

“I saw a depth to him I didn’t see before,” said Councilwoman Gloria McColl.

“He convinced me that second time,” said Councilman Bill Mitchell, the city’s deputy mayor. “He came across as a tough, no-nonsense person who will carry out the policy of the council.”

“There was a gradual, positive building of a consensus among the council members,” said Hedgecock, adding that he would have been satisfied had “six or seven” of the council members agreed on whom to hire as manager. “There was no lobbying. This is the most important decision we’ve had to make, and we left our politics at the door. For him to face a divided council would have been the worst of all worlds.”

Other leading contenders for the position were Camille C. Barnett, deputy city manager of Dallas; Berkeley City Manager Daniel Boggan and City Manager C. Scott Johnson of Oklahoma City. The finalists for the job were chosen by Korn-Ferry International, a Los Angeles executive search firm which, coincidentally, also selected Murray as one of the finalists for the Cincinnati post in 1979.

Before working in Cincinnati, Murray was city manager of Ann Arbor, Mich., from 1973 to 1979 and city manager of Inkster, Mich., from 1970 to 1973 and held assistant city manager jobs in Richland, Wash., and Daytona Beach, Fla. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Lincoln University in Philadelphia and holds master’s degrees from Eastern Michigan University and the University of Pennsylvania.

In Cincinnati, Councilwoman Marian Spencer mourned the loss of Murray to San Diego. “He brought us great visions; I hate to see him go,” said Spencer, described as a leading activist for minorities in Cincinnati and a resident of the city since 1938.

“He is extremely personable and bright, and he effectively carried out our policies, even if he disagreed with them,” Spencer said. “At the same time, he isn’t afraid to make bold changes.”

Cincinnati Mayor Charles Luken also praised Murray, saying, “One of his greatest contributions has been in playing a role toward greater racial harmony in this city. For that, he will always be remembered. We don’t have the confrontational tensions we had in 1979.”

Murray also received high marks from officials in Cincinnati for his work in downtown redevelopment and was praised for his “innovative” creation of an Office of Neighborhood Housing and Conservation, to promote stronger ties between City Hall and the city’s 47 neighborhoods.

McColl, whose council district encompasses some of the city’s oldest neighborhoods, said Murray’s “experience in revitalizing and reorganizing older neighborhoods” was a factor in her decision to support his hiring.

Cincinnati officials said Murray has been criticized for “not exerting enough control” over a major expansion of the city’s convention center. One council member, who refused to be identified, characterized the project, which has been plagued by legal problems and political infighting, is months behind schedule and running an estimated $13 million over budget, as a “fiasco.”

Spencer said, however, “If there is a fiasco with the convention center, it’s ours (the council’s), not his. He’s responsible for bringing together a lot of different groups for the project, and without that work, it would not have been possible.”

Times staff writer Michele L. Norris contributed to this story.