San Diego’s City Manager Quits in Tiff With Council

San Diego City Manager Sylvester Murray, unable to close an expanding political chasm between himself and City Council, announced his resignation Wednesday after 13 months on the job.

Murray’s resignation came a day after the council, meeting in closed session, lodged a vote of no confidence against him.

His forced resignation from the city’s highest appointive post was the latest in a series of controversial events that have swept through City Hall.

A week ago, a San Diego councilman accused of misusing a city credit card for charging personal dinners and drinks pleaded guilty to two felony counts and will resign from office.

And a year ago today, former mayor Roger Hedgecock was found guilty by a jury of violating campaign reporting laws. The conviction led to Hedgecock’s resignation.

Malfeasance, however, had nothing to with Murray’s ouster from the $102,344-a-year position. Instead, Murray, 45, who attained the highest post of any black ever to hold appointive office in San Diego, and the City Council had a clash of styles.

“We agreed that the differences in management style and organizational leadership are the main reasons for this resignation,” said newly elected Mayor Maureen O’Connor, who, according to City Hall sources, led the movement to remove Murray.

O’Connor refused to be more specific, saying, “I don’t think anybody is pointing blame at any one individual. . . . It was a difficult and tough decision for everybody and no one is happy about making it.”

Murray also declined to elaborate on specific reasons for his resignation, saying it was not due to any single incident.

“I don’t know if I can pinpoint any specific time or to say that something happened on this day or that day that caused things to go wrong. I just cannot pinpoint any specific item,” he said.

Murray, a former city manager in Cincinnati, took over the job in San Diego on Sept. 9, 1985, and his tenure was marked by recurring friction with the council. He made it a point to seek out citizens and business groups, which alienated some council members who felt that Murray was stepping into their political arena.

Other council members said they felt that he did not share enough information with them and they privately criticized his organizational style.

Murray angered several council members when, in a June interview with The Times, he said that blacks in San Diego were as conservative as whites and that he was surprised that blacks were not outraged over allegations of police brutality made at the trial of young San Diego black man accused of killing a policeman, severely wounding another and wounding a civilian observer who was riding with police.