Hankla Quits County Post to Become City Manager of Long Beach

In a move said to reflect his frustration with Los Angeles County’s massive and often unmanageable bureaucracy, County Chief Administrative Officer James C. Hankla resigned Tuesday to become Long Beach city manager.

Hankla, 47, will assume the $112,500-a-year post March 1, two weeks after completing his second year in the county’s top administrative job at a yearly salary of $98,280. He will succeed embattled Long Beach City Manager John Dever, who announced his retirement Oct. 23.

Hankla, a longtime Long Beach resident who served 20 years in government positions in that city, told reporters that his new job is the fulfillment of a “lifelong passion tucked away to be city manager of Long Beach.” Among his posts there, Hankla was director of Long Beach’s Community Redevelopment Agency from 1976 to 1980 and has been given much of the credit for the city’s downtown revitalization efforts.

Sources familiar with Hankla’s move said his decision to abandon the prestigious county post after a relatively short time points up a strong desire to be in control of the bureaucracy he serves. As chief administrative officer, Hankla has been in the odd position of trying to run the county’s day-to-day operations with no direct authority over any of the more than 40 department heads. They answer directly to the county supervisors.

“It’s like herding grasshoppers” was one favorite Hankla description of the situation, according to a source who asked not to be identified.

In Long Beach, while answerable to a part-time City Council, Hankla will be virtually in total control of the 4,600-employee staff and be able to hold top managers accountable for their work, county sources said.

The lack of accountability at the county level has been a sore point with Hankla since he took his job on Valentine’s Day, 1985. Hankla set about immediately trying to correct the problems.

What evolved from Hankla’s efforts a year later was a proposal, placed before voters last June, that would have allowed hundreds of top county managers to leave Civil Service status and enter a merit plan paying them bonuses and raises for meeting specified goals.

To Hankla’s surprise and disappointment, his plan was bitterly attacked by Supervisor Kenneth Hahn as a return to a “spoils system” of rewarding favored employees. To Hankla’s shock, county voters rejected his plan by a 3-2 margin.

Hankla said Tuesday that the defeat of the ballot measure alone was not enough to persuade him to leave county service, explaining that had the Long Beach job not opened up, he would have liked to spend at least another year in the county post.

He said, however, that the promise of a position giving the power to hold employees accountable was “a deciding factor” in his move to Long Beach.

Hankla said he is leaving his county job with “nothing but positive feelings. . . . I have very good relations with the (Board of Supervisors).” Hankla said he told board members individually that he was interested in the post, adding that although they expressed disappointment, he did not seek a counteroffer.

‘Not Unsatisfied’

Calling his current job “one of the most challenging and rewarding positions in government,” Hankla also said: “I did not apply for (the Long Beach) position. I was approached.

“I was not unsatisfied with this position. I was not looking for another job.”

He added that when he heard Dever was retiring, at first he could not picture himself as Long Beach city manager because of the sharp contrasts in the jobs.

And contrasts there are. As chief administrative officer, Hankla has a hand in administering a $7-billion budget, compared to Long Beach’s $1.2 billion. The county’s payroll includes nearly 75,000 employees; Long Beach’s has 4,600. Hankla has to negotiate with 58 labor unions in the county; in Long Beach he will work with five.

Speculation turned immediately to Hankla’s successor. Supervisor Deane Dana said he would push for a “complete search” but added that he assumes that many of the candidates Hankla beat in 1985 will reapply. Among them are Beaches and Harbors chief Ted Reed, Superior Court executive officer Frank Zolin and Treasurer-Tax Collector Richard Dixon.

At Tuesday’s Long Beach City Council meeting, members were full of praise for Hankla after voting unanimously to approve a contract that, with benefits, will actually top $125,000. Most of the members have known Hankla for years and treated the new development as a “welcome home” party.

“To have Jim back home is the completion of a circle of national accomplishments which began two decades ago here in Long Beach,” said Mayor Ernie Kell. He was referring to Hankla’s brief stint in Virginia as an economic development chief before returning to California two years later. In 1982, he was named the first executive director of the Community Development Commission, a Los Angeles County post that he held until his appointment as administrative officer.