Villa Park : City Manager Quits to Take Yorba Linda Post

City Manager Carolyn Wallace, who also serves as city clerk of Orange County’s smallest city, has resigned and will take a position with the City of Yorba Linda on April 13.

Wallace, who has worked at Villa Park City Hall for 16 years and took over as city manager in June, 1985, will be city clerk in Yorba Linda and also administrative assistant to City Manager Arthur Simonian.

Her final day in Villa Park will be April 3, after which she’ll take a vacation to Hawaii before starting her new position.

Yorba Linda presents a new challenge as a growing city with some redevelopment, a growing parks department and new building construction, she said. Villa Park, the smallest city in the county with a population of about 7,125 people and an area of about 2.1 square miles, is “97% built out,” she said.

As city manager, Wallace said, she is especially proud of helping the city find liability insurance during a time when all municipalities were scrambling for coverage. The city eventually joined the Southern California Joint Powers Insurance Authority and purchased insurance for about $16,000. “We were bare (without any insurance) for about three months and that’s scary,” she said. “A small city with little in reserve can get wiped out in that situation.”

The Tennessee native, who moved to Southern California in 1955, said the City Council has yet to choose a successor. Wallace made approximately $44,000 a year as Villa Park city manager.