Lawndale Speeds Exit Plans for Its Ousted Manager

The Lawndale City Council will meet in closed session on Thursday to iron out details of the departure of embattled City Manager Paul Philips.

The council, at one of a series of private meetings, has asked Philips to resign, principally because of lapses in his management of the Planning Department and of the city’s Neighborhood Watch program, Mayor Sarann Kruse said Friday.

The council in the past month has held four private sessions focusing on Philips’ performance as city manager, and on Thursday it is expected to review a severance agreement removing him from his $60,000-a-year job.

Kruse said that unless Philips finds another job first, he will technically remain a city employee until Feb. 23 so he can be fully vested for retirement benefits. However, Assistant City Manager Paula Cone will be asked to take over as acting city manager.

“I hope she would like to be considered for the position of city manager,” Kruse said of Cone. Philips, 38, was reportedly ill and was not available for comment. Cone filled in for him at Thursday night’s council meeting.

Philips has held the top job at Lawndale City Hall since Feb. 22, 1983. Before coming to Lawndale, he was city manager of Hawaiian Gardens for two years.

City sources said that Philips was admired in Lawndale for accomplishments that include the negotiation of city participation in the development of the Galleria at South Bay, a glittery shopping center in Redondo Beach adjacent to Lawndale.

Recently, however, Philips has come under fire because of serious problems in the Planning Department, some of which could subject Lawndale to litigation, according to a 45-page report prepared by City Atty. David J. Aleshire.

During Philips’ 4 1/2-year administration, the Planning Department issued building permits for projects that do not comply with zoning laws, Aleshire found. Also, Planning Department directions to developers on parking requirements and other matters were not based on municipal laws, he said.

These improper practices “bring discredit to the city in both the development community and the community generally, and may subject the city to litigation,” Aleshire said in his report.

In a previous interview, Philips declined to respond to the criticism.

Kruse said Friday that Lawndale’s recent investment loss of $1.68 million in a speculative securities deal was not an issue in Philips’ dismissal. “My personal feeling is that it could have occurred no matter how good a city manager we had in that position,” she said.

Philips would have been fired even if the investment loss had not occurred, Kruse added.

Part of the problem, she explained, was his “lack of responsiveness” to council requests. For example, she said, when the governing body authorized the hiring of a staff member to start a Neighborhood Watch program, the staffer left on personal leave and Philips did not pursue the program. As a result, she said, residents were disappointed and “people felt the city had let them down.”

Kruse said that other dissatisfactions with Philips were relatively minor. She said she was not pleased when Philips would occasionally display a flash of anger at a meeting. “It was out of line,” she said. “All these things build up.”