Lawndale Scrambling to Fill Top 3 City Managerial Posts

With Lawndale’s city staff decimated by the departures of three top management employees in recent months, the City Council was hard hit by the news last week that acting City Manager Paula Cone faces surgery Feb. 10 and will be unable to work for at least two weeks, possibly longer.

The council is scrambling to fill the posts of city manager, city treasurer and planning director to provide relief to employees who have worked two and three jobs to keep City Hall functioning, council members said in interviews Friday.

Mayor Sarann Kruse said the council will meet in a closed-door session at 7 p.m. Tuesday to interview the leading three candidates for the planning director’s job, which was left vacant by the resignation of Nancy Owens in October. The job pays $42,348 to $51,672 a year, depending on qualifications.

Problems in the Planning Department were cited by members of the council in explaining their dissatisfaction with the job performance of former City Manager Paul J. Philips, who resigned in December during a series of lengthy closed-door meetings with the council.

Cone, a city employee since 1969, has been serving as acting city manager since Philips left, but with the prospect of her surgery the council plans to hire an interim city manager while she recuperates--whether it is for two weeks or longer, Kruse said.

March 18 Deadline

The city is recruiting for a permanent city manager as well and has set March 18 as the deadline for applications for the $60,000-a-year job. Cone, thought to be a likely contender, said Thursday she does not plan to apply.

In another move toward filling key posts, the council Thursday approved specifications for the city treasurer’s job, which is performed on a consulting basis. The council did not name a salary for the job, left vacant when Ray Wood was fired Oct. 1 for making a speculative investment in which the city lost $1.68 million.

Council members acknowledged last week that for many weeks the city staff has been overworked and some key employees, including Cone, have been performing two or three jobs.

“Some citizens may not be aware of the pressures on a few people who are keeping our city functioning,” Kruse said.

“We’re running awfully short at City Hall right now,” agreed Councilman Dan McKenzie. “We’re really overloading some of those people,” he said.

“We’ve got her loaded to the max,” Councilman Larry Rudolph said of Cone.

Since Philips’ resignation last month, Cone has been responsible both for her own job as assistant city manager and for the duties of city manager. She also has done the treasurer’s job.

Since Owens resigned in October, Paula Burrier has served as acting planning director, as well as director of housing and community development.

“These are two very active departments,” Burrier said, adding that between the two jobs last week her workday did not end until 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday and 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday. On Thursday, because the issues for her departments came up at the beginning of the council meeting, she said that “luckily I got to go home at 8 p.m.”

With several major programs occurring simultaneously in both departments, including a senior housing proposal and planning efforts to mitigate effects of commercial development, she said, “there is no way we can keep up with all this.”

Cone said that she, Burrier and Recreation Director Brady Cherry have been working 50- and 60-hour weeks “at least” to keep up with critical city business.

Must Delay Some Items

“What we end up doing is assessing daily the items that must be accomplished that day,” she said. Some matters must be put off, she said. “It is unrealistic to think we could keep up as we could when we were fully staffed.”

Although the council acknowledged that not filling these and other jobs has helped offset some of the money lost in its investment debacle, members said Friday they are anxious to fill the three top posts as soon as possible.

“We don’t have any choice,” McKenzie said. “We have to.”