Cities, Counties With Temporary Vacancies at the Top Find Rent-a-Pro a Workable Idea

Three days after New Year’s, Fred Sorsabal signed on as El Segundo city manager. By year’s end, he’ll have packed his briefcase and left town.

His leaving won’t have anything to do with how well he does the job. Nor will it have anything to do with the vagaries of City Hall politics.

Rather, the 50-year-old Sorsabal, who served as Costa Mesa’s city manager for 15 years before leaving in 1985, was hired by council members on an interim basis through the pint-sized, nonprofit Public Service Skills Inc.

Formed in 1981

Since it was formed in late 1981, the organization, affiliated with the League of California Cities, has served as an executive search firm for counties and cities in need of municipal government veterans to temporarily fill positions left vacant by retirements, firings or resignations.

While some cities and counties turn to Public Service Skills for someone to simply hold down the fort until a permanent replacement is found, others are brought aboard with orders to “shake it up good,” according to Lyman Cozad, himself a former city manager, who coordinates the group’s activities in Southern California.

Sorsabal, who was hired by El Segundo after longtime City Manager Arthur Jones retired, may not fit neatly into the latter category. He clearly does not belong to the first, however.

“I told them I am not a maintenance manager,” Sorsabal said last week, recalling his job interview with El Segundo officials. “I told them if they wanted someone to get something done, I was the person.”

The South Bay has been one of Public Service Skills’ best customers. At least eight local cities have gone to the group for temporary help to fill positions ranging from city managers to planners to public works directors, according to Cozad.

Last summer, for example, Hermosa Beach recruited an interim city manager from the group’s roster after Gregory T. Meyer resigned as the city’s chief executive to take a job with the Los Angeles City Redevelopment Agency.

Last fall, Manhattan Beach officials called upon the group when it needed to find a quick replacement for its public works director. The city was about to begin its downtown Streetscape beautification project--one of the largest public works projects in the city’s history--and Morton F. August had resigned to take a job with the City of Encinitas.

Public Service Skills operates with a skeleton staff made up of a board of directors, a part-time secretary and two representatives--one in Southern California and the other in Northern California. It has helped fill more than 300 jobs since it was formed, and earns a fee from both the city and the hired manager.

300 Executives Listed

Richard Carpenter, the group’s chairman, said it has about 300 former municipal executives registered. The majority are retirees who want to work only two or three months a year. Most have logged 30 or more years’ experience in city or county government, he said.

The group, which this year will operate with a budget of about $20,000, charges municipalities based on their population. Cities or counties with fewer than 10,000 people pay a $250 fee; those with 10,000 to 100,000 pay $500, and those over 100,000 pay $750.

People who land jobs negotiate their salary and any benefits. They are required to pay Public Service Skills 2% of their earnings up to a maximum of $500.

The organization also has a rule: No one who takes a temporary job is eligible to take the job on a permanent basis. “We feel it would be completely unfair for the person to go into the temporary job and have a leg up” on job applicants, Carpenter said.

By hiring someone on a temporary basis, Carpenter said, cities and counties are not rushed into hiring a permanent employee before they are ready. Moreover, they can conduct their business without interruption.

“You have a very skilled person who can come in and make decisions,” Carpenter said. “No one is treading water. And the second advantage is you have a fresh look from the outside from someone who doesn’t have to be concerned about political decisions.”

That was on the mind of El Segundo council members when they decided to contact the group, according to Councilman Carl Jacobson. With the April municipal election looming (three council seats are being contested), they decided to let the new council select a permanent city manager, he said.

Jacobson said council members were “not looking for a caretaker” when they selected Sorsabal from among six or seven candidates. Rather, they were looking for someone who would take a hands-on approach to the city’s problems.

Sorsabal, who spent a year as a Shrine potentate after leaving his job in Costa Mesa, will be paid $6,000 a month for up to a year. Already, El Segundo officials say, his personal style has become evident. Unlike Jones, he is much more apt to stroll the hallways and pop in on people.

“He is candid, he is open and he will tell you if he doesn’t understand something,” said Planning Director Lynn Harris. “He will tell you if he thinks something is stupid.”

“I like to go down to the various departments and nose around a bit,” said Sorsabal, who describes himself as a “hyperactive person who is always in a hurry.”

Sorsabal, who commutes to work from his home in Costa Mesa, finds there are definite advantages to being an interim city manager. “I think it gives you an objective viewpoint that perhaps someone who is tied to the chair can’t give you. You are much more independent than someone who has the job permanently. There isn’t that one little glitch in your thinking: ‘If I make that decision, will I be here tomorrow?’ ”

Although he doesn’t think a temporary manager can have long-term goals, Sorsabal has already begun tackling the city’s most pressing problem: finding a way to fatten its treasury. For the last three years, the city has had to spend from its reserve to balance its budget.

Sorsabal has brainstormed with department heads, and the city will soon seek an outside company to develop a long-term economic plan. The city also is looking into the possibility of forming a redevelopment agency to guide development on the east side of Sepulveda Boulevard, he said.

Sorsabal said the only drawback to being a temporary manager is that some city employees may not be as candid as they normally would be, and, hence, “they don’t give you the complete story.

“They feel, ‘Goodness, he’s going to be here only X amount of months.’ ”