Naming of New CCDC Chief Delayed; Terms of Contract Still Are Not Settled

A last-minute snag Tuesday caused San Diego redevelopment officials to postpone their announcement that Pamela Hamilton will be named permanent chief of the Centre City Development Corp., the downtown redevelopment agency she has headed temporarily for almost eight months.

Officials said the press conference at which Hamilton’s selection was to be publicly announced was canceled early in the morning because terms of Hamilton’s contract remain unsettled.

A three-member selection committee of CCDC board members headed by CCDC chairman John Davies was ready to recommend Hamilton as the agency’s new director to the entire seven-member board, a majority of whom are required to ratify the choice.

But, Davies said, it may take another week or two before the terms of Hamilton’s contract are completed.

‘Still a Ways to Go’

“Half the news is she is the choice of the subcommittee,” Davies said. “I guess (the press conference) was prematurely scheduled. . . . I thought we’d reached agreement on all the terms . . . a deal acceptable to the subcommittee and Pam.

“I thought we’d reached a deal, but there’s still a ways to go.”

Davies declined to specify the details left to be settled, acknowledging only that they have to do generally with salary and benefits.

Hamilton, who declined to be interviewed, is receiving about $91,000 a year as acting executive vice president of CCDC, the agency’s top administrative position. Her predecessor, Gerald Trimble, who had headed the agency since its inception, was making $105,300 annually when he left in February to take a redevelopment job with the University of Southern California.

Hamilton, 43, has worked at CCDC since 1982 and has been the agency’s No. 2 executive.

In late spring, the selection committee had narrowed its choices to three finalists, none of whom included Hamilton, the only woman among a field of nine original candidates identified by a recruiting firm hired by the CCDC board.

But the three finalists, including the selection committee’s top choice, Frank Taylor, redevelopment director for San Jose, dropped out of the running, sending Davies and his subcommittee looking for other candidates.