Local News in Brief : Irvine : City Manager Will Quit If Irvine Council Orders

City Manager William Woollett Jr. said in a letter that he will resign if ordered to do so by the City Council, Assistant City Manager Paul Brady Jr. said Thursday.

The 60-year-old Woollett, who became Irvine’s first and only city manager 17 years ago, was responding to a letter he received Tuesday from Mayor Larry Agran, who asked for his resignation, Brady said.

“It is a very basic tenet . . . that the city manager serves at the pleasure of the City Council,” Woollett wrote in his response, according to Brady. “I believe in that tenet and certainly support it.”

According to the mayor’s letter, City Council members will discuss Woollett’s proposed resignation at a Feb. 14 meeting because, Agran wrote, “my sense of the City Council is that its members believe the time is at hand to make a transition to a new city manager.”

However, Council Member Sally Anne Sheridan disagreed. “I think we have a fine city manager,” she said.

Asking for the resignation is a political move that would allow the mayor to broaden his authority, she said. But Agran denied Thursday having political motives in calling for Woollett’s resignation.

In Agran’s letter, he also proposed that Brady become acting city manager and be considered for the position permanently. But Brady said he would not consider serving as interim city manager.

“I don’t need a 3-month trial basis,” Brady said. “If they are interested in me, they ought to say so.”

Woollett could not be reached for comment Thursday.