Lawndale Council Picks Arnold as City Manager

After a closed-door session late Thursday night, the Lawndale City Council voted 4-1 to appoint Jim Arnold to the $68,952-a-year job as city manager.

Arnold, who was hired in 1988 as planning director, took over as acting city manager late last year after Daniel P. Joseph was forced to resign in a conflict with the council majority.

Councilman Harold E. Hofmann has praised Arnold as a tough administrator who was able to “do what it took” to come up with the $313,696 in budget cuts the council needed to afford additional Sheriff’s Department personnel. Arnold advised the council that jobs would have to be cut at City Hall to come up with such a large sum, and he mentioned six employees as possible targets for layoffs.

Mayor Sarann Kruse, without comment, voted against Arnold’s appointment on Thursday. She could not be reached Friday. During the budget sessions, she had criticized Arnold for not suggesting the layoffs in a confidential memo to the council.

Because of Arnold’s methods, Kruse said, the six targeted employees had to sit by, with their jobs on the line, as the council deliberated for several weeks over the city’s $7.8-million budget. Eventually, two 12-year city employees were laid off.

Kruse voted in favor of the budget June 19 but sought Thursday to reverse her vote. She said that because of the lengthy and confusing deliberations, she had voted in error.

But she failed to get the necessary council approval to change her vote.