San Clemente Finally Chooses City Manager

After an eight-month search, San Clemente has finally found a city manager the City Council agrees on--and one who will accept the job.

Mayor Brian J. Rice announced Wednesday that the new city manager will be Michael W. Parness, 35, who is now administrative assistant to the mayor of Renton, Wash. Renton is a suburb of Seattle with a population of 40,000. The Boeing Aircraft plant there employs 25,000.

Rice said he thinks Parness has the background and experience needed to run San Clemente, which also has about 40,000 residents.

“I think he’s a pretty sharp individual,” Rice said.

In a telephone interview from Renton on Wednesday, Parness said he was charmed by what he saw in San Clemente when he came for an interview.

“It didn’t take me long to see that San Clemente is a quality community,” Parness said. “I also had a real good feeling about the City Council.”

Parness said he is looking forward to coming back to California. He grew up in Livermore in Alameda County and attended college and graduate school in California before moving to Washington.

“Professionally, in the city manager business, the action is in California,” he said.

Parness said he will be looking for a home in San Clemente this weekend, but he acknowledged that the housing costs are intimidating.

“The cost of living is a whole lot different down there than it is up here,” he said.

Parness is scheduled to take over as San Clemente city manager on Oct. 16. He succeeds Jim Hendrickson, 45, who announced his intention to resign eight months ago because of philosophical differences with the City Council. Hendrickson stayed on the job until June 30 to try to make a smooth transition, but the City Council was unable to find a replacement before that time.

Two nominees picked by the City Council before Parness had rejected the job offer.

Gerald Caton, the city manager of Cudahy in Los Angeles County, turned down the San Clemente post reportedly because he was uncomfortable that the City Council was not unanimous in voting to hire him. Joe Tanner, the city manager of Pleasant Hills in Northern California, rejected the job because he was not offered the salary he wanted, Rice said.

Parness will receive an annual salary of $90,000, Rice said. Hendrickson had made about $88,500 a year. Parness makes about $60,000 in his Renton job.

Parness received his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Santa Clara in 1976 and his master’s degree in public administration from Cal State Hayward in 1978. He has been administrative assistant to the mayor of Renton since March 1, 1979.