3 in Running for Pasadena City Manager : Government: Sensitivity to minorities has figured prominently in the screening of administrators from around the country.

Three candidates for the city manager’s post underwent final interviews this week in closed sessions with the Pasadena Board of Directors, who are deciding on a replacement for retiring City Manager Donald McIntyre.

The finalists are Jack Bond, 52, county manager in Durham County, N.C.; Philip Hawkey, 43, city manager in Toledo, Ohio, and Larry Moore, 44, city manager in Richmond, Calif.

The three were among 75 applicants. The list was narrowed to six, and directors interviewed the candidates March 8. Directors interviewed the three finalists again and met their wives this week.

A decision is expected within the next two weeks, Mayor William Thomson Jr. said. “I look upon all three individuals as being highly expert, competent, highly professional city managers,” Thomson said.

The Pasadena city manager oversees 1,600 employees and an annual budget of $226 million.

Because of racial issues that have troubled Pasadena in the last six months and because of the city’s large minority community, Thomson said that the board sought candidates experienced in dealing with such issues and populations. The board also tried to ensure that minorities were among the finalists evaluated. Bond and Moore are black; Hawkey is white.

“We were insistent that they all have a proven record of working in a multicultural environment, and we were especially sensitive to the question of their sensitivity to ethnic and racial issues,” Thomson said.

Hawkey’s firing two years ago of Bernard Pete Culp, a black who was Toledo’s commissioner of renewal operations, was controversial. It sparked unrest among some members of that city’s black community after Hawkey publicly delineated what he called mismanagement by Culp, said David Taylor, chairman of the Toledo NAACP Legal Redress Committee.

An investigation by the Ohio Civil Rights Commission found Culp was probably the victim of racial discrimination, Taylor said.

A suit by Culp against Hawkey and the city is pending in federal court. Culp’s attorney, Michael Frank, said Hawkey “doesn’t truly understand what real affirmative action is.” He said Hawkey hadn’t hired blacks in other than stereotypical jobs in maintenance, urban renewal, and street and refuse work.

But Hawkey said Toledo had a history of racial problems he attempted to remedy. He said he had appointed a black as an assistant city manager.

Hawkey said an investigation by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and an independent city audit justified his firing of Culp.

Hawkey served as deputy city manager in Cincinnati from 1982 until he took the Toledo position in May, 1986. He oversees 3,200 employees and an annual operating budget of $275 million.

Moore served as assistant city manager in Richmond for a year until he was named city manager in 1987. He oversees a staff of 1,110 employees and an annual operating budget of $115 million.

Matthew Barnes, first vice president of the Richmond NAACP, called Moore “an ally to the black community who has been effective in terms of affirmative action.”

Bond has been the Durham County manager since 1984. He oversees 1,200 employees and an annual operating budget of $150 million for the county of 180,000 residents.

Bond is well-liked in the black and white communities, said Paul Warren, Durham County director of finance. Willie Lovett, chairman of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Blacks, called Bond a good administrator who has expanded the staff as the county has grown.

The only complaint against Bond, Lovett said, is his close ties with the business community. Bond recently supported an unsuccessful measure to improve the sports stadium and was criticized by some for his willingness to pay for the improvements with public money, Lovett said.

McIntyre, city manager for 17 years, will leave the post in July. The city expects to pay up to $125,000 annually for its new manager and will probably provide housing assistance of some kind, Thomson said.

In February, the board became a landlord for City Clerk Marvell Herren by purchasing a $305,000 home she will buy back from the city. The board also approved a policy authorizing housing assistance for future city managers, city attorneys and city clerks.

Despite the housing woes they may face in relocating to Pasadena, the city manager candidates see the job as one of the premier posts in the country, Thomson said.

He added that one of the candidates remarked of the city, “Pasadena has a soul to it; it’s a city with a soul.”