LAGUNA NIGUEL : Council Appoints Interim Officials

The City Council appointed a new interim city manager and city clerk at a special meeting Tuesday night to temporarily replace two officials who quit.

Two weeks ago, the city announced the two resignations. Warren S. Benson, who held the interim posts of city manager, city clerk and city treasurer, left his $81,000-a-year position to take a job with Local Agency Associates, a San Juan Capistrano consulting firm. Alan Rubin, who held the $61,000-a-year job as interim community development director, had resigned days before. The timing was coincidental, Benson said.

Benson had offered to continue part time until a permanent city manager was hired. But the council did not respond to that offer, making it necessary to appoint another interim city manager, said acting city clerk Pam Van Haun.

The council Tuesday appointed Dan Miller to the post. As a management consultant for Deloitte & Touche public accounting firm, Miller has worked with the city during the transition period since incorporation in January. Because Miller is familiar with the issues facing the city, it made financial sense to expand his role rather than enter into a separate agreement with Benson, Mayor Patricia Bates said Tuesday.

“We decided it would be actually buying the same thing twice,” she said. “We felt it (hiring Miller) was cost effective, and we were covering all the bases very effectively.”

The council also selected Juanita Zarilla, deputy city clerk for El Segundo for more than five years, to fill the full-time city clerk position. Zarilla, who is scheduled to begin her new job on May 29, was among more than 20 applicants, Van Haun said.

In the meantime, eight candidates for the full-time city manager position will be interviewed by City Council members Friday and Saturday.

“We hope to have a city manager on board June 15,” Miller said.

Selection of a new community development director is being postponed to allow the new city manager a say in the selection, Van Haun said.