Redondo’s City Manager Resigns Post

Redondo Beach’s top administrator for most of the last decade, City Manager Tim Casey, resigned Tuesday to manage the newly formed Orange County city of Laguna Niguel.

Casey’s last day on the job will be July 20. Mayor Brad Parton said the city will probably hire an executive search firm to help fill the vacancy.

“Our loss is their gain,” Parton told the 39-year-old administrator at the City Council’s regular meeting. Councilwoman Barbara Doerr, who preceded Parton as mayor, said: “I’m real excited for you. . . . I think you’ve done a wonderful job for Redondo Beach, and you’ll do a wonderful job for Laguna Niguel.”

Casey told the council that he “really struggled” with the decision to leave the city for which he has worked, in various capacities, for the last 15 years.

“It’s been a truly wonderful professional and personal experience for me,” Casey said. “We truly love Redondo Beach, and we’ll miss you and the community very, very dearly.”

Casey was born in the South Bay and grew up in Palos Verdes Estates, where his widowed father still lives. He worked in the city manager’s office in Ventura and Manhattan Beach before starting to work for Redondo Beach. He has held the city manager’s post since 1981 and in recent years helped shepherd the city through the aftermath of the destruction of its landmark pier.

In an interview, Casey said he is ready to move on.

“In this profession, sometimes longevity can become more a liability than an asset, and after 18 years in city government--15 of them in Redondo Beach--something inside was starting to tell me that perhaps it was time for a professional move,” he said.

When an executive search firm approached him about the opening in Laguna Niguel, he said, “I grabbed my family, did some homework on the community and submitted my resume.”

He was chosen from a field of about 100 applicants that was eventually whittled down to three finalists.

In Redondo Beach, Casey earns $102,000 a year with a $3,600 annual car allowance. In Laguna Niguel, his salary will be only $99,600 a year, but his car allowance will rise to $6,000.

The new city of 44,000 people, however, contrasts sharply with the 98-year-old community of Redondo Beach, where Casey had to work with a tax base and an array of public services that had been in place for decades.

In Laguna Niguel, he said, “there are still opportunities to work with a community that’s still going through major residential subdivision. It’s not already all mapped out.”

Casey’s successor will have to deal with a number of unfinished municipal chores, including the reconstruction of the pier, which was nearly demolished by a series of storms and a fire in 1988.

Also in the wings, Casey said, are completion of the city’s General Plan, which is undergoing its first comprehensive update since its adoption in 1964; renegotiation of the city’s cable television franchise, which technically expired last year; development of Aviation Park, where the old Aviation High School once stood, and the need for a new city library and police headquarters.