LAGUNA NIGUEL : Tim Casey Hired as New City Manager

After wooing Redondo Beach City Manager Tim Casey from his post, the City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to hire him as Laguna Niguel’s first permanent city manager.

Casey, who has held the Redondo Beach job for nine years, is expected to begin his new job in late July or early August. He will replace Dan Miller, who had served as interim city manager since Warren Benson resigned the post two months ago.

The city received 115 applications during its three-month search for a permanent city manager, a job that will pay $99,600 per year, according to the proposed 1990-91 budget.

Casey said last week that he was notified of the opening by a Santa Monica-based executive search firm. After visiting Laguna Niguel with his wife and daughter and researching the city’s December incorporation, Casey said, “we decided to put our name in the hat.”

The 39-year-old Casey, who has also worked for the cities of Ventura and Manhattan Beach, said he was attracted by the prospect of managing a new city where “the council and the manager can still have an impact on the shape and the form and the aesthetics of the community.”

Casey expressed no concern at the fact that Laguna Niguel city administration has been in a state of flux since at least April, when both Benson--who also served as interim city clerk and interim city treasurer--and interim community development director Alan Rubin announced their resignations within days of one another, leaving a total of four vacancies.

“I haven’t sensed any great source of confusion,” Casey said. “I think it’s going to require some time and some diplomacy to keep community expectations in sync with the fact that this is a brand-new community and the fact that it’s not going to be able to perform at its optimum level overnight.”