Lockwood to Retire as City Manager : Government: The 41-year civil servant cites a desire to enjoy his leisure time--and a weariness of political infighting.

San Diego City Manager John Lockwood, the consummate behind-the-scenes bureaucrat who has quietly steered city government through four years of belt-tightening and occasional turbulence, announced Tuesday that he will retire March 9 after 41 years in city government.

Lockwood, who rose from a $142-a-month mail room messenger job to oversee a $1.2-billion city budget and a 9,000-member work force, announced his intentions to the City Council at the end of its weekly closed session, distributing wristwatches bearing the city seal to the eight council members and Mayor Maureen O’Connor.

“I had always planned to retire from city service in my 50s, and March 9 is my last chance,” Lockwood said in a letter to the council. He will turn 60 the following day.

Lockwood attributed his decision to a desire to hold his post less than five years and to enjoy his financial security and leisure time. But, in a rare moment of candor, he acknowledged the toll that the deep divisions on the City Council have had on him.

“It’s tough on me,” he said. “It’s like being one of 10 children in a family. Your nine siblings treat you very well, but they beat up on each other every night at dinner. After a while, dinner’s not that much fun anymore.”

The choice of Lockwood’s successor--and the very process by which he or she is selected--could well become bogged down in the kind of factional infighting that has plagued the council over the past 12 months. Appointments to key city posts repeatedly have been the source of friction during that time.

O’Connor and her chief council antagonist, Deputy Mayor Bob Filner, immediately differed on the scope of the upcoming search.

“We can do the search in this building,” O’Connor said in an interview. “Mr. Lockwood left us with a first-class management team on whom we can draw for his replacement.” She expressed concern about how long it would take for an outsider to learn the city.

But Filner said he favors a national search for the new administrator, preceded by an extensive self-examination to clarify the city’s priorities and the qualities it wants in its next manager.

The city should “establish a selection process which can not only come up with a good person but bring this council together,” Filner said.

In either scenario, 41-year-old Assistant City Manager Jack McGrory is likely to be considered a leading candidate for the post. McGrory said Tuesday that he is interested in the job, which pays Lockwood more than $125,000 a year.

Lockwood’s successor will inherit a council concerned with how district elections have altered the balance of power between the mayor and council members, producing calls from several for a strengthening of the mayor’s office.

Lockwood, San Diego’s 17th city manager, assumed his post Oct. 14, 1986, the day after the council accepted the resignation of Sylvester Murray, who came from outside the city and whose difficult tenure ended in just 13 months. A career administrator, Lockwood restored a measure of stability to city government after Murray’s departure, a role he has again played during the past year of political infighting at City Hall.

“He brought stability to the city behind the scenes,” said Bernie Rhinerson, vice president of government relations for Home Capital Development Corp. “Behind the scenes, the city of San Diego has still run very efficiently, very smoothly day to day.”

In contrast to the higher-profile Murray, Lockwood has stayed in the background, scrupulously adhering to his role as a career civil servant. He has eschewed politics, publicly playing no favorites and striving to treat each council office evenhandedly, despite a long, close relationship with O’Connor.

“He is scrupulously conscious of the rules and regulations of the organization,” said John Fowler, who served as assistant city manager under Lockwood until 1988. “He abides by everything. I doubt if he ever jaywalked.”

Lockwood took his first job in 1949 as a mail messenger and mimeograph operator for the county and city of San Diego before receiving a bachelor’s degree in public administration from San Diego State University. He later served as a custodian, stock clerk and dump watcher for the city and county.

Lockwood held a variety of administrative posts before becoming city clerk in 1966. He left that job in 1971 to join the city manager’s office, becoming assistant city manager in 1978.

Lockwood, who had turned down the city manager’s job once before, presided over an era of retrenchment in city services, partly caused by rapid population growth in the mid- and late 1980s that was not matched by increases in operating revenues.

In February, Lockwood described the city’s financial plight for fiscal 1991 as the worst in 56 years, significantly more difficult even than the budget cutting mandated by the 1978 passage of Proposition 13.

Lockwood continued the city’s tradition of fiscal conservatism, despite major increases in the budget for capital programs. In its latest survey of fiscal 1990 budgets, City and State magazine ranked San Diego 49th among the nation’s 50 largest cities in long-term debt per capita, and 48th in number of employees per 1,000 residents.

In June, 1989, Business Monthly magazine named San Diego one of the 10 best-managed cities in the United States.

Despite the tight fiscal constraints under which he operated, Lockwood was credited by city and community leaders for a number of innovations, including his 1988 program to improve customer service in a number of city departments.

Under the theme of, “If they had a choice, our customers would come to us,” Lockwood installed innovations such as a one-stop permit counter in the Building Inspection department.

He presided over planning for the city’s largest ever public works project, the $2.6-billion overhaul of its sewage treatment system, and helped lead the council through years of laborious debate over growth management.

He lost a bid, however, to build a new City Hall complex, despite escalating city payments for rented office space.

Lockwood said accomplishments during his tenure include the city’s decision to restore Balboa and Mission Bay parks, his selection of mid-level and top-echelon personnel and the city’s relative freedom from corruption.

“In terms of being ethical and principled about how we conduct business, I’ll match us up with anyone,” he said.

Shortly after he took over, Lockwood issued letters of reprimand to then-Police Chief Bill Kolender and Assistant Chief Bob Burgreen after determining that Kolender had fixed tickets for friends and influential San Diegans, used a city employee to run personal errands and failed to report gifts.

Lockwood will retire with a pension that pays him about two-thirds of his $125,944 annual salary. He said he has no immediate plans other than to help pilot a sailboat through the Panama Canal.

“I’m just at a situation where I don’t have to do anything. I’m financially independent,” he said. “If something comes up, maybe I’ll do it. If not, maybe I’ll indulge myself in the search for the world’s perfect Chardonnay.”