Redondo Beach Names ‘Shining Star’ in Field as New City Manager

The nationally recognized manager of a Dallas-Ft. Worth suburb has been named Redondo Beach’s new top executive at a salary that makes him the highest-paid city manager in the South Bay, city officials said this week.

Bill Kirchhoff--a 19-year veteran manager whose specialty is shepherding cities through tough fiscal times--will move Feb. 25 to Redondo Beach from Arlington, Tex., where he has been city manager since 1984.

His salary of $123,725 plus a housing subsidy and a car will be about 10% higher than his compensation in Arlington.

Mayor Brad Parton said the City Council found Kirchhoff through an executive search firm hired to find a replacement for manager Tim Casey, who left in July to become the city manager of Laguna Niguel. Kirchhoff’s resume, he said, was “head and shoulders above the rest.”

“At first, we were against looking at anyone from out of state, but he was a surprise,” said Parton, who described Kirchhoff as “a shining star.”

Kirchhoff, a 48-year-old father of three, said he was looking for a change and was attracted to Redondo Beach by its quality of life.

“I’ve managed large cities for the last 10 years and have an interest in managing more of a mid-sized community,” Kirchhoff said. “You can get your arms around it and do a better job of managing.” Redondo Beach’s population is 62,000.

A recent survey by the University of Georgia’s Vinson Institute listed Kirchhoff as one of the 11 most-recognized public managers in the United States. Concurring, former manager Casey said Kirchhoff “is pretty well-known in management circles around the country” for his advocacy of corporate-style municipal management.

His management of the Denver suburb of Lakewood in the early 1980s became the subject of a Harvard University case study on budget retrenchment. Kirchhoff is currently on the faculty of the University of Texas Urban Institute, where he instructs post-graduate students and doctoral candidates.

Arlington is about four times the size of Redondo Beach, with a population of 260,000, a major-league baseball team, the Texas Rangers, and one of the Southwest’s best-known theme parks, Six Flags. Kirchhoff, who spent six years there as city manager, lasted longer at the job than any other manager of a Texas city with a population of 250,000 or more, according to his resume.

Though Arlington’s cost of living is drastically lower than Southern California’s, Kirchhoff said the compensation package would help make up for the difference. Adopting a practice that is common in Southern California cities, Redondo Beach has offered to help Kirchhoff buy a house, paying two-thirds of the cost and splitting the equity and any appreciation in property value accordingly.

In cities where he has worked, Kirchhoff is best-remembered for his skill in managing municipal budgets through economic slumps.

Terry Zerkle, who worked as Kirchhoff’s deputy in Arlington before becoming city manager of Tempe, Ariz., said Kirchhoff helped Arlington head off the worst of Texas’ economic downturn.

“He forecast what took place about a year in advance,” Zerkle said, adding that through hiring freezes, budget shuffling and moderate increases in the property tax rate, Arlington weathered the slide.

Linda Shaw, mayor of Lakewood, where Kirchhoff worked from 1980 to 1984, said he guided the city from the brink of bankruptcy to financial health during his tenure. When the council refused to raise taxes, she said, Kirchhoff raised revenue by working with the local Chamber of Commerce to bring business into the city.

Despite hefty budget cuts, she added, Kirchhoff was revered by the city staff.

“It has been eight years since he left, and people still talk about him,” she said.

COMPENSATION FOR SOUTH BAY CITY MANAGERS

Redondo Beach’s new city manager will be the highest-paid municipal manager in the South Bay when he takes over next month. Below are the compensation packages for other South Bay cities.

Housing subsidy City Manager/administrator Salary /loan Avalon Chuck Prince (mgr) $66,000 no Carson Jack R. Smith (adm) 87,864 no El Segundo Ronald E. Cano (mgr) 101,052 yes Gardena Ken Landau (mgr) 101,544 no Hawthorne Jim Mitsch (mgr) 105,840 no Hermosa Beach Kevin Northcraft (mgr) 75,096 no Inglewood Paul Eckles (mgr) 119,928 yes Lawndale John E. Nowak (mgr) 80,400 no Lomita Walker Ritter (adm) 70,100 yes Manhattan Beach Bill Smith (mgr) 84,000 yes Palos Verdes Estates James Hendrickson (mgr) 70,308 yes Rancho Palos Verdes Paul Bussey (mgr) 80,000 yes Redondo Beach Bill Kirchhoff (mgr) 123,725 yes Rolling Hills Craig Nealis (mgr) 52,260 no Rolling Hills Estates Doug Prichard (mgr) 79,200 no Torrance LeRoy J. Jackson (mgr) 105,396 no

Auto allowance City /city car Avalon no Carson yes El Segundo yes Gardena yes Hawthorne yes Hermosa Beach yes Inglewood yes Lawndale yes Lomita yes Manhattan Beach yes Palos Verdes Estates yes Rancho Palos Verdes yes Redondo Beach yes Rolling Hills yes Rolling Hills Estates yes Torrance yes

SOURCE: South Bay cities