S.D. Narrows City Manager Choices to One : Council: Second-in-command Jack McGrory is virtually certain to succeed John Lockwood in official vote next week.

San Diego Assistant City Manager Jack McGrory won virtual approval to succeed retiring City Manager John Lockwood on Tuesday, when the City Council narrowed the field of candidates to one.

Although it has yet to formally offer McGrory the job as San Diego’s 18th city manager, the council left little doubt about its intentions when it voted 8 to 0 in closed session not to interview Deputy City Managers Maureen Stapleton and Severo Esquivel, McGrory’s only competitors. The council is not accepting applications from candidates outside its 9,000-member work force.

“We have one candidate. We’re discussing mutual goals and contract. The official vote will be next week when we agree on contract and mutual priorities,” Mayor Maureen O’Connor said after Tuesday’s vote.

Appointment to the post would make McGrory, 41, the top staff member of California’s second-largest city and head of the largest municipality in the state with a strong city manager form of government.

He would assume the job at a time when the structure of government could be changed by efforts to enhance the power of the mayor’s office and when city revenue will continue to lag seriously behind the needs of the rapidly growing population of 1.1 million.

“We’re not in a situation where we have a lot of discretionary money to spend on a lot of new programs,” McGrory said in brief remarks to reporters after the council’s closed session. He noted that contracts with the city’s four labor unions--who represent police, firefighters and blue- and white-collar employees--expire June 30.

McGrory, who earns more than $108,000 as the city’s second in command, would inherit San Diego’s traditionally lean city government. In its survey of fiscal 1990 budgets of the nation’s 50 largest cities, City and State magazine ranked San Diego 49th 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 country.

In McGrory, the council would get a top executive much like Lockwood, the man he is replacing: an insider, a seasoned bureaucrat with 16 years in San Diego city government, a known quantity who has never displayed a desire to pursue his own political agenda. Memories of difficulties with Sy Murray, the high-profile city manager who preceded Lockwood, are still fresh in many minds at City Hall.

“I don’t think there’s any major difference in terms of (Lockwood’s) philosophy toward city government and (mine),” McGrory said, but he declined to elaborate on the goals and priorities discussed during his council interview.

However, he identified the city’s most immediate problems as developing a fiscal 1992 budget in the midst of the recession, settling the labor union contracts, upgrading its sewage treatment system and conserving water.

McGrory brings “credibility and integrity to the management of the city,” said Frank Panarisi, president of the Construction Industry Federation. He “knows the government, knows the community, knows the political sensitivities. So there’s no learning curve there.”

“He has certainly seen the council at work and has managed to be productive in concert with, and sometimes despite, the City Council,” said Don Wood, former president of Citizens Coordinate for Century III, an environmental interest group. McGrory “carefully monitors the pulse of the council . . . and his position reflects where the five votes are” on the nine- member council, Wood said.

“I don’t think he’s going to set himself on fire on behalf of the environment,” Wood added.

Wayne Raffesberger, executive director of the downtown interest group San Diegans Inc., praised McGrory for his knowledge of city government, his accessibility to outsiders and his ability to bring competing interests to compromise.

Known as a savvy negotiator, McGrory has hammered out contracts with city labor unions and forged deals with developers that extracted millions of dollars in roads, schools, parks and fire stations in return for a right to build thousands of homes on a specified timetable. He oversaw city efforts to prepare for the 1988 Super Bowl.

McGrory holds a law degree from the University of San Diego and a master’s degree in public administration from San Diego State University, where he teaches labor law, administrative law and public personnel administration part time.

McCrory is a former Marine infantry officer. He is married to a teacher’s aide, Cheryl. They have four children and live in Bay Park.

Lockwood, 59, announced in December that he would retire March 9 after 40 years in city government. He has since agreed to head the state Department of General Services.

Although many council members acknowledged their support of McGrory at the time, some, including O’Connor, indicated a desire to consider other candidates, such as Stapleton and Esquivel. But Tuesday, the council came to a “consensus” that McGrory was “the best of the best” and that interviews with the two deputy city managers were unnecessary, O’Connor said.

Esquivel said Tuesday that he was prepared for interviews. Some council members have asked for a copy of Esquivel’s resume, and he met with one of them, he said. Stapleton could not be reached for comment.

O’Connor said she expected a formal offer to be made to McGrory after a second closed-session interview Feb. 19.

“I was surprised what his demands were. They were minimal,” O’Connor said. “With the talent Mr. McGrory possesses, he could have asked for a lot more, and he didn’t.”