A Change in City Managing, Please
That Newport Beach’s new city manager “hopes to delegate a lot of responsibility to the department heads, as was Wynn’s management style” is hardly welcome news to the city’s residents (“Alhambra’s City Manager Is Hired,” Feb. 5). Retiring City Manager Robert L. Wynn’s “style” allowed a known embezzler to (allegedly) steal $1.8 million (and counting) of taxpayers’ money in the clumsiest manner imaginable.
Wynn received his $143,000-a-year salary for overseeing the department heads. While he could delegate certain authority and duties to his subordinates, he could not, I submit, “delegate” the responsibility to anyone.
City officials will doubtlessly rally round Mr. Wynn in the time-honored ritual of the public sector and laud him for his 20 years of faithful service as he leaves to draw his handsome pension. I can’t but wonder, in light of the missing $1.8 million, just what it was he did manage?
WILLIAM J. McGEE, Newport Beach
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
