Colonel Faces Different War in Hermosa Beach Office : City manager: New kinds of projects and problems await West Pointer after 20 years in Corps of Engineers.

Lt. Col. Rick Ferrin won’t have to keep his hair trimmed anymore, and he can remove the silver oak leaves from his uniform because the West Pointer is heading from the strict regimen of the Army to the laid-back lifestyle of the beach.

Chosen Tuesday night as the city manager of Hermosa Beach, Ferrin, 42, leaves behind a 20-year career in the Army Corps of Engineers, where he rose to deputy commander of all engineering projects in the four-state South Pacific Division.

He has managed upkeep of the locks at the Panama Canal, built airfields, provided flood control in the Western states and handled the coming transfer of the Presidio Army base in San Francisco to the National Park Service.

Beginning April 20, Ferrin will take over the city’s far smaller but just as closely scrutinized projects: renovation of the crumbling Strand boardwalk, rejuvenation of the sluggish downtown shopping district and development of the long-vacant Biltmore Hotel site.

“If he can handle $125-million projects or redo the locks at the Panama Canal, I think he can handle a Strand refurbishment,” said Councilman Robert Benz, who pushed Ferrin’s selection when a consultant did not include him among the finalists. “Right now the city is totally unmanaged. The reason I wanted to go with this guy is because he’s a competent manager.”

Ferrin may be retiring from active military duty, but he is not necessarily escaping combat. He now faces Hermosa Beach’s contentious political arena--an environment that sent the last city manager, Kevin Northcraft, packing--complete with vigorous citizen activists and a City Council known for its divided votes.

Tuesday night, even before he had left his job in the Bay Area, Ferrin got a taste of his new employers. Although all five council members said they endorsed Ferrin’s selection, the vote on his appointment was 3 to 2, with Mayor Kathleen Midstokke and Councilman Robert Essertier objecting to certain conditions in his two-year employment contract.

Midstokke opposed the $1,000 per month housing subsidy Ferrin will receive for up to six months and the two weeks of paid moving time he will get along with his three weeks of vacation. Essertier said the contract makes it so expensive to fire Ferrin--six months severance pay--that the city will be forced to keep him no matter what.

“I have a lot of confidence Mr. Ferrin is going to be one of the best city managers we’ve ever had, but I would hate to put the city in a position where we would have to bank on it,” Essertier said.

Ferrin, who is married and has a 15-year-old daughter, will make $87,600 annually in the new job, compared to his current Army salary of $65,000. He comes to the city with strong accolades from colleagues.

A background check completed by consultant Edward Kreins reported: “I must say I have never had a candidate rated as consistently high as he was by everyone I talked to. . . . He is rated as an outstanding ‘people person,’ an excellent communicator, writes outstanding reports, and has an excellent way of getting along with everyone, regardless of status.”

However, because he lacked direct government experience, Ferrin was not one of the six finalists that Kreins, a former Beverly Hills city manager, selected from the 39 applicants for the post.

Instead, Benz, a brash young cable television host, persuaded his colleagues to allow him to review the resumes himself. He then recommended six additional finalists, one of whom was Ferrin.

Ferrin is not alone in making the jump from the military to city management. A recent issue of the International City Managers Assn. magazine featured an article on how officers leaving the military during its current downsizing are increasing the talent pool in city management.

Two examples from California are Monterey’s city manager, Fred Meurer, a West Point graduate who retired as a colonel in 1986, and Eureka’s assistant city manager, Terry Curl, another retired Army colonel.

“It will be a very easy transition,” said Meurer, whose background is similar to Ferrin’s. “The toughest thing for me was finding what color tie to wear. I had worn black ties (on my Army uniform) my whole career.”