NEWPORT BEACH : New City Manager to Start With Bang

When Kevin J. Murphy takes his seat as Newport Beach’s new city manager tonight, about 100 residents are likely to be there, not to welcome the new top administrator but to give him a crash course in the local politics of this wealthy beachside community.

The meeting is sure to be a nose dive into his new job for the former Alhambra city manager, thanks to the controversial Hoag Hospital development plan slated for a hearing tonight (see story, B4).

But Murphy, who recently laid off employees and cut library hours in slashing Alhambra spending by $1.1 million to balance the city’s 1992-93 budget, said he welcomes the new challenge.

“I’m anxious. It’s a very desirable place to live and certainly a good place to work,” said Murphy, 38. “It’s much more fun when you have an expanding budget and you can address the needs of the community than when you have to go tearing through a budget making cuts.”

Murphy’s first night of work parallels retiring City Manager Robert L. Wynn’s first night on the job 20 years ago, when hundreds of angry residents attended the council meeting to protest the Promontory Point Apartments project.

Wynn’s open-management style, which involved delegating much authority to the department heads, earned him the distinction of being the second-longest-serving city manager in Orange County history, and one of the county’s highest paid city managers with a yearly salary of $143,000.

Still, that style came under attack earlier this year when popular Utilities Director Robert J. Dixon, a finalist among candidates to replace Wynn, was arrested on embezzlement charges.

As manager, Murphy will plan the city’s budget, oversee directors of 16 departments, advise the council and serve as the administration’s top decision-maker. He will receive $130,000 a year in addition to the $200,000 he got from the city to help him buy a home.

City employees have been awaiting his arrival with mixed emotions. The workers form a close-knit community, and there is a hope among employees and department heads that the new manager will continue Wynn’s open, relaxed style.

“The mixed emotions are, everybody likes Bob Wynn, but we know he’s earned the right to retire,” Personnel Director Duane K. Munson said. “Basically, everybody’s just interested in seeing what’s going to be different and what’s going to stay the same.”

Aside from problems related to the Hoag Hospital expansion plan, Murphy also will need to start working on the city’s $90-million budget and finding a replacement for Dixon in the Utilities Department.

Murphy, one of 86 applicants for the Newport Beach post, underwent extensive background and psychological reviews.

He served in Alhambra for 12 years, and rose quickly through the ranks from an assistant to the manager to become one of the youngest city managers in the state in 1983. His salary reached $100,000 in 1991.

He came under fire last year when he was given a 15% pay raise at a time when the city was slashing expenses and had just sent layoff notices to about 10 employees as a way to balance a $1-million budget shortfall.

He was also criticized in 1989 when the U.S. Department of Justice sued the city, alleging racial discrimination in the personnel procedures of the Fire Department and Police Department. A settlement was reached last year, when the city also hired a black fire chief.

Murphy said he had been scrambling in recent weeks to balance Alhambra’s $55-million budget and hasn’t had a chance to jump into Newport Beach affairs or buy a home.

He said his wife and two elementary-school-age daughters will probably stay in Alhambra until their home is sold and the school year ends before relocating to Newport Beach.