Newport Beach City Manager Gets Stress Test

City Manager Kevin J. Murphy came to town six months ago in search of new challenges. That’s exactly what he has found.

Layoffs of city employees for the first time in 14 years. A Fourth of July with more arrests and violence than any on record. And now a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by four women against high-ranking members of the Police Department, including Police Chief Arb Campbell.

But for Murphy--an even-tempered, religious man who began working in local government at age 22--it’s all part of the job for which he was selected from among 87 applicants, a post that pays him $130,000 a year.

“Lawsuits are just a fact of life for cities and city managers. Lawsuits don’t frighten me,” said Murphy, 38, who contemplated a career as an attorney while studying political science at UCLA. “I don’t cut the deck. These are the cards I’ve been dealt, and I’ll deal with them.

“I wish it never happened, but it’s my job to make sure it’s handled well,” he said of the lawsuit, which was filed Sept. 24 in Orange County Superior Court by two current and two former employees against the city, the police chief and one of the Police Department’s four captains. “I guess I enjoy that kind of challenge.”

While the lawsuit proceeds, Murphy now faces the challenge of overseeing the city’s own investigation into the complaint, which alleges that Police Capt. Anthony Villa sexually harassed the women on and off the job with suggestive remarks and by touching their breasts and other parts of their bodies.

To be conducted by Los Angeles attorney Harold A. Bridges, the city investigation will begin next week, and when it’s done, Murphy will be the one responsible for meting out discipline if necessary.

When a reporter told Murphy about the lawsuit, the city manager never panicked. Instead, he methodically informed all five council members and the city attorney of the news and arrived at the office early the next day to face the storm.

“I knew it was going to be a hellacious day,” he recalled.

Mayor Phil Sansone learned of the sexual harassment suit through Murphy’s message on his answering machine, saying there was a problem that would affect the Police Department. Other council members were told, simply, that a lawsuit had been filed and that further information would be forthcoming.

“It was not like, ‘Oh goody this happened,’ but it was not like, ‘The end of the world has come,’ ” Councilwoman Evelyn R. Hart said of the phone call she received the afternoon before the lawsuit was filed. “It was like, ‘I’m sorry to inform you.’ ”

Council members and city employees say Murphy is a hands-on manager who emphasizes communication and seeks broad information before making decisions. Replacing Robert L. Wynn, who held the post for two decades, Murphy has instituted weekly newsletters to the council, bimonthly meetings with the 12 department heads he oversees, and lunches with all city employees.

He plans to get to know all of Newport Beach’s employees by name--a task that took four years in his former city of Alhambra, where he became one of the state’s youngest city managers in 1983.

“Kevin is more management by walking around; Mr. Wynn really never left his office,” said Kathy Forde, the city manager’s secretary. “Kevin generates a lot of paperwork. He keeps everyone up to date.”

City Atty. Robert Burnham called Murphy “calm and composed,” while Mayor Sansone said the manager is “calm and cool-headed” in a crisis. “He’s unflappable,” added City Councilman John Hedges. “He’s a real pro.”

Forde said that if she could not hear what goes on inside the manager’s office, she would never have known from Murphy’s demeanor that the initial phone call regarding the harassment suit was anything out of the ordinary.

“He’s very low key, he really never gets rattled,” Forde said. “He handles just one thing at a time, but his emotions never show.”

Murphy explained simply, “I don’t get upset very often.

“One of my goals is to come to work and always have an even keel,” he added. “You don’t get too high, you don’t get too low--you can’t.”

No one, not even Murphy’s wife of 11 years, can remember hearing him raise his voice.

“We don’t have fights or arguments at home because they just don’t go anywhere. It’s all one-sided,” Tina Murphy said, describing her husband as “calm” and “quiet,” echoing the words of his co-workers.

“He handles stress very well,” she said, adding that Murphy was “bothered” by the lawsuit when he learned of it. “He’s just one of those fortunate people that stress doesn’t bother him.”

This is not the first time Murphy has been caught up in controversy. Three months into Murphy’s first city manager post in Alhambra, the mayor was arrested on bribery charges. He was later convicted and removed from office.

By the time Murphy left that Los Angeles County city nearly a decade later, he had dealt with the devastating 1987 earthquake that caused the city $25 million in damage and shut down more than 40 buildings.

He had resolved a sexual harassment complaint through administrative channels. He had seen back-to-back budget cuts and layoffs. And he had settled a racial discrimination suit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice against the Police and Fire departments.

“There are so many issues that come up that have the potential for being explosive. You just get used to dealing with it,” he shrugged in an interview. “This one is going to be a challenge, but at the same time, I have to keep up with the day-to-day issues of the city.”

Besides sending a letter restating the city’s policy against sexual harassment and discrimination to all 750 Newport Beach employees and fielding media inquiries, Murphy has done little in direct response to the latest scandal.

Last week was filled with breakfast meetings starting about 7 a.m. and extra-long days: Monday’s City Council meeting dragged on until 11:30 p.m. But Murphy for the most part has been working on routine projects rather than responding to the crisis. He has yet to review a copy of the lawsuit and said he will wait until the investigation by a city-hired outside attorney is complete before acting further.

“If there was some wrongdoing, I’ll deal with it,” he said, adding that dismissal could be in the cards for employees if the city investigation turns up evidence of harassment. “If there’s no wrongdoing and they continue to pursue the lawsuit, we’ll defend it all the way down the line.”

The National Organization for Women’s local chapter Thursday accused Murphy of disbelieving the female Police Department employees alleging sexual harassment, citing his choice of an outside investigator who has defended cities against sexual harassment claims. NOW members said Murphy’s public statements on the case have undermined their faith in the city’s independent review of the harassment complaint.

It is this criticism which most bothers Murphy, who said he is simply trying to maintain the officers’ innocence until they are proven guilty.

“There are always people that make allegations. People look at things differently depending on their perspective,” he said. “The truth isn’t always black and white. Sometimes it’s a shade of gray.”

Murphy said that of the difficult issues he has faced in his career, the lawsuit is among the most personally upsetting.

A devout Lutheran who was chairman of his church in Alhambra, Murphy says he tries to provide ethical and moral leadership for his work force. He said that he vigilantly opposes racial and sexual discrimination and that he would like to increase sensitivity training for Newport Beach supervisors.

“I have a particular distaste for sexual harassment,” Murphy said. “It just has no place in the workplace. It just bothers me that people think they can do it and get away with it.”

Murphy did not enter public life with a particular agenda, but with a general desire to “make the place where I live better.”

Born in Long Beach and raised in Anaheim, Murphy was first exposed to local government while a senior at Savanna High School. As an assignment for a civics class, Murphy interviewed then-Los Alamitos City Manager Bill Kraus, and thought to himself, “what a neat job,” he recalled.

Having walked precincts for Republican Presidential candidates Barry M. Goldwater and Richard M. Nixon while a teen-ager, Murphy entered UCLA planning a career in the law and politics. But soon he found himself in public policy graduate courses at Cal State Long Beach, and then as an intern in the city of Walnut.

Next Murphy returned to Orange County, as an administrative assistant in the Personnel Department in Stanton. Soon he became assistant to the city manager in Lancaster, and in 1980 he took the same post in Alhambra, where he quickly climbed the ladder to the top office.

“When I came into this, I knew what I wanted,” Murphy said. “I wanted to be a city manager. I went to Planning Commission meetings. I went to park and (recreation) meetings, I did everything I could to learn.”

An avid golfer and jogger who has finished two marathons, Murphy perceives himself as a man with energy as well as stamina. His wife says he is fiercely competitive, and he admits he is a tad stubborn.

“Sometimes it’s lonely at the top. There’s an awful lot of times when the city manager has to say no,” Murphy said. “And then some of the greatest satisfactions you have are seeing your ideas grow and blossom with the work of others.”

After nine years in Alhambra, Murphy came to Newport because he wanted to experiment with different issues and was looking for a nice place to raise his daughters, Amy, 10, and Jennifer, 7. He says he plans to hold onto the post--maybe even retire in it.

As for the rough spots that have defined his first six months in office, Murphy simply refuses to be shaken.

“Usually city managers have a honeymoon period. The honeymoon normally lasts six months and then you’re fair game,” he said, beginning to grin. “I just had a shorter honeymoon.”