MISSION VIEJO : City Manager Sorsabal Resigns as of Next July
City Manager Fred Sorsabal will resign his job next July after serving a six-month extension on his contract that was granted by the City Council this week.
Sorsabal made his resignation official at Monday’s council meeting. “I promised myself and my wife that I would be here for five years,” he told the council. “I have given you that, and by the time the extension is completed, it will be six years.”
Sorsabal, 57, plans to retire in the Placerville area of Northern California.
After working as city manager of Costa Mesa for 15 years, Sorsabal was hired by Mission Viejo in 1989. He was the second city manager in Mission Viejo’s six-year history. William Talley was first.
Sorsabal oversaw the accumulation of a $16-million city budget surplus. He helped establish a city redevelopment agency using the novel concept of declaring certain areas of the city as blighted because of chronic traffic congestion.
On Monday night, council members had nothing but praise for his performance.
Councilman Robert D. Breton told Sorsabal: “You’re Mission Viejo’s Clark Kent. Whenever we’ve needed a superperson to take on a challenge, you’ve been up to the challenge.”
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