San Marino Officials Select First Female City Manager

After a quick rise through the ranks of City Hall, Debbie Bell has been named San Marino’s first female city manager.

On Monday, Bell, 32, joined La Canada Flintridge’s Gabrielle Pryor as the only female city managers in the San Gabriel Valley’s 30 cities.

She takes the reins in an upscale community where the privately run City Club allows women to attend its discussions on government but still only allows male members. But that does not bother Bell.

“San Marino is a great community with strong family values,” Bell said. “It’s an excellent place to work.”

Bell, who has served as interim city manager of the city of 13,000 since the departure last October of Keith Till, was the unanimous choice of the City Council in last Friday’s selection session, said Mayor Bernard Le Sage.

Bell, who lives in Monrovia, began working for San Marino in 1991 as assistant to the city manager and was promoted to assistant city manager in 1993. A graduate of Brigham Young University with a master’s degree in business administration from Cal Poly Pomona, she previously worked for Monrovia and the state of Utah. Her salary has not been set.