Robert Dominguez Named City Manager

After a five-month search, the City Council on Thursday named Robert C. Dominguez the new city manager.

Dominguez, who is the administrative services director for the city of Rancho Cucamonga, plans to start his $90,000-a-year job on June 3. He will replace Robert C. Dunek, who left Los Alamitos in January after six years of service to take the city manager position in Lake Forest.

The council selected Dominguez from a pool of more than 80 applicants, Mayor Robert P. Wahlstrom said.

“He’s going to be a hands-on leader,” Wahlstrom said. “He’ll be in the trenches with the troops.”

Dominguez, 50, has worked in city government for 20 years. Before he took the position in Rancho Cucamonga, he served as the assistant city manager of La Mirada for 12 years. He also has worked as the director of administrative services in Lawndale and as an administrative assistant in Garden Grove.

Dominguez currently serves as a part-time professor at Cal State Long Beach, where he received a master’s degree in public administration. He teaches classes on public policy administration.

A Long Beach resident, Dominguez said he doesn’t plan to move his wife and two sons, ages 14 and 20, to Los Alamitos because their home is only three miles from the city’s border.

“I’ve lived in this area a long time,” he said. “I already feel I know it well.”