City Manager Hawkey Signs Contract Through October 1999

City Manager Phil Hawkey has signed an amendment to his job contract to stay with the city until October 1999.

The amendment increases his severance pay if he is fired before then from $70,000 to $200,000. Hawkey will also be reimbursed the $70,000 down payment on his Pasadena home when his contract has expired. Under the contract, the city, which has paid for more than half of the $615,000 house, will keep the structure and take over the payments.

Hawkey can also be a candidate for city manager when his current contract expires.

He signed the contract last week, two weeks after council members approved it but rejected demands for extra holiday and attorney’s fees from Hawkey.

The council voted 4 to 3 in November to keep Hawkey on the job but then changed its mind Dec. 8. However, it flip-flopped again Dec. 20 and voted to keep him until October 1999. That came after Hawkey’s attorney wrote a $1.5-million settlement demand Dec. 15 to avoid litigation. The demand alleged reverse discrimination and says some council members sought to create a system of favoritism based on race and political connections--charges that Councilman Paul Little said should be investigated.