Contract Renewed for City Manager

A divided City Council voted 3 to 2 this week to renew the contract for City Manager David L. Rudat for three more years.

The contract, which runs until May 2001, does not raise the city manager’s $152,880 annual salary, but it does increase his long-term disability benefits.

Councilmen Dan Slater and Michael Alvarez, who opposed Rudat’s decision to fire Police Chief John R. Robertson in February, voted against the contract.

Slater said they should wait to vote because three council members are facing election Nov. 3 and the district attorney is still investigating Rudat on conflict-of-interest charges.

“To vote on this before then is slapping the city in the face,” he said.

But Councilman Mark Murphy countered that the contract allows the city to terminate Rudat’s contract at any time. “The city manager always works at the pleasure of the council,” he said.

Rudat, 46, was the city’s fire chief in 1995 when he was named city manager.

His tenure created controversy last year when police and the district attorney’s office began investigating the city’s trash-hauling and recycling companies, which are alleged to have misappropriated millions in city funds. Rudat was alleged to have a conflict of interest on the issue.

And some residents at Tuesday’s meeting protested that Rudat forced the police chief out of a job because Robertson was investigating corruption at City Hall.

City officials said Robertson was fired for insubordination and for improperly investigating his own bosses, demonstrating poor judgment and violating procedures.

Rudat did not comment on the contract issue.