City Manager Till Out at Seal Beach

Three weeks after granting an indefinite leave of absence to Seal Beach City Manager Keith Till, the City Council on Thursday accepted his resignation.

“All matters related to Mr. Till’s employment have been resolved,” Councilman Shawn Boyd said after the closed session at which the action was taken.

A terse announcement from the city said that Till “will be pursuing other professional opportunities” and wished him “success in his new endeavors.”

“We will be conducting interviews next week for an interim city manager,” Boyd said. “We’ve reviewed eight resumes and selected a few that we want. The interim city manager will serve for a period until we hire a new city manager.”

Till, 47, could not be reached for comment.

A clause in the city’s separation agreement with Till barred officials from commenting further on the matter, Boyd said.

The search for a permanent city manager will take at least six months, he said.

Till, who came to Seal Beach in 1995 after serving as city manager of San Marino, had been described by some council members in the past as the best city manager in Seal Beach’s history and had been credited with leading the city from near bankruptcy to an $800,000 reserve in his five-year tenure.

Controversy erupted late last year, however, when he fired City Treasurer Elizabeth Stoddard just days after she received a national award for excellence in financial reporting.

While Till characterized the termination as resulting from “philosophical differences,” Stoddard alleged that she had been fired for revealing that Till--who was paid about $111,000 a year--had tried to avoid reporting $6,000 in taxable income related to a home loan he had received from the city. Eventually she filed a claim against Seal Beach alleging wrongful termination and emotional distress. The case was settled out of court for $129,000.

A month later, in a case still pending, the city’s senior accountant, Stephanie Stinson, filed a breach-of-contract claim against the city and Till alleging that they wanted to reduce her benefits.