Temporary Department Chiefs Fill Jobs in Pinch

After retiring from his post as police chief in Long Beach, Bill Ellis entered the world of temp workers.

No, he’s not in the typing pool. Ellis became temporary police chief of West Covina for several months in 1998 and then worked a similar stint last spring in Manhattan Beach.

More temporary positions may be ahead for him, all arranged through an unusual agency that helps California cities and counties fill high-end, but short-term, vacancies with retired government executives.

“I’ve found my experience very enjoyable,” said Ellis, 56. “I love law enforcement, so I’ve enjoyed interacting with different police agencies and people.”

Although most temp agencies furnish clerks, secretaries and furniture movers, Sacramento-based Public Service Skills Inc. lures executive retirees to mostly small and medium-size cities as temporary managers, finance directors and fire department heads. Last year, the nonprofit agency, affiliated with the League of California Cities, made about 50 such placements statewide from a roster of about 350 names.

Among them is the city manager currently running Baldwin Park’s day-to-day operations, the director of a closed Air Force base site in Merced County and a former interim city manager who ushered South Pasadena through difficult investigations of city employees.

“They’re seasoned pros. They’ve already been through the battles and the wars; they have no axes to grind, no agendas. They just want to do their job right,” said Hugh Riley, a former city manager of Temple City who has hired a temporary finance director, police chief and public works director from Public Service Skills.

Top-drawer temps often are valued by government officials for their impartiality, a kind of immunity from political pressures and a willingness to make unpopular decisions. These born-again bureaucrats have walked into civic firefights. They have fired employees, initiated investigations against police officers and butted heads with local unions and city council members.

Take the case of Linda Holmes. After leaving her job as Walnut city manager, she walked into seemingly idyllic South Pasadena in 1996 and found that she’d ambled straight into what seemed like Dodge City. One of the first things Holmes did during her four-month stint as interim city manager was order an investigation into the assistant city manager, who later pleaded guilty to embezzlement. Soon, Holmes was dealing with a police department enmeshed in several scandals.

“In a case like this, where you come across criminal activity, you have to take decisive actions,” said Holmes. “I loved South Pasadena. People were saying, ‘This is so horrible’ . . . but it was exciting to me to come in and actually accomplish things.”

Temporary Fort Bragg City Manager Bob Christofferson, 69, has discovered one of the kinks of firing people in a very small town. You can fire them one day and then keep running into them at the local diner.

“We’re polite and civil when that happens. You’re not going to have a beer with that person, but you’re professional with them,” he said. “It doesn’t bother me too much. I’ve been doing this a long time.”

But in most cases, the relatively short stays can be pleasant strolls, allowing temporary executives to dip back into their careers from time to time without jeopardizing their retirements.

Murray Warden has traveled from his home in San Luis Obispo by train, Cessna plane and motor home to assignments around California. And he’s done it more than a dozen times in 13 years since retiring from his job as city manager of Morro Bay.

“Doing this work is a shot in the arm. It keeps me young and alive,” Warden said. The grandfather of four has for five months lived in the spartan visitors quarters of the defunct Castle Air Force Base in Merced County.

People like Warden, willing to put up with the inconveniences of city-trotting, have fueled Public Service Skills’ quiet success since it began in 1981.

The agency was established as a response to Proposition 13, which forced many municipal governments to do more with less. Ken Smith, the late city manager of Richmond and El Cerrito, started the agency along with Richard “Bud” Carpenter, former executive director of the League of California Cities, and a cadre of other city managers.

“Rather than just tread water while they found a permanent department head, the cities and towns could move forward,” said Carpenter, 86.

The group, which has never been much of a moneymaker, charges municipalities or counties a placement fee, ranging from $250 to $750, depending on their population. The temp executive negotiates a salary with the hiring government and is expected to pay Public Service Skills 2% of the ongoing pay, up to a $500 payment.

The need for interim help while cities find permanent executives is immense, experts say.

Some retired department heads offer their services independently. And the League of California Cities has a “range rider” program in which retired leaders advise municipal officials for free.

But Public Service Skills has occupied a special niche. And it seems to work.

“You get people who bring to a new community all of the pluses of governance, and few of the minuses,” said Phil Isenberg, ex-mayor of Sacramento. “It’s a much talked about agency among municipal officials.”

Some temp workers, like Holmes in South Pasadena, are approached about possibly staying on the job permanently.

They cannot, however. It’s forbidden in their contract.

A person with an eye toward acquiring a high-paying permanent job, Carpenter said, could make decisions geared toward enhancing the chances of being hired instead of doing what’s best.

Also, that person would have an unfair advantage over other applicants--and Public Service Skills temps often are instrumental in hiring their own replacements.

And, of course, interim employees are mindful that working more than six months a year could endanger their retirement benefits. Six months can be exciting enough.

Dayle Keller is doing things at Baldwin Park that she never did in her decades as a full-time department head in California cities such as Beaumont and Taft. What started out in October as a stint as city manager for Keller, 55, grew at one point into a juggling act as finance director, community redevelopment director, public works director and city manager--all at once.

How’s that for multi-tasking?

“I’m all over the place. We’re short in the department head ranks, so that makes it a little difficult,” said Keller, who is ushering the San Gabriel Valley city through a period of commercial growth.

Clearly, public service is in these people’s blood.

Consider Gary Schmitz, 57, a retired fire chief from San Mateo now living in Knoxville, Tenn., and hoping to get a first call soon from Public Service Skills.

“Sure, I’d be willing to move back to California for a three- to six-month assignment,” said Schmitz. “Things are so close. You get on an airplane and you go, and you’re there. How hard is that?”