Yorba Linda Hires New City Manager

After a four-month search for a successor to controversial former City Manager Arthur C. Simonian, the Yorba Linda City Council has hired Diamond Bar City Manager Terrence L. Belanger for the job.

Most council members spoke Wednesday with rare optimism about the city’s future after voting 5 to 0 to hire Belanger.

“There’s a feeling around town that we’re bringing common sense and civility back to Yorba Linda,” Mayor Ken Ryan said.

Belanger is scheduled to begin work Monday. He was at City Hall on Wednesday to fill out some paperwork and said he looks forward to helping Yorba Linda address issues such as traffic, growth and the pursuit of a local high school. He has spent many years in Orange County, as an assistant city manager and chief administrative officer for Brea from 1977 to 1982 and as a Fullerton resident since 1994.

Simonian, Yorba Linda’s city manager for 27 years, was fired in September 1999 for alleged financial malfeasance. He was later reinstated by a judge who ruled the city did not follow the right steps to terminate him. Simonian was accused of paying himself $300,000 in unauthorized bonuses. He denied any wrongdoing, sued the city to clear his name and won his job back. He was not required to refund any of the bonus money. He was on paid administrative leave until June, when the city agreed to pay him a $231,000 settlement in exchange for his resignation.

Both Ryan and Councilman Henry W. Wedaa said Belanger’s hiring marks an end to the Simonian controversy.

“The issue is dead,” Wedaa said. “I think the city is in good hands with the new city manager. I’m very optimistic about the future.”

But Councilman John M. Gullixson discounted claims that the council was united on either issue. Although he voted Tuesday to hire Belanger, he said the 56-year-old administrator was not his first choice for the job. Four finalists out of 66 applicants were interviewed. Gullixson also criticized the council for hiring Belanger without first completing a detailed background check.

“I don’t know of any agency that would hire a person for a $125,000-a-year job requiring the handling of a $20-million-a-year budget without doing a background check,” he said.

City staff did search the Internet to verify Belanger’s background and contacted references, according to city officials.

Gullixson did support Belanger on many points, including the fact that he will probably retire in several years.

“I don’t think he’ll be here forever,” Gullixson said. “The problems we’ve had with this city have been tied to a combination of a longtime city manager and longtime incumbents. That’s how the basic lack of accountability occurred.”

Belanger said he isn’t concerned about the lack of unity on Yorba Linda’s council or in the community.

In Diamond Bar, he said, “we had . . . a lot of community contentiousness over a variety of issues. Because council members don’t agree isn’t a reason to have concern or trepidation about the other opportunities that exist in a community. There’s so much more that Yorba Linda has to offer.”

Belanger became Diamond Bar’s city manager in 1992. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Cal State Fullerton and a law degree from Western State University College of Law in Fullerton.