The contract for Bell’s interim City Administrator, Pedro Carrillo, expired on Friday and while Carrillo has noted that he does not want the position permanently, he offered to continue in the role in order to help the city find a suitable replacement. However, the council declined his offer. We relayed recently that the troubled city has had little luck initially in findting a leader to take on the City Manager’s role, so in the meantime, Mayor Ali Saleh will serve as Administrator and handle the day-to-day municipal affairs. In a letter to Saleh dated in late June, Carrillo makes clear his intentions about his expired contract and the qualifications the permanent city manager should possess. You can read the letter here. Saleh, who is a political newcomer, previously stated he did not want the responsibility and expressed hope that the council would appoint someone new soon.
We noted recently that the city had received no applications for the City Manager’s position, but after working with professional government management groups, Bell has now received interest from some applicants. But the city’s problems remain. Bell is reported to have a deficit of $4 million and has had trouble reaching stability in the aftermath of the scandal. There is also mounting bond debt. While Carrillo previously presented a detailed budget plan, it apparently didn’t sit well with the council, as officials said they were likely to reject it. The LA Times reports:
“The city decided to part ways with Pedro Carrillo as he proposed a tough new set of budget cuts aimed at holding off insolvency, including leaving executive positions unfilled, eliminating the three highest-ranking police officers in the city and forcing employees to pay for half of their retirement.”
Mayor Saleh noted the city would probably start from scratch with a new budget plan once they reject Carrillo’s proposal.
Since the City of Bell has a City Council-City Manager form of government, I have a problem with this freshman Mayor temporarily taking over those duties.
If anything, they should have appointed one of the department heads as the interim city manager while the search goes on.
It is too bad, however, that the City of Bell website doesn't have a link to the application for the city manager position.
Posted by: Arne Simonsen | July 28, 2011 at 01:14 PM
There are interesting recommendations in the letter from the interim city manager.
Too bad it it suggests that the next city manager should be bi-lingual (Spanish) and bi/multicultural.
Guess that rules me out as being bi-lingual in Russian, but my Norwegian ancestry may qualify lol.
My condolences to whomever assumes Bell's city manager position as some "tough love" will be needed.
Posted by: Arne Simonsen | July 28, 2011 at 01:20 PM
Now we have a great walkway that goes to the beach and to the canals that came from the partnership of community with government
Posted by: Air Jordan 2012 | March 22, 2012 at 10:49 PM