Josh Kleinbaum
Barring any unexpected developments, the La Canada Flintridge City
Council will probably turn six weeks of speculation into certainty on
Monday, appointing Mark Alexander as its permanent city manager.
The appointment of a new city manager is the second item listed in
the closed-session portion of the agenda for Monday's meeting. Since
Jerry Fulwood announced his intention to leave La Canada Flintridge
for a job as chief administrative officer of Culver City, all five
members of the City Council have voiced support for Alexander to take
over.
"Just from the rapport he has, the number of comments made from
the community, I would say there is a decided interest in appointing
him," Councilman Dave Spence said Thursday. "I'm only speaking for
myself, but I've had a number of people come up to me and say the
most intelligent decision would be to move in that direction."
Alexander has worked for the city for 15 years, including two
stints as interim city manager. He filled that position for seven
months in 1998 and 1999 before the city hired Fulwood, and took over
the same role June 17, after Fulwood departed. During Fulwood's
four-year tenure in La Canada Flintridge, Alexander was the
assistant city manager.
He is considered a budget guru by members of the council, and
impressed the council by preparing two budgets for the current fiscal
year -- a standard budget and one that accounted for potential
revenue losses due to the state budget crisis.
Spence hinted that Alexander would receive strong support from the
council, possibly a unanimous appointment.
"It's important for the rest of the city employees to know that
there is a person that has been strongly supported by the full
council," Spence said. "I'm not saying that will happen, but I do
think it's important to get the issue behind us and move forward. He
needs then to have the opportunity to go out and hire somebody that
he thinks would be a great assistant city manager to help him."
Alexander and the other council members, in Monterey on Thursday
and today for a League of California Cities conference, could not be
reached for comment.
The closed-session meeting begins at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 1327
Foothill Blvd., followed by the regular meeting at 7 p.m., which is
open to the public. Spence said he expects the council to make a
decision during closed session, so an announcement should come during
the open-session portion.
