Long Beach proposes diminishing duties of city manager
Long Beach will have a public hearing on changing power structure of city management. Credit: Newsday/Thomas A. Ferrara
Long Beach council members are proposing to take the power to hire and fire top staff away from the city manager and make department heads subordinate to the City Council.
The City Council will hold a public hearing Feb. 18 on amendments to the city code and charter. The amendments will change the power structure of the city, giving the five elected council members the final decision on who runs city departments. The code currently allows the part-time council members to select a full-time city manager, who then chooses the management staff and commissioners.
Council members are not expected to vote at the Feb. 18 hearing, but will hear public comment on changes that would allow the council to hire a treasurer, corporation counsel, comptroller, and police and fire commissioners, among other positions.
The city switched from a mayor-led government to one run by a city manager in 1939, when every reference in the charter of "mayor" was replaced with "city manager."
“The charter is not reflective of what the city has done in decades,” said City Council president John Bendo. “It’s a severely out-of-date document.”
City Council members voted on resolutions Tuesday night that would leave the authority to hire police officers, staff and part-time workers, and determine the indemnification of city employees in lawsuits, under the city manager.
The city is working with its third acting city manager in two years. There has been no permanent replacement since City Manager Jack Schnirman was elected Nassau County comptroller in 2017.
Council members said the search for a city manager “is in progress.”
“As the city manager, I still have to be here to run day-to-day operations and administrative duties,” acting City Manager John Mirando said. “I imagine they are diligently looking for a new city manager and that will be this person’s job to deal with.”
Mirando said an initial opinion from the New York Conference of Mayors said a charter change would need a voter referendum, but the organization later said charter revisions could be made by the City Council.
“I think that whoever the city manager is, if the council gives their goals and objectives, that’s the city manager’s job to accomplish,” Mirando said. “As long as it’s not illegal, immoral or unprofessional, I’m glad to carry out their wishes.”
John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.
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