A guide to the recent news with California’s City Managers. This most recent edition includes a number of retirements, a City Manager put on leave, a City Manager cutting 50 city positions, Stockton names an Interim City Manager and a few features on City Managers.


  • East Palo Alto City Manager Alvin James will retire on Oct. 19 after six years working for the city. – San Jose Mercury News

  • Attorney gives opinion that the money lost by Taft City Manager Bob Gorson was apparently investment. –  The Midway Driller

  • Mill Valley City Manager Anne Montgomery announced her retirement after 22 years with the city. – Contra Costa Times

  • Belmont City Manager Jack Crist will retire in February. Crist is the former city manager of Modesto and was the deputy city manager for Sacramento for 26 years. – San Mateo Daily Journal

  • The city of Escalon put City Manager Greg Greeson on paid leave. – PublicCEO.com

  • Oceanside City Manager Peter Weiss is proposing cutting 50 position to help the city stay afloat. – San Diego Union Tribune

  • Stockton looks to appoint retired Fairfield City Manager Kevin O’Rourke as interim city manager. O’Rourke will fill-in for retired Gordon Palmer. – Stockton Record

  • Jerry Gillham, the former Lakeport City Manager, officially resigned from his duties earlier this month due to health reasons as a result of military duty in Iraq.

    “I was in the combat zone and they discovered a hole in my heart and they think the hole was supposed to heal as a child never did. Essentially, I got a piece of plaque from dirty blood that hadn’t been through the filtration system. It went across my heart into the good blood that settled in my brain and caused me to go blind and lose my memory.” – PublicCEO.com

  • A nice feature on Visalia City Manager Steve Salomon. –Visalia Times-Delta

  • City manager turned poet? Former St. Helena City Manager Bonnie Long has blossomed as a poet later in life. – Napa Valley Register

  • The search for a City Manager in Santa Monica is underway. – Santa Monica Daily Press

  • Ken Pulskamp, City Manager of Santa Clarita, was named President of the City Managers Department of the League of California Cities last week. – PublicCEO.com

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