Survival-of-the fittest strategies have swept City Hall, where employees fearful of looming budget cuts are waging campaigns against their colleagues and other departments in an effort to protect their jobs.
William Woolard, 50, Arcadia Planning Director for 22 years, resigned at the recommendation of City Manager Don Duckworth and a 4-1 City Council vote, with Robert Harbicht opposed. Woolard was asked to leave because of departmental reorganization, Duckworth said.
127 city employees have agreed to postpone their salary increases for 6 months to help close the city's projected $2.2 million shortfall. This action would save the city $466,000.
111 City Hall employees may earn an extra $50-110 a month by walking, bicycling, carpooling, or using public transportation to work. The City Council approved the plan to satisfy South Coast Air Quality Management District regulations requiring worksites to provide incentives to employees who reduce vehicle trips to work.
Shortly before the city cut $400,000 in salaries and programs to help close a nearly $1 million budget shortfall, the city's managers and supervisors asked the City Council to consider giving them what they termed long-overdue raises.
Mayor George Fasching blasted a group of nine former mayors for distributing an open letter that accused the new City Council of breaking the law by asking City Manager George Watts to resign.
The former city manager of Visalia has unanimously been selected to serve as the new Arcadia City Manager. Donald Duckworth will be officially sworn in at Tuesday's City Council meeting.
William Kelly, with 22 years of city government experience in Burbank, Brea, Baldwin Park and San Bruno, has been hired as Arcadia's first community development director and assistant to the city manager. This new position replaces the planning director job that had been vacant for several months.
City Finance Director Alan C. Murphy died of cancer at 34 - just two weeks after receiving a Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting and an award for Financial Reporting Achievement by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA). Photo
Gerald A. Parker, last years's City Employee of the Year, has been appointed director of finance. Parker replaces Alan Murphy, who died earlier this month after a long battle with cancer.