Politics & Government

Timing of City Manager's Dismissal Raises Questions

The Manhattan Beach City Council unanimously dismissed former City Manager David Carmandy on Nov. 4.

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Eleven minutes after going into a closed session on Nov. 4, the Manhattan Beach City Council may have known it was going to dismiss the city manager, name the finance director as a temporary replacement, announce a future date for discussing the hiring of a new city manager and collaborate on a news release.

The information comes on a page of the city website that links to a news release detailing the actions taken in the closed session Nov. 4. The page shows a posted date and time of Nov. 4 at 10:28 a.m.—11 minutes after City Council went into closed session at 10:17 a.m. to discuss two agenda items: 

  • PUBLIC EMPLOYEE DISMISSAL/RELEASE Government Code Section 549573. 
  • PUBLIC EMPLOYEE APPOINTMENT Government Code Section 54957 Title: Acting/Interim City Manager
Council returned to open session in council chambers at 1:14 p.m., according to the city clerk. City Attorney Quinn Barrow then announced in open session that council had dismissed City Manager David Carmany without cause in a unanimous vote.

If the web page time is correct, everything council announced in open session at 1:14 p.m. was available to online viewers at least 2-1/2 hours before council reconvened into open session to make the announcement to those gathered in council chambers.

On Thursday, a city information technology staff member explained that each city department has someone who can post to the city website. "End users," as they're called, can pre-set a post time or simply post in the present moment. The IT staff member said the first post time for the page that contains the link to the news release was Nov. 4 at 10:28 a.m. with updates made the same day.

By phone on Thursday, Mayor David Lesser told Patch "the entire council" had worked on the news release announcing Carmany's termination, calling it "a statement on behalf of the city council."

Finance Director Bruce Moe, who was named acting city manager Nov. 4, will continue in the position until Tuesday night, Lesser said. The council at that point is expected to ratify a contract for John Jalili, who will become the interim city manager until a permanent replacement is found.

A news release will be issued once Jalili's contract is ratified.

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