By Jorge Casuso
April 24, 2025 -- The search for a City Manager is picking up steam with the City Council on Tuesday holding a special closed door meeting dedicated entirely to filling the post.
While the past five Council agendas have routinely included items concerning the hire, Tuesday's closed session includes no other items or public input.
The meeting takes place four days before the Council holds its first round of virtual interviews with the candidates for the City's top administrative post.
A second round of interviews will take place in person on May 15, according to the job listing that asked candidates to submit their applications by April 17.
The posting for the $410,604 job seeks a "bold, innovative and transformational City Manager to lead with inspiration, equity and collaboration."
The City Manager will oversee an annual budget of $765 million and an executive team that includes an Assistant City Manager, a Deputy City Manager and eleven department directors.
"This leader will drive fiscal stability, modernize land use policies, enhance public infrastructure, ensure safe and livable housing for all, and foster collaborative partnerships to strengthen Santa Monica’s economic resilience," according to the job listing.
The chosen candidate will assume the post currently held on an interim basis by Elaine Polachek, a longtime former City official tapped by the Council on January 21 to replace City Manager David White ("City Fills 2 Key Posts," January 22, 2025).
White -- who unexpectedly announced his resignation on December 10 after helping steer Santa Monica through some of its most turbulent years -- was appointed in October 2021.
He become the fourth City manager to hold the post since the coronavirus shutdown in March 2020 and the first to hold the post on a permanent basis after Rick Cole was pressured to resign one month after the pandemic began after proposing drastic budget cuts.
Cole was replaced on an interim basis by then City Attorney Lane Dilg, who left the post in April 2021. She was replaced on an interim basis by John Jalili, who had served as city manager from 1984 until his retirement in 1999.
The new City Manager will be charged with navigating a financial crisis that prompted the Council last month to float extraordinary ways to balance its upcoming budget ("Council Floats Bold Moves to Balance Budget," March 10, 2025).
The ideas included selling City properties and exploring a record $460 million bond to stop relying on depleted reserves to keep the General Fund in the black.
The choice of a new city manager comes during an intensifying battle between housing and park advocates over the future of Santa Monica Airport's site after the 227-acre airport shuts down at the end of 2028.
The City also is facing a third round of child sex abuse lawsuits that already have cost $230 million in settlements and negotiating contracts with the City's major unions.
