Katie Lichtig, who has been city manager since March 2002, has taken a job as assistant city manager for Beverly Hills. Mayor Andy Stern says there is no timetable for finding a replacement.
By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor
City Manager Katie Lichtig announced last week that she has accepted a job as assistant city manager for Beverly Hills. Her last day with Malibu will be on Jan. 9.
Mayor Andy Stern said he is unsure how the process will work to find Lichtig’s replacement. The council met after Monday morning’s special City Council meeting in closed session to talk about the issue. The topic was further discussed behind closed doors before and after the regular council meeting that night. State law prohibits council members from discussing in public what occurred during closed-session meetings.
Stern said he finds it unlikely that a permanent replacement for Lichtig will be hired before she leaves. The city will likely appoint somebody for an interim position next month.
Lichtig wrote in a letter to the council that the job in Beverly Hills “is a unique opportunity that I find too enticing to forego.” She will be in charge of more than 750 municipal employees, including members of the city’s police and fire departments. There are only 43 people working for the city of Malibu.
Lichtig’s annual salary with Beverly Hills will be $181,000, an increase of $26,000 from what she is making in Malibu.
Lichtig further wrote in the letter that she believed the city accomplished a number of things during her tenure, including the establishment of the senior center, increased support for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District and the purchase of Bluffs Park (which has not been finalized). Lichtig said in an interview last week that she hopes “to go out on a high note” with the city finalizing its deal with the Malibu Bay Co. to purchase the Chili Cook-Off site.
Stern said in an interview last week that he was sorry to see Lichtig leave, but understood why she was going because the Beverly Hills position is a “huge opportunity for her.”
Lichtig was hired as Malibu’s assistant city manager in May 2001. She took the job as interim city manager in the summer. The council hired her as the permanent head of the city staff in March 2002 by a 4-1 vote, with Councilmember Tom Hasse dissenting. Hasse said at the time that he felt the $108,000 salary offer was too high for somebody with no experience as a city manager. Lichtig had served as assistant city manager for Santa Monica prior to coming to Malibu.
Lichtig’s tenure began as the city’s battle was brewing with the California Coastal Commission over the state agency’s drafting of a Local Coastal Program for the city. In September 2002, the Coastal Commission approved an LCP that many Malibu residents considered to be too restrictive. Malibu attempted to put the LCP before the voters, but lost in litigation to the Coastal Commission to do so.
The city’s first attempt at changing the LCP failed, with the Coastal Commission staff refusing to even look at a proposed amendment, which consisted of hundreds of pages, to the documents. Lichtig and other city staff members later persuaded Coastal Commission staff to agree to accept amendment proposals in phases, and the commission staff must recommend the Coastal Commission voting body approve the amendments or tell the city why they are unacceptable. The city is currently working on the first set of amendment proposals.
Lichtig’s tenure has been marked by constant staff turnover, although this has been a problem for Malibu even before she began working for the city. Since Lichtig arrived, the city has gone through four planning directors/managers and two interim planning managers. Numerous city planners have come and gone, with many only staying for a few months.
The city lost its public works director in the summer of 2002. Longtime city employee Rick Morgan then took over the department on an interim basis, but left Malibu suddenly in February 2003 because, sources told The Malibu Times, of friction between he and Lichtig. The city did not hire a permanent public works head until September 2003 when it appointed Yugal Lall, who left the city in November. Malibu announced the hiring of an interim public works director this week.
The city is also currently without a permanent parks and recreation director and city treasurer. Additionally, its administrative services director, Reva Feldman, has only been with Malibu for a short time. She replaced Julia James, who left earlier this year to take a job in South Gate.