There were no politics involved in Los Alamitos City Manager Angie Avery’s decision to retire as of March 1, Avery said. The surprise announcement came at the end of a special city council meeting on Jan. 7.
There were no politics involved in Los Alamitos City Manager Angie Avery’s decision to retire as of March 1, Avery said. The surprise announcement came at the end of a special city council meeting on Jan. 7.
Avery said she had not seriously considered setting a retirement date in 2013 until about mid December, but said that she had thought about retirement in general for quite some time. With the city in the midst of a recent council change, the resignation of its city attorney and contract talks with its employees, there are plenty of challenges for its staff.
“It was definitely a tough decision,” Avery said.
Avery said that in a small city with a small staff there are always challenges and that there is never a good time for a manager to leave. She said the decision came down to what was best for her.
“I just feel like it’s the right time for me now,” Avery said.
Avery had served 32 years in city service, mostly in parks and recreation for cities such as Long Beach and Los Alamitos. She was the director of parks and recreation for Los Alamitos before taking over as city manager in January of 2012, when Jeff Stewart left for the same job in Bellflower.
Avery, 58, said that after 32 years in a job where there is often little flexibility in work schedule, it simply came down to a push pull between wanting to continue to pursue career challenges or pursuing some other personal interests. Still, she admits she has not made any specific plans on how she will spend her retirement, she just felt like it was time to start making plans.
“I’m just going to retire and start a new chapter in my life,” Avery said.
According to the city’s website, Avery’s contract as city manager paid her an annual salary of $170,000. As part of the contract, Avery was paying the full eight percent into her retirement fund.
At the time of her appointment to the city manager post, Avery was the Director of Parks and Recreation, where her annual salary was $134,877, according to the California State Controller’s Office website.
Avery was a popular choice to replace Stewart at the time by both sides of the then divided council. She has said she took the job to provide continuity in the transfer. The city will begin a search for a new city manager, with Councilman Dean Grose and Mayor Warren Kusumoto forming the subcommittee to begin looking for candidates.