The ENE has learned that La Palma City Manager Conal McNamara and an Assistant City Manager are the latest employees set to resign from the city government in La Palma.
Although there has been no public announcement to the people of La Palma, credible sources say.
In fact, a March 22 report in the The Whittier Daily News claims their City Council is set to consider a contract for McNamara as the new city manager at its March 25 meeting this week.
“I am honored to be considered for the role of city manager in Whittier, a community that I deeply respect,” said McNamara.
“I look forward to working alongside the City Council, staff, and residents to ensure Whittier continues to thrive,” the paper quoted McNamara as saying.
McNamara was selected following a nationwide recruitment process that attracted dozens of highly qualified candidates, it said.
The ENE has reached out for comment from McNamara, but at press time, has not heard back.
Just recently, City Clerk Kimberly Kenney and Community Services Director Andy Ramirez announced their departures from the city. Kenney retired while Ramirez assumed another position in local government.
The La Palma City Council did meet in Executive Session this past week, but there were no personnel announcements when the Council went into regular session.
McNamara has been beset with controversy lately as parents scolded the administration at the city’s last regular meeting for the treatment of employees. They expressed concern about the treatment City Hall had given a beloved employee who previously managed the city’s Tiny Tot program.
Word about McNamara’s apparent departure slipped out Monday night during the oral communications session of the Cypress City Council meeting. Brooke Nefertiti, while speaking on an issue referring to city managers in general, said this:
“I know that we have a neighboring city that has a city manager, an assistant city manager and a deputy city manager, and they have significant issues, and their city manager and assistant city manager are leaving,” she said.
“It’s kind of been made public, but it will officially be out April 1,” said Nefertiti.
La Palma is the only city to have such a configuration of city management.
Follow-up reporting by ENE confirmed the upcoming departure of the two La Palma officials, so we asked McNamara for a comment. While Hinton’s future is not known, McNamara is rumored be headed back to the Citty of Whittier as City Manager. He was employed in Whittier when recruited to become City Manager at La Palma.
If indeed the city does announce McNamara’s resignation on April 1 will be exactly five years since his first day on the job in La Palma.
Following the retirement of former City Manager Laurie Murray, La Palma asked
At that time, Murray was La Palma’s ninth city manager in four years, according to the city’s website.
City officials asked Allan Roeder to serve as Interim City Manager will the city underwent a comprehensive search for a new city manager. McNamara came to La Palma via the City of Whittier, where he had served as the Director of Community Development.
Before serving the City of Whittier, McNamara served as the Assistant Economic and Community Development Director for the City of Azusa. Additionally, he has worked for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works as a land development project manager after serving as a land use planning deputy for a Los Angeles County Supervisor.
McNamara began his professional career as a city planner for the cities of Irvine, San Bernardino, and Santa Clarita. He holds undergraduate degrees in Political Science and Social Ecology from the University of California, Irvine, and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from California State University, Northridge.
“Conal has a terrific record of success in his prior employment and exceptional ratings from those he has worked alongside.” “For our City, he possesses important skills that can potentially take La Palma to the next level, and the entire Council looks forward to introducing him to the community,” former Mayor Peter Kim said in a contemporary press release.
The city is expected to announce its plans to fill the vacancy after the official announcement of his departure on April 1.
Editor’s note: This version of the story has been edited since we were not able to ask Mayor Mark Walden for a comment. The city does not list individual email addresses for its elected representtives nor phone numbers, instead forcing anyone interested to send a generic email address that has not been asnwered on previous attempts by ENE. Thank you.