Former Pasadena Mayor Rick Cole Steps Down as City Manager in Santa Monica

Former Pasadena City Mayor and current Santa Monica City Manager Rick Cole on Friday announced his intentions to step down.

According to Cole, the global pandemic drastically changed Santa Monica’s prospects, forcing city leaders to question how to deliver essential services and mitigate the disastrous economic impact during the public health crisis.

“The push to put in place a plan to pay down our massive pension obligations had already imposed unpopular fiscal constraints,” Cole said in a final message to residents. “The protracted struggle over pension reform has eroded the goodwill I previously enjoyed with our unions. The crushing demands of serving as Emergency Service Director over the past five weeks has put me squarely in the line of fire for anyone dissatisfied with any aspect of the City’s response to the emergency.”

The City Council has appointed Lane Dilg interim city manager.

“I appreciate the Council’s faith in me,”  Dilg said. “We have an extraordinarily challenging road ahead. COVID-19 has fundamentally changed the way we work, the needs of the people we serve, and has left a devastating hole in the City budget.

Cole’s influence on Pasadena still reverberates.

In 1984, under the name Pasadena Media, Inc., Cole, attorney Pierce O’Donnell, activist Marvin Schachter, publisher Ed Matys, Editor in Chief Steve Coll, Managing Editor Dick Lloyd, Arts and Entertainment Editor Melody Malmberg, restaurant critic Erica Wayne and then business manager Larry Wilson launched the Pasadena Weekly.

Cole rotated into Pasadena’s mayor chair from 1992-1994. He served on the City Council for 12 years.

In 1991, while serving as vice mayor in Pasadena, Cole lambasted tournament officials after a descendent of Christopher Columbus was chosen as the grand marshal. After lambasting the choice and criticizing Columbus as a symbol of rape and greed,

Cole wore a shirt that said “Tournament of Racism” when his time came to ride in the parade as mayor. Also that year, following mounting criticisms of how the tournament excluded minorities and women, the organization, according to a Los Angeles Times story of the time, began integrating its executive committee, which it increased from nine to 15 members.

In Santa Monica, Cole and Assistant City Manager Katie Lichtig have come under fire by residents that claimed he rushed to cut the budget and staff according to a petition calling for their removal after the pair pushed for budget cuts.

“Undeniably, the City has seen major losses in revenues due to the COVID-19 crisis,” the petition states. “But it has $70 million in financial reserves, expressly for the purposes of sustaining operations during emergencies, disasters, and times of economic uncertainty. So why the big rush? Why not provide time to conduct a thorough community outreach process? Why only give directors three days to submit rushed proposals of major cuts and community impacts instead of sufficient time to do a proper analysis?”

Last week, the Santa Monica City Council approved payouts designed to encourage city workers to leave their jobs. Payments ranged from $10,000 to $15,000, depending on tenure, according to the LA Times.

Cole, who made more than $340,000 a year, agreed to take a 20 percent pay cut.

City officials are projecting a $72-million shortfall through the end of June and another $154-million shortfall for the following fiscal year.