Council to Take Up City Manager’s Job, Labor Talks and Three Property Negotiations in Closed Session Tuesday

The City Council will meet in a special closed session at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 8, to take up nine matters behind closed doors: the city manager’s position, three property negotiations, four sets of labor talks and one lawsuit.

The regular Monday session was canceled for Labor Day.

The session is scheduled to return consideration of Pasadena’s top job to the council, while the city continues to run under an interim administrator.

The city manager item is a public employee employment conference. Mayor Victor M. Gordo is the council’s designated representative in the discussion.

The City has had no permanent chief administrator since April, when Miguel Márquez’s tenure ended and the council appointed Assistant City Manager Matthew Hawkesworth interim city manager effective April 17. The city opened a nationwide recruitment Jan. 5, and closed applications Jan. 29.

The council selected Riverside City Manager Mike Futrell in April with a May 13 start date, and Futrell then chose to remain in Riverside, according to a statement released by the council.

Public Information Officer Lisa Derderian said in late June there were “No updates to report at this time.”

Four employee organizations are on Tuesday’s agenda: the Pasadena Firefighters Management Association, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Non-Rep Management and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Hawkesworth and Tiffany Jacobs-Quinn are the council’s designated representatives on all four.

The city’s posted agreements with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 858 and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18 ran through June 30. Members of Local 858 came to the council’s July 13 meeting to press for a contract.

The three property items are all open on price and terms of payment, with Hawkesworth or a designee negotiating for the city. They cover 4750 Oak Grove Drive, 434-470 North Lake Ave. and 360 N. Arroyo Blvd. The negotiating parties are Angela Lowell, president; Holos Communities; and Melanie Sauer of the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center.

Pasadena owns the Arroyo Boulevard property, and LA28 will lead the renovations related to the Olympic diving competition scheduled there July 16 to 28, 2028, according to information the center has published about the Games.

The center says the formal agreement is still being finalized and that the city holds the right to approve any changes to the facility.

The ninth matter is a legal counsel conference on City of Pasadena v. The Regents of the University of California.

In that case, the City is suing UCLA for attempting to break its lease ane move its football team to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.

The case has sat on council closed session agendas since at least November, when the council recorded no reportable action on it.

The council’s next meeting is a special meeting Tuesday, Sept. 15.