By Doug Miller
The city has received 47 resumes since Glen Spiritis stepped down in September. Of those applicants, 14 will be invited to interview for the position, said council President James Hennessy, who is heading up the search.
Theofan is considered a favorite. In addition to having taken on the city manager's responsibilities, he is corporation counsel and the acting city planner. But he is not a Long Beach resident, as a permanent city manager is required to be. Theofan was in private practice before becoming corporation counsel last winter, and has residences in Freeport and Manhattan. He has not said whether he would be willing to move to Long Beach.
The charter actually requires the city manager to be a resident only during his or her term, not for any period of time before it, so the next city manager could theoretically move to Long Beach on his or her first day of work.
Theofan said last week that the city could enact a charter change to waive the requirement or do away with it entirely, but on Tuesday Hennessy said he didn-t like the idea. I will ask all applicants if they would be willing to relocate to Long Beach, he said. And it would be my intention to abide by the charter and require that he or she move to the city during his or her term of office.
Hennessy has support from at least one Democrat on the issue. Don-t tell me you-re going to waive the provision for Charles," said Councilman Denis Kelly. "Tell me you-re going to waive the provision, or don-t. If Bill Clinton comes in and says he wants to be city manager, I am going to ask him, ÔAre you prepared, willing and able to live in Long Beach?-
Long Beach has a tradition, for better or for worse, of hiring home-grown city managers who rise through local political ranks. Of the last several city managers, only Harry Porr III was not a Long Beach native. Bruce Nyman, Edward Eaton and Spiritis were all Long Beach residents when they were hired. A professional city administrator, Porr-s previous position was as a city manager in upstate Newburgh, and after his time in Long Beach he became city manager of Bronxville, in Westchester County.
Council members confirmed that only two of the resumes now being considered came from current Long Beach residents, including one from a resident who is a city employee.
Everyone seems to agree that these 47 resumes represent the richest pool of talent to apply for the job in some time. Spiritis was the only applicant the council considered when it replaced Porr earlier this year, and Kelly, the longest-serving councilman, who is searching for his fifth city manager since 2000, said when Porr was hired that he was the top choice among perhaps five serious applicants.
The batch of resumes we got for this search are better than the batch we had in 2002, Kelly said. The candidate pool is more impressive this search. But then, the guy who was the most impressive city manager I-ve seen was the home-grown guy, Ed Eaton.
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