No $300,000 salary for new city manager

Indio's next city manager will be paid “substantially less” than the $300,000-plus a year Glenn Southard — the highest-paid city manager in the valley — receives, said Mayor Gene Gilbert on Thursday.

The Indio City Council met Wednesday behind closed doors to discuss the details of Southard's retirement and how best to replace him.

“We hope to have (a new city manager) as quickly as possible,” Gilbert said. “The sooner then the better. No later than July 1.”

The council named Assistant City Manager Tara Adams interim city manager effective once Southard retires April 1, and agreed to look for a search firm to help find a permanent replacement.

The requirements and salary for the position, however, still need to be finalized, he said.

Since hiring Southard in March 2005 at $240,000 a year, the City Council has been criticized for making him among the highest-paid city managers in California.

Soon after Southard landed the job in Indio, most of the other valley city managers had their salaries increased to maintain a somewhat comparative paycheck.

Longtime Indio resident Al Meza said he thinks the Indio city manager position should stay empty, and he blames the Indio City Council for what he thinks are inflated city manager salaries across the Coachella Valley.

“Why should we get another city manager? Why would you want that expense right now? We are in the worst shape ever,” said Meza.

“They already hired someone at $14,000 a month for a cleanup,” he added, referring to consultant Michael Busch, president of Urban Futures Inc., who has been tasked with “right-sizing” City Hall and creating a financial recovery plan for the city.

Indio faces a projected $2.3million shortfall that needs to be remedied by July 1 and faces a $13.5 million shortfall next fiscal year if no retirements or cuts are made. Layoffs and/or furloughs are being examined as potential cost-savings measures.

Top city officials including the mayor and Mark Wasserman, the public information officer and assistant to Southard, have also been interviewed recently by the Riverside County grand jury on city matters, they announced this week.

“I did meet with the grand jury. That's as far as I can tell you,” Gilbert said on Thursday.

He was interviewed earlier this month while Wasserman testified Tuesday and former Indio Councilman Mike Wilson was questioned twice in January.

All three have declined to comment on the line of questioning.

As Adams takes over for Southard and awaits the new city manager, her major focus will be developing the budget and working on plans to restructure City Hall once early retirements and frozen positions take effect.

“We're already in the process of developing the budget for next year,” she said.

Adams said she's happy being the interim city manager but has no plans to apply for the permanent position.

Xochitl Peña covers Indio and Coachella for The Desert Sun. She can be reached at (760) 778-4647 or at xochitl.pena@thedesertsun.com.