OB Rag Staff Report
San Diego’s 22-year experiment with a “strong mayor” has been hobbled by a string of financial crises.
Is it time to consider restoring the position of City Manager?
Jack McGrory, a former San Diego city manager, will share his thoughts at a town hall forum on “Why We Need a City Manager and Other Insights” on Saturday, June 20, from 12:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Mission Valley Library, 2123 Fenton Parkway.
Sponsored by the San Diego Community Coalition (SDCC) and Neighbors for a Better San Diego (NFABSD), the forum is the fifth in a series of question-and-answer sessions on important civic issues.
These events are free and open to the public, but seating is limited.
Previous speakers in the series were San Diego City Councilmember Raul Campillo, who addressed the politics of land use; Union-Tribune City Hall Reporter David Garrick, who discussed media coverage of local government; and land-use attorney Everett Delano, who explained how communities can use the legal system to stop predatory development.
McGrory served as City Manager from March 1991 through August 1997. He is currently CEO of La Jolla MJ Management, LLC, and he is an active philanthropist.
In March, McGrory joined the nonprofit Association for the City of La Jolla as chief negotiator and strategic adviser to help guide the community’s bid to becoming an independent city.
Both SDCC and NFABSD work to promote responsible land use and transit policies and to challenge elected officials to be more responsive to the public.
NFABSD was launched in 2021 and has emerged as one of the most influential grassroots organizations in San Diego. SDCC just celebrated its one-year anniversary and now encompasses 95 community leaders from 30 neighborhoods across the city.
Article is incorrect. The last City Manager was Lamont Ewell in 2004-2005
Ray, sorry, you are incorrect, as according to the San Diego History center and other sources:
San Diego’s last official city manager was Jack McGrory, who served in the role from 1991 to 1997.
San Diego phased out the formal “city manager” position when voters transitioned the government to a “strong-mayor” system on January 1, 2006. Since that time, the responsibilities previously held by the city manager were transitioned to an appointed Chief Operating Officer (COO).
The last appointed COO was Eric Dargan, who served until February 2025, when Mayor Todd Gloria dismissed him and permanently assumed the managerial duties himself.
I worked for the City when Lamont Ewell was City Manager. He was sworn in on April 12, 2004. Ewell left because we switched to the Strong Mayor during his tenure. Ewell was City Manager under Sanders, but left and then Sanders hired a Chief Operating Officer instead. Lamont Ewell was definitely the last City Manager at the City of San Diego.
Also, there were two others in the City Manager seat before Lamont Ewell. Penelope Culbreth-Graft was acting City Manager after McGrory left until they hired Mike Uberuaga in 2000 and after he left, Ewell took over.
Perhaps the headline should read, ‘the Last Real City Manager.’
No, but maybe the last that people seem to remember by name. The others were just as real.
McGrory has been rehabilitated in the public eye since he was city manager. Do not forget that he helped Susan Golding wreak havoc on this city. This is not a person to be admired.
Part of the point is that San Diegans are fed up now with the strong mayor form and there’s lots of speculation that we should return to the city manager system and McGrory held that position for 6 years. What are his lessons for us which we could learn without placing him on a pedestal.
I am one who is also fed up with the strong mayor system. I voted for it because of the McGrory years. I think we need to go back to it but scrutinize the Golding-McGrory years and bake in measures to prevent that from happening again.
Geoff I share your missgivings about the strong mayor system and also know the city manager system is not the end-all.
For those unfamiliar with San Diego’s political history, the 90’s under republican mayor Susan Golding and city manager Jack McGrory were brutal. If that wasn’t bad enough, Golding defeated in her race for mayor Peter Navarro, Donald Trumps trade and tariff czar.
These two articles are a reminder of how things worked 30 plus years ago in San Diego. After reading them you might want to cut Todd Gloria a little slack.
https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/1997/jul/03/why-mcgrory-quit/
https://voiceofsandiego.org/2018/10/23/fool-me-twice-dont-trust-the-architect-of-san-diegos-last-bad-stadium-deal/
Yup, and McGrory seems to keep vulturing around for his next gig. The connection to NFABSD I find interesting, but i would like the complete story with the SDSU proposed arena being quashed and possible connection to Midway Rising.
A debate between a Council/Manager and a Strong Mayor form of government is worth having, but my take is that neither is intrinsically better than the other.
The success (or lack thereof) of any local government is primarily due to the qualities of the leadership, the culture of the organization and the commitment of the staff-at-large to serving the public. There are plenty of positive examples of Strong Mayor governments, and there are plenty of unsatisfactory examples of Council/Manager governments.
And one unaddressed variable here is the role of term limits, which also deserves critical examination.
I do think that Mayor Gloria didn’t do himself any favors by cutting the COO position last year. Without having a seasoned professional administrator in place to ensure that various policy initiatives are carefully considered with respect to the organization’s capacity to implement them, mistakes will be made and unintended consequences will arise.
Jack McGrory was City Manager during some of the early pension decisions, including the 1996 agreement often cited as a starting point in the City’s pension problems, but he was not City Manager when the financial and disclosure issues later came to light. Those problems involved many players over a number of years, including elected officials, the pension board, labor and City leadership. After that crisis, San Diego put major safeguards in place, including the independent Audit Committee, a stronger independent City Auditor, tighter budget, reserve and debt policies, stronger pension oversight, more rigorous financial disclosure rules, and greater transparency and public reporting. So, the City operates today with far more financial oversight, audits, checks and reporting requirements than existed during that era.
I think those safeguards would make a City Manager form of government even stronger today than it was in the past because it would allow a trained administrator to handle the day-to-day operation of the City while operating within a much tighter framework of oversight, accountability and financial controls than before. The changes have already been made to make that work better.
Also, if you happen to get a bad City Manager, he/she can be let go by the Mayor and Council at any time. If you get a bad mayor, you are pretty much stuck for at least four years or maybe eight if you can’t wake up the electorate to the issue. Recalls never happen though people talk about them.