What will it take to keep John Nachbar — Culver City’s third City Manager this year — interested enough in the Heart of Screenland to become at least a semi-permanent resident, or, more desirably, a semi-permanent employee?
(As an aside, the Los Angeles Times had the courtesy to break the story about the city of Bell’s $800,000 a year chief executive after Mr. Nachbar signed his relatively pigeon-feed agreement of $245,000 a year with City Hall. If Mr. Nachbar wants to know where Bell is, Council members reportedly have been instructed to reply that their GPS’s have been confiscated, possibly by the city of Bell.)
Although Jerry Fulwood, Culver City’s last long-serving City Manager, remained in his chair for six years, the full life of two contracts, his successor, Mark Scott, announced his resignation at the end of month No. 8, last February.
With Interim City Manager Lamont Ewell completing his 120-day obligation to City Hall at the end of next week, City Hall will be without a CEO until Mr. Nachbar arrives from the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park sometime between mid-August and early September. No one here knows.
What they do know, though, is that they have sweetened Mr. Nachbar’s pot — unrelated to his physical configuration. If he completes one full year at the helm of City Hall — this isn’t parole or hard time, is it? — $12,500 will be added to his contract. If he can tolerate a second full year, $17,000 will be added to his second anniversary check. No one, so far, has dared to speculate about Year Three.
