McCarthy seeking new place in the sun
CITY HALL — After running the city for the past six years, Susan McCarthy will get her life back once the sun sets today over the Pacific.
Thursday is the last day of work for McCarthy, who has served as city manager since 1999. McCarthy will be back in the office on Friday, however, to complete some final tasks, like packing up the rest of the boxes and firing off some final e-mails.
“I suppose I’ll leave the keys and my badge, and fade into the sunset,” she said.
Her final weeks and days have been busy — on Tuesday, McCarthy hired a new homeless czar, a position that is the first of its kind in Santa Monica. She’s also been busy wrapping up loose ends before her replacement, Lamont Ewell, takes the helm on Jan. 14.
Beyond a Hawaiian vacation with her parents, McCarthy, 60, plans on sticking around Santa Monica during her first few months of retirement. She’ll also be around when the Main Library opens its doors, as well as on hand in case Ewell faces any major stumbling blocks early on in his tenure. However, McCarthy believes it’ll be important for Ewell to learn the job on his own.
McCarthy, who has worked for City Hall for 23 years, knows Santa Monica well. She’s held positions in the cultural affairs department, worked her way up to the director of human resources department, served as assistant city manager and then onto City Hall’s top job — City Manager.
McCarthy has overseen more than 1,000 employees within City Hall, managed the day-to-day operations of one of the most dynamic and diverse cities in the world, and handled a roughly $350 million annual budget.
Leaving arguably one of the most demanding and powerful positions in local government hasn’t really sunk in yet — McCarthy has been too busy to think about it.
“I feel as if I haven’t had a lot of time to indulge in feelings at this point,” she said from her second floor office at City Hall on Wednesday, adding that today might be different as various employees say their good-byes. “It will take one hug or another to set something off.”
If it doesn’t happen today within the confines of City Hall, the emotions will most likely run high at a special, invitation-only farewell party planned for this evening. She’ll also get to bid farewell to staffers one last time at City Hall’s holiday party next week.
Despite that McCarthy has known for several months that she would retire today, it hasn’t kept her mind from continually focusing on city business, even during her last few days on the job.
“I was up at 4 a.m. polishing silver last night,” she said, adding she has spent a lot of time making lists. “You sometimes have to get up and do something mindless.”
And what will she do with all of her spare time? Organize, of course.
“It’s both a luxury and a hard decision of what do with your time... obviously, I have a lengthy list of tasks to do,” she said. “I have boxes of photos that need organizing, drawers to clean out, closets to sort out... a lot of home improvement projects.”
“I am going to make myself scarce, but he will know where to find me.” — she said
“I’ve tried to set aside things that will be helpful,”
She also plans to spend some quality time with her husband, Kevin, and with her aging parents, who live on the East Coast. But because she’s been so busy at City Hall, McCarthy hasn’t made plans to travel to spend the holidays with family. Instead, she and Kevin will spend a quiet Christmas in Santa Monica.
McCarthy said she’ll miss the staff at City Hall, who she described as “remarkably talented.” She also will miss the morning conversations with her employees, catching up on their lives and hearing the latest news from them.
But she won’t lose any sleep over missing the late-night City Council meetings, which can run well into the morning hours. Although she said she wouldn’t be surprised if she tuned into a meeting or two on television, but it will be at her own leisure, through the city’s archived web-casts.
To replace the mind stimulation of a daily job and brainstorming meetings with the staff, McCarthy, an avid reader, will continue to read (even the local press), as well as travel and possibly write.
It’ll take time adjusting to living in the city, knowing that there are many things beyond her control now that she’s retired. McCarthy admitted that the city’s graffiti hotline and the wastewater department number are programmed into her cell phone, so when she spots excessive water use from a sprinkler or a recent tag on a city building, she’s quickly on the horn to get the matter resolved.
McCarthy wonders if now, as an average citizen, she’ll still be on the fast track for a response.
“My phone call might not get called back right away,” she joked.
All kidding aside, McCarthy is confident that City Hall’s customer service will remain at a high level — it was one of her top priorities and one of the aspects of her job that she’s most proud of.
She’s also proud that she, the staff and the City Council were fiscally responsible when Santa Monica enjoyed a strong economy in the 1990s. That revenue was invested and channeled into large capital improvement projects like the overhauling of Virginia Avenue Park, which opened last month, and the Main Library, scheduled to open in January.
Both projects are tremendous assets to the community, she said, adding that people are going to love spending time in the new library.
McCarthy believes that strategically acquiring property, particularly contiguous parcels, is important in keeping up with community needs, like the recent purchase of the old Fisher Lumber site, directly behind Memorial Park, at the corner of Olympic Boulevard and 14th Street.
There will be no shortage of work for Ewell, who was most recently the City Manager in San Diego, which is bankrupt due to a city employee pension debacle that occurred before his tenure. But at least he’ll come into a city government that is financially well off and adequately staffed, which hasn’t always been the case in Santa Monica — especially after the terrorist attacks in 2001.
“I’m really glad the new city manager is coming in to a resource situation that is not strained,” McCarthy said. “It makes the work easier.”
How to tackle the homeless problem here, as well as addressing downtown parking and traffic throughout the city will continue to plague elected officials and staff. Not that McCarthy hasn’t been deeply rooted in many of those issues — plans to address them already are in place or are in the works, including overhauling the city’s general plan which will guide how Santa Monica is developed for the next 20 years.
“We’ve got some pretty significant challenges on residents’ minds,” McCarthy said. “I wish I could have done more... I think it’s a great time for someone new to come in and help make Santa Monica a great place.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 8, 2005. Read the original PDF.