New Interim City Manager is On-Board | Top Flight Expert Sean Joyce Tapped for The Job

Highly experienced expert is anticipated to be hired Wednesday this week.

During an open special at noon Wednesday, Sept. 23, the South Pasadena City Council will consider appointing Sean Joyce to serve as Interim City Manager. Mr. Joyce would serve pending recruitment of new permanent city manager to replace Stephanie DeWolfe, from whom the City Council voted unanimously Sept. 11 to separate.

Joyce, 57, served as South Pasadena City Manager from November 1994 through July 2004. He also served six years as the city manager of Sierra Madre. He also served nearly 14 years as city manager for the City of Irvine, from which he retired in 2017, the same year Irvine was ranked No. 1 in a Fiscal Health index by the Fiscal Times. He then worked two years for his own consulting firm before becoming the West Coast Regional Director at Alliance Resource Consulting, a public sector executive recruiting firm.

Joyce holds a BA in political science and a Master of Public Administration, both from California State University, Fullerton.

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During his tenure in South Pasadena, Joyce hired Josh Betta to be the city’s Finance Director at that time. An unsolicited May 2020 report by the now retired Betta critiquing the city’s finance practices opened a chain of events that help lead to the Sept. 12 departure of DeWolfe.

The city said the monthly cost to employ Joyce will be $16,656.25.

Also Wednesday, the City Council is set to authorize interim City Manager and Fire Chief Paul Riddle to seek proposals from executive management firms to coordinate the recruitment and selection of a new permanent city manager. The city did not address whether Alliance Resource Consulting would be eligible to respond to the solicitation.

 

 


Ben Tansey
Ben Tansey is a journalist and author. He grew up in the South Bay and is a graduate of Evergreen State College. He worked in Washington State as a reporter in a rural timber community and for many years as an editor for a Western electric energy policy publication based in Seattle.