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Ousted finance director seals secret deal with RB

by Jason Dietrich

Redondo Beach City Finance Director Agnes Walker has resigned in the wake of power struggle between Redondo Beach’s city clerk and city manager.

Walker had been on administrative leave since late October. Her last day with the city was November 30. In an interview Tuesday, she said she had signed an agreement that prohibits her from disclosing the terms of her resignation.

Councilman Kevin Sullivan said the terms of the agreement hadn’t been revealed to the council, and that the terms would likely remain confidential.

Walker was in charge of keeping track of the city’s expenditures and other accounting duties. Formerly, she had helped draw up the numbers for both the revenue and expenditure sides of the city’s annual budget, under the direction of the former city manger. Under new city manager Lou Garcia, Walker said her role in the process had been reduced and she was kept out of budget meetings.

“I was excluded from the very beginning [of Garcia’s administration],” Walker said, adding that she was asked to review the revenue side of the proposed budget.

“It’s almost unheard of for a finance director to be excluded from the budget process,” Walker said.

In recent months Walker said her relationship with city manager had warmed and they had started working more closely.

On Tuesday, October 24, Garcia gave her directions on how to set aside money for capital improvements, Walker said. About 20 minutes later he called her into his office and placed her on administrative leave. Walker, who had been with the city for six year and had received excellent performance evaluations, said there hadn’t been any friction at the meeting.

“It came out of the blue. I was just shocked,” she said.

At last week’s city council meeting, Garcia said he regretted that the issue had become personal and that changing the structure of the finance department was necessary.

“If you have an executive, that executive must be responsible for the city’s finances,” he said. Garcia was unavailable for subsequent comment.

The dismissal resulted in a tug of war between Garcia, who was appointed by the city council, and City Clerk Sandy Forrest, an elected official. Forrest was Walker’s supervisor and said that Garcia could not fire her deputies.

“It results in a situation where you have an elected official answering to one appointed by the city council. We’re supposed to be answerable to the voters,” Forrest said.

Council members voted 3-2 last week to place a set of measures on the March 2001 ballot that would clarify the city manager’s oversight of the finance department. The council shot down complementary ballot initiatives by Forrest that would have asked voters to reaffirm the city clerk’s oversight of the finance department.

At least seven Redondo Beach city employee have received cash settlements upon termination or being put on leave in the past several years. Other employees to receive cash settlements at the end of the city employment include former city manager Bill Kirchoff, who received $1.7 million; former assistant city manager Ken Simmons, who received an estimated $100,000; former city manager Paul Connolly; former police chief Roger Moulton; former maintenance department head Bill Bollinger; former Harbor Director Ray Koke; and former city auditor Crystal Alexander. ER