Pasadena is about to choose its next city manager almost entirely out of public view.
Starting tomorrow morning, the Mayor and City Council will hold three consecutive days of special closed session meetings — Saturday, Sunday, and Monday — each with a single item on the agenda: the City Manager position. And the regular City Council meeting that would normally follow, on Tuesday, November 3, has been cancelled.
Here is the schedule, straight from the City Clerk’s official notices:
- Saturday, October 31, 2026 — 7:30 a.m. Special Closed Session, Council Chamber, City Hall
- Sunday, November 1, 2026 — 9:00 a.m. Special Closed Session, Council Chamber, City Hall
- Monday, November 2, 2026 — 3:00 p.m. Special Closed Session, Council Chamber, City Hall
- Tuesday, November 3, 2026 — regular City Council meeting: CANCELLED
Each of the three notices lists exactly one item:
“CITY COUNCIL CONFERENCE regarding public employee employment pursuant to Government Code Section 54957(b)(1). Position: City Manager. Agency Designated Representative: Victor M. Gordo.”
That follows a fourth session with the identical single item held this past Monday, October 26, at 3:00 p.m. — four closed sessions in eight days, all on one subject: who runs this city.
How we got here
City Manager Miguel Márquez announced his retirement in November 2025 and left the city in April 2026. Assistant City Manager Matthew Hawkesworth has served as Interim City Manager since April 17.
The Council’s first attempt to fill the job ended embarrassingly. The Council selected Riverside City Manager Mike Futrell — then Futrell withdrew in April, days before he was scheduled to start on May 13, and stayed in Riverside. The Council relaunched a nationwide search on September 11, hiring The Byers Group to run the recruitment. Applications closed October 16, and the city said the most qualified candidates would be interviewed in late October and early November.
That is exactly where we are. This weekend’s marathon — a 7:30 a.m. Saturday start, a Sunday morning session, and a Monday afternoon session — lines up precisely with the interview window the city described.
The detail worth noticing
Each notice names Mayor Victor M. Gordo as the Council’s “Agency Designated Representative.” That language matters. When a council is simply interviewing candidates, there is usually no single designated representative. A designated representative is the person authorized to negotiate on the agency’s behalf — which suggests this process may already be further along than “interviews,” possibly into selection and terms with a preferred candidate.
To be clear about what is legal here: the Brown Act expressly allows closed sessions for public employee employment matters under Government Code Section 54957, and candidate privacy is a legitimate concern in executive searches. The Council is not breaking the law by meeting this way. But the final steps cannot stay hidden — any appointment and any employment contract must be approved and reported out in open session, in public, where residents can see the terms of the deal: salary, benefits, severance, and length of contract for the person who will oversee a roughly $1.5 billion budget and some 2,200 city employees.
Questions the public deserves answers to
- How many finalists are being interviewed this weekend, and from where?
- Why did this require a Saturday 7:30 a.m. and Sunday 9:00 a.m. session — and the cancellation of the November 3 regular meeting on top of it?
- Is the Mayor negotiating terms with a chosen candidate already, as the “Agency Designated Representative” wording implies?
- When will residents learn the name of the next City Manager — and will there be any public introduction or community input before the contract is signed, after the Futrell selection collapsed last spring?
- What is the total compensation package being discussed, and how does it compare to what the city paid Miguel Márquez?
Pasadena has been without a permanent city manager for more than six months, through the Eaton Fire recovery and a budget cycle. Getting this hire right matters more than getting it done quietly. The Council should report out promptly — who was chosen, on what terms, and by what vote — the moment a decision is made.
Sources: Official Notices of Closed Session Special Meeting, City of Pasadena (October 26, October 31, November 1, and November 2, 2026), City Clerk’s Office, posted at ww2.cityofpasadena.net council agendas.
An open letter to the Mayor and City Council
The following letter is addressed to Mayor Victor M. Gordo and the members of the Pasadena City Council.
October 30, 2026
Mayor Victor M. Gordo and Members of the Pasadena City Council
City of Pasadena
100 N. Garfield Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91101
Dear Mayor Gordo and Members of the Council:
Re: The City Manager search — a process that failed in public and is now finishing in secret
I am writing as a Pasadena resident about the search for our next City Manager — the most important hiring decision this Council will make — and about a process that has become a fiasco from beginning to end.
Consider the record. Miguel Márquez announced his retirement in November 2025 and left the city in April 2026. Pasadena has been run by an interim city manager ever since — through the Eaton Fire recovery, through an adopted budget, through decisions that will shape this city for a generation. The Council’s first chosen successor, Riverside City Manager Mike Futrell, withdrew in April, days before he was scheduled to start, leaving Pasadena embarrassed and back at square one. Residents never received a real explanation for how that selection unraveled.
The search was relaunched on September 11, and applications closed on October 16. The public was promised input into the recruitment. What the public actually got was a brochure and, since then, silence.
Now the finish: three consecutive days of closed session meetings — Saturday, October 31 at 7:30 a.m., Sunday, November 1 at 9:00 a.m., and Monday, November 2 — on top of the same session held October 26. And the regular Council meeting of November 3 has been cancelled. Four closed sessions in eight days, each listing a single item — “public employee employment, Position: City Manager” — and each naming the Mayor as the Council’s designated representative, language ordinarily used when a representative is authorized to negotiate terms. No finalist names. No public forum. No community introduction. Nothing.
Let me be clear: the Brown Act permits closed sessions on personnel matters, and no resident expects to sit in the interview room. But the law permitting closed deliberations does not require a closed process. Cities across California introduce their finalists to the public, hold community receptions, and take questions before a contract is signed. At every step where Pasadena could have chosen openness, this Council chose secrecy instead.
I therefore ask the Council to do the following:
- Report out promptly. As soon as a selection is made, announce who was chosen and the vote — and publish the full proposed employment contract, including salary, benefits, severance provisions, and term, before final approval, not after the ink is dry.
- Introduce the candidate publicly. Hold a public introduction of the selected candidate, with an opportunity for residents to hear from them and ask questions, before the contract is finalized.
- Explain the Futrell failure. Put on the public record what went wrong with the first selection, and what was done differently this time to make sure it does not happen again.
- Vote in the open, at a regular meeting. Commit that the final vote on the City Manager’s contract will take place at a regular, properly noticed open meeting — not a special meeting called on short notice.
The next City Manager will oversee a budget of roughly $1.5 billion and some 2,200 employees, will lead the ongoing Eaton Fire recovery, and will set the tone of this city’s government for years. A hire of that weight, made entirely behind closed doors after a failed first attempt, asks residents to trust a process that has not earned it.
Pasadena deserves better than a done deal. Announce the choice, publish the terms, and let the public be heard before — not after — the decision is final.
Respectfully,
Victor Caballero
Pasadena resident
