Will Pasadena announce a new city manager at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting? Nothing in the published agenda points to that happening.
The November 10 agenda contains no closed-session item for the City Manager position under Government Code Section 54957, no appointment item, and no employment contract for public consideration. Its 5:00 p.m. closed session is limited to the city’s Eaton Fire litigation against Southern California Edison and two other litigation matters described only in general terms. A separate announcement could always be issued outside the meeting, but as of Saturday morning there is no public indication that one is coming Tuesday.
That silence has become the story. More than a year after Miguel Márquez announced his retirement, Pasadena still does not have a permanent chief executive — and residents have received no citywide status report since the renewed search began in September.
A search that has already failed once
Márquez announced in November 2025 that he would retire to focus on family during a time of personal need. He left in April 2026. Assistant City Manager Matthew Hawkesworth became Interim City Manager effective April 17 and remains in that role.
The first search appeared to end on April 15, when the city announced that Riverside City Manager Mike Futrell would become Pasadena’s next city manager on May 13. Ten days later, Futrell withdrew and remained in Riverside.
Nearly five months passed before the Council tried again. On September 11, the city announced a relaunched nationwide recruitment led by The Byers Group. Applications were accepted through October 16, with interviews promised in late October and early November.
The job is not a ceremonial post. The recruitment profile says the next manager will lead 15 departments and about 2,200 employees, oversee a total budget of roughly $1.5 billion, and earn between $380,000 and $425,000, depending on experience and qualifications.
The meetings tell us a process is moving — not where it stands
The public record shows repeated closed-door work:
- October 13: The Council discussed the City Manager position in closed session. The agenda recap records, “Discussed; no reportable action at this time.”
- October 27: The Council discussed both the Interim City Manager’s performance and employment of a permanent City Manager. The recap again records no reportable action on either item.
- October 31 and November 1: The Council held back-to-back special closed sessions devoted solely to the City Manager position. Councilmember Rick Cole said beforehand that six finalists would be interviewed on October 31 and that more interviews would follow. Councilmember Jason Lyon later told District 7 residents that the Council interviewed “more than a half dozen” finalists over that weekend.
- November 2: A third consecutive special closed session was scheduled, then cancelled. The cancellation notice gave no reason.
- November 3: The regular Council meeting was also cancelled.
- November 10: The City Manager does not appear on the published agenda at all.
Closed-session interviews themselves are not the problem. California law permits a public agency to discuss personnel appointments privately, and candidates for a job of this level reasonably expect confidentiality. Pasadena does not have to publish applicants’ names or turn finalist interviews into a public spectacle.
But confidentiality about candidates is not the same as silence about the process. The city can say how many applications it received, whether interviews are finished, whether the field has been narrowed, whether negotiations have begun, and when the Council expects to consider a contract — all without identifying anyone.
Communication stopped after the relaunch
The city began the first search by asking residents what they wanted. In January, it invited public input through surveys in English, Spanish, Armenian, and Chinese and said the responses would be used to develop interview questions and guide the selection.
The September relaunch did not explain what the city learned from that input, whether the same priorities carried into the second search, why the process changed recruiters from WBCP Inc. to The Byers Group, or what the Council would do differently after the Futrell appointment collapsed. Its only direction for questions was to contact the recruiter confidentially.
Since the October 16 application deadline, the most useful information has come in fragments from individual councilmembers: Cole’s preview of the October 31 interviews and Lyon’s statement that residents should expect news “later this month or early next.” Those updates are welcome, but they are not a substitute for one clear statement from the city as a whole.
Residents still do not know:
- How many people applied in the relaunched search;
- Whether the weekend interviews completed the finalist round;
- Whether a preferred candidate has been selected;
- Whether contract negotiations are underway; or
- When the Council expects to make the appointment public.
What to watch next
The next formal clues will come in the agendas for the November 17 and November 24 Council meetings. The November 10 agenda also lists December 1 as a “Closed Session Meeting Only” date, although no agenda or subject has been published for it yet. Lyon’s “later this month or early next” timeline makes those three dates the ones to watch.
Before then, the Council could answer most of the public’s questions with a five-sentence update: where the search stands, whether a selection has been made, when a contract will be publicly considered, and whether residents will have an opportunity to meet the appointee before the final vote. After a failed appointment, a cancelled meeting, and two days of finalist interviews, that is not too much to ask.
Related coverage: Three Days of Closed Sessions on the City Manager — and the November 3 Council Meeting Is Cancelled.
Sources: City of Pasadena City Manager recruitment announcements (January and September 2026); City of Pasadena recruitment profile prepared by The Byers Group; City Council agendas and agenda recaps for October 13, October 27, October 31, November 1, November 2, and November 10, 2026; District 7 newsletter, November 2, 2026; The Riverside Record, April 27, 2026.
