New City Manager to be Named on Tuesday

By Jonathan Friedman
Lookout Staff

December 7, 2009 -- The most powerful position on the Santa Monica City staff will have a new face on Tuesday after the City Council appoints a new city manager at the meeting that night.

City officials have kept the choice close to the vest since tentatively selecting a replacement last month for current City Manager P. Lamont Ewell, who is retiring at the end of the year.

Ewell will serve as the interim city head until the new city manger assumes the post on January 22.

The new hire was among more than 100 applicants who vied for he job earlier in the fall. Consultant Lisa Mills reduced the number of candidates to 13. The City Council then interviewed six of the candidates before beginning contract negotiations with the finalist.

The modification would make it no longer necessary to obtain a permit for performances outside the Third Street Promenade, the pier and the transit mall.

Council members in October recommended the change in response to a June ruling by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that Seattle’s permit requirement for street performers violated the First Amendment.

City staff has also recommended that permits not be required anywhere in the city for those performing in the morning, when the competition for performance spaces is less. Council members did not discuss that option in October.

In addition, the council on Tuesday will vote on a proposal to ban the use of roll-down curtains by Ocean Avenue businesses. Two restaurants on that street use roll-down curtains to enclose their outdoor dining areas, and they are in dispute with the City regarding the practice.

Roll-down curtains already are banned on Broadway and Santa Monica Boulevard.