San Bernardino announces it has a new city manager for second time in a month – Press Enterprise

San Bernardino may have a new city manager, just two weeks after the original candidate for the job backed out.

In a news release late Friday, Oct. 13, officials announced the City Council is expected to vote on a contract Wednesday appointing Charles A. Montoya to the city’s highest administrative post. If the council approves the employment agreement, Montoya would begin his duties as city manager on Oct. 30.

The announcement comes two weeks after San Bernardino officials announced their first candidate for the job took himself out of the running just days before the council was to vote on a contract.

In the news release Friday, Mayor Helen Tran said she is “confident” the council will approve Montoya’s contract Wednesday.

“Charles Montoya will be joining the council and me to accomplish the strategic goals and revitalization of San Bernardino that we are currently embarking on,” Tran said. “He shares our vision, shares our commitment, and has the skills to help us get there.”

Montoya sounded an equally upbeat note.

“After 30 years of working with elected officials at all levels of government, I have found a final home in the City of San Bernardino,” he’s quoted as saying in the news release. “I truly look forward to working with the mayor and city council, and along-side the community, in continuing to make this city a place where people seek to live, work, and call home.”

But just like San Bernardino’s previous top pick for city manager, the new candidate comes with baggage attached.

Montoya most recently served as the city manager for Avondale in Maricopa County, Arizona, but was fired from the position in 2021, as reported by the Arizona Republic. In January, Montoya sued the city of Avalon, its mayor and vice mayor for breaching his employment contract and defaming his character. The lawsuit was ongoing as of Friday, with the most recent action in the case — a notice of discovery filed by attorneys representing the city of Avondale — taking place on Sept. 19.

Before working in Avondale, Montoya served as the city manager of Watsonville, outside Santa Cruz. He came to that city under a cloud, as he was still a defendant in a lawsuit filed on behalf of two former police detectives in Florence, Arizona, where Montoya had worked for two and a half years as town manager.

According to the Santa Cruz Sentinel, the detectives accused Montoya of covering up corruption in Florence. He denied the allegations in 2015.

Montoya’s decision to leave Watsonville for Avondale with years still remaining on his contract also raised eyebrows in 2018, according to the Sentinel.

In the San Bernardino news release Friday, Tran said the city fully vetted Montoya.

“He has demonstrated in the past that he will stand up and do the right thing for himself and his community,” Tran said. “Charles Montoya is exactly the type of leader we need.”

Tran could not immediately be reached for additional comment Friday evening.

Montoya is not the only city manager candidate with a history, however.

According to media reports, the previous candidate for the job was Steve Carrigan, then the city manager of Salinas.

Although the city of San Bernardino had not publicly named Carrigan when it announced in early September that it had identified a candidate for city manager, the Monterey County Weekly reported Carrigan emailed Salinas city staff on Sept. 28 to say he had withdrawn his name for consideration for the San Bernardino job.

On Oct. 3, the day before San Bernardino was to have extended Salinas a job offer, the Salinas City Council fired him. It was the second time that had happened to Carrigan — the Merced City Council fired him in 2020.

If the San Bernardino council approves Montoya’s contract Wednesday, he would be the city’s first permanent city manager since Rob Field stepped down in January.

Former city manager Charles McNeely has served as interim city manager as San Bernardino searched for its next top administrator. But McNeely is collecting a CalPERS pension, which means he may work no more than 960 hours each fiscal year (or about six months of eight-hour workdays).

The San Bernardino City Council is scheduled to meet Wednesday in closed session at 5:30 p.m., followed by open session at 7 p.m. The meeting will be held at the Feldheym Central Library, 555 W. Sixth St. in San Bernardino.