{"id":319168,"date":"2026-05-16T19:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T19:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/319168\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T19:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T19:08:08","slug":"anaheim-begins-city-manager-search-after-previous-officials-hasty-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/319168\/","title":{"rendered":"Anaheim begins city manager search after previous official’s hasty exit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Three months after former City Manager Jim Vanderpool\u2019s sudden resignation<\/a>, Anaheim is taking steps toward hiring a permanent replacement.<\/p>\n

With a unanimous vote on Tuesday, the Anaheim City Council authorized its human resources director to contract with CPS HR Consulting for a nationwide city manager search.<\/p>\n

A review panel gave the Sacramento-based firm the highest ranking of the six bidding companies for the contract, which was capped at $75,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city manager position is unique,\u201d said Councilmember Natalie Rubalcava, who supported Vanderpool before his resignation. \u201cIt\u2019s not like recruiting a chief of police or another department head. A lot of people don\u2019t even know the city manager role exists or what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going forward, part of CPS HR Consulting\u2019s responsibilities will be doing community outreach with stakeholders about the executive search, although the number of community meetings expected has not been set.<\/p>\n

Other tasks include conducting candidate recruitments, evaluations, interviews and background checks.<\/p>\n

Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken asked H.R. Director Linda Andal about a timeline for the search.<\/p>\n

Andal said the recruitment process is expected to last over the summer, with a city manager hire coming anytime between September and October.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf during this process we have conversations where maybe we decide that we don\u2019t want to move forward with [it], are we able to do that?\u201d Councilmember Carlos Leon asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely,\u201d Andal responded. \u201cThis is your recruitment. It\u2019s at your discretion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councilmembers could open another recruitment or go with a candidate not listed at the end of the outlined process.<\/p>\n

\"Vanderpool <\/p>\n

Vanderpool remains under investigation by the FPPC for not reporting gifts during a Lake Havasu retreat in 2020.<\/p>\n

(James Carbone)<\/p>\n

The move toward selecting a new city manager in Orange County\u2019s most populous city comes at a time when Vanderpool\u2019s hasty exit remains shrouded by unanswered questions.<\/p>\n

After a TimesOC investigation revealed Vanderpool did not report a Lake Havasu retreat<\/a> he attended in 2020 despite accommodations provided by the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce, Aitken called for a closed session job review in January.<\/p>\n

The Fair Political Practices Commission also launched an investigation<\/a> into the Havasu retreat.<\/p>\n

Still, Vanderpool garnered a lot of support heading into the council meeting held Jan. 27, according to records TimesOC obtained.<\/p>\n

The Anaheim Police Assn. sent a letter to the City Council supporting his continued employment. <\/p>\n

As Vanderpool came out of closed session with his job firmly secured, he privately texted supporters. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still here,\u201d he told a city staffer. \u201cLong road ahead. It will be death by 1,000 cuts from this point on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The closed session became subject to greater controversy after the Log Cabin Republicans of Orange County, a conservative LGBT advocacy group, posted on Facebook that same night that Aitken could not get a second from any council colleague to grill Vanderpool behind closed doors. <\/p>\n

Who may have leaked a confidential vote not reported out of closed session remains unknown.<\/p>\n

But it didn\u2019t take long for word to travel out of closed session. <\/p>\n

Vanderpool received a text from \u201cChris L.\u201d roughly an hour after the council reconvened out of closed session at 5:19 p.m., well before the Facebook post.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongratulations,\u201d Chris texted on Jan. 27 at 6:13 p.m. \u201cHeard she didn\u2019t even get a second!\u201d<\/p>\n

Vanderpool did not respond. <\/p>\n

\"Text <\/p>\n

Text message sent to Jim Vanderpool by \u201cChris.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Courtesy of the city of Anaheim)<\/p>\n

Instead of \u201cdeath by 1,000 cuts,\u201d Vanderpool made an abrupt decision to clear out his office that weekend and amended an upcoming council meeting agenda to tender his resignation.<\/p>\n

Councilmembers voted on Feb. 4 to formally accept it.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Vanderpool claimed to have moved up an already planned retirement later this year.<\/p>\n

The FPPC investigation into the Lake Havasu trip remains ongoing.<\/p>\n

Aitken previously cited state and local investigative efforts in calling off internal probes into the retreat and leak.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, councilmembers elected to go with a firm on Tuesday that has worked on other city manager recruitments in the state, including Sacramento.<\/p>\n

CPS HR Consulting also helped Anaheim recruit a police chief and deputy police chief in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really want to make sure the person that we recruit in Anaheim is not necessarily from the region, but somebody who can lead our city forward,\u201d Rubalcava said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of concerns that I have in terms of making sure that we have somebody who\u2019s strong enough to push back on special interests in our city.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three months after former City Manager Jim Vanderpool\u2019s sudden resignation, Anaheim is taking steps toward hiring a permanent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[73949,163,165,164,133261,133265,133267,133260,2331,133262,133266,133263,1741,611,66902,133264,66568],"class_list":["post-319168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-aitken","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-city-manager-position","tag-city-manager-search","tag-city-staffer","tag-closed-session-job-review","tag-councilmember","tag-cps-hr-consulting","tag-executive-search","tag-hasty-exit","tag-lot","tag-orange-county","tag-recruitment-process","tag-sudden-resignation","tag-vanderpool"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}