Former PAS city manager back in the government business

Cynthia Kurtz, the former city manager of Pasadena, is slated to take over as the interim city manager of Covina. The story will be in tomorrow's paper.

Covina fired its city manager about a month ago for unspecified reasons. I used to cover the city, and there were an awful lot of people who thought the man, Paul Phillips, was abrasive and insulting. In fact, at one of the first meetings I went to, Phillips more or less directly called an audience member a liar (though it is perfectly possible that she was, or at least an exaggerator, but come on, a little subtlety goes a long way for a public servant.)

I wasn't here when Kurtz was city manager, but I've certainly heard she was very direct, in-charge, and not afraid to knock some heads together when she felt it was necessary.

Still, I am guessing the city of Covina badly wants her to stay on permanently, since they are very eager to copy the economic development and urban density model that Pasadena mastered over the last 20 years or so. They want downtown Covina to be a smaller version of Pasadena, essentially, so I can see why they wanted to get Kurtz in the job, even if it is only as interim manager.