The City Council this week tabbed Sean Joyce to return to his once-familiar city manager post on an interim basis this week, taking the place of Stephanie DeWolfe after her abrupt departure this month.
Joyce, who is coming out of retirement to take the reins in South Pasadena, previously served as city manager here from 1996-2004. Before that, he was city manager for Sierra Madre, and after being in South Pasadena spent the remainder of his career as city manager at Irvine, retiring in 2018.
Since then, he worked as a consultant for cities, mostly conducting personnel investigations for them.
Joyce earned both his bachelor’s degree in political science and his master’s degree in public administration from Cal State Fullerton. Among a litany of awards for his public sector work, Joyce was recognized by the League of California Cities with its Advancement of Diverse Communities award in 2009.
The council approved Joyce’s hiring unanimously in a special meeting Wednesday.
The decision came 10 days after DeWolfe retired amid a blooming scandal involving the city’s finances, which continue to remain murky as a long-overdue audit of the 2018-19 fiscal years remains incomplete and Finance Director Karen Aceves has taken a leave of absence. In a report of the council’s closed-session meeting on Sunday, Sept. 13, it was revealed that the council had decided to sever from DeWolfe with a year left on her contract, effectively prompting her retirement.
Joyce will be paid $16,656 monthly and can serve a maximum of six months, per his status as a California Public Employees Retirement System member. The council also approved soliciting bids from consultant firms to conduct the recruitment for the full-time replacement city manager.
