After separating from its city manager, Pacific Grove City Council begins search for a new one.

Less than a week after parting ways with their last city manager, members of the Pacific Grove City Council voted on Wednesday, Aug. 2, to form a subcommittee to search for the next one. 

They voted 7-0 to appoint P.G. Finance Director and Assistant City Manager Tori Hannah as city manager pro tempore, which translates as "for the time being." Hannah will have the authority to hire and fire employees during the period the city is without an interim city manager. She will receive compensation at $103.85 per hour, retroactive to July 28.

Next the council considered approving a subcommittee made up of Mayor Bill Peake and councilmembers Nick Smith and Luke Coletti, who would be charged with searching for both an interim city manager and a permanent one.

The proposal by Smith was not without opposition from councilmembers Joe Amelio and Chaps Poduri. Amelio, saying that diversity and representation were important, wanted Poduri to be placed on the subcommittee. Poduri said he wanted the entire council to be the committee, but if that couldn't happen then he wanted to be made a member.

Amelio also expressed concerns that the subcommittee would take it upon themselves to select a permanent candidate, rather than hire a professional search firm. 

"I don't know that we have the resources to find the right city manager," he said.

Peake said he favored hiring a firm, if it was decided to go that route. In response to Amelio's fear that the councilmembers would not have access to seeing all resumes, Peake said "absolutely" they would have access.

"I'm trying to allay any fears that the cake is going to be fully baked by the time you see this again. Quite the opposite," Peake said.

A motion by Amelio to substitute Coletti with Poduri failed 2-5. The council then voted 5-2 in favor of Peake, Coletti and Smith as the subcommittee.

There's a reason Amelio and Poduri made the move to replace Coletti. Former city manager Ben Harvey filed a harassment complaint against Coletti in January 2022, after Coletti berated Harvey and other employees in meetings and via emails. 

In an email obtained by the Weekly from an anonymous source, an investigator later substantiated the claims of harassment. The council essentially let it slide, only establishing new rules of conduct. Coletti was reportedly supposed to refrain from participating in Harvey's future performance evaluations.

After a lengthy evaluation process earlier this year that would be listed on multiple closed session agendas, the council met in closed session on July 26 and voted 6-0, with Poduri absent, to pay Harvey $437,999 and six months of insurance premiums and accept his resignation.