City Manager May Depart with $50K Payout

City Manager Charles Theofan expects to collect a $50,000 compensation payout after he leaves office at year’s end. 

Theofan, who was appointed city manager when the Republican Coalition retook control of City Hall in 2007, revealed the payout figure when he was asked about it at an emergency meeting of the City Council on Wednesday.

Jay Gusler, a paid firefighter with the Long Beach Fire Department, questioned whether the outgoing city manager would receive part of a $2.5 million resolution that the council approved to cover payouts for retiring employees.

“My concern is that this blank check … is going to be used to take care of those people on the way out the door,” Gusler said to Council President Thomas Sofield Jr. “Tell me whether or not there is any plan, or any of these funds can go to Mr. Theofan in particular, or anyone else that is on this dais.”

Sofield said he didn’t know if they are intended to go to Theofan. “But Mr. Theofan has earned money for his payout for his four years, and he’s entitled to be compensated for the time that he’s earned,” he added.

On what basis is Theofan entitled a payout, Gusler asked.

Said Theofan: “Accrued vacation time, and the [city] code provides that exempt employees for those calculations are treated in the same manner as CSEA employees. So I would be entitled to accrued vacation days and one-third of my sick days. That’s all. Not any more.”  

Asked to provide the dollar amount of his payout, Theofan said “in the area of $50,000.”

The City Council on Wednesday approved two resolutions to borrow a collective $4.5 million: a tax anticipation note at $1.7 million to cover a shortfall in the payroll for December, and budget notes at $2.5 million for anticipated retirees.

The $2.5 million is to cover the cost of possibly four members of the police department, Theofan said. Only Commissioner Thomas Sofield Sr. has formerly retired and is contracted to receive a $500,000 lump sum payout, based on accrued vacation and sick days over his more than 30 years with the department. 

The names of the other potentially retiring police personnel were not revealed since, as of Wednesday, they had not filed their retirement papers.

“The other two of which have indicated to me that they will be filing their papers in the next week or two,” Theofan said. “One more told me of possibly filing certainly by the middle of December.”

Theofan said that the city may only need to borrow about $2.1 to $2.2 million, but requested $2.5 million as “the worse case scenario.”

“We have to see what’s going to happen over the next couple of weeks, whether they will or will not [retire],” he said.

The $2.5 million will also cover a $267,000 death benefit for the family of a deceased police detective, Theofan said, and may also include “a number of requests” of CSEA employees and employees in the uniformed services who are entitled to vacation pay.