Strong Ties to Beverly Hills Pull Official Back : Government: Mark Scott is leaving Santa Clarita job after two months to become city manager of Beverly Hills.

Faced with the imminent departure of their veteran city manager, members of the Beverly Hills City Council called on one of his former top aides to take over at a time when the city faces the pressure of increased costs for completion of its monumental Civic Center.

Mark Scott, who left Beverly Hills for the city of Santa Clarita two months ago, said he mulled over the invitation while he was snowed in at Lake Arrowhead during a weekend ski trip last month.

“I had just hit 40, and when people hit 40, they do things,” Scott said of his recent departure from Beverly Hills, where he was in charge of planning, transportation, and building and safety before he became director of community development in Santa Clarita in December.

Although the moving boxes were hardly unpacked at his new office, the siren song of his old employers proved impossible to resist, he said.

“It’s just that this is my home away from home,” Scott said of Beverly Hills. “Hopefully, my mid-life crisis will be over real quickly.”

Scott will make about $115,000 a year in his new job. He is scheduled to succeed City Manager Edward S. Kreins on April 2.

Kreins, who ran city government for 10 years, announced his retirement shortly after a payment dispute stalled construction of the Civic Center project in January. He will stay on through June as a consultant to his successor.

Although budget officials say Beverly Hills will not have to raise taxes in the foreseeable future, Scott will be required to make higher interest payments to finance construction of the Civic Center and renovation of the 58-year-old City Hall while maintaining the city’s high level of police, fire and other services.

The annual interest payment, now about $6 million, is scheduled to go up to $8.5 million in July as part of a 30-year refinancing that raised $115 million last November.

Although the refinancing was intended to pay for construction costs and provide several million dollars extra to finance other programs, a $14.5-million dispute with the city’s general contractor may eat up much of the money.

The city already has paid about $52.5 million for its new police headquarters and a renovated and expanded library, which were 90% completed before contractor J.A. Jones Inc. walked off the job in mid-January.

A new fire headquarters and parking structure already have been completed, and work continues on the City Hall renovation.

“The budget is going to be tough,” Scott said. If he had it to do over, “there’d be things we’d do differently. Anybody here would tell you that.”

In choosing Scott, the council decided to go with a known quantity rather than stage a nationwide search for a new city manager.

“Everyone who has worked with you agrees that, more than being efficient, you are caring and have sympathy for people, which is important,” Mayor Max Salter said when Scott’s appointment was announced at a recent special meeting of the City Council.

“We’ve worked with you day in and out. You’ve been on the firing line, and you’ve shown the ability to meet that high standard,” said Vice Mayor Allan L. Alexander. He also praised Scott as an effective communicator.

Scott is replacing a strong-willed executive who prided himself on hiring all but one of the city’s top 20 executives during his 10 years on the job.

But Scott said he has no problem with a suggestion by Councilman Robert K. Tanenbaum that hiring of key staffers be done in the future with the advice and consent of elected officials. Tanenbaum raised the idea at a cocktail party held last week to launch his reelection campaign.

“When smart city managers hire people, they confer with their city councils in any event,” Scott said.

Scott, who came to Beverly Hills as executive assistant to Kreins in 1983, had been director of environmental services for three years in Beverly Hills when he left for Santa Clarita, whose population of about 150,000 compares to 30,000 for his once and future employer.

“We’re very surprised and saddened to see him go, because Mark is a very excellent worker and person,” said Gail Foy, spokeswoman for the 2-year-old city, which covers 40 square miles and includes the communities of Saugus, Newhall, Valencia and parts of Canyon Country.