WESTMINSTER : City Officials Honor Departing Executive

Acting City Manager Robert J. Huntley was toasted last week as the man who kept the city going during difficult times this year, including a divisive recall election in June.

“He said, ‘You worry about the recall, I’ll worry about the city,’ ” said Mayor Charles V. Smith at a reception honoring Huntley. “He has done that very effectively.”

Huntley, 70, is leaving the city next month after serving as acting manager since March.

He took the post following the retirement of former city manager Jerry Kenny.

A new city manager, Bill Smith, has been hired and will begin work today.

A Westminster resident for the past 27 years, Huntley was also city manager from 1967 to 1977. He was acting city manager from 1987 to 1988.

“I love this city, and I’m concerned about what happens to this community,” said Huntley, who also is a director of the Municipal Water District of Orange County.

Remaining neutral during the failed recall drive against Smith and three other members of the City Council was difficult, he said.

The recall effort, led by the Westminster Firefighters Assn., stemmed from the council’s decision last year to lay off five firefighters and put a firetruck out of service as part of a reorganization of the Fire Department.

Firefighters contended the cuts jeopardized public safety, but city officials insisted that the reorganization was intended to control the department’s increasing overtime expenses.

A review of payroll practices at the Fire Department resulted in allegations of widespread abuses, and more than 20 employees were either fired, suspended or reprimanded.

This month, Huntley upheld the firing of two battalion chiefs and a captain but reinstated another captain and a paramedic.

The cases of the former employees are going to an arbitrator.

In addition to handling the controversial firefighters issue, Huntley was credited with forging contracts with the police officers union and the municipal employees union, adopting the city’s 1994-95 budget, reorganizing city departments and hiring a new city manager.

“It was difficult and interesting,” said Huntley of the past six months that he was acting city manager. “Hopefully, I was effective. Otherwise, it was just business as usual.”

Huntley said that he plans to vacation in Australia with his wife, Pat, sometime this month.

He expects to remain with the county water district board and as a consultant with a special district in San Bernardino County.