Huntington Beach poised to hire Riverside city manager for its top City Hall job

Huntington Beach has selected the city manager of an even larger city to move closer to the coast.

Al Zelinka, currently the city manager of Riverside, is expected to be appointed as Huntington Beach’s new city manager at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting.

Zelinka has served as Riverside’s city manager since May 2018, after that city’s previous city manager, John Russo, was fired. Before that, he served as Riverside’s community and economic development director, before taking on an assistant city manager role.

The City Council held two special closed meetings, on April 6 and 8, for city manager interviews. Zelinka would replace interim city manager Sean Joyce in the role.

Joyce stepped in last December, when city manager Oliver Chi left Surf City after two years to take the same position in Irvine — again following the departure of Russo in 2020.

Before coming to Riverside, Zelinka was a community development director and planning manager in Fullerton from 2008 to 2012.

“Al Zelinka has a proven track record as a results-oriented, collaborative leader,” Huntington Beach Mayor Barbara Delgleize said in a statement. “His extensive background in city planning and economic development, as well as his noteworthy downtown improvements, make him a tremendous asset and obvious choice for Huntington Beach.”

As Riverside city manager, Zelinka oversees a budget of $1.2 billion and a staff of about 2,500. He has been credited for public safety partnership programs that targeted homeless outreach and park safety, as well as bringing significant new investment to downtown Riverside.

His starting salary in Huntington Beach would be $320,000 a year.

According to a news release from the city of Riverside, his last day working there will be June 3. He would be hired in Huntington Beach effective June 27.

In that release, Riverside Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson said that Zelinka had been “been a steady hand during the past four years, including two years working with our elected officials to get our city and our workforce through the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Zelinka holds a bachelor’s degree in public planning from Northern Arizona University and a master’s degree in regional planning from Cornell University.

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