Costa Mesa official slated for new city manager job

COSTA MESA — A Costa Mesa department head who recently received a layoff notice from the city is leaving the job to become city manager for Lawndale in Los Angeles County.

Steve Mandoki, Costa Mesa’s administrative services director, handed Chief Executive Tom Hatch his resignation Tuesday after six years with the city. On Monday, Mandoki and Lawndale’s City Council came to an agreement over his contract during a closed session, said Dan Bartelson, assistant to Lawndale’s city manager.

Mandoki is out this week and will return Monday for his final week in the Costa Mesa job. He was one of more than 200 city employees who received layoff notices last month, as part of Costa Mesa’s broad restructuring plan to avoid pension costs projected to climb over the next five years.

Because an overwhelming majority of Mandoki’s department is slated for outsourcing in September, his job future was also on the chopping block, city officials said.

Lawndale’s City Council is expected to approve Mandoki’s contract April 18. He would take over as its city manager April 25, Bartelson said.

Mandoki is the highest-ranking employee to leave since layoff notices were issued in March, but many other city employees, from police dispatchers to maintenance workers and police officers, have said privately they have started looking for jobs elsewhere.

Mandoki did not return calls to comment.