Modesto makes city manager permanent

It’s now official: Jim Holgersson, who has served as Modesto’s interim city manager since May, has the permanent job.

The City Council voted 6-0 on Tuesday to appoint Holgersson as the city’s top administrator and approved his employment contract, which calls for him to earn $210,136 annually. Councilman Dave Cogdill Jr. was not at the meeting.

Holgersson has more than 35 years of experience running cities in several states, including stints as city manager of Arlington, Texas, for more than six years and as a deputy city manager in San Jose for five years. He has drawn praise for his work in Modesto. He came here from the San Jose office of the government consulting firm Management Partners.

The council selected him after hiring an executive search firm to conduct a city management recruitment. Holgersson was one of two finalists. The other one – Rocklin City Manager Rick Horst – dropped out.

Holgersson, 63, is replacing Greg Nyhoff, who left Modesto after nearly six years to become city manager of Oxnard in Southern California. Holgersson will earn slightly more than Nyhoff, who was paid about $200,000 in 2013.

The contract calls for Holgersson to receive a $6,000 annual car allowance, as much as $15,000 for moving expenses to Modesto (he has been staying here during the workweek and driving home to San Jose on the weekends), four weeks of vacation and two weeks of management leave per year, and severance pay if the council releases him without cause.

Holgersson will receive nine months of severance pay if he is released without cause in his first year, with the number of months of severance declining by one for each additional year of service. He is not entitled to severance pay if he is released from his job for cause, such as for insubordination or theft of city property.

The council on Tuesday also:

▪ Approved a policy for the use of interns throughout city government. The policy limits the number of interns per council member to no more than three at a time. Councilman Tony Madrigal is the only council member with interns. He has had about 20 since his election in November 2013. He asked that there be no limits on the number of interns but could not gain support for that from the other council members.

▪ Approved a $1 million agreement with Pierce Manufacturing for the purchase of two fire engines. The city will finance the purchase over three years with money it expects to receive from the recent dissolution of the Modesto Regional Fire Authority. The city should know in mid-December how much money it is getting from MRFA, which was formed by the city, Stanislaus County and the Salida Fire Protection District in 2011. The three dissolved the authority in July.

▪ Rescinded its decision to put a residential urban limit boundary on the November 2015 ballot. The city’s staff recommended this because the Stamp Out Sprawl proposal recently qualified for the November ballot. SOS was initiated by local residents and calls for an urban growth boundary around most of the city. Staff members feared voters might be confused by having two competing measures in the same election.

▪ Honored Paul Rocha for coming to the aid of a woman this month who was being menaced by two aggressive dogs in her backyard. The neighbor was trying to protect her smaller dog. Rocha protected the woman and her dog and got the other dogs out of the yard.

This story was originally published November 25, 2014 at 8:30 PM with the headline "Modesto makes city manager permanent."