Council pauses plan to re‑title department heads as assistant city managers

The Grand Terrace City Council on Nov. 9 considered a staff proposal to retitle certain department directors to "assistant city manager" as part of a long‑term retention and succession plan, but the council pulled the consent item and asked staff to return with additional detail.

City Manager Conrad said the retitling is intended to build institutional continuity and create a pool of internal candidates who could step into senior roles when needed. "A title is a title," Conrad said, and argued that assistant city manager status improves access to counterpart agencies and better positions staff in interagency negotiations.

Council Member Brown and others raised personnel and human‑resources concerns, saying that while the change might be cost‑neutral at present it could complicate future salary benchmarking and classification studies. Brown noted that few comparable cities of Grand Terrace's size have multiple assistant city managers and warned the titles could lead to head‑hunting or expectations of higher pay.

The city attorney advised the council the change does not require council approval under current municipal code and said the item was being presented as a courtesy; Conrad said he brought it forward for transparency. Council members asked for written clarification on how the retitling would affect job descriptions, compensation benchmarking and promotion pathways.

The council voted to pull the item from the consent calendar and directed staff to return with the requested clarifications and any proposed guardrails to reduce pay‑benchmarking or classification risk.