City administrator to retire

Jenny Marder

A hush fell over the council chambers Monday night as Ray Silver

announced his plans to retire as city administrator in July.

“My plans are to take time to travel with my wife and then pursue

a number of private- and public-sector business opportunities,”

Silver said Monday.

Silver took over as city administrator in 1997 after serving for

seven years as assistant to former City Administrator Michael

Uberuaga. During his tenure as the city’s top dog, Silver developed a

reputation as an honest, open leader, with a strong allegiance to his

city and a gift for guiding groups with conflicting views.

“In this job, you do get an opportunity to meet an awful lot of

other city managers,” Councilwoman Debbie Cook said. “I’ve never met

anyone who comes close to Ray, to his ability and dedication to the

community. He’s always made himself extremely accessible to

individuals.”

Silver has had to tackle countless controversial issues in his job

-- beach closures, budget take-aways, Fourth of July rioting and

heated environmental battles.

“I think the biggest challenge has been dealing with issues not

generated by the city, that the city’s not able to control,” Silver

said.

He cited the 1999 passage of Assembly Bill 411 as an example, a

bill that required beaches to conform to the highest water-quality

standards in the world.

“Even though Huntington Beach has had less water-quality issues,

we’re so big and we’re Surf City, so we became the poster child for

the issue,” Silver said. “Because [California] had the highest

standard, we became the focal point. It was an issue that was bigger

than us, where the city took a big hit, and it was frustrating to see

the community get labeled.”

The development battle over the Bolsa Chica mesa was also a

challenge, one in which Silver was forced to respect the legal rights

of the property owners and the passion that the issue inspired.

“It was a very passionate issue,” Silver said. “People felt very

strongly about whether it should be preserved or developed. We had to

respect the politics and passion and feeling on both sides of the

issue, yet still give staff our the best professional advice.”

For Silver, the key to being an effective leader in Huntington

Beach has been to operate the city as he would a small town.

“One thing you have to do is to take complicated bureaucratic

issues and work with them the way you would work with a neighbor,”

Silver said. “People here are anxious and interested and caring and

involved. If you’re a detached bureaucrat, it’s not going to work

here.”

City Councilwoman Pam Julien Houchen said Silver has always

helped council members to work as a team despite their differences.

“I think that communication for Ray is really important,” Houchen

said. “We can be very candid and discuss the issues, and he knows how

to cut out the political jargon and get to the point.”

Before coming to Huntington, Silver served as city manager in the

cities of Coronado and Upland and as director of planning and land

use for San Diego County. Thirteen years ago, Silver moved with his

wife and two sons to Surf City, attracted to the coastal lifestyle

and a political environment that he expected would be more open and

active.

“Inland communities have other ways of doing things,” Silver said.

“They’re not as open and government oriented.”

What he found was a community bursting with pride for its city but

infused with an inherent distrust of its government.

“The political environment is very combative, very tough,” he

said. “There’s a tendency for us to attack ourselves all the time

instead of celebrating what we do here. I’ve never seen a community

as combative, and it’s unfortunate because Huntington Beach has so

much to celebrate.”

But he also sees Huntington as a city characterized by

compassionate citizens devoted to helping others.

“The level of volunteerism in this city is incredible,” Silver

said. “People don’t just give money here, they give time here,

because they love their community.”

One of Silver’s main goals during his tenure was to turn the city

into an overnight destination resort, where tourists pour money into

upscale shopping and restaurants and residents benefit from a more

sophisticated downtown area.

He started the weekly Farmer’s Market and Craft Fair Downtown and

proposed the development of the water-quality master plan and the

Huntington Harbor Water Quality Committee to address problems caused

by storm-water runoff flowing into Huntington from inland cities.

“We really jumped on water quality issues as fast as we could,”

Silver said.

Silver said he chose to announce his retirement on Monday to give

the council time to find a proper replacement.

The process to find a new city administrator could begin in

October, Mayor Connie Boardman said.

“It will be very hard finding someone with the same level of

commitment to the city that Ray has,” Boardman said.

* JENNY MARDER covers City Hall. She can be reached at (714)

965-7173 or by e-mail at [email protected].