OPINION
The “Innovation Summit” for city managers in Pasadena (Photo – City of Pasadena)
Pasadena recently welcomed city managers and executive leaders from across the country to an Innovation Summit focused on modernization, technology, and delivering better public services. The gathering’s message was clear: cities must become more responsive, efficient, and creative in the face of rising expectations and limited resources.
By John Boucher
A week before the gathering, the City Council announced that it was launching a nationwide search for a City Manager, for the third time in five years.
The irony is difficult to miss.
Nothing is inherently wrong with searching for new leadership. Circumstances change, executives retire, and cities occasionally need to reassess their direction. But repeated searches in a relatively short period raise a reasonable question: What can Pasadena do differently to attract and retain a City manager prepared to lead the City over the long term?
After Steve Mermell retired as City Manager in 2021, Pasadena selected Miguel Márquez, who began serving as City Manager in 2022. Márquez announced his retirement in 2025, prompting another recruitment effort. That search resulted in the selection of Riverside City Manager Mike Futrell, who withdrew before taking the position. Now, in September 2026, the process has begun again.
Meanwhile, the City is promoting itself as a place where public leaders can collaborate on innovation, technology, and the future of municipal government. Pasadena is certainly an appropriate setting for that discussion. It is a nationally recognized city with substantial resources, a talented workforce, major institutions, and complex responsibilities. The next City Manager will oversee a large municipal organization, significant public assets, and a budget that demands both imagination and discipline. The position is not merely administrative; it is central to the City’s ability to turn policy into results.
Stability Is Part of Innovation
But innovation is not just about artificial intelligence, digital platforms, or modern infrastructure. It also involves organizational learning. A truly innovative government must be willing to examine what it can learn from an interrupted leadership process, and how it can create the conditions for a successful, lasting appointment.
A city cannot credibly claim to be building a smarter future while treating executive leadership as an unresolved experiment. Stability does not mean resisting change. It means creating the conditions in which change can actually be implemented.
What Pasadena Should Learn From Its Last Search
The City Council’s latest recruitment should be judged by more than the quality of the eventual candidate pool. Residents also should expect transparency about the lessons learned from previous searches. What changed after Márquez’s departure? What led to the previous selection’s withdrawal? What qualities does the City Council now consider essential? And how will the City evaluate whether a candidate is prepared to make a long-term commitment to Pasadena?
The search firm can identify candidates, but it cannot guarantee a successful appointment or long-term tenure. That responsibility belongs to the City and its leadership.
Pasadena Needs a Long-Term Commitment
Pasadena needs a qualified leader committed to stability and a long-term vision, not an executive who treats the position as a short-term career stop before retirement.
The City does not need another impressive résumé followed by another round of uncertainty. It needs a durable partnership between the City Council and a City Manager who can lead through difficult decisions, modernize City operations, manage public expectations, and build trust inside and outside City Hall.
The Innovation Summit offered a vision of local government that is collaborative, forward-looking, and capable of adapting to change. The City Manager search is Pasadena’s opportunity to demonstrate that those ideals apply not only to conference discussions but also to the City’s own governance.
The real test of innovation may not be whether Pasadena can host a summit about the future of cities. It may be whether Pasadena can choose and retain the leader who will help build that future.
A sign welcoming city managers to the “Innovation Summit (Photo – City of Pasadena)
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