
PALMDALE – The Palmdale City Council has selected David Childs as the new City Manager for the City of Palmdale.
Childs, who has served as an Assistant County Manager for Washoe County, Nevada since October of 2006, was selected through a nationwide recruiting process with the firm Peckham & McKenney that began in August 2011 when Palmdale City Manager Steve Williams announced his retirement. Williams has been serving as a temporary part-time city manager during the recruitment process.
There were 38 candidates who submitted resumes. Peckham & McKenney presented the City Council with a list of the top 18. The Council then selected five very good and highly qualified candidates for interviews on Jan. 25.
Childs is scheduled to begin his service on April 2, 2012.
The term of his initial employment agreement will be for three years with an annual compensation of $225,000.
In his role as Assistant County Manager for Washoe County, Childs has had responsibility for the operations of public works, regional parks and open space, the department of water resources, building and safety and the department of community development.
Due to the retirement of the community development director at the end of 2010, Childs had also been assigned to serve as acting community development director.
Childs has been in service to local government since 1972. Early in his career he held several local and regional planning positions, including serving as the director of planning for the City of Casa Grande, Arizona and as the director of physical and natural resources for the Central Arizona Association of Governments.
He also served as city manager in four cities in Minnesota and one city in California between 1978 and 2000.
Childs is currently serving as the President of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) which is the professional association of City and County Managers and local government professionals with over 9,000 members in the U.S. and in over 20 countries around the world.
He is also an ICMA-Credentialed Manager.
(Information via press release from the City of Palmdale.)
JENNIFER says
nobody cares whoever runs for office it’s all a big crock of [removed]! nobody cares about palmdale nor lancaster’s innocent hard, working people!! that deserve a peaceful, decent! life!! if you’re not a policeman, nor work for the police, nor high in office! you’re [removed]!! to them all!! all theese!!BIGGETS!!! they don’t give a [removed]!! about the cities, they let ALL THE DRUGGIES, AND DRUG DEALERS, AND GANGS!! RUN THE CITIES!!! BUT THEY LIVE FINE AND HIGH ON THW HOG!! WHILE THEY ARE PROTECTED BY CORRUP! POLICE!! AND CORRUPT!! OFFICIALS!! THEY ALL PROTECT EACHOTHER!! THEY DO NOT! GIVE A [removed]! ABOUT ANYONE ELSE IN THESE TWO CITIES! THEY JUST PRETEND!! THEY DO, AND THEY KILL YOU AT THE HOSPITALS, THEY KNOW HOW TO GET RID OF YOU TOO!! THAT’S WHY I’M GETTING THE HELL OUT OF HERE WHILE I CAN!!!! SO SHOULD YOU ALL THAT WANT SOME KIND OF A DECENT PEACEFUL LIFE……………
Janet McDougall says
Palmdale is very fortunate to have Dave Childs as your new City Manager. I had the pleasure of working under him. His dedication, ability and integrity have earned him the respect of his colleagues and those he serves. Congratulations on selecting a fantastic professional!
Tanger's says
A big welcome to Mr. Childs, it’s no concern if others have left, he left someplace else too. It’s the nature of the job market these days. Nevada and California have always enjoyed a shifting of populations and a free exchange of the job market. It’s a bit unfair to attack Las Vegas, if you don’t like it don’t go, I vacation there and have found it to be friendly offering a bright change of pace.
John Mlynar says
A lot of people retire to other areas, not just city managers. I love the AV but where I retire will depend on many things, such as where my children settle, my health, finances, etc.
AV Town Crier says
There’s a lot of political BS involved in being a City Manager. You serve at the pleasure of the City Council and Mayor. if there’s a change in the political landscape–they buy out your contract and you’re gone. Remember Bob LaSala?
in fact i think it was the late 80’s Lancaster dumped Jim Gilley. he went to another city for a year or so. Then the Council changed and they wanted him back. He came back with an ironclad contract (that by today’s laws would be illegal).
What gets me is that once all these City Managers retire (Gilley, Steve Williams, Bob Toone), they all retire to someplace else.
Leo says
That bothers me also AV Town Crier! They make all of their money from us and then head off somewhere else to spend it….kind of like giving us the big middle finger in the rear view mirror. Jim Gilley and Steve Williams both moved to Las Vegas. Don’t know why? I heard Gilley took all of his Lancaster money and opened a restaurant on the Vegas Strip.
Vegas is warm most of the year but they have a lot of crime, the health care is lousy even if you have private insurance, casinos always filled with smoke and strange people, lots of homeless, overpriced and unhealthy food everywhere, people always trying to cheat each other, shifty people moving in and out constantly.
Matt Keltner says
Funny, Palmdale’s last city manager left for Nevada (Las Vegas, specifically) and his replacement will be moving here from Nevada (Reno, specifically). Such is the transient nature of both California and Nevada!
William says
I’m guessing that if you are a city manager, you have to move to another city since there is only 1 to a city.
At least this didn’t follow the pattern of some positions like the previous head of AV Hospital, where they get their contract bought out and then move to another city and start working at another job thereby drawing 2 salaries for a short time. That happened in LA a lot in the 80s, it seemed. I started to wonder if it was some kind of racket to bestow extra income on those guys, drawing 2 salaries at once. Sort of a ‘Silver Parachute’.
Matt Keltner says
Geeze! That sounds more like a “Platinum Parachute” ! :-0
William says
I used to wonder if the person would ‘act up’ in cahoots with whatever board wanted to by him out to justify it without going overboard into claiming illegal activities.