At about the same time the fire department consolidation began, Charlene Wiseman stepped in as Interim City Manager for the City of Pacific Grove as a new person had not been found to replace retiring Jim Colangelo.

“I felt an obligation to see the recruitment process through,” said Wiseman, who had been serving as Assistant City Manager. She had been handling human resources, purchasing, and risk management among other duties for the City and is now doing the entire job.

Although City Council has offered to allow her to get more help – in effect, to hire someone to replace herself as Assistant – she says there has not yet been time to recruit. Jim Colangelo has technically been on vacation until just three weeks ago, though he left in December, and the funds for hiring an assistant were still being expended until then.

Wiseman does not intend to make any serious changes during her tenure, though she does want to work on a volunteer management program for the City.

And she doesn’t want the job permanently. She intends to return to Sacramento, and to the private sector to do consulting when her job here has ended.

Her contract with Pacific Grove is up June 30, and she says that interviews for a new City Manager will hopefully begin toward the end of April 2009. A consulting firm has been retained to help with the process, which initially resulted in more than 1000 applicants.