Monterey Park new city manager

There was a little tucked away brief in the paper this weekend about June Yotsuya, an assistant city manager of 24,000-resident Seal Beach, who was offered a CIty Manager contract that will be presented to the Monterey Park City Council this week. The City Manager position has been filled by Adolfo Reta since former City Manager Chris Jeffers took a job in Glendora.

Yotsouya worked for Downey when the city, along with seven others, sued the Water Replinishment District of Southern California. This story ran in 1999:

Firing the next salvo in an ongoing war of words, the Downey City Council tonight will consider hiring a public relations firm to speak for it and seven other local cities that are suing the Water Replenishment District.

The district, which replenishes the groundwater in 43 local cities, hired its own public relations firm earlier this year, at an estimated cost of $50,000 per month.

Eight local cities — Artesia, Cerritos, Downey, Lakewood, Norwalk, Pico Rivera, Santa Fe Springs and Signal Hill — are suing the district. They allege the district is overcharging cities to pump out groundwater and has misspent funds to re-elect board members.

The council is expected to approve hiring Issues Management Network for six months, at a cost not to exceed $36,000. If the seven other cities also agree to hire the public relations group, each city will be billed $4,500. Downey will do the billing and handle the bookkeeping, said Downey Assistant Manager June Yotsuya .

“It’s really hard for staff to get out there and research on every single issue,” Yotsuya said. “I don’t want us to be doing exactly what WRD is doing here (by hiring a consultant) but it’s important to have someone to speak for us.”