Looks like my head was up my rear afterall, as one of our readers noted.

Oliver Chi got a nearly $330,000 severance package, and the council will offer Jeffrey Stewart, a former Rosemead employee and former city manager of El Segundo, as interim city manager, Rebecca Kimitch reports.

This takes the tally up to nearly $600,000 that the council has paid out over the past two years in severance packages to its fired city managers. Andy Lazzarretto got a nearly $262,000 severance package when he was fired in 2007.

But is the price worth it to fire another city manager? Absolutely, Councilwoman Margaret Clark said.

Asked if that price was worth terminating Chi, Clark said, “yes, to get a new direction, yes.”