As announced by Interim City attorney Everett Jenkins in last night’s meeting, The Richmond City Council yesterday selected former Contra Costa County Administrator Phil Batchelor to act as interim city manager at least through January of 2004.

Batchelor administered Contra Costa County from 1984 through 2001 in a post that is similar to city manager but had a much larger budget ($1.5 billion) and many more employees (9,000) than Richmond. He his gotten high marks from those who worked with him and for him at the County. Before Contra Costa County, he served as assistant county executive, director of revenue and systems agency, director of personnel and administration agency and personnel director and budget director, all in Santa Clara County.

He was a recipient of the Outstanding Public Administrator Award from the American Society for Public Administration for outstanding contributions in managing public agencies and has served as the president of the County Administrators Association of California. Batchelor has a Masters Degree in Business Administration (MBA) and a BS in Accounting from San Jose State University. He currently resides in Danville.

Since 2001, Batchelor has been a management consultant with clients that include the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors and several private clients including investors and law firms.

Batchelor says that his strengths are in budget and organizational management as well as recruiting outstanding department heads. He is expected to begin work tomorrow and work under a monthly contract, the total cost of which will be slightly less than that of former city Manager Isiah Turner. The actual contract will be on the July 27 City Council agenda.