From City Manager Bill Lindsay:

Mayor McLaughlin and Members of the City Council:

This is to inform you that Human Resources Director/Assistant City Manager Leslie Knight is resigning from the City effective July 1, 2013 for the purpose of beginning her retirement.  Her remaining work with the City will be in the form of assisting during this personnel transition and the transition to a new fiscal year.

Leslie has made a significant positive contribution to the City of Richmond during her eight years of employment beginning in February 2005.  Among her accomplishments:

• Leslie worked effectively with her department staff to rebuild the human resources systems following the City’s severe financial problems in 2003 and 2004.

• Leslie’s demonstrated value and commitment to the organization caused me to add Assistant City Manager to both her job responsibilities and to her job title in June of 2005.  In her expanded role as the Assistant City Manager, she developed and implemented systems for tracking the progress on work assignments throughout the various departments, and for making sure that City Council requests were acted upon in a timely and thorough manner.  Importantly, she became the informal “sounding board” and managerial resource for all of the department heads as they also sought to restore city services.

• During the recent recession, Leslie helped steer a path that provided for fiscal responsibility, virtually all of which was accomplished without the devastating layoffs that happened in Richmond during 2003 and 2004.  Such layoffs were commonplace in other municipalities during this recent, deep economic recession of the past five years, but not in Richmond.  Leslie’s strategies helped steer the City organization in this direction.

Of particular note, in 2010, the League of California Cities City Managers Department honored Leslie Knight with the John Nail Award, given annually to an outstanding municipal assistant who has contributed significantly to his or her city government and to the advancement of the community as a whole.  This honor was very well-deserved.

I thank Leslie for her service and wish her all the best in her retirement.

Sincerely,

Bill Lindsay

Bill Lindsay
City Manager
City of Richmond
450 Civic Center Plaza
Richmond, California 94804
(510) 620-6512
Bill_lindsay@ci.richmond.ca.us