Arcadia has chosen a new City Manager, 40-year-old Dominic Lazzaretto of Glendale who has been City Manager of the small Orange County town of La Palma. La Palma is a town of less than 16,000 people, nearly half of which are Asian, and more than a third of which are Caucasian, according to the 2010 Census.
Dominic Lazzaretto
“Arcadia has a reputation for being an outstanding community and I’m looking forward to playing a part in continuing that tradition,” Lazzaretto commented by e-mail to ArcadiasBest.com Friday morning.
Assuming Lazzaretto is formally approved by the City Council Tuesday, Feb. 21, he will start work March 26, replacing Don Penman, who will leave March 23 after nearly four years in the top job and 14 overall. Penman, who officially retired last November, will give his farewell State of the City address at the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce Planning Conference Thursday, Feb. 23.
“We received more than 80 applications for the job and were very pleased with the level of interest and quality of the applicants,” Mayor Gary Kovacic said in a City Council announcement Thursday, Feb. 16. After an extensive review and interview process, Dominic was the unanimous choice of the Council Members.” Kovacic and Mayor Pro Tem Bob Harbicht finalized the contract with Lazzaretto, who reportedly will make a base salary of nearly $200,000. When he agreed to a three-year contract with La Palma less than two years ago, Lazzaretto received a base salary of $172,750 per year and a benefits package (retirement, insurance, car allowance, etc.) with a value of $67,823, for a total compensation rate of $240,573 annually.
“Mr. Lazzaretto has some big shoes to fill as Don Penman did an outstanding job for us. We are confident he is equal to the task and are looking forward to having him on board,” Harbicht said.
Lazzaretto, one of four sons of former Burbank City Manager Andrew Charles Lazzaretto Jr., has been with the City of La Palma for nine years and was City Manager for the past six, during which time La Palma was twice listed among the “Top 100 Small Cities in the United States” by Money magazine and twice named “The Best Small City to Raise a Family in Orange County” by Parenting magazine. He is regarded as a hands-on manager who is team oriented and very involved with the community.
Lazzaretto’s brother, Charles “Chuck” Lazzaretto, was a Glendale police investigator who was shot to death at age 30 in an ambush on May 27, 1997, in a Chatsworth warehouse while investigating a domestic violence case.
— By Scott Hettrick
Click below to play 30-second video of Lazzaretto from 2010: