CONCORD — Dan Keen has worked his way up the California coast, serving as city manager in three cities — La Palma, Seaside and Novato — over a 12-year period before starting as Concord's newest city manager on Monday.
He considers this the pinnacle of his career.
"I've always wanted to be city manager in a city this size," he said. "I went to KidFest awhile back and was just overwhelmed by the people and the vitality in the streets. Having a historical town square like that is key — you can't manufacture that."
Keen, who'll be paid $235,000 a year, replaces Ed James, who had been in the city's top spot for 10 of the past 13 years.
Already, Keen has thrown himself headlong into the intricacies of the Concord Naval Weapons Station issue, but this isn't his first experience with a closed military base. As city manager of Seaside, he worked on the Fort Ord closure, negotiating on behalf of his city with the local reuse authority there. And holding the top spot in Novato from 2004 into this year, he dealt with the development of Hamilton Air Force Base.
And in addition to the weapons station, Concord's trend of charting the city budget 10 years in advance helped draw Keen to this job.
"So many cities talk about doing it but don't actually get around to doing it," he said.
However, Concord's budget this year includes dipping into the economic contingency reserves to the tune of $700,000. On top Advertisementof that, Keen said legislators in Sacramento will likely continue taking money from cities to balance the state budget.
"So we do have some challenges here, but I'm looking forward to getting into the budgeting system. It's a great tool."
A major task will be maintaining the same level of services given the financial constraints.
A Los Angeles County native, Keen was a city planner for 13 years before becoming city manager of La Palma, in Orange County. Then, as city manager in Seaside starting in 2000, he pulled his city out of financial instability and filled a glut of department head jobs that were open.
"When I started there, there was no fire chief, no police chief, no department heads," he said. "So that was my first priority, building that organization up basically from scratch. It was a difficult political environment, but we got through that."
In Concord, there are several key positions that need filling right away — including assistant city manager and head of human resources. Those will be a priority, he said, noting that if those jobs are unfilled, a city won't run smoothly.
In Novato, there were serious budget problems, he said, and service cuts loomed. He was able to get the City Council there to focus on, and fix, the budget problem, he said. While he was manager there, the city brought in a major Whole Foods retail center — the first mixed-use project in the area that contained retail on the bottom floors and offices and other uses on upper floors. There, he also brokered a deal so that a Costco store, which had been struggling and planning to leave the city, could afford to stay.
When he left, Keen said, Novato was more business-friendly than when he started.
"When I first got there, the Chamber of Commerce and the city had a rocky relationship," he said.
And about James, much-beloved former Concord city manager and ex-Marine known for running a tight ship, Keen said the following:
"I've followed city managers who've been fired, city managers who've been revered, and I feel like every city manager sets his own tone and has his set of skills," he said. "I'm very comfortable coming here. But yes, Ed James left big shoes to fill."
Keen and his wife have two children, ages 18 and 22. They're in the process of selling their house and moving to Concord.
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