DATE: Tuesday, October 14, 1997             TAG: 9710140279

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B9   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: RICHMOND                          LENGTH:   32 lines

RICHMOND CITY MANAGER LEAVING FOR CALIFORNIA

City Manager Robert C. Bobb will leave after more than 11 years as the city's top administrator to take a similar position in Oakland, Calif.

Bobb announced his decision Monday after a closed-door meeting with the City Council. He will leave in about a month.

Bobb did not reveal how much he will be paid. His salary here is $143,070 a year.

Mayor Larry E. Chavis said he tried to get Bobb to stay, despite dissatisfaction in some quarters over his management style and the city's high murder rate.

``I think we'll miss him,'' Chavis said. ``I think that's going to be proven in the long run.''

Last month, City Council members met in a private session to discuss firing Bobb. Instead, the council set performance goals for the next year.

Bobb said his decision to leave had nothing to do with pressure from the council.

Oakland, a neighbor of San Francisco, suffers from many of the same urban problems of crime, homelessness and a struggling downtown economy as Richmond.

Bobb was city manager in Santa Ana, Calif., when he was hired to come here in May 1986. Before Santa Ana, Bobb was city manager of Kalamazoo, Mich., after having been public utilities director there. KEYWORDS: RICHMOND CITY MANAGER RESIGNATION

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