CARSON Details of city manager’s settlement are emerging

Sharon Landers, the first female city manager in Carson’s 52-year history, will receive at least $360,000 in severance pay and other benefits under an agreement that will see her step down next month.

The settlement agreement, which the Southern California News Group obtained on Tuesday,also requires the city to pay up to $1,553 a month for health insurance coverage for nine months or until Landers secures health insurance through a different job.

Landers announced her resignation Monday after a nearly three-year tenure as the city’s chief executive.

Her announcement came nearly two months after the City Council voted unanimously in closed session to place Landers on paid administrative leave. City officials have declined to comment on the details of the council’s decision and Landers, in a Monday interview, said she was unaware of the details herself.

A news release announcing

Landers’ resignation did not mention her being on leave. City Attorney Sunny Soltani declined to comment on why the council sidelined Landers and Mayor Lulu Davis-Holmes has not returned requests for comment. The settlement agreement with the city, which the council OK’d last week, also doesn’t shed light on why Landers was placed on leave.

It does say, however, that she will remain on paid leave until March 1, when her resignation becomes official.

Landers will receive $285,252 in severance pay, according to the agreement. The city will also cash her out for $78,326 in various benefit balances owed to her through March 1, including for accrued vacation, holiday and executive pay.

And the city will reimburse Landers $2,500 for attorneys’ fees accrued through the settlement process, the document says.

Taken together, the agreement could cost the city about $380,000, if they pay her health insurance until November.

All terms of the agreement are contingent upon a few key provisions, including Landers forfeiting any legal claim — past or future — against Carson, and a mutual “non-disparagement” agreement between the two parties.

Landers on Monday evening said the separation agreement was routine.

“When cities hire city managers, they anticipate these kinds of situations,” Landers said. “So you start out by anticipating that there will be a severance, and other things. That’s part of what we had to agree to.”

Carson, meanwhile, has already begun contract negotiations with acting city manager David Roberts, who took over Landers’ duties in December.

Roberts is a longtime public servant with multiple Southern California cities and a U.S. Army veteran. That contract is expected to go before the council during its next meeting, set for Tuesday.

khutchings@scng.com