After over 14 years with the city, City Manager Gilbert Livas retires next week. Photo by Alex Dominguez

DOWNEY - There is just over a week left before City Manager Gilbert Livas makes his exit from the city, but you might not be able to tell just by looking at him; there’s still enough going on at City Hall to keep his mind occupied, and off of his impending retirement.

“I think in some ways that’s probably a blessing in disguise that I’ve been so busy, I really haven’t had time to think about what I’m going to do next, or what’s going to happen after July 1,” said Livas. “I’ve really been extremely busy the last six months trying to complete a budget, get a lot of things off my plate, and make sure the place is in the best shape it possibly can be for the next person who sits in this chair.”

It’s been an over 14-year run for Livas and the city, who came on board in 2007.

“When I came [to Downey], I still remember thinking, ‘This is a great place.’ It felt like home, it felt like I had landed my dream job,” said Livas. “It was professionally run, it had great council members, I was impressed by the staff that was here.

“My impressions were I was lucky to be here.”

Livas first served as the deputy city manager, overseeing community development. After two years, he was promoted to assistant city manager.

Two years later in 2012, Livas would take the reins of the city after then departing City Manager Gerald Caton.

“It was certainly fast, but not too fast,” said Livas. “Enough for me to get sort of a handle and get my bearings in terms of what was happening in the city.”

It also just might have been one of the most difficult times for someone to take over the city manager position.

As he describes it, “there was no honeymoon period.”

“From an organizational standpoint, it was really smooth. Smooth transition is one thing; assuming the job is quite another thing,” said Livas. “I took over probably at the worst time you could take over, and probably in the city’s history, probably the worst financial time.”

Livas took over at a time when the recession had forced the city to spend around $12 million of its “rainy day” reserves over the course of three years just to keep its budget balanced.

“We had burned through almost half of our reserve in three years,” said Livas.

He says it’s the reason he is so protective of the city’s reserve funds today.

“When I got hired, it was like ‘No more deficit spending,’” said Livas. “I’m the new guy, I said ‘No more deficit spending, we’re done. We gotta balance our budget.

“At the same time, the State in January eliminated redevelopment agencies, so all our redevelopment money that we had was also gone.”

The still new and very fresh city manager would have to contend with a near $14 million deficit budget, forcing him to make extremely difficult decisions.

“It was a very, very difficult time,” said Livas. “We had to lay people off in the city for the first time in the city’s history. We had to right size the ship. We ended up making a lot of improvements in order to make sure that we could save money in a lot of areas.”

Though some layoffs did occur, Livas says that he and his staff were able to “earn the trust of employees.”

“Even though some folks lost their jobs because of [the recession], we made sure it was a soft landing for those folks,” said Livas. “We right sided the ship, and got us into a place that we continued to grow.”

And grow the city has.

Over his tenure, Livas is credited with the rebirth of the city’s downtown, expanded dining and shopping opportunities, expansion of the medical hub, the completion of Measure S projects and launch of an over $30 million residential street improvement project, leading the city through the recession and the Covid-19 pandemic, the building up of the city’s reserves, and - most recently – the completion of 10 consecutive balanced budgets.

Having worked with several different variations of the city council, Livas has also had to wrangle what potentially are five very different personalities and visions for the city at any given time.

“I think for most city managers, I think that’s the job, is trying to balance expectations, personalities,” said Livas. “I would say that a lot of my success in that realm was due to talking to folks, listening to them, engaging before problems arose. I think that as difficult as that may be, I also relied on them as well.

“Many of them came with some level of expertise, for example Dave Gafin was an accountant, a CPA. Alex Saab was an attorney, Roger Brossmer worked for the [school] District. On and on. Claudia [Frometa] was in emergency preparedness. You had all these people that brought some level of expertise, it would be silly for me not to be able to tap into that; why let it go to waste?”

“I spent a lot of time with folks, one on one just talking and getting to what we needed to do, and there were times, certainly I was like the referee…I always came across with my decision making that I would always do what’s best for the organization and best for the city, and if I did those things, things would work out. That always clarified my decision making.”

Livas has certainly earned the respect of many of the council members, old and current.

“The positive impact Gilbert has had on our city, and the improvements made under his leadership have greatly improved the lives of our residents,” said Brossmer. “While these accomplishments are undeniable, the thing that I admire most about Gilbert is who he is as a person; a great husband, dad, and, luckily for me, a true friend.”

“I have had the pleasure of serving with City Manager Gilbert Livas since 2016. I have always greatly valued Mr. Livas’ unparalleled service to the city, who has led our city through difficult times,” said Mayor Blanca Pacheco. “We will all miss him dearly at City Hall, and I wish him well as he heads off to retirement.”

Former mayor Alex Saab called Livas’s departure “a great loss.”

“During my eight years working directly with Gilbert, he always displayed exceptional leadership, professionalism, and knowledge, making our city of Downey a much better place to live and do business in,” said Saab. “Gilbert is a person of unparalleled ethical and moral character, and is widely respected by staff, the unions and the citizens of our great city.

“He has always had the best interests of the City of Downey and was instrumental in the financial success and growth during his time.”

Councilwoman Claudia Frometa said that Livas leaves “a legacy of integrity and an incomparable commitment to public service and excellence.”

“Under his leadership Downey saw countless economic developments come to fruition. He’s the ultimate professional, and someone I consider a friend. I will miss him, his steady, unbiased and uncorrupted leadership style.”

In the past months since announcing his retirement, Livas has received similar praise and admiration from city staff and residents alike.

“It’s blown me away in terms of the support I’ve gotten from the community, from the employees. It’s just been something that I really had no idea, to be honest with you,” said Livas. “I’ve had people come up to me…and have expressed gratitude.”

“I tell you, I’m the one that’s grateful. I really am. I am blessed beyond words. If someone would have told me that this kid from Northeast LA would be the city manager of Downey, I’ve succeeded beyond my wildest dreams, and I owe that to the employees, the residents.”

Livas says Downey’s biggest asset is its energy.

“The people that have come to live here have come here because they want to be here,” said Livas. “When you want to be in a place, you bring a certain energy with you, and you bring a certain involvement, and so I think that’s what it brings, and at its core that’s what it’s always been.”

Announcement of Livas’s departure was the first in a shocking wave of departures and retirements of city staff.

To those who will lead the city after his departure, he offers some simple wisdom.

“My advice would be, to those who were here is don’t ever lose sight of you have an opportunity to change people’s lives and to do something that matters,” said Livas.

He added though that he’s “not worried about Downey.”

And while he may not know what immediately comes next, Livas remains committed to “leaving it all out on the field” until his final day as the city manager of Downey comes.

“I really do believe in public service. I sought out this job because I wanted to give back something to a country, to a state, to a city that’s given me so much, and given my family so much,” said Livas. “I have everything I have because of public service, and I don’t just mean material things; I’m talking about everything I have in terms of a sense of being, a sense of gratitude.

“That’s, at the end of the day, what I really mean, is that it’s really given me that sense of fulfillment that’s hard to replicate. There’s not a lot of other jobs where you can have this sense of impact on other people’s lives, that your decisions matter that much. I am grateful for that…and I’m proud of that.”

Gilbert Livas says goodbye