Menifee City Council will fire city manager, sources say

The Menifee City Council will announce on Tuesday the termination of City Manager Rob Johnson, Menifee 24/7 has learned.

Multiple sources confirmed that a special meeting of the City Council set for 11 a.m. Tuesday at City Hall has been called to finalize in closed session the firing of Johnson. That decision will be announced publicly in a report out of closed session. No other items are on the agenda.

An email sent to the media Monday morning states that the item in closed session is " public employee discipline/dismissal/release." The only two public employees the City Council has the power to hire and fire are Johnson and City Attorney Jeffrey Melching. According to sources, only Johnson will be terminated as a result of Tuesday's meeting.

Johnson has been the subject of an employee review requested by city council members about the time that it was revealed he signed a $12,400 check to pay then-mayor Scott Mann to attend a leadership seminar at Harvard. That check was signed without the knowledge of other council members and was voided after others learned of it.

That was one of many controversies surrounding Mann, who lost his bid for re-election after being fined $60,000 by the Fair Political Practices Commission for misappropriation of campaign funds. Mann resigned shortly after the election, before Neil Winter was sworn in as the new mayor. At this point, the Riverside County District Attorney has not announced an investigation into Mann's actions or any criminal charges against him.

Johnson was promoted from a staff position to interim city manager in November 2012, after Bill Rawlings was fired following the election of Mann as mayor. This was Johnson's first job as city manager. He was appointed full-time city manager by the council in February 2014. According to public records, his annual salary including benefits is $261,500.

It is likely that a confidentiality agreement will prevent the public from knowing all the terms of Johnson's departure. When Rawlings was fired in 2012, he received a severance package of more than $193,000.

Sources told Menifee 24/7 that a current staff member will probably be named as interim city manager while a search is conducted for someone from outside the city. One source said many staff members had voiced displeasure with Johnson's performance and that some had threatened to leave or have already done so.

Tuesday's meeting is open to the public, although all discussion and action on the item will happen in closed session before the announcement is made.