Seven months after being forced out as San Jose's city manager, Ed Shikada is set to accept a permanent role as assistant city manager in Palo Alto. The council votes on the contract next week.
Ironically, it's the same job once held by Pam Antil, whom Shikada hired away from Palo Alto early last year to serve as second-in-command at San Jose City Hall. Her arrival coincided with the city manager's office spiraling into dysfunction.
Shikada announced his resignation before the winter break—just a year into his role as city manager and a dozen years into his overall tenure at City Hall. The announcement came as San Jose's mayor-elect Sam Liccardo reportedly pushed in closed session meetings to have him fired.
With six months still left in his contract, Shikada stepped down with $125,000 in severance pay. He joined Palo Alto on an interim basis in April.
Before losing his executive powers in San Jose, and without informing the mayor or council, Shikada fired deputy city manager Alex Gurza. He also engineered Antil's departure for a sig-figure severance package.
As part of Palo Alto's leadership team, Shikada will make $232,000 a year.
"The city of Palo Alto is an extraordinary organization serving a world class community," Shikada said in a prepared statement earlier this week. "Palo Alto tackles complex and difficult issues with a sophistication that reflects its stature at the center of Silicon Valley. I am grateful for this opportunity to support its continued leadership in community service innovation and quality of life."
I love it ! San Jose’s loss is Palo Alto’s gain . This guy had way to much integrity to be employed by Sam & Co.
Good for Ed. Glad he landed on his feet someplace where intelligence is appreciated.
Congratulations, Mr. Shikada. You deserve it. You were competent in San Jose and unfortunately, competence in San Jose’s Administration does not fit well. As DISGUSTEDINSANJOSE said…”San Jose’s loss is Palo Alto’s gain.” Best to you.
Congratulations Ed! Palo Alto is lucky to have a leader with so much integrity and class. You will make a big difference like you did in San Jose!
After 15 years of working at City Hall, Ed was the first CM that knew my name. Good luck Ed!
Ed was well known for making consistently good and proper decisions. He was unafraid to speak truth to power and graceful under pressure, since San Jose’s new political cadre couldn’t tolerate that he had to leave. That’s what intelligent people do when faced with “leadership” unwilling to adopt anything but “my way or the highway” stuck in the cycle of corrupted action and reaction. Cheers to Palo Alto for hiring a good leader and team builder. Once again San Jose has run off a competent, capable employee, to the benefit of the cities surrounding us. May good fortune follow you Ed, you deserve it.
Good luck Ed, I miss having someone at city hall who gives a damn about the city employees. Palo Alto is very lucky to have you.