San Rafael keeps tight lid on city manager mystery

After another meeting in closed session, top San Rafael officials remained mum Wednesday on the reasons behind an abrupt change in city management.

Last week, the city announced that City Manager Cristine Alilovich is on leave and the council had temporarily turned her responsibilities over to Paul Navazio, the finance director.

The council made the unanimous decision to appoint Navazio following closed session at a special meeting on Feb. 11. The city would not say why the council made the change.

The City Council met again in closed session on Tuesday. An agenda item was listed as “public employee discipline/dismissal/release.” The council took no reportable action on the matter, City Attorney Rob Epstein said.

Previously, city officials had expected to issue a formal statement after the closed session.

When contacted Wednesday, Epstein said all he could say is that “Cristine is on paid administrative leave.”

“We don’t have information to provide in a press release,” Epstein said. “I expect that we will.”

Epstein declined to say when officials will release new information. He said the City Council does not plan any more closed sessions on the matter.

Mayor Kate Colin declined to provide any other details.

The leadership change came after the city manager’s “performance evaluation” in closed session on Feb. 9. No action was taken during that session, Epstein said.

Alilovich’s leave was effective the following day, and Navazio was appointed the day after.

Alilovich did not provide a comment.

Alilovich was hired as assistant city manager in 2015 at a base annual salary of $156,060. Before joining the city, she was assistant director of finance for Marin County. She also previously worked in human resources, risk management and budgeting.

San Rafael promoted Alilovich to city manager in 2023. Her starting base salary for the position was $283,992 a year. Her current annual salary is $333,744.

Navazio joined the city as finance director in July 2023, receiving an annual salary of $199,500. His current salary is $232,692.

Navazio has more than 30 years of finance and public management experience. He came to San Rafael from his post as finance director at the Incline Village General Improvement District in the Lake Tahoe area.

Navazio is the former city manager of Woodland and assistant city manager and finance director of Davis. Navazio is also a former budget manager for Berkeley and Oakland.

The city manager of San Rafael oversees an annual budget of about $211 million and a workforce with the equivalent of more than 400 full-time positions.