John Nachbar, who has been the City Manager of Culver City since 2010, announced that he will be retiring at the end of this year. When asked about how he had reached the decision, Nachbar stated “This is a culmination of my career, and my own personal planning. At the end of this year, I’ll be coming up on 70, and that’s pretty old in City Manager years.”
Noting that government is demanding job, Nachbar said he had been planning this for some time. His announcement in April to leave the desk in December gives the City Council ample time to search for a replacement.
Nachbar has been the longest serving City Manager in our history, partly because the system was so new. The first City Manager, Jerry Fulwood, served from 1999 to 2003, after starting as the Chief Administrative Officer; a restructuring of the city government changed his status and the power of the office. The fist city Manager hired in under the new title was Mark Scott , who was at the desk for only a year before heading north to his hometown of Fresno to become their city manager.
Nachbar came from the city of Overland Park in Kansas, after having previously served in Albany and Patterson, both in California and as Assistant City Manager in Tucson, Arizona.
Nachbar has seen the city through multiple challenges, most notably the COVID pandemic. He will be departing at the end of 2025.
Judith Martin-Straw
