Laguna Beach City Council selects Shohreh Dupuis as new city manager

The Laguna Beach City Council voted unanimously during a closed session Tuesday night to name Shohreh Dupuis as the coastal community’s next city manager.

Dupuis currently serves Laguna Beach in the role of assistant city manager. An executive recruiting firm had been brought in to conduct a national search to help fill the position, but the council decided the in-house candidate was the right fit for the top job in City Hall.

“I’m incredibly honored and overwhelmed with gratitude that the City Council has selected me to be the next Laguna Beach city manager,” Dupuis said in a prepared statement in a news release issued by the city after the vote. “I have a deep love and tremendous respect for this city, its residents, businesses, nonprofits and cultural arts organizations, and my colleagues and the city staff team, and am ready to tackle the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. I look forward to collaborating with all the voices of our city.”

John Pietig, Laguna Beach’s current city manager, announced earlier this year that he would be retiring in June. Dupuis is slated to begin working as the city’s top executive on June 12.

Laguna Beach Mayor Bob Whalen said the search produced six finalists for the first round of interviews. Three candidates moved on to a second round of interviews.

“Shohreh has an excellent ability to analyze difficult and complex situations, formulate solutions, and build consensus,” Pietig stated in the news release. “She has a big heart and really cares about Laguna Beach. Her skills, knowledge of Laguna Beach, and her energy will help the community recover from the pandemic and emerge even stronger.”

During a recent city council meeting on April 20, some residents called into the virtual meeting to voice concerns over the process involved in the city manager search and the value placed on public input.

Three listening sessions were held, and an online survey was taken to allow for public participation during the recruitment. Whalen acknowledged some residents wanted an outside candidate to be selected, but he’s confident that Dupuis is qualified to address residents’ concerns and the issues facing the community.

“The major concern that we heard over and over again is visitor impacts and managing visitor impacts on residents,” Whalen said in a phone interview on Wednesday. “Traffic and parking were another big issue, and recovery of the retail businesses in the commercial areas was a third big issue, which surprised me, but it was a big issue.

“I think [residents are] looking for somebody who is capable of, obviously, managing the staff at City Hall in a productive way and also hearing the concerns of the community and be an active participant in the community, willing to listen and solve resident problems.

“I think Shohreh’s got all of it. She lives here in town. She’s connected with a lot of people in town. She wants to serve the residents, and that’s really the No. 1 job.”

A starting salary for Dupuis following the promotion was not determined in Tuesday’s closed session meeting, Whalen said. The adopted budget for Laguna Beach for the 2020-21 fiscal year provided for a city manager salary of $292,600 and an assistant city manager salary of $242,800.

A contract containing the terms of employment for Dupuis will be brought to the council for approval at its meeting on Tuesday, May 4.

Prior to her assistant city manager role, Dupuis was the director of public works. She’s also held management-level positions for the cities of Anaheim and Irvine, the Orange County, the Orange County Transportation Authority and the civil engineering firm of Parsons Brinckerhoff.

Dupuis holds a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics from UC Irvine. She and her husband, Farzad, are residents of South Laguna.

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