Riverside City Manager Considered Pasadena Move

City management is usually invisible — until a city manager almost leaves. That is what happened in Riverside. Mike Futrell accepted Pasadena’s offer on April 15, with a planned May 13 start, then reversed course on April 25 and said he was staying put in Riverside instead. The twist is that the move seems to have collided with a separate fight involving his wife, Susan Freeman, and Riverside officials. (riversideca.gov) ### What actually changed? The concrete news is simple. Futrell was publicly announced as Pasadena’s next city manager on April 15. Ten days later, Pasadena said he had withdrawn from further discussions and would remain in Riverside. Pasadena’s interim city manager, Matthew Hawkesworth, is still in the role while that council figures out what to do next. (cityofpasadena.net) ### Why was Pasadena hiring him? Pasadena was not making a casual hire. The city had been searching for a replacement after Miguel Márquez announced his retirement, and Futrell was presented as the chosen candidate after a national search. Pasadena highlighted his 30-plus years in public service and his experience running large city operations, utilities, airports, and public-private projects. That made him a serious get — not a speculative finalist. (cityofpasadena.net) ### Why did Riverside want him to stay? Riverside’s own messaging tells you a lot. When Futrell first accepted Pasadena’s job, Riverside praised his record since taking over in January 2023 — stronger finances, an AA+ credit rating, full police staffing for the first time in 20 years, a reported 35% cumulative crime reduction, and more than $4 billion in new investment tied to economic development efforts. Those are the kinds of numbers city halls use when they are trying to show continuity matters. (riversideca.gov) ### So why did he back out? Futrell’s public explanation was momentum. In the statement posted April 25, he said Riverside had major economic development projects, infrastructure work, public safety efforts, housing initiatives, downtown activation, and an upcoming Measure Z sales-tax campaign in motion. Basically, he framed the choice as unfinished business in the city he already runs and lives in. (riversiderecord.org) ### Where does his wife fit in? This is where the story gets messier. A December 11, 2025 letter from the Riverside City Council to Susan Freeman surfaced publicly in recent weeks. The letter accused her of presenting herself as part of the city’s decision-making team and told her to stop harassing communications with city employees. Freeman denied the allegations and argued the letter was meant to politically sideline her because she was outspoken online while married to the city manager. (riversiderecord.org) ### Did that dispute affect the Pasadena move? There is no official statement from Futrell saying, flat out, “this is why I stayed.” But there is a strong suggested link. Press coverage of Freeman’s recent social media comments says she tied her dispute with Riverside officials to her husband’s interest in the Pasadena job, and the timing is hard to miss — the letter fight became public right around the same stretch that the Pasadena move unraveled. That is an inference, not a confirmed motive, but it is the part that makes this more than a routine hiring reversal. (msn.com) ### Why does this matter beyond city hall drama? Because city managers are the operating system for a city. They run budgets, projects, staffing, contracts, and day-to-day execution. Riverside has a council-manager form of government, so keeping or losing the manager changes how stable the whole machine feels. Pasadena, meanwhile, now has to restart or reopen a high-level search at a moment when it wanted a permanent executive in place. (riversideca.gov) ### What’s the bottom line? This was not just a job change that fell through. It exposed how personal conflict, political optics, and city governance can bleed into each other fast. Futrell is staying in Riverside for now, but the episode leaves two cities with unfinished business — Riverside with the internal tensions now out in public, and Pasadena with a vacancy it thought it had solved. (riversiderecord.org)