The El Monte city manager, Jim Mussenden, sent a letter of resignation to the city council on Saturday just before the council had a special closed-door session to discuss how they would respond to his Thursday arrest in a Pomona prostitution sting.
The city council accepted Mussenden's resignation, effective the day of his arrest and without severance or other compensation, and promptly voted unanimously to install Rene Bobadilla as interim city manager for a trial period of 90 days.
"It was a tough decision, but (the resignation) kind of made it easier on everyone to move on," Councilwoman Pat Wallach told The LA Times.
Mussenden, who had been El Monte's city manager since 2006, was among 30 people arrested on Thursday by Pomona police during the undercover operation aimed at prostitutes and their customers.
"The Holt/Hershey neighborhoods are areas where we get a lot of complaints from businesses about female prostitutes propositioning men for sex," said Pomona police Sgt. A.C. Cox. "It's also an area where there are a lot of arrests for illegal drug use."
Mussenden called each city council member to apologize said Wallach.
"It's bittersweet," Bobadilla said as he explained to The LA Times that he had mixed feelings. "Not exactly the way you'd like to become interim city manager."
