The last time Sixto Molina was a South Tucson city employee, the acting city manager informed him they were shutting off his phone and changing the locks to the office.
Molina now returns to the square-mile city as the new city manager, nearly a decade since he worked there as police chief.
After hours in executive session, the South Tucson City Council instructed the city staff to draft a formal contracts to hire Molina and a new city attorney, Bobby Yu, 28, who works for a law firm in Tucson and is former city prosecutor. Both are expected to begin work in March.
Interim City Manager Veronica Moreno, who has served in the position for 18 months, said the details about the contract would be made available next week.
Moreno earned $78,079 in 2016 and was the city’s highest-paid employee. However, Moreno also worked as the city clerk and the human resources director for the city.
She assumed the position in the summer of 2015 when then-City Manager Benny Young left to take a position with Pima County.
The city attorney position has been vacant since December.
This is the third job that Molina has held with the city — first taking calls as a civilian dispatcher before joining the South Tucson Police Department.
Molina later joined the Tucson Police Department, where he rose to the rank of sergeant.
He retired from the Tucson Police Department in 1997 to become South Tucson’s police chief.
Molina left South Tucson in 2007 to take a job to oversee security for the Sunnyside Unified School District.
At the time, Molina had a running feud with South Tucson’s then-Mayor Jennifer Eckstrom, the daughter of former mayor and Pima County Supervisor Dan Eckstrom. The feud went public two years earlier when Molina told reporters the Eckstroms wanted him out as police chief.
