Tuesday is Gary Pokorny's last day as city manager. He's retiring after four years as the city's top executive and 10 years of working for the city. Ken Nordhoff, formerly the city manager of San Rafael, will be stepping into Pokorny's soon-to-be-old job Wednesday.

Pokorny plans to spend the next year doing a lot of traveling, including to New Zealand. At some point next year, he'll decide  how to get involved again in the city, but as a volunteer. Last week, I sat down with Pokorny and asked him what he'll miss about the job of running Walnut Creek. 

As he considered the accomplishments and challenges--past and future--of the job, he admitted: "The more I talk, the less I want to retire." 

• The people, my co-workers: "We have an amazing and wonderful staff here in the city, and that goes all the way from the directors of departments to people out doing the job in the field. They care about the community and the work they're doing."
• Being at or near the center of economic development in Walnut Creek: "I was listening to the business news this morning. There are some signs the economy is coming back. Obviously, the economy is still pretty awful. Unemployment is still 10 percent, but [the economy] is moving in the right direction, and there are significant signs of real estate and economic turnaround in Walnut Creek. 
  A firm is going to invest in housing and has purchased the older Walnut Creek Motor Lodge at North Main and Ygnacio Valley Road. Then there was the study session on the BART project. There is a good indication that investment in rental housing in particular is coming back."
• Attracting innovative employers such as the Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute:  "I recently had the opportunity to visit the Joint Genome facility [in the Shadelands]. It sort of flies under the radar. What was mind boggling was how the power of the equipment has multiplied so much in nine years. They said the problem they now have is managing the mountains of data they're getting. They're generating all this basic understanding of the building blocks of biology. Since they are a government agency, they are putting [the data] out there for other researchers to use via the Internet. I will miss being a part of figuring out how we can build on that and helping them so they can stay healthy and strong in Walnut Creek."
• The intellectual challenge of finding increasingly efficient ways of doing business. "I think there's particular urgency with what's happening statewide, to be doing that. We made a good start on that, with the way we put this current budget together, to find what I characterize as the new normal."
• Looking at the whole budget at a city level: "What I mean is how do you provide a safe community--having the right number of police and the right amount of equipment--along with the quality-of-life things we like in this community: the arts ed programs, access to the two libraries. ... the playing fields we need, the swimming pools."
• The challenge of figuring out ways to work more collaboratively with other cities. "We're going to have to figure that out, and not just with other cities but the county and other units of government."
• Being at the nexus between city programs and all kinds of community organizations. I thoroughly enjoyed working at the juncture of the Open Space Foundation, the Muir Heritage Land Trust, the [East Bay Regional] Parks Districts, and the cities of Lafayette and Walnut Creek, as we put together the package to purchase the Acalanes Ridge and protect it for public access forever."
• Overseeing the city's emergence as a performing arts powerhouse: We're on the verge of taking the performing arts to another level. This year, Center Rep [the in-house theater company of the city's Lesher Center] presented the West Coast premiere of Becoming Britney. It was a phenomenal show. The Chronicle came over and reviewed it.
  Michael Butler [Center Repertory's artistic director] is thinking of doing new works, West Coast premieres. That kind of experience is going to take Walnut Creek to a new level. Two or three of the companies that perform at the Lesher Center are reorganizing themselves, again under pressure of the economy, and I think they'll come back stronger than ever." 
• The daily interaction with the five council members: "Both the current council and ones I've worked with over the years. All very intelligent, caring people. They care about the best interests of the community."
• Council meetings (seriously): "It's been fun to have a front-row seat."