Recreation, senior services head hired

Newport Beach City Manager Homer Bludau has named Wes Morgan the city’s director of recreation and senior services, a change that became effective Sunday.

Morgan had been the interim department head since the departure of former director Marie Knight, who left the city in September to work for the city of Orange.

“I think it’s worked out so well that I wanted to make that permanent,” Bludau said Monday. In the coming year, “we’re going to be doing so many park projects, and he has experience in doing that.”

Morgan, 58, has more than three decades of municipal experience, mostly in recreation and administration. He worked for the city of Fullerton, where he lives, from 1970 to 1990, and from then until 2006 he worked for the city of Buena Park, first in the parks, recreation and community services department, and then as deputy city manager.

Morgan said he’s been coming to Newport Beach since he was a kid, and when he heard about a job there, “I came running.”

Morgan is a graduate of Cal State Fullerton, and he and his wife have five children.

Bludau said Morgan’s annual salary with Newport Beach is $134,000.