BREA

City Manager Frank Benest will become Palo Alto’s new city manager April 10.

After about a month of negotiating, the Palo Alto City Council voted Tuesday night to hire Benest to succeed its retiring city manager. Benest will start his new job with a salary of $171,000 in his first year, roughly a $40,000 raise from his current base salary in Brea. Benest worked as Brea’s manager for more than 10 years.

In a statement released by Palo Alto, Benest declared his excitement about “getting to know the people of Palo Alto and working closely with the community on the issues that it feels are important.”