Commonwealth Bank may be taking even closer control of its problem client City Pacific, with the installation of John Ellis as managing director of the firm yesterday. Ellis replaces Phil Sullivan, who has left the firm.Ellis, who used to be a partner in the Gold Coast office of Minter Ellison, became a non-executive director of the financier last month in a board shake up perceived as being driven by the bank.His recent involvement in the firm is thought to be less than suggested, despite the puff in the City Pacific announcement to the ASX that he was a legal adviser to the firm over eleven years.Investors in City Pacific's mortgage fund remain in the dark as to when the firm might reopen the fund to redemptions.Ellis gave interviews to several newspapers to the affect that the company had a future, though the likelihood it can avoid liquidation must be low.