City Manager Makes Waves in Oceanside With Baby in Office

Asleep in her roomy bassinet, 10-week-old Anne Elizabeth Foucault-Nelson looks innocent enough. Nonetheless, the infant has caused quite a stir at City Hall here lately.

A recently adopted addition to the Foucault-Nelson family, Anne Elizabeth--or “Annie”--spends two of every five weekdays at the office of Oceanside City Manager Suzanne Foucault, better known as “Mom.” The other three days she reports to work with “Dad”--Del Mar City Manager Bob Nelson.

The newborn’s parents say the arrangement is only temporary, pending their hiring of a suitable baby sitter.

While most employees in both cities either hardly notice Annie--who does a lot of sleeping--or like to gaze and coo at her, Oceanside City Councilman Sam Williamson believes her presence in the workplace “disrupts city business” and “gives Oceanside an unprofessional, bad image.”

Who Will Be Next?

Further, Williamson said, “If I allow Suzanne to bring her baby in, then in all fairness I’m forced to let some guy over in planning bring in his child as well.

“She’s the chief executive in the city and I frankly think she’s setting a bad example.”

Prompted by “a handful” of complaints from the community, Williamson took the matter up with his colleagues during a closed session at last Wednesday’s council meeting.

After nearly two hours of discussion, council members voted 3 to 2 to allow Annie to continue accompanying Foucault to the office until March 1, and also decided unanimously to formulate a policy on employees’ rights regarding children in the workplace.

Council members declined to say what action they would take should Foucault fail to meet the March deadline.

Complaints Continue

Despite the truce negotiated last week, controversy over what has come to be called “the baby affair” is not likely to fizzle any time soon. While Williamson said he will “live with the council’s decision,” both he and Mayor Larry Bagley say they continue to receive complaints about the infant.

A handful of Oceanside residents who agree that City Hall is no place for a baby addressed the council on the matter before the vote Wednesday. At times, their testimony was so shrill and accusatory that the meeting began to resemble a public tribunal, with some of those taking the podium challenging Foucault’s qualifications for motherhood.

“A good mother will not care what she has to give up in order to look after her child,” said Julia Rush, a self-described “mother of four and grandmother of 13” and one of Foucault’s harshest critics. “I think it is time for her to step down and go home to take care of her baby.”

Rush and others who made similar comments said they don’t intend to let the matter drop. But the majority of council members say they don’t see the baby affair as anything to complain about.

“There are many, many issues in Oceanside more deserving of our attention than this one,” said Councilman John MacDonald.

Councilman Ted Marioncelli agreed, noting that “the baby is usually sleeping or eating and hasn’t in any way made Suzanne less conscientious about her job.”

Marioncelli added that it is Foucault’s prominence in city government that made Annie an issue in the first place.

“I detect a definite feminist issue here,” Marioncelli said. “This is clearly something we’re going to have to deal with more and more as more women take important positions in the workplace.”

Welcome in Del Mar

Despite all the fuss in Oceanside, the City of Del Mar seems to have embraced Annie with open arms.

Foucault, meanwhile, said that while she regrets that “Sam and I have a disagreement” over the baby, there’s not much she can do.

“If I’d had nine months of pregnancy to plan for this, I would have been prepared,” Foucault said. Instead, after three years of waiting, Foucault and Nelson were given only 10 days’ notice before adopted Annie arrived on their Del Mar doorstep last December.

Some City Hall observers say that Williamson’s attitude on the baby matter is “old-fashioned,” and the councilman admits that it may well be. But he stands firm on his contention that “babies have no place in city government.”

The councilman said that a former representative of the Oceanside City Employees Assn. had written a letter arguing that it is “unfair” for Foucault to bring Annie to work when other city employees are denied the privilege.

But Marioncelli said that charge doesn’t ring true.

“We’ve had sick little ones at City Hall and even older kids here when the day-care centers are closed on holidays,” he said. “We’re flexible. I wouldn’t feel any different if it was anyone else on our staff in this position.”