Exodus at Top Has Oceanside in a Quandary : New Council Is Blamed as Paid Staffers Leave

A decade ago, the future looked bleak for Oceanside. The city was saddled with a woebegone image as a haven for Marines from Camp Pendleton next door. Seedy bars and tattoo parlors dotted the downtown area. Crime was skyrocketing, commerce was on a downward slide.

In recent years, however, Oceanside’s fortunes seemed to be changing. A long-dormant downtown redevelopment program began to make progress. New businesses started to trickle into town. Projects that had been on the municipal wish list for years--from solutions to the city’s beach erosion problems to money for vital highway improvements--suddenly were being realized.

As council members saw it, the chief reason for such welcomed progress was the solid efforts of a top-notch administrative staff, which city leaders began piecing together in the early 1980s.

“I look at assembling that staff as one of our major accomplishments,” said Ted Marioncelli, a former councilman. “You can be the best leader in the world, but you’re in trouble if you don’t have someone to carry it out.”

Beginning to Crumble

Now, however, that staff is beginning to crumble.

Since a new council came into power late last year, five top city administrators have either left voluntarily or been forced out. The flurry of departures culminated during the past month with the announced resignations of City Manager Suzanne Foucault and Assistant City Manager William Workman. Both will leave before the month is out.

Some City Hall insiders blame the loss of the city’s executive brain trust on the new council.

Since two new members were seated after the November election, they say, the council has gone on a binge of “staff bashing,” lashing out at top administrators during the city’s twice-monthly public meetings.

Moreover, the council’s meddling has at times crossed the strict legal limits separating the administrative responsibilities of the city staff and the policy-making role of elected leaders, some employees say. Staff morale is down and some department heads are looking for other jobs, they say.

While a majority of the council insists the municipal ship of state is steaming forward on a steady course, other elected leaders suggest that the city has run aground. They worry that Oceanside is on the verge of losing the momentum that has been gained in recent years.

Headed for ‘Real Trouble’

“If we lose one or two more key staff members, then we’re in real trouble,” said Mayor Larry Bagley. “We built a solid staff and accomplished a lot--a new City Hall, restoration of the waterfront, a new pier.

“But now I think we’re on the brink of going back to where we were as far as dissension at the top. The only reason we’ve been able to make some progress recently was because of a lack of dissension.”

Indeed, Bagley remembers well the way it was.

Back then, political infighting had become almost a way of life in Oceanside. At one juncture in 1980, Bagley donned a referee’s striped shirt and a whistle at a council meeting to make a point with his squabbling colleagues. A return to such times, Bagley said, could dramatically restrict the city’s ability to recruit high-quality candidates for the current staff openings.

Several other council members, however, insist that the city is not even close to sliding down the muddy path of its past.

Deputy Mayor Sam Williamson said he sees no pattern in the departures of key staff members, suggesting instead that the various resignations or firings are simply part of the natural process of change that occurs in government every few years.

Moreover, Williamson and his chief council allies, Ben Ramsey and Lucy Chavez, contend that Oceanside will continue to make progress despite the gaps in the executive flow chart.

“It’s going to be a change and there’s going to be movement, but I think we’ve got a good staff and I think people here will carry on like professionals,” Williamson said. “I see it just as a change. On any normal city or corporation, there are changes like this. I don’t think there will be a slowdown of any projects.”

Many Shoes to Fill

Nonetheless, when Foucault cleans out her office and departs Sept. 30, the council will have several jobs to fill.

Since Community Development Director Doug Spickard was fired in February, his post has remained vacant; Workman filled in as acting director of the department in addition to his duties as assistant city manager.

When Police Chief Larry Marshall decided to take early retirement, the position was filled in March by Cmdr. Robert Smith. Since then, however, Smith has been stricken by cancer and has spent little time on the job.

The only post that has been filled on a permanent basis is that of redevelopment director, where former assistant Patricia Hightman was selected to fill the vacancy created when Margueretta Gulati left in February to take a similar job in Riverside.

Foucault announced her resignation in late July, citing only “personal reasons that are between me and the City Council.” At the time, she had not secured a job, but she has since been hired as assistant director of the Regional Training Center, a Sorrento Valley-based nonprofit corporation that provides organizational development and training services for public agencies.

Though Foucault refused to discuss it, City Hall sources say she was forced to resign in the face of pressure from Williamson, Ramsey and Chavez.

It was Workman who upset the council’s plans. After Foucault’s resignation, the council reportedly told Workman that he would be given a tryout as city manager for several months and, if all worked out well, would be given the position permanently.

Seen Unhappy With Council

Workman, however, resigned a few weeks ago to take a job with a water district in Orange County, where he resides. Though Workman says he is switching jobs as a career advancement and to be closer to home, some City Hall officials say the assistant city manager is leaving in large part because of discontent over the new council.

Such uneasiness has sprouted primarily because of the staff bashing, several employees say. They point to Williamson and Ramsey as the chief culprits, suggesting that the two men, who come from backgrounds in private business, have an inbred distrust of the public sector.

“Sam is from a working-class background, as is Ben, and they’re suspect of professionals,” said one longtime city employee, who asked not to be identified. “They tend to share a mutual distrust of bureaucracies and the government. So they’ve come into this situation with a generally skeptical attitude toward (the) staff.”

Examples of staff bashing by the pair are numerous, employees said.

A few months ago, Ramsey launched a crusade against the city’s code enforcement department, suggesting that the employees were selectively enforcing the laws. Moreover, Ramsey threatened to abolish the department if it did not make changes.

The timing of his criticisms caused many city officials to blanch. Just a few weeks before, Ramsey had gotten into a verbal altercation with a city code enforcement officer on Oceanside’s busiest commercial thoroughfare when the officer tried to issue a ticket to an acquaintance of the councilman.

Ramsey reportedly waved his council identification card and pointed out that he was the code enforcement officer’s boss. The episode ended peacefully when an Oceanside police officer was called to the scene, but it was widely reported by the media.

Staff Offered Report

The councilman’s griping about the department was quieted only after the city staff presented a lengthy oral report to the council noting the necessity of code enforcement to uphold city laws affecting everything from building standards to business signs.

In May, Williamson took on the city’s motorcycle police officers, calling them “Gestapo cops” because of their attitude toward motorists.

Williamson backed off, however, after a private meeting with the motorcycle officers. Today, Williamson admits that his reference to the unit as Gestapo cops “was a misuse of words.”

Nonetheless, both he and Ramsey say they find it necessary to confront errant staff members on occasion during council meetings because it is their duty as councilmen.

“I was elected by the people to see that this city is the best-run city in the world,” Williamson said. “When someone steps up to you and gives you misinformation, they have to be told. I don’t think you can go into the back room and say, ‘You’re a naughty little boy.’ When someone continually does the same thing wrong, yeah, I’m going to call them on the carpet.”

Ramsey agreed. “I don’t know what it is about employees today,” he said. “Maybe I’m from the old school. I always thought when you did something wrong, you had to accept the consequences. If you’re working and doing the job, nobody’s going to have any problems.”

Though many employees said they deplore the tactics of the two councilmen, some top administrators suggest that staff bashing is little more than the normal routine after a new council is seated.

“I think this is a natural consequence of the democratic process,” City Atty. Charles Revlett said. “When new people take over on the council, they’re often assertive and aggressive. They start establishing their territory by whatever means they can.

Attitudes Not Unusual

“Sometimes they’re more aggressive than a particular staff member on the hot seat feels is justified. But I don’t think it’s been noticeably stronger or more vehement than it has been in the past after elections.”

But Gulati, the former redevelopment director who left six months ago, said she noticed a difference with the current council. In particular, she said, some council members seemed eager to take on responsibilities reserved by law for staff members.

“You can have all the code books you want, but there’s always involvement on the part of legislators,” Gulati said. “It’s the degree to which they approach it that’s different. I found some members of this council to be more involved in administrative matters.”

Judging from the opinions of officials from neighboring cities, erstwhile Oceanside employees such as Gulati will be missed. John Mamaux, a Carlsbad councilman and former city administrator, described Foucault, Workman and Gulati as top-flight public-sector professionals.

“I think that, based on the complications with the financial situation in Oceanside and the land-use issues, Suzanne did an excellent job,” Mamaux said. “Maggie Gulati was also very professional and impressive. And I think Workman really has great potential.”

Whatever the reasons for the departures of Foucault, Workman and the rest, the vacancies come at a pivotal point for Oceanside.

With a population now exceeding 100,000, the city is grappling with a tough new slow-growth law that is being challenged by the development community. Redevelopment has made progress, but many downtown blocks remain vacant. The new pier is nearly complete, but Oceanside still features some of the most blighted stretches of beachfront along the California coast. A campaign to improve the city’s image is in full stride, but many visitors still consider Oceanside a honky-tonk Marine town.

Pressing Budget Problem

The city also faces a pressing budget problem. Against the recommendations of the city staff, the council approved the addition of about two dozen police officers and firefighters this year. The new personnel will put the city budget $3 million in the red by the end of the decade unless drastic cuts are made elsewhere.

“With the city manager leaving, there’s going to be no one working with the council,” one staff member said. “The council will be out of control. Each of them will take up their own pet projects and deal individually with different department heads. (The) staff is going to be confused.”

Hoping to avert just that sort of problem, Bagley said he will push in the coming week for the city to appoint an interim manager recruited from outside. The mayor said he hopes the city can attract a former chief executive with broad experience.

In addition, Bagley said, he wants the interim manager to conduct a special review of the relationship between management and the council, to sort out any bugs in the system, improve communication and accurately determine the state of employee morale.

“I’m sure it will reveal some things that we’ve got to change at the council level,” Bagley said. “We need to do a little regrouping around here.”

Despite the apparent unrest, city leaders such as Chavez remain optimistic that Oceanside is on its way up.

“There’s no way Oceanside can’t have a bright future,” the councilwoman said. “It’s the only place on the Southern California coast that’s not totally developed. We’ve got so much potential with our beachfront . . . the weather.

“There’s plenty of people looking to invest in Oceanside’s future. I think we’re on a roll.”