City Hall Turmoil Leads to Ouster of Carson Official

At Carson City Hall, where turmoil is the rule rather than the exception, the latest showdown has led to a sudden change at the top.

And, following another Carson tradition, the players offered murky, sometimes contradictory explanations of what is going on.

The drama began Wednesday when acting City Administrator Bill McKown insisted that the City Council extend his expiring contract as deputy city administrator for a year. Instead, the council stripped him of his duties and let him go.

The ouster took place in a closed session and was supposed to be effective immediately. But on Thursday, McKown maintained that he will continue in the job until next Wednesday, when his contract expires.

“I am acting (city administrator) until then,” he asserted, sitting in the city administrator’s office.

“Mr. McKown is misinformed,” Councilwoman Sylvia Muise retorted in a telephone interview Thursday. “Mr. McKown’s contract was not renewed. He was relieved of his responsibilities last evening.”

McKown, 61, had been deputy to former City Administrator Bill Gunnarson, who retired June 30. Councilman Michael Mitoma said council members did not want to give McKown another year as deputy administrator because Gunnarson’s eventual replacement may not want him. A search is under way for a permanent city administrator.

“We were willing to put (McKown) on month-to-month, and he said, ‘No, that is not to my benefit,’ ” Mitoma said. “Reading between the lines, (he said,) ‘I’ve got you over a barrel, and you have to play my game or I will leave.’ ”

Mitoma said that as a matter of management policy, the council decided to relieve McKown immediately rather than let him serve out the remaining week of his contract. The council named Community Development Director Pat Brown as acting administrator--the city’s fourth administrator in less than two years.

“When you are not going to renew someone’s contract, it is better to let them go rather than let them sit around,” Mitoma said. “Usually, people create more problems than it is worth.”

In addition to the struggle over the terms of any renewal contract, sources said, a number of other factors damaged McKown’s standing with council members, including city labor negotiations, the budget, morale among the top staff echelons, the implementation of a City Hall reorganization and the overall functioning of the city administration.

“I don’t think the city is running well,” Mitoma said.

For months, the council has been critical of McKown’s handling of negotiations with the city’s unions. Some council members said McKown, who had said he hoped to get the administrator’s job permanently, had offered overly generous terms in an effort to gain support among rank-and-file city employees.

“That is a perception,” Mitoma said.

But McKown said: “Some members of the council feel we leaned over backward to the employees. I don’t feel that. For the first time, it was fair to the employees.”

During the summer, after several complaints that the city administration had made unauthorized offers to the unions, the council removed McKown from the administration negotiating team.

In mid-August, the council met with department heads and McKown at a retreat and budget workshop at a hotel in Newport Beach. One of the goals of the session was to develop better relationships among council and staff members.

Council members were taken aback when McKown’s presentation of several budget items differed with the presentations of department heads, according to officials, and they were dismayed at low morale expressed by department heads.

McKown also has been criticized for overreaching in the implementation of a realignment of city departments that council members hailed last fall as the key to City Hall efficiency.

“The reorganization is not looking as wonderful as it did a year ago,” Mitoma said.

“There is a perception on the council that the reorganization has evolved into something we did not agree upon. There has been a reorganization within the reorganization, (which) council was not aware of. Conceptually, it was a good idea, but the execution was less than sterling.

“We were told one thing, and what actually happened was significantly different from what we were told. Slots were created that we were not told of. People were promoted, and job descriptions were changed.”

But McKown said his handling of reorganization was not an issue, nor was what happened at the council and staff retreat.

He declined, however, to explain what he thought was the reason for his dismissal, saying only that there is more to the story than has been disclosed.

“There are a lot of facades thrown up,” he said, referring to complaints about labor negotiations, low morale and the reorganization. “I know what the reason is. It has some strange political ramifications. This is not the time to discuss it, when I am trying to clean things up and walk out the door peacefully.”

After his contract runs out next week, McKown said he will retire. “I came here with full knowledge I might have to leave here after a year,” he said.

McKown, a resident of Inglewood, was hired by Gunnarson last September after working 17 years for Los Angeles County, including stints as a deputy department head in urban affairs, community development, community services and senior citizens services. Before that, he worked for Bellflower, Inglewood and Los Angeles.

McKown earned $5,097 a month as deputy city administrator. His salary since July 1, when he became acting city administrator, has been $7,000 a month.

The deadline for applications for city adminstrator was Thursday.