Ventura Council Tells Manager to Improve Image

A month after the Ventura City Council followed City Manager John Baker’s advice and hired a public relations specialist to help improve its image, the council has told Baker that he needs to work on his own public persona.

In a performance review in which he received mostly high marks, Baker was told by the seven-member council that he needs to show his human side to the general public, Mayor Richard Francis said Wednesday.

“John is such a technician that the soul of the city isn’t being revealed,” Francis said. “He knows that he needs to work at being more human.”

Francis suggested that Baker consider hiring a public relations firm to assist him in presenting the city’s points of view.

Baker declined to discuss his performance review, citing confidentiality rules that forbid him from discussing the content of closed council sessions.

“I’m not going to be the one that gets picked off by being played against somebody else,” Baker said when asked if the council had told him to improve his image.

His leadership and hiring decisions were among the compliments Baker received in the appraisal Saturday, council members said.

At times, however, Baker has has been quick to give flip responses to public inquiries, they said.

“He doesn’t strike people as being very friendly,” said Councilman John McWherter. “He strikes them as being a computer, which he almost is. He’s got an incredible memory and a lot of information at his fingertips.”

Councilman Jim Monahan said Baker has been known to be sarcastic to the public. He cited a response Baker gave to a resident of the Ventura Keys, who wanted the city to upgrade the water quality of Keys channels.

“Baker told him something like ‘Why do you want the water to be so pure? Do you want to drink it?’ ” Monahan said. He added that Baker apologized for the remark during the evaluation session.

Most council members said they do not think that Baker needs to go so far as to hire a public relations firm as Francis suggested. And Councilman Todd Collart said he had no problems with Baker’s public demeanor.

“If we want a city manager that treats people warmly, considerately and courteously and at the same time is analytical, fair and objective, we’d have to hire Superman,” Collart said.

The evaluation session also included a discussion of how the council should deal with the media, council members said. Councilwoman Cathy Bean suggested that it refer all questions from the media to the city’s information office.

“That suggestion didn’t fly,” said Deputy Mayor Don Villeneuve. He suggested that the council consider drafting guidelines for dealing with the media, including a prohibition on members attacking each other in the media.

“When there’s a family squabble, the whole city doesn’t need to know about it,” Villeneuve said. “We have to make sure that our statements reflect the city’s view and not what somebody says when he’s (upset) because things are not going his way.”

Last month, the City Council paid $3,500 to public relations specialist Arch Lustberg for a seminar on how members could get along better with the media, the general public and among themselves. Baker attended the session but did not participate in mock interviews and other exercises prescribed by Lustberg.