PORT HUENEME : City Won’t Replace Recreation Director

In a sign of its continuing budget problems, Port Hueneme will not replace the city’s recreation and community service director when he resigns next month to accept a position with another city.

With the departure of Brady Cherry on May 3, the city will shift recreation and landscape duties to the director of the city’s community center and to the public works department.

The decision marks the third time in little more than a year that Port Hueneme has left unfilled a top management position, cutting the number of city department heads by half.

Jim Hanks retired as finance director in 1992 and Jack Duffy retired as public works director last year. Both men have continued to act as consultants to Port Hueneme.

“We’re all a little shell-shocked,” said Tom Figg, city community development director and one of three surviving department directors.

While Figg said budget cutbacks have forced the city to become “leaner and more efficient,” he said Port Hueneme residents will have to decide how much the city can afford to cut.

“Who knows how much cutting we can do before we gouge out the heart of the community?” he said.

Cherry, 38, leaves Port Hueneme after six years to become the director of community services for the town of Atascadero in San Luis Obispo County.

On Thursday, Cherry said his decision to leave did not stem from cutbacks in the Port Hueneme recreation budget, which had curtailed many of the city’s recreational programs. But he described the $900,000 in budget cuts the past two years as painful.

“I don’t think the city can afford to lose any more management,” Cherry said. “This organization is extremely thin, almost to the point where it threatens good governing.”

In the last two years, the city has left unfilled a police lieutenant’s position and the posts of city finance director and public works director. The city has redistributed some of their duties among other personnel and employed the former directors as part-time consultants.

In June, residents will vote on a $500,000 tax assessment to retain the city’s Police Department and restore the lieutenant’s position. If the measure fails, city leaders will have to decide whether to impose a utility tax or contract with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department or Oxnard Police Department for police services.

Figg said residents will have to weigh the cost against the level of services they have come to expect.

“I personally believe the majority of people in the community feel strongly about Port Hueneme’s identity,” Figg said.