Oxnard Looking to Revamp City Bureaucracy : Government: Proposal calls for departments to be disbanded, with program managers becoming their own bosses.

Around Oxnard City Hall, the radical new proposal to restructure the city’s bureaucracy is referred to as “the transformation.”

Instead of the traditional, hierarchical government structure--where city workers report to one of nine department heads, who then report to the city manager or the City Council--council members and city staff members are working on a much different model, to be considered during the summer budget sessions.

All those who manage city programs--from street-sweeping to firefighting--would be their own bosses, reporting to the city manager or City Council individually for orders, and to a handful of veteran city officials jokingly referred to as “village elders” for counsel.

City departments or divisions would be disbanded, and the village elders and about 100 program managers would take their place. Because some city officials would be in charge of more than one program, about 50 people would report to the city manager or City Council.

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The new structure would put people who actually run things in a position to improve city services and save the city money, City Manager Tom Frutchey said.

“They’ve always been responsible, they just haven’t had the authority,” said Frutchey, who said he did not expect his authority to change. “Let’s give the people who run the programs and deal with the people the ability to make those programs better.”

The city of Sunnyvale in Santa Clara County, which has a population of 124,000, has been operating under a similar system for nearly 20 years, Sunnyvale City Manager Tom Lewcock said.

The “performance-based budgeting” system rewards those who find ways to save the city money by running their programs more efficiently.

Sunnyvale was featured in the book “Reinventing Government” by David Osborne and Ted Gaebler, described as the latest bible of bureaucratic reform. Texas used Sunnyvale as its model when it reformed its government last year, and in 1993 President Clinton visited the Silicon Valley bedroom community for some tips on government reform.

“It’s a gigantic leap,” Lewcock said of the changes Oxnard is pondering. “It fundamentally changes the culture of an organization.”

For several years, Oxnard leaders have discussed plans to restructure the city’s bureaucracy into a leaner, more responsive unit that would save taxpayers money while providing better services.

The approach was implemented during Oxnard’s recent budget sessions: More than 200 positions have been sliced from a work force that stood at 1,100 five years ago.

Yet that was all minor tinkering contrasted with the revamping of Oxnard City Hall that will be proposed this summer, city officials say.

“I think it is a response to our perennial budget deficits,” Oxnard Mayor Manuel Lopez said. “If you have X amount of dollars, and they are not increasing, you have to do something.”

But Lopez said he is still unsure whether a cheaper government can also be better.

“It will be more economical, but whether it will work better, only time will tell,” Lopez said.

Oxnard City Planner Matthew Winegar, a 17-year Oxnard employee, said most city officials are aware that the City Council and the city manager were looking to reorganize Oxnard City Hall and are not concerned about the transition.

“There has been a change in the top administration, so I think the people who are coming on are aware of our new philosophy,” Winegar said. “When you change, there are always a lot of questions, but I don’t think there are a lot of people worried that their authority is being eroded.”

Although program managers will make many decisions, some orders would still be handed down by their superiors. Few, if any, layoffs are expected, city officials said.

Oxnard Police Chief Harold Hurtt said the new system would help his department move toward its goal of community-based policing.

“We’re going to be able to improve our services to the public,” Hurtt said. “We’re also going to look at being more holistic in our approach, working with schools, the community, being more proactive.

“Coach, mentor, trainer--those are all things that we should be doing now as modern managers, and most of us are already doing these things.”

The veteran counselors would not be formally called village elders, Frutchey said.

“We kind of jokingly say that the department heads, instead of making all the decisions, should be more like village elders, wise counselors that people can consult with when making decisions,” Frutchey said. “That’s just a self-facetious way in which we describe them.”

Hurtt said many city employees would be thrust into new, challenging positions of responsibility, and would probably need training to manage programs on their own. But he said the plan would eventually allow him to better utilize his personnel.

“I did not believe that the brains of the organization were all resting on two feet anyway,” Hurtt said. “This way, we can really take advantage of all the good people we have.”