In New Job, Koester Cites Old Formula for Success : Government: County’s chief administrative officer says he will follow the same managerial and organizational principals of evaluation and delegation that served him so well as Simi Valley city manager.

A $38-million budget deficit. County libraries on the verge of closing. Property tax revenues down. And the threat of massive program cuts and layoffs.

That’s a far cry from the financially solid base that Lin Koester, the county’s new chief administrative officer, left behind in Simi Valley where he served the last 16 years as city manager.

Indeed, going from City Hall to county government is like going from a silver spoon to a tin cup, as one former Ventura County supervisor put it.

And yet Koester, who began his new job Wednesday, doesn’t appear the least bit fazed over what even he acknowledges is a daunting task ahead. He started his job five days early and covered an office table with mementos from his Simi Valley tenure.

Koester, 54, seemed relaxed and self-assured during an interview last week in his fourth-floor office at the County Government Center about the challenges he faces in his new job.

“I don’t think the transition, at least as I view it now, is going to be that difficult,” said Koester, who worked as a county department manager from 1971 to 1979.

Yes, the power structure will be different: He will answer to five full-time supervisors as opposed to five part-time council members. And yes, the county’s budget is about nine times larger than the one he oversaw in Simi Valley.

But Koester said he will apply the same managerial and organizational approach he used in Simi Valley to steer the county’s vast, 6,000-employee-strong bureaucracy.

“The principles are the same regardless of the size of the organization,” he said, “and that is to evaluate each situation, delegate to employees and administrators who are capable, and then oversee that delegation to make sure everything is done right.”

Koester was hired last month to replace former county administrator Richard Wittenberg, who resigned in January to take a similar position in Santa Clara County.

Koester joins the county in the midst of a financial crisis. County supervisors have already begun deliberating over how they will cut a $38-million deficit over the next two years.

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Hired on his record as a no-nonsense fiscal conservative, Koester said the county’s fiscal troubles are similar to those he faced when he first arrived in Simi Valley in 1979.

“When I went to the city, it was projected at that point in time that it would be broke in two years,” he said. “Basically we took the bull by the horns and started some economic development programs . . . and got the city on its feet.”

Koester said he believes the county is on the right track in creating an economic development corporation, which will be used to promote the county--not the individual cities--as a good business location.

Without divulging any specific ideas of his own for dealing with the county budget, Koester predicted some reorganization and streamlining of county departments this year to help cut costs. Even the chief administrator’s office will not be immune.

Koester is proposing that three positions, only one of which is vacant, be eliminated in his office. The chief administrator’s office has a full-time staff of 33 and an annual budget of $2.8 million.

“There’s going to be some shifting around over the next several months,” he said. “But I’m not going to be precipitous and start flailing around. I need to find out what everyone does in this office [before making any major decisions].”

Some county employees and managers have privately lamented Koester’s hiring because of his reputation as a financially strict, hands-on manager. But Koester, a former submarine officer who served in Vietnam, isn’t bothered about ruffling a few feathers.

“I know there’s some people who are nervous about the fact that I am coming to work here,” he said. “I don’t know if that’s good or bad. It’s probably better that they’re a little nervous.”

Although the job is currently vacant, Koester said he does intend to fill the assistant chief administrator’s position, probably in September or October. He said he has not decided whether it will be someone from within county government.

One name that has been mentioned by some officials as a possible candidate is Simi Valley Mayor Greg Stratton, a computer software manager for Litton Industries.

“Greg certainly is talented and is an excellent person from the standpoint of finance,” Koester said. “But at this point in time I’m not going to point at anybody. . . . I first want to find the strengths of people inside the organization.”

Stratton said he has not talked to Koester about the position.

“It would certainly be a fun job to do,” he said. “But I hadn’t really thought about it.”

Another challenge facing Koester this year will be to negotiate new contracts with eight separate labor unions, representing everyone from county sheriff’s deputies to clerical workers.

Koester said he is aware that some county employees have gone without a pay increase for three years or more. But he said it is too early to say what the county can offer employees, especially at a time when some supervisors are talking about eliminating hundreds of positions.

“My job is to provide information to the Board of Supervisors so that they can make some decisions,” Koester said. “And there are going to be some tough decisions that have to be made.”

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Barry Hammitt, executive director of the Service Employees International Union Local 998, which represents about 4,000 county employees, said that he had a good working relationship with Koester in Simi Valley. Hammitt’s labor group also represents several hundred Simi Valley employees.

But Hammitt said he fears that county supervisors may have given away too much to public safety agencies recently by exempting them from future budget cuts. As a result, he said, Koester may find that his hands are tied.

“He may not have the financial wherewithal to do what he would like,” Hammitt said.

What to do about the county’s library system, teetering on financial collapse after losing nearly half of its funding because of state budget cuts, poses a difficult problem for Koester and supervisors.

Koester said he opposes a countywide library tax. He said he prefers the formation of some type of partnership between the county and cities to help finance library operations. Some cities, however, are already exploring putting a special library tax on their local ballots.

Regardless, this year could prove to be one of the toughest for the county’s 16-branch library system. Although a preliminary budget plan calls for an $820,000 subsidy to the county Library Services Agency, there is no guarantee that it will receive that amount.

And even if it does, agency Director Dixie Adeniran has said that it will not be enough to maintain current services and that several small libraries will have to be closed.

“The board will have to decide how much libraries will get,” Koester said. “I wouldn’t venture to guess at this point in time.”

Those who know him well and have worked closely with him over the years said they believe Koester has the management skills necessary to lead the county through its financial struggles.

“His greatest strengths are his intellect and his integrity,” said Thousand Oaks City Manager Grant Brimhall. “He’s a straight-shooter. He likes to get to the issue and deal with it. He’s been extremely effective in Simi Valley.”

Even though Supervisors Maggie Kildee and Susan Lacey did not support his hiring because they preferred someone with more county experience, officials said they believe that Koester will not have any trouble working with the entire board.

“He did an outstanding job for the city of Simi Valley,” said Public Works Director Art Goulet, who knew Koester when he worked for the county in the 1970s. “They didn’t want him to leave after 16 years. I think that says something of his political capability.”