Oxnard Looks to Future in Wake of Firing

With the ouster of City Manager Tom Frutchey, council members say Oxnard is ready to usher in an era of change--one that could be marked by a greater emphasis on reaching out to the substantial Latino and African American communities.

The foremost task for the council is to find an interim manager to smooth the transition from Frutchey’s departure to the arrival of a permanent manager, and several council members say they would like to bring in an outside, retired city manager for that role.

But beyond finding a replacement for Frutchey, the council is looking ahead to diversifying top city management and improving its outreach to all residents, particularly the Latino and African American populations.

“When we look at the profile of the city manager that will come on board, one of the things we need to take into account is the diversity of the city of Oxnard,” said Councilman Bedford Pinkard, one of three council members who voted last week to fire Frutchey. “I don’t think that was happening to the extent that it should have.”

However, when seeking a new city manager, Oxnard could be a tough sell.

Since 1985, the average career life span for Oxnard’s city managers has been three years, half of the national average career stay, according to the International City Managers Assn. based in Washington, D.C.

The prospective city manager will have to tread lightly when dealing with a somewhat divided City Council. The council, for example, split sharply on Frutchey, with Pinkard joining Mayor Manuel Lopez and Councilman John Zaragoza in voting to fire him. Supporting Frutchey were Councilmen Tom Holden and Dean Maulhardt.

And beyond the questions of career stay and political division is the issue of Oxnard’s frequently perilous economic situation--the task confronting any new city manager of continuing to provide city services with a limited budget.

But Lopez said last week he is not worried about finding a replacement.

“Oxnard is kind of a plum,” he said. “We have a lot of cultural diversity, good weather. I think we have a very unique and beautiful place. . . . I think people that are interested in their profession enjoy challenges.”

Frutchey, however, was not the first city manager to run into trouble quickly in Oxnard. His ouster was preceded by the departure of three other city managers over the last eight years, most of whom either resigned or were fired by the council.

In 1989 David Mora was ousted from his job on a 3-2 vote, with Lopez, then a councilman, in the minority. After serving four years, Mora was fired amid charges of mismanagement.

At the time, Lopez characterized the accusations and the decision to fire Mora as “government by gossip.” And a local newspaper cartoon depicted Mora on a horse, hanging from a noose, with the text: “We’ll cut him down if he’s innocent.”

Since 1991, Mora has been the Salinas city manager.

Following Mora, an interim city manager, John Tooker, was appointed. But he served for only a year until Vern Hazen was hired in 1990. Hazen resigned after three years as city manager and later went on to work in Cathedral City, Calif., near Palm Springs.

After serving under Hazen as assistant city manager, Frutchey was hired in October 1993, when Andres Herrera and Michael Plisky were serving on the council with Holden, Lopez and Pinkard.

Under the direction of the council, Frutchey quickly began to implement a streamlining process that was later strongly criticized by some residents, city employees and Lopez.

Some controversial plans included a proposal to consolidate police and fire services, an attempt to do away with the Planning Commission and the layoff or firings of many city employees.

The city of Oxnard now has three pending lawsuits filed by employees who claim wrongful termination, according to City Atty. Gary Gillig.

But Frutchey’s departure provides a chance for the city to move beyond its most recent controversies, say the council members who led the fight to oust him. One opportunity, Pinkard said, is for the city to push for more diversity in top management.

“You don’t see a lot of diversity there,” he said. “If it is visible, I didn’t see much of it.”

Now that Frutchey is gone, the council also hopes to finally make concrete progress in addressing a longtime goal--to increase the role of Oxnard’s citizen advisory committees and to improve communication with the Latino and African American communities.

Many of the residents who live in the south side of the city--described by some as one of the most neglected areas of Oxnard--have complained that they are continually left out of the loop and do not feel a part of the council’s agenda.

“I would like to have more citizen participation rather than staff,” Zaragoza said. “I think that we need to work a little bit more with the Latino and African American communities to bring us all together. We need those kinds of efforts so [residents] don’t say, ‘You work more with the north end [of the city] than the south end.’ ”

Although Maulhardt opposed the firing of Frutchey, he said last week that he agrees that public participation in city government needs to be enhanced.

“Just in terms of south Oxnard, we can’t just go over there and throw money on the table,” Maulhardt said. “The only way to do it is to get the neighbors involved there. We need to go in there and incorporate it into a long-term vision of Oxnard.”

In addition to outreach efforts, some councilmen complained that a major problem during Frutchey’s tenure was a lack of communication. One of the key issues for all five councilmen is finding a city manager who will keep them all informed.

Lopez has complained that decisions were made by Frutchey without consulting him first, including the signing of a preliminary agreement in October with the Suns minor league baseball team.

In 1992, as part of an effort to streamline the bureaucracy and increase efficiency, the council also adopted policies that allowed the city manager to hire consultants without informing the council--as long as their salary was under $100,000, Lopez said.

“A lot of things don’t have to come to us,” Lopez said. “There is nothing wrong with that to a certain extent, but the council has to maintain oversight of what is going on in the city. These things have tremendous repercussions.”

The next city manager needs to be a healer who will help bring the council and city staff together, council members agreed. It may be a trying time for Oxnard, but the passions brought on by Frutchey’s ouster will soon blow over, they predicted.

“We need to continue with some of the good things” the city has done, Pinkard said. “People need to know that the city will continue to function. . . . The public deserves the right to know that the city is not going to hell in a wagon.”