City Manager Leaves for Ventura Post

City Manager Bill Smith said Friday he has resigned from his position of nearly three years, citing a desire for new challenges and to work in a more “positive” atmosphere.

Smith will leave the city April 18 to become general manager of the Ventura County Sanitation Districts.

“I was looking for an opportunity to serve the public in a positive environment, and when this group asked me to look at them, I liked what I saw,” he said.

Smith has had several recent clashes with the City Council since new members elected in November have taken office, but he said that is not the reason for his departure.

“It’s not like they asked me to leave,” Smith said of the sitting council majority, which has disagreed with him on several major proposals. “But it’s a different council than hired me, and this will give them an opportunity to hire someone more compatible with their style.”

Council members were attending a conference in Washington on Friday and were not available for comment.

Two former members who voted to hire Smith in September 1994 said they were not surprised by his decision.

“It was bound to happen,” said County Supervisor Charles V. Smith, former Westminster mayor. “No one of Bill Smith’s character could work under the situation he’s been put under.”

Charles Smith said that by canceling the annual Tet Festival, killing a proposal to lease the water system and possibly dissolving a contract with the Orange County Fire Authority, the current council is “destroying everything that Bill Smith has tried to bring to Westminster in the last few years.”

“I’m very unhappy with the situation,” he said. “Bill Smith is probably the best city manager that I’ve ever seen or dealt with, and certainly the best that Westminster has had.”

Former Councilwoman Charmayne S. Bohman said, “The city is losing a tremendous asset. But I felt it was inevitable after the city council elections. It’s a clear case of incompatibility.”