Council Retreat Settles Some Issues

Hoping to hash out their differences, Oxnard City Council members came out of a two-day retreat having accomplished some of their goals but not before airing lingering disagreements over the direction of the city.

The retreat, which cost about $4,000 and was led by professional facilitators, was held at the South Oxnard Center.

The council again found itself divided over hiring a city manager. Although members agreed on the qualities they want, including good communication and managerial skills, they could not agree on whether to hire an outside firm to conduct a nationwide search or simply look at candidates working for the city.

Councilmen Dean Maulhardt and Tom Holden want to look within the city ranks for a successor to Tom Frutchey, who was fired in February.

They thought that hiring a headhunter before the council conducts an intensive search within would be a waste of time and money.

“My first impression is to look in-house and see if there is any interest,” Maulhardt said. “Going outside, to me, would be a second choice.”

But the two found themselves in the minority, as they had in voting not to fire Frutchey. Mayor Manuel Lopez and Councilmen John Zaragoza and Bedford Pinkard said they preferred a nationwide search that would include current city staff members.

“I would support going to an outside firm,” said Pinkard, who along with Lopez and Zaragoza voted to fire Frutchey. “I don’t know if the [candidate] is the best possible person unless I see what is out there.”

The council decided to continue the discussion during closed session and come to a decision on the hiring process within two weeks.

The division was again apparent near the end of the retreat when interim city manager Prisilla Hernandez presented a report on a grant application to the Ford Foundation. The application focused on Oxnard’s 4-year-old “transformation program,” which streamlined the bureaucracy and abolished department heads, replacing them with team leaders.

But Lopez refused to sign the application, saying that information on the transformation program was inaccurate.

Lopez’s comments prompted a harsh response from Holden, who accused the mayor of not recognizing employees’ efforts to do more with less funding and staffing.

“Anything that shows as a success in the last four years is being minimized or just not recognized,” Holden said.

Although Lopez said he appreciated all employees’ efforts to do their jobs in an era of cutbacks, he still thought the application was inaccurate.

For example, he said, the application reported that the city’s work force had been reduced by 30% over the last five years. Showing budget numbers from city reports, Lopez said the total work force reduction was only 9%.

The discussion ended when Hernandez and Lopez agreed to meet Monday and come up with new numbers for the application.

Council members appeared to agree on other issues.

They decided to increase the opportunities for public comment at council sessions but to more strictly enforce time limits.

Starting May 13, speakers will be allowed to talk for three minutes during public comments, three minutes after each staff report and three minutes at the end of the session.

Lopez, known for letting speakers talk beyond their three-minute limit, promised the other council members that he would bring the gavel down on speakers once their time was up.

In addition, the council promised to look into the use of community advisory groups and interneighborhood council committees to increase their participation in city affairs.