Oxnard Manager’s Post Draws Few Applicants

Saying job candidates were discouraged by high turnover and an inadequate salary, a headhunting firm says it has received only 25 applications--a “disappointing” number--for the post of Oxnard city manager.

As a result, the Northern California firm hired to recruit a replacement for fired City Manager Tom Frutchey is requesting that Oxnard officials permit it to extend until Oct. 6 the closing date for applications. The application period was to have ended Sept. 11.

“We feel that the Oxnard job should draw better than it has,” management consultant Richard Perry wrote in a progress report submitted to Oxnard officials this week. “While there does appear to be some quality in the group of applicants, we are disappointed with the overall response.”

Perry proposes focusing on the labor market outside the state, something the company has not yet done. The expanded search will begin next week unless he hears differently from the Oxnard staff, he said. A majority of council members said Tuesday they agree the search process should be lengthened.

The primary reason cited by people who initially expressed interest in the job but decided not to apply was “the frequency and reasons for turnover of City Manager in Oxnard in the last 10 years,” Perry wrote.

Councilman Dean Maulhardt said Oxnard is reaping the unfortunate repercussions of having had three city managers in the last eight years who were intended to be permanent.

“I will not promise a job for life, but I think we need to address how we manage our managers,” he said. “The political power play has always gone on and the city manager has been caught in the cross-fire every time.”

Frutchey was fired earlier this year after about three years on the job in the midst of a power struggle between council factions.

Councilman Bedford Pinkard, part of the council majority that voted to oust Frutchey, took exception to the view that Oxnard has suffered from a particularly high turnover of city managers.

“We’ve had five city managers in the last 40 years,” he said. “I don’t think we have a major turnover. We’re no different than any other major city.”

One of the city managers cited by Pinkard served for more than a quarter century, Mayor Manuel Lopez said.

The position of city manager is notorious for its instability, and the average tenure of top administrators has declined in recent decades.

Nationally, city managers last an average of six years per job, according to the International City/County Management Assn., said Julie Marengo, communications director for the League of California Cities. The average tenure for a city manager in California is just under 5 1/2 years, she said. That compares with the 7 1/2 years the average city manager could have expected to hold the position in 1970.

Among the reasons candidates also cited for not applying for the Oxnard job was the relatively low salary. Oxnard is offering the successful candidate a base wage of $110,000 a year, a figure surpassed by six or seven other Ventura County cities, Perry said.

Council members said Tuesday that the figure is negotiable.

“It bothers me to know that being the largest city in the county, we don’t have one of the top salaries for city managers, and I think we should,” Pinkard said. “I’m not satisfied with the 25 applicants we have received and I think Oxnard deserves a better search.”

Perry said the company is focusing on seasoned city managers for a post with the “scope and complexity” of Oxnard’s, rather than department heads or assistant city managers.

Applicants’ names were not released, but three in-house candidates--interim City Manager Prisilla Hernandez, Police Chief Harold Hurtt and Community Services Director Matt Winegar--have all pulled out of the running.