Oxnard Council Expected to Choose City Manager From 3 Finalists

One has worked in Pasadena for the past six years, overseeing the city’s handling of such events as the 1993 Super Bowl and the 1994 World Cup.

Another is working in Modesto, helping restructure that San Joaquin Valley city’s public works department.

And a third man once served as the city manager of Eureka, after spending much of his career as a government administrator in Colorado.

Oxnard City Council members are expected today to offer one of these three candidates the job of city manager, ending a nearly yearlong search for a top administrator.

“I think we’ll be narrowing it down to one person,” City Councilman Dean Maulhardt said. “I think you’ll see something very quickly. I don’t think there’s a lot to negotiate.”

Council members said they anticipate a top choice to emerge from today’s discussion, but stopped short of naming their preferences.

Culled from an initial list of 33 candidates, the three finalists are Edmund F. Sotelo, assistant city manager in Pasadena; Richard Ramirez, Modesto’s interim public works director, and John Arnold, a former Eureka city manager.

Officials here have been searching for a new top administrator since City Manager Tom Frutchey was fired on a 3-2 vote last February amid accusations that he tyrannized employees with an autocratic style.

Last month, council members got closer to a decision by interviewing the three finalists at City Hall. In recent days, at the council’s request, an executive search firm has rechecked the backgrounds of all three.

Oxnard’s new city manager will oversee a local government with 1,000 employees and an annual budget of about $120 million. And the new official will arrive at a time when the city is wrestling with some long-term planning issues, such as proposed growth limits to protect farmland, as well as a major redevelopment project aimed at declaring a 2,600-acre district blighted and in need of economic revitalization.

“I hope we can resolve this tomorrow,” City Councilman John Zaragoza said Monday. “The budget is coming around, and we have the redevelopment, the urban limit lines. We have quite a few big-ticket items coming up.”

Council members have said that they want an administrator with extensive municipal-management experience, something all three finalists possess.

Mayor Manuel Lopez said that beyond experience, he wants a city manager capable of reaching out to Oxnard’s substantial population of ethnic minorities.

The mayor said he sees that quality in Sotelo, who before coming to Pasadena was the city manager of Colton in San Bernardino County for one year and rose to assistant city manager during a 22-year stint in Compton. Sotelo, 52, was an Army drill instructor during the 1960s at Fort Ord. He makes $115,000 a year as Pasadena’s assistant city manager.

Lopez noted that Sotelo has headed numerous outreach programs aimed at getting minorities involved in city government. The mayor said that similar efforts are needed in Oxnard, where many ethnic groups view redevelopment as a government tool to clear out poor people and make way for upscale projects.

“He has some experience with diverse people. That’s a real plus,” Lopez said of Sotelo, who is of Mexican descent. “I think you have to be able to work with the people you’re dealing with.”

Sotelo said Monday that he wants the Oxnard job badly. He said he has outgrown his role in Pasadena, where he has helped organize traffic and police plans for big events at the Rose Bowl. In his daily duties, he works on the city budget, labor negotiations and numerous City Council issues.

The Pasadena official said he sees potential for smaller-scale tourist events in Oxnard, noting that the city already hosts the annual Strawberry Festival and wants to better promote its Performing Arts Center.

At the same time, Sotelo said he realizes Oxnard is much poorer than Pasadena, a city of 135,000 with an annual budget of $380 million.

“I think Oxnard has a very diverse community, from farm workers to engineers,” Sotelo said. “It has dramatic opportunity for growth, tourist trade, manufacturing--a variety of growth.”

Sotelo said he has come to Oxnard many times, both on business and just to visit.

“It’s time to move on and fulfill my career,” Sotelo added. “Oxnard is really what I’ve always wanted. It’s my kind of community.”

Sotelo’s tenure in Pasadena has included some controversy, including allegations from a female employee at the city-owned Rose Bowl that he did nothing to punish Rose Bowl Manager Dave Jacobs after Jacobs was accused of sexual harassment. Sotelo would not discuss the issue, citing pending litigation.

Zaragoza said that Oxnard council members have not discussed that issue. Like Lopez, he had plenty of praise for Sotelo.

“I think we’re a diverse city, and he’ll fit well in the community, working in the neighborhoods up to the business people,” Zaragoza said. “I think he’d be a well-rounded city manager.”

Ramirez and Arnold, the other two candidates, could not be reached for comment.

Ramirez has been city manager in Lincoln in Northern California, and Paso Robles, and now makes $2,200 a week as interim public works director in Modesto.

Officials there said that Ramirez made it clear that he was looking for a permanent job as city manager somewhere when he took the interim post in May.

Arnold, meanwhile, was city manager in Eureka from 1992 to 1995. According to Eureka officials, Arnold worked for years in Colorado, specializing in transportation issues. Since 1995, he has been doing consulting work in communities on the West Coast, officials said.

City Councilman Tom Holden said that council members have been instructed by the city attorney not to publicly discuss the individual candidates’ qualifications.

But he said that in interviews, all three men spoke highly of the sweeping restructuring that Frutchey implemented before being fired.

Council members said that once an offer is made, both sides will have to agree on salary terms. The previous city manager made $110,247 a year.