Oxnard, New City Manager Aim to Share a Fresh Start

Community leaders welcomed new City Manager Edmund F. Sotelo to town Thursday, predicting that the longtime bureaucrat would bring strong leadership to Oxnard’s 1,000-employee work force.

Sotelo, an assistant city manager in Pasadena who began his municipal career as a heavy equipment operator in Compton, was scheduled to spend the day here working out details of his salary and contract with the city.

Sotelo, 52, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Although Sotelo has endured some controversy during a 30-year government career, City Councilman John Zaragoza said Oxnard has made a strong new hire.

“We’ve got a lot of [Pasadena] council persons calling us up saying he’s really trustworthy, he’s really good,” Zaragoza said. “We have a lot of major projects, and we need to bring some more jobs to Oxnard. That’s why we need this guy.”

Zaragoza said that the city’s executive search firm did an extensive background check on Sotelo, a former assistant city manager in Compton. He also served for one year as Colton’s city manager before leaving for Pasadena after a salary dispute.

The new city manager began his government career 30 years ago, driving tractors for Compton and working on construction projects. He moved into administration and earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at night.

In Compton, Sotelo impressed his bosses with a strong work ethic, showing up for his blue-collar job every day at 5:30 a.m., said Maxcy Filer, a former Compton city councilman.

“He gave a full day’s work, which many civil servants don’t do,” Filer said. “He was active, fair and had integrity.”

Sotelo gained experience in numerous areas in Compton, including economic redevelopment and labor negotiations. He was among several Compton officials whose relatives got jobs in City Hall--in his case, a brother who is now a maintenance supervisor and a nephew who is a firefighter. That trend led to accusations from Compton union officials that nepotism was rampant in City Hall.

But Filer said the Sotelos got their jobs legitimately and have been superior workers.

“There’s nothing to hide,” he said. “They’re all tremendous.”

Sotelo left as city manager in Colton after council members in the San Bernardino County city rejected his request for a 20% raise, to $102,000.

In Pasadena, Sotelo has won praise for shouldering a heavy workload, heading oversight of big Rose Bowl events and running the personnel department.

But Sotelo ran into controversy there as well. He became a target of complaints after he and a delegation traveled to the 1992 Super Bowl in Minneapolis at taxpayer expense.

Sotelo later explained that the trip was necessary to gather information, because he was charged with planning the 1993 Super Bowl at the Rose Bowl.

Morris Lucy, a union official who represents about 250 Pasadena public works employees, said Sotelo is even-handed in labor negotiations.

“I find him to be very honest, aboveboard and without character flaw,” Lucy said. “He’s a little tough, but he’s fair and honest because he’s come up through the ranks as a blue-collar employee.”

Pasadena Mayor Chris Holden agreed that Sotelo is hard-working, and noted that City Manager Phil Hawkey has loaded him up with controversial issues. For instance, Holden said, Sotelo was put in charge of resolving a dispute with local Pasadena vendors who said the city gave them short shrift in handing out licenses to work during the 1994 World Cup, hosted at the Rose Bowl. Hawkey did not return phone calls.

“I would say that our city manager probably overloaded him with responsibility, and didn’t give him enough authority to be the kind of decision maker necessary to get things done,” Holden said. “I think that environment burned him out. . . . But that was out of his control.”

Sotelo said earlier this week that he has outgrown his Pasadena job and longed to be the man in charge at Oxnard City Hall.

“Oxnard is really what I’ve always wanted,” he said. “It’s my kind of community.”

Meanwhile, Latino leaders in Oxnard on Thursday continued to express happiness that council members picked a Latino city manager. Sotelo is of Mexican descent.

But Zaragoza and interim City Manager Prisilla Hernandez said Sotelo’s ethnicity had nothing to do with his hiring.

“It could have been an Anglo guy, an Oriental guy, but I want a guy that’s going to help us in the community,” the councilman said.

The search firm of Hughes, Perry & Associates of Sea Ranch will be paid $19,000 by the city for recruiting Sotelo. Perry said Sotelo will probably receive a salary in the $110,000- to $140,000-per-year range. He earned a base salary of $115,000 in Pasadena.

The same search firm recruited former Oxnard City Manager Tom Frutchey. Frutchey, who came to Oxnard as an assistant city manager, eventually rose to the top job.

Frutchey drew criticism for restructuring and downsizing at City Hall. He was fired by a divided City Council 11 months ago--a move that set in motion the recent search.

Frutchey, now an Oxnard businessman, said Thursday that he was not surprised that Sotelo has his detractors in Pasadena.

“Councils change, communities change, and when you’re trying to accomplish things, there are times nobody agrees,” Frutchey said. “That’s to be expected. Nobody’s going to have a smooth path their whole career.”