Chief County Manager Is Considering Retirement

Chief Administrative Officer Lin Koester has told the Ventura County Board of Supervisors that he is considering stepping down this year, possibly before the budget process is concluded in June, a supervisor said Tuesday.

Koester told board members about his plan several weeks ago, said Supervisor John K. Flynn.

“He has expressed to the whole board that he was thinking about retiring sometime this year, probably the first part of the year,” Flynn said.

Koester, 57, declined Tuesday to say when his departure will occur. He insisted that he has not made a firm decision.

“I have told the board I was considering retiring in the near future,” he said. “But I have not set a date.”

Colleagues privately say that Koester has been talking about leaving for months. One said Koester, the county’s top executive for nearly four years, wants out partly because of the increasing friction among supervisors, especially over a controversial merger of the county’s welfare and mental health agencies.

“He said he didn’t know how long he was going to put up with this stuff,” said a colleague who asked not to be identified.

But Mike Sedell, who succeeded Koester as Simi Valley city manager, said Koester is simply considering his options.

“It has to do with what he wants for his own personal life, and other things he might accomplish elsewhere, more than any set of political circumstances,” Sedell said. “It would be wrong to say those pressures don’t have some impact, but they’re not the crux of the decision. It’s not his style to run from an issue.”

Koester hopes to take temporary jobs as an interim city and county manager in the last years of his career, Sedell said.

Koester said he never viewed his $150,456-a-year position as a long-term job. After serving as city manager of Simi Valley for 16 years, he was tapped to replace former county administrator Richard Wittenberg in May 1995.

*

Koester said then that he did not intend to hold the job longer than five years. Now in his fourth year, “I’m in the ballpark,” Koester said. “But I enjoy my job very much and still feel very productive.”

His contract expires July 16, an official in the auditor-controller’s office said.

Last April, Koester found himself in the middle of a political furor when three supervisors--Flynn, Susan Lacey and Kathy Long--voted to merge mental health and social services into a single Human Services Agency.

Supervisors Frank Schillo and Judy Mikels voted against it, saying the decision was made too quickly and without sufficient study.

Indeed, Koester, who recommended keeping the agencies separate because of potential funding problems, followed the direction of the board majority, but remained concerned.

In December, as the merger controversy came to a head, he signed the county’s annual Medicare billing documents to be sent to federal authorities, but added a so-called disclosure statement that acknowledged the merger might have violated federal regulations.

“I’m being cautious,” he explained at the time. “Telling the truth, that’s the name of the game.” The supervisors subsequently backed away from the controversial merger.

*

That is the essential Koester, Sedell said.

“He felt it was his job to warn them, and to stand by his opinions when it’s appropriate, and that’s what he did there,” Sedell said.

When Koester arrived, he was touted by supporters as a chief executive who could bring a steady hand to a politically charged, financially battered county government.

Koester was hired for his record as a no-nonsense fiscal conservative who helped transform Simi Valley from a nearly bankrupt town into a financially stable city over nearly 17 years, officials said.

From the start, Koester has dealt with a philosophically split Board of Supervisors. The board even hired him on a 3-2 vote, with Lacey and then-Supervisor Maggie Kildee dissenting. They said they preferred someone with more recent county experience.

Koester, a Republican, replaced Wittenberg, a Democrat who accepted a similar job in Santa Clara County. Unlike Wittenberg, Koester has also taken a hands-on role in all areas of government, personally involving himself in everything from libraries to public works projects.

Staff writer Daryl Kelley contributed to this story.