San Fernando Council Hires New Administrator

Less than a month after its city administrator resigned, San Fernando has found a replacement in Jose E. Pulido, the economic and community development manager for Montebello, San Fernando officials said Wednesday.

The City Council unanimously approved Pulido’s contract Tuesday, Councilman Richard Ramos said. He could start as early as next week.

City Administrator John Ornelas resigned in early August after three years. He was the third high-ranking city employee to leave since an anti-development majority was seated on the five-member City Council headed by Mayor Cindy Montanez.

The mayor’s opponents speculate she is conducting a citywide housecleaning, which she denies.

Montanez was out of town Wednesday and unavailable to comment. Ramos, a Montanez opponent, said he was disappointed that Pulido was the only candidate interviewed for the job. But he was optimistic that Pulido, who grew up in San Fernando, would serve the city well.

“He lived here a lot of years. The guy does know the community,” Ramos said. “He’d done a lot of projects in Montebello that we’d like to see done here. He’d gone out for a lot of grant funds.”

Pulido, 36, who lives in Los Angeles, earned his undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley and received a master’s in urban planning from UCLA. Among his accomplishments during nine years with the city of Montebello, he said, was the oversight of the Lohart neighborhood revitalization project, which used public and private money to establish a community center in one of the city’s most blighted neighborhoods.

“I’m coming home,” Pulido said Wednesday. “I grew up [in San Fernando], and my family still lives there. . . . My accountability will be with my immediate family.”

Ornelas never gave a reason for his resignation, but Montanez supporters had accused him of playing favorites. Pulido said he was aware of the politics in San Fernando but said he would strive to remain neutral.