Oceanside continues to lose leaders

By: BEN FRUMIN - Staff Writer | Saturday, July 23, 2005 10:57 PM PDT ∞

OCEANSIDE ---- One by one, they've trickled out of Oceanside City Hall during the last year, leaving holes at the top of massive city departments ---- vacancies that have yet to be filled on a permanent basis.

And when fire Chief Robert Osby brought a close Friday to his service in this city of 175,000, he became the fifth city department head to leave Oceanside since last fall, and the fourth to sever ties with the city since then-Councilman Jim Wood ousted then-Mayor Terry Johnson in last November's mayoral race.

Osby told the North County Times on Thursday that City Manager Steve Jepsen asked him to resign ---- a request that Osby said he thought the mayor was behind. Wood said he had nothing to do with Osby's departure.

While the exodus of Oceanside's leaders isn't atypical in North County ---- Vista and Carlsbad have each lost several high-level employees in the last 12 months ---- some area cities haven't had to replace any department heads in years.

The series of Oceanside adieus began last September, when Carol Swindell said she was abdicating her post as finance director to take an administrative job in Walnut Creek. Two months later, Anita Willis announced she was resigning as Oceanside's city attorney to take a job in Inglewood.

Then, in January, Ana Alvarez relinquished her post as Oceanside's Parks and Recreation director to become the community services director for the city of Santa Fe Springs. A month later, then-police Chief Mike Poehlman left town to take a job as the chief of police in Reno, Nev.

Councilman Jack Feller said last week that it seems "mysteriously coincidental" that so many Oceanside leaders have resigned since Wood took office, saying the city's "direction and leadership is in question amongst (its) staff."

"You're talking about a group of highly educated individuals that must have (had) some premonition of a big change in store," Feller said.

Another prediction

Ex-Mayor Terry Johnson was predicting such changes more than a year ago, when he said the job security of Alvarez, Osby and Poehlman was dependent on Johnson's re-election last November.

Johnson made those comments during a May 2004 taping of the interview program "Voice of Oceanside" on nonprofit television station KOCT, saying those three employees were among several department heads in danger of being fired unless the then-mayor was re-elected.

Johnson suggested then, and several times since, that a Wood-led council majority would pressure the city manager into forcing those department heads out of office.

Last spring, Wood called Johnson's theory "preposterous."

More recently, Wood has tried to distance himself from Osby's departure, saying it's up to the city manager to handle personnel issues.

"I don't have any control of the department heads," the mayor said, noting that the council only has hiring and firing authority of the city attorney and city manager. All other department heads answer to Jepsen.

"They have the right to leave, go, take a better job, be closer to their family and friends, and do whatever they want to do," Wood said.

Swindell and Willis

Two of Oceanside's departed managers said last week that they left this coastal city of 175,000 for better opportunities and not because of an uncomfortable political climate.

Ex-City Attorney Willis, who grew up in Los Angeles, said taking a job as Inglewood's city attorney has brought her closer to her friends and family, and has let her dig into the "big-city issues" Inglewood deals with.

Though Willis announced she was leaving Oceanside just days after Wood was elected mayor, she said she felt no pressure to resign. Willis said she would have sat back and waited for the council to fire her if that was the majority's intent, because getting discharged would have meant 18 months of severance pay.

Swindell noted that she left Oceanside before Wood became mayor.

"There really isn't any connection with that," Swindell said, adding that she and her husband had been wanting to move to the San Francisco Bay Area since his retirement last year from the Navy. The former Oceansider said her new job also gives her a "broader set of responsibilities" than she had as this city's finance director.

Alvarez and Poehlman did not return phone calls seeking comment last week.

Regional turnover

Oceanside isn't the only North County city to lose high-level employees in the last 12 months. Rick Dudley, Vista's assistant city manager, said his city of 94,000 saw several department heads retire in the last year, including the city attorney, city clerk, and heads of the Finance, Public Works and Community Services departments.

Dudley said that retirement plans of most of those managers had been common knowledge for several years, allowing Vista plenty of time to prepare and find replacements. Dudley noted that while many Vista department heads have recently retired, it's been six or seven years since his city lost a high-level manager to a similar or better position in another city.

Carlsbad has had a similar wave of retirements in recent months. Since December, the assistant city manager, deputy public works director, planning director, library director and assistant library director have retired, or declared their intention to retire, said Carlsbad spokeswoman Denise Vedder.

All had been with Carlsbad for at least 20 years, Vedder said. No Carlsbad department head has left the city in the last three years with the declared intent of taking a job with another public agency, said Julie Clark, Carlsbad's human resources director.

Encinitas, on the other hand, lost two department managers to other cities in recent months, with Public Works Director Lin Wurbs taking a job as National City's assistant city manager, and Finance Director Leslie Browder signing on as deputy finance director in Austin, Texas.

Encinitas City Manager Kerry Miller said both Wurbs and Browder left Encinitas "to accept, certainly, much higher-paying positions. You can't fault them in the least."

Miller said that in his six years with Encinitas, he's never had more than two department heads leave in a 12-month period.

Solana Beach City Manager Barry Johnson said three of his high-level employees have left in recent months: City Attorney Celia Brewer, Assistant City Manager Matt Rodriguez and Finance Director Gavin Cohen.

Inland stability

Poway hasn't lost a department head in about five years, said City Manager Jim Bowersox, who is retiring at year's end.

Bowersox, who has been Poway's city manager for nearly a quarter-century, said he's never lost more than three department heads in the span of any 12-month period.

"I've had great tenure over the years," Bowersox said, adding that Poway stands to soon "lose a bunch" of high-level employees who are nearing retirement age.

Escondido, Poway's neighbor to the north, "has not experienced any kind of remarkable turnover in high-level management employees recently," said Jack Anderson, Escondido's assistant city manager.

Escondido's information systems director retired in 2003, and the city clerk retired in 2001, Anderson said. It's been nearly six years since Escondido lost a department head to another public agency, Anderson said.

The city official, who's spent 25 years with Escondido and 10 more with two other southern California cities, said he's never experienced a 12-month period when any of those cities lost five department heads.

As far as North County goes, it's San Marcos, the fastest-growing city in the area, that appears to be the best at hanging onto its management team.

San Marcos hasn't had to replace a department or division head in at least 12 years, said Paul Malone, assistant city manager.

"We see that as a positive in a rapidly-growing community," Malone said. "It's really important to have that continuity and that history."

Malone said that were San Marcos to lose department leaders, they would "take a ton of institutional memory out the door with them" that's "almost irreplaceable."

Contact staff writer Ben Frumin at (760) 901-4067 or bfrumin@nctimes.com.

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