Jepsen leaves triumphant Oceanside troika

By:North County Times - Editorial | Thursday, June 1, 2006 8:44 PM PDT ∞

Our view: Council majority pushes city manager out frequently used exit

With Tuesday's resignation of Oceanside City Manager Steve Jepsen, the housecleaning is complete. Jepsen's departure leaves Oceanside City Hall less professional and more political ---- much as the ruling troika seems to want it. Who the three-vote City Council majority taps to take over for the accomplished Jepsen will say a lot about the city's direction. So will the amount of insulation from the council's political concerns that he or she is granted.

Jepsen's exit can't be surprising to anyone familiar with Oceanside's ever-roiling political scene. Since the November 2004 election, almost every top city official has fled Oceanside for greener pastures. The list of casualties includes: fire chief, police chief, parks and recreation director, city attorney, interim city attorney, finance director, planning director and most recently, transportation manager.

That April resignation of Transportation Manager Frank Watanabe came as Watanabe's work for the city and with a former city employee came under close scrutiny. In March, Councilwoman Esther Sanchez accused Jepsen and Watanabe of allowing a developer to cut corners on a residential project at Barnwell Street, after tests revealed dirt improperly imported to the site from the city's parking garage project was tainted with toxic substances. The city is conducting an investigation of Watanabe's work, but Jepsen's role remains unclear.

Both Jepsen and Watanabe worked in Concord before they were hired by Oceanside. At best, Jepsen appears to have been overly trusting of Watanabe, accepting the traffic chief's word that Watanabe wasn't pursuing outside business with a woman also working on Oceanside traffic contracts.

But whatever that city probe reveals, Jepsen played a major part in Oceanside's progress. The city's downtown took several steps toward a new vitality under his watch. Significant progress was made toward realizing Oceanside's long-frustrated desire for a snazzy new hotel to anchor its downtown waterfront.

We were struck by Jepsen's command of the city's finances and professional demeanor, even when we vehemently disagreed with him. Jepsen presided over a series of contract giveaways that dutifully rewarded the public-employee unions whose legwork and donations propelled the council majority ---- Mayor Jim Wood, Esther Sanchez and Shari Mackin ---- into office. The fire department got raises ranging from 14.7 percent to 19.1 percent in March; the police department got 12.4 percent to 16.8 percent in January.

Jepsen said the state retirement system's sound investments would fund the political payback. We think Oceanside's taxpayers of today and tomorrow will be footing the multimillion-dollar bill for the vastly inflated pension liability they got instead of more public-safety personnel.

Jepsen will start a similar job in Yuba City outside Sacramento later this month; we wish him well. But his successor will need even more luck if he or she is to withstand the political pressure being liberally applied by the Oceanside City Council. A city manager is always pushed by a council, but this council has a habit of pushing its people out the door.