Oxnard Council Debates Fate of City Manager’s Contract

OXNARD — After several hours of discussion, the City Council had not decided late Tuesday night whether to renew City Manager Tom Frutchey’s employment contract.

Though council members said they hoped to reach a final decision before the night ended, they met in a second closed-door session after the regular council meeting to further discuss and evaluate Frutchey’s job performance.

Prior to the first closed session, more than a dozen speakers voiced their opinions about the besieged city manager.

“To blame Mr. Frutchey for following your direction is like punishing my child for doing something I told him to do,” said resident Pat Simmons. “I believe Mr. Frutchey has done a good job and deserves to continue serving as our Oxnard city manager.”

But others, such as Bill Gallaher, president of the Oxnard Firefighters Assn., said Frutchey has been unresponsive to city employees.

“We are not able to provide the quality of service that the city of Oxnard has experienced in the past. Our membership feels this is as a direct result of the city manager’s lack of support for our entire department,” he said.

One resident urged the council to take its time in evaluating Frutchey’s job performance before making a decision. Retiree Joe Ruscio said that while there are problems with the city’s administration, Frutchey has also made several improvements.

“There are some things that stink, others that are great,” Ruscio said. “Don’t make a decision today. You should find out if it’s really working better.”

Frutchey’s employment contract expired in October, but city leaders opted to hold off making a decision until after the November elections.

Since December, campaigns for and against the city manager have heated up and the council has divided into camps, with Tom Holden and Dean Maulhardt backing Frutchey, while Mayor Manuel Lopez and John Zaragoza have led the charge against reinstating the embattled city manager. Bedford Pinkard was the sole councilman who had not taken a position before Tuesday’s meeting.

Frutchey came to Oxnard as assistant city manager in 1992 and was promoted to city manager the following year. At the direction of the council, Frutchey began to streamline the city’s bureaucracy through attrition and layoffs.

By 1994, city departments were cut from 16 to 9. Frutchey replaced the remaining departments with “programs” and department heads with “team leaders.” This “flattening” of the bureaucracy resulted in a 30% reduction in the work force and some highly publicized firings.

Though the reorganization was approved, the system was increasingly criticized by the public, city employees and some council members for creating leadership vacuums where nobody was held accountable.

City employees and some council members, such as Lopez, also complained that the new system concentrated too much power in the city manager’s hands. Lopez has publicly chided Frutchey for his signing a preliminary agreement with a minor league baseball team last fall without first notifying the council.

Many municipal employees also said the city manager has created a climate of fear where disagreement is not tolerated.

The council said that if it had not reached a decision on Frutchey’s contract, it did not expect to revisit the issue before its next meeting on Jan. 28.