After a year-and-a-half of operating with an acting city manager
who is paid by the hour, San Juan Bautista is moving toward again
making the position permanent.
For the past month, the city has advertised the position on its
Web site, with an application deadline of Dec. 28. However, since
only one person
– acting city manager Steve Julian – has applied so far, the
deadline has been extended into this month.
After a year-and-a-half of operating with an acting city manager who is paid by the hour, San Juan Bautista is moving toward again making the position permanent.
For the past month, the city has advertised the position on its Web site, with an application deadline of Dec. 28. However, since only one person – acting city manager Steve Julian – has applied so far, the deadline has been extended into this month.
City Clerk Trish Paetz said the deadline will likely be extended through the end of January, while she also advertises the job with the League of California Cities.
Mayor Ed Laverone said the idea of re-posting the city manager’s job as permanent was solidified after a September review of Julian, who was hired for the interim, $45.43-per-hour job in June 2008.
“Nobody’s perfect but he’s doing an exceptional job,” Laverone said of Julian. “He’s the most experienced person we’ve ever had as city manager. He could probably run any city in the state. His ability to get things done is very good.”
Laverone, while not guaranteeing who would get the job, said that the council believes that a city manager will be more effective and invested in his or her decisions if that person is a permanent employee.
“You’ve got to give someone a feeling of permanency,” he said. “I’m sure Julian will say that all city managers are temporary because they serve at the will of the city council, but (removing the interim tag from the job) gives the person an ability to move things forward. I see some people in interim positions not wanting to make changes that need to be done without knowing they’ll be here to see their changes through.”
Julian could not be reached for comment by press time.
Laverone said the city council did not expect to have an interim city manager for so long, “but with the infrastructure project moving we didn’t want to shake things up.”
San Juan Councilman Rick Edge, the town’s previous mayor, said he, too, sees value in having the city manager’s job be permanent.
“There’s something about putting ‘acting’ in front of someone’s title that diminishes their effectiveness,” he said, noting that the move should not be seen as a reflection of the council’s opinion of Julian. “We have to find someone permanent for the job, whether it’s him or someone else.”
Julian commutes to San Juan from Coalinga, where he served as city manager before being fired for refusing to fire the police chief, whom the city council did not support. He filed a $1.8 million claim for wrongful termination and reached a settlement of about $225,000, according to The Fresno Bee.
Asked if the city manager should be a resident of San Juan or San Benito County, Edge said, “the majority of people in San Benito County work commute to jobs outside the area, so I don’t think the fact that he doesn’t live in San Juan or Hollister is an issue.
“When you hire somebody for a position like that and they are of a level of ability to take on that kind of job, they don’t need to be managed as to when they punch the clock.”
Laverone said the council believes the city manager’s job “when done right, probably isn’t a 40-hour-a-week job.”
“We do have a concern that we need someone in the office when he’s not in, so we’re looking at coming up with a city planner position that’s in-house,” Laverone said. “That person would also assist the city manager when (the manager) is not in the office.”
The mayor credited Julian with repairing San Juan’s working relationship with the county, the City of Hollister and the county water district.
“I’m very happy with what he’s done,” Laverone said, noting that the city’s infrastructure and water system improvement project should be done by April. “Things are moving that have been stalled at least two years.”
