City council hires an interim city manager
San Juan Bautista city council members hired an interim city
manager, Stephen Julian, at a city council meeting on June 17, a
month after firing former city manager Jan McClintock.
City council hires an interim city manager
San Juan Bautista city council members hired an interim city manager, Stephen Julian, at a city council meeting on June 17, a month after firing former city manager Jan McClintock.
Julian has 40 years of city management experience.
“I like this little town,” Julian said. “It has an awful lot to offer.”
Although he retired 12 years ago, he went back to work as city manager in three different cities and ran a consulting business part time.
“I retired a couple of times,” Julian said. “Part of it is that the retirement I’ve got is a small income because I took an early retirement.”
He worked in Coalinga, Dana Point and Mammoth Lakes most recently. All three are small cities, but San Juan is quite a bit smaller, Julian said.
“Mammoth Lakes is a tourist town,” Julian said. “A city like that, you are going to have 35,000 people there during the summer. Dana point is a city of about 20,000.”
One of his biggest accomplishments was in Mammoth Lake, Julian said.
“In Mammoth Lakes I think I worked fairly effectively to secure a $26 million grant from the FAA for the airport,” Julian said.
Since Julian and his wife own a 20-acre ranch in Coalinga that is home to a variety of animals, including horses, goats and guinea hens, they will not be moving to San Benito County. He will commute the 125 miles one way to San Juan.
“Primary reason is just that I like to work and I need to work,” Julian said. “I’m generally going to be working at least 40 hours per week. It may not exactly be always five days in a row.”
He and his wife have moved four times in five years, Julian said.
“I can’t ask her to move again,” Julian said.
Julian does not know if he will stay on as San Juan’s city manager.
“He wasn’t hired with the intent to be permanent,” said Ed Laverone, a San Juan city council member. “Depending on what happens, I don’t think we’d bar him from applying.”
City council members do not yet have a plan for recruiting a permanent city manager, Laverone said.
“I would expect us to address that at the next city council meeting in July,” Laverone said.
The goal is to have a permanent city manager by September, but council members do not want to rush the process, Laverone said.
There were 11 applicants for the interim city manager job, Laverone said. Five of the applicants had previous experience as a city manager, he said.
“He has more experience than all the other city manager’s we’ve ever had, combined,” Laverone said.
So far, Julian is working out very well, said Pricilla Hill, San Juan’s mayor.
“He is very experienced and we are blessed to have him,” Hill said.
Although the position was advertised, Julian heard about it through friends.
“Word travels fairly fast in public circles,” Julian said.
The biggest issue facing San Juan residents is money.
“This town is never going to have a Home Depot,” Julian said. “For a lot of cities, those are the big money-makers. I’m accustomed to small cities who don’t want that.”
To deal with some of the code enforcement issues, city officials in San Juan Capistrano formed a redevelopment agency. A redevelopment agency (RDA) does not directly create a new tax, Julian said. It captures tax dollars that would otherwise go to other agencies.
“State law already provides for an RDA; the city council just has to activate it,” Julian said.
The base taxable value of property in the RDA boundaries is established when city officials establish the RDA, Julian said. The city gains tax dollars from the increase in property value, Julian said.
“You didn’t have to tear buildings down,” Julian said.
He does not know what might be right for San Juan residents, Julian said.
“I’d be presumptuous for me to say, ‘I’ve got this big idea,'” Julian said. “There’s no magic. The only magic I know of is hard work.”
Julian has one thing in common with former city manager Jan McClintock – he was fired from his last job as the city manager of Coalinga.
“I’ll tell you why I think I was fired,” Julian said. “They had asked me to fire the chief of police, and they had some allegations that needed to be investigated. They just wanted me to fire him without proper procedure and I wasn’t about to fire anyone. It was against state law. I play it straight.”
Before moving to Coalinga, he insisted on a four-year contract.
“They’d been firing city managers left and right,” Julian said.
He was fired after two and a half years, Julian said.
“I have a claim against the city,” Julian said.
Litigation is on-going, Julian said.
