Former Hollister City Manager Roger Grimsley was named San Juan
Bautista’s interim city manager during a special city council
meeting on Tuesday.
Former Hollister City Manager Roger Grimsley was named San Juan Bautista’s interim city manager during a special city council meeting on Tuesday.
Grimsley, 71, was Hollister’s city manager, director of public works and planning director between 1972 and 1982 and from 1983-85 did part-time work as city administrator and public works administrator for San Juan.
Mayor Andy Moore cited Grimsley’s knowledge of the Mission City, from the recent water infrastructure and sewer treatment plant projects to the undergrounding of electrical services on Third Street years ago.
“He’s somebody that knows the city, knows public works, he’s an engineer and he knows a lot of people in the community,” Moore said. “All of his personal and job references were really splendid. He’s a hard worker and a good person.”
The council is expected to post the city manager’s job opening as a full-time position in the next few months, according to Moore, who said the interim city manager will be paid “substantially less” than Stephen Julian, who made $10,000 per month before resigning in late May.
Specifics of the contract were not immediately available.
“We’ve got a lot for (Grimsley) to do,” Moore said. “We’ll get him in there and within a couple months we’ll get back at it. We want to take our time to get somebody in there. I believe he doesn’t want to stay more than five or six months.”
The city “made it clear that it was going to be an interim city manager position, and (Grimsley) doesn’t want the full-time job,” Moore said of Grimsley.
Grimsley, who retired nearly four years ago from the Hollister engineering firm he and his wife ran, started working in San Juan on Wednesday morning.
“Like with any retirement, you get a little bored,” Grimsley said. “(Councilman) Tony Boch and Andy Moore asked me if I’d come over and help out. It’s reinvigorating and I love to work with people. San Juan is a unique city with rich history. It’s a really enjoyable thing to meet all of the demands of a city and serve the community.”
Grimsley said he hopes to help the city take advantage of its historic business district, state park and Mission, all of which are tourist draws.
“They have a great downtown business district, so we’ll see if we can help bring business to them, utilizing the state park and church as a foothold,” he said. “My first job is to get the council to give me some direction.”
He has asked each council member to give him a list of their priorities, which he said will then be framed into a “list of meaningful tasks.”
“San Juan is a diamond in the rough with rich history,” Grimsley said. “It’s the oldest city in San Benito County. We want to really capture that essence and bring in a lot of tourists and activities that’ll promote better sales to restaurants and community establishments.”
In 1990, San Juan Bautista was earning national headlines for what some called its Wild West ways as three council members were ousted in a recall and the county district attorney won a conviction of Police Chief Lonny Greywolf Hurlbut for conspiracy and tampering with evidence.
Grimsley was caught up in the controversy when, as a private engineer contracted as San Juan’s city engineer, he faced a misdemeanor count of obstructing an investigation by the state Department of Consumer Affairs. According to media reports at the time, Grimsley was accused of failing to tell a state investigator that he had inspected a building where the investigator had been looking into suspected building code violations.
Grimsley pleaded not guilty to the charges, which were eventually dropped by the district attorney’s office.
With another opportunity to serve San Juan, Grimsley said he “is very excited about the job and getting involved in running the city.”
He has committed to work as interim city manager for three to six months, though he said “if they need a few more months, that’s fine with me. I have the flexibility to adjust my schedule.”
Grimsley said he plans to be in the office five to six days per week “practicing normal office hours so I’m available to the citizens and the city council.”
