City Manager Dale Shaddox on Monday announced his resignation
from Hollister, a revelation that shocked City Council members and
a handful of other officials previously unaware of his
decision.
City Manager Dale Shaddox on Monday announced his resignation from Hollister, a revelation that shocked City Council members and a handful of other officials previously unaware of his decision.
By resigning Monday, Shaddox met that day’s deadline to take advantage of an early retirement package offered to further reduce the strain on the city’s budget.
The early retirement incentive offered to 38 eligible employees was coupled with the Council’s approval in January of a plan to lay off 36 employees. Together, they could save about $2.5 million.
Ultimately, the city manager attributed his resignation after one year of service to that 21-percent cut to the workforce, and its agonizing effect on his emotions. Shaddox, 52, called his decision personal.
He hopes, he said, his departure may save two or three others’ jobs.
“I don’t feel comfortable maintaining my employment status in this city and at the same time telling 36 people they’ve got no job,” Shaddox said.
He went on: “Most of them have worked here for a long (time). Many of them have grown up here. They have families and friends, their homes. Their entire life is here, and we don’t have any other jobs in Hollister to go to.”
His resignation will take effect May 11, one day after his 53rd birthday, he said. That will slightly boost his annual pay under the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. He has worked in city government for 30 years.
Shaddox said he plans to move to Oregon, where he owns a home. Regarding the future, he said he has no specific career plans – only that he’s leaving open options in both the public and private sectors.
Shaddox was previously city manager of Cotati from 2000 to 2003 and Yreka from 1995 to 2000. Before that, he held several administrative roles in other California cities.
He first told Hollister Council members of his intention to essentially retire during closed session preceding Monday night’s regular meeting. Prior to Monday, officials expected a relatively brief gathering – the only agenda item being a formality regarding the Hollister Independence Rally.
Walking out of closed chambers, Council members looked distraught. Mayor Tony Bruscia then gave a brief report.
“I’m very saddened, both personally and for the benefit of out community,” Bruscia said, “to report that our city manager, Dale Shaddox, has submitted a letter of resignation.”
Afterward, other Council members confirmed that those feelings were shared. And they, too, were complimentary of Shaddox’s short stay in Hollister.
“I’d really hate to see him go because he’s the best city manager this city’s ever seen,” Councilman Tony LoBue said.
Without Shaddox, Councilman Robert Scattini said, “We would have been a lot worse off.”
Shaddox arrived in May 2003 and, according to officials, has since discovered an array of financial miscues and mismanagement orchestrated by previous leadership.
They included, among others, a $1.5 million debt owed from San Benito Foods. The canning company uses the city’s industrial wastewater plant each peak season, but has not paid full invoices for several years. The two sides are currently in negotiations.
“The man,” Bruscia said, “has uncovered a lot of things and helped us deal with things we didn’t know were there.”
The resignation of the highly respected leader comes at an especially difficult time as the city prepares to hammer out next year’s budget – the prospects of which continually darken.
Moreover, officials are overseeing the building of a new sewer plant and most recently toiled through once gloomy prospects to prevent cancellation of the motorcycle rally.
Shaddox on Monday acknowledged that the city’s heap of pressures – aside from the layoffs – played into his decision.
“Some of it does,” Shaddox said. “But let me just clarify that – I also have a track record of solving problems in cities that are unique to that city.”
“Part of me,” said Bruscia, “wants to chain him into the chair and tell him he can’t leave.”
But Bruscia also said he understands. And he wasn’t surprised at Shaddox’s decision, he said, especially after Shaddox initially placed his city manager position on the list of proposed layoffs in early December. Bruscia, at the time, convinced him otherwise.
Bruscia also made a point to suppress potential suspicions of the resignation’s timing – being that Shaddox was instrumental in establishing the early retirement packages. Shaddox did not, he said, organize the plan with the intention, as a personal benefit, of retiring himself.
Though Shaddox has chewed over the thought of resigning since November, Shaddox said, he came to a final decision Sunday and drafted his letter of resignation Monday.
In the letter addressed to the Council, he points out that he entered the position unaware of “the breadth and severity of the many issues facing the City of Hollister.”
He mentioned his reasons for leaving and finished the letter with “strategic actions” – for the Council to consider as he departs – to help Hollister climb out of its financial predicament.
Those policies include implementing the layoff plan; updating the city’s fee system; completing financing of the new wastewater plant through sewer bonds; considering placing proposals on the November ballot to raise taxes; and preparing a “contingency plan” to entertain a second layoff for 2005-06.
Shaddox on Monday said the city must erase about $6 million off next year’s budget to break even. That number has continually risen since last July’s budget sessions.
Most recently, officials learned of an additional $1.2 million hole. Shaddox said they overestimated interest earned from the General Fund – by not figuring in the fund’s steep decline and, therefore, its proportionally dwindling interest return.
To make up part of the difference, the layoff plan would shave about $1.8 million in 2004-05. And he hopes the Council and voters support ballot measures to raise taxes – which would generate up to $2 million in savings, he said.
But that would leave about $2 million to make up – a problem Shaddox, known for his financial wizardry, doesn’t know how to solve.
That’s the optimistic outlook. And that’s why another layoff may be necessary, he said.
Shaddox said he has been fortunate to maintain solid relationships with Council members – in Hollister, Yreka and Cotati – through the years.
Harold Berkemeier, a Cotati City Councilman since 1992, said Shaddox always offered a “bundle of ideas” from which to choose.
“I’ve been in city government for 23 years,” Berkemeier said Monday. “Out of all the city managers, he’s probably the most energetic person I’ve ever worked with.”
