This note on the Ojai Valley News site:
Unanimous Vote: Ojai City Manager Dismissed – Details Soon
OVN Reporting Kersnar Dismissed
Previous post: Anatomy of an Exhibit: Ojai Studio Artists “Made In Ojai VIII”
Next post: From The Mailbag: Spikes on Trees
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
OMG. Unbelievable. Progress afoot in City government.
Just confirmed it with a council member. It was a unanimous vote after the Council meeting last night. He is on Administrative Leave. A temporary city manager will be appointed while looking for a replacement.
It’ll be interesting to see how the new City Manager’s compensation package is structured, particularly in light of the salary scandal down in Bell, CA.
More here: http://ovnblog.com/?p=3086
And here: http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/jul/28/ojai-ousts-city-manager-for-undisclosed-reasons/
Noting “paid” administrative leave…
Paid Leave = Vacation.
This has been a long time coming…
I did keep hoping that problems could be resolved without it coming to this… This is the kind of situation where even if it’s the best decision under the circumstances, like a divorce, even when all parties involved feel a sense of relief… it gives a sad feeling…
Thank you City Council for realizing that the City Manager needed to go! I just wish that you had done it sooner.
Thank you city Council! Put his assistant in, from Santa Paula, he’s been doing a good job!! Now if Dick Cheney would topple over…
Nutmeg has some really bad karma.
This was an excellent move by the City Council! I only wish we knew the facts underlying the long overdue decision….
More details in the VC Star:
Ojai city manager can’t be let go before Sept. 6
Read more: http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/jul/29/ojai-official-cant-be-let-go-before-sept-6/
“Ninety days from the June 8 election is Sept. 6, meaning Kersnar could earn about $18,500 over the six weeks from Tuesday until the 90 days expire, according to a Star calculation.”
Can someone help me figure out why the Council could not give him some work to do until Sept. 6 –since they have to pay him anyway? (And the other question is who would make a contract like this with a new employee?)
Suza, the position of City Manager is pretty responsible. It takes a lot of qualification and experience. Jere Kersnar was selected from a field of 67. The selected candidate has to move their family, and make a serious commitment to the new job and community.
It is not an interchangeable function with loads of candidates who are up to speed in a month or two, like a Jiffy Lube technician, or a yoga instructor.
The article linked states that if the position was terminated outside the 90-day window, then Kersnar would be entitled to 9 months of severance. How would you expect anybody to make a commitment to this job if a capricious change in the political wind (or City Council opinion of priorities) allowed a termination?
Would you trust the judgment of a City Manager who had to base all their decisions on capricious changes? What if City Council represented a p.o.v. you disagreed with? Would you be ok with the City Manager clearing the way for new development and chain stores?
You don’t even know the reason for Kersnar’s apparent termination. Instead of claiming some kind of omniscience and foresight, how about waiting for information like the rest of us.
Dear Johnny Chingas,
I almost missed our Comment–read it just now.
You are so right that the position of City Manager is “pretty responsible. It takes a lot of qualification and experience.”
I was aware that “The article linked states that if the position was terminated outside the 90-day window, then Kersnar would be entitled to 9 months of severance.”
My Comment was spontaneous and not well thought out. I was thinking (admittedly unrealistically) that even though he was let go, since he was still being paid, he could put in some more hours. Just to be nice! And it’s possible that the transition process involves some work on his part.
For what it’s worth, I attend almost every single City Council meeting and the ones I miss I watch on video, so I have had a chance to observe Mr. Kersnar over the years. I have regular converstions with people who work with the City. So while I don’t know what tipped the scales, it’s only natural to speculate when information is not provided, as is the case here.
I don’t really understand your other questions so will let those be.
I have one other bone to pick and that is this statement:
“It is not an interchangeable function with loads of candidates who are up to speed in a month or two, like a Jiffy Lube technician, or a yoga instructor.”
I do not know how much training it takes to be a Jiffy Lube technician but it takes on average eight years to become a Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher (four years of personal practice and attending classes plus four years of formal teacher training that may include courses by medical doctors, physical therapists, other health professionals, anatomy, physiology, etc) at the Introductory Level. The Intermediate and Advanced certificates take on average ten to twenty years (often much longer).
The old days of getting a yoga teaching certificate over the week-end are fading away. Today’s Registered Yoga Teachers, thanks to National Organizations like Yoga Alliance, have gone through thousands of hours of training for a minimum of four years.
I hope you understand why I might like to point this out!
Dear Johnny Chingas,
I wrote you a nice reply a little while ago, but it is awaiting moderation.
Best wishes,
Suza
Two things: (1) Leave Suza be, you ignor-amus-es [-ani?] Her tone is consistently courteous; her opinions and viewpoints (most of which I wholly disagree with, by the by) consistently presented diplomatically; and, perhaps most importantly, SHE CONSISTENTLY EMPLOYS GOOD SPELLING AND GRAMMAR.
(2) It’s the CITY ATTORNEY/rhymes-with-”Wonte-Midders,” who needs, um—how would Suza say this? Rhymes-with-”kit-shanning?!”
Probably not, but that’s how I’D say it. I mean, really: How is it that an attorney who almost singlehandedly embodies the reason there are so many lawyer jokes represents THIS so-called Valhalla?
Indeed, “Wonte” is a consummate double-dipper—a fact that was most flagrantly in evidence during the City’s ill-advised “affordable housing” project’s planning stages. A fact SO evident I can hardly believe that, to date, no one’s come forth with home videos of “Wonte’s” off-camera, sotto voce chats with one of CEDC’s key players during City Council meeting “breaks.” (At the time, “Wonte” ALSO represented [perhaps still DOES represent?] above-mentioned key player, a.k.a., a MAJOR STAKEHOLDER in the projects, er, Project. (Although, in the years since Pearl & Bald Streets were made over into an “affordable housing” neighborhood, I see what Suza meant when she warned us 15 years ago about “Kar-ma-geddon” coming to town. Hell, even the local kooks then-against the Project were proved right: Not only have the units been sublet-to-the-hilt [in direct violation of the Rules for Tenancy], they have done absolutely ZILCH to improve the “quality of life” for LOWER INCOME, LOCALLY EMPLOYED RESIDENTS.)
In sum, “Midders, Esq.,” MUST GO!
Even if the fact that he thinks “pro bono” is a page out of the Kama Sutra speaks more to our fair City’s systemic corruption than it does to his stupidity…
Dear Madam President,
Thank you for your witty and eloquent defense!
Love,
Suza