City hall 'power play'? Wright, Woodard deny Council targeting employees
Posted Jul. 7, 2015 at 8:54 PM
ADELANTO — The City Council is considering overhauling its city charter, including potentially moving to a "strong mayor" form of government, a system where the mayor acts as the city's chief executive, Mayor Pro Tem Jermaine Wright confirmed Tuesday.
Saying the movement will rely heavily on public input and is far from solidified, Wright rejected "power play" claims by multiple sources inside City Hall who allege he and Mayor Rich Kerr are leading a purge of employees connected to former Mayor Cari Thomas and former City Manager Jim Hart.
A shift to the new form of government was just one idea that had been tossed around, Wright said, along with the possibility of dividing Adelanto into districts to provide better representation to the city's north side. While almost all large U.S. cities use "strong mayor" systems, most smaller ones use the council-manager system or the "weak mayor" system, where the elected mayor has no more authority than other council members — the system Adelanto and other local cities employ now. Any changes would need to be placed on the November 2016 ballot.
"We're looking at the long game," Wright said.
But multiple sources within the city government, who spoke to the Daily Press on condition of anonymity due to retaliation fears, claim that employees are being unfairly targeted for termination. They claim some Council members meet in quorums to discuss personnel changes (which would violate the Brown Act and the city's charter), harassing workers and directing the city manager to fire employees they dislike.
An employee at the law office of Victorville-based attorney James Alderson said Tuesday that Alderson's office is representing four city employees in a lawsuit that could be filed as early as next week.
"My strong feeling is that there has been multiple violations through the charter," City Councilman Ed Camargo said on Tuesday when asked to respond to the allegations.
Section 609 of the charter forbids City Council members from directing the city manager to appoint or remove employees.
"That is one of my concerns, and I want to be ... transparent and not mislead my residents from the truth as I see what's going on," Camargo said. "Comments we've had from staff and the public, there is a great concern with the ethical behavior of at least three of the five."
Camargo did not name names. Kerr and Councilman Charley Glasper could not be reached Tuesday for comment.
Wright denied the allegations.
"I could care less who (employees) are friends with," he said. "If they're doing the best jobs for the residents ... I will back the person 100 percent no matter who they are ... I have no personal agenda when it comes to employees, who they are or what they do."
Councilman John "Bug" Woodard, whom sources said has also been involved in personnel-related conversations, fiercely denied the claims.
"That is absolutely false," Woodard said. "They're giving you a bit of a story. We would never do that. We'd never be caught doing that, because we'd never do that."
Woodard said he understood there might be "some hard feelings, the way things are going to go down."
"It's about saving the city. There's nothing personal about it at all," he said, "because I've heard people say some (stuff) like that even to me."
The spotlight on the allegations has been intensified by recently proposed personnel changes to be discussed Wednesday. They call for the elimination of two long-tenured positions: a senior management analyst in the planning department and the public works superintendent.
If approved along with proposed 5 percent salary increases for three positions and a $24,000 salary increase for another, the personnel shifts are expected to save just $1,900 for the general fund this fiscal year. But in the long run, officials say, the moves should allow the city to add more workers to clean up city streets and inspect rental homes.
Both Wright and Woodard said the moves were necessitated by the budget.
"I've been very adamant about how I feel about having too much management," Wright said. "We have too many chiefs and not enough Indians."
He added that the $24,000 salary increase, a promotion creating a human resources manager, was necessary to fill a vacant role at the top. He said the position would have been filled, from the inside or outside, one way or another.
"From my end, I don't know from anybody else why they're making their decisions," he said, "I do look at dollars and cents."
The sudden resignation of Thomas Thornton as city manager after six weeks is also a part of the amended budget that comes just two weeks after the Council passed its spending plan. City Clerk Cindy Herrera, who is one of those receiving a 5 percent raise, will serve as the acting city manager until the position can be filled permanently.
Wright said he expected interviews for the position to be conducted publicly during a special workshop, which would be a rare method of performing interviews.
Thornton, who couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday, signed a six-month deal in May to become the city manager after having served in the interim role following Hart's resignation in March.
Wright said that Thornton was simply too busy, also juggling roles as city engineer and director of public works, to complete the tasks he wanted to.
Wright acknowledged there could be future cuts down the road, and he said that even Wednesday's proposals were not yet a done deal.
"There's nothing set in stone," Wright said. "We may walk up there and nothing happens."
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