City Staff Deserves Appreciation, Not Criticism
by Mayor Janice Peters
Wow! If you believe all the opinion pieces on the front page of last month's SLO Coast Journal, Morro Bay City staff is determined to bamboozle our residents and ruin the city! Let's look at the truth behind these accusations . . .
First Jack McCurdy criticizes resigning Public Services Director Bruce Ambo's plan to form an RDA (redevelopment agency) in Morro Bay. This idea was a recommended City Council goal that we directed staff to pursue. Ambo had successfully formed two RDAs in Grover Beach, which have so far enabled that city to pave streets, build a bridge, replace sewer pipes and storm drains, fund low income housing units, and provide other such infrastructure amenities also needed in Morro Bay.
Rather than let the process proceed to the point of determining whether Morro Bay had sufficient blighted areas for an RDA to be successful, McCurdy and others opposed to the idea claimed it was a ploy by staff to use eminent domain on private homes. This was NEVER the intent and, as clearly stated at the time, would have been specifically excluded. As a result of this baseless fear-mongering, the RDA study, the thousands of dollars invested in it, and the potential City benefits it could have funded, were all scrapped.
McCurdy also complains that the City did not immediately abandon the library building's Program Room because City staff does not want to "give up control over a city facility and power in the community." The original plans and building committee board minutes indicate the room was always intended for shared library and public use, and even had separate community funding. Providing a low cost meeting room, with amenities not found at other venues, for Charity Bridge and numerous local self-help, non-profit groups (who have used the room for 15 years) is not a matter of "control and power" but of community support.
Moving on to another front-page piece, Kari Olsen states that City staff threatened to eliminate water service to several Chorro Valley residents, an area outside Morro Bay's city limits. Both staff and the Council have stated publicly and privately that there is no intention to leave these residents without water. But due to increased contaminants and an inability to always provide sufficient water to this area, staff is working with each property owner to build individual wells, which can be purified with reverse osmosis systems.
Next we have Roger Ewing claiming that the city structure changed when we decided to call our top employee a City Manager instead of City Administrator. The title did change, although the job responsibilities remain the same . . . to implement the policies set by City Council. Ewing somehow credits that simple title change with creating "a city budget teetering on the brink" due to "the greed and selfishness of a few, protected by the direction of management staff…that does not live in Morro Bay." Actually, several of our department management staff do live in Morro Bay, although our City Manager lives in Los Osos.
However, our budget woes were a direct result of reduced power plant operation and severe restrictions imposed on our fishing industry, several years before the additional widespread economic problems currently facing our State and nation. Neither staff nor the Council had control over any of those events, but by working together, we have balanced every City budget. Instead of unfounded criticism, staff deserves respect for accomplishing that in spite of drastically reduced revenue.
Ewing also attacks the Joint Powers Agreement, a body composed of our City Council and the five-member Cayucos Sanitary District, for approving a contract to begin the design and building of the sewer treatment plant upgrade. The design includes reclamation capability, but the extensive, and expensive, piping required to use reclaimed water is not included in the initial project budget. Due to pressure from various environmental groups, we are on a tight schedule and deadline to complete this upgrade, or our ratepayers will suffer the hefty penalties. Continuing to move forward on this project is the responsible thing to do.
City government employees, especially management, have a difficult job, because their Councilmember "bosses," and therefore their directions, change with every election. They do their best to respond to that direction, as well as completing all the State-mandated tasks and day-to-day job duties. Yes, they are paid well, but so are other workers with similar education and experience.
As in any business, some employees are a better fit than others and, especially when cutbacks have resulted in fewer people doing more work, mistakes will occasionally happen. But to accuse staff of deliberately trying to ruin the City is as absurd as it is insulting. If that were their goal and they were successful, they would be without a job and not likely to find one elsewhere. Do these accusers really think that makes sense?
Having just spent two days in Council goal-setting sessions with Morro Bay's management staff, it's obvious that these employees sincerely care about our city and doing their jobs to the best of their abilities, despite constant budget challenges. For that they deserve appreciation, not criticism. As Mayor, I am grateful for their dedication and I thank them for their good work.
It is the Journal's policy to allow responses and rebuttals to articles to be published in the next month's issue.
Belted Kingfisher image on banner by Cleve Nash |
