Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009

Jardine: What's with city managers and 'mutual' resignations?

From the e-mails, voice mails and headlines:

JOB INSECURITY -- Is it part of a city manager's job description to get fired, or resign by "mutual agreement," or does it only seem that way?

Hughson's City Council began dismissal proceedings against City Manager Joe Donabed last week and replaced him, for the time being, with planning and building director Thom Clark.

Perhaps the only thing surprising about Donabed's dismissal was that it took so long.

He and other city officials irritated residents in 2006 by "sneaking" a 750,000-gallon water tank into a Hughson neighborhood. The city publicized a public hearing about building such a tank but didn't add little details such as, say, where it might be constructed. Then, after it was built -- looming over neighbors' back yards -- officials claimed they had sent out letters of notification detailing the site selection to all who owned property within 300 feet.

Just one problem: Thomas Crowder, a Hughson council member who was mayor at the time, owns property within 300 feet of the tank and never received a letter. Neither did anyone else. Later, the city admitted it never sent the letter.

It was a breach of the public's trust under any circumstances. Crowder was among the council members who voted to oust Donabed last week.

A sidebar: Donabed's interim replacement, Clark, was Escalon's city manager for eight years. He survived an ouster attempt before resigning by "mutual agreement" in 2003.

The man who replaced Clark in Escalon, Greg Greeson, was fired earlier this month. "He was given options," said Police Chief Doug Dunford, who took on Greeson's duties. "The option he chose was that he was terminated without cause."

In August 2003, Cleve Morris resigned as city manager in Newman -- another of those "mutual agreement" departures -- and was hired to run Patterson two months later. Now, after nearly six years, the council is reviewing his performance with the possibility of taking action.

Ceres' City Council fired Tim Kerr in 2005. Six months later, he was hired to run Turlock, a much bigger city. The Turlock council fired Kerr in January and replaced him with Roy Wasden, former Modesto police chief.

Modesto ran out back-to-back city managers, Ed Tewes in 1999 and Jack Crist in 2004, and both landed jobs in the Bay Area within months.

Hence, reality to a city manager is: Here today, gone tomorrow, somewhere else on Wednesday.

ABOUT THAT IMAGE -- As a group of young Modesto professionals tries to rebrand the city's image, landing a stage of the Amgen Tour of California cycling event for the third straight year can't hurt, and even lends itself to a new slogan:

"We didn't steal Lance Armstrong's bike."

Maybe this time the stage can be routed to its downtown finish via McHenry Avenue, since it's finally been resurfaced. Had they tried that last year, the cyclists would have needed to switch to BMX bikes to handle the bumps, ruts and loose gravel.

QUITE A GUY -- Richard Tosaw was never about the ordinary.

He was a former FBI agent who became an attorney.

The 84-year-old Modestan spent decades investigating the disappearance of D.B. Cooper, who hijacked an airliner, got $200,000 in ransom and then bailed out somewhere over the Pacific Northwest in 1971. Tosaw wrote the book "D.B. Cooper: Dead or Alive?" He was considered an expert on the case, quoted in the media as a source when federal authorities reopened the case in January 2008, and again a few months later when children in southwest Washington found a parachute the FBI later determined was not Cooper's.

Tosaw launched the Bureau of Missing Heirs, an online service that listed probate cases in which the actual beneficiaries are named and cases in which the rightful heirs are unknown.

And he marketed lightweight periscopes enabling fans to see above the crowds at big events, taking 3,800 to Washington, D.C., to sell for $10 apiece at President Clinton's first inauguration in 1993. He followed that with a lighter version -- The Obama-Scope -- and took 5,000 to President Barack Obama's inauguration in January. Selling for $20 each, the Obama-Scope drew national attention.

He also created and sold periscopes for Pope John Paul II's service in Monterey in 1987, and at sporting events.

Tosaw seemed as energetic as ever when I talked to him late last year as he marketed his Obama-Scope.

Cancer, though, took his life in mid-September.

STRUMMIN' -- A couple of years ago, I wrote about a fledgling group of ukulele players who began meeting at the YMCA. The FunStrummers started with a few and now have as many as 40 in their Friday sessions at the Church of the Brethren on Woodland Avenue in Modesto. They'll be featured in a show on KVIE (Channel 6) scheduled to air Dec. 9 at 7 p.m., Dec. 11 at 4 a.m. and Dec. 13 at 6 p.m. The show, called "Rob on the Road," is hosted by Rob Stewart. The FunStrummers will be included in a segment titled "Amazing Artists."

Jeff Jardine's column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays in Local News. He can be reached at 578-2383 or jjardine@modbee.com.