City manager resigns; council appoints interim as Turlock’s turmoil continues
The Turlock City Council has appointed a longtime employee to serve as interim city manager after Monday’s abrupt resignation of Bob Lawton, who had worked as the city’s top administrator for just over 13 months.
The council Tuesday named Municipal Services Director Michael Cooke as interim city manager. He served as interim manager from December 2015 to April 2016, when Turlock was between permanent managers. Cooke has worked for the city for 27 years.
Lawton, 57, tendered his resignation Monday, with it taking effect Tuesday. It came the same day the council scheduled a special meeting to evaluate his performance. That was the council’s fourth closed-session meeting to discuss Lawton’s performance since July 25.
City officials and Lawton declined to discuss the reasons for his departure but instead focused on what Turlock accomplished during his tenure. But this is not the same council that hired him. Three of its five members were not on the council then.
“I want to thank City Manager Bob Lawton for preparing and adopting a structurally balanced budget which positions us to regain our citizens’ trust concerning the way we spend their hard-earned tax dollars,” Mayor Amy Bublak said in a news release Monday in which she spoke on behalf of the entire City Council.
Bublak — a longtime councilwoman who was elected mayor in November — declined to say more Tuesday.
Lawton’s departure comes during a turbulent time for the city, which in recent years has included lots of turnover among city managers and department heads as well as difficulties with the city’s roughly $40 million general fund budget, which primarily pays for police and fire services.
The previous council under then Mayor Gary Soiseth essentially lived beyond its means by approving labor agreements, the hiring of more public safety workers and other spending that has drawn down general fund reserves. The general fund budget the council approved this year has deep cuts to police and fire and other city departments that spend general fund dollars as part of the strategy to restore the fund.
“Together we have illuminated Turlock’s fiscal challenges, prepared and adopted a structurally balanced budget and taken up the tasks of charting a path for progress,” Lawton said in his resignation letter. “It is with these successes in mind that I look to my own future, and new opportunities that lie ahead.”
Lawton in his letter also said it had been a privilege to serve the council, the city and its residents. “Never have I had the pleasure of working with more engaged, determined and result-oriented public servants, elected and appointed,” he wrote.
He declined to say more when reached for comment Tuesday.
Lawton warned the previous council soon after starting as city manager about the general fund and did so during a contentious election season as Bublak challenged Soiseth for mayor.
While the fund is now balanced, its reserves remain dangerously low. Despite that and other challenges facing the city, Bublak said Turlock should be able to attract a quality city manager.
“I believe many people still see Turlock as an excellent city with great people,” she said in a Tuesday interview. “These are difficult circumstances, but many people like fixing problems.”
Lawton’s departure comes after he fired Fire Chief Bob Talloni in June, citing “incompatible management styles.” This came after the two had disagreed in public over funding reductions to the Fire Department.
Talloni had served as interim city manager before Lawton and when the previous council approved spending Turlock could not afford.
Lawton’s annual salary was $233,727. He also was paid a 2.5 percent incentive for having a master’s degree and $400 a month auto allowance. But that was before he voluntarily reduced his total pay by about 14 percent as part of balancing the city budget this year.
He will be paid $110,571 in severance, according to the city and the terms of his employment contract. He also will cash out his accumulated leave time. That amount was not available Tuesday.
Lawton had been administrator of Yates County in upstate New York before coming to Turlock in July 2018. He has about 30 years of public sector experience, including working for counties in New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and California. Turlock was his first time leading a city.
