Turlock Mayor Amy Bublak must remember she’s a team member, not a monarch
Now is Amy Bublak’s time to rise and shine — or crash and burn.
With two newly elected members of the Turlock City Council in her corner, Mayor Bublak finally has control of a majority vote. She swiftly wielded this newfound power to usher the city manager and city attorney out the door (both are still in motion) and to bring new ones in who see things more as she sees them.
If this sounds familiar, recall that her predecessor, Gary Soiseth, lasted only one term partly because his “I am the boss; better do what I say” style ran off two city managers and several department heads, and rubbed too many voters the wrong way. Bublak should remember that.
Bublak also has the enormous, undeserved blessing of $11 million more a year to play with, thanks to passage in November of Measure A, a citywide sales tax increase that Bublak fought but will be happy to spend. Soiseth would have given much for that advantage.
New power, new voting bloc, new top-tier staff, new money — Bublak is on top of the heap. She’d better make the most of it.
With all that momentum swinging her way, the mayor of Stanislaus County’s second-largest city must perform like nobody’s business if she expects to keep her job when up for reelection in less than two years. All of Turlock is watching.
Not everyone is impressed, and some are openly fretting — with good reason. It scares people when any leader is bent on amassing more power. Bublak’s gambits to control meeting agendas and to control messaging of city officials are unsettling. Does she really want an authoritarian reputation?
Unexpected turnover in Turlock
A few have complained of whiplash from the swift and sudden pending departures of City Manager Toby Wells and City Attorney Doug White, to be replaced with familiar faces. Gary Hampton previously said he was bullied out as city manager under Soiseth and former City Attorney Phaedra Norton. George Petrulakis, a longtime political adviser throughout the county and particularly in Modesto, will be Turlock’s city attorney despite not having a lick of experience.
Hampton knows Turlock inside and out and was a solid administrator before. My guess is he’ll do fine.
I’ve called Petrulakis “King George” for years because of his self-appointed role as kingmaker, recruiting and advising mostly conservative candidates and office holders including former Modesto Mayor Ted Brandvold. Petrulakis usually just laughs.
The bread and butter of a land use attorney like Petrulakis is development, a sector that has struggled since the recession 13 years ago. Why not try something new?
Although he has no experience as municipal counsel, Petrulakis knows how local government runs, at least from the political side. And he’s less likely to oppose his buddy Bublak based on institutional knowledge, or the inertia of doing something a certain way because that’s how it’s always been done. I wonder, however, how he’ll adjust to being in the public eye as opposed to running things behind the scenes, a much easier place to hide.
People not on board with Bublak’s agenda could be in for a rocky ride. We’ve already seen more 3-2 votes on this newly constituted council than I would prefer, suggesting that Turlock could slide into the kind of dysfunction that plagued Modesto before Mayor Sue Zwahlen took the gavel on Tuesday. Similar animus will afflict Ceres until a fifth tie-breaking member joins its council. Nobody wants that for Turlock.
Don’t blow it, Bublak
Bublak’s task, then, is to cobble as many unanimous votes as possible in the remaining two years of her term; for the record, newcomers Pam Franco and Rebecka Monez have been siding with the mayor, with Andrew Nosrati and Nicole Larson dissenting in some votes such as hiring Petrulakis.
Bublak says she’s up to the challenge.
“I’ve dreamed for at least the last two years,” she said, “of doing what I said I would do” when she unseated the polarizing Soiseth in 2018. She expects big votes in coming weeks addressing road repairs and homelessness, she said, followed in coming months by filling department head vacancies and key decisions on outsourcing various city services. The latter could prove politically dangerous in a proud community like Turlock.
So good luck, Madame Mayor. Remember that teamwork and unanimity go a long way with voters. If you think a legacy of distrust and split votes can’t hurt you as long as you get your way, you might ask Soiseth and Brandvold how that worked out for them.
This story was originally published February 26, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
