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In a surprise announcement, City Manager Don Reynolds notified members of the San Juan Bautista City Council and planning commission that he would not be seeking a renewal of his contract and would be retiring as of the end of the year. Reynolds, who had previously served as the assistant director of public works for the city of Salinas, was selected as city manager in 2019.
“I was surprised, and I will miss him,” said Planning Commissioner Dan De Vries, who also served with Reynolds as a City Council member. “He’s worked tirelessly for this community and the citizens of San Juan Bautista. I have enjoyed working with Don and have been privileged to call him a friend.”
Reynold said his decision was partly based on a recent interview he had for the city manager position in a different city.
“Usually, you start as manager in a smaller city,” he said, “and then you upgrade to a larger one. The interview process was so awful that I decided I didn’t want to do that anymore.”
Another consideration was the low pay for the position, which Reynolds said was below the local average.
“When the new City Council came on board 18 months ago,” he said, “they put me through a very rigorous evaluation with no compensation consideration. And that didn’t sit well with me.”
Reynolds also had reservations about some economic development decisions made by the Planning Commission and the City Council. And recently, the council rejected Reynolds’ attempt to disband the Urban Growth Committee.
“We have had our differences, for sure,” he said, “It’s just the nature of the beast. It’s rife with conflict, and we will be electing two new City Council members this year. I am pretty confident that the City Council will stay together and stable, but who knows if it is worth it?”
Reynolds faced a significant challenge on his first day on the job when he received a letter from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) detailing 11 different areas of concern they had identified in a recent inspection of the city’s sewage treatment plant. Within a year, the city was assessed with over $850,000 in fines for violations that had gone unaddressed by previous city managers.
After a series of studies, he proposed a multi-part solution that included sending San Juan’s sewage to Hollister’s treatment plant, bringing drinking water in from the West Hills Treatment Plant, and installing an innovative Microvi Biotech plant to remove pollutants from water sourced from the city’s wells.
Reynolds was also successful in having most of the EPA fines rolled back into the project’s cost and secured grants and loans that guaranteed it would be fully funded. (Reynolds detailed the project’s twists and turns in a BenitoLink interview published Aug. 12.)
Reynolds said he hoped to tie up a few loose ends on the project and help ease his successor into its complications in his remaining time.
“That’s part of the 90-day notice in my mind,” he said. “I hope the City Council has the confidence in me to at least hang out and ensure the water district contracts are executed and to bring on an interim for two to three months for a smooth transition.”
Reynolds said he is crafting a report on the transition, which he will present at the Oct. 15 City Council meeting.
Reynolds’ decision to retire has surprised the city government, as he had expressed in the Aug. 12 interview his desire to have his contract renewed. But he said he considered his work for the city to be the best in his life.
“I know I will be telling people I work with in the future about the wastewater project in particular,” he said. “I am just so proud of that, as San Juan Bautista should be. I think it has been awesome.”
The wastewater and freshwater project will continue for years to come, but Planning Commissioner Jose Aranda said that Reynolds was justified in his assessment of his legacy.
“Getting those pipelines situated and nearing completion,” Aranda said, “along with getting the grants that have helped move it along, are major accomplishments. Along with John Freeman, he’s done a lot of good with that issue and I do wish him a really good retirement.”
Aranda said that Reynolds will also be remembered for having helped create a parks and recreation department for the city.
“I am sad,” he said. “His role has been challenging, and I appreciate all his hard work. When he told me he was retiring, I was thrown off guard, and I will certainly miss him
Freeman, who has been working with Reynolds as a City Council member, said that Reynolds had done a great job moving the city forward and dealing with problems that should have been addressed 20 years ago.
“He’s a person who likes to build things up,” Freeman said. “He has avoided huge fines by the EPA and the state water board, and the projects will either come in under budget or close. And in today’s world, that is a miracle.”
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