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During its Oct. 15 meeting, the San Juan City Council discussed new city staffing and an agreement with the City of Hollister for fire services.
City Manager Don Reynolds, who announced last week that he’ll be retiring at the end of the year, outlined the steps to hire his replacement. These include placing an interim city manager by Jan. 1, 2025, to serve through the end of March. Reynolds expects a permanent replacement to be hired by the end of February 2025.
Reynolds said he wanted to give the council enough warning so his replacement could be found before the new city council is seated following the November election. He recommended that the council authorize payment, not to exceed $25,000, to hire a recruiter.
According to Reynolds, the Regional Government Services Authority, a Joint Powers Authority, has previously found worthy employees for the city.
After a discussion about the cost of the process and whether a candidate could be recruited locally, the motion passed 5-0. When asked if he would consider being available after retirement to consult with his interim or permanent replacement, Reynolds said “I’m not going anywhere.”
Reynolds is also in the process of hiring an associate planner. He reported that he has interviewed what he described as “four good candidates” and reduced the list to two finalists. Reynolds said both candidates were relatively fresh to the job, which meant they did not carry a lot of baggage and could be molded to fit San Juan’s needs better. He intends to offer the position to one of them by Oct. 18.
The position will take over many responsibilities recently held by former Assistant City Manager Brian Foucht, who was put on performance-related administrative leave in December 2023.
The new hire will work out of City Hall 40 hours a week and will assist code enforcement by monitoring new projects and keeping current projects on track and up to the city’s permit requirements. They will also help with things like long-range planning, the housing element and economic development.
“It is really important,” Reynolds said, “to have someone here who can look at a property and understand where the owner is coming from and respond to some of these people who have taken off without permits and help get them back on track.”
Reynolds updated the council on the request for proposals (RFP) to establish a fire district to serve the county following the city’s receipt of termination notice for the current fire services agreement with the City of Hollister.
He recommended starting a study as quickly as possible to investigate the county’s use of the San Juan Bautista Fire Station’s resources as a mitigating factor in setting new terms for service by the Hollister Fire Department. In a memo to the San Benito County Board of Supervisors, Reynolds set the county’s use of the San Juan station at 54%
Reynolds said that the proposed immediate increase in yearly rates for services set by Hollister, $150,000, was beyond the city’s budget surplus, which he said was around $50,000.
Reynolds also reported that the city has hired MNS Engineers, Inc. to monitor ongoing issues with the State Water Board. The board issued $220,000 in fines for sewage treatment plant violations in May. According to Reynolds, there have been another 23 violations since, and the fine now stands at $390,000.
Reynold said he has engaged Downey Brand, a Sacramento-based law firm, to assist the city in challenging the fines. Reynolds has discussed the matter with Melissa Throm, the attorney who successfully negotiated with the state over close to $1 million in fines assessed in 2022.
“What we are finding are unnecessary fines,” he said. “For example, we can be fined for coliform exceedances in three ways. Instead of being fined for one instance in a month, there are nine.”
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