Eugene weekly., January 17, 2008, Page 13, Image 13

BY ALAN PITTMAN
The Men Who Would Be King
Finalists for Eugene city manager
offer strengths, flaws
T
he Eugene City Council has nar-
rowed its choice down for the pow-
erful city manager job to three candi-
dates.
Daniel Hobbs reportedly left city manager
positions in Fresno and Tracy, Calif., under
pressure. Joseph Lessard has worked as a
consultant with an interest in progressive
planning since leaving an assistant manager
job with the city of Austin, Texas a decade
ago after some criticism. Jon Ruiz, a retired
Army colonel, works as the assistant city
manager of Fresno on controlling sprawl but
was criticized for being too cozy with devel-
opers.
The city of Eugene plans to bring the fi-
nalists to Eugene for interviews with city ex-
ecutives, chosen citizens and the City
Council on Feb. 2. Based on application ma-
terials, press reports and other online docu-
ments, here’s a rundown of each candidate:
times with unions and council members.”
Allegations included that he “did not include
the council in his decisions,” “no longer had
the mayor’s ear,” was a “micromanager who
was difficult to deal with,” and forced out
good managers, creating “upheaval at City
Hall.”
Hobbs previously worked one- to five-
year stints as city manager at a series of
smaller cities including West Covina, Calif.,
Farmington Hills, Mich., Greenbelt, Md., and
Kileen, Texas.
Hobbs’ application said he would encour-
age the Eugene City Council to introduce
“high performance” training for city employ-
ees. The Tracy Press reported that the city
paid the Seattle-based Pacific Institute a total
of $166,000 for four-day seminars for every
Tracy employee.
In his application, Hobbs said he would
offer the city organization “a sense of conti-
nuity, not upheaval or upset.”
Daniel Hobbs
On Oct. 18, 2007 Hobbs resigned as city
manager of Tracy, Calif., just before a City
Council meeting to discuss firing him, the
Record newspaper reported.
Hobbs held the job for two and a half
years. A year ago, an anonymous letter to the
media accused Hobbs of “managing the city
through a combination of intimidation and
fear,” the Record reported. Hobbs denied the
accusations, but the council began holding
repeated performance reviews.
The Tracy Press reported: “By some ac-
counts, Hobbs’ relations with city staff were
tense. Five of eight department heads who re-
ported directly to Hobbs were replaced dur-
ing his tenure as city manager.” One former
department head accused Hobbs of being a
“micromanager.”
The Tracy Press also reported that Hobbs
had “tense” relationships with council mem-
bers, allegedly excluding some councilors
from public events. The paper quoted a slow-
growth advocate who accused him of trying
to “consolidate power and control informa-
tion.”
In 2005, Hobbs was “forced” to resign
from his city manager job with the city of
Fresno, Calif., the Record reported.
The Fresno Bee reported that the mayor
praised his work but that Hobbs “clashed at
Joseph Lessard
Lessard has worked as a consultant to
governments and developers since leaving an
assistant city manager job with the City of
Austin, Texas, in 1998.
Lessard’s recent consulting work has fo-
cused on clustering urban development to
allow for protection of natural areas and open
space while limiting polluting sprawl, ac-
cording to news reports. “Advocates of con-
servation development in Austin and nation-
wide tend to be passionate about saving not
just one tract of land, but the Earth,” the alter-
native newsweekly Austin Chronicle re-
ported positively on the program last year.
Lessard’s résumé lists membership in two
progressive planning groups. The Congress
for the New Urbanism describes itself as “the
leading organization promoting walkable,
neighborhood-based development as an al-
ternative to sprawl.” The Urban Land
Institute’s mission is “to provide leadership
in the responsible use of land and in creating
and sustaining thriving communities world-
wide.”
The Austin Chronicle explained the end of
Lessard’s decade as an assistant city manager
with the city of Austin this way: “Lessard was
reassigned in early 1997, following what ap-
parently was perceived as a breakdown in his
abilities overseeing the police, but instead of
being fired, he was put on the slow train to
China by being assigned the sole stewardship
of the airport —a job that didn’t exist until
[city manager] Garza decided to create such a
position. According to some, there was never
enough for Lessard to do once his other du-
ties were taken away and then, following the
very public Paradies scandal, the final nail
was put in his career’s coffin.”
The Chronicle said the Paradies scandal
involved Lessard and other staff failing to in-
form councilors that a bidder for an airport
concession contract had been previously con-
victed of fraud. “The City Council was livid
over the public embarrassment.”
Lessard’s “proudest accomplishment was
the creation of the Balcones Canyonlands
Preserve, a unique land conservation model
that began on his desk,” the Chronicle re-
ported. “Lessard also headed up the Austin
Police Department” after its police chief re-
signed amid controversy. Lessard was “once
regarded as a potential candidate” for the top
Austin city manager job, the paper reported.
have not been raised for nearly 15 years. But
now even the developers want the fees to in-
crease, but the city can’t figure out how to get
it done in a timely manner.”
Ruiz defended his work to make develop-
ers pay their fair share of growth costs, but
the editorial questioned, “What have these
people been doing?” The paper called the
delay “one more example of the city being
cozy with the building community. This
won’t get done until the developers say it’s
OK. They call the tune at City Hall.”
Ruiz’s work in Fresno has also involved
trying to revive Fresno’s Fulton Mall, one of
the first downtown pedestrian malls in the na-
tion. The work included transit-oriented de-
velopment around an electric streetcar, ac-
cording to his résumé.
Ruiz worked on reining in Fresno sprawl
with a “2025 General Plan.” He hired Peter
Calthorpe, a pioneer in using progressive
planning to control urban sprawl, as a con-
sultant to help with the project. The plan also
included increasing the city organization’s
sustainability through solar energy, recy-
‘By some accounts, Hobbs’ relations with city
staff were tense. Five of eight department heads
who reported directly to Hobbs were replaced
during his tenure as city manager.’
— TRACY PRESS
After resigning, Lessard elected to stay in
Austin and look for other work rather than
seeking a city manager job in another city be-
cause a recent marriage “will likely keep him
Austin-bound,” the paper reported.
Lessard’s application stresses a collabora-
tive, unbiased management style. He said he
would not assume that “the city organization
necessarily needs me to immediately alter or
‘fix’ how it does business.”
Lessard is also one of eight finalists for the
city manager job in Fort Worth, Texas, the
Austin American-Statesman reported Nov. 26.
Jon Ruiz
Ruiz has worked as an assistant city man-
ager of Fresno, Calif., since 2004. In Fresno,
Ruiz was involved in a controversy over rais-
ing street fees for developers, the Fresno Bee
reported. A 2006 Bee editorial blog stated:
“City staff has been allowing the develop-
ment community to run the show. The fees
cling, water conservation and green building.
Before Fresno, Ruiz worked as public
works director for Ogden, Utah. There he
helped redevelop a former military base as a
business park and worked on public trans-
portation for the 2002 Winter Olympic
Games.
Ruiz served in the U.S. Army from 1980
to 1986 and focused on tactical communica-
tions. He continued to serve as a
reserve/National Guard Colonel until 2006
and received a masters of strategic studies
from the U.S. Army War College in 2000.
In his application, Ruiz states that “work-
ing as a Team continues to be very important
to me.” He writes that he has a “positive, col-
laborative and can-do approach” and will
have an “open relationship” with the mayor
and council. According to Ruiz, the city gov-
ernment’s “culture must thrive on the proac-
tive and aggressive engagement of all points
of view.”
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