City Manager Emlen Talks About Decision To Leave and the Future of Davis

In the meantime, the Vanguard was able to speak with Mr. Emlen on Thursday to discuss his decision, his tenure on the council and his and the city’s future.

He talked specifically about the reasons why he never moved to Davis.  “A while ago I realized that moving here was going to be very difficult because of my own personal situation – family finances and things like that – which was fine.  I don’t think it ever really interfered with my performance of this job.”

However, he said that it took a good deal of extra effort on his part as he put it, “To try to maintain the presence, I thought, that was appropriate for the position I was in.  I knew at some point I was going to have face that and decide whether we would find a way to move over here or not.”

Despite this, he maintains he was not out there actively looking for other positions.  He had a number of contacts from headhunters informing him of various city manager positions.  Neither he nor his wife were interested in moving, however, at this stage of their life and they pretty much like where they’re at.  “This opportunity happened to pop,” he said, “It sort of evolved into something real where I got through the process and I had to make that decision.”

“The job was interesting to me because of the countywide component to it, and the multifunctions I would be doing within the county organization,” he continued.  “From a professional standpoint, the job provides a good challenge to me.  It allows me to stay where I am in terms of living and allows me to contribute to the community I have lived in for seventeen years.”

From that perspective he called it a “win-win-win” on those fronts.  However, he was not eager to leave this job, having been here for more than 13 years.  “I have been involved in a lot of major issues in this town,” said Mr. Emlen.  “I know a lot of people here.  I enjoy working with folks here and it wasn’t easy to make that decision.  But I decided, at that point in my life, it was probably the right one to make which is why I did it.”

He said it is probably the broadest-based department in the Solano organization, but with not as many people as he has overseen in the city of Davis.  “The department itself is not as big as the city organization,” Bill Emlen said.  “The department I will oversee involves planning, building and safety, public works, engineering and environmental health.” 

“For me that’s never been a big ego issue.  I enjoy management and I will enjoy managing these diverse functions,” he stressed.  “I enjoy the role and I will particularly enjoy the subject areas I will be involved in.”

He mentioned with excitement that he would be involved in the Delta issue.  He pointed out, “My background is in resources.  Between resources and planning [sic]is really my first love.”

He views this move as a closer fit to what his main interests are.  However, he did point out that he enjoyed a lot of the aspects of the city manager’s position and the challenges they brought.  “In my time here, I have had a lot of fun dealing with the diverse things that we’ve dealt with,” he added.  “In public safety and other areas as well, [this job has] challenged my management skills, for sure.  I wouldn’t trade that for anything.  But going back to my core areas of interest is appealing to me.”

The Vanguard asked him if he enjoyed getting out of the pressure-cooker of Davis.  He responded, “I never felt it was a pressure- cooker.”

“There’s a lot of scrutiny.  There’s a lot of involvement of the community,” he continued.  “The churning that goes with that makes the job both interesting and can wear you down sometimes.”

One thing that seemed to wear on him was the council meetings and the length of the meetings.  “That’s certainly something that, as an individual, there’s a point in time when you say, can I continue to do that kind of pace.  As far as the executive management team, I have been here longer than anybody.”

“It’s one of those things where I never considered it a pressure-cooker, but it is a lot of responsibility and you’re under a lot of scrutiny.”  He felt it would be that way over in Solano County as well, it just will not be the exact same type of situation.

In terms of accomplishments, he said he was unable to put his finger on just one that he was most proud.  “I am proud of how responsive this organization has been and I’ve tried to instill that culture in what I do and what everybody does here, in how we respond to the public.”

“If you talk to folks in the outside world, they would say that Davis is well known for that, and I think I’ve contributed to that,” Mr. Emlen added.

“I am pretty pleased with the restructuring of the city operations, the way we’ve done that.  We’ve been able to restructure the organization without seriously reducing services – at least to date.  That will be a continued challenge,” he noted.

“I’m also on the planning side, I’m really pleased with how much better we’ve gotten it, dealing with infill development and how we handle design and other issues.  If you look around town, to a lot of the new infill development, I think it is really quite nice and  I’m really pleased with the progress we made, compared to where we were when I started in 1997,” he continued.

He added, “And I will say, I think you disagree with this one, the reality is I think we’re working with a pretty conservative budget.  Obviously we’re dealing with huge forces out there that have changed in the last several years.  But I challenge you to go out and look at cities throughout the region and look at their financial situation versus ours.”

He pointed out, “We all have these unfunded liabilities and all these big bugaboos that we’re all going to have to deal with, but in terms of where the state of our budget is compared to most anywhere else, we’re pretty solid.”

He did acknowledge that they have a lot more work to do in this area, but he strongly defended his and the city’s record there.

On the other hand, he is leaving a number of challenges and issues unaddressed or at least incomplete.  “I would have liked to have seen the fire merger process to its completion,” Bill Emlen acknowledged, “We’re in the middle of that right now and we’ve taken the first big step.  I would like to see that through to completion.   I’m very confident that the folks we have involved in that process right now, particularly Bill Weisgerber,  is going to be a very positive influence in helping to facilitate that process.”

“The other thing that I would like to do is to continue our efforts to rework the Public Works Department and see if there are additional changes that can be made to their organizational structure,” Mr. Emlen said pointing out, “They’re a big department.  There’s a lot of work that can be done there.”

He feels that that process is in limbo, with Bob Clarke being active director.  He hopes to facilitate at least some clarity in that process before he leaves.  “It’s just something we put aside, with all the other things we were dealing with.  That’s one I think we need to get back to, and to try to work through it.”

Bill Emlen’s tenure very neatly coincides with almost a single city council, made up of five individuals.  He did become interim City Manager prior to Lamar Heystek’s arrival in July of 2006, but he only remained for a few meetings with the new city council, sworn in during July of this year.  In essence, for most of his tenure he was working with the same five individuals with the same dynamics.

“That’s something I kind of regret in terms of timing, I wish I would have had time.  I’m very optimistic about the new council members.  I’ve been impressed with them so far.  I would have liked to have worked with them,” he said. 

“That’s one of the things as I was sort of weighing out this decision, that I had to think hard about – the opportunity to maybe see some change on the council dynamics and to work with these folks,” he added.

The million-dollar set of questions, that most people who follow the council are asking, is who will be the interim city manager and who would be hired as a permanent replacement.  As reported earlier, the council will meet behind closed doors to make that decision on Tuesday, or at least begin that discussion.  They have until September 24, but probably it would be in everyone’s best interest to name someone well in advance so there can be as smooth a transition as possible.

Bill Emlen said on Thursday that he had no idea who that person would be.  However, he did seem to push for Paul Navazio.  “Obviously we have a natural choice in the assistant city manager we currently have.  He’s done a very good job.  But there’s many factors the council’s going to look at.  I don’t want to presuppose or say anything that would impact their decision-making process.”

“But I will say I have great respect for Paul [Navazio] and what he’s done, particularly through the whole budgetary challenges that we have gone through.  He’s very good at what he does,” he added.

However, again he said, “It really depends on what the council is looking for. Ultimately that’s their choice.”

The question is, what does the city need in terms of a city manager, what characteristics do they need to bring to the table to be successful.  Bill Emlen suggested that there is really not just one model that would work for that position.  However, one thing he stressed was to hire someone with the ability to understand the politics, without getting caught up in the politics.  He felt this was a tricky but necessary skill.

“I think you want someone who understands the politics without getting immersed in the politics,” he said.  “I don’t think the citizens would want that.  They want somebody who is certainly aware of what’s going on and understands the various motivations that are out there.  But at the same time, somebody who recognizes the administrative responsibility that they have and that they need to carry those out in way that’s objective and sort of doesn’t let the politics steer the key decisions.”

“When it comes to policy-level direction that comes through the political process, our job is, of course, to implement that,” he added.  “You want to have somebody who is well aware of that role and how that all works.”

“You’ve got to be careful that individual councilmembers don’t become dominant.  It’s a group of five and you have to have a majority, and so you have to have someone that’s aware of how that process works,” he concluded.

He said that the City Manager needs to be able to bridge the gap between the organization and the council.  “That’s probably one of the biggest challenges for me,” he said, “trying to deal with the council priorities, and then trying to relay those to the organization as a whole.  There are times when you feel like you’re kind of stuck in between.”

The city needs someone who can make that bridge and do it effectively, as the city continues to undergo organizational change, Mr. Emlen said.  “There’s no doubt in my mind about it, given the era we’re in, in terms of declining fiscal resources.  So you’re going to want to have someone who’s very good on that side for sure, because that’s going to be critical.”

Along the same lines, the next city manager, he said, will need to figure out how to do more with less.

“Obviously you’re going to want to have someone with strong leadership characteristics that does not conflict with the council, but can work with the council effectively,” he said.  “In this kind environment, you need someone with the ability to walk that line.”

The next few weeks should prove interesting as the council, likely unprepared for this development, will be scrambling to put an interim in place and create a process by which to search for and hire a replacement.

One thing I have always said for Mr. Emlen, though we obviously had some differences of opinion, he has always been willing and available to talk on the record and that is much appreciated.  Communicating to the public is a huge a component that, while Mr. Emlen did not bring up in our brief conversation on Thursday, that he clearly fully understands.

—David M. Greenwald reporting