When the City of Davis on Friday announced the official hiring of Yvonne Pimentel Quiring as the city’s new Finance Director, a position officially described as Assistant City Manager/Administrative Services Director, effective October 1, 2012, it seemed like a fairly typical hire.
Ms. Quiring, who will replace Paul Navazio who became City Manager of Woodland last spring, was said to have “26 years of municipal experience in small, medium and large cities with considerable expertise in finance, budget, and benefit administration.”
And actually, as is typical of new hires recently, she is not just replacing Mr. Navazio but far more than that – managing Finance, Human Resources and Information Technology.
“I look forward to Yvonne not only providing day-to-day management of the city’s Finance, Human Resources and Information Technology divisions, but also utilizing her financial background to find ways to reduce City’s expenses and employing her organizational skills to provide leadership for the department, the city organization and the community. I am thrilled that she was willing to relocate to Davis,” stated City Manager Steve Pinkerton.
Her family has some ties to Davis, as her father graduated from UC Davis Veterinary School of Medicine in 1953, two brothers also graduated from UC Davis, and her mother worked for Chancellor Emil Mrak.
Quiring states, “While growing up, our family used to visit Davis and attend events at the university, so working for the City of Davis will be like coming home. I’m looking forward to joining the management team and being part of this vibrant city.”
She has served as the city manager of the City of Fillmore for the past three years, where the press release from the city said “she has focused on restructuring City operations to achieve cost savings. Over the past two years, the City has made 40 percent cuts in the General Fund; reduced about 50 percent of its workforce; and changed the compensation structure for existing staff.”
An article on Thursday in the Ventura County Star announced that she would resign effective on October 1, stating, “She is leaving to take another public sector job but declined to say with what agency. She said she told City Council members during the past few weeks of her plans and told her staff Thursday.”
Tragically, her announcement comes a week after the death of her father in Fresno, following a fall.
In her statement to the Ventura County paper, Ms. Quiring said: “Fillmore is a very special little town… It has a lot going for it. And people are passionate about this city. I think there are a lot of challenges ahead, but I think the city is capable of dealing with it. I wish everybody well.”
As City Manager, Ms. Quiring presided over what is described as a series of challenging budget deficits.
In June of this year, the city council of Fillmore approved a budget with additional layoffs and cuts. According to the paper, “The budget calls for about $31 million in spending, with just under $6 million of it in the general fund.”
In fact, the city will be cutting more than one-quarter of its workforce in the coming year through layoffs and attrition and “will use other cuts and spending from reserve funds to close a general fund deficit of $1.5 million. Even with the cuts, the city is projecting a deficit of more than $1.3 million in the 2013-14 fiscal year.”
That means, in year three of Ms. Quiring’s tenure, they will be cutting one-quarter of their budget.
The Mayor of Fillmore, Gayle Washburn, was praising Ms. Quiring in a statement released on Thursday, calling her “instrumental in keeping the city functioning and capping costs during the last couple of years as millions of city revenues have been taken away by the state to close their budget gaps.”
“Her knowledge and dedication to the city’s interests during this difficult time has been commendable,” Mayor Washburn said. “I truly appreciate her efforts and recognize how fortunate we have been to have her as city manager.”
But there is a red flag here. Councilmember Steve Conaway noted that the departure of Ms. Quiring comes a few weeks after the city’s finance director announced that she was leaving.
“Our staff in City Hall is decimated,” said Councilmember Conaway. “There’s no stability, and then (for Quiring) to exit stage right like that leaves me scratching my head.”
A few months earlier came the headline in the Fillmore Gazette, June 13, 2012, “City Manager Struggles to Explain the Budget.” A caption reads: “Fillmore resident Joan Archer took Fillmore City Manager Yvonne Quiring to task at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. Archer found serious problems with Quiring’s handling of employee layoffs in that Quiring could not account for any savings to the city in hiring temporary and contract substitute workers.”
Writes the paper: “A budget crisis is arising at city hall. City Manager Yvonne Quiring was unable to answer budget questions at Tuesday’s meeting, for the second week. After eliminating ‘fifty percent’ of the city’s work force, in and out of city hall, and replacing many with temporary and contract workers, Quiring does not know what, if any, savings resulted.”
The paper added, “Councilman Steve Conaway expressed frustration in the Manager’s inability to provide specific answers to budget questions and time is very short for the mandated budget approval.”
The bigger issue came two years ago when the city manager received a vote of no confidence.
The Fillmore Gazette reports that a letter was read to the city council signed by 32 of the city’s 37 employees, reading: “The Management and Represented employees of the City of Fillmore are writing this letter to inform the Council of its displeasure with City Manager Yvonne Quiring, …. the employees have no confidence in Ms. Quiring’s leadership, and our concern for the general welfare of the City under her direction.”
According to the paper, “The employees are being micromanaged, belittled, intimidated, given unclear direction, harassed, [and] fear retaliation for informing Council of the current status of their working environment and that her contradictory management style consists of speaking kindly before a group of employees, then holding closed door meetings wherein staff is unfairly berated bringing the morale of the entire City Hall to a now intolerable low.”
The day after the no-confidence letter, Ms. Quiring attributed the letter to “budget and compensation anxieties at City Hall.”
“Currently, I am dealing with a significant budget shortfall, labor negotiations, human resource issues and (job) classification problems – some of which predate my arrival,” Ms. Quiring said. “Making budget cuts is never popular and it’s hard on everyone. I remain committed to working together to heal these divisions and bring about creative solutions.”
Councilmember Steve Conaway told the paper “he found the letter distressing and would like to see the council address it at a meeting as soon as possible.”
“The letter was of grave concern to me, and I believe that the council will have to address it by calling a special meeting,” Councilmember Conaway said, adding that “clearly we have a problem, from what the employees are telling us.”
On the other hand, Councilmember Washburn was a strong supporter at that time, as well.
“I have confidence in her professional abilities,” she told the paper. “My perception of her performance is I see her trying to raise the level of professionalism and performance within the city.”
She added that she was “very disappointed” by the vote.
“I was blindsided,” she said. “And our city manager didn’t deserve this. Nobody deserves that kind of treatment.”
Employees had a different take, with Community Development Director Kevin McSweeney calling the letter “an honest expression of the employees’ sentiments.”
“We put a lot of thought into that letter,” he said. “It was not off the cuff. We debated whether we should turn it in. We argued with each other. It took a lot of people to put those thoughts on paper. But we were unanimous. The ones who signed it.”
Worse yet, this was not the first time. Prior to working in Fillmore, she worked as the Assistant City Manager and then City Manager for the City of Lathrop.
According to Davis’ press release, “While in Lathrop, she conducted a review of the City’s finances and financing mechanisms, resolved several ongoing budget structural imbalance issues in the City’s $68 million annual budget and put new financial tracking systems into place to better position the City for the future.”
According to the Gazette article from September 29, 2010, “The represented employees of the City of Lathrop also presented a vote of no confidence in February of 2008.”
The follow-up article indicated that the problems at Lathrop were quite similar to the problems in Fillmore.
However, during the interview process for Fillmore these issues came up and representatives from the city met with those in Lathrop to discuss her job performance.
“And afterwards, I was hired,” Ms. Quiring said back in 2010. “The council conducted a thorough background process, including a trip to Lathrop and selected me to carry out their vision.”
Councilmember Conaway said that, at that time, he had been “hoping with best intentions that we were hiring the best city manager possible and the reasoning and the explanations for the issues in Lathrop, I accepted them.”
The hiring of Ms. Quiring comes at a critical time in Davis’ budget planning. The city is still in the midst of negotiating with its employees on the new round of MOUs.
For months, the Vanguard has been receiving information from a variety of sources of low employee morale. Some of that is to be expected as the city is hoping to save $4 million in its round of MOUs in addition to $4 million in savings achieved through a series of restructuring.
However, for the city to hire someone with a checkered record of dealing with employees to head up HR, as well as manage the city’s finances, seems to, at the very least, throw up some red flags.
The city’s press release indicates that she also served as the Deputy Director of the Housing and Redevelopment Department for the City of Stockton. This would seem to be her point of contact with Steve Pinkerton but also a potential connection to that city’s bankruptcy.
The Vanguard has not yet spoken to any Davis public officials about this issue and will have more information as it becomes available.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
One of the internet sources I read indicated that the Lathrop CC asked for her resignation.
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081118/A_NEWS/811180312/-1/A_NEWS07
But you have to be skeptical about what you find on the internet.
Maybe she’s not liked because she does the hard job of cutting jobs and salaries in hard fiscal times. If that’s the case then it’s exactly what Davis needs right now.
It looks like cronyism is alive and well in Davis. It should be entertaining to see how the Pinkerton apologist spin this one.
Rusty… check the on-line info… it wasn’t “union” people who instigated the letter and signed it….
[quote]Those signing on to the letter were: Public Works Director, Community Development Director, City Engineer, Building Official, Assistant to Finance Director, Recreation Supervisor, Assistant Planner, Human Resource Officer, Confidential Accountant Tech, Accounting Supervisor, Planning Tech/Clerk, Financial Assistant/Treasurer, Public Works Supervisor, 12 Public Works employees, Fiscal Assistant/Treasurer, 3 Fiscal Assistant employees and 4 Facilities employees. [/quote]
Concerning.
“It looks like cronyism is alive and well in Davis. It should be entertaining to see how the Pinkerton apologist spin this one.”
I have no opinions on Pinkerton either pro or con as of yet but I’d like to know why he (or his apologists) would have to put a spin on this one? If I was him I’d just say that she’s capable of making the hard decisions and has the guts to stand up to city employees who might not like the cutbacks. And how does he know this? He used to work with her.
[quote]After eliminating “fifty percent” of the city’s work force, in and out of city hall, and replacing many with temporary and contract workers, Quiring does not know what, if any, savings resulted.”[/quote]
Having no knowledge of city finances and budgeting issues, this is the comment of most concern to me.
Surely cutting city work force and replacing with temporary and contract workers would be done under only two circumstances, financial advantage or proven incompetency of the workers in question. Assuming for the moment that this was not done for the latter reason, then how could it be reassuring to anyone if indeed she could not explain how this resulted in any savings.
At this point I raise this article as a point of some concern. Rusty, as I think you know by now, I’m not opposed to making tough decisions, but this is a delicate matter, nerves are already frayed and there are things that have been considered concerns. Add into that the point that Medwoman makes and I urge you to be skeptical until we learn more.
David… do you have, or can you get, a copy of the new ACM employment agreement? Might be illuminating.
That should be relatively easy.
I’m always skeptical. I just presented what could possibly be her side of the argument. We will just have to wait and see. I do say though that I like that it sounds like she is willing to stand up to the employees and do what is necessary.
Rusty,
Really? you really can’t see a reason why it might be necessary to spin this hire? From reading the announcement it’s apparent that her qualifications don’t come close to equaling her predecessors. The fact that she was asked to leave, or left under a cloud from her last three jobs might be another, and if as you say “she’s capable of making the hard decisions and has the guts to stand up to city employees? Then the baggage she carries is more of a hindrance than an asset. If more cuts are made, her reputation renders her decisions suspect, it emboldens employees and sets the stage for another No Confidence vote.
Ms. Quiring: Welcome to Davis!
If you want to make a good first impression, get rid of the 4th fire fighter crew member position. Anything else, or less than that, demonstrates to many of us that the City is not serious about cleaning up its fiscal house.
She’ll have to be watched. I think she will find that Davis is a very different community, where cost savings will need to be clearly proven before, not after, actions are done.
How much is she being paid?
In light of how irresponsible the City has been, in so many ways, with our taxpayer dollars, Ms. Q may be a refreshing change.
[quote]”She is not just replacing Mr. Navazio but far more than that – managing Finance, [b]Human Resources[/b] and Information Technology.” –David Greenwald[/quote] Does that mean that Melissa Chaney was fired or has left her position with the City of Davis?
I believe that Melissa Chaney’s husband, Rick Guidara, has (or had) the title of IT Administrator. I know he had the highest salary among the City’s IT staff. Is Rick Guidara also out?
[quote] Is Rick Guidara also out? [/quote]
Rick left for another position almost 2 years ago.
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How time flies! I just looked it up, and Rick left for a job in El Dorado County at the end of April 2010.
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Thanks, Jim. I guess I just missed that he had left. Any knowledge of Melissa’s status?
I’m afraid I know nothing of her situation. The only reason I knew about Rick is because he was the city liaison to DCN, of which I’m treasurer.
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Suspect that the HR Administrator’s position is intact. suspect that based on previous actions by her and the City, the position is pretty “bullet-proof”.
FWIW, I just looked at tomorrow’s City Council agenda, and for the closed session items discussing the labor contracts, Melissa Chaney is still listed as the HR Director. … So that leaves me confused, once Yvonne Pimentel Quiring comes on board, what Ms. Quiring’s role will be in HR management. I wonder if this is not some kind of power move by Mr. Pinkerton to push Ms. Chaney out the door?
Rich: Just talked to Pinkerton. He said that she is overseeing HR and IT, just as Paul did. However, given the advanced state of the labor negotiations (he intimidated we will know something within a month), she is not going to be on the negotiating team at this time.
[quote]”(he intimidated we will know something within a month)” [b]- DG[/b][/quote]Did Pinkerton intimidate you, or do you mean “intimated?”
LOL, gotta love auto correct.
[i]”Just talked to Pinkerton. He said that she is overseeing HR and IT, just as Paul did.”[/i]
Thanks, David.
This makes sense to me. However, the way you wrote the story–or at least how it was originally told to you–suggested that Ms. Quiring’s duties vis-a-vis HR and IT were going to be direct and active and in that way much more than the role Paul Navazio had in them. Now it seems to me that the job Quiring will have is really just what Navazio had, and by saying “she will be managing this and that and the other shinola,” that is really just an explanation of the Asst. CM’s job, not really an expanded role which would save the City administrative expense (unless Chaney leaves and is not replaced).