It just wasn’t a good fit

Jim Bowersox, who served for 25 years as Poway’s city manager before retiring in 2005, has occasionally been asked how he managed stay in his post for so long. His response: “I knew how to count to three.”

Bowersox was respected as a tough-but-fair boss who understood that he worked for the five elected members of the City Council and that his primary responsibility was to give them what they wanted.

It’s too bad Dan Singer wasn’t around when Bowersox, or the two city managers who followed him, were in charge. Not clearly understanding how things are expected to be done in Poway cost him his job last week.

Make no mistake, Singer is a very capable city manager and, on top of that, a heck of a nice guy. Coming from Goleta, California he did his best to acclimate himself to Poway. He received high marks for getting the council to think beyond the next year or two by leading them through a goal-setting process, for greatly improving employee morale and transitioning the city into a cost-saving two-year budget cycle. He also came to work as the administrative head of a heavily burdened municipal work force that had been slashed by 20 percent during the recent recession.

Singer and the council had a good first year together. Year two, however, generated some conflicts related to members of the council expressing impatience that three key projects were not proceeding at what members felt was an appropriate pace: the Tony Gwynn memorial, the undergrounding of overhead lines along Espola Road and, to a lesser extent, the construction of the Mickey Cafagna Community Center in Community Park. Taken individually, the perceived foot-dragging was not a big deal; collectively, it became an issue. The memorial was being pushed by Mayor Steve Vaus. Espola Road was being followed closely by Councilmen Barry Leonard and John Mullin. Making substantial progress on the community center was at the top of everyone’s list, but especially Mullin and Councilman Dave Grosch.

Little by little, month by month, Singer started losing his council. The strain was evident by the fact that Singer’s annual review, a process that normally takes one or two closed sessions, went on for a couple of months.

Then the news broke that the city had undercharged Pomerado Hospital for water and Sportsplex for rent. It’s unclear what impact, if any, those developments had on the council’s unanimously deciding last week not to renew Singer’s contract. The educated guess here is that the die had already been cast, that he no longer was supported by at least three members.

Both Singer and the council are stressing that there’s no bad guy in this situation and that it’s more of a question of Singer not being the best fit for “The City in the Country.” To his credit, Singer did not insist that the nine months of pay he is owed under his contract be paid in one lump sum. Instead, it will be parceled out in three-month increments and stopped if he finds a new job. There’s no reason to think he will not be quickly employed, which would result in significant savings to the city.