When City Administrator Jay Baksa retires right after New
Year’s, he will be taking more than a few coffee mugs and family
photos with him.
GILROY
When City Administrator Jay Baksa retires right after New Year’s, he will be taking more than a few coffee mugs and family photos with him.
He will leave with 24 years of experience and a reputation for fiscal conservatism that many city officials said they have come to value.
So how does a city that several employees described as a “tight ship” and a “well-oiled machine” prepare to carry on without its captain?
For now the answer is Bobbi Peckham, a consultant with 23 years of experience in helping cities recruit executives, from the city manager in Centennial, Colo., to the chief of police in Santa Monica.
Here in Gilroy, Peckham has interviewed city staff, councilmen and residents over the past month to create a profile of the city’s ideal city administrator, who will make nearly $210,000. Peckham, whose company will receive $25,000 for its work, said she will submit the profile to the city by the end of the week, and then the city will use it throughout the multi-step interview process that begins in December after recruitment closes Nov. 30, according to Baksa and Human Resources Director LeeAnn McPhillips.
“I think I have a very good sense of what Gilroy wants,” Peckham said. “I have spent a considerable amount of time talking to council members, city staff” and residents, especially those who have attended relevant City Council meetings.
One candidate who many admit has the experience, know-how and proximity to the job is Assistant City Administrator Anna Jatczak.
Peckham also helped recruit Jatczak out of 114 candidates last year after the latter spent a decade as a top city administrator in San Jose. There Jatczak said she honed the ability to measure the performance of hundreds of employees, strip away inefficiencies, and mold the priorities of America’s 10th largest city into multimillion-dollar budgets.
“I’ve given this obviously a lot of thought,” Jatczak said of her new potential job. “I really love the city of Gilroy, and I would very much welcome the opportunity to serve as the next city administrator, so I’ve been gearing myself up for that.”
So have all the other employees at City Hall, nearly all of whom await their first new boss.
“All of city staff have expressed a little bit of concern given that Jay holds a lot of historical knowledge that’s very difficult to replace,” said Jatczak, who moved to Gilroy from Morgan Hill after becoming the city’s assistant manager. “But we have well-seasoned and well-tenured department heads.”
One such leader is Planning Division Manager Bill Faus, whom the city hired three months after Baksa in 1983.
Faus and Jatczak said that city staff will be able to stand on their own after Baksa leaves and before his replacement really settles in, but Faus said he will miss Baksa’s cool head.
“We’re looking for somebody who is willing to go forward and try new avenues for all of the issues that face the city,” said Faus, adding that planning and land use will continue to consume residents. “Jay has a clear and steady hand in very rough waters, and that is something to be admired.”
The qualities Baksa said he admires, though, are leadership, thorough fiscal knowledge and labor skills.
“Know your money,” Baksa said in reference to a mantra he has picked up over the years that has taught him fiscal conservatism, budgetary analytical skills and foresight. Being simply a good manager is not enough, Baksa warned. His successor also needs to understand how to work with unions, not just how to get along with them.
Coming back as a paid consultant who could coach the new city administrator is also out of the question, Baksa said. “That would not be fair for me to be involved with this organization with a new manager here,” he said.
Whoever that new manager is, he or she will have to pass through a gauntlet of interviews after Peckham “weeds out those who don’t meet the qualification,” Baksa said.
By Jan. 14, Peckham will report to City Council with the top six or eight candidates her company feels pass muster. Then an array of community and department head panels selected by Peckham with council input will comb through an elaborate scoring process along with the council until they select the top two or three applicants for their final, individual interviews.
The new City Council will then pick from this final group, and a final pick is expected by the end of January. The new administrator will start by mid to late March, according to McPhillips.
Councilman Craig Gartman is challenging Mayor Al Pinheiro for the mayor’s seat, and Planning Commissioners Tim Day and Cat Tucker, former Councilman Bob Dillon, lawyer Perry Woodward and incumbents Roland Velasco and Russ Valiquette are running for the three available council seats.
Dillon said he looks forward to the process and wants someone with private sector experience and an openness to more government transparency.
“My No. 1 requirement would be strong financial skills,” Dillon said. “I would also like to see someone who has no problem staying in the background, yet is still strong-willed – someone who is dedicated to more open government and transparency.”
Councilman Dion Bracco said he also prefers someone with fiscal responsibility, but that he liked Baksa’s active involvement with the council.
“I don’t want a puppy dog who is afraid of the council,” Bracco said. “He or she has to be able to keep the council on track because you have seven different personalities on there that could go anywhere.”
Day agreed and also stressed the importance of economic sense.
“I want to see a strong personality, not somebody who will be pushed around by city employees or the City Council,” Day said.
Customer service is another hallmark of Baksa’s administration, many officials said, and Pinheiro said if he is re-elected, he will also be there to help the new administrator get into the office’s groove.
“This new administrator who comes in must stand on their own,” Pinheiro said. “He or she will be able to take this ship and move it forward. We’re not going to hire a new city administrator who needs his hand held.”
