Oxnard Firefighters assoc. President speaks out on Oxnard’s consultants

story arial, here sans-serif;”> By Jeff Donabedian

patient arial, sans-serif;”>I just wanted to send out this to add a little more to my speech from City Council tonight (3-15-16) regarding the consultants and contracts and how they all know each other.

We know that we have contracts that are approaching the $9 million mark. We’re asking what have we gotten for that amount of money in such a short timeframe?

We have stated that Mr. Nyhoff and all of these consultants/experts all know each other and work together. A super-majority of these people come from Stockton and Vallejo.

In my speech I referenced the California League of Cities (CLC) and International City Managers’ Association (ICMA). I did not say that to say that it was right or wrong, but just wanted to show that that is where all of these people met one another, including our elected officials.

The CLC and ICMA also have political “arms” to them as well, again not saying right or wrong, but using it for a point here. The taxpayers of Oxnard paid over $200,000 last year for our city administrators and elected officials to belong to these types of organizations and for political lobbying efforts. You decide if right or wrong, but the travel expenses and stuff are covered by the taxpayers and these experts that put on the classes/seminars to our city administrators and elected officials, are the exact same people being rewarded for $8.6 million in contracts, with more to come and no clear solutions at the ready.

Now, before I go any further, I have nothing against employees going to training to learn new and best practices to provide a more efficient and effective service method, but it should be noted that most other departments, including the Fire Department have $0 for training in their budget. For the FD, if we cannot find a grant for a class/training, it doesn’t happen. We also have to pay for our own memberships, and I believe it to be the same in PD.

I’m not going to write 3 more paragraphs to link who works for who, and who used to work together, I shared that information to show that not only the hired experts, but some of our newly hired managers are involved in this as well. In fact, the City Manager even taught a seminar in Seattle last year (which the taxpayers paid for) with Ms. Hurtado’s sister. Now, I don’t have a problem with this, we all have successful relatives and shouldn’t be punished for that, but when we do a “nationwide” search and we find these things out, plus all the other incestuous relationships and past business practices of many of these individuals and groups……you have to ask more questions, why wouldn’t you?

When we see that Mr. Nyhoff even gives classes/presentations called, “If City Managers Ruled the World,” with his 2 right-hand people, Bob Deis and Debra Wong….we have to ask….why are we paying all of these people almost $9 million dollars while they are flying around giving presentations on how great they are and how well they have done……isn’t that how a snake oil salesperson would do it?

Think back to where this financial crisis started, the claims of impending insolvency and hints of possible bankruptcy, and now we’re nowhere near bankrupt, but we can’t sign off on any financial documents yet. I know that they are building next year’s budget and I would bet a soda that they are going to try and push a budget through before they sign off on a CAFR, they’ll even say that it is legally required…..my point is this…..

Is this all an elaborate plan where certain elected officials and city administrators bought this program and brought these groups in to “be the hero” by solving their own man-made crisis? What if they preyed on us while we were vulnerable from the DA fallout and mismanagement? Just because you have mismanagement, doesn’t mean that you have no money, right?

  It would seem to me that if there was truly a serious, serious financial problem that we would all know about it by now…..think about your own personal finances…..wouldn’t you know where the “crisis” is by now? What if I was an “expert” that had a program to create a fiscal crisis to take money from your employees? What if I had a program to privatize one of the utilities? My point is that everyone has “skin in the game,” (my group included) and you have to look at it all from a larger perspective and ask yourself if you’re being played…and who is playing you? We have tried from day one to share everything we can with you. If we make a claim, we share the source documents with you, can you say that about the $9 million experts?

On a funnier side note, I heard that at this last meeting where Mr. Nyhoff gave his “If City Managers Ruled the World,” class, the Modesto Police Department was giving a class on how to survive with limited resources…..I hope we don’t end up teaching a class like that.

Attached you will find all of the PowerPoint presentations I referred to tonight. I will also attach the files showing Mr. Nyhoff speaking with Ms. Hurtado’s sister, and showing Ms. Hurtado’s alliance to Management Partners before she was employed here. It is nothing personal, but if we are being truly “transparent” with this City Council and Management…then let’s be completely honest.

I hope this email helps everyone try and see a possibly different perspective on the situation going on in Oxnard. Maybe it will add some more light on why we are fighting for what’s right for this community. You all deserve better than this, and both the Firefighters and Police Officers took oaths to protect this community no matter what because you are all worth fighting for.

Regards,

Jeff Donabedian, President

Oxnard Firefighters Association

IAFF Local 1684

George Miller is Publisher of CitizensJournal.us and a “retired” operations management consultant residing in Oxnard.

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