More on City Manager Selection.

Below is the Sentinel's Article about the Selection of the New City Manager.

Green is Gramps Added thoughts and opinions. First of all the Sentinel has once again covered MORE of the STORY... Thanks...

San Bernardino County Sentinel
Friday, November 6, 2009

New GT Manager Forwent $230,000 Management Post in Moreno Valley to Take Blue Mountain City’s $185,000 Job

GRAND TERRACE–In a unanimous vote, the Grand Terrace City Council this week select­ed Betsy Adams, one of Moreno Valley’s current assistant city managers, as the Blue Mountain City’s new city manager.

Adams will take over the reins at City Hall from Bernie Simon, Grand Terrace’s acting city manager, effective December 1.

Adams, 51, has served in the capacity of the second highest ranking municipal manager in Moreno Valley, a city of 180,446 population in Riverside County, since 2005. She has worked in Moreno Valley for 19 years. In her first decade and a half with that city, Adams worked in the capacities of executive secretary, emergency services director, risk management supervisor, the director of technolo­gy services, city spokeswoman, assistant personnel director and the director of administrative services.

Though Simon current­ly heads the municipal op­eration in Grand Terrace, his assignment as city manager is only an inter­im one. He was promoted to the temporary city man­ager’s role in August, suc­ceeding Steve Berry, who was given an ignominious send off following a scan­dal relating to allegations of embezzlement, failure to disclose his income from work he did for a developer in neighboring Loma Linda and an effort to close out the city’s child care service.

Like Simon, Berry never held the permanent city manager’s post, but served in an interim or acting capacity beginning in June 2008, when the last full fledged city man­ager in Grand Terrace, Tom Schwab, was felled by a subdural hematoma. The unflattering revela­tions about Berry that led to his exodus from Grand Terrace in some measure stemmed from the rivalry that ensued after Schwab’s recovery led to his effort to regain his position as city manager in the face of what were perceived as Berry’s ruthless efforts to succeed Schwab on a per­manent basis.

Schwab, who had served as city manager in Grand Terrace since 1989 after a five-year stint as finance director, was only the second city manager in the city’s history. He was preceded by Seth Armstead, who was hired as city manager upon the city’s founding in 1978.

Schwab is no longer with the city, having re­tired in June. Simon will remain with the city as finance director after Ad­ams takes up her position, which pays $185,000 in yearly salary along with nearly $30,000 benefits and deferred compensa­tion.

Schwab had earned only $140,000 per year in base pay with Grand Ter­race, which boasts only 12,500 residents. The council was obliged to es­calate Adam’s pay scale to $185,000 because, More­no Valley officials say, she was considered the front running candidate to re­place Moreno Valley City Manager Robert G. Guti­errez in December. That post would have paid Ad­ams upwards of $230,000 per year.

The City Council should have offered not what Schwab was getting, or in this case more in terms of cash. They should have offered her 10 percent above the average income of a household in Grand Terrace. That would be around 80,000.00.

Tom Schwab was over paid getting a New Car and Perks including the Purchase of A HOUSE.. Schwab was party to the Cover Up of the Berry Criminal Investigation and the Cover Up of the Income Berry earned in Political Activity that could have impacted Grand Terrace Policy.

Adams applied for the Grand Terrace job in July, well before Gutierrez an­nounced in September that he would retire in December, after his hand was forced by the filing of criminal charges against him by the San Bernardino County district attorney relating to allegations he had stalked and harassed a former girlfriend.

Adams was one of 36 who applied for the posi­tion. Among those 36 was her colleague in Moreno Valley Rick Hartmann, who also carries the title of assistant city manager. It now appears that Hart­mann will succeed Guti­errez in December.

New GT Manager Forwent $230,000 Management Post in Moreno Valley to Take Blue Mountain City’s $185,000 Job

Efforts to reach Adams at Moreno Valley City Hall this week were un­successful.

She may be a Great City Manager. Her education and past work experience proves hopeful. IF she is, she would be the first to renegotiate a contract that is reasonable for the City and the size of the job. Not what she would be paid in a much larger city. This would show true character which could be respected. Our community is doing without Youth Programs for 13 to 18 year olds. Our community has a troubled job market. Our community needs jobs that will provide sufficient income to live in this community. Having an over paid City Manager has not resolved any of these problems in the past.

There should have been a bidding war with the cost going down not UP... Many of our citizens have had their incomes cut in half, or worse laid off.