The Man in The Middle - Chuck Fuentes

A rather pedestrian way to start off this blog. A "decent" article that at least present some not overly flattering propaganda from City of Pico Rivera Public Information Officer Bob Spencer.

First off Dennis Courtermarche made $200,000 only after 20 years of experience as a City Manager. He helped the city of Pico Rivera overcome the closure of Northrop and laid the groundwork for many of the new business and projects the new council majority is attempting to ride the coattails on. Some say he did some back door deals to try and pressure the city to give him a raise to keep him. When he did got his last raise Beilke and his North-Southeast Coalition to Reform Local Government tried to recall Greg Salcido, Bea Proo, and Carlos Garcia. His main reason was for giving a raise to Courtermarche.

Fast forward. Beilke is able to get Chuck Fuentes hired as a city consultant with a majority of Armenta and Ramirez. Chuck continues to muck up various projects he is involved in including the Pico Rivera Stables fiasco. He his then hired as the city's full time City Manager with NO DEGREE and NO EXPERIENCE, well unless you count his months as a "Consultant" as the needed experience to handle the job of City Manager of Pico Rivera. David Armenta has a change of heart and decides based on job performance to end Chuck's contract along with councilmen Gregory Salcido and Carlos Garcia. Chuck is fired. Who kschnitzel assistant politics grace napolitano ron beilke ron mendoza bob archuleta gracie gallegos-smith david armenta gregory salcido fraud sexual harrassment charles city hallnows if he gets a severence package? Then after the elections Carlos Garcia and EA Pete Ramirez have been defeated by Beilke's cronies Gracie Gallegos-Smith and Bob Archuleta backed by serious money from Ron Beilke. Note Gregory Salcido wins re-election)By the way does anyone remember Chuck Fuentes was the campaign manager for both Gracie Gallegos-Smith and Bob Archuleta. Conflict of Interest?(Within days of taking office behind a closed door session the new city council majority of Beilke, Gallegos-Smith, Archuleta vote to re-hire/appoint recently fired Chuck Fuentes back into the City Manager position. This is while the city was still paying $17,000 to an executive "head hunting" firm to find a qualified person to take over the reins of City Manager in the City of Pico Rivera. Funny thing the head hunting firm was told to look for someone with experience as chief executive for a city or other municipal district and a college degree. Chuck Fuentes has neither of these. Not only did they waste the $17,000 for the head hunting firm they gave Mr. Fuentes a raise. Getting fired was probably the best thing to happen to Chuck.

Fast forward again. Chuck Fuentes is in the Pico Rivera Profile bragging about the surplus he was able to get for the fiscal year due to his frugal spending. Then he gets a raise bringing him to $175,000 annually thanks to Beilke, Archuleta, and Gallegos-Smith. Just $25,000 more than Courtemarche who had the degrees and experience to merit that kind of salary. Strange considering Beilke was so against a city administrator making that high a salary in the first place. He then hires a second Assistant City Manager Jeffrey Prang Mayor of West Hollywood. Two assistant city managers for a city of less than 70,000. He then starts to change his tune in the Pico Rivera Profiles explaining a $4 million plus deficit just months after claiming a surplus of about the same. A 9 million dollar flip-flop? Same ol' election year politics trying to balance the budget, scare the public, get the employees ready for a 0% COLA, oh and get a 1 percent sales tax increase passed.

What I dont understand is how/why would he still OK a raise for himself, the hiring of a second asst. city manager, and the hiring of 50th Anniversary consultant Mike Mendez (Norwalk Mayor & City of Santa Fe Springs Parks and Recreation Director), and the spending of how much for the four day 4th of July Event? Four days of concerts and feel good events for the public right before the fire 60+ people making close to minimum wage from his Parks and Rec Dept.



Man in middle in Pico Rivera
Fuentes stirs up Pico Rivera politics
By Airan Scruby, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 07/20/2008 09:48:05 PM PDT

PICO RIVERA - City Manager Charles "Chuck" Fuentes has been at the center of Pico Rivera politics since he took his position for the first time in 2005.

His supporters say he is a capable civic leader, but detractors say Fuentes has politicized City Hall, showing favoritism to the three City Council members who hired him.

"Am I more political? I'm the first one to say yes, and that's a plus," Fuentes said. "Every city manager does what he or she has to do to take care of his majority."

Fuentes, 54, has spent most of his life in politics, but never completed a college degree. His hiring in the city has spurred recall elections, broken council alliances and widened the chasm between current council members.

"The only reason that Chuck Fuentes is the city manager in the city of Pico Rivera is because he will do what (Mayor Ron Beilke) asks him to do," Councilman Gregory Salcido said.

Fuentes dropped out of UC Berkeley to pursue a job managing the U.S. Census for all of San Mateo County and one-third of San Francisco County.

He later worked on President Jimmy Carter's re-election campaign, and eventually became chief of staff for Rep. Grace Napolitano, D-Santa Fe Springs, and then chief administrative officer for the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office and administrative deputy controller.

He also served for 26 years on the Democratic State Central Committee, and was elected in 1989 to the position of state vice
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chairman of the California Democratic Party.

He came to the city as a consultant while he was president of Global Cities Consulting Group, a firm he established in 2002 to advise clients in business development, public and government relations, homeland security and entertainment.

His job was to trim $3 million from the city's budget in the middle of a fiscal year. He did it by minimizing the city's management structure, reorganizing to terminate unnecessary jobs and save money.

When City Manager Dennis Courtermarche was fired in 2005, Beilke, along with then-allies councilmen David Armenta and Pete Ramirez, quickly brought in Fuentes, an acquaintance of Beilke's.

Armenta, Ramirez and Beilke were ultimately served with recall papers because of hiring Fuentes.

Salcido said Fuentes' supporters stressed his political contacts, saying he could use his relationships with Napolitano and others to find money for city projects. They also pointed out he could be hired for much less than Courtermarche had been paid - just $145,000 compared with the $200,000 the outgoing Courtermarche had received.

Fuentes now earns $175,000 a year.

Armenta left the voting bloc and voted with Gregory Salcido and Carlos Garcia to fire Fuentes just nine months later. They cited Fuentes' lack of education and city administrative experience as reasons for his termination.

Fuentes said he felt wronged by the decision and believed his work for the city had been positive.

He said being fired motivated him to help Beilke when he backed Gracie Gallegos-Smith and Bob Archuleta for City Council in 2007. Fuentes even did consulting work on their campaigns, he said.

"It basically enticed me into helping out with fashioning a new majority," Fuentes said.

The new council members were sworn in on a Tuesday, and Fuentes was reinstated as city manager on Thursday, Salcido said.

"He could not ever get on to a list of qualified candidates," Salcido said. "He has never run an organization like this. He was fired the first time he did it."

Beilke said despite the tension it has caused on the city manager, he will not replace Fuentes.

"If anybody had a different opinion on who they wanted to be city manager, then let them run for City Council," Beilke said. "I don't operate under the gun of critics. I don't have to."

Since Gallegos-Smith and Archuleta were elected, Fuentes said he has done what he can to move the city forward. That included cleaning out the budget, he said, which had been full of "smoke and mirrors" accounting practices that hid a large structural deficit.

The budget restructuring revealed a $4.8 million budget gap, Fuentes said, which he had wanted to review for years but could not because the city's Finance Department wasn't available to look over the numbers.

Former directors of the Finance Department could not be reached for comment.

But Salcido said he believes Fuentes' inexperience could be responsible for the shortfall.

"The fact that we're being asked to declare financial emergency, it's a clear indication of his lack of ability to effectively run this administration," Salcido said. "Sooner or later, he's going to have to take ownership of the finances of Pico Rivera."

Salcido said lack of education and experience - but especially Fuentes' political entanglement with the mayor - have kept him from fulfilling his role at City Hall.

"Politically he is obligated to do what Ron instructs him to do," Salcido said.

According to Salcido, Fuentes has been unresponsive to his requests for information on city issues.

But Assistant City Manager Debbie Lopez said it is not unusual to cater to the needs of a council majority, though the administrators make an effort to help everyone on the council.

"The majority gets more," Lopez said. "It's not unusual at all."

During both of Fuentes' stints as city manager, senior staff have left the city in droves.

Included in the exodus were Bill Shannon, director of Housing Services and a city employee for more than 20 years. Shannon, 53, said he quit after Fuentes reassigned him to a downsized department.

"I was not earning my keep," Shannon said in 2006. "I was at a point where I felt it was unfair to the city."

Those who resigned also include David Hertzing, the director of Community Development, and Scott Wasserman, manager of the Public Safety Division. Finance Director Bob Ridley also left Pico Rivera.

Most recently, Public Works Director Michael Moore resigned in June.

Fuentes said the resignations are a natural part of the transition from Courtermarche to himself.

"When (Courtermarche) was shown the door, a lot of those people had worked under him for many years," Fuentes said. "It's not because I'm the city manager and people don't want to work for me."

Fuentes said his job in the city has been difficult, but he said he's fallen in love with the community and moved to Pico Rivera recently. He said he wants to continue the good he's started. He said he plans to stay in the city as long as politics allow.

"Politics in this town is a blood sport," Fuentes said, "and you have to just deal with that."

airan.scruby@sgvn.com

(562) 698-0955, Ext. 3029