City Fails to Reach Competition’s Top 10

Oxnard’s overhaul of city bureaucracy was not named one of the nation’s top 10 government innovations by a prestigious panel Wednesday, but local officials headed home from Washington proud to have reached the finals in a very competitive field.

The city had reached the final 25 of 1,540 applicants screened in a program funded by the nonprofit Ford Foundation and run in conjunction with Harvard University.

Pitching reforms made during the tenure of City Manager Tom Frutchey--who was fired earlier this year after being accused of tyrannizing employees with an autocratic approach--Oxnard has received $20,000 from the committee to persuade other government bodies to emulate its reforms. Proponents of Frutchey’s policies say employees now have more say because the traditional department head system was abandoned. They add that the streamlining has encouraged innovative “corporate-style” ideas.

But opponents of the restructuring say Frutchey grew too powerful and that there was a lack of accountability in City Hall.

Oxnard’s success in the contest caused city leaders to reflect on the fired city manager’s reforms.

“I know we’ve had some problems in Oxnard,” said Councilman Dean Maulhardt, a Frutchey backer. “But being named among the top 25 in the nation is great.”

Maulhardt believes other cities will follow Oxnard’s efforts to streamline city staff and become more business-like.

“I think you’ll see more and more of it in government,” he said. “You can’t keep spending money that’s not there.”

If Oxnard had finished in the top 10, it would have received an additional $80,000. Among the winners was a program by a Georgia school district that trains rank-and-file minority school employees, such as bus drivers, to become teachers.