Ewell doing a shuffle
CITY HALL — When City Manager Lamont Ewell came aboard 11 months ago, he had plans to shake things up.
Following an extensive review of City Hall’s organizational structure, Ewell is ready to do just that, with plans to dramatically reorganize management in efforts to provide greater efficiency and accountability.
The plan includes creating a new deputy city manager position for oversight of internal services, allowing Ewell to interact more regularly with residents, businesses and other institutions within the city. Ewell will also have a greater role in regional, state and federal issues, becoming an advocate for Santa Monica.
“The organization hasn’t been restructured in over 10 years, and in that time, this community has changed dramatically,” Ewell said during an interview Thursday, before setting off on a week-long vacation to Hawaii. “The needs of this community have changed, our service expectations have changed and it’s time that the structure change to allow us to deliver services in a more effective way. That’s the objective.”
Under Ewell’s reorganization plan, the city manager will retain direct oversight of the police and fire departments, as well as special initiatives, which include work with homelessness and management of the Santa Monica Airport.
Mona Miyasato, currently the assistant to the city manager-community relations, will become deputy city manager, in charge of monitoring human resources, information systems, finance, and a new department — assets management, created to centralize maintenance operations in the city so that the true costs of keeping Santa Monica intact can be measured.
Gordon Anderson will remain the assistant city manager — the principal assistant to Ewell — and serve as acting city manager when Ewell is away from the city.
Anderson will also be responsible for the primary day-to-day operations of the organization, along with special projects. His primary areas of focus will include the Big Blue Bus, community and cultural services, environment and public works management, housing, development and business retention (formerly the resource management department), planning and community development, and the city’s libraries.
“It goes back to something my dad, my mentor, used to always tell me,” Ewell said. “When you put bad systems and good people together, the bad systems win out every time. So what I see is a structure that doesn’t support the desires of the (city employees)... to provide high-quality service.”
Ewell said the current structure is set up so departments work in virtual isolation, which can lead to delays in action and implementation.
“Each department was focused inwardly on getting its own work done, so when one process was completed then it would be handed off to another department to take if from there,” Ewell said. “By the time we went through this series of hand-offs, it can be a year or so before you even get started on that project. We’re looking at ways to be more collaborative, to come together as a small team and shorten the time frame of getting projects done and work together to find out what are some of the issues we all need to think about.”
Kate Vernez, the current assistant to the city manager for intergovernmental affairs, will be placed in charge of community relations, intergovernmental relations, media relations, City TV oversight, community publication and possibly Web site services under the reorganization.
By combining duties, the cost of creating a new deputy city manager position will be partially offset, Ewell said.
There are expected to be some added costs, particularly with the creation of new assets management and risk management divisions, as well as an internal auditor to increase fiscal accountability citywide.
However, with increased efficiencies, there could eventually be a cost savings, Ewell said.
“We tried to approach this as cost neutral, but again, that wasn’t the driving factor,” Ewell said. “We will have some additional expenses, but we expect them to be minimal and well worth it because we will have a greater level of effectiveness.”
Anderson is currently assembling a steering committee comprised of department heads and other city employees, who will work over the next three or four months to refine the reorganization plan and develop realistic timelines for implementation. Ewell anticipates that some adjustments may begin prior to the end of the year, while other components will be incorporated when the City Council discusses the budget for fiscal year 2007-08.
Other changes may be phased in over several years.
“I just don’t want to move boxes around to say, ‘Look, we’ve reorganized,’” Ewell said. “We want to do it for the benefit of this community and increase our service delivery.
“We are going to take our time, measure our progress and see if this is the right approach,”Ewell continued.“If not, we’ll make corrections and adjust it until we get it right.”
While he does not need the council’s approval to implement the plan, Ewell said he will discuss the moves with elected officials in January during the mid-year budget review to gain their support and hear their suggestions.
“I think it is important that (the council) have an understanding of what we are trying to accomplish and I want to do that in a public forum,” Ewell said.
The reorganization plan comes on the heels of an election-night victory for Ewell, who authored Measure U, which gives the city manager more power to hire and fire City Hall’s top executives by removing civil service protections.
City Hall has also been training employees to follow the new “We do the right thing right!” customer service campaign.
“I’m glad that (Measure U) passed and it just gives us another element of efficiency to put people in the right place without having to go through the civil service process, which can take a very long time,” Ewell said.“It’s all about making us more accountable.”
As for the City Council race, in which all three incumbents were re-elected despite strong challenges from two newcomers, Ewell had no comment except to say that, “I can work for anyone the voters pick. I will live by that always.”
When Ewell came aboard in January, he left behind a city in the throes of a scandal over public employee pensions, which bankrupted the City of San Diego.
The root of the problem in San Diego was that political leaders wanted to spend more than they were taking in. They didn’t have the revenue to offer city employees raises, so instead they offered increased pension benefits. This left the city with a $1.4 billion shortfall, with legal questions swirling as to whether there were improper conflicts of interest that led to overly generous payments, according to news reports.
While not involved in the poor financial moves, Ewell was thrown into the center of a federal investigation as city manager for the city. Ewell was heavily criticized for having to make drastic cuts in City Hall to deal with the multimillion dollar budget deficit in San Diego.
Ewell eventually left the job after voters approved a strong mayor form of government. He subsequently landed in Santa Monica, where he has been warmly received by every facet of the community, prompting the question: Is the honeymoon over or still going strong?
“I think I’ve died and gone to heaven,” Ewell said smiling. “Juxtapose my life now with a year ago when we were under a federal investigation, dealing with pulling apart hard drives... It’s an entirely different life here. I’m glad to be back doing what I love, which is managing organizations and figuring out a way to provide high levels of service. As long as I’m here. I’ll think that I’m on a honeymoon and enjoy every day of it.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 13, 2006. Read the original PDF.