Santa Clara City Manager Julio Fuentes resigned from his
position as the City's chief executive on Thursday, and says that his last
day will be around the end of May. The reasons, says Fuentes, are personal and
his relationship with the Santa Clara City Council remains cordial.
"I've run my race," he says, "and I'm ready
to pass the baton. I've had an incredible opportunity to do things I never had
an opportunity to do before and I'm grateful. We'll always look back fondly at
our time in Santa Clara and I appreciate all the people who have been so great
to me. I will always be a gigantic supporter."
A native of Southern California, the 59 year-old Fuentes
lived his entire life there with the exception of the last three years. Three
generations of family, including two of his children, are there, as well as
many close friends. "At heart I'm a Southern California boy," he
says.
He has been a city manager in four California cities –
Pomona, Azusa, Alhambra and Santa Clara – for a total of almost 30 years.
Fuentes' tenure as Santa Clara's city manager came at a transformational point
in the City's history, and one that demanded the public administration
equivalent of tightrope walking without a safety net.
Fuentes was hired by a unanimous vote of the City Council –
Mayor Jamie Matthews and Council Members Lisa Gillmor, Will Kennedy, Patrick
Kolstad, Patricia Mahan, Jamie McLeod and Kevin Moore.
One of Fuentes' recommendations was his strategic focus on community
development; which earned PublicCEO.com's 2011 Official of the Year award. The
organization recognized Fuentes' key role in making Alhambra's reputation as
one of that region's most business-friendly cities with a growing economy, a new
community theatre, and fresh and appealing public art and street-scaping.
On his first day on the job in Santa Clara in 2013, Fuentes faced a host of
challenges, any one of which would constitute a fulltime job. Tackling them was
a job that didn't allow much time for personal or family life, or even rest.
For almost a decade, Santa Clara's budget had been on a
slide, following a tech bust, a real estate bust, and a changing economy. City
departments faced budget and staffing cuts. Employees faced furloughs, with
layoffs on the not-too-distant horizon. The City had a structural budget
deficit and a nearly empty emergency reserve fund.
There was a looming battle over the assets of the shuttered
redevelopment agency, and the real possibility that Santa Clara would lose
millions in RDA lease revenues and hundreds of millions in city-owned real
estate, including the Northside branch library and the Santa Clara Convention
Center, with no money set aside to cover these claims if the City lost its
case.
Santa Clara had also just embarked the previous April on the
building of an estimated $1 billion football stadium, and the City Council had
committed to a Super Bowl bid for the un-built stadium.
Three years later Fuentes will leave Santa Clara with over
$50 million in emergency reserves, a balanced budget and a surplus, and
significant new revenue from the development impact fees he proposed that will
allow Santa Clara to start adding significantly to open space and parks in the
City.
Santa Clara's Levi's Stadium was completed on schedule and about $200
million under budget. Last month Super Bowl 50 was an unqualified success –
including a first-ever reimbursement for Super Bowl costs – and put Santa Clara
on the world's map. People know Silicon Valley, Fuentes says, but they don't
recognize the names of many of the region's cities. "Santa Clara doesn't
have that problem any more."
After almost five years, the RDA lawsuit was finally settled
and the City retained the Northside library and the Convention Center. The
City's revenue growth, thanks to new development driving property tax revenue
as well growing sales and hotel tax revenues, more than covers the lost RDA
lease revenue.
But none of this comes without taking a physical toll on the
City staff. Many cities alternate periods of intense and demanding change with
periods of relative stasis, Fuentes says. But "Santa Clara is flat-lined
at 100 mph every day. It's physically tiring.
"We have so many incredibly talented staff
people," he continues. "Without doubt we're operating at the level of
a city that's much larger because people are burning both ends against the
middle. They are doing a Herculean job. But even Hercules gets worn out."
Fuentes still has some projects on his list to be finished
before he leaves.
One is the package the City Council needs before it can give
a go-ahead to Related Companies' proposed City Place Santa Clara retail,
commercial and entertainment center on land that is currently the municipal
golf course. "That project is incredibly important economically to the
City," he says.
Other jobs include the 2016-17 budget and Levi's Stadium
rent re-set (specified in the 2012 contract with the 49ers.)
"A lot of great decisions were made in the past,"
Fuentes says. These decisions enabled Santa Clara to become the dynamic city it
is today. These decisions are still being made by the City Council for the
future. "But they're also looking at how those decisions are going to be
affect core services to residents. And that's the appropriate way to go."
What's next for Fuentes? It may be retirement and coaching
high school football – something he's done in the past. It may another job in
public administration – he has received offers, he says. "A lot of people
tell me I should teach."
For public officials looking to make their communities
places people come to instead of being places they leave, Fuentes is their man.
To read more:
http://www.santaclaraweekly.com/2015/Issue-22/city-desk.html
http://www.santaclaraweekly.com/2013/Issue-8/city_desk.html
http://www.santaclaraweekly.com/2013/Issue-13/city_desk.html
http://www.santaclaraweekly.com/2013/Issue-8/city_desk.html
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