Kersnar’s Dismissal Official
By Mary M. Long
On July 22, the City Council voted unanimously to place city manager Jere Kersnar on paid administrative leave. On Tuesday, Aug. 24, the council met in closed session and made an announcement after the meeting that they will proceed into a separation agreement with Kersnar. The decision to hire John Baker as interim city manager was made by the City Council. According to Mayor Steve Olsen the council was unanimous in their approval of Baker. Baker’s rate of pay is $65 per hour with no benefits. It is expected that the arrangement with Baker will continue until a permanent city manager is hired. Baker served as interim manager in 2005 prior to the hiring of Jere Kersnar when the contract with Dan Singer was not renewed.
A rec dept. may well be a luxury we can no longer afford.
The rec director isn’t from Ojai and doesn’t do much to justify her high salary. And she didn’t fire anybody but when locals are doing all the work and the director just sits there, she should go.
They need to stop wasting money on the skate park. Why support a bunch of drug addicted, whiny little kids?
If they want to have fun, they can go play in the gutter behind Sea Fresh.
Anonymous Ray,
You goober! Sounds like yur sit smokin’ the urinal cakes…
Somebody had to give the council the bad news about the city going broke. Mr. Kersner was the one to give the council the unvarnished truth and they fired him. The Rec Director is being picked on because she fired a long time employee, who now competes with the rec dept. by running his own programs. I do not think the city should be involved in recreational programs that private individuals are willing to run.
There is a very good article on Kersner’s departure in the latest issue of Ojai magazine. I think the reporter nailed it: Jere was too detached, and botched the skate park and Libbey Bowl projects. In doing so, he upset a lot of people and finally the council had to heed their constituents.
Funny, I, too, was thinking of the Rec Director, too. We not only need fiscally responsible staff, we need creative thinkers in these hard economic times.
MARK I HEAR 50 INTERVIEWS FOR A REPLACEMENT AT PARK AND REC, NOT ONE FROM OJAI!
Tune in,turn on,drop out.
Get a new Rec Director! Someone who knows what’s going on and hires local people who know the community. Someone who works like the rest of the staff.
Kersnar’s biggest fault was that he was a fiscal consevative. He opposed funding the Trolley, he was against financing the Libbey Bowl project, and he was not in favor of the city spending any money on the skate park. And thus he gets fired. Sounds like he was doing his job protecting the taxpayers.
It will take a long time to pick up the pieces. Jere brought in some staff that is totally wrong for the job totally wrong for this valley and they need to be replaced as soon as possible. Are you parents happy with Rec department? How happy are you with the Libby project and counting the cost overruns, it will be another million plus and you will keep hearing we missed somethings over and over.This council should direct Baker to get on the stick and make some meaningful corrections to this cities staff.