Artesia Employees On Edge After City Council Seemingly Ignores Dire Concerns About Health of City

 

Managers and analysts put their necks on the line, and went public with their concerns about the health of the City, and how City Manager Bill Rawlings is affecting it. Councilmember Tony Lima looks on in the background.

Artesia, California - A powerful scene unfolded earlier last week.  

On October 5, almost every Artesia city employee attended a special council meeting and risked their livelihoods to publicly express their concerns about how City Manager Bill Rawlings is detrimentally affecting the health of the City. The purpose of the special council meeting was Rawlings' performance evaluation.

Three council members - Rene Trevino, Melissa Ramoso, and Ali Sajjad Taj, thanked the managers and supervisors for their words, but Councilmember Monica Manalo defended Rawlings in a public statement. 

The meeting ended with the City Attorney Hongdao Nguyen reporting 'No Reportable Action.'  The following week, Rawlings still went to the office at least once, and retaliation of unionizing employees continued, with duties being taken away from certain employees, and reassigning others. Nothing appears to have happened. This means that at least three council members, and we can speculate which three, have chosen not to do anything.

To recap the last few months, employees used a city policy to submit several allegations about the City Manager's conduct to the City Council, ranging from harassment, electioneering, and mishandling of public funds.  The City Council held a closed meeting to discuss these. It's unclear what happened during these closed session meetings, but there has been no investigation on these matters. After this closed session meeting, three council members publicly voted to make it harder for employees to submit allegations. At the same council meeting, the Council affirmed that employees should report such concerns to the HR Manager.  Aghast at those council members protecting the City Manager over the City, the entirety of city employees mobilized to unionize to protect themselves. Later, the HR Manager was actually fired within the context of him assisting in union organizing efforts, and handling a concern from an employee who was worried about a Covid scare at City Hall.

Where's the City Manager?

City Manager Bill Rawlings

Here's the context of Manalo's outburst: After statements from employees and a business owner named Venkatesh Koka, Mayor Rene Trevino asked where the City Manager was, inferring a portion of the Artesia Municipal Code that lists the City Manager's duties.  

AMC 2-4.205(e), states that the City Manager is "To attend all meetings of the Council and its committees, unless excused therefrom by the Council, except when his or her removal is under consideration by the Council."

Trevino asked the City Attorney and the City Council if Rawlings had notified any of them that he would not be in attendance. None of them reported a notification from Rawlings.

In response, Manalo effectually said Rawlings didn't have to be there. "Is there a role for the City Manager today? This was a special meeting called by the mayor."

Trevino said, "The City Manager is present at all City Council meetings, and it would be good if he at least sent an Email saying that he wouldn't be in tonight. So, it's very disappointing that he chose NOT to notify anybody on this Council, the City Clerk, or the City Attorney. He's part of every meeting."

Councilmember Monica Manalo

Why Are Employees Worried About the Health of the City?

This seemingly willing attempt by councimembers to ignore serious issues that affect the quality of service with the City, all while protecting the man causing the problems, is putting City employees on edge.

When the employees came up to speak, their message was one of such poor management that City funding and revenues are constantly endangered and/or questionable, the City's credibility among vendors and other agencies becoming poor, manipulation, rank hypocrisy, and lies to both city staff and the City Council. To demonstrate Rawlings poor management, they listed specific examples and used the International City/County Management Associations' (ICMA) code of ethics as a basic standard to hold up to. The ICMA's Code of Ethics describes actions and behaviors expected or forbidden towards officials, staff, and the public by local government managers.

In a statement delivered to Eye on Pioneer, managers said, "The City Manager has failed to meet many of the tenets of the Code of Ethics. His actions have severely impacted his ability to manage the City’s operations, to effectively and efficiently lead City staff, and to foster civic and democratic engagement important to build community among all of Artesia’s residents, business owners, and visitors in order to ensure a city prepared for the future while addressing its current needs."

One eye opening example was how Rawlings' had people come to work during the pandemic, yet he himself did not step in the City for a year. Another, about how he lied to the City Council during council meetings about budgets and finances.

Managers also revealed Rawlings' dislike of unionized employees, saying that he has "purposely left positions unfilled due to a dislike of unions and unionized staff, resulting in reduced services to City’s residents."

This is corroborated by rank-and-file staff. As Public Works employees gradually leave the City to retire or for other reasons, Rawlings refused to hire additional staff to replace them. When Rawlings started, there were seven Public Works employees. Today, there are four. As these positions are unfilled, and because the workload remains the same, Rawlings hires contractors like Mariposa to take over these duties.

The drop in service quality is noticeable everywhere Mariposa has taken over duties previously covered by Public Works employees - the City parking lot, the Artesia Town Center, the medians.

Above: Mariposa is one of the contractors that the City uses to fill in where the 

City's shrinking Public Works staff is unable to fill.

Is It True That Three Councilmembers Hold Allegiance to the City Manager?

"Are they not worried about what employees are experiencing? Are they really that gullible to believe everything the City Manager says?" asked one employee, after seeing that the council meeting ended with 'No Reportable Action'.

Andrew Perry, President of AFSCME Local 1520, said, "Do I believe the City Council holds allegiance to the City Manager?  Sort of, but not for any nefarious reason. I don't think Rawlings has dirt on anyone, which is probably what most people think.  This is what I think is going on: I think most of the Council are victims of classic persuasion techniques. It's the power of propaganda on human psychology, on display for everyone to see. Imagine being told for years that Artesia is a wonderful utopia, and nothing is wrong. The only person for the longest time to say anything was the person elected to represent the voice of employees. Well, if you paint that person as disgruntled, you can discredit his words.  It's like North Korea, except instead of having to convince an entire population, the City Manager only really needs to convince three key people."

Perry continued, "What's happening now is that everyone is standing up together as a united front, putting their necks on the line, and basically affirming a message that had been discredited to the Council as coming from one disgruntled employee. Our action was a powerful statement, and it's a different narrative as to what the Council has been hearing for years."

"Another way to put it," said Perry, "you can't fool all of the people all of the time, but if you fool the right ones the rest will fall behind.  Well, we're not falling behind anymore. We're standing up, and this won't end until Rawlings is gone."

"You can't fool all of the people all of the time, 

but if you fool the right ones the rest will fall behind."

- Dead Prez