Q&A; : New Style of Open-Door Sensitivity

William Vasquez, 42, named Bell Gardens city manager last week after serving as interim manager since the new City Council took office in March.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in physical education from Cal State Long Beach; master’s degree in public administration from Pepperdine University in Malibu.

Background: Vasquez has worked for 18 years in city administrations, including Bell, Riverside, Palm Springs, Orange and Alhambra. He says he has concentrated mostly on the “human angle of running a city,” and is known for solving organizational problems. Vasquez most recently worked in Riverside, where he focused on redevelopment projects, including revamping a neglected part of the city that surrounds UC Riverside. Vasquez--who makes his home in Santa Ana with his wife, Nellie, and three children--will be paid $102,000 a year.

Interviewer: Times staff writer Jill Gottesman.

Q: With one bitter recall and two contentious City Council elections in the past six months, Bell Gardens has become a very divided city. How will you help the community heal?

A: A lot of that divisiveness has subsided, and people are ready to move on. They are more interested in what is going to happen next, not what has already happened.

The new council wants an extensive community involvement program and better communication between the government and the residents. I’ve found that when people are uninformed, they tend to question everything, feel alienated and suspect that there’s something going on that they don’t know about. I think that was an issue with the former council; they were not being responsive and sensitive to the needs of all the people. This new government is very sensitive to that, and they want to do something to involve people who have otherwise not been involved in City Hall.

Q: How will you increase that level of involvement?

A: This will be an open-door government, and inviting to people. Even the City Hall building is kind of a cold, distant place to many of the residents. But this is their City Hall, and they should be able to come here when they have problems, and there should be someone here to help them. This includes bringing in staff that can communicate, bilingual people who understand the issues in the community. We are going to do a lot of internal training in City Hall so that people develop a certain philosophy and a culture that expresses what this city is about.

Q: What is the mood around City Hall these days?

A: I think it is really upbeat and optimistic. When I first arrived, it was very tense, and people just didn’t know what was next, especially when we were between elections. Now, they know: This is the council. This is the city manager. That is for certain. The positive things we are talking about, team-building for example, are very exciting to a lot of people. Some staff members will move on for various reasons, but those who remain here are excited about this new approach.

Q: One element of bringing the city together is bringing the council together. Have you met with Rosa Hernandez, the only remaining council member from the ousted old guard?

A: I’ve met with Rosa, and she has expressed a desire to continue to serve the community. She wants to help and be a part of it, and wants to put the past behind her, to start anew with serving the community. Despite the deep emotions involved, it can happen. They are working on bringing themselves together as a group, and I am here to facilitate that any way I can. One thing I want the council to do is create goals and come up with a consensus of what they want for the community.

Q: What are some of those goals? What are the issues facing the new council?

A: Land use, zoning, density are big issues. We might look at an update of the General Plan, and take another look at the zoning issues. It’s a fact of life. There was a lot of confusion in what was being proposed last year (that led to the recall of four City Council members) and what was perceived as being proposed. There was not a lot of interaction between the council and the residents who would be affected. I don’t know if better communication would have averted what happened, but I think interaction was very key. When we tackle the zoning issues, we hope to take a strong, hard look and get the people, and the council members, to really understand what it is that is being proposed.

Q: Could better communication lead to zoning changes similar to those that led to the recall last year?

A: I’m still looking at that. Zone changes are tough. There’s always that paranoia when you deal with people’s property. It happens time and time again with redevelopment projects. People don’t understand redevelopment, and it’s rarely presented to them properly. . . . They automatically think you are going to condemn all the houses and that they are not going to be compensated. Then the critics’ groups form, and by then it’s too late. The issue has become politicized.

Q: Bell Gardens is among the densest cities in the county. Any solutions?

A: It’s taken years to get to this point because of previous policies and zoning. Those are old issues we need to deal with. When you have high density, you have a lot of related problems: traffic, parking, the water and sewer problems. People living close together also create social issues that become problems that face urban cities. There are some very strong desires on the part of the council to look at housing projects that are less dense. They want more single-family dwellings, but there is also a need for more affordable housing. Those are conflicting goals, and we need to deal with that. To make affordable housing economically feasible, you have to increase the density. This is an example of that fuzzy line between policy and administration, and that is the gap I hope to fill.

Q: How would you describe your management style?

A: I like to create a real participative environment that involves all the people. I don’t expect to do the work for the department heads. I want to provide leadership and guidance and make them think for themselves. I think before I came here, people were used to being told what to do. What I say is, you tell me what you think we should do, and then we will figure it out together. I don’t think that you develop leaders unless you allow people to think on their own. I also want to set up a system of goals and objectives. This city really didn’t have any articulated goals and objectives before I came. Each department will have a mission statement, and all those together will create the mission for the city. It is so simple. The question is, ‘What are we here for?’ That’s what we are all about.

Q: How do you view Bell Gardens today?

A: It’s a good community with a great location and great residents. I see problems here, but I see a future. We need an improved physical environment, both economically and residentially. I mean a place where people can shop and work and live. I want to improve the standards, and the city’s role in doing that is to create housing rehabilitation programs. We need programs to create clean, decent and safe living conditions. A lot of these homes are deteriorated and in dilapidated condition; our role is to identify them and to help the owners get the financing to fix them.

Q: How do you feel about having the Bicycle Club as the main source of revenue in the city, contributing close to $12 million a year to the $16-million budget?

A: I think that cities today are struggling so much with revenue that they would love to have a poker club. Of course, if you had a choice between the poker club and Disneyland, I’d rather have Disneyland. But we have a poker club and it’s very successful in these tough economic times. We’re very pleased to have it. If not for the poker club, the existing improvements and activities would not occur. So the poker club, good, bad or indifferent, is a resource that we rely on.

Q: What is your vision for the next five years?

A: I see this place as an All-American city. It’s possible. All the elements are here. I see the council coming together soon and developing that vision. The budget is very important, and we are lucky to have the resources to do the things we want to do. But, in the coming years we have to diversify the revenues. A card club is not a very stable source of revenue. Just look at what happened in cities around us when the clubs left town.

Q: How will being a Latino, in a city where close to 90% of the residents are Latino, affect your work here?

A: I think it just brings an added dimension. I look at myself as a Hispanic, but I am also a professional. I have been trained in this business, and I mostly bring that training to this job. Of course, I bring my life experience to the city, and every city manager does that. But with me, my life experience happens to be very similar to that of the people who live here. I know and understand what they are going through. Also, for the residents to look at a Hispanic here is new and often refreshing. For the first time, they can see someone that they can identify with both physically and culturally. I think it will lend itself to people being more comfortable with coming to City Hall, and I think in the end, that will help this community heal most of all.