Interim manager says he’s ready for Barstow challenge

BARSTOW — Richard Rowe thought his job as city manager of Needles would be temporary, but then it became permanent.

Rowe, recently named Barstow’s interim city manger, had only planned to work in Needles for a few months until the Needles City Council found his replacement, but he gave up his retirement benefits to take the permanent job. He was appointed the permanent manager after two years and stayed until December 2007 when his contract expired.

He was ready to retire for a second time, but said he changed his mind after receiving a call from Barstow’s City Clerk JoAnne Cousino, telling him about the open interim management position in Barstow.

“I have to keep busy. I’m a Type A personality,” Rowe said. “I just like to work.”

He brings 42 years of public service experience to the job, having started in as a patrol officer in the Anaheim Police Department in 1965. He became interested in government, studied public administration in college and transferred into an administrative position because he liked serving the public, he said.

“I’ve always enjoyed the public service aspect of the job,” he said. “The role that a manager plays, it molds the community, how the community is and will be in the future.”

In Chino, David Yates, the city’s current mayor, knew Rowe while he was Chino’s city manager. He credited Rowe for bringing Wal-Mart, Target and several other retailers to the city during a tough economic time.

“The lion's share of our tax revenue comes from those efforts,” Yates said. “He always had a vision of what the city could be.”

Since retiring in 1996, Rowe took temporary management jobs in Hemet, Ventura County and Needles.

In Needles, Rowe helped bring the city’s policies and procedures up to date, according to the city’s mayor, Jeff Williams.

“We had been doing things the same way forever and Richard changed that,” he said.

Williams said he respected Rowe’s ethics and professionalism and didn’t want to see Rowe leave the city, but his five-year contract had expired.

Rowe said he stayed as long as he did in Needles because he was interested in the challenge of bringing more commercial developments to the city, he said.

“It didn’t look like any intervention was taking place,” he said. “There were all these abandoned buildings.”

Rowe may find a similar challenge in Barstow, which has been without a full-time city manager since the departure of Hector Rodriguez on Nov. 5. Rowe is still negotiating his employment contract with the City Council, but could begin in Barstow as early as March 1, he said.

Rowe said that although it’s too early to tell, his immediate challenge in Barstow will be to oversee staff preparing the city budget, due June 1.

He also said that, based on his first impressions, he would like to see more attention to detail paid in the maintenance of public parks, streets and other city infrastructure.

“Those things within the city’s control, they need to be maintained and be as clean as possible,” he said.

Though Rowe said he intends to concentrate on his temporary duties, he said he wasn’t sure if he was finally ready to retire for good. He may be interested in becoming Barstow’s permanent city manager.

“Well, let’s wait and see,” he said. “If the job turns out to be the challenge I’ve anticipated, it would be something I’d consider.”

Interim city manager resigned previous job after investigation

BARSTOW — Barstow’s recently named interim city manager left his position as city manager of Chino after an investigation showed city expenditure rules were violated under his leadership, records show.

A investigation presented to the Chino City Council found that city staff improperly entered into a $500,000 contract to fix the city’s computer system, according to minutes from a July 2, 1996, meeting. Richard Rowe, then city manager of Chino and recently named interim city manager of Barstow, approved the contracts without permission from the City Council. Rowe, who served in the position for 10 years, resigned shortly after the investigation was presented to the council. He received $73,000, paid insurance and retirement benefits as part of the settlement, records show.

Rowe said he wasn’t aware he was approving a contract, and that the city’s finance director Mary O’Neill presented him a statement summarizing problems with the city’s computer system.

“I didn’t personally know the total dollar amount that was being billed,” he said. “She just presented to me a copy of the memo, and I signed it.”

Barstow council member Steve Curran said that he became aware of Rowe’s resignation after interviewing him for the interim job but said he wasn’t bothered by it.

“Whatever the concerns are in Chino, they aren’t even an issue here in Barstow,” he said.

According to Chino council member Glenn Duncan, the investigation was triggered after the city’s finance director, O’Neill, was accused of violating city investment policy, resulting in a loss of $50,000 to the city. Duncan said he believed Rowe was unaware of O’Neill’s actions and no criminal charges were ever filed in the case.

“I think Richard was a victim of trusting someone he’d known for a long time. He trusted Mary O’Neill,” Duncan said. “I think he did an excellent job in the city of Chino. I think he’d do an excellent job in Barstow.”

Chino’s current mayor and then council member Dennis Yates said Rowe resigned not because of any wrongdoing but because of a long-running dispute with another council member, Bruce Robbins. The Desert Dispatch as unable to reach Robbins for comment.

“A particular council member was pursuing him pretty aggressively,” Yates said. “It came to the point where Richard thought he should resign.”

Yates said he was impressed by Rowe’s performance as city manager and urged him to stay.

Rowe said that due to what he called personal and public harassment, he felt he should move on.

“Bottom line, I didn’t want to be involved anymore,” he said.

Curran said he remains convinced that Rowe’s management experience can benefit Barstow.

“He brings to the table a minimum of 15 years of experience which is more experience as city manager than the past five city managers we’ve had combined,” Curran said.

He said the council continues to negotiate a contract with Rowe for the interim position.

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(760) 256-4126 or jason_smith@link.freedom.com