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In the final days of 2024, on Dec. 27, Don Reynolds’ tenure as San Juan Bautista’s city manager ended with his resignation after an eventful five-and-a-half years. His replacement, interim city manager Ashley Collick, will assume the job after the first of the year.
Reynolds likes to relate that on July 2, 2019, his first day on the job, he was hit with his first crisis: a letter on his desk detailing more than $870,000 in fines from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for pollution being discharged from the city’s waste treatment plant.
In under four months, he brought the plant below the violation level. At the same time, he began to work on what will certainly be his legacy: rerouting San Juan’s waste to Hollister’s treatment plant and bringing in supplemental drinking water from the West Hills Treatment Plant.
Reynolds also helped shepherd the city through the Covid pandemic, oversaw the construction of parklets and a new park on Franklin Circle, the restoration of Verutti Park, and the repaving of several blocks of Third Street. He helped bring proposals for the Urban Growth Boundary, the Sphere of Influence and the Housing Element to their conclusions.
Reynolds sat for an exit interview with BenitoLink and discussed his time as city manager, the future of the water and sewage projects, and what he sees as San Juan’s most urgent issues.
BenitoLink: You planned to remain a consultant on the water and waste projects. What is the status of that?
Reynolds: It’ll be less formal. The government code prohibits me from profiting from my former employer. I will be working for Kimley Horn, an outstanding company in civil engineering. They could do a lot of work here, and maybe they will at some point, but not with my name on it. But of the four candidates for interim city manager, no one came from public works. So the city may hire someone to fill that void.
Do you have any thoughts about the new interim city manager?
Yeah, she’s very excited. I think it’s a great opportunity for both the city and her because she has been an assistant city manager for a couple of years at Seaside and wants to make that jump into a full-time position. So she’s not coming here like it’s a temporary job. It’s a really stressful job, and it’s 24/7. She wants to impress and will work hard to serve the city.
What are you leaving behind in terms of what needs to get done?
I’ve had a lot of irons in the fire, and as much as I have tried in the past two months to put out all of those fires, it’s impossible. I don’t have complete control. I think the most significant priority will be having a final agreement with the water district. We can bring this agreement forward, but it also means getting Hollister and Sunnyslope to cooperate. It is a complex agreement that will take some time to get everyone on board.
We are going out to bid right now for the design of the drinking water pipeline and I am confident that our current city engineer can handle that Request for Proposal process and follow through. That’s important for the second agreement with the water district, which is building that pipeline, because a portion of it will serve the water district.
I recently saw an estimation of 2027 and wrote back to our engineers saying we have a settlement agreement with the regional Water Quality Control Board that says June 2026, and we have to stick to that or else. The new city manager will have to apply for a change in the schedule with the regulators, and those kinds of things would make her job a little bit complicated.
Where do things stand with fire services?
The public safety coordinator, Roy Morales, and I were on the phone with a retired fire chief at Citygate six months ago when we discussed the cost per capita. And without even digging into the minutiae, he shared with us that small cities around the state are struggling with a high cost of contracting for public safety, whether law enforcement or fire. And so, to cut to the chase, most cities of our size are paying upwards of $200 per capita for fire safety services, and we are paying closer to $60 per capita. So if we doubled that amount, we would at least be on the radar. But that’s going to cost $260,000 a year, more than the revenue we have.
The new city manager needs to get to work right away, finding ways to grow the general fund. First and foremost, one has to be getting the gas station open. That will bring in a ton of sales tax for us, and that’ll be an incredible immediate boost. And then, in the bigger picture, you’re probably going to need a sales tax measure. We got an excellent bid on analyzing the fire service and the potential for a fire district. I think that’s the direction the city needs to move in, but that’s another 18-month process. So I have a proposal now, and the city, county and Hollister need to talk about how to foot the cost of that study.
We own this fire station and one of the two engines, so there are assets. However, we are no longer receiving rent for this station from Hollister. I sent a letter to the Board of Supervisors saying, “Hey, about 60% of these calls are for county unincorporated. Could you help us with 60% of the rent we received before?” I got a flat “No, not until we study it.” There was a fire services workshop planned for January 9 with the county, though I heard it was canceled. I haven’t spent much time working with the new supervisor coming on board, but I heard it will change things.
What is the next biggest challenge facing the city?
I hope the city is more confident in its communication. I’ve been kind of surprised about the whole role of community engagement. Certain council members, who may not be on the council anymore, think we’ve got enough community engagement. I’ve never worked for a city hall that overcommunicates with the community.
We need to continue promoting our new city website, which should be launched by the beginning of the year. We need to get our message out about the good work that we’re doing here. We have a balanced budget, so we’re proud of that. However, the city council and the commissioners need to be more comfortable inviting the public to talk about current issues.
And I’m concerned that our proposed urban growth boundary will be limiting in the five- to ten-year picture. We can meet the Housing and Community Development Regional Housing Needs Assessment for Cycle 6 by infill, but I don’t think we’re going to make Cycle 7.
There is also something on the books called the Third Street Master Plan. We have been unsuccessful in obtaining a couple of $300,000 grants to move that Master Plan forward. Changing Third Street from two lanes to one was great in a state of emergency, but the proper way to do that is with community engagement and an environmental review of the traffic flow and the impacts.
What can be done about the lack of tourism?
This morning, I heard a philosophical phrase from Thich Nhat Hanh that inspired me and was very personal: “If you don’t love yourself, you’ll never have the love you need to attract others.” So San Juan needs to figure out how to love itself. You need a unified effort and you need one voice. So the challenge, and we’ve seen it, is having a Chamber of Commerce or something that is one voice for the whole downtown that is inclusive, doesn’t create barriers, and cooperates with City Hall.
Those conversations need to happen, and they need to include everybody. And that’s kind of City Hall’s job. City Hall doesn’t play favorites. When we had Liz Turner here as our business liaison during COVID, I had to tell her, “You don’t just talk to the people who like you. You need to talk to everyone.”
What has been the downside of the job?
There continues to be a lack of trust in City Hall. My seismometer for this lack of trust is the number of calls and traffic I get on my cell phone, which has gradually decreased since I’ve been here and since I announced my retirement on October 1. But I still hear and see things. I remember giving my city manager’s report one night at a city council meeting and hearing someone in the community say, “If it’s all true,” like they didn’t believe what we were doing. It hurts me when someone feels I’m not being transparent, which happened at my last council meeting. That’s not the way I wanted to leave.
What best advice can you give the new interim manager about dealing with the community?
Be patient with this community because they’re not used to having professional public administrators. They’re critical and they don’t trust because they don’t know. So if we can have people comment in a community engagement environment, with a cup that’s at least half empty, we can have a moment to show them how hard we’re working, because we all work our butts off.
Final thoughts?
This city has so much to offer in history and the stories it tells. Keep doing that, and find ways to do it. Get the school children involved. Take advantage of your ghost stories and all of those really cool things. We hired Lincoln Consulting, and that’s a deep bench of historic preservation experts that the city can rely on.
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