We’ll miss our city manager

Thousand Oaks is a well-run city.

Perfect? No. No city in the United States is faultless. Few, however, are as nice as ours.

Crime and poverty are low. We have nice neighborhoods, exceptional parks, excellent shopping and quality schools. Our proximity to a major metropolitan area assures us that diverse cultural and entertainment venues are within an easy drive. Our own Civic Arts Plaza also continues to make a name for itself.

It’s taken plenty of commitment and dedication by an effective city staff to make Thousand Oaks work. From the onset of cityhood, they helped create and manage the city’s general plan.

The people who work in city hall are the unsung heroes of Thousand Oaks.

In simple language, the professionals who work at 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd. have had greater influence on our municipality than any city council has—today, yesterday or tomorrow.

It’s the same across most of America. With the possible exception of huge cities with powerful elected mayors, it’s government administrators who oversee the success or failure of most American municipalities.

The elected city council members and appointed planning commissioners might get more press coverage, but it is well trained and highly experienced civil servants who are the real leaders.

That’s why it’s hard to understand how a consummate professional like Phil Gatch, T.O.’s city manager, is unceremoniously being ousted. The city of Thousand Oaks and its residents will miss Gatch much more than any former or incumbent city council member. Gatch has served this city from its infancy.

Elected officials come and go because they’re voted in and out of office based on popular vote. But key administrators like Gatch must continually plan their work and work their plan.

He deserves a much better fate. His replacement should remember that job security in the city manager’s office is no more than a popularity contest among council members. The same axe can fall again.

Gatch––more than any elected official––has helped make Thousand Oaks a wonderful city. His biggest legacy is similar to the legacies of those who’ve preceded him—the city’s extremely effective general plan will remain intact.

Good people, we hope, will continue to oversee it. But Gatch’s ouster is hard to fathom.