We are writing this letter in support of Kevin McSweeney and Bert Rapp and all the other hard working and dedicated employees of the City of Fillmore. It is very distressing to us that there have been numerous resignations of management from the City of Fillmore in the past few weeks. As public employees ourselves we wanted to respond to comments made in regard to residency of city employees. One need only look at an employee’s dedication to the city not whether they live in the city that they work. It is very easy for a municipal employee to perform their jobs based on politics, to constantly have one’s moistened finger in the air to test the political winds in order to make a decision, to stay out of hot water. Consistently Bert Rapp and Kevin McSweeney have resisted this tactic by being embroiled and criticized for their dedication to enforcing the Municipal Ordinance and wanting to produce as high a quality work-product that they could provide.
Our own personal experience was when we submitted plans to build a room addition onto our home in 2005. Kevin required that we obtain a development permit, which is in the city code. We were not happy at having to perform additional work due to the extra time and expense. We could not cajole Kevin out of the requirement. If Kevin made his decisions based on pressure from the citizens you would have nothing more than a banana republic. Kevin stuck to his guns. This is what we want him to do with everyone to make a level playing field.
If anyone has dealt with Bert Rapp one would think that such a kind and gentle man would not be capable of being stubborn. When Bert Rapp thinks he is right about something people call him stubborn. What was Bert hired to do...to be the Public Works director...to evaluate and make decisions to the best of his ability and like Kevin sticks to his guns.
He has done that with the sewer plant project or more correctly the water-recycling project. The water from the plant will be used to irrigate landscaping and to recharge the aquifer because we cannot discharge the water directly into the Santa Clara River. This is one of the big expense items that makes our plant more expensive than Santa Paula’s sewer plant. Look at the hue and cry that Bert has had to endure over this plant. He does not whine about it, it is part of the job. Again he has made these decisions to the best of his ability with the best interests of the citizens in mind. Go see the plant for yourself...it was exquisitely constructed. The contractor, who is based in California, only constructs general engineering projects such as water treatment facilities, sewer plants and food processing plants with an outstanding reputation.
Our last point is the subject of institutional memory or knowledge, which is the intent of the vision for the organization, in other words what are we trying to do here? This is an oral tradition that is passed down from the management staff in every organization we, as humans are involved with. It is the vision of the organization. If you strip an organization of its management it takes years to be able to instill this vision in new managers by people from the outside because there is no one left inside. We have seen the vision of Fillmore unfold from the time of the earthquake and the 2020 Visioning meetings. Led by employees who had a stake in that visioning process. Maybe not all of them were residents but all had the good of the community at heart. The bottom line is that whatever the reason the other directors left, we do not want to lose any more from our city organization. When you have a stake in a community you want to finish what you have started. We know that Bert and Kevin feel that way and that they will continue their high level of service that I believe they have always provided.
Sincerely,
Steve and Diane Sutton
Fillmore