Several highly-visible and (mostly) highly-compensated administrative positions in public agencies turned over this year. Dan Stork says you can’t tell the players without a scorecard…
The parade of changes in the highest-level administrative posts in public agencies in the Morongo Basin began in March, when Tamara Alaniz became the General Manager of the Twentynine Palms Water District. That post had become vacant when Mike Wright retired the previous year. In April, Richard Warne exited as City Manager of Twentynine Palms in a move initially described as retirement, but which was in actuality a firing. He was quickly replaced by Joe Guzetta, who vacated the post of General Manager of the Joshua Basin Water District to seize the opportunity. The Joshua Basin job remained unfilled at year’s end. In the Morongo Unified School District, James Majchrzak was succeeded as Superintendent in July by Dr. Cecelia English. Dr. English’s contract had been approved by a bare 3-2 majority of the District Board of Education, and Majchrzak stayed on as a consultant until his official retirement at the end of the calendar year. Mark Nuaimi, whose compensation package had been a flashpoint in the effort to recall two Town Council members in Yucca Valley, was fired from the job of Town Manager by the Council in August. The Town Manager job remained vacant at year’s end. In October, it was announced that Lionel “Chad” Chadwick would end his tenure as the CEO of Hi-Desert Medical Center. The hospital board cited “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for the separation, but Chadwick indicated he was simply stressed-out by the difficulties of the position. In December, HDMC Chief Financial Officer Robert Tyk moved up to the CEO Administrator position. Finally, in mid-December, General Manager Rick Lebel surprised the Morongo Valley Community Services District by announcing his retirement at the end of January.
