Following a February 18 closed-door session of the Oceanside City Council, city manager Steve Jepsen “stepped down.”

Steve Jepsen

“He’s gone. He’s completely gone, out,” said an employee arriving for work the next day.

Jepsen was city manager until 2006, when he left for another job in Northern California. When city manager Peter Weiss retired 18 months ago, the then-majority of councilpersons (Jack Feller, Jerry Kern, and Gary Felien) hired Jepsen back.

Jepsen seemed to be a well-liked, effective manager who helped to bring the city out of the government funding and budget recession.

Sources inside the city say Jepsen’s departure was the result of a feud between Jepsen and mayor Jim Wood, who, until last November’s election, was on the losing end of the council’s 3-2 split votes. (Chuck Lowery, shifting the 3-2 votes from the conservative majority, replaced Felien.)

Wood admitted in the past that he had philosophical differences with Jepsen. Both councilmen Kern and Feller had made allegations previously that Jepsen refused to hire a friend of the mayor’s as the city’s public information officer. Mayor Wood denies the claim, but reportedly Feller made it again in the closed-door session.

After this story was filed initially, councilman Jerry Kern responded to a request for comment thusly: "Steve Jepsen was fired by the majority of the city council members because he had the temerity to stand up to Jim Wood about an integrity issue. Jim Wood wanted to hire a friend of his that worked on his failed supervisor campaign, actually create a position and then hire her. Steve Jespen said no you can't do that. From then on Jim Wood was just looking for a way to get him out."

Since the power shift in the last election, the new majority has tried to overturn several previous council policies.

It is reported that Jepsen’s settlement for an unplanned early departure will be around $300,000 plus health insurance for one year.

The council appointed deputy manager Michelle Lawrence as the interim manager. City staffers critical of the council’s decision point out that the city must now conduct a costly nationwide search for Jepsen’s replacement. Lawrence is ineligible for the permanent position, as her husband is a battalion fire chief for the city.

(revised 2/19, 8:40 p.m.)