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Morro Bay city manager searching for another job

December 13, 2016
David Buckingham

David Buckingham

Morro Bay City Manager David Buckingham applied for a job in a Montana city of approximately 7,000 people and is now a finalist for the position. Buckingham has spent a little more than two years as Morro Bay’s top executive. [Tribune]

Buckingham applied for the position of city manager in Whitefish, Montana after three Morro Bay Council candidates ran on a platform of getting rid of him. None of those candidates won seats on the Morro Bay Council.

Even so, Buckingham said it would have been irresponsible of him as a father and husband to not consider alternatives and take preparatory measures.

The Morro Bay executive called the Montana job a “fantastic opportunity in beautiful, wonderful Whitefish.”

However, Buckingham also said he and his family love the Central Coast, and he would be quite happy serving Morro Bay for the next five to 15 years. Buckingham began work in Morro Bay in Sept. 2014, shortly after completing a career in the United States Army.

In 2015, Buckingham received $160,062 in salary and $193,957 in total pay and benefits, according to the Transparent California database. The Whitefish position comes with a base salary of $130,374.

The Whitefish City Council plans to meet and interview candidates on Friday. The council is expected to select its preferred candidate several days later.


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Anyone profiled as extremist by the loony SPLC has to be doing something right.


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Wish he would take Irons with him. Good riddens!


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CentralcoastRN, Perhaps you were under a Rock, maybe Morro Rock to not have seen the only “option” Buckingham saw in his narrow Unqualified mind was attempting create ways to fleece the public by finding ways to criminalize us by hiring minions who’s only job was to harass old ladies with tall hedges and recreational vehicles on their own properties in order to extract fines in the hopes of generating fees. He fired long term employees in order to hire himself personal assistants instead of doing any real work himself with his big paycheck. In the end, his only claim to fame other than harassing good folks, was wasting time and money putting up chairs in already scarce parking spaces and calling them parkletts. That sounds like a perfect resume for a seat in congress. A big title for wasting hard working taxpayers time and money while soaking in all the upscale perks for yourself while accomplishing zero.


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The story is about this guy looking at another job.


I don’t live in Morro Bay, so I am not “in the know” about who is harassing who. I assumed his job was to run the city. If he is terrible, he should be ousted. That isn’t the argument really. The story was about a married father with a family looking at job options amidst the possibility of him becoming out of a job. I’m not seeing how looking into and/or applying for another job is anyone’s business. I would think that would make Morro Bay residents happy if he sucked so bad.


From what I have read, Morro Bay has fired several city managers, this isn’t the first problem guy. David Buckingham was a career military guy used to running garrisons and being in charge of others. That might not mesh well with civilian workers and beaurocrats. What is going on over there?


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Good riddance to this one,he was a zero when he was brought in to this job, the only bright side to it is if he goes on his own we won’t have to pay severance pay, but this goofed up city council with another zero for a mayor, we’ll end up with someone just as useless as this one. This is a small town,right around 10,000 people and a few business this shouldn’t be a big deal to function, but these people in office have surely jammed that up.


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Bad choice then, good riddence!


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3 candidates that ran on a platform of getting rid of the city manager – hmm, somehow i just don’t remember that, in fact looking over the candidate literature, i don’t see that at all. maybe its that he has screwed up the city so badly, cow-towed to irons, christine johnson and smuckler so much that he realizes he needs to go somewhere else. morro bay is in a huge mess, good luck to whomever comes in next as its going to be years to fix. plus going from a 34 million dollar sewer plant to a 145 milion dollar plant – maybe he sees the impossibility of moving foward.


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As of tonight’s presentation, the wastewater/ water reclamation facility could cost $168 million. That’s over $30,000 per homeowner in the City of Morro Bay.


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Morro Bay Sewer bill’s will be roughly $250.00 per month, Cayucos Sewer bill’s project to be less than half of that, had the departing City Manager realized how important for the City residents to have a partner that paid roughly 30% of the plant costs, as well as operation costs,maybe he and the Council would of done good faith negotiation with Cayucos:(

But it was the Council that ultimately decided that they wanted to move the plant from it’s current location, as well as at the time, telling the public that the cost wouldn’t be that great.

I think that 2 to 4 other plants have been recently upgraded in the state, with very similar circumstances of beach or bay proximity. The original cost of upgrading the plant at it’s current location, the cost shared between Morro Bay and Cayucos, was roughly 35 million dollars. Still expensive, but manageable, with possibly a cost to residents of $25 bucks a month.


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Sounds passive aggressive to me. I guess he didn’t reckon with the political aspect of his employment, which is one of the reasons given for the high salaries.


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Am I the only one who thinks it is REASONABLE to look at other employment options when it looks like you might be ousted from your job? There is nothing wrong with that. I mean, I guess he could just sue the City and thus the taxpayers, but it looks like he was being a bit proactive.


Isn’t being proactive a good thing?


I haven’t heard he was doing a bad job, just that some argued his position wasn’t needed. If a threat of downsizing is happening at YOUR job, wouldn’t you at least EXPLORE your options?


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Interesting Whitefish Montana was just on CNN as a center for the White Nationalist movement in the US. Its a home for the Alt Right pro Nazi Heil Trump bunch. I am sure its just a coincidence.


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Whitefish, MT, A town of 7,000 peopl,e is the center of a political movement? Turn off the Fake news.


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Whitefish is an area to which I will consider retiring. Many others have done so from California and other areas of the west coast too. The city itself is to Montana like Pismo Beach is to CA — a beautiful resort area with a ski area, lake, and mountains adjacent to the town and Glacier NP just a half hour away. The biggest difference is that it is too far from major population centers to face as much tourist pressure on weekends. Imagine Pismo if only Bakersfield was within a few hours — no LA,SF or even Fresno closer than a full days drive.


However, real estate in the town and it’s immediate outskirts have been priced out of the range of many of the White Nationalists. The valleys to the north and west are a different matter. As many of the alt-right, pro-Nazi types have left many areas of northern Idaho (for similar reasons), they have moved west into the NE corner of Washington and east into the NW corner of MT. I would take with much skepticism the claim that Whitefish is a major center for them but it could be described as being on the edge of their “territory.”


All that said, I hope they take time to give due diligence to examining Mr. Buckingham’s background when considering him for a City Manager position. I don’t know what other options Morro Bay had but I have the feeling they could have done better.


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These posts are ridiculous. You must have received your knowledge of the exact location of the Alt Right movement in “NW Montana” from Fake news.


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F.Y.I. Unfortunately, it appears to be true.


https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/richard-bertrand-spencer-0


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There is an amtrak station in Whitefish that brings tourists into town. As far as the alt-right movement, it has been in the news lately as the home of Richard Spencer.


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I remember commenting that as soon as he realizes how screwed up Morro Bay is…he’ll me outta there…..


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