Johnson wants to return to Oregon

The 51-year-old Johnson emerged as the top candidate for the job after a Monday City Council meeting to consider the four finalists. During a special meeting at City Hall, the Council voted to conduct background investigations of Johnson and the No. 2 choice, Clarence Hulse, a managing consultant with Belize Real Estate Development Group in Cocoa, Fla.

The Council will not formally offer the job until the background checks are completed, a meeting to solicit public input has been scheduled and contract terms are hashed out, said interim City Manager Tim Collins.

Johnson said before traveling to Baker City to meet with Council members and to attend sessions with community groups last week, he had last visited Baker City on vacation during the summer of 2006.

“It isn’t as though I’m not familiar with Baker,” he said. “I’ve meandered around enough to know the difference between Baker, La Grande and Pendleton.”

That meandering includes ski trips to Anthony Lakes where he has pursued his favorite winter pastime. During the summer, he turns his leisure pursuits to golf.

Johnson admits to being a workaholic.

He holds a bachelor’s degree from Portland State University with an international business certificate and he did post-graduate study at Stanford University. Johnson began his career in 1982 when he worked for a year as the assistant to the director of the Portland Bureau of Planning. Next he moved to Bend where he worked as Oregon’s first Main Street manager.

In 1987, he moved to California where he spent most of the next 25 years, always intending to return to Oregon.

“It’s where I’m from and where my heart is at,” he said, adding that he was impressed with Baker City.

“It’s a lovely area and a lovely community,” he said. “People are genuine and honest and that means a lot.”

His career took him from a job as director of the Sacramento Office of Economic Development for seven years, to San Diego where he served as assistant to the city manager. from 1994 to 1998.

He later worked as executive director of the Yuba-Sutter Economic Development District until 2006.

In each job, he said his goal was to help struggling economies recover from significant blows such as the decline of the timber industry in Bend, severe flooding in Sacramento, and base closures in San Diego. And in each case, he helped build a sustainable and diverse economy for the region, he said.

He found his heart pulling him toward the Gulf Coast while watching the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“I knew my skills could be of value there,” he said.

And because he wasn’t married and had no children, Johnson said he was in a position to volunteer with the Gulf Coast Recovery Initiative Team. During part of 2007, he worked to help businesses and residents in New Orleans secure federal grants and loans to rebuild.

When he was finished with the volunteer role, he realized he could also use his skills to help communities cope with the recession. Since 2007 he has traveled up and down the West Coast helping businesses and communities improve their economies. Part of that work has included writing grants for economic stimulus money, he said.

Although he has never worked as a city manager, Johnson believes his experience will serve him well if he is hired to lead Baker City.

“You don’t go as far as I have in local government without having the qualifications, skills set and knowledge to be able to manage a city,” he said.

Johnson said he has watched tapes of six months Baker City Council meetings, including the June 9 session in which manager Steve Brocato was fired.

He said the meetings appeared to be “pretty structured, except for the night of the firing.”

He believes community residents will find him to be “flexible and gregarious.”

He said his style also dictates that everything is done in an “open, shared and participatory” manner with goals that are “specific, measurable, accountable, responsive and time-bound.”

He added that he will “work to try to create an environment of honesty, integrity and dignity” and that customer service “is the order of the day.” Johnson said he finds any other approach unacceptable.