Former Upland City Manager Rod Butler is headed to Port Hueneme to accept the same job. Interim City Manager Carmen Nichols announced Butler’s hiring last week at an annual salary of $180,000 per year—the second lowest in Ventura County, according to the city.
Butler was terminated for undisclosed reasons in July in a split vote by the Upland City Council.
“There were no scandals, no ethical violations, there was just a disagreement,” Butler said. “They wanted a different management style. They wanted more of hatchet man working on the budget issues. But we had made a lot of progress.”
Butler had served as city manager in Upland since 2014. Prior to that, he worked for Crescent City and Patterson. He holds a bachelor’s degree from UC Riverside and a master’s of public administration from CSU Long Beach. He also belongs to the International City/County Management Association, the California City Management Foundation and the League of California City Managers’ Division.
Port Hueneme has been without a permanent city manager since last December when Cynthia Haas retired. Haas has since said she was forced out of the job. She received a $279,000 settlement after filing a harassment and discrimination claim against the city.
Read more about Port Hueneme’s new city manager here.