OCEANSIDE – For the first time in 15 years, the City Council may fire a city commissioner.
Mayor Jim Wood said Friday that he intends to ask for the dismissal on Wednesday of Planning Commission Chairman George Barrante.
Wood said Barrante is arrogant and he has received complaints from council members, the staff and the public, and Barrante has refused his request to resign.
Barrante said Wood's statements about him were unsupported and "completely false and politically motivated."
"I've never had a complaint in nine and a half years," he said.
Barrante, a local Republican leader, has occasionally drawn Wood's ire by supporting the mayor's adversary, former Mayor Terry Johnson.
He's not the only Johnson associate in Wood's sights. The mayor said he also thinks Lawson Chadwick should be removed from the city's Police and Fire Commission, though he won't try to do that on Wednesday.
A former police officer himself, Wood said that Chadwick has raised the hackles of Oceanside's police and fire unions with some of his stances, including one in favor of a police-review board.
Chadwick has said he wants the Police and Fire Commission to discuss such a review board at its meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday.
Wood said he believes the city manager and city attorney can thwart that attempt because creation of such a board is not part of the commission's work plan, which is approved by the council.
Wood said there are 69 openings on city advisory bodies and he probably has at least that many applications. Most applicants want to serve on the more highly visible groups such as the Planning, Police and Fire, Economic Development, Utilities and Housing commissions.
The mayor expects to appoint fewer than a dozen new people Wednesday.
The City Council last fired some of its commissioners in 1990 when the then-majority of Melba Bishop, Nancy York and Don Rodee gave Planning Commissioners Nancy Jacovak, Brian Sullivan, Nancy Boyer and John Cassan their walking papers.
Also on the 5 p.m. agenda Wednesday, the City Council will consider:
Approving an upscale, 101-room hotel at 401 Carmelo Drive.
Designating the home of the late Robert Gleason, former postmaster and philanthropist, as an historic site. The applicant and owner is former Planning Commissioner Joan Bockman.
Adopting a new pact with the Police Department's civilian employees for a 3 percent raise this year and 3 percent next year, with some job categories getting more.
Appointing a city attorney, the position now held by Pamela Walls on an interim basis.
The council session on Wednesday and the Police and Fire Commission meeting on Thursday will take place in chambers at 300 N. Coast Highway.
Lola Sherman: (760) 476-8241; lola.sherman@uniontrib.com
