Two Napa department heads with troubled operations are stepping down as part of a major shake-up of top management by new City Manager Mike Parness.

Rich Bottarini, director of community development, and Jed Christensen, finance department manager, will both retire, Parness announced Thursday morning.

Parness, who became city manager in November, said he is streamlining city administration, bringing in new leadership to strengthen finance and community development operations.

Bottarini and Christensen have been under fire. Last summer the Napa County civil grand jury ripped into the Community Development Department, accusing it of having a “culture of arrogance, intimidation, egotism and reprisal.”

Christensen’s department was recently criticized for failing to properly oversee the spending of $1.4 million in city funds on two county farmworker housing projects. The spending was not authorized.

Neither the grand jury report nor the housing error was the catalyst for his shake-up, Parness said, but they are symptoms of departments not functioning as well as they should.

The community development director’s job will remain vacant. Parness intends to create a new assistant city manager’s position to oversee community development and public works departments.

Carole Wilson, a certified public accountant in the finance department, becomes finance manager, Parness said. Scott Klingbeil, acting planning manager, has been offered the job permanently.

Parness told Christensen and Bottarini Wednesday they did not fit into his new organization plan. As the news raced around City Hall, he then briefed department heads, with mid-level managers formally told Thursday.

“This is unusual for me,” Parness said. “I’ve never come into an organization and been one to shake things up, especially within a few months.”

After a thorough review of city operations, Parness said he concluded the Community Development Department, created in 2003 to speed up the processing of building applications, wasn’t performing as promised.

In finance, Christensen and his staff were burdened with a host of non-finance functions that undercut the department’s ability to provide financial controls and timely reports, he said.

Garbage services, golf course operations, parking enforcement and custodial services were all diverting finance staff from its core mission, Parness said.

Parness is farming these operations out to other departments and promoting Wilson. She is a CPA with the financial skills Christensen lacked, he said.

Christensen was an excellent general services manager, but someone with greater training in municipal finance is needed to implement reforms, Parness said.

In letting Bottarini go, Parness said, the city could not afford both a community development director and a new assistant city manager who will be charged with resolving disputes between community development, public works and the public.

Parness said he has tentatively chosen the new assistant city manager — a woman with development experience in a larger city — but must seek City Council approval March 6 before offering the job to his candidate.

The current assistant city manager, Nancy Weiss, will oversee finance, personnel, city clerk, human resources and information technology.

Streamlining

Under the new plan, six administrators will report directly to Parness, not 12 as do currently. This will free up time for him to deal with policy and broader issues, he said. Police, fire and community resources will report directly to him.

Christensen, 62, has been finance director since 1992, while Bottarini, 56, joined the city in 2003. Christensen’s base salary is $135,780, while Bottarini earns $134,100, the city reported.

In a phone interview Thursday, Bottarini said he was content to retire. With decades of experience in other California cities and 36 years of retirement credit, the state retirement system will pay him 90 percent of his city salary, he said.

Bottarini said he had considered applying for the new assistant city manager’s job, but decided he did not want to leave planning. He may seek future work as a part-time planning consultant. His last working day with the city was Thursday.

Christensen, who will assist with the reorganization of the finance department through March, said he had no choice but to defer to Parness’ desire for someone with greater credentials.

Department heads, except police and fire, serve exclusively at the city manager’s pleasure.

Christensen may look for work as an interim finance manager in cities in search of a permanent hire, he said.

His greatest disappointment, Christensen said, was that the city never built a new City Hall. When city finances began deteriorating six years ago, plans were scrapped, he said.