When people in Porterville get off work Tuesday evening, John Longley will no longer be the city’s top manager. When they wake up Wednesday morning, Deputy City Manager John Lollis will be the new man holding the city’s reins.

Longley, 61, retires Tuesday after seven years of managing Porterville, seven years of being at the core of its development and expansion.

“A lot of things have happened and it’s been exciting,” Longley said Monday by telephone while on vacation. “I’ve done this for 32 years, 13 of them in Marina, and that was great. But I had the opportunity to come back to Porterville where I was born and raised.
“We got a lot done, and there is more to be done.”

Quietly, and with purposeful recollection, the man about to give up his city leadership post talked about the years gone by, and some of what will become his legacy.

He talked about “a lot of infrastructure projects,” including overcoming a cease and desist order imposed some years ago by the Regional Water Control Board — having the order removed after more than a decade.

He spoke quietly, but with vigor, about:

-- Establishment of the water interconnect between the city and the airport. 

-- Being able to recruit Southern California Edison for the service center.

-- Completing the business park on West Avenue: (“That was very exciting”).

-- Development of programs like graffiti removal.

-- The sheltered workshop: (“a major success”).

Longley is especially proud that Porterville received the Helen Putnam Award for Excellence in 2006, in the category of community services and economic development. The award came from the League of California Cities, recognizing significant improvements in a city.

Porterville received the nod for the development of the Buena Vista House and the Orange Avenue revitalization project, including the construction of the Heritage Center, Santa Fe Elementary School, Orange Avenue reconstruction and CASA Buena Vista Housing Project.

From that award came the City County Schools Partnership Award.

“Porterville was the only city in the Valley to receive the [Helen Putnam Award],” Longley said. “The other thing I’m really encouraged about is what’s happening at Porterville College with legislation to support four-year schools in rural areas.”

He is referring to the California State University, Bakersfield program that is available at PC.

Also on his watch, a partnership was developed with Fresno State Economic Development Corporation, the Porterville Chamber of Commerce and the Lyle Center that brought to fruition a local entrepreneur program. It was a partnership initiated with the city, he said.

Longley is more than a hardworking city manager. He is a husband, father and grandfather. He and wife Theresa Longley will have been married for 36 years in February. The couple has three children and nine grandchildren.

With a good size family, his retirement days hold promise of activity. That, and the fact that he is a licensed pilot involved in the Civil Air Patrol.

He says he isn’t sure what he will do in the next six months to a year. Because he is “aviation oriented” he may be in line for the new airport job created by the City Council.

Meanwhile, the incoming city manager is the new man for the job.

“I have every confidence in John,” Longley said of Lollis. “Porterville has a very bright future with him.”

That could be because Lollis was mentored by Longley, according to Mayor Cameron Hamilton. The city, Hamilton said, will miss Longley because, for one thing, he is “a rainy day kind of fella.”

“It’s always a big move when you change city managers, but we’ve had the benefit of Lollis being mentored by John [Longley] for the last two years,” Hamilton said. “John [Longley] was very fiscally conservative. With the condition of the nation and state budgets, he has left the city in very good fiscal condition. That’s not easy when you have five people to answer to, and a staff that wants to spend money.”

Longley can manage projects and money, Hamilton said, and [Lollis] is a “quick study student.”

Lollis laughed when he was asked by The Recorder if his new job was his career goal.

“No, managing the Dodgers is because I love baseball, but I guess I can work at the same magnitude for the city,” Lollis said. “[The job] is invigorating, but challenging at the same.”

He said what he appreciated about Longley was his objectiveness and analytical approach to decision making. Longley, he said, is fact-based and analytical.

“You become a product of your experience, and that’s one I appreciated and will add to the tool box,” Lollis said.

Many “first orders of business” await him, but the economy and maintaining city solvency are the main issues.

Still, Longley will be missed, on many levels, according to former Tule River Tribal Administrator Rodney Martin.

“In my capacity as tribal administrator, I’ve worked with a lot of city managers in my life,” Martin said. “I have to say John is one of the best, if not the best. He was always professional, and concerned with tribal government on a government-to-government basis, and on a colleague-to-colleague basis. He has the experience and temperament to weather the storm.

“We had our policy and philosophical differences, but we talked about things. I consider him a super human being. As a citizen and taxpayer of Porterville, I know he will be missed.”

What Longley will miss, he said, is the people and the challenges of the job. His legacy is sound, as he looks to the future of the people he served and may continue to serve in some capacity.

“I’m very encouraged by what’s happening with the Police Department and the Fire Department,” he said, thoughtfully. “The murder rate plunged as a result of proactive work by the department. The Fire Department developed a high profile training program for emergency preparedness, Instant Command System.

“And I’m very proud that the city has developed a very sound fiscal posture. That’s really a credit to the directors. The main thing we need to build in our city is opportunity, and we’re doing that.”

-- Contact Anita Stackhouse-Hite at 784-5000, Ext. 1043, or astackhouse-hite@portervillerecorder.com.