Clayton City Hall sees major
changes in three departments
Gone fishin’. Clayton Maintenance Supervisor John Johnson (left) presents Ed Bryce (right), the city’s first maintenance department employee, with a fish plaque in honor of Bryce’s passion for the sport. The plaque features 27 lures, representing each year of Bryce’s employment with the city. Bryce was honored at a city barbeque on his last day of work.
It may not be as noisy, but according to City Manager Gary Napper, Clayton has all the trappings of a busy airport these days, with all the comings and goings.
That’s because of the several high-profile personnel changes at the city, something usually quiet Clayton hasn’t seen in awhile.
As he mentions in his column in today’s Pioneer, Clayton Chief of Police Chris Thorsen is leaving the post he’s held for three years to take over as Chief of Police for the city of Oakley. That city is starting its own municipal force after contracting with the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department, and it’s a homecoming of sorts for Thorsen. Before coming to Clayton, he served as chief in Oakley while working for the Sheriff’s Department.
In addition, the city is bidding farewell to longtime maintenance employee Ed Bryce, who is retiring after 27 years with the city.
But the city is throwing out the welcome mat for Mindy Gentry, the new Community Development Director, who replaces Charlie Mullen.
New Opportunity
Thorsen’s leaving comes at a time when Clayton was just honored as the third safest city in California by ValuePenguin, which compared and analyzed a variety of crime metrics they sourced from the FBI across 417 cities and towns in the state.
Thorsen says that while is very sad to leave Clayton, the Oakley position is “an incredible opportunity.”
“I’ve been a cop for 30 years, and rarely do you get the chance to start a force from the ground up,” he says. “We’ll be doing everything from purchasing firearms to developing a policy manual.”
Oakley’s population of 40,000 will undoubtedly have more challenges than Clayton, but the Chief says he is ready. But that won’t stop him from missing the city he’s worked in since 2012.
“Clayton is an amazing place,” Thorsen says. “Unlike many other towns, the community really embraces its police department, and I have felt welcomed and part of the community since day one.”
The Walnut Creek resident says he will have a longer commute, of course, but that he and his family “are thrilled” with the opportunity. “I have been blessed, both personally and professionally, and I will miss everyone here in Clayton.”
And Clayton will miss him. “Chris was a great leader of the Clayton Police Department during his short stint here, and a genuinely good person,” Napper says. “We wish him the best.”
Thorsen’s last day will be July 17. The city is currently searching for an interim chief.
Making Clayton a ‘Destination’
As Thorsen leaves for East County, the city is welcoming another high-level employee from over the hill. Mindy Gentry is leaving her post as Senior Planner for the City of Antioch to take over the challenging job of community development director in Clayton.
It is a homecoming for her as well, as she and husband James live in Clayton with their 6-month-old daughter, Evelyn.
“I wanted the ability to interact with residents of a smaller town and make an impact,” she says. “It’s refreshing to see all the work the Clayton Business and Community Association has done to revitalize the community, especially downtown, and I want to help spur that economic activity.”
She says that most cities are at a disadvantage these days due to lack of redevelopment funds, but that doesn’t mean that nothing can happen.
“I am excited about the possibilities for Clayton, and the challenge of keeping the city’s bucolic, small-town feel while at the same time helping make Clayton more of a ‘destination.’” Already she said she is working on some plans, still confidential, for the city-owned property downtown.
“Mindy is a fabulous addition to city hall, comes as a highly regarded planning professional in local government, has super personality and happens to be a Clayton resident,” Napper says. “She has settled in nicely to the busy pace here, is an excellent technician as well as a visionary leader.”
The only major drawback to her new job, Gentry says, is that she won’t be able to commute to work with her husband, who still works for the City of Antioch. “But I think I got the better end of the deal,” she says.
City’s Superhero
Finally, city staff held a retirement party for Ed Bryce on his last day, July 2, saying goodbye to the familiar face who literally helped Clayton grow up.
Bryce, who grew up on a farm in southern Arizona and had been a contractor most of his life, started for the city in a temporary position in July of 1988. At that time the maintenance department consisted only of him and city engineer Rick Angrasani. He quickly became a permanent employee, and built the maintenance department with John Johnson.
Bryce remembers that for many years the city ran a work alternative program. Johnson said they would have 30-40 people showing up on the weekends. “It was a zoo. They were all over the place. It was Ed’s job to keep them under control.”
They had a big dump truck and there was a sign on the truck that said “Please sit down”
It was Bryce’s quiet, competent manner that made him indispensible to the city, watching the growth of parks, medians and the budding infrastructure over the years.
“You won’t find a kinder, gentler soul than Ed,” Johnson said at the retirement barbecue. “He doesn’t get mad very often, but when he does you can be sure you did something wrong.”
Bryce says that he will spend his time now “doing my wife’s honey-does, seeing my grandchildren, traveling and getting away to fish.”
He is so enamored of the sport, in fact, that his going-away present from the maintenance department was a fish plaque with a different lure for each of his 27 years.
His present from Johnson and his wife Lisa was a rose bush. Apparently, Lisa helped plant all the roses in the rose garden at the west end of town and always considered them “hers.” At the celebration she thanked Bryce for taking care of “her” rose garden all these years.
Other community members fondly remember Bryce “coming to the rescue” when there was a maintenance emergency in town. Pioneer editor Tamara Steiner recalls that one year, during the newspaper-sponsored Holiday Cookie Contest at the library, the drain plugged. Steiner and Clayton City Councilwoman Julie Pierce tried to fix it, “but it just kept getting worse,” Steiner says. “Pretty soon, it had a life of its own, spewing stuff out of the drain like an underwater creature. And the cookies began to arrive with people stepping through the muck.”
Pierce called for help. The maintenance department was closed, so Napper called Bryce at home. Within minutes he was there, plunger in hand, “like the Lone Ranger appearing over the horizon. The only thing missing was the John Williams superhero music in the background,” Steiner says. Within 10 minutes he had it unplugged and the mess cleaned up.
The usually stoic Bryce became choked up at his retirement celebration. “It’s tough … you work with these people for all these years, it’s going to be really hard not coming in everyday.”
Then he paused and laughed, “but, I’m sure I’ll get used to it.”