SELMA – Following the termination of Selma’s former city manager, Fernando Santillan, the city council is moving forward with replacing him with a familiar face — at least in the interim.
By a 4-1 vote, the Selma City Council appointed John Kunkel as interim city manager on May 6; Councilmember John Trujillo voted against the appointment. Kunkel was previously hired by the council as an independent contractor tasked with investigating city staff actions related to council meetings held in December 2024 and January 2025.
“I look forward to working with this council, working with the city and working with the public,” Kunkel said. “I have an open door policy, which means that please feel free to come by and see me if you have any problems.”
Kunkel spoke to the public briefly about his experience and his communication policy. His career in executive leadership began in Exeter, where he served as police chief for 19 years and city manager for five years. After leaving Exeter, he spent three and a half years as city manager of Buelton, a small town in Santa Barbara County.
Since then, Kunkel has gone in and out of retirement multiple times. He retired from Buelton but came out of retirement when an interim city manager position in Kerman turned into a permanent placement lasting more than four years. He retired again and served as interim city manager in Manzanita, Oregon, a small coastal town northwest of Portland, and in Huron back in the Central Valley.
Most recently, Kunkel worked as interim general manager for the San Lorenzo Valley Water District, a position he held through the end of April.
As a retired public employee, Kunkel is restricted to certain regulations outlined by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and can only work 960 hours — equivalent to six months of full-time employment — within a fiscal year. In addition to an “open door policy” in which he welcomes members of the public, he said he will post his hours on the city’s website and at City Hall.
“If my office is closed, it just means I either have a meeting or am on the phone, but you don’t need an appointment to come in and see me,” Kunkel said.
Conflict concerns
Trujillo, along with former Councilmember Blanca Mendoza-Navarro, questioned the ethics behind appointing Kunkel after he was part of the independent investigation into city staff. Mendoza-Navarro said she was disappointed in the council and called the decision unethical and unscrupulous.
In response, Mayor Scott Robertson said that from his perspective, the report came from City Attorney Neal Costanzo. “It did not come from Mr. Kunkel, so not sure what the conflict of interest would be,” Robertson continued.
In February, the council voted 4-1, with Trujillo against, to hire Kunkel and tasked him with investigating the three council meetings in which the newly elected council members came on board. He also looked into the circumstances around the May 2024 settlement agreement between Santillan and the city.
The report produced from that investigation, dated April 9, provided the basis for Santillan’s termination. According to the report, determinations from the investigation were made primarily by Costanzo due to the legal nature of the findings, but Kunkel still contributed his input.
“This individual was voted as the investigator to investigate the city manager,” Trujillo said. “I heard his background, and the only question I have is how we could not question the fact that it’s not a conflict of interest. … It’s a big concern when we have the individual investigate our city manager and then all of a sudden, now you’re hiring him as a city manager.”
Costanzo refuted this, saying there is no basis to claim there is “any form” of a conflict of interest regarding Kunkel’s appointment.
“The fact that the man served as an investigator is really neither here nor there,” Costanzo said. “That service has ended; he’s embarked on a different path of service for the city.”
As a retired public employee, Kunkel is being hired as what is called a “retired annuitant” pursuant to CalPERS regulations, Costanzo said. Kunkel will not receive benefits from the city, and his pay was not negotiated in his contract, Costanzo said.
As interim city manager, Kunkel will receive an hourly pay of $116.88, equivalent to an annual salary of $243,101. CalPERS states that a retired annuitant should be paid at a rate that “falls within the regular salary schedule for that position,” according to the CalPERS website. The rate provided to Kunkel is the same rate Santillan was last making as city manager.
Kunkel took the oath of office at the council meeting and will serve in the position until a permanent city manager is hired. The council did not discuss how it plans to move forward with that search.
