On Tuesday, the Apple Valley Town Council unanimously voted to approve the appointment of Guy Eisenbrey to town manager, effective next Wednesday, April 1.
The council’s action came two weeks following its March 10 emergency appointment of Eisenbrey to the position of interim town manager in the immediate aftermath of just-departed Town Manager Todd Bodem’s resignation. Eisenbrey’s elevation to the town’s top administrative spot makes him the third holder of the position since mid-December.
Prior to Bodem’s hiring in October, which became effective the last week of December, Apple Valley enjoyed a reputation of being one of the most administratively stable of San Bernardino County 24 municipalities. From shortly after the town’s inception following its 1988 incorporation, it had four town managers – Bruce Williams, who remained in place at Town Hall for 19 years; Jim Cox, who came out of retirement as Victorville city manager to guide the city for two years, whereupon he was succeeded by Frank Robinson, who after serving from 2009 to 2018 was replaced by Doug Robertson, who had been Cox’s successor as city manager in Victorville and who took a pay cut to accept the town management position. Robertson lasted more than seven years in the position.
Prior to hiring Bodem, Apple Valley had relied on municipal management professionals who had experience in running local governments that were as large as or larger than Apple Valley and who were intimately familiar with the High Desert.
With the hiring of Bodem, town officials radically deviated from past practice and their credibility took a bashing, as they initiated and then continued a series of statements justifying their choice of Bodem that were not only untrue but demonstrably so as they were making them.
The first of these was that Bodem was clear and way the most qualified of the more than three dozen candidates considered for the post during the recruitment drive for a town manager conducted by the executive head hunting firm of Bob Murray & Associates at the town’s behest after Robertson had made his intention to retire clear last summer. While Bodem had served as the city administrator or city manager with six municipalities in Minnesota – Red Lake Falls, Belle Plaine, Jordan, Corcoran, Claremont and Lake City, as well as county administrator in Waseca County in that state, the largest of those jurisdictions population-wise was Waseca County at 18,680 and the largest city was Belle Plaine, boasting 7,400 inhabitants. Bodem’s previous municipal managerial posts in California were with Sand City in Monterey County, which has a population of 325 and encompasses 2.9 square miles and then with the 8,900-population City of Guadalupe in Santa Barbara County, a 1.3-square mile and relatively dense community on the outskirts of Santa Maria in Santa Barbara County. Bodem was with Sand City from 2014 until 2018 and he was yet employed by Guadalupe at the time of his recruitment by Apple Valley last year.
Some Apple Valley residents expressed of doubt at the wisdom of hiring Bodem, which entailed conferring on him a $290,004 yearly salary/$384,004 in total annual compensation and bypassing offering the job to Assistant Town Manager Orlando Acevedo, who departed the town as a result, or Eisenbrey, who had been the town’s director of municipal services since May of 2022. In reaction to those residents’ questions, town officials made confident but ultimately unsubstantiated claims about the improvements to town operations Bodem was achieving after he moved into the post at the end of December.
Early this month, town officials abruptly announced that Bodem was departing, so that he could take care of some unanticipated “personal matters.” That was yet another prevarication, one that was followed by a somewhat mealymouthed acknowledgment that “both the town and Mr. Bodem agreed it was appropriate to move in a different direction.”
Eisenbrey will be the sixth town manager since the incorporation of Apple Valley in 1988.
The town council resolved to pay him precisely what it had contracted to pay Bodem, $290,004 annually or $24,167 monthly, augmented with perks and add-ons totaling roughly $34,000, including a $700 per month vehicle allowance, and $60,000 in benefits for a total annual compensation of $384,004.
Written into the contract is that the town will provided Eisenbrey with a severance pay-out of six months’ base salary – $145,002 – if he is terminated without cause within his first six months on the job and will receive a a severance pay-out of nine months’ base salary – $217,503 – if he is terminated without cause after he has been on the job for six months but prior to the second anniversary of his hiring. If he remains with the city until August 1, 2028, his severance pay will increase to his full annual salary, which will be at least $290.004 if not more by that time, if he is terminated without cause thereafter.
Eisenbrey is 50 years old. He has a bachelor of arts degree in organizational leadership from Azusa Pacific University. He previously worked for the City of Victorville, from 2007 until 2017, as a senior code enforcement officer and then as a code enforcement manager from 2017 to 2018 before leaving Victorville to take a code enforcement manager position with Apple Valley in August 2018. In March 2021, he promoted into the position of assistant director of community enhancement and in May 2022 acceded to the position of director of community enhancement. This year, in February, as it was becoming clear that Bodem was unequal to the task of town manager, Eisenbrey was promoted to assistant town manager, in which position he was actually serving as the de facto town manager.
For some, Eisenbrey was not considered the best choice for town manager. Some believe that former Assistant Town Manager Orlando Acevedo, who had been with Apple Valley since 2003 and was the director of business development from 2019 to 2021 and the assistant town manager from January 2022 until October 2025 when he left to become Hesperia’s director of development services upon learning that the town council had opted to hire Bodem as town manager rather than him, was the most logical choice to serve as Apple Valley town mansger.
“I am honored and grateful for the opportunity to serve as Town Manager,” Eisenbrey said. “Apple Valley is an incredible community. I look forward to continuing our work together to serve our residents and build on the momentum we’ve created.”
Eisenbrey is an Apple Valley resident.
-Mark Gutglueck