Not quite five months after Apple Valley Town officials in glowing terms characterized Todd Bodem as the most impressive of a multitude of applicants considered for the town manager’s post and just over three months after he assumed the post, he and the town abruptly parted company this week.
In what was apparently a mutual determination that Bodem did not the fit the bill as the top administrator of the 76,613 -population town, San Bernardino County’s tenth largest city population-wise and its second largest geographically, the 62-year-old journeyman municipal administrator has resigned from the position that was providing him total remuneration in an amount approaching $400,000 annually.
The town has turned to Bodem’s second-in-command, Assistant Town Manager Guy Eisenbrey, to hold the fort down while the town council seeks to resolve an issue they genuinely believed they had settled.
Boden clearly possessed talents but was also bedeviled by an extremely trouble family situation, and it appears those personal issues interfered with his ability to remain in Apple Valley.
Bodem, 61, holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in local and urban affairs with a minor in minority studies from St. Cloud State University in Minnesota and a Master of Urban Studies from Minnesota State University, Mankato. He pursued a career in municipal management, but did so originally within the confines of Minnesota, where cities and governments, on average, function on a smaller scale than those in California.
In the initial nine years of his career, Bodem obtained the position of city administrator with three different cities in Minnesota, those of Red Lake Falls from September 1994 to December 1995; Belle Plaine from May 2000 to September 2001; and Jordan from September 2001 to March 2003; as well as servicing as the city clerk and treasurer of Grand Marais from December 1995 to April 2000. He subsequently found city administrator positions with the cities of Corcoran and Claremont in Minnesota. From March 2010 to February 2011, he was the county administrator for Waseca County in Minnesota.
Red Lake Falls has a population of 1,333 and encompasses 2.03 square miles; Grand Marais has 1,344 reidents within 2.9 square miles; Belle Plaine boasts 7,400 inhabitants spread over 6.11 square miles; Jordan, numbers 6,788 inside its 3.32-square mile confines; Corcoran with 6,190 residents covers 36 square miles; and 1.15-square mile Claremont is home to 513 people. The population of Waseca County is 18,680.
Bodem made a sojourn into the private sector between 2003 and 2007 as a project manager with Tollefson Development on several residential and commercial projects, but that phase drew to a close with the economic downturn that gripped the nation in the aftermath of the 2007 subprime mortgage collapse.
Also in 2007, Bodem’s career and life was interrupted and thrown off track by an extremely unfortunate domestic incident when on August 25, 2007, his 11-month old daughter, Cecelia, drowned in the Bodem home’s bathtub while his wife, Katherine Bodem was distracted and engaged browsing the internet. The following year, his wife was convicted of second degree manslaughter.
After resuming his function as a public administrator in his role with Waseca County, which he left in February 2011 he landed an assignment as the city manager of 4.56-square mile Lake City, which has a population of 5,200. He served in that role from from August of 2011 to June of 2014.
In 2014, Bodem left the employ of Lake City, where he was receiving a salary of $115,000 to accept a position as the city manager with Sand City in Monterey County at a salary of $151,252.50 plus pay ad-ons and perquisites of $4,320 and benefits $35,117.63 for a total annual compensation of $190,690.13. He remained with Sand City, which has a population of 325 and encompasses 2.9 square miles two miles northeast of the City of Monterey, for four years, by which point he was being paid $173,502.68 in salary, another $23,478.52 in perks and pay add-ons along with $20,464.95 in benefits for a total annual compensation of $217,446.16.
Despite Bodem’s desire to remain as Sand City city manager, in 2018 the city council there balked at renewing his contract. Rather than being terminated, Bodem resigned.
He found some work thereafter as a management specialist with Monterey County. He was on the verge of leaving California when the following year, the 8,900-population City of Guadalupe in Santa Barbara County, which is a 1.3-square mile jurisdiction located on the far western periphery of the City of Santa Maria, hired him as its city administrator, extending him a contract that provided a salary before benefits of $146,028.
Bodem was still with Guadalupe when he was contacted by the executive head-hunting firm of Bob Murray & Associates, which was then engaged in recruiting a candidate to replace the Apple Valley Town Manager Doug Robertson. At that time, Guadalupe was providing Bodem with a salary of $154,552 per year, $2,289 in perks and pay add-ons and $27,049 in benefits for a total annual compensation of $183,890. Bodem was persuaded to lead the far-less-hectic-and-demanding assignment of overseeing Guadalupe City Hall for Apple Valley, which offered him an annual salary of $290,004, 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. His contract with Apple Valley carried a guarantee that if he were to have been terminated without cause being cited he would receive a severance equal to six months of his salary. In addition, the town agree to provide him with a $10,000 moving allowance.
In a series of what now come across as overstatements, town officials in October offered some unrealistic accolades and notation of Bodem’s qualifications and assertions of how he surpassed the skill level of those he had competed against for the job. The town’s website at that time stated, “Bodem brings a wealth of experience in local and regional government and real estate development. He has served as a city and county administrator for over 23 years in Minnesota and California and has also worked in real estate land development on multimillion-dollar residential projects. His leadership philosophy emphasizes collaboration, innovation, and integrity, with a commitment to building strong teams and high-quality results.”
Mayor Scott Nassif was quoted as saying, “As we look to the future, we are confident that Todd Bodem’s experience, creativity, and collaborative approach will serve our Town well.”
The contract between Bodem and Apple Valley specified a five-year term and included the possibility of being extended in one-year or two-year increments beyond that.
None of that, however, played out.
On Wednesday, March 11, town officials collective stated that Bodem was leaving Apple Valley, hinting that he had not worked out as town manager.
“Todd Bodem will be departing from his role with the town,” a post on the city’s website stated. “The town appreciates Mr. Bodem’s time in Apple Valley and his efforts during the early months of his tenure. As he attends to personal matters, this transition comes at a time when both the town and Mr. Bodem agreed it was appropriate to move in a different direction. The town wishes him and his family the very best moving forward.”
The posting quoted Bodem saying, “It has been a privilege to serve the Apple Valley community and work alongside such a dedicated team of public servants. In my short time with the town, I am proud of the progress we made and the important work we accomplished together. I am grateful for the support of the town council, staff, and residents during my tenure and wish the organization continued success as it moves forward serving the community.”
Mayor Scott Nassif was quoted to the effect that “While the timing ultimately didn’t work out, we appreciate Todd’s time with the town and wish him and his family all the best. I’m grateful for the dedicated employees who continue to step up every day to serve the residents of Apple Valley, and I’m confident in our team as we move forward.”
According to the city’s website, “The Town of Apple Valley remains committed to continuing the important work underway to serve residents, businesses, and the community.”
Apple Valley, which since its incorporation more than 37 years ago proved to be one of the most stable municipalities in San Bernardino County, appears to have lost its touch in recent years.
Throughout the vast majority of its time as an incorporated town, Apple Valley has been relatively free from political or operational dissension. Shortly after its incorporation in 1988, the maiden town council hired Bruce Williams to serve as the senior administrator at Town Hall. He lasted in that position 19 years. He was replaced by longtime Victorville City Manager Jim Cox, who came out of retirement to guide the city for two years, whereupon he was succeeded by Frank Robinson in 2009. Robinson remained in place for nine years. He was replaced by Robertson, who took a pay cut to leave his seven-year long assignment managing the larger and far more complex and challenging assignment of running Victorville.
There were some minor bumps in the road and a major crisis that manifested in 1999 recall election in which council members Patrick Jacobo, David Holman and Barbara Loux were removed from office, following the 1996 election in which Holman and Lux were elected and the 1998 election that put Jacobo in office and their collective effort to undo the town’s half-acre residential lot minimum. Similarly, there was contretemps in 2007 when the town council when a majority on the council, as it was then composed, moved to terminate Williams as town manager, holding discussions to do so in a closed session meeting without disclosing the rationale for doing so. That crisis passed without further incident when Williams stepped aside and Cox, who had managed Victorville for three decades prior to his retirement in 1999, agreed to come in to steady the situation.
Most recently, in 2021, the town sustained something of a black eye when it undertook and failed to wrest control of its water system from its private sector owner, Liberty Utilities, expending $8.5 million in its own and its opposition’s legal fees in the process. A three-judge panel of the California Fourth District Court of Appeals overturned the ruling in that case. The matter, however, has not been fully resolved, and will entail the case again being litigated in San Bernardino County Superior Court before a resolution is reached, as well as the eventual expenditure of at least $150 million in bond money, to be debt serviced by increased property tax payments by the town’s landowners, to pay for the acquisition of the water facilities.
That, however, requires that the town government keep pace with the infrastructure and other demands of providing for the needs of the town’s nearly 77,000 residents, which includes employing a workforce of 239 employees.
In carrying out the recruitment for Apple Valley that settled upon Bodem in October, Bob Murray & Associates accumulated a list of an unknown number of applicants. How many of those applicants were interviewed by Bob Murray & Associates is unknown as is how many reductions of the list were made throughout the process as the candidate in the running were winnowed. Nor is the number of applicants interviewed by the town council before Bodem was arrived at as what what supposed to be the final selection. The town, on its website, in October stated, “Bodem was selected from a nationwide pool of candidates following an extensive recruitment process.”
Some of those interviewed may yet be available. Others who applied might no longer be interested in the job. That the town was willing to provide Bodem with a salary of $290,004, perks, add-ons and benefits totaling $94,000 for a total annual compensation of $384,004, places the individual to next be offered the position in a relatively strong bargaining position.
There are suggestions that the town might now go back to the top two or three finishers in the sweepstakes won by Bodem and make them an offer. Settling for Eisenbrey is being considered as a possibility as well as Orlando Acevedo, who is now the City of Hesperia’s director of development services and was Apple Valley’s assistant town manager from January 2022 until October 2025, when he was bypassed by the town in favor of Bodem, and was previously, from 2019 until 2021 the town’s director of business development.