(Los Alamitos, 4/17/2012)  Dude, where’s my City Manager?

Like his predecessor, Henry Taboada, former Orange City Manager David Rudat had to move on from his C.M. gig in Los Alamitos due to double dipping rules from the state’s pension system.

Taboada, former Long Beach City Manager, ended up as General Manager for the Rossmoor Community Services District.

Rudat, a man of many talents, apparently needs a couple gigs to supplement his retirement income.  Not to mention so his wife could contribute $250 to Mayor Troy Edgar’s 2012 Congressional election campaign.  Right now Rudat’s working as Fire Chief  for financially troubled Stockton for $119 an hour, and also as  Chief Financial Officer for a hydroponics company that, according to the Register’s OC Watchdog,  ”targets the  exploding medical marijuana market.”

I think I’m feeling a migraine coming on. . .

Well, the Register called Mr. Rudat and  it sounded like he wanted to, shall we say put a lid on it.  Rudat told them the ki, oops, that would be key, wasn’t marijuana, (or was he asking if they wanted to grow a key. . . it’s all kind of purple hazy):

I came on to help them straighten out the books. The company was born out of that marijuana (stuff). That’s not why I’m here.

Here’s a company that wasn’t going anywhere, it has the potential for putting its label on a lot of different products where we can make money.

Now I’ve got to admit there was a lot I liked about Mr. Rudat’s term as our City Manager, although I didn’t agree with him on everything.  He seemed to have a good handle on a lot of things, including trash contracts, and did a great job getting outside grant money for the City.

So, I decided to check out Rudat’s firm, GreenGro Technologies (GRNH.PK, up $1.75% today!), on (where else?) the Cannabis Trend website’s archive page for GreenGro.

There I discovered that Rudat actually served as GreenGro’s CEO for a year until leap day this February, when he became their Chief Financial Officer so “business entrepreneur Don Smith” could  ”lead the company’s aggressive growth plans.”

I went to GreenGro’s own website, GreenGroTech.com, only to discover it’s been taken down since the Register article posted this morning.  I’m guessing the CFO maybe wanted to de-emphasize the MaryJane factor.  Guess he’s not quite ready to lose his day job yet.  Maybe it’ll be back up by tomorrow, with that more diversified emphasis.

The good folks in Stockton don’t seem to mind, at least not vice-mayor Katherine Miller.  Her initial response to the Register’s  Watchdog was that it “is really not ripe yet.”    Interesting.  I’m not sure how to tell when it’s ripe or not, but the vice mayor seems to be on top of these things.

When asked what kind of message Rudat was sending to his firefighters,  she indicated, “As long as it’s done within the limits of the law, I don’t see where it would be our business.”

Meanwhile, I’m wondering if the firefighters in Stockton still cut their own grass at the station. . .

Dude, where’s my firetruck?

Click here for the OC Watchdog article.