New Thurston County manager responds to past controversy in interview with The Olympian

The new Thurston County manager appointee wants the public to give him a chance after news of his hiring was mired by past controversy.

Leonard Hernandez, the former chief executive officer of San Bernardino County in California, defended himself against prior allegations of inappropriate workplace behavior and talked about what brought him to Thurston County in a Thursday interview with The Olympian.

“I’m coming up there to be a public servant, to work alongside the wonderful staff and the commission and to also be a part of the community,” Hernandez said. “I hope once people meet me and interact with me, they’ll realize yeah, this wasn’t accurate. This person’s different.”

The public will have an opportunity to speak with Hernandez directly a few days after his April 1 start date. Thurston County plans to host an in-person open house at the Atrium building at 3000 Pacific Ave. SE, Olympia, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. April 5, according to a county news release.

“We look forward to welcoming Mr. Hernandez and introducing him to county staff and community members,” Commissioner Tye Menser said in the release. “Mr. Hernandez will be an asset to the county and a strong leader. We are excited for our community to meet him.”

Hernandez spoke with The Olympian over a month after the county announced his hiring on Feb. 12. Soon after the news broke, prior allegations and criticisms against Hernandez that were posted online spread through the local community. The San Bernardino Sun newspaper had reported on many of those allegations and shared new ones after his hiring in Thurston County.

The Thurston County Board of Commissioners has continued to support Hernandez. Menser, who is chair of the county board, told The Olympian last month that the commissioners were satisfied by their internal background check process.

“We’re confident that we’ve made a very good decision,” Menser previously said. “He was by far our top candidate and we’re very pleased to have been able to hire him to lead Thurston County forward.”

How does Hernandez feel about those past allegations?

The allegations against Hernandez really started gaining steam after he resigned as San Bernardino County’s CEO in August, citing an urgent family health matter.

He said he thinks the mystique around his departure unintentionally created the impression there was more to the story. Still, he declined to elaborate on the health matter, saying he wished to keep it private.

“I’m personally saddened that folks took advantage of me having a major family health issue and having to step away,” Hernandez said.

Over a dozen current and former county employees reportedly told The Sun that Hernandez had created a culture of bullying that drove experienced employees away in favor of those he deemed good managers. Dozens of experienced county employees left under his leadership, The Sun reported, many who were department heads and directors, and most were women.

Allegations that Hernandez engaged in an inappropriate workplace relationship circulated as well, but The Sun characterized those as rumors.

The Sun also obtained 11 county organization charts from June 2021 to June 2023 that reportedly showed officials being assigned to entirely different duties just months after a prior reorganization.

These shake-ups, some alleged, stymied the county’s winter response last year and led to the county returning $4.4 million in unspent federal funds that were intended to support the local homeless population through non-profits, The Sun reported.

At the time, Hernandez reportedly said the non-profits did not spend the funds fast enough, according to The Sun. When asked about those funds on Thursday, Hernandez said he takes responsibility as the then-CEO, and the county learned a great lesson about the need to better track funding.

“It wasn’t our desire to throw the nonprofits under the bus, because they are our partners,” Hernandez said.

San Bernardino County stretches from the greater Los Angeles metro area to the border with Nevada and Arizona. At 20,160 square miles, it’s the largest county in the contiguous United States by area.

The county had more than 26,000 budgeted positions from 2022-2023 that served a population of nearly 2.2 million people, according to its budget.

In such a large county, Hernandez said he’s not surprised what he called a “handful” of folks were dissatisfied with his leadership.

“Any leader is going to have his critics,” Hernandez said. “None of that came up when I was CEO. My commitment is, if there’s something we need to change, if there’s a different direction we need to take, I really believe you got to treat people the way you want to be treated.”

The Sun repeatedly asked Hernandez to comment on the workplace allegations, but he did not respond to them. On Thursday, he said he chose not to engage with The Sun because he was in the “thick of dealing” with a family health issue.

“I did not have a lot of time nor the desire to stop and try to get embroiled in a tit for tat,” Hernandez said. “It was a sensitive time for me and my family. We are in a much better place and we’re ready to move forward.”

How does Hernandez see himself?

Hernandez said he believes most people who have worked with him over his 24-year career would vouch for his leadership capabilities.

“I think the majority of folks that work with me will say, ‘Leonard led by example. He did some amazing things and he really worked at building a positive work culture so that we can get stuff done together.’”

Prior to being CEO of San Bernardino County, Hernandez served as the county’s chief operating officer, deputy executive officer, interim museum director, county librarian and head of a library in the City of Fontana. He also worked as the director of libraries for the City of Riverside.

In his time as COO, Hernandez said he was often tasked with making changes to various department’s operations, culture and personnel. He also said he took charge of major disciplinary issues after a human resources director left.

“I just started to become the fix-it guy, kind of like the organization’s mechanic,” Hernandez said. “I was working on a lot of sensitive, high-level topics, operational things and then the pandemic hit.”

The San Bernardino County Board appointed Hernandez as CEO in September 2020 after the previous CEO stepped into a different role amid the pandemic, he said.

After he resigned as CEO, Hernandez said he waited to apply for a new job until his family health matter stabilized. Thurston County manager Ramiro Chavez left his role in October 2023.

Hernandez said he briefly lived in Washington prior to taking a job with the City of Fontana and he has family in the state. That made Thurston County an “amazing” opportunity for him, he said.

Hernandez said he believes government does best when it listens to the people it serves without preconceived ideas. He said the public will get to see him do that during the April 5 open house.

“What the community can expect is someone that is open to listen, understand them, to get to know them,” Hernandez said. “The more I understand and know them, the better.”