Trackdown Management’s City Manager Newsletter: Volume No. 15: Issue No. 223
For over 13 years, Jack Simpson’s Trackdown Management has published the City Manager Newsletter. Jack is a retired city manager and former Willdan executive. His newsletter content weaves together the personal side of the profession in California and helps keep the city manager community, especially retired city managers, connected with each other.
Picking Up the Pieces
Surfside resident and longtime City of Cerritos City Manager Arthur Gallucci has worked for the City of Cerritos for 51 years. He has served as the Cerritos city manager for 31 years, since 1991. Art announced his intent to retire effective June 30, 2023. He will be difficult to replace. Trackdown wishes Art the best for a long, healthy and enjoyable retirement.
Drew Corbett has served as the city manager in the City of San Mateo since December 2018. He came to the San Mateo city staff in 2015 as the finance director. When San Mateo Mayor Diane Papan was elected to the 21st District of the California State Assembly, it left a vacant mayor position. Filling that vacancy has provided the San Mateo City Council with a contentious challenge.
Oceanside has more than doubled the fees developers must pay if they do not include affordable units. The in-lieu fees will go from $8.96 per square foot to $20 phased in over the next two years. Kelly Batten of the Building Industry Association of San Diego argues that the high fees are counterproductive. Jonathan Borrego is the Oceanside city manager.
Retired South Gate City Manager Gary Milliman, who served as city manager in Brookings, Oregon before retiring again, and is a municipal court judge in six rural Oregon communities, has served as an interim city manager since city manager Janell Howard left the position. By local charter provisions Gary must conclude his services to the city by January 11, 2023. Gary is actively searching for a city manager successor.
Wade Crowfoot is the California secretary of the Natural Resources Agency. He is one of four Natural Resources Agency officials attending the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity meeting in Montreal, Canada. Climate actions are important; even after the massive winter storm that swept California this month, the state is sill facing the consequences of drought.
Tehachapi City Manager Greg Garrett told the Greater Tehachapi Economic Development Council that, “Sacramento is not our friend.” He was addressing the serious economic impact the closure of local facilities of the California Correctional Institution. Greg said that the City expects to lose several hundred thousand dollars a year as a result of a reduced prison population.
Mountain House may be the 8th incorporated city in San Joaquin County. A large Safeway opened there this month, and apartment complex and housing projects are being pursued. Mountain House has a population of 28,000. Former Davis and Manteca City Manager Steve Pinkerton is the general manager of the Mountain House Community Services District. Steve notes that an incorporation election could occur in either November 2023, March 2024, or November 2024.
Fairfield City Manager Scott Timmer came to Fairfield in August 2016 as a financial services manager. He previously worked for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Scott was elevated to the Fairfield director of finance position in September 2018 and then assistant city manager in January 2022. Scott served as the assistant county administrator in Butler County, Ohio from July 2021 to February 2022, when he returned to Fairfield to serve as the city manager. Scott earned a BS in accounting from the University of Dayton and an MBA from Ohio Dominican University.
City of La Mirada Community Services Director Oliver Osuna was an activity specialist in the City of Downey prior to joining the La Mirada city staff in 2006 as a community services coordinator. He has been with La Mirada for more than 16-years. Oliver earned a BA from California State University, Fullerton and an MPA from California State University, Long Beach.
Members of the Technical Review Board for the Merced County Association of Governments include: Dewayne Jones, city manager of Dos Palos; Greg Wellman, interim city manager in Los Banos; Raul Lomeli Mendez, CEO for the County of Merced is the chair; Stephanie Dietz, city manager in Merced; Anna Nicholas, Gustine city manager; acting Livingston City Manager Jennifer Riedeman; and Lori Waterman, city manager in Atwater.
Pismo Beach City Manager Jim Lewis was presented with the President’s Award from the Municipal Information Systems Associate of California at the 2022 MISAC annual conference in Monterey. MISAC President Hong Sae made the presentation.
Shorts
La Palma City Manager Conal McNamara started his public service career in 2000 as a policy deputy to Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich.
Wally Bobkiewicz, who began his career with the City of Long Beach and served as Santa Paula City Manager (2002-2009), is the current city manager in Issaquah, Washington.
Retired Rosemead City Manager Jeff Allred (2009-2016) currently serves as a member of the City of La Verne Planning Commission.
Yvonne Wise, the Palm Springs director of Parks and Recreation, previously worked as the director of Parks and Recreation for the Port of San Diego.
Burney Falls is a 129-foot water fall within the Cascade Range and Modoc Plateau near Burney, an unincorporated town in Shasta County.
Jim Schutz, city manager in San Rafael, received a certificate from the Harvard Kennedy School of Executive Education in Digital Transformation in Government: Innovating Public Policy & Service.
Rancho Mirage City Manager Isaiah Hagerman first came to the City as finance director in 2012 and was appointed city manager in May 2018.
Members of the California Coastal Commission approved another desalination plant in the Monterey Bay.
Mitch Barker of PARS is a resident of Fiddletown in Amador County, an old Gold Rush town.
Ralph Aranda Jr., a Santa Fe Springs resident, retired from Pico Rivera after holding positions in Monterey Park, Norwalk, Lawndale, and Bell Gardens.
Environmental scientists predict that the oceans will contain more plastic, pound for pound, than fish by the year 2050, according to Daily Pilot writer Sara Cardine.