CityofSantaBarbara
Source: City of Santa Barbara
After conducting a nationwide recruitment, City Administrator Paul Casey is pleased to announce the appointment of Rebecca Bjork as Assistant City Administrator. She was selected from a pool of 184 highly qualified candidates.
She is currently the Interim Community Development Director and will serve in both positions, until a permanent department director appointment is made. She will begin in her new role on January 30. As Assistant City Administrator, Ms. Bjork will provide policy guidance to the City Council and oversee several operating departments. She will also serve as the acting City Administrator in the absence of City Administrator Paul Casey.
Ms. Bjork has worked with the City of Santa Barbara for 32 years and most recently served as the Public Works Director, overseeing the largest City department for over five years with nearly 300 employees and a budget totaling $138 million. The Public Works Department includes the City’s water and wastewater utilities, transportation planning, downtown parking, street maintenance, capital project design and construction, fleet services, and maintenance of over 100 City buildings and facilities. She directed staff and guided the City’s response during the most recent multi-year drought. From 2007 to 2014, she served as Water Resources Manager with responsibility for water and wastewater utilities, which included the operation and maintenance of the Cater Water Treatment Plant and the El Estero Wastewater Treatment Plant. She oversaw the introduction of ozonation at the Water Treatment Plant to improve the quality and taste of drinking water. Throughout her tenure, she has been instrumental in various renewal and replacement projects for water and wastewater mains, street infrastructure, and major facilities to extend the life of the City’s essential infrastructure.
Ms. Bjork received a Bachelor’s degree from Grinnell College and a Master’s Degree from California State University, Northridge.
According to City Administrator Paul Casey, “Rebecca brings a high standard of professionalism, commitment, and wealth of experience to the role to the Assistant City Administrator position. I am confident that she will serve as a valuable resource to me, our executive team and the City Council.”
“I am very excited to take on this new role and hope my 30+ years of experience working for the City continues to serve the residents and visitors of Santa Barbara,” said Ms. Bjork.
Gizmo, I have done extensive study on that very topic and worked with a group on the Mesa to confront the water dept about this. (To no avail, BTW. That desal plant is highly political and expensive and they’ll cover up anything negative at any cost). Part of the reason is that desal water is inferior water in general, to begin with. The other part is that water dept. reps admit they have to use more decontamination chemicals on this water than the “real” water the rest of the town gets. Another part to the equation is that OTHER desal plants mix the desal with other water sources–but in Santa Barbara they went so over budget that they apparently didn’t want to pay to do the right thing and lay the pipes up to the plant so they could mix it . The result is that unlucky customers, like the Mesa and the largely Latino communities by city college, Milpas etc., get 100 percent of that nasty crap–while the areas of town that are largely populated by more wealthy and/or lucky people get either a mix or no desal. Sure, maybe they didn’t plan to foist 100% crap on the (mostly) poor and Latino neighborhoods, but it sure doesn’t hurt their ability to do so that the people not getting the desal are largely in neighborhoods more likely to have “complaining clout.”
Should make those of you happy that say the City never promotes from within. Should make those of you unhappy that they spent a lot of time and money doing a nationwide search and ended up picking one of their own. I’m just glad the manager that was in charge of the effort to revive the desal plant is being rewarded for having the project go WAY over budget, I remember from $55M to $72M. There’s plenty more money where that came from, right?
Yikes, I can see it now, next the unthinkable, the Historic Mision Creek Bridge will be demosished and we will have a straight of way thru to Foothill.
Her aggressive political skills probably are her biggest asset, next she will push Paul Casey out. Hmm, keep your freinds close and keep your enemies closser? Slime does float to the top.