CityofSantaBarbara
By the City of Santa Barbara
After 35 years of dedicated service, City Administrator Rebecca Bjork announced today that she will be retiring at the end of the year.
Ms. Bjork served in numerous roles at the City, including Assistant City Administrator, Public Works Director, Community Development Director and Water Resources Manager.
“I am proud of my many accomplishments at the City and have greatly enjoyed working for such a wonderful organization for so many years. I will sincerely miss the amazing staff I work with every day,” Ms. Bjork said.
During her tenure, Ms. Bjork responded to numerous emergencies, starting with the Painted Cave Fire in 1990. She played an important role in assisting businesses in returning to Coast Village Road after the Thomas Fire, including providing mutual aid to Montecito by sending water distribution staff to assist in the restoration of the water system in our neighboring community.
In addition, some of Ms. Bjork’s many achievements include:
- Facilitation of several restricted income housing projects
- Negotiation of a 50-year water sales agreement with the Montecito Water District
- Heading significant efforts to improve the efficiency and work processes in the Public Works Department
Mayor Randy Rowse said that Ms. Bjork has served the City with exemplary dedication and capability through complex times as the administration navigated COVID, financial challenges, and staffing issues.
“My confidence in Ms. Bjork’s leadership and decision making is unwavering. Her management policies within the organization have ensured that the cupboard is not bare, and that our departments have solid continuing structures,” he said. “While I’m sad to see her go, I’m also grateful on behalf of the City for Ms. Bjork’s decades of service and passion for Santa Barbara.
The City Council will discuss the process of recruitment for the next City Administrator.
good riddance….
she cost us quite a lot of money and did virtually nothing.
having worked with a variety of city staff members in various departments, she was actually very helpful in guiding several projects and addressing some issues that arose. Helped navigate and cut through the red-tape as best as possible and overall very reasonable to work with.
Hashtag FAT retirement at the expense of city taxpayers. She’s smiling all the way to the bank. Keep supporting more government and that’s what you’ll get. More pension debt and less of everything else.
I was going to say the same–Good Riddance. She has always been a schmoozer and a reed that bent to the prevailing political winds. The desalination plant, infrastructure, State Street compromising, and so on. But this is the job of a city manager, keep the heat off the elected officials and allow them to show up for ceremonial moments.
Rebecca has been a wonderful public servant for several decades. She has held difficult leadership positions and has maintained a strong reputation. Thank you Rebecca for your many years of service.
Wow, 35 years is a good haul. Congrats and enjoy retirement!
She didn’t last long.
Ms. Bjorn is a gem. To detract from her legacy is pure nonsense to the 10th degree. Everyone who worked with her knows what a great job she did.
Yes, Thank You for all your help during the painted cave fire… LOL!
Did absolutely nothing but pad her pension
I had a one-on-one meeting with her in her office in concert with the City Personnel Manager regarding wrongful actions by different employees in allowing a business to violate zoning laws. After listening to my spiel, she told me that she would not be doing anything about it as she had other zoning issues to attend to, and that she was moving into a new office. Since she was the “administrator”, overseeing City employees was part of her job description. When I complained about the same problem to the previous “administrator”, he blew me off , as well. There appears to be a concerted effort by the “administration” to keep certain “problem areas” under the big tent.
The more retiring administrators that occur, like retiring fire chiefs and retiring police chiefs, mean incredible future pension numbers. But we have to have the “best” people for the job, correct?
Your opinion depends on where you sit. I have a friend who found her arrogant, unhelpful if not dismissive. That was when the friend was working in the private sector and had some questions. Fast forward some years and the friend is now working within the city “family”. He now says he has changed his opinion and finds her helpful and pleasant to work with.
This is both the charm and problem with Santa Barbara and its small town soul: it is a family and its government is especially a family – you’re “in” if you’re part of it but if you are only a member of the public, then you clearly are lesser and out. Bjork, as do most of the council members who chose her, one of their two appointees, epitomizes this “family” mentality. Hopefully, her replacement will come from outside the city, appreciating the virtues and values of SB but without the in-group family mentality of Bjork and, before her, Armstrong.
A-1692372541 AUG 18, 2023 08:29 AM
THIS is spot on from what I heard from a friend, too. Dismissive until you’re part of the “family.” Pretty dysfunctional and definitely should change. Especially considering we pay their salaries.
I like Rebecca. The problem is that someone can take a role for the last 2 years of their 30 year career, and it bumps their pension to the tune of about +$75k per YEAR for the next roughly 30 YEARS. Can’t blame her, who wouldn’t take that money. But that’s a fundamentally broken system.
It’s everywhere across California government retirees.. Police, fire, teachers, city bureaucrats… when you ask yourself why money for kids is tight, remember this as ONE of our problems.
Transparent–yes. The government pension system is completely out of control and yeah this included cops and firefighters who do exactly the same thing that you are describing.
100%
Basic, if you know edhat’s reply button doesn’t work on your device, why don’t you specify the name or time of the post you’re responding to? It’s often difficult/impossible to know without your specifying.
Yeah, they make really nice bike gear! https://www.100percent.com/
…just not sure how that apply’s here?
Only two years as City Administrator. It’s too bad that we didn’t have someone with a longer term so as to provide more stability in City and staff policies. The Council should have known that she was nearing retirement eligibility when they hired her for that position and hired someone who wasn’t approaching retirement.
They did know she was nearing retirement age. This is part of the dance to raise her retiremente pay before she signs off. Watch out now, she is likely to be back as a part time appointment, consultant or will move on to another city and start a new job for a second dip retirement and salary.
As my mother always said, “If you have nothing good to say, then don’t say anything at all”.
The article is not about the SB government pension system, it’s about a woman retiring after a long career. Post an article about the pension system and complain about that instead.
Your reply button worked!
Shasta – heads up, a lot of us don’t like the MASSIVE pension debt that our city and state are getting us into. It’s at the cost of all our other services, especially the education of our kids. That’s why we have criticisms. I think it’s relevant.
https://www.noozhawk.com/santa-barbara-councilwoman-kristen-sneddon-challenges-city-staff-on-transparency-of-budget-process/