After year long search, Santa Maria City Council drawing closer to hiring new city manager

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - The Santa Maria City Council held a special meeting Tuesday to attempt to push forward its ongoing search for a new city manager.

The meeting began just after 11:30 a.m. in City Council Chambers and quickly moved into a closed-door session about two minutes after it was called to order.

After about two hours, Councilmembers emerged from its closed-door session and entered Council Chambers once again where it declared no action was to be taken today in regards to the search.

Afterward, Mayor Alice Patino indicated the meeting was held to meet with its recruitment firm, which was brought in earlier this year

“We went through the whole process of going through applications of candidates for our city manager," said Patino. "We wanted to be able to narrow that down."

Patino indicated a pool of candidates was identified and will soon be interviewed next Friday on Sept. 20.

"There's no new city manager yet," said Patino. "We can't do that right now, but I will let you know on the afternoon of the 20th for sure."

The City of Santa Maria has been without a permanent city manager for exactly one year since Jason Stillwell left the position last September in 2023.

Since then, Alex Posada, who has worked for the city since 1978, including as Recreation and Parks Director for 20 years, has served as interim city manager.

Posada has indicated he will leave his current position when his interim city manager contract expires at the end of this month on Sept. 30, 2024.

When asked what would happen if Posada were to leave the office before a permanent replacement is hired, Councilman Mike Cordero indicated a plan is in place to fill the position.

"We have an assistant city manager who is currently Chuen Wu," said Cordero. "As things go, then Chuen would obviously assume that responsibility, but what we do there is yet undetermined. I frankly would be hoping that we can get Alex to stick around for another 30 days or something like that, and we'll do what we can to do what's best for the city."

After Stillwell's departure, Santa Maria has been conducting a nationwide search to hire a new city manager, using an executive recruitment firm to conduct the recruitment process.

At the time of Posada's appointment last year, the city said it expected the search to last a few months.

However, one year later, the search continues with no known date when a new city manager will be hired.

Councilmembers held a similar special meeting in June where they met with a new recruiter to discuss the search and establish priorities they valued in candidates.