New city manager ready to help ‘move Santa Maria in a positive direction’

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - Just a month-and-a-half after starting his new job, Santa Maria City Manager David Rowlands is still settling into the position that will help direct and shape the city for many years and decades to come.

Rowlands officially started as the city's top executive early last month, finally taking over a position the City Council had searched for over a year to fill permanently.

Now, just over six weeks later, he's feeling comfortable more and more each day in his new job.

"Things are going wonderful," said Rowlands. "I have been warmly welcomed by the community. The employees here been outstanding to work with. I've met with all of our department heads. They had a couple open houses prior to me starting here. I came down to meet the employees. I've had one-on-one meetings with me, and I want to find out from them, what do you want to see from the city? What can I do to enhance your career? And what can we do better as a community to keep moving Santa Maria forward?"

Rowlands arrived from Fillmore in Ventura County, where he has served as city manager from 2013 to late last year before moving to Santa Maria.

Santa Maria had been without a permanent city manager since Jason Stillwell left the position in September 2023.

Alex Posada, who has worked for the city since 1978, including as Recreation and Parks Director for 20 years, served as interim city manager for one year through the end of Sept. 2024.

Assistant City Manager Chuen Wu assumed the interim duties after Posada returned to the Recreation and Parks Department and filled the position until Rowlands arrived.

When the City Council hired Rowlands in late September 2024, it marked a major shift for Santa Maria.

Rowlands is the first city manager to be hired from outside the city management in over 60 years. All other previous city managers over that time period have been promoted from in house.

"I think one of the biggest benefits is coming from the outside," said Rowlands. "You get a fresh set of eyes on the organization, the policies that are in place. Do we still need to have some policies? Can we adjust on which we make them user friendly? You also get the opportunity for the employees to open up to you. We have an opportunity to try something new, something never tried it before. They've had great leadership here in the city mayor's office in the past and I'll use my experience of over 20-plus years be a city manager. I'm really trying to empower the department heads and empower the employees to the entrepreneurial and don't be afraid to make a mistake. If you make a mistake, we'll fix it. We'll correct it. We'll move on and try to identify things that we do that we should not be doing anymore."

Rowlands arrives just as Santa Maria is trying to navigate through difficult financial times. The city is looking at a $20 million budget deficit over the next couple of years, presenting him with significant challenges right from the start.

"We're going to be fine," said Rowlands. "It's just really a matter of doing our house cleaning, taking a look at the overall organization and see what can we do to reduce our expenses that's not going to impact the community. We're looking at what positions need to be filled, which ones can we leave vacant when people either move on and retire, so right now, a number of general fund positions we're putting those on hold right now. Last thing I want to do is bring somebody on board and then a year or two later have to ask them to leave due to financial issues. From a police and fire standpoint, the personnel out there that are probably most important departments out there from the public's viewpoint, we are filling those positions and we're not putting those positions on hold and we're also doing recruitments to bring people on in the police side and fire side. Then obviously you have your enterprise funds, which is not impacted from the budget standpoint with the general fund, so we're taking a step by step approach to it. It could probably be a two to three year process to get the house back in order."

Rowlands added one of his top priorities is for the city and the firefighters union to come to a labor agreement.

Firefighters Union Local 2020 have been working without a contract for more than a year since their last one expired in December 2023.

"I met with their union leadership yesterday," said Rowlands. "We had just more of a get together. Let them know who I am and how I work. I know they have talked to all of my old colleagues who I've negotiated against and I'll let you know what I say is true. I don't play games of the bargaining table. They're very appreciative of that and we want to get this thing settled. We want to move forward. The firefighters do a very good job for the community. We all know that it's a matter of just getting back to the table, and where they want to be, we might not be able to get there one year or two years. We'll need to do a strategy, but the overall strategy also has to include the rest of the city and not just one department and I'm willing to work with their bargaining unit and our city council and staff to figure out what can we do."

Another important priority for Rowlands is to help push forward the long-planned revitalization of the downtown area.

Over the past two years, several proposed projects, including high-rise mixed-use buildings at or near the intersection of Broadway and Main Street have been publicly revealed by the local development firm The Vernon Group, and also approved by the City Council, but so far, those projects have yet to see any construction begin.

"Shovels in the ground, we're looking at probably in the next six months," said Rowlands. "We've got the final plans. We're doing them right now. A couple comments on it and we'll turn it over to The Vernon Group and they'll make a couple of more changes and we're anticipating with six months they'll get some stuff going out there."

Looking forward, Rowlands is excited about the potential impact the new projects will bring to the important downtown area.

"I think it's be unbelievable, not only for Santa Maria, but also for the region when they see we're able to do, to revitalize an infill development," said Rowlands. "You're bringing new life to the downtown area with new residents. It's going to bring life to the downtown area and people will be spending money in local businesses and bringing people in from the outside. It's really, really exciting to see new blood come to the community and see that revitalizing."

In addition, Rowlands will be kept busy handling a number of other significant projects and responsibilities in both the short-term and long-term.

"There's a multitude of items to get to," said Rowlands. "We're in the process right now of hiring a new police chief and then we'll also be looking to hire a new finance director, so it could be pretty much a new team out here in City Hall in six to eight months, which is exciting from my standpoint. I think it's also exciting from the department head structure. We'll get new eyes at all these departments and whoever comes in, they'll have an opportunity to go out there in the chair and take a look and see what kind of changes they want to make in the department and they'll have full support of this office to do that."

Despite coming aboard with ongoing financial challenges and with a very full plate of other issues to handle, Rowlands sees a very bright and prosperous future for Santa Maria and is eager to help lead city as it moves forward.

“We want to keep on providing the high quality of life for the residents here and become a destination for visitors, families, education, businesses," Rowlands. “We really need to look at the the future and be creative with it and create a place that people want to come and live and continue to look at not just locally but look globally and what we can offer.”