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Yahoo!Ron Cortez, one of Chief Executive Mike Brown’s right-hand men and a 14-year veteran of Santa Barbara County government, announced in a letter to friends and co-workers last week that he is leaving the county for a job at UCSB as the associate vice chancellor for administrative services. As such, Cortez will be assisting Vice Chancellor Donna Carpenter with organizational and management responsibilities. His last day with the county is March 22, and he begins his new job March 24. “I’m really excited about the opportunity,” Cortez said Friday. “There’s a lot of exciting things going on at the university.”
Cortez will be the second deputy CEO to leave the county in a matter of months. Jim Laponis retired in January after more than 30 years at the county. County Counsel Shane Stark also recently retired. Cortez’s departure leaves only Ken Masuda as a deputy executive officer under Brown, and Masuda is expected to retire sometime this year. Cortez praised the work Brown is doing in the county executive office, and thanked him for his time. “This has been an invaluable experience and I appreciate the trust he has placed in me,” Cortez wrote of his boss. Brown promoted Cortez twice during their ten years at the county together. Brown was out of town at a seminar Friday and unavailable for comment.
Before coming to work for Santa Barbara County, Cortez was at the County of Merced, where he began one of the first recycling market development zones in the state of California. “I have a background working in environmental programs,” Cortez said, "and I get to work on sustainability at UCSB, which was a big draw for me.” Previous to that he was an officer in the Air Force where he flew planes for eight years.
Cortez has had a variety of roles during his time at the county, including deputy director of Public Works, director of General Services, acting director of Planning and acting director of Housing and Community Development. He overhauled the planning department after the resignation of Val Alexeeff in 2005. “I found it very challenging, stressful and exciting,” Cortez said. “The land use structure is what keeps [the county] looking like it does.”
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To clarify, there are a few assistant CEOs in Brown's office, who, title aside, do similar work to deputy CEOs, including John Baker, Terri Maus-Nisich, Jason Stilwell and Sue Paul. These employees are hold executive level positions, and there is no specific job description that separates an assistant from a deputy, according to County spokesman William Boyer. Their duties are very similar, in that they all oversee different county programs, and in that they all report to Mike Brown.
Hope that helps.
Chris (Chris Meagher)
March 3, 2008 at 6:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)
A little jerk leaves to mess UCSB while big jerk stays to screw taxpayers. I hope Cortez does not mistreat women and other employees at UCSB. Can anybody bother to ask COSB BOS how Brown has his job? They all are perfect examples of white collar criminals. Did Cortez have enough of Brown's yelling, screaming, spitting and physical torture?
send2shepherd (anonymous profile)
March 4, 2008 at 11:20 p.m. (Suggest removal)
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