Santa Barbara City Administrator Rebecca Bjork Announces Retirement
Bjork Worked for City for More than 30 Years, Took Position of Administrator in 2021
Santa Barbara City Administrator Rebecca Bjork announced on Thursday that she would be retiring after working for the city for more than 30 years.
“I am proud of my many accomplishments at the city and have greatly enjoyed working for such a wonderful organization for so many years,” Bjork said. “I will sincerely miss the amazing staff I work with every day.”
Bjork was first appointed to the position of City Administrator on an interim basis after replacing longtime administrator Paul Casey when he retired in September 2021. A few months later in February 2022, Bjork officially took the position.
Before her time as city administrator, Bjork worked her way up serving several administrative roles. From 2007 to 2014, she served as the city’s Water Resource Manager, and during that time she helped lead the way with renewal and replacement projects for water mains.
She has served as an interim community development director, helping streamline the city’s development process. During the pandemic, she worked to address the city’s homeless encampments.
In the city’s announcement, Mayor Randy Rowse said that 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.”
In an interview with the Independent following the announcement, Bjork said that the decision was “absolutely at her own discretion,” and that she was very fond of all the employees she had worked with over the past 37 years in the city. She said that she had been planning on retiring within the next three to five years, and that she didn’t want to prolong the eventual search for a permanent administrator.
With children in college and a husband that is also recently retired, Bjork said she is looking forward to the next chapter in her life, but that she is fully confident that the city is in a good position to find a replacement.
“We’ve got such a good executive team,” she said. “All of our departments are strong.”
During her brief tenure as administrator, Bjork oversaw some tense city debates on the future of the State Street Promenade and the 2024-25 budget, but according to several City Hall sources, and Bjork herself, these moments did not factor into her decision to retire.
The City Council will discuss the recruitment process soon, but at this point it is uncertain whether the city will promote from within or recruit a large range of candidates. Bjork will serve through the end of the year while the city finds her replacement.
