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COURTESY PHOTORebecca Bjork was officially named the Santa Barbara city administrator Tuesday. She has been serving as the interim administrator since Paul Casey stepped down.
The Santa Barbara City Council opened its meeting Tuesday with an announcement: Council members unanimously selected Rebecca Bjork to serve as the city administrator.
Ms. Bjork was appointed interim city administrator in August 2021. She has worked with the city of Santa Barbara for more than 33 years, including as the public works director and the interim community development director.
She succeeded Paul Casey, who stepped down as city administrator in September.
“Her performance in the interim capacity has been accomplished and progressive, and we have every confidence that her experience, management skills and dedication will continue to be an asset to the city of Santa Barbara,” Mayor Randy Rowse said.
Additionally Tuesday, the council heard an update from the Community Formation Commission on its work regarding a civilian police oversight group in Santa Barbara. CFC representatives said they plan to come back to the council with a full recommendation in April and asked for an extension of its contract with the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement, a nonprofit.
No action was needed by the council, and CFC representatives said they will come back to members at a later date with cost details.
The council also defeated Tuesday a proposal to change the time of public comment from three minutes per person to two minutes. That proposal would have also moved the consent calendar to before public comment.
Mayor Rowse was the only member of the council to vote for the measure. He said the idea was not to restrict public comment but to give more people an opportunity to speak during the 30 minutes allotted for public comment. As for the changes to the calendar, Mr. Rowse had said it would save taxpayer resources by allowing staff needed for the consent calendar to go about other businesses earlier.
The Santa Barbara City Council was also tasked Tuesday with considering options for regulating multi-unit housing density and building sizes as well as providing direction on interim methods to incentivize smaller housing units.
One of the goals for the general plan presented Tuesday is to “encourage” smaller rental units to be available closer to transit as well as within walking or biking distance to commercial services and recreational options.
email: kschallhorn@newspress.com
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