Sonoma County hires new county administrator

Veronica Ferguson, an assistant administrator in Solano County, was named Sonoma County's new administrator on Tuesday.

She begins work Feb. 1 for the top job in county government, overseeing a billion-dollar budget and handling key wage and pension negotiations.

Supervisor Efren Carrillo made the announcement following a closed session of supervisors on Tuesday afternoon. He said the vote was unanimous by the five supervisors and involved long distance telephone conversations with supervisors Valerie Brown and Paul Kelley, who are in Copenhagen attending the international climate conference.

Ferguson has an undergraduate degree from the University of California at Santa Cruz and a law degree from the Monterey College of Law. From 1979 to 2003, she held several administrative positions in Monterey County and in 2003 she was appointed Director of General Services for Solano County.

Since 2006, she has been an assistant county administrator there.

Sonoma County's previous administrator, Bob Deis, resigned last June after coming under increasing challenge from some of the supervisors.

Details on her salary were not immediately available.