Santa Rosa selects Stockton’s Maraskeshia Smith as city manager in groundbreaking appointment

Maraskeshia Smith, an administrator with decades of experience in local government who is currently Stockton’s deputy city manager, has been selected to lead Santa Rosa’s government, the City Council announced Friday.

Smith, 45, previously worked in Oakland, where for two years she was assistant city manager and led programs on homelessness, affordable housing and economic development. She spent the bulk of her career in Cincinnati, where she led the public works department for nearly 10 years.

Her move to Santa Rosa is to a smaller city, with a population of roughly 180,000 residents, but only a slightly smaller city work force of about 1,250 employees. Stockton has a population of roughly 309,000 and about 1,440 city employees.

Her appointment is historic. Smith will be the first Black city manager in Santa Rosa history.

The City Council will formally take up Smith’s employment contract in December. She is set to take over at City Hall in January.

Her arrival comes as Sonoma County’s government and political class reels from the loss of two high-profile Black leaders.

Santa Rosa Mayor Chris Rogers said Smith impressed the council first and foremost with her government expertise. “She is phenomenally qualified,” he said. “We are really lucky that she wants to come here.” Smith intends to move to the city soon, Rogers said.

Along with her experience, Smith stood out for her approach to pressing municipal issues including homelessness and a focus on “mentorship, recruitment and morale,” including for women of color.

"She’s going to be an employees’ city manager,“ Rogers said, noting that burnout and exhaustion is a concern inside a city government that has endured five years of major disasters, including wildfires and the pandemic.

Smith did not respond to an interview request left Friday with the Stockton city manager’s office and could not be otherwise reached for comment.

In Stockton, Smith launched an Office of Performance & Data Analytics, a data gathering innovation that Vice Mayor Natalie Rogers said she hoped the hire would bring to Santa Rosa.

“She can implement (policy) and she can back it up with numbers,” Rogers said.

Rogers is the city’s first Black woman council member.

“In the same way that I like to be a role model to children in the community I also want to have people that I can look up to and admire for the work that they have done,” she said. “When I look at her and the work that she’s done… I get excited in that little girl giddy way of wow she’s amazing."

Last month, within the span of two days, Sonoma County saw its economic czar quit and the incoming chief administrator of its health department withdrew his acceptance of the job over concerns about racial discrimination and reported mistreatment of officials of color.

Sheba Person-Whitley, the executive director of Sonoma County’s Economic Development Board, cited a pattern of racial bias in her resignation letter. Then Derrick Neal, who was set to run the Department of Health Services, said he would not take the job, citing concerns about the treatment and experiences of department heads of color.

In the wake of Person-Whitley’s departure and Neal’s cancellation of his job offer, Rogers shared in an interview that she was “nervous” for Smith. But, she said, Smith will receive the council’s full support.

”If the leadership has a stance on how they want certain things implemented in their organization either people that work in that organization are going to fall in line or they’re not going to work there,“ Rogers said.

“Maybe it’s up to us to show the county,” she added.

In Santa Rosa, Smith will take the reins of a government strained by a budget deficit but where leaders seek to bring more equity to the local economy and the city’s diverse neighborhoods.

City leaders have voiced commitments to reinvesting in the Latino-dominated neighborhood of Roseland, historically neglected in community development and park projects.

Also, Santa Rosa’s charter, which outlines the constitutional framework of the city government, is under review as are equity in city hiring and promotion processes. Police practices in the wake of last summer’s social justice protests have also been a focus of public and City Council scrutiny.

Smith will confront pressing questions of affordable housing and homelessness, pandemic recovery and planning for climate-driven disasters, from destructive wildfires, severe floods and extreme heat, to the current historic drought.

Clouding City Hall’s outlook somewhat is its $11 million operating deficit.

The council recently signed off on labor contracts with most employee groups that lock in three years of pay raises, amounting to 8% — payroll costs that will boost annual spending by about $12 million. But officials voiced confidence that a rebound in sales and property tax revenue will cover the cost of the raises.

Smith will come in earning more than her predecessor, Sean McGlynn, who left the city for Escondido in May. The city has agreed to pay Smith $270,000, city spokesperson Alexa Popplewell said.

McGlynn was earning $245,000 at his departure, a sum the council set late last year. Including benefits, his total annual compensation was $334,799, according to the city.

Jeff Kolin, who previously served as city manager from 2000 to 2009, has been acting as interim city manager since June. He is set to stay on until Smith’s arrival.

You can reach Staff Writer Andrew Graham at 707-526-8667 or andrew.graham@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @AndrewGraham88