The Job of Santa Barbara City Administrator

By Brent E. Zepke, Esq.

Ms. Kelly McAdoo was hired as the City Administrator for Santa Barbara in February 2024.

On September 15, 2025, after being on the job for a year and a half, Ms. McAdoo announced that Anthony Valdez had been hired for the newly created position of Deputy City Administrator. He will be focused on housing, economic vitality, and downtown services. His salary is not available but the salary range for that position is $282,877-$342,281.

In November 2025 it was announced that Ms. McAdoo’s contract called for her to receive a $15,670 salary increase, bringing her annual salary to $353,576, in addition to benefits that include:

a housing allowance of $3,432 a month for 36 months,

a car allowance of $755 a month, or $9,060 a year indexed to the IRS mileage reimbursement rate,

health and life insurance,

tuition reimbursement (for whom?) of up to $2,000 a year,

a $16,820 relocation reimbursement as per her original employment agreement.

the taxpayers of Santa Barbara will contribute $24,000 annually for when she no longer works for the city, through a deferred compensation plan separate from CalPERS, which raises the question: why not make it contingent upon her successfully performing her current job?

Ms. McAdoo’s pay and benefits brings her total compensation to more than $430,000 annually.

Ms. McAdoo’s Objectives

The objectives Ms. McAdoo listed for the next year include:

1) Begin work improving our organizational culture;

2) focus on State Street and downtown revitalization;

3) stabilize the city’s finances; and

4) focus on the housing and homelessness crisis.

Problems With Current Objectives

1. The problem of the listed objective of “Begin work improving our organizational culture” is that “begin” means to proceed to perform the first or earliest part of some action. In the year and a half she has been City Administrator, hasn’t she already begun trying to improve the organizational culture?

2. To “focus on State Street” means to concentrate one’s attention or energy on State Street. Hopefully in the year and a half she has been on the job she has been “focusing” on State Street and has developed a plan.

3. “Stabilizing the city’s finances”? Based on her experience and time on the job, it should be more specific.

4. “Focus on the housing and homelessness crisis” should have already begun during the year and a half on the job.

The bad news is that these objectives are like New Year’s Eve “resolutions” in that the exact same ones can be used every year because they are not specific enough to have any meaning.

The good news is that it is not necessary to “recreate the wheel.” For example, decades ago I ran a team that implemented what we labeled an “Accountability System.” I should add that my results were so successful that I started using it for my personal life. It was so successful that I still use it today.

Accountability System

The system requires each key employee to develop an annual written plan listing specific objectives for themselves that were:

1. Written

2. Attainable, specific, and measurable

3. Results oriented and active

4. Would have specific dates for accomplishing

5. Phrased positively

6. Short and separate for each entry.

My experience is that the optimal number of objectives is between five and ten. A good idea too is to begin each day rereading them, which would help to focus individuals on their key responsibilities and stimulate their subconscious towards searching for ways to accomplish them.

Accountabilities for City Administrator

Here are some examples of how objectives can be written as accountabilities to enable taxpayers a way to measure the performance of a City Administrator such as Ms. McAdoo, with, of course, the specific numbers being subject to negotiations.

1. List not only the areas of the organizational culture that have been identified as needing improvement but also how to measure the improvements achieved. For example, reduce the employee turnover by 20%, or employee head count by 20%. Of course, the percentages may vary but should be specific and should neither count unfilled positions nor permit the hiring of “consultants.”

2. Revitalizing State Street and downtown requires measurable metrics to have any meaning. To set these, perform an in-depth case analysis of why businesses are leaving State Street. Determine the specifics before, and during, the closure of State Street.

3. Stabilizing the city’s finances. Based on the experience for which Ms. McAdoo and Mr. Valdez are being handsomely compensated, we taxpayers should expect them to set measurable metrics now, beginning with making the city’s expenses be equal to, or less than, the revenue without raising taxes. Show taxpayers how spending the money for the two of them actually saved, rather than cost, the city money.

4. Focusing on housing and homeless crisis. Congressman Swalwell credited Ms. McAdoo with dealing with these issues in Hayward, in his congressional district. She was living in Santa Barbara for a year and a half leading to her negotiating for a housing allowance of $3,342 a month for 36 months, indicating that she was already aware of the housing “crisis” in Santa Barbara. Mr. Valdez is also credited with having dealt with housing in Bakersfield.

It is time for them to have measurable objectives.

The state of California, after exacerbating the problems with open borders and kicking the homeless off state property, dumped the problems onto the city. Return the favor, as trying to act alone is doomed to failure.

Hopefully this will help the City Council work with Ms. McAdoo to restate her – and other city employees – objectives in a way that are more meaningful, measurable, and useful as the basis for a compensation system.

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