Moving from the Raisin Capital of the World to the City of Arts and Flowers, Patrick Wiemiller recently left a decades-long career with the city of Fresno to become Lompoc’s new city administrator.
The Lompoc City Council appointed Wiemiller—who went up against nearly 60 other applicants for the position—at its Jan. 7 meeting. Also at that meeting, the council thanked Interim City Administrator Teresa Gallavan for her service, approved payroll expenditures for the end of 2013, and adopted ordinances banning aggressive solicitation and the sale of synthetic spices and bath salts.
When the Sun interviewed Wiemiller on Jan. 14, he was in the middle of touring the city’s park facilities. He said he’s learning to balance his responsibilities to the city and to its residents.
“I’m anxious and eager to get around and tour facilities and meet with staff—all those internal things,” he said. “Externally, I’m reaching out to residents … and the groups that want to meet with me.”
Prior to coming to Lompoc, Wiemiller spent most of his life in Fresno—“I moved there when I was 3 years old,” he said—including a career in city government, where he served as the public works director and director of public utilities.
“I was pulling double duty [with those positions] for a couple of years,” he said.
Wiemiller also filled in as city manager for a time.
“Fresno is a large, dynamic city organization,” he said, adding that the budgets for his two departments “ate up half of the [city’s] budget.”
He said he hopes to serve as a fresh pair of eyes to the city.
“I got a lot of exposure to municipal law, budget operations, and the other challenges that cities face,” he said.
Wiemiller explained that the city of Lompoc is going through an exciting time because the economy is starting to recover and development is picking up. His main goal as city administrator will be to promote economic development and bring in more jobs.
“We’ve been a commuter city for a long time,” Wiemiller said. “Our goal is to show that Lompoc is a business-friendly city … and to bring those businesses and jobs here.”
He also wants to make sure the city is more “customer-focused” when it comes to dealing with residents. He said he’s excited to start working for the city because it’s “on the edge of a breakthrough,” and is home to lots of friendly people.
“The weather’s hard to beat as well,” he said.
This article appears in Jan 16-23, 2014.
