The search for a successor for Santa Barbara County Executive Officer Michael Brown is over. On Sept. 28, the Board of Supervisors announced the selection of San Diego resident Chandra Wallar to fill Brown’s shoes.
Wallar will take the helm as the county’s chief financial officer on Nov. 1. Brown, who has been with the county for 14 years, announced his plans to retire in November 2009. However, he extended his contract until Oct. 31, 2010, at the request of the supervisors so he could oversee the county’s 2010-11 budget cycle.
Wallar comes to the Central Coast from San Diego, where she served for more than a decade as the county’s deputy chief administrative officer. She also held the position of general manager of the Land Use and Environment Group, the governmental division that includes the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District; agriculture, weights,
and measures; environmental health; parks and recreation; planning and land use; public works; and the Farm and Home Advisor Office.
During her time with the county of San Diego, Wallar managed a staff of 1,550 people and oversaw yearly budgets totaling $400 million or more.
In a recent interview with the Sun, Wallar said it was during one of her frequent visits to Santa Barbara that she decided “to throw [her] hat in the ring” for the position of county executive officer.
“I have a strong fiscal ability that I relied on in San Diego County,” Wallar said. “Like most counties, we’re facing substantial financial setbacks.”
Wallar said she developed a budgetary process during her time with the Land Use and Environment Group that she’d like to bring to Santa Barbara County.
“It allows you to look at the budget and see any loop backs or areas of redundancy,” she said, adding that the purpose of her system is streamlining the budget and bureaucratic process.
“[In San Diego] I was able to reengineer the budget process to save staff time and costs in all areas,” she continued. “I want to bring that kind of process to Santa Barbara County, which will allow us to do more with less.”
As the new CEO, Wallar said her top priority will be to enable services to continue as effectively and efficiently as they can.
Supervisor and board chair Janet Wolf (2nd District) expressed her excitement at Wallar’s hiring in a press release to the media.
“I am thrilled that Chandra has agreed to join the county of Santa Barbara and look forward to her leadership and innovation,” Wolf said in the release. “With her background, experience, and demonstrated successes, she is well-suited to lead the county of Santa Barbara.”
Wallar holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. She has 28 years of experience managing programs in local government, including director of public works positions in three different cities.
This article appears in Oct 7-14, 2010.
