The City of Hollister is working toward filling the vacant
engineering manager position that was vacated by current San Benito
County Public Works Administrator Steve Wittry.
HOLLISTER
The City of Hollister is working toward filling the vacant engineering manager position that was vacated by current San Benito County Public Works Administrator Steve Wittry.
The position is being filled on an interim basis, but a city official said he is working on how the position will be filled.
“We’re still working on how we are going to handle that,” said Hollister City Manager Clint Quilter. “It’s still being analyzed.”
The city has two options to replace Wittry. The first is to do an open recruitment, which could be either an internal or external search. The other option is to see “if those duties can be spread to other departments in the city,” Quilter said.
In either scenario, Quilter said, “It’s got to get done quickly, in the next 30 days.”
That’s the timeline Quilter has set for how long he thinks it will take to get the analysis done.
In July, Wittry was selected to take over the county’s public works administrator position, leaving his former job open. The former Hollister engineering manager had been with the city since 1998 in various capacities, including as a civil engineer and deputy director of public works.
The City of Hollister brought in Cliff Swanson to fill Wittry’s position. Swanson’s most recent job was with the City of Chula Vista’s Public Works Department. During his time there, the population of the city went from 70,000 to nearly 220,000.
Swanson also has experience in smaller cities. Quilter said he served as a city manager and public works administrator in the smaller cities of Kerman and Willits.
As of right now, Swanson is working about 30 hours per week. He often will work for 10 days here and then he will be off for four days so he can return to his home in the San Diego area.
