Stockton City Manager Bob Deis, announced his impending retirement, to be effective November 1, 2013, after three years of steering Stockton through what may prove to be the most difficult period of its 163 year history.
“It’s been quite a ride,” Deis explained. “By November I will have accomplished what the City Council asked me to do when hired.”
Councilmember Kathy Miller recognized that Mr. Deis brought leadership, order and professionalism to the City of Stockton. “Bob has done everything we asked of him and a lot more. I think the City of Stockton now knows what good city management looks and feels like, and we deserve to continue it.”
By all accounts, Deis inherited a financial and organizational mess. “The Council knew something was amiss, but they didn’t realize just how bad it was,” said Deis. “The City was hurtling towards the financial cliff without a parachute. Since my arrival, we were able to balance extremely difficult budgets without laying off a single police officer, and we went from utter chaos to restoring order and implementing business plans.”
Before Deis leaves in November, he will work with the City Council to take up the matter of funding the Stockton Recovery Plan, which will include two parts. First, the Council will have a tax proposal before it that funds the City’s new Marshall Plan on Crime and its ultimate exit from bankruptcy. Second, it will have a Bankruptcy Plan of Adjustment to give.
Biography
Bob Deis became the City Manager of Stockton on July 1, 2010. He was selected by the City Council after an exhaustive nationwide search and a process that included input from community leaders and city staff.
Mr. Deis has worked in local government for 30 years and in three states. He began his career with the City of Sacramento, and his most recent position, before coming to Stockton, was as the County Administrator of Sonoma County.
He has a Bachelor of Science degree from California State University, Sacramento, and a Masters in Public Administration from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. He lives in Stockton with his wife Linda.