More than three months after former City Manager John Blair surprised the city with a sudden resignation from the position he’s held since 2022 to take a job in Washington, D.C., Mayor Alan Webber has selected a candidate to fill the position.
That candidate is Mark Scott, who has held city manager positions in several cities across California (and one in Spartanburg, South Carolina) since 1990. The City Council is to vote to confirm his appointment at the Jan. 29 Governing Body meeting, which begins at 4:15 pm. If the majority of the governing body approves, Scott will take over for Interim City Manager Randy Randall and begin working for the city on Feb. 10.
“I'm particularly focused, in this part of my career, on going into cities that have one kind of transitional issue or another—sometimes focused on financial issues, sometimes focused on governance issues. Sometimes it’s just timing,” Scott tells SFR. “Santa Fe—it looks like a good opportunity for me to do what I do, and I'm excited to have a chance in this particular case and come to such a fascinating city.”
Scott declined to answer what issues in Santa Fe’s city operations he finds most pressing and would like to focus on improving, explaining he would prefer to wait until the council votes to approve him for the position.
“It's a little quick for me to act like I'm an expert on what's going on when I’m brand-new,” Scott says.
Scott began his city managing career 35 years ago in Beverly Hills, and would move on to managing Culver City, Fresno, Burbank, San Bernardino, Indio, Lincoln, Downey, Ojai and Live Oak.
Among the 36 who applied for the job, a press release from the city says, 19 met its minimum qualifications, and seven candidates had met with city councilors and department directors. In that release, Webber described Scott’s experience as “extraordinary” and his credentials as “outstanding.”
“He is exactly the right person for right now,” Webber writes. “As a City Manager, he has always focused on getting things done for the community he serves, and that’s his job here.”
When asked about his particular interest in Santa Fe as the next city he would manage, Scott's answer was simple. As a retired annuitant, or someone who has retired from a state agency that has been appointed to work for the state in a temporary capacity (in Scott’s case, as an interim city manager), he is limited to working 960 hours per year under California law. Out of state, the limitation no longer applies.
“It’d allow me to stay longer, and so there's more of an opportunity,” Scott says.
If the City Council approves Scott for the position at the meeting, Scott would be joining late into Webber’s term, as the 2025 mayoral race is taking place this November, and Webber has yet to announce whether he will run again. When asked whether he found it risky to apply for a position that may face an administration change within less than a year, Scott says, “not for me.”
“I’m 75 years old. At this point in my career, I've really focused on doing these short term management jobs,” Scott says.