Katie Lichtig, currently serving as Santa Monica’s assistant to the city manager for management services, was selected by the council to be the assistant city manager at Tuesday night’s City Council closed session meeting.
If all goes as planned, Lichtig will later become city manager, replacing Christi Hogin, who is currently the interim city manager.
After a council-appointed subcommittee, with the help of former Malibu City Manager Ray Taylor, reviewed 47 resumes from potential applicants and made recommendations narrowing a first round of interviews with four candidates down to two, Lichtig came out as a clear winner.
As a result, the City Council reviewed and approved a contract proposal with Lichtig Tuesday night and she will begin her work in Malibu on June 11.
“She is wonderful, bright, enthusiastic, and community minded,” said Hogin. “She is process oriented and I think she will be a great match.”
Lichtig will become acting city manager immediately upon her appointment. The process, while a little unusual, will give council an opportunity to know her before they make a final commitment, said Hogin.
After a series of trial and error situations in the past, and hoping to avoid any more changes in the near future, the city developed a process specifically tailored to give the council and the potential city manager an opportunity to know each other, explained Hogin. Sort of like an engagement before marriage, hoping that the relationship will work out.
But on the surface, Lichtig’s professional abilities appear to be a clear match.
Lichtig worked in Santa Monica for a little over nine years and started her career in public service about 17 years ago.
Lichtig already has relationships with representatives of this area, said Hogin, aware that her position with the City of Santa Monica has given a head start to the chosen applicant.
Working for Santa Monica, Lichtig was responsible for a variety of things related to internal operations of the city. These included the administration of the city’s capital improvement budget, the coordination of earthquake recovery, emergency preparedness and managing the city council agenda and the policy documents relating to that.
Lichtig also worked on the implementation of the city’s performance measurement program.
Before coming to Santa Monica, Lichtig worked with the federal government. She started as a presidential management intern, a highly regarded competitive program for 200 people entering the federal government service.
She was then assigned to the Federal Office of Management Budget and she ended her federal career with the department of education as a special agent conducting criminal and civil investigations.
Lichtig received her bachelor’s degree in political science from UC Davis and went on to earn her masters in public administration from the University of Syracuse in New York.
Lichtig is well acquainted with the region; she grew up on the West Side and currently lives in Marina Del Rey with her husband of 15 years.
She said she decided to apply for the post of assistant city manager in Malibu because there are many challenges facing the city and from a professional perspective, she thought she could assist the community.
“I hope to meet the needs and expectations of the public,” said Lichtig.
“I just think that the community is going to find her to be very confident and interested in achieving the community’s goals,” said Hogin.