Council Selects Interim Manager

The City Council has chosen Dan Singer, the city’s general services director, to serve as interim city manager.

Singer succeeds Andy Belknap, who announced he is leaving after 11 years as city manager to accept a newly created position as chief financial officer for Ventura County.

Bill Prince, the city’s community development director for the past nine years, will assume additional responsibilities and serve as the interim executive director of the city’s Redevelopment Agency.

Prince, a Santa Barbara resident, has worked for Ojai for nearly 12 years, first as the city’s planning and building director. Before that, he served as a senior planner for Santa Barbara County.

The City Council made its temporary promotions Wednesday and ruled that Singer will serve while it determines a selection process for a permanent city manager, who will earn an annual salary of between $94,000 and $112,000.

Recruitment of a permanent city manager should begin this month and the council is expected to make a permanent hire by March.

Singer, an Ojai resident and city employee for eight years, brings to the new position a strong background in city government, said city spokeswoman Linda Fisher-Helton.

He began his career in an administrative post with the Northern California city of Lafayette. He was then hired as assistant to the Ojai city manager before becoming the city’s general services director.

Singer, 36, said his previous experience has given him broad insight into the general operations of city government.

“The confidence and support I have received from the City Council, staff and community has been overwhelming,” he said. “I look forward to continuing the solid traditions and commitments that Andy Belknap established.”

The two new appointments take effect immediately. Belknap has requested a leave of absence to attend to personal matters before starting his new job in February.