{"id":385288,"date":"2025-11-17T13:33:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T13:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/385288\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T13:33:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T13:33:12","slug":"meet-santees-new-city-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/385288\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Santee\u2019s new city manager"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wendy Kaserman spent her career moving up in local government before being hired as Santee\u2019s city manager in September<\/a>, fulfilling her lifelong goal of being in charge of a city\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n

Her selection came after months-long nationwide search by city officials for a new leader after Santee\u2019s longtime city manager, Marlene Best, unexpectedly left the post in April<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kaserman\u2019s first day on the job was Oct. 23.<\/p>\n

She was born in Nebraska but spent most of her life in the San Marcos area. She moved to Arizona shortly after marrying her husband, where they eventually had their daughter. There, she earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in political science from Arizona State University and a master\u2019s in public administration from the University of Arizona.<\/p>\n

After obtaining her master\u2019s degree, Kaserman said her mind was set on working in the public administration sector. She broke into the field by working for the town of Queen Creek in Arizona and the League of Arizona Cities and Towns.<\/p>\n

By 2013, Kaserman said her family was ready to \u201ccome back home\u201d to California.<\/p>\n

When she was offered a role as an assistant to the city manager in San Marcos, Kaserman said it was the perfect opportunity to return to San Diego.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was nice to come back home,\u201d Kaserman, 49, said.<\/p>\n

By 2016, she started as the administrative services director for the city of Poway, where she managed a wide range of offices, such as human resources, finance, risk management and utility billing.<\/p>\n

Just six months later, a shake-up with the prior Poway city manager and council opened up the position. The assistant city manager was promoted to city manager, and Kaserman was tapped to fill the vacant position.<\/p>\n

There, she oversaw a variety of teams, including human resources, finance and community services. During the pandemic, she also stepped in as the acting Community Services Director for about 18 months.<\/p>\n

The Poway city manager retired in 2019, but Kaserman said she didn\u2019t go for the position because she \u201cwasn\u2019t ready\u201d after only spending a few years as an assistant city manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the timing seemed right\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

When making career decisions, Kaserman said she likes to find an organization that she likes and stick with it. She has focused on roles that give her the experience to move further in her career, which she said played a part in her decision to stay on as Poway\u2019s assistant city manager instead of moving up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the timing seemed right and the organization seemed right, that\u2019s when I would go for it (a city manager role),\u201d Kaserman said. \u201cIt has been a long-term career goal, but I am picky. I was very happy in Poway.\u201d<\/p>\n

As she set her sights on a city manager position, Kaserman said she would \u201cwatch other organizations\u201d to keep an eye on openings and whether she would align with them.<\/p>\n

By the time the position had opened in Santee, she said, it seemed like the perfect timing and fit.<\/p>\n

She was hired at a base salary of $290,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the council philosophies are similar,\u201d Kaserman said. \u201cBecause the organization is similar to other cities I\u2019ve worked for, that helps make the transition easier, because I wasn\u2019t going to an organization with different values and priorities than what I was used to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similar to Poway, she said Santee is smaller in population and city staff size. Impact is made quickly in smaller communities, she continued, because staff can form close relationships with residents and develop a deeper understanding of their needs.<\/p>\n

While researching, Kaserman said she realized Poway and Santee had incorporated on the same date \u2014 December 1, 1980 \u2014 a sign to her that she was making the right decision.<\/p>\n

Plans for Santee<\/strong><\/p>\n

In her first few weeks on the job, Kaserman said she has spent her days getting caught up with city staff and going on tours of each council member\u2019s district with them.<\/p>\n

A city manager oversees council members and implementing legislation they pass.<\/p>\n

Kaserman said it is her goal not to be \u201csurprised by anything\u201d that comes up at meetings, which she aims to prevent by regularly meeting with the council members.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you can tell when you\u2019re watching other city council meetings if staff is hearing about it for the first time,\u201d Kaserman said. \u201cThen you watch things go sideways, real quick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaserman said she is taking a \u201clisten and learn\u201d approach in her first few weeks on the job, and doesn\u2019t have any immediate plans for Santee.<\/p>\n

In the future, she hopes the city will address traffic congestion, homelessness, road quality and emergency response times.<\/p>\n

Addressing issues related to State Route 52 and the San Diego River will require \u201cinterjurisdictional collaboration,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n

The city will have to strike a balance between building additional housing while hearing concerns from residents who do not want to see rapid development, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a rich history here, you have the dynamic of residents who\u2019ve been here for a really long time and want Santee to remain what it has been forever, and then you also have newer residents coming to the community who have different things that they\u2019re looking for,\u201d Kaserman said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wendy Kaserman spent her career moving up in local government before being hired as Santee\u2019s city manager in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":385289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,20161,1370,728,50,3549,3550,7264,22788,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-385288","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-east-county","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-local-news","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-san-diego","16":"tag-san-diego-county","17":"tag-sandiego","18":"tag-santee","19":"tag-top-stories-sdut","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115565298040283388","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}