A Chat With the New City Manager

Patch Local Editor Laura Dudnick sat down with City Manager Greg Scoles to get his take on Belmont and his new job.

Scoles is already at home in his office on the third floor of Belmont City Hall. Sitting comfortably at a table, hands crossed, he discussed his career path and what he sees are of the biggest challenges in Belmont, including the fire department split with San Carlos, economic development, open space preservation, and maintaining the city's public safety services.

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"What I really like about Belmont is the unique look and feel of the community," he said. "The open space, the parklands, the views -- you really want to protect and enhance [them]."

Ensuring Belmont has a solid budget and adequate reserves are also important, as well as monitoring the High-Speed Rail planning, according to Scoles.

Another issue Scoles has noticed in Belmont is traffic and transportation, especially along Ralston Avenue.

"Trying to deal with one east/west arterial and the drawbacks of that are challenging," he said.

Life Before Belmont

From Southern California to Oregon to the Bay Area, Scoles has spent his career working in city government. He started in the planning department in Los Alamitos. He's served as the city manager of Ashland, Ore. For the past eight years he's worked as the deputy city manager of Santa Rosa. On Sept. 1, he became the city manager of Belmont.

With a population of 26,000, Belmont is the second largest city Scoles has worked in. Santa Rosa, where he spent the past eight years as the deputy city manager, has a population of 160,000 people and 10 times the number of city employees as Belmont. Ashland, Ore., where Scoles worked as the deputy city manager and city manager for six years, is much closer in size to Belmont with a population of just 20,000.

He said the biggest difference between working in a small city versus a big city is the relationships with other city employees.

"In a larger city, you deal more with the management issues, more with the day-to-day budgeting issue," Scoles said. In a smaller city, he said, he is "more closely in touch with the public."

Especially in Belmont, he added. "City government really cares about the community [here]."

And having dedicated his career to working for city governments, Scoles would know. After graduating from Long Beach State University, he went on to earn a master's degree in public administration from University of Southern California. He then got involved with the planning department in Los Alamitos in Southern California, becoming more involved in administrative tasks and working his way up via the planning department.

Scoles and his wife have 26- and 20-year-old sons and a 25-year-old daughter.