Santa Monica city officials announced on Friday, May 23, they’ve chosen Irvine City Manager Oliver Chi to fill the top administrative job in their city.
Pending final approval by the Santa Monica City Council on Tuesday, Chi appears set to start with the town to the north in July, according to a press release.
“I am overwhelmingly humbled and so exceptionally grateful for this opportunity to serve a city as dynamic and iconic as Santa Monica,” Chi said in a statement included in the city’s press release.
Chi, who has served as Irvine’s city manager since December 2021, came on as just the sixth city manager in Irvine’s history, leaving the top exec spot in Huntington Beach to join the city.
His tenure in Irvine has been marked by significant initiatives, including breaking ground on several new elements of the $1.2 billion, 300-acre Great Park project and negotiating the sale of an asphalt plant, paving the way for the future development of the Gateway Preserve and housing project.
Prior to his role in Irvine, Chi held various management and staff positions with the cities of Huntington Beach, Monrovia, Barstow, Rosemead, Claremont and Arcadia. He also spent time working for a member of the state legislature, according to his bio. Chi holds a bachelor’s degree from UCLA and a master’s degree in public administration from USC.
In Santa Monica, Chi is set to oversee a $789.9 million budget and lead a workforce of more than 2,000 employees, according to the city. He would succeed interim City Manager Elaine Polachek, who has been serving in the role since David White stepped down in February.
Santa Monica Mayor Lana Negrete expressed enthusiasm about Chi’s appointment.
“We are thrilled to welcome Oliver Chi to Santa Monica. He has the talent, skills and vision to address the city’s most pressing needs and lead us into the future,” she said in the city’s press release.
Irvine Mayor Larry Agran has called for a special City Council meeting on Monday, May 26. The closed session is labeled as a public employee performance evaluation, which Agran said the City Council would normally be doing soon anyway, but he “decided to call it up sooner in light of this development with Santa Monica.”
“I’m frank to say his performance is outstanding, and I’d like to use this meeting to talk about whatever’s on his mind to prompt him to get this offer from Santa Monica,” Agran said Friday afternoon. “I think it might not be as much about money as other concerns. I don’t want to lose him. He’s an extraordinarily effective city manager.”
The employment agreement the Santa Monica City Council is set to consider on Tuesday would pay Chi an annual base salary of $410,604.