After a thorough nationwide recruitment, City Manager Rick Haydon is pleased to announce the appointment of Andrew Tse as the city’s new deputy city manager.

Tse (pronounced “SAY”) is currently the assistant to the city manager/administrative services manager for the City of Cypress, a community of about 49,000 residents in Orange County.

Prior to his tenure with the City of Cypress, Tse held various managerial positions in the cities of Seal Beach, Bell Gardens and Paramount. He holds a master’s degree in public administration from California State University-Dominguez Hills and has an extensive background in human resources, risk management and employee relations.

Tse will be in charge of overseeing all human resources-related activities of the City of Santa Maria, including but not limited to, all full-time recruitments, all labor-relations and collective bargaining-related activities, all disciplinary and grievance processes, as well as citywide training and risk management programs.

“I am honored and very excited to have the opportunity to serve the City of Santa Maria,” Tse said. “I hope to be of service to the community and grow with the city for many more years to come.”

“The city conducted a very thorough recruitment process and had candidates from all over the country apply and be interviewed,” Haydon said. “We had an excellent candidate pool in which to choose from and were impressed by the caliber of candidates that were interviewed, and we’re very fortunate to land someone with Andrew’s breadth of experience and skill set.”

Tse’s first day will be Monday, June 30, and he is taking over for soon-to-be retired Deputy City Manager Alicia Lara. She is retiring from the city after 15 years of dedicated service.

— Mark van de Kamp represents the City of Santa Maria.