Kelly McAdoo knew she was ready for a fresh start, but she didn’t know it would happen so soon.

She had told her City of Hayward colleagues that she was going to wait for her daughter, Sophia, to begin college before she explored her options.

“I wasn’t really looking yet because my daughter literally just went off to college last January, and the position opened,” McAdoo said. 

Right before the holidays, a recruiter for the city reached out to her about the role of city administrator of Santa Barbara.

The role was immediately interesting for McAdoo. She had visited Santa Barbara multiple times with her daughter for sports competitions, and the city was on her shortlist of places to consider.

Even if it did not follow her plan, McAdoo was officially announced as the new city administrator in February and officially began her role in May with a salary of $342,281.

The role of city administrator has drawn attention in the past few years. McAdoo follows the short stint of Rebecca Bjork, who was officially appointed to the role in February 2022 but announced her departure in August 2023. She followed Paul Casey, the city’s longtime community development director who drew criticism from some members of the business community during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Coming into her new role, McAdoo is aware that Santa Barbara has multiple issues that residents are concerned about, including housing, homelessness, the status of the retail sector on State Street, and the looming $7 million budget shortfall.

Along with her experience, she has two degrees from the University of Kansas, where she earned her bachelor’s in political science, economics and international studies. She earned her master’s degree in public administration in 1999.

While McAdoo is aware of all of the city’s issues, she said the pressing issue is the budget.

“What underpins everything else that we do is the city’s financial situation,” McAdoo told Noozhawk. “Without a solid financial footing, we really can’t do anything else.”

As a way of dealing with the budget shortfall, the city is promoting a half-cent sales tax increase that city staff believe will help generate enough revenue to deal with the shortfall. The measure will be on the ballot in November.

Many of the issues in Santa Barbara are not new to McAdoo, who found herself facing similar problems in her role as city manager of Hayward.

“It was a constant challenge to balance the city budget,” McAdoo said.

One of the ways that Hayward addressed the issue was a half-cent sales tax in 2014 that was used to fund city services and projects — primarily the building for Hayward’s new library and fire stations.

Hayward also struggled with how to revitalize its downtown area and what it could do to encourage economic growth.

One of Hayward’s strategies was buying key real estate properties in the downtown area. The largest of the purchases was a movie theater that the city purchased for $8.6 million.

Hayward Mayor Mark Salinas, who worked alongside McAdoo, praised her for her role in those projects and others.

He also credited McAdoo for the hard work she did the past few years and how she planned for future generations.

“She navigated the city through a tough economy, housing, and she navigated the city through COVID, and helped restore the city through a post-COVID environment,” Salinas told Noozhawk. “She was right in the middle of it all.”

He also credited her for her work in addressing the housing shortage in Hayward as well as encouraging development and growth in the city.

She also worked with the Hayward City Council to develop stronger laws to protect tenants.

Regarding State Street, McAdoo acknowledged that the issues facing it are not unique to Santa Barbara­, but a sign of how the retail industry is doing overall — not just in Santa Barbara, but in cities everywhere.

Moving forward, she believes the community needs to decide what they want downtown to look like but be realistic about the issues facing the retail sector.

She hopes to do that by working alongside stakeholders, residents, business owners and property owners to learn more about what they want out of downtown Santa Barbara and develop a plan to implement their goals.

Kristen Miller, president and CEO of the Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber of Commerce, said she sees it as a chance to turn over a new leaf to address economic issues in the city.

“All indications are that the City Council is signaling that they want to work more closely with business and the chamber by hiring Ms. McAdoo and setting a new tone,” Miller told Noozhawk.

Moving forward, McAdoo said she wants to focus on transparency, making City Hall more responsive and innovative, and collaboration. She believes that her record shows that she has the ability to reach out to different groups and work alongside them toward a common goal.

“I think I’ve been known throughout my career as sort of a relationship builder [and] very collaborative,” McAdoo said.