A familiar face is set to return to Solvang to fill in as the city manager.
On Monday night, the Solvang City Council will consider an agreement with Brad Vidro to fill the city’s top job on a temporary basis.
He would follow Xenia Bradford, who held the job for three years and resigned Sept. 30.
Vidro would hold the job until a permanent city manager is hired.
Since Vidro retired through the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, or CalPERS, he can work only 960 hours for the remainder of the fiscal year, which runs through June 30, City Attorney David Fleishman said.
Vidro would be paid $84.13 per hour, with the pay rate based on the annual salary of the city manager. He would not receive health insurance, paid vacation or other benefits.
The contract would take effect Oct. 11, the day after the council meeting.
Vidro, who has continued to live in Santa Barbara County, served as city manager for 12 years before retiring in 2018.
Since then, the city has seen three others fill the role.
Vidro ended up in California because of a recession in Michigan at the time of his graduation from Michigan State University. Educated as a civil engineer, Vidro secured a job with Caltrans in the San Francisco Bay Area.
He applied for a job with the City of San Luis Obispo, where the interview panel included then-Solvang City Manager Marlene Demery, who asked Vidro to apply for Solvang’s vacant public works director slot.
He filled the job for a year before being named city manager after Demery departed.
The Solvang City Council meeting is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. with a relatively light agenda. In addition to interim city manager item, the council will hear a report from the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments staff on the broadband effort.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.