Council forms panel to fill budget analyst job
San Diego has created a special committee to help the city find a new independent budget analyst through a national search that was launched Tuesday.
The committee includes Council President Sean Elo-Rivera and Councilmembers Monica Montgomery Steppe, Chris Cate and Raul Campillo. The full council unanimously approved the committee Tuesday.
The job opening was officially posted Monday. An email blast will soon be sent to more than 7,000 likely candidates, according to CPS HR, a Sacramento firm hired to lead the national search.
Applications will be accepted through Feb. 7. Before then, the public can let city officials know their priorities in a new budget analyst through an online survey launching today, or by attending two public forums. A link to the survey will be available on the city’s website, sandiego.gov. It will be available in English, Spanish and Vietnamese.
The forums, which will be online, are scheduled for 6 p.m. Jan. 19 and 10 a.m. Feb. 5.
The city needs to replace longtime independent budget analyst Andrea Tevlin, who retired in November. She was replaced on an interim basis by her No. 1 lieutenant, Jeff Kawar.
Community leaders and council members say the new analyst must understand San Diego’s commitment to infuse racial and social equity into the city’s budget decisions.
Pamela Derby, a supervising executive recruiter at CPS HR, told the council Tuesday that her firm is trying to find diverse candidates by advertising the job in atypical places.
Tevlin was hired in 2005 to fill a job city voters created when they approved switching San Diego to a strong mayor form of government.
The IBA is intended as a check and balance on the mayor. The job includes analyzing the mayor’s proposed budget for the council, gauging the economic effects of legislation and exploring revenue options.
Elo-Rivera said the special working group already met informally once in December. He said he wanted to formalize its existence to make the process of finding a new independent budget analyst as transparent as possible.