San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
CITY VETERAN KELLEY BACON RETIRES AS CHULA VISTA’S DEPUTY CITY MGR.
Held several posts; negotiated transfer of Olympic center
Chula Vista’s deputy city manager, Kelley Bacon, is retiring after 20 years of service. She will be succeeded by Tiffany Allen, who has been instrumental in the Bayfront project.
Bacon began her career in the city’s human resources department as an operations manager. She was later named director of information technology and was promoted to deputy city manager in 2013. In that role, she successfully negotiated the transfer of the 155acre U.S. Olympic Training Center to the city in 2017 and was responsible for the development of Chula Vista’s commercial cannabis ordinance.
“I never knew that 37 years ago when I walked into a county in Colorado and went to work in the finance department that I was gonna continue to do this,” said Bacon. “I fell in love with local government and I have not looked back.”
City Manager Maria Kachadoorian thanked Bacon for her help through some of the toughest times, including leading the city out of the 2008 recession and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic.
Alongside her children, Bacon received a proclamation Tuesday from the City Council recognizing her retirement.
Her retirement was effective Thursday.
The council unanimously approved Kachadoorian’s appointment of Allen as the new deputy city manager.
Allen has been the city’s director of development services since July 2020, and led efforts in the pending development of the Bayfront project’s $1.2 billion Gaylord Pacific Resort Hotel and Convention Center.
“She is the key member on both the Port (of San Diego) and city side to getting this project to where it’s at today,” said Kachadoorian.
She also created the city’s first short-term rental ordinance and served as a liaison to the Planning Commission. Allen has been with the city for more than 20 years, serving in multiple roles in the engineering and finance department.