Former finance director takes helm as Sacramento city manager. Who is Leyne Milstein?
There was one person former City Manager John Shirey sought to understand a Sacramento beset by economic downturns in 2011.
Coffers scarcely contained enough money to pay staff. Fire departments operated with skeleton crews. An unprecedented 80 police officers were laid off. Reserves were nearly nonexistent.
Shirey, who served in the top city position from 2011 until 2016, relied on then-finance director Leyne Milstein to explain what caused deep budget holes. Over the next five years, Sacramento secured a rainy day fund and achieved a budget surplus for the first time in seven years.
“Leyne is all business,” Shirey said Friday in a phone interview.
Milstein ascended to the position of assistant city manager in 2017 and most recently oversaw the finance, human resources and information technology departments. She was appointed as interim city manager last week after council members did not renew the contract for Howard Chan, which ended Dec. 31.
Though she takes up the position on a temporary basis, she is the first woman to solely serve as the capital city’s top leader. Back in 2011, officials selected Bill Edgar as an interim city manager with then-assistant city manager Betty Masouka serving as a back-up.
The City Council will vote Tuesday to approve the salary and terms of Milstein’s contract which will authorize her to oversee thousands of city employees and a $1.5 billion budget.
Milstein’s appointment came with the approval of six council members. Councilmember Mai Vang opposed her selection because she wants the city “to do a reset” on the city manager’s selection process. Councilmember Roger Dickinson abstained.
The base salary for a city manager falls between $248,465.45 to $400,652.50, according to the city’s salary schedule. Chan made roughly $593,240 in total wages in 2023, becoming the second highest paid city manager in California.
Milstein’s budget experience
Milstein will grapple with the city’s upcoming $77 million deficit as the city embarks on a nationwide search for Chan’s full-time replacement.
Elected officials praised Milstein’s deep grasp of the budgetary issues and experience in interviews following her appointment. She even once served as the city of Sacramento’s interim fire chief during her 28-year career of public service.
Milstein, a UC Davis graduate, has worked across both state and local governments. She also holds a master’s degree in public administration from California State University, East Bay, formerly Hayward.
Before joining city ranks in 2005, she worked for state government agencies, including time as an analyst for the California Department of Finance.
Mayor Kevin McCarty said he and Milstein started working at City Hall around the same time. He described her as “wicked smart” with a full grasp of the budget and experience with labor negotiations. Personnel costs eat up large portions of the budget, he said.
Councilmember Lisa Kaplan said Milstein takes a careful process when navigating balancing a budget by examining which programs work, and which do not.
Milstein can grapple with the requests of nine elected officials on the dais, who all have different thoughts on the budget, she said.
“She does not have an ... easy job ahead of her, but I absolutely have faith in her skills and knowledge,” Kaplan said.
Milstein will also help to select the next city manager during the search, McCarty said.
The city declined to make Milstein available for an interview Friday because her contract has not been finalized.
In a 2014 interview with The Sacramento Bee’s Editorial Doard, Milstein offered a clear view of how she views balancing a budget. The board endorsed her race for a seat on the California Public Employees’ Retirement System board though she ultimately lost.
At the time, Milstein said she was on the front lines of trying to make California’s public pension system sustainable. She offered dual perspective. As an employee, she wanted her pension when she retired. But as a manager, she wanted to make sure local government can contribute to the pension fund without layoffs or slashing services for residents.
This story was originally published January 12, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
