Sacramento’s new city manager follows 17 other people to hold role since 1921
Maraskeshia Smith will be the first Black person and the second woman to serve as Sacramento city manager. She will begin the role in early January.
Research by The Sacramento Bee found that a total of 17 people have previously served as city manager in an acting, interim or permanent capacity. There has been occasional overlap, with multiple city managers serving at once, as well as periods in 1976, 1999 and two weeks around the beginning of this year where the city was temporarily without a city manager, even in an acting capacity.
That said, Sacramento’s former city managers are as follows:
Clyde Seavey, Jan. 1, 1921 to Jan. 4, 1923: Sacramento’s first city manager hasn’t been forgotten locally, and for good reason.
Seavey became city manager when the Ku Klux Klan was rapidly gaining members, in the years following the release of the 1915 D. W. Griffith film, “The Birth of a Nation.” The Center for Sacramento History recounted in a 2020 Facebook post how Seavey attempted to fire several city employees for attending a KKK meeting.
Seavey’s move was unsuccessful and he soon resigned his position to serve in an appointed position for the state of California. Today, Seavey Circle in Land Park is named for him.
Harrison C. Bottorff, Jan. 4, 1923 to Sept. 6, 1928: To anyone wondering if The Bee has ever had a former employee serve as Sacramento city manager, Bottorff is that person.
Bottorff’s listing on FindaGrave.com notes how he rose from serving as an accountant for The Bee and the Sacramento Union before becoming city controller in 1921. The city council hired Bottorff two years later to replace Seavey at a salary of $10,000 – equivalent to about $193,000 in 2025 – according to the Sacramento Star.
“I just want to tell you you have a real city manager now,” Seavey said at the time of Bottorff’s appointment, according to the Sacramento Star.
The city council removed Bottorff from his position in 1928, following a dispute.
Harry Kleugel, Sept. 6, 1928 to Jan. 30, 1930: Kleugel was also hired as city manager at a salary of $10,000. The Bee reported on Jan. 24, 1930 that “after his break with the Peoples’ ticket group of the old council, the salary was reduced to $9,000.”
James S. Dean, Jan. 30, 1930 to Jan. 30, 1943: The first person to hold the position of Sacramento city manager long-term shared a name with the celebrated film actor, who died 70 years ago Tuesday.
The two men don’t appear to have been of close – if any – relation, with Sacramento’s Dean born in Texas in 1885 and the actor’s paternal line going back several generations in Indiana.
James S. Dean resigned around early January 1943 to become the state’s deputy director of finance under California Governor Earl Warren. Just before Dean left his job as city manager, his wife Minnie Dean died in a fall at home. “Mrs. Dean was not as well known to the people of the community as her illustrious husband, but every Sacramentan was her friend,” the Sacramento Union wrote.
Fred J. Klaus, Feb. 1, 1943 to March 15, 1943 and again from May 18, 1946 to June 1, 1946: Klaus, a city engineer, twice served as city manager in an acting capacity. He served a second time after his predecessor Elton B. Sherwin became Sacramento’s only city manager to die while holding the job.
Elton B. Sherwin, March 15, 1943 to May 18, 1946: Sherwin, 63, died the day after he suffered a stroke in his Curtis Park home. The Sacramento Bee, in reporting on Sherwin’s death, wrote that he’d “been working practically night and day in recent weeks on the 1946-47 city budget and other pressing city affairs.”
Bartley W. Cavanaugh, June 1, 1946 to June 30, 1964: Like Seavey, there is some recognition of Cavanaugh locally today, with a golf course near the town of Freeport in the Sacramento Delta, named in his honor. A variety of people told The Union upon Cavanaugh’s retirement that he’d done fine work.
“This city will miss a very competent and capable city manager,” then Sacramento Vice Mayor Walter Christensen told the paper. “The results of his work are quite evident. The tax rate is lower than ten years ago. The city owns its own bus system and has a profitable parking lot program.”
Edwin A. Fairbairn, July 1, 1964 to Jan. 2, 1969: Fairbairn’s service came amidst a stretch of relative stability for Sacramento city managership. He was the second of six consecutive city managers to retire from the position rather than resigning or being removed by the city council.
Fairbairn, who previously served as Sacramento’s city engineer, was lauded upon his retirement by the California Council of Civil Engineers and Land Surveyors for his work on freeways and sewage collection and securing perpetual water rights for the city from the American River.
Richard L. Rathfon, Jan. 2, 1969 to Feb. 27, 1976: Rathfon’s retirement kicked off the first period that Sacramento is known to have been without a city manager in any capacity, with the vacancy lasting until the appointment of longtime city manager Walt Slipe.
Walt Slipe, March 25, 1976 to May 14, 1993: Slipe was popular enough in his role that Councilmember Jimmie Yee and city staff recorded a video tribute to Slipe upon his retirement, which former Sacramento Kings owner Gregg Lukenbill recently provided to this reporter in an email.
Slipe was city manager when Lukenbill led an effort to move the Kings west from Kansas City in 1985, though Slipe’s accomplishments went beyond this. “He took the city from a small downtown and made it an eclectic, growing institution,” former Sacramento Mayor Phil Isenberg told The Bee in 1993. “He did this with a quiet competence that was his hallmark.”
Bill Edgar, March 13, 1993 to March 25, 1999 and again from April 9, 2011 to Aug. 30, 2011: Edgar served six years as city manager before retiring at the end of 1999. He would return in 2011 as city manager as a retired, annuitant, working on a part-time, interim basis while the city searched for a permanent manager. During his stint, Edgar was backed up by Betty Masuoka.
“Their job won’t be simple,” The Bee noted. “In the next few months, the city will tackle a $40 million deficit, council redistricting and the ongoing push to build a new sports arena.”
Bob Thomas, April 1, 1999 to Nov. 22, 2005: Thomas sometimes clashed with Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo. The Bee reported upon Thomas’ 2005 retirement that he’d worked behind the scenes to scuttle two deals Fargo was working on to secure a new arena for the Kings, who were then playing in the aging Arco Arena in Natomas.
Fargo still praised Thomas’ business skill when he was on his way out as city manager. “He’s been very steady at the helm in moving the city forward on a number of fronts,” Fargo told The Bee.
Ray Kerridge, Nov. 22, 2005 to March 12, 2010: Kerridge briefly served as assistant city manager for much of 2005 and then acting city manager from Nov. 22, 2005 through the end of that year before securing the job.
He arrived with a splash from Portland, Oregon, touting his hopes of bringing design inspired by that city’s Pearl District to Sacramento’s then largely-vacant R Street Corridor. While the corridor is substantially redeveloped today, Kerridge expressed frustration when he left his job in 2010.
“I am about getting stuff done,” Kerridge told The Bee then. “My background is in development. I like to see the process of growth and be productive.”
Kerridge said he was leaving to work in the private sector, though he resurfaced months later as city manager of Roseville, a job he held until he retired at the end of 2015.
Gus Vina, March 1, 2010 to April 8, 2011: Vina briefly served as acting city manager as Kerridge was preparing to leave his job and then was interim city manager for more than a year. Vina resigned after the city council opted to conduct a national search for a permanent city manager.
John Shirey, Sept. 1, 2011 to Nov. 18, 2016: Shirey could lay claim to a major accomplishment, with the city council voting to help the Kings build Golden 1 Center in 2014.
But his tenure wasn’t without controversy, with Shirey retiring months after the fatal shooting by Sacramento police of Joseph Mann. Then Bee opinion columnist Foon Rhee — a former editor of this reporter at Sacramento News & Review — noted that Shirey had stopped being Cincinnati city manager in the late 2000s “after controversial shootings of black men as well.”
Howard Chan, Nov. 19, 2016 to Dec. 31, 2024: Chan rose to city manager after working other positions for Sacramento dating to 2002.
He became notorious for his pay as city manager, with the government transparency website Transparent California noting that his total pay last year was $789,147. Much of that was pay beyond Chan’s normal salary of $367,432.
Chan has had supporters with a LinkedIn post from him about his departure drawing 382 likes. “I’ll always remember your kindness and your willingness to find solutions,” Maurice Chaney, a public information officer for Roseville, commented on Chan’s post. “Sacramento is a better place because of the leadership you provided.”
Leyne Milstein, Jan. 14, 2025 to current: Milstein, a longtime city employee, became interim city manager after a stretch of roughly two weeks that Sacramento was without anyone as city manager in any capacity. Jennifer Singer, a spokesperson for the city said that Milstein will return to being an assistant city manager, a job Milstein had held since late 2017, according to her LinkedIn profile.
This story was originally published September 30, 2025 at 1:17 PM.
