The City of San Diego on May 23 announced Shauna Lorance as its new director of public utilities. Her first day will be Aug. 1.
\n“Ms. Lorance brings the skills, discipline and experience at reforming agencies that Public Utilities needs,” said Kris Michell, the City\u2019s chief operating officer. “We\u2019re committed to getting this department right for the public, and she\u2019s the person to make that happen.”
\nLorance currently serves as interim general manager of the Monterey County Water Resources Agency. From 1996 to 2016, she held executive management positions at the San Juan Water District.
\nLorance will be taking over a department that is in the process of addressing unreliable meter performance, inconsistent billing statements, and customer criticisms. Last summer, at the direction of Mayor Kevin L. Faulconer, the City initiated a comprehensive analysis of water systems and processes.
\nOperational changes are underway to make the department more reliable and customer-focused, including the following: \u2022 To strengthen reform efforts, a new management team is being built, beginning with Lorance; \u2022 Improved customer service procedures have been implemented to ensure customer phone calls and requests are handled promptly and respectfully; and \u2022 City employee training is being changed to address past deficiencies.
\n“I\u2019m excited for the opportunity to lead the Public Utilities Department and intend to continue transforming the agency to better serve the public,” Lorance said. “There have been a lot of positive steps taken, but there\u2019s still more we can do. Our job is to earn back the trust of San Diego\u2019s communities, and I am looking forward to getting started.”
\nLorance remains in her current position until the end of June. She will be available for media interviews on her start date.\u00a0
\nThe Public Utilities Department provides water service and wastewater collection for City of San Diego customers, as well as wastewater treatment and disposal services for City of San Diego customers and regional partners. The department has more than 1,600 employees and an annual budget of $1.65 billion.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The City of San Diego on May 23 announced Shauna Lorance as its new director of public utilities. Her first day will be Aug. 1. “Ms. Lorance brings the skills, discipline and experience at reforming agencies that Public Utilities needs,” said Kris Michell, the City\u2019s chief operating officer. “We\u2019re committed to getting this department right […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":273017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"City of San Diego names new director of public utilities","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-273016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}