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Ashley Collick, who was selected in a 5-0 vote of the San Juan Bautista City Council in December to become the interim city manager, says she is eager to help the city with challenges from economic development to water and the fire services contract. She replaces departing city manager Don Reynolds, who held the position since 2019.
Collick began working for the city on Jan. 7, and while settling in and scoping out her priorities, she sat for an interview with BenitoLink on Jan. 17—the first time, she said, that she had ever been interviewed.
BenitoLink: Can you tell us a little about your background?
Ashley Collick: I have a bachelor’s degree in political science from Chico State and a master’s in organizational development and leadership from Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara. I have been in local government for 15 years, most recently as assistant manager for the city of Seaside for two years. I was also heavily involved in the recreation program there, helping to shepherd in and run a myriad of programs and projects for the city.
I began working for Seaside during college, starting part-time as one of their recreation program leaders and working my way up to full-time. I helped coordinate their youth violence prevention and employment development programs.
What motivated you to move from the recreation department to city management?
As you move through government, you discover that you have a particular skill set as the second in charge of whatever department. You’re excellent at listening, understanding the challenges, helping find solutions, and mitigating conflict. You don’t want certain things to cross your boss’s desk, and you become very good at it.
Those are very good skills to have, and I wanted to ascend and move on to the next thing. I am passionate about learning about systems, understanding management, and how various departments work. Naturally, I wanted to learn more: how does that work, why is that happening like that, and how can I help fix it?
How did your experience in the recreation department help with that?
Many of the programs I worked on were inherently complicated and challenging. With youth violence prevention, there are many players, a lot of community involvement, and a lot of pieces to the puzzle. Those things are quite complex, and when you’re dealing with kids and families who are facing truancy problems and talking about diversion, what’s going to happen to them and how to prevent them from getting into trouble, those are difficult conversations to have.
It’s not all rainbows and fairy tales. It’s complex and budgeting is complex, too, because it’s numbers, but there are also people behind those numbers, and there are emotions and stories that go behind the decisions that the government makes. It can be challenging, but my approach is to not get bogged down.
What made you want to apply for the San Juan city manager job?
I have visited San Juan, and I really appreciate the city’s value of their history. I was very curious about how the city will, as a collective, progress into the future with its economic development issues, its challenges with water and the fire services contract—and how it is going to move forward.
How have things been going since you started working here?
This is my second week on the job, and I have been meeting with absolutely everyone to try to understand things. I ask them to tell me everything and think about what hasn’t been done and what we haven’t said. Who isn’t at the table that needs to be at the table? I’m a huge believer in collaboration.
I’m still deciding which big issue I would like to tackle first. Water is probably the easiest but most complex. Don Reynolds left me a good blueprint, and there are a lot of things in play. I am still reading and learning about all those things.
What was your biggest surprise on your first day on the job?
I was delighted with the culture in City Hall. I was floored by the pride that everyone takes in their job and in how welcoming everyone was. You can tell that Don really took care of people here and really had a very strong collaborative culture amongst the team. They’re very caring and willing to step up and answer questions.
I have worked really hard the last couple of weeks to try to meet everyone. I have not met that goal, but I’m trying to get to know the staff to understand their challenges and how I can help facilitate progress.
What’s your learning curve for dealing with these problems?
I have a huge learning curve. I am not shy to say that water is not necessarily something that would be my forte. But I have a lot of confidence in the people that Don put into play here and their expertise. The mark of a good leader is understanding who’s on your team, who’s capable of what, and how to work with those people.
How much did you know about the various issues in San Juan before you got here?
I did not know about many of the problems. After doing my due diligence, I thought, “Well, they’ve got some challenges.” It’s funny—it doesn’t matter how small you are as a city. You are still going to have some massive problems comparable to those in larger cities. And that’s okay; that’s the nature of it. It doesn’t scare me.
The economy in San Juan has been downturning over the last few years. How do we start rebuilding?
I want to get a sense from the businesses about what’s happening and what we can do to support them and promote what they’re doing. I want to know what we’re doing as a city when we’re promoting our events and get a better sense of it all. I am very curious to know more and to get all the people together to talk about things and then build a plan for how we can move forward.
I have noticed that it is very quiet in town. I’ve been walking around, and I see school buses come in. I do see people walking around, but only for a small number of hours during the day. We’ve been talking a lot about a vacancy tax, and we need to see how that works. It’s one of those things that I’m very interested in hearing more about.
Do you see the possibility of scaling back fees for the groups in town that want to hold events that will draw tourists?
I know the council is going to study the fees. I would like to know specifically why the fees are so high, and I think that’s an excellent question for the council and the community to discuss. I definitely want to understand better how we can increase tourism here, especially when we have opportunities in the summertime, when these events come up.
What are your feelings about the issue of housing in this town?
I haven’t read the housing element, but it is on my list. I want to respect whatever the council has decided on housing while also understanding that there is a push-and-pull in how we can move forward. We do have obligations in the element, but I think there’s always room for balance and compromise. My role here is to administer everything according to the will of the council.
One complaint from the youth is there is nothing here for them to do. What are your thoughts, from your background in recreation?
I would like to see us focusing on more youth-oriented programs through the city. I’ve talked about more programs—after-school programs and summer camps. We’ve already talked about different ways that we can get kids more involved. Maybe working with the high school, getting some volunteers to help us with the tech stuff that we don’t necessarily have time for, like social media. Maybe set up a YouTube channel for the rec program, to help promote special events and share some videos. I think there’s a lot of opportunity for free for us to shine here.
Do you feel grounded here yet?
Remember, this is my second week. I realize, in the grander scheme of things, you really only get 90 days grace and then you’ve got to know everything. There’s a lot to be done, a lot of learning to do and I know I have enough energy to learn and figure it out.
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