There are myriad differences between Antioch — where Rosanna Bayon Moore was, until recently, assistant city manager — and Piedmont, where she is now the city administrator. The two cities’ physical sizes and populations are but two areas pointing up the dissimilarities.
But Bayon Moore’s experience gleaned from public service in Antioch, as well as from Brawley, and that city’s population somewhere in between Antioch and Piedmont, figure to translate to Piedmont just fine, she said.
“Wherever you are, you’re working thoughtfully within the envelope of your city’s boundaries,” Bayon Moore. “Local government usually deals with similar sorts of resources and regulatory structure.
“No matter where you are, it’s similar,” she said.
Before spending 2 ½ years in Antioch, Bayon Moore had spent nine years as city manager in Brawley, a community of about 27,000 near the Mexican border east of San Diego.
And not inconsequentially, Bayon Moore also spent four years on the city council in El Centro, just south of Brawley, from 2003 to 2007. She was mayor the final year of that term. Having been part of city government from both sides provides invaluable perspective, she said.
“There really is a big difference between a policy maker and a policy implementer,” Bayon Moore said. Her time on the council, she said, was a “great way to appreciate the role of the policy maker.” That experience, she said, will help her give Piedmont council members the kind of information they want in the ways they want it.
Something all Bay Area cities are grappling with is housing, and their state-guided “Housing Element” blueprints for accommodating future housing growth. Piedmont’s ongoing work on its 2023-2031 Housing Element, which had been at the center of now-retired City Administrator Sara Lillevand’s everyday job duties, figures to be front and center on Bayon Moore’s plate too, along with the related work on the Moraga Canyon Specific Plan and a similar plan for the Civic Center area, which includes City Hall. She said she can draw on experience helping Antioch work through its own Housing Element, especially in the search for prospective developer partners.
“The city’s in the driver’s seat in regard to what is wanted by the community,” said Bayon Moore, who lives in Antioch with her husband Dean Syrengelas, two sons, and her mother.
Another priority in the near future, Bayon Moore said, will be to help the city develop a solution to its multiple aging and otherwise deficient building spaces including, most critically, its cramped, outdated emergency dispatch center.
To help inform that and other city processes, Bayon Moore said she wants to host a series of listening sessions to hear from residents how they want the city to grow, to improve itself, and address problems. She said wants to help bolster relationships between Piedmont residents and their local government.
“I’m an absolute believer in being accessible,” she said.
Bayon Moore noted, though, that she comes into a new job where the citizenry is already unusually engaged. Piedmont, she says, has a lot of committees and commissions for a city its size. That is an indicator of a high level of volunteerism, which is a good sign for any community.
“The amount of engagement here is really encouraging to see,” Bayon Moore said. “That’s what a healthy community is all about.”
Photos by Sam Richards | Contact Sam Richards at sam.richards4344@gmail.com