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Looking to fill critical management vacancies, the San Benito County Board of Supervisors on Oct. 13 unanimously approved a series of new administrator roles including salary and title changes.
The new positions include a chief budget officer, deputy director of emergency services and a chief public defender. One of those roles, County Executive Officer Esperanza Colio Warren said, involves just changing the title and salary of an existing position.
Approval of the chief public defender position was granted in a separate discussion when the county sought to bolster its indigent defense system. The county will be applying for a grant from the office of the state public defender. It was also awarded $1.7 million over a three-year period through the Budget Act of 2026 to cover costs of establishing a public defender office. Mono, Mariposa and Del Norte counties also received funds through the same budget act, though San Benito’s award was more than double that of the other counties.
The proposed salary for the chief budget officer is $220,900, which Colio Warren said is a 25% increase from its prior amount.
“This is a very crucial position,” she told the board.
On April 28, the supervisors approved changes to the budget officer role, choosing to revise the classification title to budget and finance manager, updating the minimum qualifications, adding job responsibilities and approving a base salary increase.
Recently, the title was changed to chief budget officer after additional review of the position’s responsibilities, organizational needs and recruitment requirements.
The staff report notes the chief budget officer “will be responsible for providing fiscal analysis and recommendations to county leadership, coordinating budget activities across county departments, monitoring fiscal conditions and supporting the county’s overall financial strategy.”
The county completed its 2026-27 fiscal year budget without a budget leadership employee and has been without someone in that position for an extended period of time.
The board also approved a fiscal analyst position at a salary of $139,340. The analyst will work closely with the chief budget officer and the role will be “specifically an accounting position,” Colio Warren said.
Supervisor Kollin Kosmicki expressed his enthusiasm for bringing a budget officer to the county.
“Everything starts with the budget,” he said.
For the deputy director of emergency services position, the salary is $175,912. Colio Warren said the position was recommended as part of a gap analysis completed last month by Jacob Green and Associates. However, the recommendation was for a director rather than a deputy director.
Among the biggest priorities identified in the gap analysis was staffing, including management.
The county’s Emergency Services Manager Kris Mangano is on extended executive leave even as El Nino storms are expected this winter. Emergency management leadership responsibilities are under Colio Warren’s control, and she said she would retain those responsibilities even with a new deputy director coming in.
The deputy director position “will support emergency preparedness, response, recovery, continuity of operations, interdepartmental coordination and other emergency services activities as assigned,” according to the staff report.
“We want to be proactive,” Colio Warren said. She also spoke about the importance of understanding the reimbursement process for emergencies, noting that the county struggled with obtaining reimbursement for flooding in 2017 and 2023.
The new positions required an update to the county’s salary schedule. Colio Warren said a budget adjustment will come forward in the future to reflect the salary changes.
Supervisor Angela Curro said she was in favor of the changes, though she did recommend an organizational flow chart so people could better understand the county’s staffing and structure.
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