Giving Surf City a woman’s touch

It is beautiful, scenic and quirky. Surf City is a great place to

live and, with all that there is going on, a great place for a

journalist. That means it’s probably a tough place to be a city

administrator.

So congratulations to the city’s very first female administrator,

Penny Culbreth-Graft, and welcome aboard.

Culbreth-Graft brings to Surf City a breadth of experience that

includes the sort of thing one might expect -- most recently a stint

as the assistant city manager of Riverside, where she dealt with the

various departments as she will here. She was also the city manager

for Grover Beach. But in between those two jobs, Culbreth-Graft was

the Tribal Government Manager for the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians

in San Diego County. Now there’s a job.

Her primary task was to establish a democratic form of government

for the tribe. She designed the employment system and developed the

codes, laws and regulatory standards for the reservation and created

a master land-use plan.

It sounds like she has more to offer than the average applicant.

It sounds like the City Council chose wisely -- we can’t wait to find

out.

Huntington Beach could use a fresh perspective and burst of

energy. Former City Administrator Ray Silver did a great job and had

a handle on how things needed to be done here, but a change can be a

rejuvenating factor in a city.

We should look to our neighbors to the south, Newport Beach, as an

example of how to run the finances of a city. There they treat it as

a big business, which is what running a city is all about.

Some pearls of wisdom for our new top dog to keep in mind about

our fair city -- things she has probably figured out already, but

that are good to keep in mind:

Huntington Beach is a big city with big-city needs; but don’t tell

the residents that, they all think it’s a small surf town.

Huntington Beach is perfect how it is; there is, however, some

room for improvement.

The Fourth of July parade is second to none, as is the surf.

And so we, again, welcome Surf City’s first female city

administrator to our midst. Perhaps it’s time for a woman in that

role. As St. Frances de Sales said of leadership, “When you encounter

difficulties and contradictions, do not try to break them, but bend

them with gentleness and time.” Who better than a woman?

The city is also offering Culbreth-Graft a welcome today with a

reception at 5 p.m. in the center courtyard at City Hall.