COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT
TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: David W. Rowlands, City Manager
DATE: December 2, 2025
SUBJECT: Retirement Resolution Honoring Mark van de Kamp , Public Information Manager
The City Council will present a Retirement Resolution honoring and commending Mark van de Kamp , Public Information Manager, for nearly 22 years of devoted service with the City of Santa Maria, his outstanding contributions to the community, and congratulating him on his upcoming retirement.
BACKGROUND:
Mark van de Kamp will retire on December 2 7, 2025, after nearly 22 years of service to the residents of Santa Maria. In March 2004, he joined the City Manager’s Office as the organization’s first Management Analyst. He was promoted to Manageme nt Analyst II in July 2006; reclassified to Public Information Officer/Management Analyst II in August 2014; Public Information Manager in March 2018; Business Program Leader II in February 2022; and as Program Leader in March 2024.
This is his second car eer, following a 17 -year award -winning newspaper career as a writer and editor, where he met people from all walks of life.
Mark is a great asset to the City organization, continually demonstrating his value and knowledge with a genuine willingness to help. He can always be relied upon for providing accurate communications, resources, and institutional and budgetary knowledge. He works diligently to ensure the City Manager’s Office supports elected officials, all 10 departments, the news media, and the public.
He keeps foremost in his work the value of public service, civility, and mutual respect, and an unwavering conviction that local government makes an important difference in people’s lives.
He seeks opportunities to contribute extra effort, serving on non-profit organizations and on various boards and commissions. To help the community and mentor the next generation of City staff and leadership, Mark volunteers as Secretary for Serve Santa Maria; coordinates City participation in Leadership Santa Mari a Valley; is an Executive Committee board member with the countywide group Emergency Public Information Coordinators (EPIC); is the City liaison for the Tourism and Marketing District; was 2 founding President of the City Slickers Toastmasters Club in 2016 a nd became its first Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM); is a past President of the Central Coast Literacy Council and its first Lifetime Literacy Champion; led the City’s Census outreach in 2010 and 2020 to ensure a more complete count and representation; Cha ired the UCSB Economic Forecast Project North County Board of Directors; Chaired the public access TV board; was a longstanding member of a countywide Aware & Prepare committee; member of a countywide contract compliance committee; and organized many blood drives, United Way campaigns, and hosted tours of the historic Santa Maria City Hall.
To maintain and enhance City services, he volunteered twice as co -chair of both successful Measure U sales tax add-on campaigns approved by voters in 2012 and 2018.
As of 2025, this source of funds is maintaining many services and supports 137 Full-Time Equivalent positions or 18.8 percent of the workforce that the General Fund otherwise could not support.
To improve his skills, in 2009 through 2011, he earned a Master of Public Administration degree, and for the past 16 years judged more than 120 budgets from around the country for the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) and California Society of Municipal Finance Officers (CSMFO). These experiences helped el evate the quality of City budget documents to earn multiple national awards.
To strengthen transparency and trust, he coordinated City departments’ bilingual communications across a variety of platforms; redesigned the City website twice; was instrumental in launching the City on social media; helped coordinate the Smart City, Safe City campaign; coordinated news releases, speeches, newsletters, award entries, legislative documents, and policies; and led his team to usher in live captioning in English and Spanish for public meetings, as well as upgrading the audio -visual systems in the City Hall and Shepard Hall for the public’s benefit.
Mark will be retiring on December 27th to pursue new adventures and travel with his wife, Rina. City staff would like to commend him for his outstanding dedication and commitment to the City of Santa Maria and wish him well in all his future endeavors.
ATTACHMENT(S)
A. Retirement Resolution