She’s helped guide Santa Barbara County through some of its biggest problems in decades. There was the Thomas Fire and the deadly Montecito debris flow, followed by the pandemic. Then, in the last year the county has been hard hit by the impacts of federal and state budget cuts that have taken millions away from important services.
Mona Miyasato is retiring on August 18 after more than a dozen years as Santa Barbara County’s Executive Officer. She talked to KCLU News about her time as the county’s top non-elected official.
“The most difficult thing I’ve had to deal with is the accumulation of disasters. We have activated our Emergency Operation Center or declared disasters over 40 times since I’ve been here,” said the CEO. “Doing that, plus keeping government running day-to-day has been a struggle, and at times, it was difficult to figure out what to focus on, but it’s made us a stronger organization overall.”…