City finance director to step down

By ERIC LINDBERG — July 9, 2009

After more than 20 years of crunching numbers for the city of Santa Barbara, including 15 years as its finance director, Robert Peirson will hand off the fiscal reins at the end of next month, city officials announced yesterday.

Having overseen a budget that likely more than doubled in his time with the city, Peirson said he has witnessed numerous changes during the past two decades but seemed hard-pressed to pick any highlights.

“It’s been two decades, and now it seems like a time-lapse blur,” he said. “It just seems to go in cycles — good times and tough times. Unfortunately we’re in, without a doubt as far as I’m concerned, the toughest times I’ve seen in the past 20 years.”

Peirson helped the city grapple with a $10.8 million budget shortfall in recent months, shepherding city leaders through the complex fiscal process to achieve a balanced budget a few weeks ago.

He acknowledged there is already work to do on next year’s budget, with projected shortfalls expected to stretch back into the millions of dollars, and said he’ll likely be back before city leaders with more budgetary business before he officially calls it quits on August 28.

Mayor Marty Blum said city officials are still considering how to fill the soon-to-be vacant position, adding that she will miss Peirson’s often witty and knowledgeable presence.

“He’s been wonderful to work with,” she said. “He has such a depth of knowledge in the finance field that has been amazing. I’m so glad he could explain it all with everything imploding around us. We’ll have a hard time filling his shoes.”

After joining the city as accounting manager in 1989, Peirson received promotions to assistance finance director two years later and then to finance director in 1995. He has overseen more than $250 million in financing packages for capital projects such as the Granada Garage and the new Santa Barbara Airport terminal currently under construction.

Prior to his work in Santa Barbara, Peirson served as director of finance and administrative services for the city of Seward, Alaska, from 1984 to 1988, and as a branch manager for the National Bank of Alaska. He holds a degree in history from Colgate University and a master’s of business administration from Babson College.

After a recent opportunity to work with the International City/County Management Association and the World Bank in the nation’s capital to provide public sector finance training to officials from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, Peirson said he hopes to continue that sort of work, particularly if it allows him to travel to “far-flung” areas of the world.

With the relatively short period of time until Peirson leaves his post with the city, it’s likely that city officials will appoint an interim finance director until a more comprehensive hiring process can be completed, although an official decision to that effect has not been made.

“Bob has done an outstanding job over the past 20 years and will be difficult to replace,” City Administrator Jim Armstrong said in a news release. “He is a top-notch chief financial officer with the ability to explain complex financing issues in ways everyone can understand. Bob has been especially effective over the past year as the city dealt with major revenue shortfalls.”

Peirson said while he is looking forward to traveling and following his favorite sports team, the Boston Red Sox, he feels extremely fortunate to have overseen the finances of the city for so long.

“This has been my dream job for a long time,” he said, adding, “It certainly made the decision very tough. You couldn’t ask for a better community to live in and work for. There isn’t a day that I haven’t loved coming to work.”

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