Murrieta City Manager

Administration

The administrative department is headed by the city manager, who has complete executive oversight of the organization. The manager is one of only two people hired directly by the City Council, the other being the city attorney.

The City Manager is assisted by three deputies, who hold dual positions as director of a department and overseer of several others. They manage the following departments and divisions:

Deputy City Manager
Jim Holston is the community services director and also oversees building and safety, planning and public works departments.

Economic Development

Activities intended to promote economic growth in the community are directed by the city manager.

Included are marketing programs that have been successful in enabling a robust growth in retailing, taxable sales in the city having more than doubled since 2000.

And there are ongoing efforts to build a manufacturing jobs base. Much of this work is done through the Southwest California Economic Alliance, a cooperative marketing partnership including the cities of Murrieta, Temecula and Lake Elsinore as well as Riverside County.

The city manager also directs the Murrieta Redevelopment Agency, which has been active in making infrastructure improvements and creating affordable housing in the agency’s project area.

For more information about the city’s economic development programs, click here.

Governmental Affairs

The city actively involves itself in governmental affairs, feeling it important to the community to track legislative activities at the county, regional, state and federal levels and work to present Murrieta’s point of view on issues.

City Council members and administrative staff participate in the work of regional planning organizations such as the Western Riverside Council of Governments and the Southern California Association of Governments.

The city also retains firm to represent its interests in Washington and Sacramento.

Copeland, Lowery, Jacquez, Denton and White assists the city with federal matters, helping Murrieta gain federal funding for interchange improvements, computer equipment for the police department and a literacy program to be offered through the library. And they were instrumental in getting Congressional authorization for inclusion of the Murrieta portion of the Murrieta Creek flood control and environmental restoration project, which means 65% of the cost of that work is being covered by the federal government.

Emanuels Jones & Associates represents the city in Sacramento, keeping track of an array of bills the state legislature considers each year that affect Murrieta and presenting the city’s viewpoint to lawmakers, committees and their staff.