City Manager Announces Retirement, Successor Appointed: Dublin

DUBLIN, CA — Dublin City Manager Christopher L. Foss has announced his plans to retire after nearly 40 years of a long and distinguished career in local government.

Foss announced his decision in a closed session meeting with the Dublin City Council on Tuesday. His last day will be Dec. 31, 2019. At that same meeting, the city council unanimously announced the appointment of Assistant City Manager Linda Smith as the next city manager, subject to negotiation of an employment agreement.

Foss, an employee of the city of Dublin for the past 20 years, has spent the last five and a half years as Dublin’s city manager. During his leadership tenure, he's piloted the city through the expansion of its parks network, a new affordable housing project, commercial projects, and sound fiscal practices.

Working for the city council, Foss led construction of several new facilities, including two neighborhood parks; phase two of Fallon Sports Park; the Emerald Glen Recreation and Aquatic Complex (The Wave); and Valor Crossing (housing for veterans and their families). Major commercial projects included the new Kaiser campus and the future campus for Carl Zeiss Meditec.

“It has been my great pleasure to work with Chris Foss over the last several years. His leadership and professional guidance helped to make Dublin a great place to live, work and raise a family,” said Dublin Mayor David Haubert. “The city council has the utmost confidence in Linda’s ability to carry on the values of professional leadership, coupled with her enduring passion for this community. She is the right person to lead Dublin into the future.”

“I am honored to have had the opportunity to work with Dublin City Council and city staff to bring the best services possible to our residents and businesses,” Foss said. “I am also pleased that the city council has appointed Linda Smith to fill my shoes. Her extensive background working in a variety of local municipalities, in addition to her decade of experience in Dublin, makes her the most qualified person to lead Dublin into the future.”

Smith has spent more than 17 years working in local government. She joined the city of Dublin in 2009 as the assistant to the city manager and was promoted to the city’s economic development director and public information officer before becoming the assistant city manager in 2014.

In her current role, Smith has direct responsibility for many of the city’s major operational areas, including public works, parks and recreation, community development, economic development and communications. She had previously worked for the cities of Brentwood and Tracy in the role of economic development.

Prior to working in local government, Smith spent a decade working in the private sector as a communications and marketing executive for emerging technology companies in the Silicon Valley, as well as for companies such as Levi Strauss, Visa, Bank of America and the Clorox Company.

“It is a privilege to serve the city council and I am grateful they selected me to lead this incredible organization of dedicated staff,” Smith said. “Dublin is a dynamic community with a rich diversity of people and opinions and it’s a place that I am proud to call ‘home.'”

Smith is a member of several organizations, including the International City Management Association and Municipal Management Association of Northern California. She is the 2014 recipient of the MMANC Wes McClure Outstanding Assistant Award and the 2017 recipient of the John H. Nail Award from the League of California Cities. Her involvement also extends into the Dublin community where she resides, including as a member of Dublin Rotary and vice president of the Board for Dublin Partners in Education.

Smith graduated from San Jose State University with a degree in public relations and a minor in political science.