Turlock City Manager Wasden to retire in December

Turlock City Manager Roy W. Wasden announced he will retire in early December after more than six years with the city. Before that he served as chief of the Modesto Police Department.

In an email to city staff Wednesday afternoon, Wasden said he will leave Dec. 7, coinciding with a previously set vacation. He will be moving to join his family in Utah, a city statement said.

“This is truly one of those bittersweet moments in my life,” Wasden wrote in the email. “In 1976 I went to work in public service as a police officer and the intervening period of almost 40 years have been filled with wonderful experiences and opportunities; it amazes me how quickly that time has passed.

“Words simply are not adequate to express how much I have loved serving and I could not have imagined a better conclusion to my public service career than spending the last 6 1/2 years in Turlock with all of you.”

Wasden started in 1976 as a police officer in Salt Lake City. He served there for 24 years until being hired to lead the Modesto Police Department in 2000. In the spring of 2009, Wasden left law enforcement to join the city of Turlock as city manager.

He led the city through the worst years of the Great Recession, with layoffs and cutbacks challenging city services in every department.

Turlock continues to recover from those bleak budgets, but has made strides in the past year, said Turlock Mayor Gary Soiseth.

“Roy’s four decades of dedicated public service are inspiring. In my short time working with him, Roy has proven to be a determined and focused leader,” Soiseth said in a statement. “Over the past year, we have reinstated crucial police programs and services, completed a solid waste agreement with Stanislaus County, secured a long-term drinking water supply from the Turlock Irrigation District, took great strides in leveraging our recycled water through the North Valley Regional Recycled Water Project, and placed Turlock on a solid path toward a balanced budget.”

When informed of Wasden’s retirement decision, former Turlock Mayor John Lazar said, “Roy is a man of great ethics and integrity. He brought a new kind of capable leadership to City Hall in leading the organization through some difficult economic times. He has served Turlock admirably and from my 22 years of serving the Turlock community, is possibly the best city manager our region has ever seen.”

The city of Turlock will appoint an interim city manager from the ranks of the current department heads. A competitive process open to internal and external candidates is anticipated. A timeline for solicitation, interviews and final selection will be presented at the next City Council meeting Oct. 27.

Under Turlock’s council-manager form of government, the City Council appoints the city manager to serve as chief administrative officer providing direction for all departments in accordance with the policies established by the council.

This story was originally published October 14, 2015 at 5:18 PM with the headline "Turlock City Manager Wasden to retire in December."