SAN JOSE — A series staff of changes and shakeups mark the end of 2017 at San Jose City Hall and pave the way for a newly-shaped administration next year.
Leland Wilcox, who had the critical job of crunching the numbers as Mayor Sam Liccardo‘s budget director for three years, is returning to the City Manager’s Office. Before he joined Liccardo after the mayor’s election win in 2014, Wilcox worked as an assistant under former City Manager Norberto Dueñas.
Wilcox will now serve as a chief of staff to City Manager Dave Sykes, who was promoted three months ago after Dueñas retired in October.
“I was always on loan to the Mayor’s Office,” said Wilcox, who’s worked for the city 13 years including stints as the chief of staff to former Councilwoman Nancy Pyle and the downtown manager for the Office of Economic Development. Wilcox holds bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Sonoma State University.
“My interests are in city management and continuing to serve the organization and our residents,” he added. “Returning to the CMO allows me to do this.”
In his announcement, Sykes said Wilcox’s duties will include “ensuring policy priorities are implemented in an effective manner, developing strategies to resolve complex problems and advancing opportunities.”
The new gig involves a pay bump for Wilcox: He earned a base salary of $156,181 in Liccardo’s office. His new salary is $212,000 per year.
With that change, the Mayor’s Office will also shuffle around a few people: Ragan Henninger, Liccardo’s director of policy, will now take over the city budgets and other financial responsibilities.
To supplement his policy team, Liccardo hired Kyra Kazantzis, who left the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley in September after 25 years. She’ll serve as a senior policy advisor to the mayor, according to spokesman David Low.
In the City Manager’s Office, Margaret McCahan, a 28-year city veteran, was promoted from assistant budget director to budget director, and Jim Shannon, previously the administration’s deputy budget director, has been promoted to assistant budget director.