Andrea Lueker, shown here in a 2014 portrait, has been hired as Interim City Manager in Morro Bay, stepping in for former GM Yvonne Kimball, who was let go in June. Photo by Neil Farrell
Like a Blues Brothers remake, the Morro Bay City Council is gettin’ the band back together again.
Former long time City Manager, Andrea Lueker, has been hired as the interim city manager stepping in to the spot vacated when the former CM Yvonne Kimball was let go by the City Council in June.
Lueker joins another former longtime employee, Interim City Attorney Rob Schultz, who was also hired on an interim basis a few months ago to replace the City’s contract law firm. Both had served together for seven years as the Top-2 City employees until both were let go by a previous City Council in 2013 on a split 3-2 vote.
Schultz, who was let go in October 2013 immediately became the city attorney in Los Gatos, a position he held until he retired.
Lueker got her walking papers in December 2013, and left Morro Bay Jan. 3, 2014. She later became first the interim and then full-time harbor manager for the Port San Luis Harbor District, where she served until her retirement in 2021.
As public employee retirees, both can work for a limited time under the rules of the California Public Employee Retirement System (CalPERS).
Their return to the City marks a complete reversal, albeit a temporary one, from the controversial actions taken by the City Council at the time, when their firing caused a great to-do among the residents, hundreds of whom decried the move at the time in an ugly council meeting at a packed Vet’s Hall and played out on live TV.
Lueker earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in 1986 from Colorado State University. In 1986 she came to Morro Bay to work first as a lifeguard in the Recreation and Parks Department, eventually becoming the R&P director.
After about a decade, she was promoted to assistant city manager under former CM Bob Hendrix, serving as the interim CM for some nine months after Hendrix was let go by the City Council. She eventually got the city manager job full-time in July 2008.
Soon after leaving Morro Bay and before she hired on at PSL, Lueker served as the executive director of the Morro Bay Quota Fund, a newly-formed non-profit organization tasked with overseeing a groundfish fishery Quota System set up by the Federal Government to regulate the deep water trawl fishery.
That quota system was formed to “obtain, administer, and manage dedicated fishing privileges, including permits and $2M in groundfish quota, to the Central Coast of California,” her resume reads.
According to a staff report, prepared by Schultz, her hiring was slated to be the only agenda item at a special meeting on Thursday, July 10 but dependent on her passing a background check, which should be a mere formality.
A Los Osos resident, Lueker, in recent times has been active in a couple of community efforts. She’s been involved in the acquisition of the Cuesta Inlet, a small tidal flat in Cuesta-by-the-Sea (Los Osos) trying to purchase the Inlet and preserve public access to the popular kayak launching spot (see: www.savecuestainlet.org).
She’s also been a founding board member on the REACT Alliance, a non-profit activist group based on the Central Coast that has been fighting the floating offshore wind energy projects being proposed for a patch of ocean 20-30 miles off the Coast of San Simeon (see: www.reactalliance.org).
She reportedly resigned from REACT Alliance when offered the interim CM job to avoid a conflict of interest, as the Morro Bay Harbor is being eyed as a key port for the maintenance operations of the OSW project.
Under her proposed employment contract, Lueker’s pay “cannot be less than the minimum nor exceed the maximum monthly base salary paid to other employees performing comparable duties, divided by 173.333 to equal the hourly rate,” according to Schultz’ report. That equates to $118.16 per hour.
In the employment contract, she was hired for no more than six months, while the City goes through a recruitment process for a permanent GM. The contract lists the duration as July 15, 2025, to Jan. 15, 2026, but no more than 960 hours (total of some $113,000).
Her schedule is for 40 hours a week and if she goes into overtime, she would be paid the normal OT compensation.
She will not receive any of the normal benefits that come with City employment outside worker’s compensation; and should she be fired again, she’s entitled to zero severance pay.
Though she’ll be working full time hours, she is still considered a CalPERS retiree. She is also an “at will” employee, meaning she works directly for the City Council and can be terminated at any time and, just as the case with former CM Kimball, with or without a reason given.
