David LaCaro has been hired as Morro Bay’s new Public Works Director. Submitted photo
The City of Morro Bay reached into the North County to find its new public works director.
City Manager John Craig announced July 24 that he had hired David LaCaro to be the new director of public works. He comes to Morro Bay with more than 20-years’ experience “in municipal public works, environmental regulation, and infrastructure operations,” Craig said in a news release, “most recently serving as Public Works Operations Manager for the City of Paso Robles.” LaCaro was scheduled to start with Morro Bay on Aug. 10.
LaCaro replaces former PW Director Greg Kwolek who left in May to take the job of general manager at the Los Osos Community Services District. Kwolek had been with Morro Bay for about 5 years, having come to the City in May 2021.
Morro Bay’s Utilities Division Manager, Damaris Hanson, had been acting as interim director while the City searched for a new permanent hire.
LaCaro earned a bachelor’s degree in ecology and systematic biology from Cal Poly, SLO and holds a certified public manager designation, Craig said.
He started out in the private sector, working as a water quality program manager with Tetra Tech, Inc., in Santa Maria. There he developed industrial stormwater and wastewater programs, including working with Vandenberg Air Force Base (now a Space Force Base), Craig explained.
He worked for nearly a decade as an environmental scientist with the Regional Water Quality Control Board, administering and enforcing NPDES and waste discharge requirements permits. Craig said LaCaro also led “regional implementation of sanitary sewer overflow regulations for municipalities across multiple counties.”
His familiarity with State water agencies could come in handy as the City tries to navigate a potential project to recycle its treated wastewater that was a key part of the funding contracts for its Water Reclamation Facility.
Paso Robles hired LaCaro in 2014 as its stormwater program manager. He led the city’s Municipal Stormwater Program, and “developed goals covering public education, low impact development, construction compliance and environmental permitting,” Craig said.
He was promoted to public works operations manager in 2022 and oversaw the Streets and Stormwater Program with a staff of 12 and an operating budget of over $1 million a year.
Craig said LaCaro led development of the town’s first Signal Master Plan and brought in advanced GIS-based management for Paso’s long-range capital planning.
LaCaro “spearheaded the region’s first Watershed Plan and Stormwater Credit Trading Program,” Craig said.
LaCaro also oversaw “a first of its kind statewide multi-agency permit for Salinas River vegetation management balancing flood risk reduction and wildfire mitigation with environmental protection.”
That final experience could also come in handy in Morro Bay, which has a flooding problem on South Bay Boulevard at the Chorro Creek Bridge; a problem made more complicated by the riparian, creek corridor that runs through the area, and is protected habitat that’s overgrown with willows choking the flow of water down the creek and into the National Estuary during big storms.
The City is also dealing with another flooding issue on Morro Creek as it enters town. That creek has overflowed several times in recent history flooding nearby businesses and a mobile home park willed mostly with senior citizens. A study on that situation and how to improve the flood control is in progress.
Having someone with experience putting together vegetation maintenance plans in major creeks could be advantageous to the City of Morro Bay.
According to the City’s current salary schedule, public works director position pays from $165,000 at Step 1 to $200,000 at Step 5. LaCaro was presumably hired somewhere in between those figures, His compensation also includes the normal suite of benefits — insurance, retirement, car allowance, etc.
