John Diodati is San Luis Obispo County’s newest Public Works director.
A Morro Bay man was recently promoted to lead the County Works Department, removing the word “interim” from his title.
County Supervisors, on July 20, approved an employment contract with Morro Bay resident, John Diodati, as the permanent PW director.
According to a County staff report from County Administrative Officer, Wade Horton, Diodati has been with County Public Works since 2006. In that time he’s spent 8 years as a department administrator and 4 years as deputy director.
Diodati has a bachelor’s degree in agricultural science and a master’s degree in business administration. Before he came to the County, Horton wrote, Diodati was a lecturer at Cal Poly and worked 4 years for the federal government as the rural development manager at USDA Rural Development.
He takes the new position with a salary of $16,416 per month, ($196,997 per year), which Horton said was Step 4 in the salary range of five steps. With benefits, the total compensation package is worth $317,000 a year.
As his promotion comes well into the year, the immediate costs to the County budget is some $290,000.
It’s a big responsibility to run one of the County’s largest departments.
According to the PW Department’s website, “The Public Works Department provides public services related to the safe and efficient movement of traffic on the 1,349 miles of County maintained roadways; engineering and surveying review of proposed land development; administration and operation of various water and waste water wholesale and retail facilities, including the Nacimiento Water Supply and Los Osos Waste Water projects; long term master water planning; franchise administration for the unincorporated areas; facility planning, design and construction management of all County building projects; maintenance and custodial services for all County occupied facilities.”
Locally, Diodati was part of a team of people that got the Los Osos community sewer project funded and built after over three decades of debate.
