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Morro Bay hires new city manager

January 14, 2026

John Craig

By KAREN VELIE

The Morro Bay City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to hire John Craig as the city’s new city manager. The council agreed to pay Craig an annual salary of $240,777.

In June, the council voted to terminate then Morro Bay City Manager Yvonne Kimball. She served as city manger for less than two years.

Craig has over 25 years government administration experience. Craig served as city manager of Barre, Vermont; manager of Talbot County, Maryland; deputy city manager of Rico Rancho, New Mexico; assistant administrator of Mono County, California; and director of general services for the City of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

“I am honored to join Morro Bay and grateful for the trust the city council and community have place in me,” Craig said. “My goal is to listen first, learn quickly, and work together to support the council’s goals and maintain the high-quality services that reflect Morro Bay’s values.”

 


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Sources vary somewhat, but the new Morro Bay City Manager’s salary at $240,777 appears to be a skosh more than Governor Newsom’s salary was in December 2024 at $224,020. Across the United States, the average salary of all 50 U.S. Governors is $167,128 according to BusinessInsider.com. The California Dept of Human Resources lists Governor Newsom’s salary as of December 1, 2025, at $245,929, a wee bit more than John Craig’s starting salary.


7

Five jobs at five agencies in 25 years shows vast experience but very little commitment and loyalty.


12

So, this guy from back East, who has had multiple civic government jobs (which the council should have flagged), already “knows” Morro Bay values?


There was nobody in Morro Bay/Los Osos/Cayucos that can manage a very small town, for half that salary?


25

So Morro Bay hires a city manager where his total compensation puts him at around $150 to $175 an hour, multiply this by the bloated administration Morro Bay has, actually every city government, and we still wonder why housing costs so much, doing business in a city is a financial nightmare, property taxes, all taxes, are so high? And we are to believe they couldn’t find a city manager for even say $100 an hour, or less, that would then makes living and doing business in a city much less?


36

Plus it seems he gets over 2 months a year off, it seems not counting holidays, between vacation, sick and personnel days, working less than 10 months a year, and around 9 months counting holidays, normally people have to work at a job for sometimes a decade or more to get that much time off, but not in government, you get it from day one.


11