Mayor Todd Gloria on Thursday appointed Bethany Bezak as the city’s new chief operating officer, reversing a 2025 decision to take over the role himself.
The appointment of Bezak, subject to city council approval, comes three weeks after more than 87,000 city residents were incorrectly billed for waste services, an embarrassing gaffe that led one councilmember to call for Gloria’s resignation and another to demand that the city fill the COO role.
Bezak currently serves as the city’s chief performance and logistics officer. The council vote on her promotion is set for Monday.
“Bethany shares my administration’s vision and values and has a proven ability to turn priorities into results,” Mayor Todd Gloria said in a news release. “She leads with respect for our employees, demands accountability and understands that San Diegans deserve responsive, dependable service from their city government. She is ready to build on the progress we have made and lead our organization forward.”
In February 2025, Gloria cut 31 City Hall positions, a move intended to save taxpayers around $5.3 million annually. One of the positions slashed was the city’s chief operating officer, a job then held by Eric Dargan. Gloria at the time thanked Dargan, who had held the post since September 2022, for his service.
“When I assumed direct oversight of city operations, my priority was to stabilize our finances and strengthen the organization,” Gloria said. “We have made substantial progress. Bethany’s appointment builds on that foundation, with a clear charge to sustain our fiscal discipline, support our employees and improve the services San Diegans rely on.”
Gloria, in a Thursday memo to the council, noted “the progress we have made over the past twenty months,” arguing that it “established a stronger foundation for the City’s future.”
Some council members, however, early on expressed their skepticism following the elimination of Dargan’s job.
Councilmember Henry Foster III, the council’s budget committee chair, quickly challenged Gloria over the COO position. He said the mayor was in over his head in attempting to manage the day-to-day operations of the city.
Foster reiterated that stance following last month’s trash fee debacle and said that if Gloria “can’t do the job, he needs to step down.”
Council colleagues stopped short of calling for Gloria to step down, but Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera expressed his concern that the city’s “basic operations can’t be performed at the most basic of levels.” Kent Lee pressed Gloria to seek an experienced COO, saying that “it’s the mayor’s responsibility to put his house in order.”
Council President Joe LaCava on Thursday backed Bezak’s appointment, along with Councilmember Stephen Whitburn, who called her “impressive.”
“Bethany is an expert in her field, a professional manager, and a consummate public servant,” said LaCava. “She leads with a steady hand, a focus on exceeding expectations, and the candor we need during challenging times.”
Beginning in 2020, Bezak served in multiple leadership roles in the city’s stormwater department, moving from assistant deputy director to deputy director, then director.
From 2023 to 2025, Bezak served as director of the transportation department before transitioning to her current role as performance and logistics officer, overseeing the city’s transportation, general services, purchasing and contracting, among other departments.
“Every day, thousands of city employees show up before sunrise and dedicate themselves to serving our residents,” Bezak said. “As Chief Operating Officer, my commitment is to support them, remove barriers to success, and ensure we deliver the high-quality services our communities deserve. Continuing to work alongside Mayor Gloria and this leadership team will be the greatest privilege of my career.”
She holds bachelor’s degrees in civil engineering and architecture from Lawrence Technological University and a master’s degree in biological systems engineering from Virginia Tech.
Labor leaders thanked Gloria for briefly assuming the COO role, but also expressed their support for Bezak’s appointment.
Michael Zucchet, general manager of the Municipal Employees Association, said that “she has a track record of solving problems with employees, not around them.” Brigette Browning, president of the San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council, called Bezak “a proven leader who has managed large public workforces with respect and delivered real improvements in neighborhoods that have waited too long for them.”
The 2025 cuts at City Hall came “after months of careful review and consideration of potential reductions and consolidations,” officials have said.
In June of that year, the city agreed to a $146,000 settlement with Dargan following a discrimination suit. He alleged that was not given three months of severance pay, in breach of contract. Gloria then seemed to perform an about-face from his earlier praise, saying Dargan was fired for cause and thus was not owed severance pay.
