Winter 2008 Newsletter
City Staff Transitions
The Fairfield Community Development Department Director, Sean Quinn, was appointed City Manager. Quinn promoted Eve Somjen, assistant director of Housing, as the City’s new Community Development Director. Somjen has headed both the Housing Division and the City’s Planning Division.
The Fairfield Economic Development Division has added two new economic development specialists to its staff. Charles Ching, formerly of Union Bank’s Cordelia Office, is responsible for Fairfield’s industrial and commercial recruitment and retention. In his brief tenure with the City, Charles has assisted four Fairfield manufacturers to successfully attain State Employment Training Panel funding to pay for these companies to train their staff.
Lorraine Fernandez has also joined the ED staff as an economic development specialist. Lorraine comes to the City from the Workforce Investment Board of Solano County. Fernandez now works with Karl Dumas, Senior Economic Development Project Manager, in retail recruitment and retention.
“Our City Council determined that economic development and the long-term financial well-being of this city were critically important. We needed additional staff to ramp up our business recruitment and retention efforts. We’re lucky to have these two talented people join our staff,” stated Curt Johnston, Assistant Director of Community Development.
