Santa Rosa is a city of nearly 180,000 people that occasionally forgets how big it’s become. It may be the largest city in Sonoma County—and the fifth largest in the Bay Area—but it still carries itself like a small town.
Jason Nutt, Santa Rosa’s newly appointed interim city manager, understands the contradiction.
“It’s understanding sort of the fabric and nature of our community and knowing what it means when we say that we’re the biggest small town in Northern California,” Nutt said during a recent appearance on The Drive 95.5 FM with this reporter.
Nutt’s appointment took effect June 27, following the departure of interim city manager Lori Ann Farrell. Mayor Mark Stapp framed the City Council’s selection of Nutt in the simplest possible terms: “It was an easy choice.”
“Jason is our first local city manager in 30 years,” Stapp said—a distinction that may prove especially valuable as the city faces budget pressures, substantial infrastructure projects and a larger existential question about what kind of city it wants to become.
Nutt brings nearly three decades of public-agency experience to the position. His career includes senior leadership roles with the City of Novato and County of Sonoma, as well as serving as Santa Rosa’s director of Transportation and Public Works.
Since joining Santa Rosa’s executive leadership team in 2019, Nutt has overseen more than 500 employees and approximately $300 million in budgets. He also served as emergency operations director and acting city manager during the Kincade and Glass fires.
On air, Stapp described the division of labor between elected officials and professional city staff. Council members establish policy and direction, while the city manager and municipal staff determine how to put those decisions into practice.
“We rely on Jason Nutt and the team of experts that we have in the city to make the operational decisions,” Stapp explained.
Nutt has lived in Santa Rosa since 2000 and raised his family there. The advantage of local leadership, he said, begins with an instinctive knowledge of place—knowing the neighborhoods, understanding the community’s character and not having to look up Santa Rosa High School on a map.
“You still wanna go down the street and say hi to your neighbor because that’s the way Santa Rosa’s always been,” Nutt said.
His first priority, however, is less sentimental and more urgent.
“My first issue and interest is getting us fiscally stable,” Nutt noted. “I wanna make sure that we don’t have to do the whole budget evaluation as a negative every year.”
Santa Rosa is navigating declining sales-tax revenue, rising operating costs and staffing levels that Stapp said have fallen well below earlier benchmarks. Nutt’s appointment comes as the city develops a two-year financial strategy and considers how to preserve public safety, infrastructure and neighborhood services amid continuing budget pressures.
Yet Nutt’s vision extends beyond managing scarcity. He spoke enthusiastically about downtown entertainment, outdoor recreation, stronger partnerships with schools, expanded business opportunities and even the prospect of attracting a professional sports team.
“I wanna see us start to have fun, start to enjoy, not have to worry about the budget and really take care of the community that we serve,” he said.
That balance—between fiscal discipline and civic imagination—may define his tenure.
“This is a time for the city to catch its breath and look around and say, ‘OK, where are we now?’” Stapp observed.
With Nutt at the administrative helm, the answer may come from someone who already knows the streets, the neighborhoods and the peculiar character of a city that has grown large without entirely believing it.
