At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, the Mayor and City Council chose not to extend City Manager Howard Chan’s contract, which expires Dec. 31.

The Council had been considering extending Chan’s contract for one year. Overall, Chan has served eight years as City Manager and a total of 22 years with the City of Sacramento.

“I love this city,” Chan said following the meeting. “Sacramento is my adopted hometown, the place where my wife and I raised our children, where we made life-long friends, where I made my career. I take great pride in being a Sacramentan, and it has been an honor and a privilege to serve as City Manager. I will be forever grateful for the opportunity to work with such a talented group of dedicated employees and to lead our team through times of growth as well as times of challenge.”

“For the past eight years, I have done my very best to serve the City Council and our residents and to be a good steward to taxpayer dollars,” Chan continued. “This city and the people who work to keep it running will always remain in my heart. Sacramento is a place of limitless potential, and I know our brightest days remain ahead of us.”

As City Manager, Chan is responsible for leading the City’s 6,000 full-time, part-time and seasonal employees, overseeing an annual operating budget of more than $1.6 billion and implementing policy direction from the City Council.

Chan was appointed City Manager in 2016, becoming the first Asian American person to hold this position in Sacramento’s history. He continued to make history with the hires he made during his tenure, including the City’s first African American Police Chief (Daniel Hahn) and the first female Police Chief (Kathy Lester). Chan also appointed the first woman and first person of color to lead the City’s Department of Utilities (Pravani Vandeyar).

Chan’s accomplishments as City Manager are long and varied. Highlights of capital improvement projects during his tenure include the $384 million renovation/expansion of the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center, SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center and Memorial Auditorium as well as the completion of the $32 million McKinley Water Vault — which helps to protect Sacramento from flooding — and the $40 million North Natomas Community Center and Aquatics Complex.

During the pandemic, Chan oversaw the rapid establishment of dozens of new projects and programs and the urgent deployment of approximately $200 million in federal funding to assist residents, businesses and other organizations affected by COVID-19. This work was accomplished in addition to the uninterrupted provision of all regular City services while also ensuring safe and proper working conditions for City of Sacramento employees.

Under Chan’s administration, the City established 1,375 emergency shelter beds to support people experiencing homelessness. This includes the construction of two congregate sprung shelters, the launch of the Outreach and Engagement Center and the creation of The Grove emergency bridge housing for transitional age youth as well as the Roseville Road shelter and service campus, which was operationalized a mere five months after Chan was granted the authority to site shelters.

The City under Chan’s leadership also launched its Incident Management Team responding to homelessness, which provides outreach and connection to services as well as compliance with City laws and ordinances. During the most recent point-in-time count this past spring, Sacramento City and County recorded a 41% decrease in unsheltered homelessness.

In addition, Chan and the City team this past year successfully negotiated agreements with 11 labor unions and addressed a $66 million budget deficit without significantly reducing any City services or laying off any employees.

More recently, Chan, former-Mayor Darrell Steinberg and the City team successfully negotiated a preliminary term sheet for an estimated $321 million in private investments to build a soccer stadium for Sacramento Republic FC and a live entertainment venue in the Railyards downtown, which the City Council unanimously approved. Lastly, a major milestone was reached in the Waterfront Reinvestment Program when City Council approved staff’s recommendation of a $25 million first phase program, which will focus on infrastructure repairs and building a new playground.

“It has been quite a ride, one that has been incredibly challenging but also one that has brought me immense professional satisfaction,” Chan said of his time as City Manager.

Chan was born in San Francisco, the middle son of parents who immigrated from Hong Kong and China. His father worked as a bartender and his mother cleaned hotel rooms at the local Holiday Inn for almost 30 years. Together, they instilled a strong work ethic in Chan, who graduated from California State University, Hayward.

He spent 14 years in the private sector, working in the parking and transportation industry. In 2002, Chan was recruited to become the City’s parking manager. He was promoted to Assistant City Manager in 2013 and named interim City Manager in 2016 — replacing John Shirey — before being selected for the permanent position following a national recruitment.

“He kind of reflects who we are as a city, a child of immigrants who through hard work rose up through the ranks on merit,” then-Councilmember Steve Hansen told The Sacramento Bee.

Chan was the recipient of the 2008 American Public Works Association’s “Manager of the Year” award and the 2017 Sacramento Asian Chamber API Rise Award. In 2023, he was named “City Manager of the Year” by the California City Management Foundation. This year, the California Black Chamber of Commerce honored Chan with its President’s Award.

The City Council will likely appoint an interim City Manager in January as it begins its national recruitment for a new City Manager.