The City of Atascadero welcomed its new city manager on Monday.
James R. Lewis was sworn in on the front steps of the Historic City Hall.
Lewis is returning to his hometown of Atascadero to take over the role of city manager after serving as city manager for the City of Pismo Beach for the past 10 years.
"To celebrate with the community is amazing and I'm very fortunate and very humbled by the opportunity," Lewis said. "We want to continue to build our economic development. Downtown is on fire, getting more restaurants, shops. We have the Del Rio Corner with some great opportunities and we want to work on, we need to hire a police chief for our community. That's a big decision."
As city manager, Lewis will be responsible for delivering major capital projects, facilitating commercial development, and more.
He takes over for Rachelle Rickard who retired this month after 10 years as Atascadero's city manager.
