Elk Grove Deputy Leader Set to Make Lodi History
- Lodi is set to appoint Elk Grove Deputy City Manager Kara Reddig as city manager, making her the first woman to hold Lodi’s top staff job. - Reddig comes in after a chaotic year at City Hall, where Lodi cycled through four managers and racked up roughly $600,000 in legal costs. - The hire matters because Lodi is trying to end a long leadership spiral and reset trust inside City Hall.
City management is one of those jobs most people never think about until a city starts burning through them. That is basically where Lodi has been for the past year. Now the city is turning to Elk Grove Deputy City Manager Kara Reddig to steady the place — and, in the process, make local history as Lodi’s first female city manager. (lodi.gov) ### Who is Kara Reddig? Reddig is a longtime local-government executive who most recently served as deputy city manager in Elk Grove. In that role, she oversaw public affairs and communications, community engagement, human resources, risk management, and operations tied to District56. Lodi is not hiring a first-time administrator here — it is hi(lodi.gov)e pieces of a growing city already. (lodi.gov) ### Why is this “history” for Lodi? The headline point is simple — no woman has previously held the city manager job in Lodi. That makes this more than a routine executive hire. City manager is the top administrative role in the city, the person who oversees department heads, attends council meetings, and turns council direction into actual operations, budgets, and staffing decisions. (lodi.gov) ### Why did Lodi need a reset? Because the office has been unstable for months. Lodi had already named Scott Carney city manager in May 2024, but the city then went through a messy stretch of leave, acting appointments, and interim leadership. By spring 2026, the city had appointed Aaron Busch as interim city manager while it kept searching for (lodi.gov)the most important jobs in city government. (lodi.gov) ### How bad did the churn get? Pretty bad. One local report says Lodi cycled through four different managers since April 2025. The same report says the fallout from the Scott Carney episode brought legal bills close to $1 million, including an estimated $600,000 tied to the city manager dispute itself. Even if you treat local reporting cautiousl(lodi.gov)ition. It was a prolonged management problem. (lodi411.com) ### Why reach to Elk Grove? Because Elk Grove looks like the opposite of chaos. It is a larger, professionally managed city, and Reddig’s portfolio there touched both internal operations and public-facing trust functions. That matters in Lodi, where the next city manager is not just expected to keep departm(lodi411.com)investigations, and political strain. (lodi.gov) ### What will Reddig actually control? A lot. Lodi’s city manager oversees department heads, sits in on council meetings, and helps shape revenue strategy, business attraction, grants, and fees. So this appointment will affect more than office morale. It will shape how Lodi handles growth, service delivery, and the basic question of whether City Hall can look predictable again. (lodi.gov) ### What should people watch next? The first test is not a grand vision speech. It is whether turnover slows down and whether the council sticks with the hire. After that, watch for signals on internal controls, staffing stability, and how quickly Lodi moves from interim fixes to normal management. If Reddig can make City Hall boring again — in the best possible way — that will count as a real win. (lodi411.com) ### Bottom line This is a history-making hire, but the bigger story is the cleanup job. Lodi is betting that an experienced deputy from Elk Grove can turn a revolving-door office back into a functioning command center. After the last year, that is the part that really matters. (lodi.gov)
