Former Pasadena Finance Director Jay Goldstone Tapped to Help Lead Recently Elected San Diego Mayor’s Administration

Former Pasadena Finance Director Jay Goldston has been tapped to serve as interim chief operating officer for the city of San Diego in the administration of Mayor-elect Todd Gloria.

The 69-year-old Goldstone served as Pasadena’s finance chief for about 10 years up to 2006 before heading south to San Diego. There Goldstone worked as that city’s chief operating officer from 2008 to 2013, and from 2006 to 2008 as the city’s chief financial officer.

In an interview with Government Finance Review, Goldstone, a graduate of the University of Minnesota who earned a master’s degree in public administration from Arizona State University and a master’s degree in business administration from Santa Clara University, explained how he started as an analyst with San Mateo County for about nine years.

“I ended up transitioning to the city of Santa Clara, as the deputy director of finance — I helped implement their first financial system. When I got there and it was probably in the early 1980s, they were still manually typing 1,500 checks,” Goldstone recalled.

He then moved to the city of Richmond, where he served as finance director for about six and a half years, and in one of those years served as the interim city manager. “It was an interesting opportunity for me, but it was in the middle of the election, where you had the sitting mayor running against a sitting city council member, and so the dynamics were very interesting,” he said.

From there, Goldston took a job with Maricopa County in Arizona, “but it just wasn’t the right fit” he said. “I only stayed there for about a year and then ended up landing back in California as the finance director of the city of Pasadena.”

Goldstone said in nearly a decade in the Crown City, he not only served in the traditional finance director and city treasurer positions but also got involved in development issues and labor negotiations. 

“That was probably the first time where I felt how important it is for the finance department to be involved in labor negotiations — not to be the lead negotiator, and not to necessarily be in every negotiating session. But prior to that, most of the financial projections of labor contracts were being done by the Human Resources Department. And a lot of times, things they priced out weren’t accurate, and the things they were negotiating, sometimes our financial system or payroll system couldn’t handle it,” he said.

Goldstone said he developed an ongoing five-year financial plan for both Richmond and Pasadena.

During his tenure in Pasadena, he also helped guide the city onto solid financial ground while it coped with the challenges presented by energy deregulation.

From there, Goldston moved to San Diego, which at the time was under a Security and Exchange Commission investigation for securities fraud, he said. In addition, the city had just changed its organizational structure from a city manager/city council form of government to a strong mayor form of government. They were also restructuring their financial operations, and he was hired as the city’s chief financial officer.

He held that position for nearly eight years, as well as that of chief financial officer. “For portions of that time I wore both hats as CEO and CFO, and just chief operating officer for the balance of it.”

By then, the city had a new mayor, and he asked Goldstone to stay on, “but by that time I was mentally prepared to move on,” he said. “I ended up staying for about three to four months of his term. I left in March 2013.”

He had also become chair of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) during his last year with the city of San Diego and finished his term as chair in September 2013. 

The following month he was hired by Bank of Tokyo, Mitsubishi through restructuring; their holding parent company was MUFG Americas. “They were also the parent of Union Bank, which was based in California at the time,” he said. “I was a managing director there, marketing products, predominantly bank loans and letters and lines of credit to public agencies.”

In San Diego on Friday, City News Service reported Mayor-elect Gloria welcomed Goldstone and other top members of his administration with open arms.

“I am proud to announce the appointments of Paola Avila, Nick Serrano, and Jay Goldstone to the Gloria administration,” Gloria said. “They are a team of talented, dedicated, and experienced public servants who will help me lead our city, especially through COVID-19, and get us back on track. I want to thank them for their willingness to step up and serve the people of San Diego.”