Monrovia, California, has a simple mission: “We exist to serve the people of Monrovia to create a community that offers a premier quality of life.” No one embodies this mission better than Assistant City Manager Lauren Vasquez. She has served Monrovia for more than 16 years and regularly demonstrates selfless public service.

In September 2019, Vasquez was appointed assistant city manager with responsibility for multiple divisions—city clerk, human resources, public information, information technology, and administration. She seamlessly transitioned to this greater leadership role and stepped up to meet unexpected challenges with grace, humility, and admirable servant leadership.

The first unexpected challenge was COVID-19, and when it emerged in 2020, Monrovia was among the first cities to initiate response operations. Starting with a local emergency proclamation on March 13, Vasquez organized the city’s first remote public meeting. Then, as many city services shifted to virtual delivery, Vasquez’s shared vision of leadership was clear: Monrovia will protect the safety of the public and staff, and Monrovia will set an example for others to follow.

Under her careful management and planning, the city set up infrastructure

to enable staff to work remotely; created communication channels to share information quickly and regularly with residents, employees, and retirees; and halted bill collection, parking enforcement, evictions, and other processes that can create financial hardship for vulnerable residents.

Within a month of the emergency proclamation, Vasquez coordinated

the mass rollout of COVID testing for employees, starting with public safety staff. She and the rest of the city’s leader-ship team supported a voluntary pay and benefit reduction and maintained positive relationships with the city’s labor organizations, all of which voluntarily postponed scheduled salary adjustments of their own. She created workplace safety protocols and procedures for employees who tested positive and/or had potential COVID exposure in a way that protected and respected the safety of those affected and provided a virtual health fair and a socially distant flu vaccination day for staff and their families.

A second unanticipated challenge was local civil unrest following the death of George Floyd. Peaceful protesters called for change, recognition of past wrongs, and action. As a member of Monrovia’s leadership team, Vasquez helped coordinate public messages of encouragement to “embrace” the community and, with the direction of the city council, to create an ad hoc committee on equity and inclusion to “open the curtain” on city policies, procedures, and practices. Vasquez helped develop recommendations to ensure that those serving Monrovia also reflect the diversity of the people who live there.

Another challenge, in the thick of the pandemic, was the Bobcat Fire, which grew to become the largest fire in Los Angeles County history, burning a total of 115,000 acres. In the first 48 hours, the fire burned more than 8,000 acres and was moving toward Monrovia. In addition to stepping up to take charge of general city operations while the city manager served as incident commander, Vasquez also served as the deputy incident commander, providing backup and support to the manager, offering advice and counsel, and helping the public information officer create resources to keep the community informed.

Following the Bobcat Fire, significant rainfall triggered mudslides and debris that almost completely destroyed Monrovia Canyon Park. While the park remains closed to the public, Vasquez is creating new ways to “take the park to the community” by developing public outreach communication tools, sharing aerial photos of the park taken by drones, and reporting on the rebuilding efforts.

Whether she is coordinating the state of the city address, responding to “bears and bobcats” calls for service, or simply lending an ear to a city employee who is having personal difficulties, Vasquez sets an example. Humility is valued in Monrovia, and Vasquez is among the humblest of servants, thinking less of herself and more of others. In this time of unprecedented local government challenges, she clearly demonstrates excellence in leadership.