San Mateo appoints Public Works Director

“The entire Public Works team, including our wastewater treatment staff, engineers, maintenance crews and administrative assistants, provides essential services around the clock. I am proud to work alongside our staff, who have risen to the challenges of the pandemic, and I’m eager to continue leading this department,” Mitch said in a prepared statement.

She started with San Mateo in 2018 as deputy director after working for Menlo Park as a city engineer and engineering services manager. Mitch oversaw divisions responsible for the wastewater treatment plant, storm and sanitary sewers, asset management and roads and traffic field maintenance. She has worked on San Mateo’s $1 billion clean water program, expanding the city’s wastewater treatment plant. The city said her promotion would help ensure consistent infrastructure stewardship of large transportation improvement projects, like the 25th Avenue grade separation project in partnership with Caltrain.

San Mateo’s Public Works Department is responsible for the city’s infrastructure, including streets, sidewalks, traffic signals, street lights, parking lots, sewers and storm drain systems, open creeks and drainage canals, dams, flood-control lagoon and levees. The department also operates the wastewater-treatment plant that serves San Mateo, Foster City and Hillsborough. It has 143 full-time staff and has a $42.3 million budget.

“Azalea Mitch is a skilled leader whose experience and passion for the Public Works profession is an asset to our organization. I have seen firsthand how dedicated she is to this work, and I’m pleased to appoint her to this permanent role,” Corbett said in a prepared statement.

Mitch has volunteered with Engineers Without Borders to help ensure communities overseas have access to clean drinking water. She lives in Menlo Park with her husband and son.