The city of Ceres is recruiting for a new city engineer now that Daniel Padilla has resigned to take a position with Menifee in Riverside County.

Padilla left at the end of June to become the city’s deputy of public works/city engineer.

“We have a recruitment process started so interviews will be shortly to hopefully get that position filled,” said City Manager Tom Westbrook.

The multiple engineering projects in process are being handled by the Engineering Division staff of about eight.

The position requires the applicant to be a licensed engineer, which rules out any existing staff members applying, said Westbrook.

“I think city engineers are in pretty high demand but I do believe that there are some qualified applicants that have submitted for that position so I think we can get somebody onboard quickly.”

Westbrook hopes the new city engineer can be in place by August. He will make the hiring decision which needs to be ratified by the Ceres City Council.

Padilla was hired for the Ceres position in 2019 to replace Daryl Jordan who resigned in September 2019 to work for the city of Scotts Valley. As a professional civil engineer, Padilla is rare in that he is a licensed.

In 2011 Padilla unsuccessfully ran for Ceres City Council against Guillermo Ochoa and Mike Kline. Kline won the seat.