Gustine Interim City Manager Melanie Correa will become the new city manager next month after the city council approved the employment contract on Dec. 2.

The decision comes following a more than a month-long search after Soknirorn Than, former city manager, resigned back in October to become the city manager in Los Banos. He took over as Gustine City Manager in February 2024.

With more than a decade’s worth of experience in working for the city, Correa held multiple positions including account clerk and deputy clerk. In addition to interim city manager, she’s also the administrative services director. Her term will be three years from Jan. 1, 2026 to Jan. 1, 2029, according to the agenda documents. The annual salary will be $155,000.

Correa said managing both positions at the same time is a challenge and credits city staff for delegating responsibilities every once in a while. This is her second time serving tin he interim position, the first of which happened from August 2023 to January 2024 when Anna Nicholas resigned.

“It [was] a very easy transition to kind of move into the role with City Manager Than … he pretty much kept me right alongside him for the whole term,” Correa said. “It was a very easy departure from him and just kept the ball rolling.”

Gustine Mayor Patrick Nagy said of the candidacy pool of four people, Correa was chosen based on her familiarity with Gustine. He added that it’s important to have someone who’s familiar with the area, especially after previous city managers left for jobs in larger cities.

“We have a problem here with people getting the city manager [position] under their belt and being lured away by big cities that can pay higher salaries,” Nagy said. “Hopefully with her roots here that we can keep her for a long time.”

Correa plans on continuing to build more capital projects, she said, with Gustine Municipal Airport and the Pioneer Park Project being some of the recent examples. She said one of her goals is to offer the youth career opportunities.

“Local government has so many great opportunities administratively and out in the field, whether it’s public safety or public works, so kind of expanding on that and showcasing our youth [to] many great opportunities that are available to them,” Correa said.

Nagy echoed a similar sentiment, mentioning that he always wants to continue doing more projects. He mentioned that his expectations of what the city has accomplished this year has exceeded.

“The amount of things we’ve accomplished is absolutely astounding, and I can’t wait for people to read on how much we’ve done, and she’s been a big part of it,” Nagy said.

As Correa begins her new role next month, she looks forward to improving the city.

“[I’m] really excited to grow and to learn and expand my knowledge here and to continue serving this amazing community,” Correa said.