After 14 years of service with Mendocino County, Chief Executive Officer Carmel Angelo has announced she will retire on March 19, 2022.

 CEO Angelo served the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors for the past 12 years in her current role. While working with current and past County Boards of Supervisors, Angelo helped navigate and manage the many unexpected issues that faced County government in addition to supporting the day to day essential services the County of Mendocino provides to its residents.

After working 12 years for San Diego County, Angelo joined Mendocino County in 2007 as Director of Health and Human Services. Later in 2009, she served the Executive Office as Assistant CEO. In 2010, the Board of Supervisors appointed Angelo as CEO to fill the position vacated by the sudden retirement of then CEO Tom Mitchell, making Angelo the first female CEO for the County of Mendocino.

Angelo’s role as CEO came at a time of great uncertainty for many Counties, including rural Counties like Mendocino, when the fiscal crisis hit, affecting local government budgets throughout the State. Her background in fiscal discipline supported her work with individual county departments to help the County remain stable throughout her first few years in the Executive Office. This first major challenge would prove helpful as she guided the organization through future challenges, including multiple disastrous fire and flood events and their recovery work to the unprecedented pandemic of the past two years.

Though her work in local government began with the more urban population of San Diego County, Angelo’s heart moved towards advocating for rural counties.  “The budgets are smaller, the needs are greater and cost of doing business is almost the same as a larger County. Fighting for the needs of a rural county has been a cause that will always be important to me” Angelo said, reflecting on her decade-plus experience in Mendocino County. 

Not only was Angelo instrumental with keeping County Government moving forward with the various County Board of Supervisors over the years, she also would collaborate with other neighboring counties. In 2015, she was directed by the Board of Supervisors to bring together nearby Counties who were also juggling with forthcoming legal cannabis legislation. In 2015, with Mendocino County hosting, Mendocino and other surrounding Counties produced a statewide policy on proposed legislation which would give voice to the region’s cannabis cultivating Counties in Sacramento.

In addition to her role as CEO, Angelo served in a number of statewide leadership roles including the California Association of County Executives (CACE), where she served as the organization’s President. Also, she served on the Executive Committee of California Association of Counties’ (CSAC) Woman’s Leadership Forum, in addition to earning her CSAC Senior Executive Credential and becoming a CSAC Institute Fellow. In 2017, she received the Distinguished Service Award from CACE. The following year, she received the 2018 President’s Award from Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC) due to her rural advocacy.  For her years in leadership roles at CSAC, she received the 2019 CSAC Circle of Service Award and most recently received the 2021 CACE President’s Award.

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