Orange County Supervisors unanimously picked their head of technology to run the county for the next few months as they continue searching for a permanent CEO after their summer vacations.
K.C. Roestenberg has worked for the county since 2007 and was promoted to Chief Information Officer in 2022 according to a county staff report, which noted he graduated from the University of Phoenix with a bachelors in science focused on information technology.
Roestenberg is set to receive a base salary of $430,000 per year, with a benefits package bringing the total value to nearly $657,000.
He comes into the top job at a county facing financial uncertainty, with $75 million of one-time funds used to balance the budget this year alone and a new retirement incentive supervisors signed off on Tuesday that could see many of the county’s top employees leave.
[Read: Orange County Leaders Warn of Dangerous Budget Future]
It’s unclear how long Roestenberg will be in the county’s top job, with his contract noting it will run an “indefinite term.”
Roestenberg’s selection came after supervisors have spent most of the last two years looking for a new chief executive.
It’s also unclear when supervisors will again take up the task of looking for a new chief executive, as they’re not set to meet until August, canceling their meetings for a month and a half for a summer break.
After former CEO Frank Kim announced his retirement in November 2023, supervisors appointed Michelle Aguirre as interim CEO for a year.
[Read: Orange County Gets an Interim CEO at 11th Hour]
When they still couldn’t find a longtime CEO in 2025, they asked her to stay on for an extra year and officially appointed her as CEO, with the understanding she would be retiring this June.
Aguirre stuck to that plan, and her last day is currently set to be this Friday.
Over the past year, while supervisors met regularly behind closed doors to talk about their next CEO, no pick ever emerged for public review, a fact they noted as they tearfully said goodbye to Aguirre on June 23.
“You really took one for the team, you came in at an uncertain time when searches out there had not turned up the ideal candidate,” said Supervisor Don Wagner. “Don’t think we can get you to stay a little longer?”
Supervisor Doug Chaffee made similar comments, noting that their candidates weren’t measuring up.
“We’ve been searching for a future CEO for quite a while and the problem we keep running into is nobody we’ve met with or interviewed is even close to the CEO we have.”
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.
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