(February 26) David Slaughter, the director of the county of San Bernardino’s Real Estate Services Division, will retire next month.
The county has gone outside of its own ranks to replace him, recruiting Terry W. Thompson, who has over 28 years of extensive experience in real estate management, development, acquisitions, and leasing in the commercial real estate endeavors throughout Southern California, to oversee the division.
The director of the real estate services department directly oversees the real estate division and supervises the managers of the architecture and engineering department and the facilities management division, as well as the administrative and fiscal section that provides budgeting and accounting support to the group.
According to Greg Devereaux, the county’s chief executive officer who made the final decision to employ Thompson, “Mr. Terry Thompson has a bachelor’s degree in economics/business from the University of California, Los Angeles and is a member and past president of National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, Southern California Chapter, which is a nationally known commercial real estate development association. Terry has held several positions in Southern California and has handled assets and portfolios in excess of 13 million square feet of commercial properties, coordinated the marketing of land sales, and handled a variety of acquisition activities for various firms in Southern California. In the position of real estate services director, Mr. Thompson will oversee the real estate services department group consisting of 153 employees and multiple budgets that aggregate to nearly $380 million.
Architecture and engineering is responsible for planning and implementing the design and construction of capital projects associated with county-owned facilities including major repairs to or replacements of mechanical and other building systems and components as well as new construction. Architecture & engineering manages the capital improvement program budget that currently includes approximately 275 projects with budgets totaling $278 million and has an operating budget of $2.7 million to support 19 staff.
The facilities management division provides for day-to-day and 24/7 emergency maintenance and repairs, grounds upkeep and custodial services to county-owned facilities and associated equipment. In addition to a budget of $16.5 million for supplies, equipment and tools and a staff of 111, the facilities management division also manages county utilities expenditures with a total budget of $21 million.
The real estate division negotiates and administers revenue leases for the use of county-owned facilities and expenditure leases for leased space throughout the county for departments and their employees to deliver services in locations convenient to county residents, and provides property management for county-owned real estate. The real estate division also provides appraisal, acquisition, and relocation assistance to acquire rights-of-way for public safety projects, transportation corridors and floodways, sells surplus property and acquires land and facilities for various county functions. In addition to an operating budget of $3 million to support 23 staff, budgets for rent payments and property management total $58.4 million.
Thompson, whose tenure with the county will begin on March 10, 2014, will receive a total annual compensation package of $227,025, consisting of $154,053 in salary and benefits of $72,972.