First District Supervisor Robert Livingood has promoted Laurie Marsden to the position of chief of staff with his office. She will be installed into that position on May 26. Marsden replaces Josefina Kenline, who has held the chief of staff post since December 2016.
In 2014, Marsden began working with the County of San Bernardino in the position of executive secretary. In March 2017, Marsden moved into the position of deputy chief of staff with Lovingood’s office.
Information about Marsden, 47, is thin. Available records show no work history for her prior to 2014. She possesses an associate of science degree from Victor Valley College in accounting and business/management. She formerly lived in Apple Valley, but now resides in San Bernardino, which places her outside the First District, which includes Victorville, Hesperia, Apple Valley, Adelanto, Spring Valley Lake, Needles, Wrightwood, Oak Hills, Silver Lakes, Amboy, Baker, Yermo, Baldy Mesa, Calico, Pinon Hills, El Mirage, Trona, Goffs, Havasu Lake, Randsburg, Hinkley, Lenwood, Newberry Springs, Phelan, Oak Hills, Fort Irwin, Parker Dam, Red Mountain, Helendale, Big River, Daggett and Kelso.
Marsden will be provided with a total compensation package of $141,736, which is to include $94,390 in salary and $47,346 in benefits.

Laurie Marsden

Her ascendancy follows the departure of Kenline, who was previously city manager in La Puente, interim city manager in Colton, and former assistant city manager in both Colton and Indio. For the first several years of his tenure as supervisor, Lovingood had functioned without a chief of staff, instead employing former Chino City Councilman and Mayor/former Fourth District County Supervisor/former Assemblyman/former California Gubernatorial Advisor Fred Aguiar as his senior policy advisor, which substituted for the chief of staff position. Kenline had been provided with a $158,861 total annual compensation package.
There had been controversy over Aguiar’s remuneration, as he was paid $122,700 yearly for what amounted to a work week of 18.5 hours on average.
–Mark Gutglueck