City of Barstow appoints Police Chief Andrew Espinoza, Jr. as interim city manager

Rene Ray De La Cruz, Victorville Daily Press
·2 min read

City of Barstow officials recently announced that Public Safety Director Andrew Espinoza, Jr. has been named interim city manager.

Espinoza has served as chief of the Barstow Police Department for 2.5 of his 25 years with the agency.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to serve the City of Barstow in this role and look forward to working with the Council and City team to help move Barstow into the future,” said Espinoza, in a written statement.

Espinoza’s moves into the position after Willie Hopkins left Barstow to accept the position of Compton city manager, Barstow officials said.

City of Barstow officials recently announced that Public Safety Director Andrew Espinoza, Jr. has been named interim city manager.
City of Barstow officials recently announced that Public Safety Director Andrew Espinoza, Jr. has been named interim city manager.

Hopkins took over as Barstow’s city manager in Sept. 2021 via “confidential recruitment” by Andersen & Associates, and when 41 people applied for the job, the Daily Press reported.

At that time, Hopkins’ resume includes 11 years as a U.S. Army-commissioned officer, management gigs at multinational supply-chain companies, and local government roles in Florida, Georgia and California’s Bay Area.

Espinoza

The Barstow City Council unanimously agreed on Jan. 16 to appoint Espinoza to this acting position until a permanent candidate is identified through a national search, city leaders stated.

Assistant City Manager Kody Tompkins will continue serving in the role and Espinoza will continue at the helm of the Public Safety Division for the time being, city leaders said.

“He will be instrumental in guiding the city in a positive light, and I look forward to working alongside him to achieve success for the city,” said Tompkins, in a written statement.

As city manager, Espinoza will oversee the administrative direction and plans for the city, including directing, supervising and managing finance, budget, human resources, risk management, information technology, economic development, community services, public works and environmental services.

Espinoza has a Bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and holds a master’s degree in public administration from California State University, Long Beach.

BNSF project

City leaders said Espinoza will be active with major city initiatives as BNSF Railway plans to invest more than $1.5 billion to construct a state-of-the-art master-planned rail facility in Barstow.

The Barstow International Gateway will be an approximately 4,500-acre new integrated rail facility on the west side of Barstow, consisting of a rail yard, intermodal facility and warehouses for transloading freight from international containers to domestic containers.

The facility will allow the direct transfer of containers from ships at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to trains for transport through the Alameda Corridor onto the BNSF mainline up to Barstow.

Once the containers reach the Barstow International Gateway, they will be processed at the facility using clean-energy powered cargo-handling equipment, and then staged and built into trains moving east via BNSF’s network across the nation.

Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at 760-951-6227 or RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DP_ReneDeLaCruz  

This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: City of Barstow appoints police chief as interim city manager