Dave Kiff has been City Manager of Laguna Beach since May 2024. He is in his 25^th year here, having lived in Laguna from 1996 to 2018, in the Upper Victoria neighborhood. During that time, he worked for the City of Newport Beach and was City Manager there from 2009 to 2018. In 2018, he retired from Newport and moved to Healdsburg in Northern California to be closer to family, where he helped with the family farm. That got upended a bit during COVID, as many others left the city management profession. Dave then served as interim city manager for Healdsburg and the town of Sonoma, and then served for three years as a department director for the county of Sonoma. 

Dave returned to Laguna Beach to be City Manager “for a short duration.” Dave’s Laguna roots include twelve years volunteering for the fundraising event known as Splash, and 15 years as a cast member in the Pageant of the Masters.  In his spare time, he is an ocean swimmer, mountain biker, and dog walker. He resides now with his partner of 33 years, Tom Lochner, at their home near Laguna Beach HS. They have two rescue pups.