{"id":193610,"date":"2026-02-25T20:46:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T20:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/193610\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T20:46:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T20:46:07","slug":"cypress-appoints-shannon-delong-as-first-woman-city-manager-in-its-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/193610\/","title":{"rendered":"Cypress appoints Shannon DeLong as first woman city manager in its history"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Shannon DeLong is set to make history in Cypress when she will become the first woman city manager in its 70-year history.<\/p>\n

The Cypress City Council voted unanimously on Monday to appoint DeLong after conducting a months-long nationwide executive search for a permanent hire.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe brings fantastic experience [and] positive energy,\u201d said Councilmember David Burke. \u201cI\u2019m confident she\u2019ll bring the level of honesty and integrity to the position that our residents deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sean Joyce has served as Cypress\u2019 interim city manager<\/a> since September 2025, but will step down before DeLong\u2019s March 30 start date.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am honored by the City Council\u2019s trust in appointing me as city manager,\u201d DeLong stated in a news release. \u201cCypress benefits from strong leadership, dedicated staff and engaged residents. I am excited to build strong relationships with our community members and business owners as we work together to serve this exceptional city.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeLong\u2019s three-year agreement follows a contentious vacuum created when longtime city manager Peter Grant resigned from his position under political pressure. Former Public Works Director Doug Dancs accused Grant<\/a> of \u201cunlawful acts of misconduct\u201d last April during a council meeting honoring his tenure.<\/p>\n

A series of closed session meetings on Grant\u2019s future followed before he tendered his resignation<\/a> in August with a $313,000 severance agreement.<\/p>\n

Yorba Linda voted to hire Grant<\/a> the following month.<\/p>\n

Grant\u2019s supporters in Cypress claimed DeLong had \u201cbig shoes to fill\u201d in the city manager\u2019s office in comments that show the political feuds that framed the previous year still linger.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe, the residents of Cypress, look forward to seeing how this City Council-imposed disruption ends up being beneficial to us going forward,\u201d said Glenn Button, a longtime resident and former council candidate.<\/p>\n

But Cypress is turning a new page in more ways than just hiring a city manager.<\/p>\n

The Feb. 23 council meeting was the last held on a Monday as the schedule shifts to Tuesdays starting next month, a move recently approved by council members to align with most other cities in Orange County.<\/p>\n

It also marked the last meeting for Fred Galante as Cypress\u2019 city attorney.<\/p>\n

As Galante noted in detailing DeLong\u2019s contract, she comes to Cypress from Whittier, where she served an assistant city manager since June 2018. Before that, DeLong touted more than a decade of public service in Downey, where she served in several leadership roles, including assistant city manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cShannon distinguished herself throughout the recruitment process with her depth of experience, strategic insight and clear commitment to public service,\u201d said Mayor Leo Medrano in the city\u2019s news release. \u201cHer leadership marks an exciting new chapter for our city and we look forward to the energy and vision she brings to Cypress.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to being the first woman to hold the post, DeLong is the tenth city manager in Cypress\u2019 history and will make $315,000 annually.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shannon DeLong is set to make history in Cypress when she will become the first woman city manager…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,17358,32453,2461,90579,90581,3667,418,90578,3906,1511,16975,83644,288,90577,90580],"class_list":{"0":"post-193610","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news","11":"tag-city-attorney","12":"tag-council-meeting","13":"tag-cypress","14":"tag-first-woman-city-manager","15":"tag-fred-galante","16":"tag-grant","17":"tag-history","18":"tag-interim-city-manager","19":"tag-month","20":"tag-news-release","21":"tag-position","22":"tag-public-service","23":"tag-resident","24":"tag-shannon-delong","25":"tag-strong-leadership"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}