{"id":296315,"date":"2026-07-15T06:37:01","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T06:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/296315\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T06:37:01","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T06:37:01","slug":"rpvs-public-works-director-leaves-to-take-same-job-in-manhattan-beach-daily-breeze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/296315\/","title":{"rendered":"RPV\u2019s Public Works director leaves to take same job in Manhattan Beach \u2013 Daily Breeze"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ramzi Awwad, the Public Works director for Rancho Palos Verdes, will leave that city to take the same post in Manhattan Beach, officials for the latter town announced this week.<\/p>\n

After six years with Rancho Palos Verdes, which has faced unprecedented land movement that has substantially impacted the city\u2019s infrastructure<\/a>, Awwad will bring his more than two decades of pubic works and engineering experience to Manhattan Beach. His first day was Monday.<\/p>\n

Awwad said he\u2019s \u201creally excited to contribute to this community, to get to know the community better, and work together with a variety of partners.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will take me some time to learn the community and some of the nuances of the community,\u201d Awwad added in a Tuesday, July 14, interview. \u201cI have some ideas from my visits here, but it\u2019s important for me to learn the nuances of the community, the policies and goals of the City Council.\u201d<\/p>\n

Awwad will oversee Manhattan Beach\u2019s Public Works Department, which deals with city issues related to engineering, streets, utilities and facilities, and manages the capital improvement program, according to a July 13 press release.<\/p>\n

\u201cRamzi brings a combination of technical depth and community-focused leadership that we were looking for in our next Public Works Director,\u201d Manhattan Beach City Manager Talyn Mirzakhanian said in the city\u2019s press release. \u201cHis experience managing complex capital projects, delivering excellent services, and his track record of leading strong teams, make him well-suited to lead our Public Works Department as Manhattan Beach continues to invest in its infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ramzi<\/p>\n

Ramzi Awwad, who is the new Public Works director for the city of Manhattan Beach, it was announced on July 13, was honored at the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council meeting on July 7, 2026. He served as Public Works director for six years. (photo courtesy city of Rancho Palos Verdes)\n<\/p>\n

\"Ramzi<\/p>\n

Ramzi Awwad is the new Public Works director for the city of Manhattan Beach, it was announced on July 13, 2026. (photo courtesy city of Rancho Palos Verdes)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 2<\/p>\n

Ramzi Awwad, who is the new Public Works director for the city of Manhattan Beach, it was announced on July 13, was honored at the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council meeting on July 7, 2026. He served as Public Works director for six years. (photo courtesy city of Rancho Palos Verdes)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

Awwad, who has a master\u2019s degree in transportation and infrastructure systems engineering and a bachelor\u2019s degree in engineering management from Purdue University, spent more than a decade with Arlington County, Virginia, as transportation engineer, engineering design team supervisor and the engineering bureau chief, according to the press release. He also designed transportation engineering projects for a consulting firm and led the Highway Department for Carroll County, Indiana.<\/p>\n

Awwad joined Rancho Palos Verdes as deputy director of Public Works in August 2020, before being promoted to the top post in February 2021, said RPV spokesperson Megan Barnes.<\/p>\n

Besides being \u201cinstrumental\u201d in the city\u2019s landslide emergency response and securing grant funding, he oversaw numerous capital, traffic safety and infrastructure projects, including the construction of Ladera Linda Community Center,<\/a> Barnes said.<\/p>\n

Awwad was honored at the July 7 Rancho Palos Verdes City Council meeting.<\/p>\n

RPV City Manager Ara Mihranian said he first met Awwad when he interviewed him during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when he was still living with his family in Arlington.<\/p>\n

The Public Works Department had a 75% vacancy at the time, Mihranian said, and officials could not predict what challenges they would face when the land started moving dangerously following heavy winter rains a few years back.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I hired you, I said I need a hands-on director, and you lived up to that,\u201d Mihranian at the July 7 council meeting. \u201cYou\u2019re a consummate professional. You rolled up your sleeves, and you carried the city through historic challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Awwad, for his part, said he was humbled and honored for the kind words said by the council, city staffers and the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a solid team behind you that you can trust and I\u2019m fortunate to have that,\u201d Awwad said on July 7. \u201cI hope that the Public Works Department continues on that same path. It\u2019s a great, special group of people. I\u2019m so grateful for everything they\u2019ve helped me with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Awwad, on Tuesday interview, called the land movement \u201cpossibly a generational challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a great opportunity to learn how to work cooperatively with the community hand-in-hand towards the objectives,\u201d Awwad said, \u201chow to bring experts and the community together towards viable solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my experience, the field of public works is constantly evolving,\u201d he added. \u201cRegardless of what challenge comes before me, even an unprecedented one like in Rancho Palos Verdes, I have the experience and the knowledge that we can, together with the community, work through it and get to where we need to be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ramzi Awwad, the Public Works director for Rancho Palos Verdes, will leave that city to take the same…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[9965,2136,9877,267,9966,75,9967,84,83,9,24,63,112883,104562,9216],"class_list":["post-296315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-beach-cities","tag-california","tag-local-government","tag-local-news","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-beach","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-palos-verdes-peninsula","tag-rancho-palos-verdes","tag-south-bay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}