City of Long Beach

As City Manager of Long Beach, Tom Modica leads with team spirit, working alongside the mayor and nine council members while helping guide nearly 6,000 employees across city departments and functions unique to Long Beach. He sees his role not only as setting strategic direction and making decisions, but as building systems that help employees make sound decisions and better serve the community, a leadership approach that earned him recognition as City Manager of the Year 2026 by Govt Business Review.

My Guiding Philosophy: Never Do Things in Silos

If there is one thing my journey with the City of Long Beach has taught me, it is the shared accountability required to make things happen.

When I stepped into the City Manager role after many years in the organization, I knew we had no shortage of commitment. What we lacked was a shared vision to answer a decisive question: what matters most for the betterment of our people, and how do we create plans to accomplish that?

Creating that clarity became one of my priorities.

COVID-19 made the timing hard, but a broader strategic plan gave us 11 strategic focus areas. We could not move everything forward at once. What mattered was that we did not work in silos. Our public safety directors understood that as well. Fewer resources for libraries and parks mean fewer prevention programs, fewer safe places to gather and fewer supports that strengthen public safety over time.

For me, it was all about balance, grounded in our Equity Toolkit. It helps us be intentional about the work and ask questions such as, “Who is most affected?” “Who is at the table?” “Whose voice is missing?” “What do communities need, and where do gaps remain?” “What languages do we need, and what historical differences still shape access and outcomes?”

Those answers narrowed our work to four core areas: public safety, housing and homelessness, economic development and infrastructure. That clarity now shapes our executive team and our Mayor and City Council’s bi-annual work plan. In the City Manager’s Office, we structure our Deputy City Manager positions around strategic focus areas, not departments, so we can look at issues holistically and bring public safety, infrastructure and community services into the same conversation. Some communities have not seen the same level of investment over time, or are starting from a different point, and part of our responsibility is to recognize that honestly, while still holding a citywide vision.

Solution-Driven Mindset: Progress People Can See, Decisions They Can Trust

Being solution-oriented is not about promising everything. It is about being honest about constraints, being disciplined in decision-making and being transparent about progress.

A good example is Long Beach’s infrastructure. As a nearly 130-year-old, built-out city, we have a coastal downtown, aging suburban infrastructure and decades of underfunding. We stopped treating it as someone else’s problem and built a plan around infrastructure. After securing voter-approved funding, street repairs increased by 275 percent, 1,600 percent over the last decade, and increased 1,400 percent from 1990 levels, even after adjusting for inflation. But even with a billion-dollar fiveyear plan and more work happening than any-time before, the total need is still closer to four and a half billion, and resident frustration understandably continues.

People can see the investment, but they still want to know why their street is waiting. We decided to scan, score and rank every street to guide investment. Those choices must be made openly and with a clear rationale, and funding the worst streets first actually isn’t always the most cost-effective solution or provides the highest community benefit. Data drives our decisions, and the mapping and delivery of committed projects provide transparency.

Accountability started with visibility. We mapped the five-year plan, shared updates and gave residents a clearer view of what is coming and why. That does not remove tension, but it does build trust and provide answers.

Explaining the Why: Accountability that Builds Trust

People can handle hard news. What they struggle with is silence, confusion or the sense that government is telling only part of the story. Accountability means addressing tough issues directly, explaining why they happened and being clear about what comes next.

That means meeting people where they are. We engage residents in the languages they are most comfortable speaking and rely on a diverse workforce. During COVID-19, nonprofit partners and trusted messengers helped bridge fear, hesitation and uncertainty

I tell our employees, if people ask what you are doing, stop and talk to them. Explain the work. Explain why it matters. Listen. Trust starts there. Not only do you have to do the work, but you also have to communicate about it, too, or it’s like it never happened.

“Never stop getting better at identifying problems but think just as seriously about the solution. It may not be the final answer, but it shows you are moving from analysis to responsibility.”

Innovation with Purpose: Start with the Problem, Not the Product

Traditional procurement usually begins with a fixed question: “Here is the exact solution we need.” And then ask vendors to compete to find the best price for that specific solution.

With Pitch Long Beach, we ask, “Here is the problem we are trying to solve. Now show us what is possible.” That opens the door to ideas we may not reach on our own. I do not believe in chasing every new tool. We stay clear about the problem, selective about the solution and purposeful about implementation. That is why we reorganized our department around technology and innovation. Even with AI, we planned first, asking how we want to use it, how we do not want to use it, what concerns it raises, what biases it has and where it can create value. That discipline helped Long Beach earn “Top Digital City” for five years running.

With Pitch Long Beach, we maintained procurement rigor and worked with attorneys and purchasing teams to ensure the process was fair, legal and transparent. That balance turns openness into results.

What’s the Next Chapter: Long Beach’s Renaissance

Long Beach is in a renaissance. A turning point came in 2018, when we updated our land use element for the first time in 30 years and created a clearer framework for housing and growth in a built-out city. We are pro-housing, but growth must fit the city we have.

We planned 5,000 downtown units and have already exceeded that. Long Beach leads California in ADUs per capita. We set a goal of being the region’s most affordable beach City – but in fact, right now we have surpassed that goal and are the entire region’s most affordable City. During the COVID-19 recovery, investment in coastal assets helped the city recover faster than many California cities. The Queen Mary is turning a profit for the first time in 40 years, and this year, the West Coast’s largest 11,000-seat waterfront amphitheater is opening.

We have also re-envisioned Long Beach Airport as “America’s Coolest Airport,” creating a travel experience unlike what people are used to at other airports. Space Beach, our growing aerospace and space-innovation ecosystem, has made national headlines, generating about 8,000 new jobs, with thousands more on the way.

And in 2028, we will welcome the world as the largest Venue City outside of Los Angeles for the 2028 Games, hosting 18 Olympic and Paralympic events with over two million ticketed opportunities. In preparation, we have launched a new City brand, kicking off Long Beach: Vibe City, and being purposeful about how we reintroduce Long Beach to the world.

The goal is not to change Long Beach’s character. It is to keep the city’s identity intact, celebrate our divinity and unique vibe, and create the next chapter of growth around it.

Wisdom from Experience: Solve Problems, Stay Grounded

Never stop getting better at identifying problems, but think just as seriously about the solution. It may not be the final answer, but it shows you are moving from analysis to responsibility.

Responsibility, however, cannot turn into ego. These are demanding jobs, and the best teams are talented, humble and grounded in purpose. I try to build that environment in Long Beach, where people take the work seriously while not taking themselves too seriously.

We laugh. We talk about purpose. Even as we work through difficult municipal issues, it matters that we are still creating a city that gives people reasons to smile, feel connected and stay hopeful.