HAYWARD — City officials here have plucked their new city manager from Alameda and the new hire is a familiar name — Jennifer Ott.

Ott, who first joined Hayward’s executive team in 2018 as a deputy city manager, left in 2022 as an assistant city manager for her most recent job as Alameda’s city manager. According to her new contract, she is expected to start on Dec. 8, and will earn a base salary of $393,000.

“I am very excited for the opportunity to join former and new colleagues at the city of Hayward and meet the immediate challenges and future opportunities together,” Ott wrote in an Oct. 16 news release. She did not attend Tuesday’s meeting because she was attending the Alameda City Council’s meeting instead.

Ott inherits several challenges as she returns to Hayward, which faces a

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