The Los Angeles City Council named a Filipino-American as director for the Department of Public Works’ Bureau of Street Lighting.
Miguel Sangalang will take a lead role in the upkeep and improvement of the city’s 220,000 street lighting infrastructure assets.
“Miguel is a proven leader with an innovative approach and the expertise to make our communities safer, more livable, and more equitable through our street lighting infrastructure,” said Los Angeles Board of Public Works Vice President Aura Garcia.
“As the new director of L.A. Lights, Miguel will continue to passionately serve Angelenos and guide the future of street lighting and emerging technologies," he added.
Prior to his appointment, Sangalang worked for Mayor Eric Garcetti as deputy mayor for budget and innovation where he was responsible for overseeing the annual city budget, performance management, personnel, risk management, procurement reform, technology infrastructure, as well as sustainability, equity in service, gender equity, data, emerging technologies and the local implementation of Census 2020.
“Working to make Los Angeles a better place to live in has been both humbling and a great joy, and I am deeply honored by Mayor Garcetti’s and the City Council’s confidence in my abilities to do more in this new role,” Sangalang said.
Sangalang worked for Garcetti’s clean streets initiative called CleanStat which changed the city’s approach to illegal dumping from a reactive request-driven process to a proactive data-driven model. He also worked with MyVoiceLA, the city’s centralized tool for reporting harassment and discrimination.
Before becoming deputy mayor, Sangalang was first the director for innovation, performance management, and finance of the city.
Sangalang, who was born in Quezon City, Philippines, migrated to the US when he was just four years old.
He graduated from the University of California with a degree in Japanese and minor in public policy.
“I am excited to work with the women and men of Street Lighting to make our lights not just infrastructure, but neighborhood assets that are essential components of quality of life and a shining reflection of our communities," Sangalang said.