While a student at Huntington Beach High School, Chris Slama obtained his first job scorekeeping and coaching youth sports programs at Murdy Community Center. It didn’t take long for him to realize that he wanted to make a career of serving his community.
He spent several years through high school and college working part time for the Community Services Department, gaining experience in various programs throughout the City’s community services facilities.
In 2003 he applied for and obtained his first full time job as Recreation Supervisor at Murdy Community Center. Chris developed and implemented a department-wide customer service training, eager to embrace community connection and interaction with HB residents and visitors. He greatly increased the variety of classes offered at Murdy, and worked with school districts to increase participation in city-wide youth sports programs.
After seven years of leading the team at Murdy Community Center, Chris had the opportunity to transition to the Rodgers Seniors’ Center, where he immediately realized his passion for serving Huntington Beach’s aging population, working with the Human Services team and our non-profit partner, the Huntington Beach Council on Aging. Under Chris’ supervision, the Rodgers Seniors’ Center greatly expanded its recreation programming, attendance, and recognition in the City. He worked with the team to apply for and receive statewide recognition through Awards of Excellence from the California Park & Recreation Society for the unique public/private partnership with the HBCOA, and the Senior Surf Invitational.
In 2014, Chris attained the position of Community Services Manager, overseeing the Programs and Services Division. He was extremely excited that his first major task would be to work with the team and local partners to help design and transition into the long awaited Senior Center in Central Park, and it has been booming since summer of 2016. Chris continues to work with the team to increase visibility and accessibility of recreational programming, and participation numbers continue to rise each year. He has also worked diligently to assist with improvement projects at the HB Art Center, and Murdy and Edison Community Centers. Chris is the CS Department rep to the Local Emergency Planning Committee, and has spent many hours in the EOC, training to be ready to work with the City team in the case of a disaster.
Most recently, Chris served as the Interim Community Services Director from October 2018 through April 2019. He worked with Community Services and the City team on various park and policy projects to continue to achieve the Department mission of enhancing quality of life for residents and visitors of Huntington Beach.