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Don Day had an adolescence most kids only dream of. He grew up in a coastal community along California’s Santa Monica Bay. Winters are warm in Redondo Beach, and it hardly rains in the summer months. Day spent many afternoons surfing, listening to rock ’n’ roll, and fixing classic cars with his dad.
They worked together too. When his dad started a remodeling company, Day specialized in one specific part of the process—demolition. “I loved grabbing a crowbar and sledgehammer to take a kitchen or bathroom down to the studs,” he says. In doing so, he learned a lot from his dad about the building trade and the phases of construction.
The experience sparked something in Day. He studied business administration at Cal Poly Pomona before continuing in the esteemed public university’s technology and operations management program. There, Day focused on supply chain network and design analysis while learning about procurement, warehousing, and quality management.
Day’s first job out of college involved traveling with linemen, handling contracts, invoicing, and payroll as a project controller for a high-voltage power line construction company. He’s since managed large teams and complex projects for a major local utility, national custom sign manufacturer, and local building contractors.
Now, Day is managing important projects in San Bernardino County. The massive Golden State swath east of Day’s native Los Angeles County spans 20,000 square miles and is filled with mountains, deserts, national parks, and nearly two million residents. As director of project and facilities management, Day is responsible for the team that plans, builds, and maintains all county-owned infrastructure.
Tackling this role in one of America’s largest counties requires Day to embrace variety. His department builds fire stations, animal shelters, municipal airports, medical facilities, zoos, law enforcement facilities, and playgrounds.
“We consider our municipal colleagues our customers. Everything we do should help them better serve their community.”
Don Day
While the scope may sound intimidating, Day has always been one to tackle any challenge head-on. He credits George Stockton—his first boss and mentor, who took him under his wing shortly after college—with helping him grasp business strategy and negotiating tactics early in his career. Stockton has since passed, but his words of wisdom carry on in Day’s professional life on a daily basis.
Day’s mentor trusted him with big responsibilities and often sent him into the field to estimate large power line projects before he was old enough to rent the car he needed to travel. In another case, when an employer issued Day power of attorney to sign contracts, he had to Google the phrase to understand what legal authority they had given him in his early twenties.
Day says two personality traits—grit and perseverance—helped him manage early-career challenges. “I knew I could succeed in anything I did if I didn’t give up and if I believed that I could find the solution to any problem,” he says.
Day still keeps these traits in mind when he interviews candidates. While he and the thirty-nine other county department leaders appreciate candidates with deep experience and strong technical skills, determined, curious, and self-motivated people who have relied on grit and perseverance sometimes outperform traditional applicants.
Five years ago, Day joined San Bernardino County to manage a small special districts department responsible for road construction, water pipelines, and other miscellaneous tasks. Now, he sets the vision and provides both leadership and support for the project and facilities management department of nearly two hundred people.
That department’s project management division manages a capital projects portfolio of over $1.5 billion. The county’s facilities management division, which Day also runs, handles maintenance, custodial, landscaping, and other tasks for over two hundred and fifty county-owned buildings.
For Day, coming from private industry is an asset. “We operate as close to the private sector as we legally can here,” he says. The county leadership team allows his department to explore alternative procurement opportunities and work with county counsel to find legal and ethical ways to move projects forward with greater speed and efficiency. San Bernardino County has more than eighty contracts with construction management firms, engineering consultants, and other partners from the private sector.
Stockton emphasized the importance of relationships. His protégé learned to take a customer-focused approach. At the county, leaders like the fire department chief and the regional parks director often become Day’s customers.
“We consider our municipal colleagues our customers,” Day says. “Everything we do should help them better serve their community.”
Today, Day’s team is planning and preparing a $124 million emergency operations center, a $50+ million animal shelter, $35 million and $50 million behavioral health facilities, and a handful of new fire stations. They will also complete over 300,000 square feet of renovations over the next few years.
The State of California has announced plans to invest in grants to address issues related to the mental health of the unhoused population. The sheer volume of funding, coupled with tight deadlines, make each project especially challenging. Some include ten buildings on a single campus with a budget of $50 million and a timeline of just twenty-four months. Thus, project and facilitates management has a team of specialists and consultants working together to identify processes like progressive design-build that may be appropriate for these jobs.
Everyone in projects and facilities management is working to help the department become a “world-class team” by the end of 2025, Day says. They’ll reach that target by exceeding expectations, accepting accountability, fostering collaboration, celebrating success, providing professional development, and encouraging work/life balance.
It’s a process, but Day knows he and his colleagues will reach all of their goals together. “We’ve done a ton of planning,” he says. “Now it’s time to execute.”
Our CannonDesign team is honored to partner with Donald Day and the County of San Bernardino. Together, we’ve designed buildings and environments that unite communities, foster connections, and have enhanced lives across the County. When dedicated individuals with a shared vision collaborate, extraordinary achievements become possible. Our team is grateful to have contributed to the remarkable progress happening throughout the great County of San Bernardino over the past twenty years.
