East Palo Alto City Council unanimously extended a conditional offer to its interim manager, Carlos Martinez, to be its new city manager, the city announced in a press release on Monday.
Martinez has served in a variety of management roles responsible for redevelopment, economic development and housing for the past 11 years. He has served as interim city manager since October 2014.
The council expects to make a formal appointment and approve an employment agreement with Martinez at its regular meeting on March 3. The city will conduct a thorough background check and negotiate the terms of the agreement in the coming weeks, according to the announcement. Mayor Lisa Yarbrough-Gauthier has appointed a committee comprised of herself and Vice Mayor Donna Rutherford to represent the council in the negotiations.
Martinez was selected after an extensive recruitment and evaluation process led by CPS HR, a Sacramento-based public sector executive search firm. The council reviewed more than 30 applications during the search process. The most qualified candidates were invited to interviews with the council and were asked to meet with a 10-person community review panel. The council met a second time with the top applicants on Feb. 7 and decided unanimously to appoint Martinez, according to the announcement.
Martinez has two master’s degrees from the University of California Berkeley, one in architecture and a second in city planning. He worked for the City of Hayward in economic development, for a nonprofit economic development corporation, as a San Francisco City/County supervisor and in the private sector as an architect and planner. He has also run his own small business.
Council members praised Martinez’s commitment to the East Palo Alto community, and for his service as interim city manager.
“Carlos has demonstrated his passion for the East Palo Alto community. We are confident he will provide administrative leadership to the city staff as we work together to meet the needs of our community in a fiscally responsible manner. We expect Carlos to be a very effective advocate for East Palo Alto with employers, investors and other public agencies in the Bay Area,” Yarbrough-Gauthier said.
Yes. Do the background check. My quick check of the name online did not show this guy anywhere else.
@who? : Carlos Martinez has been an incredible community partner and staff person for the last 11+ years. We are thrilled to have him as our City Manager. It’s about time EPA had someone from the community working for the community. kudos!
I am really happy about this choice. Mr. Martinez was badly marginalized by Magda Gonzalez, who rightly assessed that he was a threat to her: Intelligent, bilingual, highly educated, personable, good at building relationships with stakeholders, a thoughtful listener and very respectful, Martinez is a much better fit. We are lucky to have him, and I’m relieved that the dark days under Magda’s ham-fisted rule are over!