Career and leadership begins with encouragement and mentorship from a number of people. In my case: my parents, my older sisters, parochial school nuns, high school teachers, and professional mentors. My first mentor, my dad, was born in Durango, Mexico, and had no formal education.

Our mother, born in rural pre-statehood New Mexico, completed education only to the third grade because to continue schooling, she would have had to leave home. Her biggest contribution to her children was love for education; all seven children finished college.

Our grandfather was a sheep rancher involved in statehood for New Mexico. He and our father lost their sheep in the 1930s dustbowl. Our parents then moved to California, became farm workers/laborers, and survived with lots of tenacity, hope, inspiration, and dreams for their children.

They were living in a farm labor camp in Tagus, California, when my sister Nieves and I were born. My birth certificate’s address is Tagus Ranch, Cabin 28, Camp 7, a sort of “Grapes of Wrath” story. Mom and dad got us through that and much more. They were our foundation.

A Path of Encouragement and Inspiration

My journey continues in parochial school where I met my future wife and lifetime friend, Cecelia, in the second grade. Sister Francis, our teacher in the seventh grade, encouraged my interest in engineering and airplanes. Also, my sisters, Antonia, who encouraged all the younger siblings to get A’s, and Frances, who in 1949 was one of the first Latinas to go to UC Berkeley (AB cum laude), set a family standard.

High school teachers also encouraged me, especially my math teacher, Jack Bradley, and Kiwanis Key Club adviser Charles Buckton, who encouraged me to run for student body president—my first major leadership opportunity. There were not many role models in the 1950s, so my sister Fran was mine.

My goal was to become an engineer and follow my sister to Berkeley. The Berkeley experience included more than engineering. I listened to such speakers as President John F. Kennedy at the Greek Theatre, attended concerts, met with such Nobel Prize scientists as physicist Edward Teller, and went to sporting events.

Another inspiration was my hydraulics professor Dr. Hans Albert Einstein, Albert Einstein’s son. I can still recall Dr. Einstein putting his hand on my shoulder while checking my hydraulics experiment in the lab. My major was civil engineering with a focus on structural engineering that included an aircraft design course.

Being hired by Boeing to work on a spaceship, the DynaSoar, was a dream come true. That program was soon cancelled, so I was assigned to the Minuteman ICBM program, and later as a design engineer on the original 737 design team.

I was also a design engineer/scientist supervisor on the DC8, DC9, and DC10 at McDonnell Douglas. The Minuteman assignment was quality control of the missile silos and control centers construction together with Air Force and Army Corps of Engineers officers. This heavy steel and concrete experience was useful later on major construction in Phoenix, Arizona (freeways and Sky Harbor International Airport), and Fresno, California (baseball stadium and Fresno Yosemite International Airport).

I was at Minot AFB, North Dakota, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, during which SAC B-52s were on war alert. Boeing engineers had security clearance, which was checked regularly since Minot AFB was a prime target if the Soviets sent ICBMs to this country.

JFK was assassinated when I was at Warren AFB, Cheyenne, Wyoming, which resulted in another war alert. Aerospace engineering had a lot of useful experience for a future city manager, including confidentiality, creativity, experimentation, heavy construction, project management, scheduling, on-time performance, precision, quality, risk taking, tension, and stress.

On the Road to City Management

My transition to city management began with the National Urban Fellows (NUF), a program founded in 1969 by Frank Logue, a Connecticut lawyer, with the goal of increasing the number of minorities and women in national, state, and local government. His assistant was Laura DeLauro, now a congresswoman from Connecticut; she and Frank were mentors at the beginning of my transition.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National League of Cities sponsored NUF, which was funded by the Ford Foundation. It was modeled on Japanese corporate mentorship, a method that emphasized being in the mentor’s office, shadowing him or her at all meetings, and learning while on the job at the executive level.

NUF mentors were a U.S. senator, governors, mayors, city managers, and staff of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. National interest in the use of technology to solve urban problems, including technology transfer, also helped my transition.

Bill Donaldson, city manager of Tacoma, Washington, was one of the first to use technology in solving problems. Tacoma had a no-cost contract with Boeing that provided an engineer and a physicist to the city to conduct several experiments. Bill was on the NUF interview panel and saw me as an additional aerospace engineer for his technology team.

Bill, who was the son of a Dow Chemical Company vice president, was my first city management mentor. My 1972–1973 NUF fellowship began with intense study of urban issues at Yale University, continued with off-campus study while in Tacoma, and concluded at Occidental College with a master’s degree in urban studies.

As an NUF mentor, Bill followed the Japanese model. My desk was in his office, and he took me everywhere, with small lectures along the way, continuing tutelage in urban studies. Bill signed me up as an ICMA associate member and took me to several Washington state association meetings.

At these meetings, I met other city managers who also became mentors and later were part of my being appointed as an ICMA at-large vice president. I was also able to go to my first ICMA conference in Seattle. Bill also included me in meetings with the mayor, councilmembers, and local corporate leaders.

Bill assigned me to work on several technology issues as an NUF fellow. These included design, construction, and interim operation of an upgraded, combined radio system and call center for police/sheriff/fire/public works/transit (pre 911), and design of a hi-tech fireboat to replace a 1929 displacement hull fireboat. Police Chief Lyle Smith trusted me enough to assign the radio engineer, an officer, and a sergeant for my supervision on the radio/call center project.

Another project was development and implementation of a better method for long-term financing of local improvement districts (LIDs) for the public works and finance departments. It converted general fund borrowing to an ongoing LID bond program. I worked closely with a local bond underwriter and a Seattle bond counsel.

After the fellowship, Bill asked me to stay as an assistant to the city manager. I later became deputy city manager, and then assistant city manager when Bill become manager of Cincinnati—quite a transformation of an aerospace engineer to city management. I finished my MBA, begun at the University of Washington while working at Boeing and while working at the city of Tacoma. I completed it at a Southern Illinois University off-campus program at McCord AFB/Tacoma for Air Force officers, which included civilians to broaden the officers’ experience.

I was in Tacoma for seven years. My first city manager assignment was Yuma, Arizona. Then it was deputy city manager of Phoenix and San Diego, and city manager, Pomona, California.

I stayed four to seven years in each city. Pomona was a special case of reengineering an organization from the bottom up, including filling several vacant positions and developing a new budget from scratch. In Pomona, consultants Dr. Bill Mathis, Mathis & Associates, and Jerry Newfarmer, president, Management Partners, were helpful to me as both consultants and mentors.

My ICMA Days

Getting into an ICMA leadership position was a totally unexpected journey. As mentioned before, being involved with the Washington state association was the beginning. At the time, the ICMA Executive Board had two nonvoting assistants, but the Young Professionals Task Force, the National Black Forum of Public Administrators, and others were pushing for a change, that is, permanent voting board members.

The board put a constitutional amendment on a ballot, providing for two assistant at-large VPs; this was approved by a vote of the corporate members. I attended the 1975 conference in Toronto, where the board implemented the amendment. Within minutes of arriving at the hotel where I was staying, I got a call from ICMA staff, informing me that the board wanted me to attend its meeting. No reason was given.

My luggage was “lost” but fortunately arrived in time for me to shower, shave, change from my slacks, and rush to the meeting. Upon entering the board meeting, I was greeted by President Joe Miller, city manager, Bellevue, Washington, and Vice President Allen Locke, city manager, Kirkland, Washington. They likely nominated me for one of the at-large VP slots due to my Washington state association experiences. Judy Kelsey, assistant city manager, Westminster, California, was the other at-large VP.

Joe informed me of the appointment and that to start a rotation, Judy got a two-year term and I got a one-year term. As a consolation prize of sorts, the board appointed me to a four-year term on the ICMA-RC board. I served an additional four years and two years on the ICMA-RC Board of Trustees.

I was introduced at the ICMA conference convening session, after which I was inundated by dozens of assistant city managers and other young professionals with congratulations and suggestions. My wife and I spent the next year attending assistant organization meetings around the country and reported our findings and suggestions at quarterly board meetings.

Our first official board meeting was in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, conducted by Jacques Perreault, city manager of Quebec, who was the first Canadian to serve as an ICMA president. Another first was when Sylvester Murray, city manager of Cincinnati, Ohio, served as the first African American on the board. Diversity at the board level had begun.

Managers on the board became my mentors, too, and shared extensive quality experience. They included Mark Keane, Joe Miller, Allen Locke, Sy Murray, George Schrader (city manager, Dallas, Texas), Dick Bolin (city manager, Newnan, Georgia), Bob Kipp (city manager, Kansas City, Missouri), and of course Jacques, all who were always attentive and caring. Almost 40 years later, George and I are still in contact.

My RC Days

When I first began to work at ICMA-RC in 1976, as I recall, its total value was some $7.5 million and was operating on an IRS Letter of Approval. Congressional approval of the 457 Plan was only a goal. So, in addition to focusing on investments, we spent time on marketing the plan to managers who were skeptical of the IRS Letter and of the concept, as well as the legislative effort to get congressional approval.

I made ICMA-RC presentations at several state association meetings. I recall one personal effort with the Oregon City Management Association, when the Oregon attorney general issued an opinion that would only allow investments in government issues (e.g., U.S. treasuries, agency notes, and so forth).

I knew most of the Oregon managers since the northwest associations (Washington, Oregon, British Columbia) met biannually. That led to creation of an ICMA-RC fund limited to those eligible investments. Once ICMA got congressional approval of 457 Plans, insurance companies jumped in with all kinds of promises, including no-fees, lower fees, and agents in the field.

At an ICMA-RC board meeting in Yuma, we made the decision to add regional field representatives and restructure fees. It was a split vote, primarily due to a concern by ICMA that the membership might then want ICMA field reps too, which it could not afford. That structure never materialized, though the ICMA Range Rider program was expanded.

ICMA-RC got near its first billion in asset value by the time I left. More reorganization and better management occurred later, which has led to much more success for ICMA-RC.

Mentoring Young Professionals

I’ve already described the mentoring process I learned under Bill Donaldson. His style became my approach, though I made additions to it. For example, I included secretaries so that they became part of a team in support of department directors and the manager’s staff. This included monthly training sessions and a semiannual “retreat” at a local university. I also had the opportunity to mentor several young professionals whom I supervised, others in the organization, and some from other communities. Yuma, Phoenix, and Pomona provided the most opportunities to mentor young professionals.

Three examples of assistants who became managers are Ruth Osuna, Sterling Pruitt (Phoenix), and Noelia Chapa (Pomona). A fourth is Cora “Corky” Montanez, a management analyst in Fresno, who was promoted to the position of the aviation department’s human resources director.

Corky had finished about a year of college, so I encouraged her to finish her degree and then an executive MBA. She also got experience as my assistant reorganizing a large general services department and on stadium and airport concourse construction projects.

Noelia had been a manager of a small city but went on to larger communities. Ruth and Noelia received promotions following the conventional methods—applications, headhunters, and interviews. Mentoring included taking them to meetings, coaching, and teaching them management techniques, especially budgeting. Ruth also worked at ICMA to assist with the Hispanic Network, where she gained association experience.

Sterling was a special case, having been passed over for several assistant department director positions. He had been working in the Phoenix Office of Management & Budget for several years, where he assisted me with my five department budgets and the capital budget. When Ruth was promoted to an assistant director position, Sterling approached me about being hired for the new management assistant to deputy city manager position.

The problem was that deputies rated a management assistant II position whereas Sterling was a management analyst III. I convinced City Manager Marvin Andrews to make an exception due to the more than 2,000 employees in the five departments, several billions (1985 number) of citywide capital projects, and Sterling’s knowledge of the departments. He would hit the ground running.

Sterling was interested in becoming a manager, so I assigned duties that would broaden his experience. I also redesigned his resume, including a functional work title other than management analyst III. He became assistant city manager of Beaumont, Texas, and later city manager.

Hispanic Emphasis

The founding of the ICMA Hispanic Network, now the International Hispanic Network (IHN), by a small group of Hispanic managers was another mentoring opportunity for me and other Hispanic managers. They included Joel Valdez, city manager, Tucson, Arizona; Alex Briseno, assistant city manager, San Antonio, Texas; Tony Ojeda, assistant city manager, Miami-Dade County, Florida; Jim Jaramillo, chief administrative officer, Albuquerque, New Mexico; Gavino Sotelo, assistant city manager, Odessa, Texas; Calixto Torres, management assistant, Hartford, Connecticut; and George Flores, management assistant, Phoenix, Arizona.

I first met Joel Valdez when ICMA met in Tucson in 1976 while I was an ICMA vice president. Joel became a mentor to all of us; he was like our Latino godfather.

Starting the network required some funding and staff assistance, so I met with ICMA Assistant Director Don Borut to explore options for ICMA assistance. When the ICMA board met at the Grand Canyon Lodge, I enlisted the help of Joel Valdez and incoming ICMA President Roy Pederson, city manager, Scottsdale, Arizona.

We met for breakfast with ICMA Executive Director Mark Keane. Mark agreed to hire a new ICMA staff member to help us organize and secure funding for a Hispanic Emphasis Program. Ruben Mendoza joined ICMA in September 1978.

This small beginning resulted in federal funding that would eventually provide graduate scholarships to more than 200 Hispanic students seeking to enter local government service. This fellowship program—called the Hispanic Field Service Program—was uniquely funded by six or seven federal departments, starting with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In addition, the fellowships were sponsored by a consortium of 16 universities. Several of the graduating M.P.A.’s are Hispanic municipal government leaders today.

Ruben would go on to organize a series of Hispanic Emphasis Program outreach conferences in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Miami. The outreach conferences culminated in the National Hispanics in Government Conference held in 1981 in San Antonio, Texas.

This national conference drew more than 880 participants from local, county, state, and federal government. Such a small program and initiative eventually grew into the ICMA Hispanic Network and the current International Hispanic Network.

Mentoring young professionals was the most rewarding aspect of my career. Management challenges and completing major engineering projects in major cities, of course, were rewarding too. I’ve been truly blessed with the mentoring and many opportunities I received.