San Jose’s assistant city manager Dave Sykes was promoted Tuesday to the city’s top management position. He will take over for current city manager Norberto Duenas when he retires on October 15.
Sykes is an experienced public servant who has spent the past three decades with San Jose. He joined the city in 1987 as a part-time engineering trainee, moving up the ladder of the Public Works Department and eventually becoming director and city engineer. He was born in the United Kingdom but moved to San Jose as a child where he has remained ever since.
Sykes’ performance as head of the city’s emergency center during February’s devastating floods became an issue of discussion before the vote. The city has been widely criticized for its response to the floods, but most council members said Sykes was not to blame for those failures.
“Obviously there’s a lot of second guessing now in retrospect,” said Mayor Sam Liccardo, “but after the flooding started in Rock Springs, Dave looked at it and said all the data is wrong and I’m throwing it out. I’m going to go with my instincts.”
Councilman Tam Nguyen also said Sykes had been given erroneous information. “So I gave him the benefit of the doubt, but I want to continue the conversation about emergency preparedness and disaster drills.”
Sykes was ultimately appointed by a unanimous vote. He thanked the council and expressed excitement about his new role.
Read more about Tuesday’s vote here.