The Needles City Council has elevated Patrick Martinez to the position of city manager, making him, at the age of 39, the youngest top municipal administrator in San Bernardino County currently.
Martinez was sworn in to replace his predecessor, Rick Daniels, earlier this month.
Martinez initially went to work with the City of Needles in 2017 as the director of development services. He advanced to the post of assistant city manager in 2021.
Martinez gravitated toward becoming a government employee at the age 25 in 2010, when he took a position as an intern analyst with the office of management consulting and training at the National Governors Association in Washington. D.C.
He attended Mt. San Antonio College and subsequently enrolled at the University of Southern California. Upon his graduation with a Bachelor of Science degree in public policy and real estate development in 2013, he found a paying position as an executive board member for the University of Southern California Trojan Real Estate Association, involving himself primarily in real estate development and urban planning. In 2014 he became a senior housing development consultant for the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, and held a similar post with the Perkins Design Corporation in 2015 to 2016. He was also the acquisitions manager for Mojoco Real Estate from August 2014 until June 2015. In 2016, he co-founded SP Global Realty. In 2017, just as he went to work in Needles, he was installed into an executive board position with the University of Southern California Alumni Real Estate Network and in 2019 accepted election to a one-year term as the chairman of that board. He remained on the board until he took on the assignment of assistant city manager in Needles.
Martinez has a California real estate broker license and boasts memberships with the Urban Land Institute, the California City Management Foundation and the California Association for Local Economic Development.
In addition to his public policy and real estate degrees, Martinez earned a master’s degree in urban planning from USC in 2015.
A registered Republican, Martinez is married.