Saratoga City Manager Matt Morley is leaving his job to be closer to home.
Morley, who has served as city manager since spring 2024, will start as city administrator come Feb. 9 in his hometown of Gilroy.
In his role in Saratoga, he helped organize the first “Safe Routes to School” event in a while with former mayor Belal Aftab and guided city staff as they navigated over 20 builder’s remedy applications for housing developments. In one instance, he helped reach an agreement with the developers of a housing project at Chester and Allendale avenues to retract their builder’s remedy application. He also was involved in the launch of an AI-based search engine to help users better navigate the city’s website.
“We wish Matt the best of luck in his new position,” said Saratoga Mayor Chuck Page, who thanked Morley for his work with the city.
Morley’s short tenure as city manager is not the norm in the city. Two previous city managers stayed in the position for a decade or more. James Lindsay served as Saratoga city manager from 2014 to 2024, and Dave Anderson spent 14 years in the role before then. In fact, Morley said he would have liked to finish his career in Saratoga, but when given the opportunity to serve in his hometown, he couldn’t pass it up. He and his wife and their parents all live in Gilroy, making family the biggest reason for the move.
“It’s really that sense of home that drew me to Gilroy, that being able to get back to the community that I grew up in and make a difference, make a mark in that community,” Morley said.
Gilroy Mayor Greg Bozzo said Morley was hired in a recruitment process following the retirement of Jimmy Forbis, who served as the south county city’s administrator for nine years.
“We thought Matt was the person who could best carry out the vision and goals of the city of Gilroy and the city council,” Bozzo said.
Bozzo said some of his priorities include economic development and tackling homelessness. Morley stressed the importance of cities partnering with nonprofit organizations and with the county, adding that he recognizes there may be more focus on finding ways to mitigate homelessness than to eradicate it. He said he wants to help revitalizing downtown Gilroy and its outlet mall by making them “a destination that people want to go and gather and hang out.” He also said he wanted to maintain the image of the city by managing lighting, trash and graffiti and curating well-designed and attractive gateways.
Additionally, Morley said he’s looking forward to working in a full-service city. Unlike Saratoga, which contracts with Santa Clara County for sheriff’s and fire services, Gilroy has its own police and fire departments.
“Right now, I work very closely with county fire to provide fire services and the sheriff to provide police services,” said Morley, adding that in Gilroy, “I’ll actually have them in-house, working for me, so that will be a great growth opportunity for me professionally.”
Morley has over 29 years of experience working in local government, according to a press release from the City of Gilroy. He started his career with the City of San Jose before spending nine years in Los Gatos as parks and public works director. He then moved on to Cupertino, where he served as public works director and assistant city manager.
“We are very excited that we have an opportunity to hire somebody that has the experience that Matt does and who was raised and currently lives in Gilroy,” Bozzo said. “And the fact that he’s coming home to be the city administrator of the city he grew up in his something that is very promising that all of our council is looking forward to.”
In the meantime, Saratoga’s assistant city manager Leslie Arroyo was unanimously appointed as interim city manager by the city council, which is gearing up the recruitment process to find a new city manager.
Leave a Reply