Alma Martinez works to serve El Monte residents

Alma Martinez said she can’t point to an exact moment when she decided to be a public servant, but she has always wanted to help people. 

“Since I was a kid I found it fascinating the ability to make positive changes in people’s lives,” Martinez said. She has been city manager of El Monte for almost five years, the first woman and the first Latina to manage the city, located east of Los Angeles. 

During her tenure, there are plans for a new Target to open later this year in the fall, as well as a Chick-fil-A, In-N-Out, Raising Cane’s, and Starbucks.

"With support of city council we were able to bring forth economic development," Martinez said. 

The city manager also helped facilitate the opening of an LGBTQ Center for the city.

CALÓ News asked if it was difficult to present the idea to El Monte residents. "It was challenging when you bring an idea to a community that’s not used to seeing spaces for LGBT folks," Martinez said. 

She was also in charge of overseeing the Project Home Key to provide housing for homeless people. She personally negotiated the purchase of two hotels that the city bought. "We’ve had one of the first projects of Home Key," Martinez said.

Before working as a city manager for El Monte, she was also city manager for Lynwood and Compton. 

Martinez graduated from UCLA with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and later on earned a Master Degree in Urban Planning. She is currently in the Doctoral Program in Policy Planning and Development at USC. She plans to one day work in academia. 

“I see myself going back to academia, hopefully USC or UCLA. I would love to teach at one of those urban planning schools, share my experience with a new generation of planners,” she said.

She also wants to be a mentor for future city managers. "I want to formalize a mentoring program for people of color who want to be city manager," Martinez said.

Her love for learning started young, as her parents recalled. She was born in the Mexican town of Tecalitlán, Jalisco, but moved to the U.S. when she was 14. She learned English quickly and within a year she moved out of ESL classes. “She always had honors,” said her mother Maria Martinez. “She has always been an intelligent girl since she was young,” her father Rigoberto Martinez, a union member of Kroger supermarket, added.  

She is the eldest child and has three younger brothers. Maria Martinez shared over the phone that all her children were student presidents, but her daughter set the example. "The school said it was the Martinez dynasty," her mother said. 

Martinez said she looks up to Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis as a Latina leader. 

Other leaders in the city like the chief of police, welcome working with Martinez.

"Under Ms. Martinez's leadership, the city has invested significantly in technology, including $1.8 million in ALPRS cameras and drones, among other initiatives, aimed at enhancing the efficiency, effectiveness, and safety of the dedicated men and women of the El Monte Police Department," Jake Fisher, El Monte chief of police said in a statement.  

She has also faced a few controversies, like the claim that she was using an application to delete messages, according to a lawsuit filed by a cannabis company that alleged corruption from the city when it awarded licenses to prospective dispensaries. The San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported that the case did not proceed. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James Chalfant said some of the city's choices were "concerning" but ultimately ruled against the cannabis company.

When Solis started having protesters outside her home, Martinez brought an item to the city council to create a 300-foot buffer zone. 

According to Political Life, some cities “require council members to garner majority support from the majority of their colleagues if they want to place an item on the agenda.” 

In October 2021, she placed the item of the 300-foot buffer zone between protestors and the homes of elected officials. El Monte City Council voted 3-2 approving the measure. 

When CALÓ News asked Martinez about placing items in the agenda, she said that is part of her job. 

“As a city manager, I'm in charge of putting the agenda together per the city code. And that is how items get on the agenda. In fact, back then it was the city manager or the mayor [who could] also ask for items to be on the agenda,” she said.

Martinez added that the city council has changed the rules so council members can also add items to the agenda.  

“Nowadays, the city council changed it to where the majority of the council ... three of the council members ... can add an item to the agenda by putting together a memo requesting the item to be added," she said. "But the agenda is staff-driven.” 

She also added that even though she can place items in the agenda, she doesn’t vote on them. “I don't have voting authority, so I don't vote on anything.” 

According to the Political Life report, El Monte residents said that people were protesting elected officials like Hilda Solis.  

“As a city manager I get to put items on the agenda that I believe are to the greater benefit of the community and it's on the city code that that is part of my responsibility,” Martinez said.