Sunnyvale city manager announces retirement

Kent Steffens led ‘some of the biggest projects in the city’s history.'

After more than seven years as Sunnyvale’s city manager, Kent Steffens announced he will retire at the end of June.

Prior to his tenure as city manager, Steffen served as Sunnyvale’s director of public works for four years and as assistant city manager for three years. During this time, he dedicated four new city parks: Seven Seas, Swegles, Wiser and Muwékma.

Steffens was also responsible for developing and initiating the Civic Center Modernization Master Plan. This three-phase vision for the 26-acre campus has so far resulted in an addition to the Department of Public Safety’s headquarters, a new net zero-energy city hall built to LEED Platinum standards, and six acres of public open space.

Steffens was also involved with developing and executing the Sunnyvale Cleanwater Program, a long-term initiative to rebuild the city’s wastewater treatment plant and the largest capital improvement program in Sunnyvale’s history. He guided the Active Transportation Plan and Vision Zero, both of which address safety and infrastructure improvements for Sunnyvale roadways.

“It’s been such an honor to work beside our dedicated employees and city council as we’ve steered through challenges and achieved many successes,” said Steffens in a statement. “Not only have we continued Sunnyvale’s tradition of long-range planning and disciplined financial management, we’ve tackled some of the biggest projects in the city’s history.”

Mayor Larry Klein said Steffens “has been a strategic, thoughtful and productive city manager. Kent has built a great organization and leaves us in a strong, stable position to continue progress on numerous initiatives important to our community.”

In addition to Sunnyvale, Steffens has worked with the cities of Menlo Park, Palo Alto and Foster City.

Sunnyvale will begin a recruitment process for a new city manager later this spring.