After almost a decade on the job, Los Gatos town manager Laurel Prevetti is stepping down to pursue other interests.
Prevetti, who started working for the town in 2014 and helped steer Los Gatos through the COVID-19 pandemic, said she’s looking forward to a change, hopefully a return to part-time adjunct teaching at San Jose State University, volunteering at local nonprofits and traveling.
“There comes a time when there are other aspects of life that are important to pursue,” she said.
She will be leaving the job on June 28, a decision she made to allow the town council enough time to find her replacement and facilitate a smooth transition.
She said the council will soon hold a closed session meeting to discuss the hiring process for her replacement. Prevetti may or may not be involved in the search; that decision would be up to the council, she said.
“Appointing a replacement will be one of the most important decisions of our town council and will take an organized approach,” Mayor Mary Badame said in a statement. “As we define our process and begin discussion, I remain hopeful for a smooth and orderly transition.”
Capping off roughly 38 years of working in local government – 28 of those with the city of San Jose – Prevetti is most proud of the work she did to help guide Los Gatos through the pandemic.
Adapting to ever-changing public health mandates regarding social distancing, masking and vaccines and maintaining the town’s police force and library services proved challenging but rewarding, she said.
“It really wasn’t just me; it was really all of the department heads in the staff kind of coming together,” she said.
Badame said Prevetti even played a role in encouraging her to continue in public service when she first joined the Los Gatos Planning Commission, as Prevetti was overseeing it in 2014.
“She honed my skills as a newly elected council member in 2020 and has steadfastly provided support in my current role as mayor,” Badame said.
Prevetti also noted the town and police department’s efforts to engage in community policing and de-escalation techniques that have helped ensure that residents of Los Gatos are treated with “compassion and empathy” in interactions they have with law enforcement.
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“I’m very proud of how we have really embraced community policing here in Los Gatos,” she said.
Prevetti’s entry into local government came after time spent in Costa Rica and Brazil, where she worked to protect and maintain tropical rainforests and help research and write a college level textbook on agroforestry. Her background in science, preservation and land use coupled with a longtime interest in policy helped her transition smoothly to her work with the City of San Jose and eventually Los Gatos, she said.
“A lot of the ecological training that I had served me super well,” she said. “I also studied a lot of policy when I was a student. I was always very interested in how policy got made, and how we can apply science to really make great policies to protect a land and to do the things that are important.”
Despite her long career in local government, Prevetti said she has no interest in running for public office.
“I don’t really have any political aspirations at all,” she said. “It’s definitely hard work, and I appreciate and admire all of our elected officials. But for me, I’m more of a staff person than an elected one.”
After nearly a decade spent working behind the scenes in Los Gatos and despite major projects such as the North 40 development that have been controversial throughout Los Gatos, Prevetti said she has seen how the character of the town has largely remained the same.
“In many ways Los Gatos is the exact same beautiful place it was when I started working here in 2014,” she said.