LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The current chief operations and development officer of the City of Las Vegas, Jorge Cervantes, has been with the city for 22 years.
He started as a project engineer and on Nov. 15, he will be the new city manager
The El Paso native will be replacing current City Manager Scott Adams, who has held that position for 3 years and is retiring after 16 years with the City of Las Vegas.
In an exclusive interview, Cervantes told 13 Action News that he’s excited and grateful for serving his community, using both numbers and human relations with business people, leaders in our community and other local governments, to solve current problems, especially those related to COVID-19.
Una entrevista con el hombre que se convertirá en el nuevo administrador municipal de Las Vegas. En espanola:
"Hopefully, as we come out of this getting back to where we were and making strides that we were, we will be doing very successful economically, and also focusing in our quality of life. We’ve got certain communities out there where we need to do additional improvements to help them out, some of our more underserving areas of town,” expressed Cervantes.
Coming from humble beginnings, Cervantes says he knows the difference opportunities can make in someone's life.
"You never know who's watching, you know. Do your best every day, the best you can, because somebody is watching you and before you know it, someone is going to tap you on the back of your shoulder... hey, we need your help, we’re going to move you to this position and that has been my experience,“ shared the soon-to-be new city manager.
Cervantes is aware that with great power, comes great responsibility
"Growing up in El Paso, which is a border city, having lived in Mexico for a while, folks that come from other countries, whether is Mexico or Central America, anywhere, Europe, a lot of times they're afraid of speaking up to the government because they're afraid of government doing something to them, so I would say, speak to us, let us know what your needs and your concerns are so we can try to address them,” said Cervantes.
As chief operations and development officer, Cervantes oversees the departments of Operation and Maintenance, Parks and Recreation, Economic and Urban Development, Public Works, Planning and Building and Safety.
He previously served as the director of Public Works from 2008 to 2014 before being named executive director of Community Development. Cervantes began his career with the city in 1998 as a project engineer. Subsequently, he was promoted to assistant city traffic engineer, city engineer and Public Works deputy director.
Cervantes earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering and a master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Texas at El Paso. He is licensed as a professional engineer in the states of Nevada and Texas and was one of the first in Nevada to be registered as a Professional Traffic Operations Engineer.
