[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 108 (Wednesday, June 27, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E930]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




UPON THE OCCASION OF THE RETIREMENT OF PAT MARTEL FROM THE POSITION OF 
                       CITY MANAGER OF DALY CITY

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JACKIE SPEIER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 27, 2018

  Ms. SPEIER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor Pat Martel, the retiring 
City Manager of Daly City, California. Pat has served the people of 
Daly City, in one important capacity or another, for nearly two 
decades. To say that this is the end of an era in San Mateo County 
would be a profound understatement.
  Pat Martel spent thirty-five years in local government service. The 
people of Inglewood, South San Francisco, San Francisco, and Daly City 
have all benefitted from Pat's steady hand and well-recognized skill at 
forming coalitions. She runs a city by the numbers, but with a heart. 
This is exemplified in part by her participation in nonprofit 
activities where she has served as Chair of Peninsula Family Service 
Agency, a nonprofit dedicated to helping struggling families in San 
Mateo County. She dedicated her life to her fellow professionals by 
volunteering to serve as a board member of the California City 
Management Foundation, served on the City Managers Department of the 
League of California Cities, and volunteered for the board of the 
International Hispanic Network.
  I have worked with Pat Martel for decades. Many of my most important 
judgments were informed by Pat's advice. During the crucial time when 
San Francisco was determining how to upgrade and reinforce the critical 
Hetch Hetchy water system, serving 2.4 million users in San Francisco 
and the Bay Area, Pat assured me that city voters would pass the bond 
needed to make repairs. This reassurance led me to work with Pat and 
many others to get the measure passed and to establish a local 
government oversight board for the project. Without question, the water 
supply of these millions of people and businesses is more secure 
because Pat Martel was in the job when the job needed a tremendous 
leader.
  The City of Daly City has undergone enormous changes since Pat 
arrived. It has always been a thriving commercial and cultural center 
on the Peninsula. ``The Gateway to the Peninsula'' is the city's motto, 
and Pat and her team kept the gateway sparkling and thriving despite 
sometimes difficult economic times over the years. Above all else, Daly 
City is a city of families. Pat is recognized as a strong advocate for 
city services such as libraries and parks that draw people together so 
that the fabric of community may be created and reinforced.
  She is a graduate of the University of Southern California from which 
she received her B.S. degree in Public Affairs, and a Master's Degree 
in Public Administration. She is an ICMA Credentialed Manager and, in 
2014, she was elected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Public 
Administration. Pat also has numerous other awards from her years of 
service, including those from the San Francisco Business Times and 
Kaiser Permanente and KQED radio, all of which recognized her as an 
outstanding manager and leader.
  Daly City sits on the bluffs above the Pacific Ocean, at its edges 
defying gravity as its cliff faces plunge into the water and its hang 
gliders dare nature in their soaring beauty. It is a complex place 
filled with honest and hardworking people. Even on its foggiest and 
windiest days, the people of Daly City are a furnace of good spirits 
and community pride.
  Over the years, the city has known many local giants who, 
collectively, first developed local dairy farms into housing, brought 
in freeways and mass transit, and then decades later redeveloped the 
town into a modern suburb housing families from every point on the 
globe. All of those prior local giants would have embraced Pat Martel, 
just as the modern population extends its hand to her in thanks.
  Since there really isn't a place on the city's ocean front from which 
to launch a ship into the sunset, I expect to instead see Pat Martel 
poised under a hang glider, atop a bluff, as she leaves her city 
behind. As she's done in the past, she will have done her homework so 
that she will not only soar with the others, but lead them as well into 
new expanses. We wish Pat well and know that she will not fail in her 
next adventure, for no one who knows her could imagine anything but 
success in all her future years. She will take her colorful kite with 
her, but behind she will leave a rainbow of good wishes and a pot of 
gold--a legacy of great management and great love for all people--for 
the next generation to treasure.

                          ____________________