About JOE
Joe Gorton is the former City Manager and former Police Chief of the City of San Ramon. Joe also served as the interim City Manager for the City of Winters. Joe has over 35 years of experience in local government. During his tenure, Joe was known for creating strong relationships with the business, schools, community, and faith-based organizations. In 2022, Joe was named employee of the year by the San Ramon Chamber of Commerce resulting from excellent leadership through the Covid 19 global pandemic. Additionally, Joe’s broad government experience has proven the to be the perfect acumen necessary to deliver several successful City Manager, Police Chief, Department Head, and other manager recruitments.
While City Manager, Joe led several major initiatives to include a Joint Partnership with the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District. This partnership included the development of a modern public safety complex for police and fire as well as a state-of-the-art emergency operations and communications center. The partnership also forged new ground in creating a joint dispatch center between the two agencies and a cutting-edge response to mental health calls in the community. Additionally, Joe served as a member of a regional leadership steering committee for mental health response protocols in Contra Costa County ultimately securing millions in funding for countywide mental health response. Joe’s further accomplishments include reorganizing city hall, securing funding from multiple sources for major public works projects, upgrading the city’s technology and implementing quality improvement and efficiency processes. Joe served as the City’s primary negotiator with developers interested in building in a thriving and growing city. Joe also served as a board member of the Contra Costa Economic Partnership.
Joe has a broad scope of law enforcement experience, starting his career in law enforcement at the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office and later transferring to the San Ramon Police Department when the city council voted to form their own police department after years of contracting police service with the sheriff’s office. Joe ultimately ascended the ranks to the Chief of Police for the San Ramon Police Department. Joe has over twenty-eight years of experience in law enforcement. One of the highlights of Joe's career was being selected as the second in command of the newly formed San Ramon Police Department and put in charge of its creation from the ground up. Joe was tasked with leading the transition team and was instrumental in the formation of the department.
Joe holds a Master of Science degree in Organizational Development from the University of San Francisco (USF) where he graduated in the top ten percent of his class. He also holds a Bachelor of Public Administration degree, receiving college honors, from USF and an Associates of Science degree in Administration of Justice from Butte College. Joe is a graduate of the California Command College and ranked number one in his academy class.
Joe was a member of various associations to include the International City Managers Association, California Public Managers Association, International Association of Chiefs of Police, California Association of Chiefs of Police, California Peace Officers Association, Police Futurist International as well as other community-based organizations.