San Mateo Public Works Director Wins Prestigious Award

The director of Public Works in San Mateo has been honored with a prestigious award from the League of California Cities.

One of the highest accolades bestowed by the league, the 2012 James L. Martin Award was granted to Larry Patterson for his strong work with the San Mateo Public Works Department, the city of San Mateo announced Friday.

Patterson has been the director of Public Works since June 2000, and has more than 35 years of experience in traffic engineering, transportation planning and public works engineering.

Prior to working for San Mateo, Patterson owned his own transportation engineering firm and provided traffic engineering consulting services throughout northern California.

Patterson serves on a number of advocacy and policy bodies of the League of California Cities, including the Transportation, Communications, Public Works Policy Committee.

Patterson's leadership has resulted in the completion of a series of flood infrastructure improvements, which will ultimately remove mandatory flood insurance purchase requirements for approximately 6,000 homes in San Mateo.

He is also responsible for leading the effort to organize the San Mateo County Rail Corridor Partnership, a multi-jurisdictional group seeking to maximize influence on High Speed Rail Project decisions that affect San Mateo County.

"Larry Patterson has seen his staff and our residents through significant and challenging Public Works projects and decisions," Mayor Brandt Grotte said in a statement. "We will all benefit from his leadership for years to come."

The James L. Martin Award was created by the Public Works Officers Department of the League of California Cities in order to honor James L. Martin, an outstanding member of the public works profession for more than 35 years.

"I am humbled by the award and feel fortunate to be surrounded by a hard working staff and visionary public Works leaders," Patterson said. "The public works challenges of our time is easier when you have the right combination of staff and peers to support you."

To learn more about this award or The League of California Cities, visit: http://www.cacities.org.

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