Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Human Resources topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Gilroy Personnel Commission highlights internships, hiring surge and engineering career ladders in HR report
Summary
At a July 1, 2026 special meeting the Human Resources Director reported a nine‑person summer internship program (over half from Gilroy), high application volumes including 74 applications for one opening, recent promotions and planned job‑classification updates across engineering, finance and utilities.
The Human Resources Director told the Gilroy Personnel Commission on July 1 that the city is running its largest summer college internship program to date with nine interns—more than half from Gilroy—placed across departments and participating in cross‑agency networking and learning forums.
Staff also reported strong recruitment activity: the management assistant posting drew 74 applications in five days, and multiple recruitments are in the final pre‑hire or chief interview stages. The director highlighted recent internal promotions, including water operator and fire‑engineer promotions, and described the assessment‑center process required for engineer promotions and apparatus operation qualifications.
On hiring, staff announced two incoming leaders: Derek Craig, named utilities director, is scheduled to start July 21, and Michael Horta, who recently left an HR director post in Morgan Hill, was described as beginning work in Gilroy "on Monday" as stated in the meeting. The director also noted the city bought the adjacent Jessup's Trucking property to expand the corporation yard and move water and wastewater operations into the acquired buildings while maintaining a unified team culture.
Staff outlined planned classification changes to create clearer career ladders for engineers (junior, assistant, associate, senior) to aid recruitment and retention and said related job descriptions will be returned to the commission (expected on July 27). The director also discussed a tentative agreement with employee group 'Ask Me Local 101'; the union's ratification vote is scheduled for July 14 and, if ratified, the city council will consider open‑session approval on July 27.
"We have nine summer interns here working in all different departments in the city ... over half of them are um from Gilroy," the Human Resources Director said, highlighting local participation in the internship program. Staff emphasized the city's emphasis on employee development and internal promotion pathways as a retention tool.
Next steps include finalizing job descriptions for engineering, finance and police classifications, distributing updated organization charts, and proceeding with ratification and council approval steps tied to the tentative labor agreement.
