City Manager Ed Shikada announced today the selection of Alan Kurotori as Palo Alto’s Utilities Director. Kurotori has served as the City’s Utilities Chief Operating Officer for the last eight months, coming to Palo Alto with over 30 years municipal utilities and City government executive leadership experience. The selection follows a robust national executive recruitment launched following the retirement of Utilities Director Dean Batchelor and is subject to City Council confirmation, scheduled for May 19.
“I am thrilled to announce the selection of Alan as the City’s Utilities director and believe his qualifications, leadership and utilities experience strongly aligns well with Palo Alto’s values and strategic direction,” said Ed Shikada, city manager of Palo Alto. “Alan has a strong track record of operational excellence, innovation and community engagement and is well positioned to lead critical priorities such as utility reliability and infrastructure advancements, environmental sustainability and innovative service delivery to meet the needs of our utility customers.”
Palo Alto Utilities Department is the City’s largest department with over 279 employees, providing a full array of services to residents and businesses including electricity, water, wastewater, natural gas, and fiber optics. As one of very few locally owned utilities with this range of services, Palo Alto is recognized nationally as innovative and leading in reliability, safety, environmental sustainability, workforce development and system improvement while maintaining rate affordability. With over 125 years of public utility operations, the department leads in supplying a carbon neutral electricity and gas through renewable energy, carbon emission offsets, and programs to help customers use energy and water more efficiently, reduce their carbon footprint and integrate new technologies. The department is advancing innovative service delivery, including exploring fiber to the premises as a pilot and implementing robust grid modernization efforts.
“I look forward to continuing to work with the City Manager and the City’s executive leadership team, the Palo Alto City Council, Utilities Advisory Commission, and the Palo Alto community in this new capacity,” said Alan Kurotori, Palo Alto utilities director. “Partnering together with our dedicated Utilities team, I am committed to ensuring reliability and safety, fostering community engagement and collaborative decision-making and advancing progress on utilities priorities using industry best practices.”
Kurotori joined the City of Palo Alto as Utilities Chief Operating Officer and has since advanced strategic initiatives such as the Foothill Fire Mitigation Project electrical undergrounding anticipated this summer and California Independent System Operator’s projected approval of a new 115KV (“Second”) Transmission Line serving Palo Alto. Kurotori has served in several executive level municipal utility roles including over twenty years with the City of Santa Clara as Water & Sewer Utilities director, assistant city manager during the construction of Levi’s NFL Stadium, and assistant director of Electric Utility (Silicon Valley Power), plus additional Bay Area municipal executive leadership roles at Valley Water and the City of Mountain View. Kurotori also has experience in the private sector as engineering consultant in water supply, wastewater, recycled water, and public works.
Kurotori was recently elected to the Board of Governors for the California Municipal Utilities Association (CMUA), which represents 84 publicly owned electric utilities, water and wastewater agencies statewide and is a registered professional civil engineer in California. Kurotori holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
Kurotori will take on his new role at the end of May with a salary of $375,000. Council consideration and confirmation of the utilities director selection is set for May 19, 2025.
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About the City of Palo Alto
Palo Alto, known as the “Birthplace of Silicon Valley,” is home to 69,700 residents and nearly 100,000 jobs. Unique among city organizations, the City of Palo Alto operates a full-array of services including its own gas, electric, water, sewer, refuse and storm drainage provided at very competitive rates for its customers. The City of Palo Alto offers robust community amenities including 36 parks, 39 playgrounds, five community and youth centers, 41 miles of walking/biking trails and five libraries. The City also manages a regional airport and provides fire, police and emergency services. Palo Alto is an award-winning City recognized nationally as innovative and well-managed, one of a small number of California cities with a AAA bond rating. City services and performance also receive high marks from community members in the annual citizen survey conducted by Polco (previously National Research Center).
As the global center of technology and innovation, Palo Alto is the corporate headquarters and/or research facilities for many world-class companies such as VMWare, Hewlett-Packard, and Tesla. Home to Stanford University and a top-ranked public school system, Palo Alto also features beautiful and historic residential neighborhoods, vibrant shopping and retail districts. Palo Alto has a highly educated and culturally sophisticated citizenry that is actively engaged in making a difference both locally and globally.
For more information, visit the City of Palo Alto’s website at www.paloalto.gov, or follow the City on Twitter, Facebook, Medium, Next Door, Instagram and LinkedIn, by going to www.paloalto.gov/connect. Sign-up for City newsletters at www.paloalto.gov/