Longtime Las Vegas employee promotes nine times to become first Latina deputy city manager

The mention of her name at a City Council meeting inspired loud cheers from a crowd of coworkers who had showed up to support the civil servant’s appointment to a high-level executive position with Las Vegas.

Rosa Cortez was unanimously ratified as a deputy city manager Aug. 20, becoming the first Latina at the post in the municipality’s history.

She recently told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that she couldn’t have imagined that moment through various stages of her life.

Not when she was a young girl living with her sizeable Mexican-American family in an east Las Vegas affordable housing development, dreaming of becoming a math teacher, and not when she was a UNLV engineering student interning for the city in 1998.

Even when Cortez returned as a full-time employee, it took her a few years to realize that that’s where she wanted to serve out her career.

“I worked hard: I understood what my responsibility was as a government employee, as a civil servant: to serve our community,” she said in an interview. “And I really love that about my job. … I’m constantly able to provide programs and services to our city to make it better; to make it impactful.”

Pitching Cortez’s ninth promotion with Las Vegas, City Manager Mike Janssen told the council about her accomplishments in her various positions, which included project manager.

“It’s fair to say that she’s been instrumental in the development of huge areas of our city and billions — I say billions of dollars — in infrastructure,” he said in late August.

‘She does an outstanding job’

Cortez is tasked with overseeing the Office of Emergency Management and the departments of public works and parks and recreation.

She earns a yearly base salary of about $229,000, according to the city.

Three months after Cortez’s promotion, Mayor Shelley Berkley said she was “absolutely delighted” with the appointment.

“She has been with the city for many, many years,” the mayor told the Review-Journal on Thanksgiving Day. “She does an outstanding job, and she’s demonstrating to everybody in City Hall that we made the right choice.”

At the city manager’s office, Cortez is helping finalize Las Vegas’ multi-year strategic goals and priorities, she said.

“The goals that we have today are public safety, health care and economic diversification that we’ve had since 2020,” she said.

Staff is adding housing and homelessness for the new plan slated to be presented to the City Council in the summer, Cortez said.

“That’s going to lead us into the next three to five years of a better city,” she said. “That’s what we do. We try to get better every year.”

Cortez was born and raised in east Vegas. She and her six brothers were raised by Mexican immigrants. The family lived in affordable housing until she turned 20.

She graduated from Las Vegas High School and enrolled at UNLV, where she continued to excel in math, Cortez said.

Around that time, Cortez met a mentor who told her about civil engineering, inspiring her to shift course.

I didn’t even know that was a career,” Cortez said. “Engineering is science and math, so it really fit,” she added.

Cortez graduated with a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering.

She estimates that she’s been involved in about 50 city projects.

Cortez said she’s most proud of one that installed trails, and built flood mitigation at Floyd Lamb Park, and the development of the recently inaugurated Civic Center & Plaza.

Proud of her upbringing

Cortez reveres her Latino roots.

“I understand the culture, and I’m just, I’m proud,” she said. “I’m proud to be a Latina, I will tell anyone. That’s who I am.”

Cortez also cited her upbringing and her parents’ longtime support.

“They are the greatest role models,” she said.

She didn’t know it at the time, but her mother played a crucial role in introducing her to local government when she was in grade school, Cortez said.

The elder woman was part of a group of concerned residents who went to City Hall and a housing authority board to advocate for public safety after a series of crashes and break-ins in their neighborhood.

Her mother was also part of a parent-teacher association.

“I saw that, and it impacted me,” Cortez said.

Cortez’s parents get emotional when they catch her on television when she’s working, she said.

“My mom will call me in the middle of the day (to say), ‘I just saw you, Rosita,’” Cortez said. “Very proud parents, and I’m so happy that they feel that way about me.”