Jose Esteves

Jose "Joe" Santos Esteves (born 1947) was the mayor of Milpitas, California. A Republican, Esteves was born in the Philippines and graduated from the University of the Philippines Diliman before immigrating to the United States in 1980. He was elected to Milpitas City Council in 1998 and went on to serve as mayor between 2002 and 2008, and again from 2010 to 2016. Biography Esteves was born and raised in Dagupan, Pangasinan, in the Philippines. Esteves graduated from the University of the Philippines Diliman with bachelor's degrees in civil engineering and industrial engineering and an MBA. While attending the University of the Philippines, he was a member of Epsilon Chi. In 1980, Esteves immigrated to the United States. Later he attended and graduated from UCLA Anderson School of Management, and the John F. Kennedy School of Government. He had worked for the Santa Clara County Superior Court as an Information Systems Specialists; retiring in 2013. Political career Before being elected to public office Esteves volunteered for the city and was a commission member; in 1998, Esteves was elected to the Milpitas city council. He then became mayor in 2002; he went on to serve three consecutive terms, then left office for two years, and was elected to be mayor of Milpitas again in 2010. To serve one of those consecutive terms, he defeated former mayor Henry Manayan in 2006. Manayan, who was the first Filipino American mayor elected in the United States. Esteves unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors in 2008, coming in last place (with about 27% of the vote) in the three-way primary. In 2008, he began work on getting a mural about the farm labor movement added to the Milpitas Library, it was installed in October 2012. In 2012, he won his fifth term, receiving over seventy percent of the vote; then went on to win re-election two years later in a three way race. While in office, Milpitas overtook Daly City as having the largest concentration of Filipino Americans in Northern California. In 2013, Esteves was the only Filipino American mayor in the San Francisco Bay Area, and worked with other Filipino Americans to raise money for Typhoon Haiyan relief. That same year, to assist the city to remain solvent, elected Milpitas officials, including Esteves, reduced their salaries and ended their medical benefits.