City Manager

Under the Council-Manager form of government, the City Council appoints the City Manager to serve as chief administrative officer providing direction for all departments in accordance with the policies established by the City Council. The City Manager is committed to providing supportive leadership that creates an environment in which the community, City Council and all employees work together using their abilities to the fullest to enhance the overall quality of life in Turlock.

The City Manager appoints department heads of the City's five operating departments and is responsible for assuring that City services are performed in accordance with City Council policies and within the City's resources. The City Manager submits the annual budget to the City Council for their consideration and is responsible for its administration following approval by the City Council. The City Manager also serves as Executive Director of the Successor Agency to the Turlock Redevelopment Agency.

City Manager: John J. Murphy, DPA, ICMA-CM

Dr. John J. Murphy comes to the City of Turlock with over 20 years of federal, county, and municipal executive leadership experience. He was appointed the Pasco County Assistant County Administrator for Public Safety in 2022, where he served for three years before serving as the Township Manager in Roxbury Township, NJ. In Florida, he was part of helping deliver transformational changes in public safety especially around mental health for first responders and fiscal accountability. During Murphy's tenure the branch was awarded over $14M in new grant money.

Murphy served as the Township Manager for Roxbury Township, New Jersey; Assistant County Administrator for Pasco County, Florida; City Manager for Palmdale, California; City Manager for Hobbs, New Mexico; and as the City Administrator in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He has been in public service since graduating from King's College in 1993. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from King's College and a Master's in Public Administration from Marywood University. In June of 2026, Murphy received his Doctoral degree in Public Administration at Liberty University.

John J. Murphy was named the 2016 New Mexico City Manager of the Year, and he is proud that Palmdale, California was named the Most Business Friendly City in Los Angeles County in late 2021. His expertise in building quality of life amenities through public/private partnerships is his trademark. Coordinating two generational projects simultaneously during his time in Hobbs, NM was challenging. The municipal golf course he championed, Rockwind Community Links, received numerous awards including Golf Digest Top 10 New Courses and Golf Inc. Top 5 New Golf Developments in the World for 2016. The Center of Recreational Excellence (CORE) is a $63.5 million-dollar recreational center with six public and private partners. This is the most comprehensive recreational center and economic development driver within 500 miles.

Dr. Murphy has been a featured speaker at various national conferences and in multiple print publications. His grasp of creating public/private partnerships with municipal government projects enables communities to fund these projects both short and long-term.

Dr. John J. Murphy was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He joined the Air Force ROTC program at Wilkes University while in graduate school and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in May of 1997. Murphy served as a Major in the U.S. Air Force and Air Force Reserves. During his career, Major Murphy served as a Gold-Bar Recruiter, Public Affairs Officer, Search and Rescue Watch Supervisor at the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and ran search and rescue operations in 2008 in the Horn of Africa and in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. He retired in 2017 after twenty years of dedicated service. Murphy's emergency management experienced has helped the communities he has served navigate ten FEMA declared disasters.

During his time working for five municipal communities and over 50 different elected officials, he was blessed to learn different leadership styles and one of the traits he works hard on is collaboration. His story as a public service manager changed after attending the Harvard Kennedy School's Senior Executive Program for State and Local officials in July 2013. This transformational experience provided Murphy the opportunity to collaborate with leaders from around the world and he was able to learn from some of this country's best professors. There were multiple elected and appointed officials from California in this course who Dr. Murphy still collaborates with on occasion, which will benefit him as the City Manager in Turlock.

Dr. Murphy came back from this experience knowing that to move communities and organizations forward, you need to invest more time in some critical areas both internal and external to the organization. Internally, he committed to the professional development/training of employees and empowered them to develop solutions to ensure the organization was high performing. Externally, Murphy doubled his efforts on stakeholder inclusiveness and actively engaged citizens on many issues. These strategies produced significant results. Building on those positive results Murphy attended Harvard Kennedy School's "Leadership for the 21st Century" course with 72 executives from 25 various countries. Murphy was awarded a certificate in "Public Leadership" from Harvard Kennedy School after attending his final course, "Emerging Leaders," in 2018.

Dr. John J. Murphy is married, and he and his wife are blessed to have five beautiful daughters ranging in age from fifteen to twenty-five and three grandchildren.

City Finances & Budget
City Council
Strategic Values and Department Goals