Mayor: Loss of Seagate painful for Scotts Valley

This hurts. It hurts to lose a marquee company, and it hurts to lose hundreds of employees in town every day. It is especially painful to lose a company that’s grown up with the city throughout its entire history. It’s like losing a member of the family.
The city has always prioritized and valued our relationship with Seagate. When I talked with Pat (Seagate CFO Pat O’Malley) earlier this week, it was small consolation to hear him say there’s nothing the city hasn’t done to support Seagate’s business needs. He volunteered that Scotts Valley is a great place to do business and that the company made its decision despite that fact. He reiterated that it was a decision driven by the savings that comes from the consolidation of resources and locations, efficiency improvements that result from greater collaboration in a corporate campus setting and a move that puts the company closer to its main customers.
Seagate has been a tremendous community partner through the years and they reiterated today that their support of the Scotts Valley community will continue, which is very gratifying and welcome. It is also worth remembering that while most of Seagate’s Scotts Valley operations will be moving, a significant part will remain here. Perhaps the best aspect of all this is that Seagate doesn’t anticipate workforce reductions as a result of this change. If this move enables Seagate to prosper more, that’s great news for all the area families who depend on the company for their livelihoods, and that’s something none of us should lose sight of.
The news is a blow, but it is one Scotts Valley will recover from. Wherever there are talented, hardworking people with valuable skills like we have here, the private sector will recognize opportunities, even if those opportunities are sometimes restrained by global economic conditions, as they are today.
The great location and infrastructure, highly educated workforce and unsurpassed quality of life that make Scotts Valley such a fantastic place to live and work remain and will endure, despite Seagate’s reduced presence, to keep ours an attractive and prosperous community for a long time to come.
**Jim Reed is mayor of Scotts Valley.
**Editor’s note: Seagate Technology announced this week that it will move its corporate headquarters to Cupertino beginning next spring. Seagate employs about 600 people in Scotts Valley. After the move, fewer than 200 of those employees will remain in the city.