Antonio started in late March. He comes from Ramsey County where he served as a racial and health equity administrator for the past two and a half years.
Montez has nearly two decades of professional experience in equity work; government contracting and procurement; business-to-business sales; sales management and human resources.
Antonio is a key member of the City Manager’s leadership team. His role in the city is to integrate equity and inclusion principles into all operations, projects and services of the city.
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Antonio was born and raised in St. Paul’s Frogtown neighborhood in a multiracial family. Antonio is fluent in Spanish.
“My mother is Mexican and grew up on St. Paul’s West Side. My grandmother is White and my grandfather is Mexican. My dad is Black, so I am a little bit of everything,” he said.
Antonio lives in St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood today with his wife Gionni and their sons, ages 10 and 2. They also have a 19-year-old son attending college at Morgan State University in Baltimore.
Antonio graduated from Central High School and earned a Bachelor of Communications from the University of Minnesota. He was the first in his family to graduate from college.
“My mom didn’t graduate high school, and she always believed college was going to be the equalizer for me,” Antonio said.
After graduating college, Antonio worked in marketing and business-to-business sales for Comcast.
“I always tell folks sales is tough, but you learn a ton of really good skills,” Antonio said.
He joined the City of St. Paul as a procurement specialist focusing on how the city partnered with small businesses. When city leaders decided to provide racial equity training for all employees, Antonio served as a designated frontline champion of those efforts.
He took a sales manager position at Comcast followed by a procurement position at Ramsey County before moving into a full-time equity position. At the county, he worked with a variety of departments including the County Attorney’s Office, Emergency Communications, Sheriff’s Office, Public Works, Parks and Recreation, and the County Manager’s Office.
His first priority will be to get to know staff, community members, city leaders and departments.
“Equity and inclusion work is built on relationships and trust. We have to have those good relationships to move forward in this work. My first 90 days are going to be about building trust and relationships,” Montez said.
“If we have trust, we can talk about partnership and what does partnership look like as we are talking about advancing equity. Equity is about meeting folks where they are at. It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution.”
Outside of the office, Antonio lifts weights, does yoga and tries to run a couple of times a week.
“My 10-year-old plays a ton of soccer, so most weeknights I am at soccer practice, and on weekends, I am at soccer tournaments. My wife played soccer in college and still plays in a couple of leagues, so normally we are at the soccer field.”