Neve was appointed as acting Governor of Las Californias on October 18, 1774[7] by Viceroy Antonio Maria de Buareli y Ursua.

[8][9] It was during Neve's administration that Lieutenant José Joaquín Moraga is credited with building the Presidio of San Francisco, after the site was selected by Juan Bautista de Anza in 1776.

On November 29, 1777, Moraga founded San José on orders from Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa, the Spanish Viceroy of New Spain.

Governor Neve had applied to Viceroy Bucareli for permission to establish a settlement (pueblo) near the Los Angeles River (Río de Porciúncula), where Father Juan Crespí had met local Tongva Indians.

[2] Jean-François de la Pérouse, on his expedition around the world in 1786, describes the ill treatment of natives by the ecclesiastical authorities, comparing the mission to a "plantation at Santo Domingo or any other West Indian island," noting the use of "irons and stocks," lashes of the whip, and the recourse to military authority to repossess any native converts who had chosen to return to their "relations in the independent villages."

He desired a constitution less monastic, affording more civil liberty to the Indians and less despotism in the executive power of the presidios, the government of which might fall into the hands of cruel and avaricious men.

This upright man had borne arms in service of his country from his infancy, but he was exempt from the prejudices of his profession, and well knew that military government is subject to great improprieties when not moderated by an intermediate power.

He might, however, have experienced the difficulty of maintaining the conflict of three authorities in a county so remote from the governor-general of Mexico, since the missionaries, though pious and respectable, are already at open variance with the governor, who appears to me to be a worth military character.

He held the position of Comandante General of the Frontier Provinces until his death on November 3, 1784, in hacienda Nuestra Señora del Carmen de Pena Blanca, Chihuahua, New Spain.

[16] The statue is mounted on a 4-foot boulder (1.2 m) and includes a bronze dedication plaque with the following inscription: Felipe de Neve, 1728–84, Spanish governor of the Californias, 1775–82.