November 28, 2023 • 39 mins
Following up on the last episode we take a deeper dive into the open position of City Manager for Leander.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome to the latest episode of Leanin Leander. In the last episode,
we took a look at what washappening in the city as it relates to
(00:24):
the hiring of a new city manager. You can take a look at the
last episode to maybe get a littlebit of a precursor to what we'll be
talking about here on this episode.And for those of you who are listening
to the podcast, I would encourageyou maybe to go to the YouTube channel
as well, because there's a lotof visual element to this. Because we're
looking at a couple of websites hereand offering some commentary. So the first
(00:48):
website that I wanted to start withwas the SGR website, which this is
the company that's handling the recruitment ofpotential candidates for the position a city manager
in Leander. I do want tostate that I think this is a really
good idea and I applaud the cityfor making this particular decision in working with
(01:10):
a subject matter expert outside of thecity to help us find the best candidates
and cast a wider net. Ithink it's reasonable to assume that the next
city manager for the City of Leanderwill move here. They will be coming
from outside of the city of Leander. Maybe they come from the state of
(01:30):
Texas. Maybe they come from outsideof the state of Texas. But what
we should be looking for in acity manager is someone who is eminently qualified
to lead the city at this time, and I do think that the city
leadership recognizes that. So I foundit very interesting the way that this was
(01:51):
being positioned. And I'm going totalk a little bit about what I think
is going on here. These arejust my opinions, humbly submitted, but
hopefully it helped give a little bitof context to what I think may be
going on. So from the city'sperspective, it's interesting that the first part
(02:12):
of the introduction to Leander. Let'sassume for a minute that the city manager
who may take the job for theCity of Leander is somebody who's looking to
make an upward move or a lateralmove. Maybe they've accomplished everything that they
could have accomplished in the city thatthey were in and they're looking for some
new challenges. Or they may besomebody who is an associate city manager who's
(02:35):
looking to take the next step intheir career. I think it's important for
us to consider as part of this, because that's the type of person who's
going to be looking at this opportunity. I think not one hundred percent sure
there, and I could be wrong, but I would think that would be
a fair assumption. So the citypositions and through sgr Obviously, I think
all of this has to be vettedby the city at some point, so
(02:57):
I'm assuming these are the reflect atleast of how the city perceives itself.
Starts with the establishment of the cityin nineteen seventy eight with a population of
about three hundred. I was unawareof that myself, so I found that
to be pretty surprising, although notcompletely unheard of. I mean, it
was a rural area outside of Austinback in the mid seventies early eighties.
(03:22):
I remember driving to the city ofAustin and driving through a lot of farmtown
so pretty much, although I maynot have noted it was Leander, more
than likely drove this way. Sothree hundred people, a very rural agricultural
community is now a community of overeighty thousand residents. It says here strategically
(03:45):
located within the Texas Triangle, whichis I think a pretty smart way of
positioning the city between Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and San
Antonio. That is Central Texas essentially, and that is where a majority of
the influx of not only population butalso investment is coming. And all you
(04:09):
need to do is look around inour neighboring communities to see exactly what that
means. Now. It is akey growth corridor for the state and it's
important here that they also position thecity of Leander as continuing to grow.
We know from our conversations that we'reexpecting probably about one hundred and fifty thousand
(04:30):
people here in the next few years. The long term prognosis is about two
hundred and fifty thousand according to thisparticular post. So when you look at
that, there's a lot more peoplehere. And that's important from a leadership
perspective in that any decisions that aremade in the ensuing few years are going
(04:51):
to be decisions that are going tobe felt downstream. There are things that
will affect people ten fifteen, twentyyears from now. Even more than that.
The city continues to grow, peoplecontinue to move and live here and
move away and all that stuff longafter you and I are gone, Long
after anyone who is currently on councilhas met their term limits, and long
(05:13):
after these decisions have been made andargued about, they'll impact people downstream.
It's always something that we need toconsider when we're looking at these types of
issues, because what we're talking abouttoday is not necessarily something that's going to
impact us right away. I thoughtit was really interesting here that the city
is saying they're on the hunt fora forward thinking, luminary adept in navigating
(05:39):
rapidly growing communities to steer the city'svoyage as the next city manager. I
think that definitely gives the focus onthe future. I thought it was really
interesting to use the words forward thinking. I think that's important, but it
is notable as well. So italso says that the City of Leander,
(06:01):
now this would be where I wouldsay, this is a reflection of what
the current council is as a wholethinking. Okay, the City of Leander
envisions its next city manager to bea blend of insightful leadership, community passion,
and analytical prowess, someone who,with his or her depth of experience
(06:24):
and dedication, will further the city'snarrative and growth and community coesion. A
lot is packed into that statement.I think it's a pretty old statement.
Considering what I've seen of Leander overthe past five years. I haven't seen
(06:46):
that many bold statements myself, notanything that has been this publicly stated.
Maybe some important things can be readinto that, maybe not. Maybe I'm
reading too much into it, butI do think it's important, and I
do think it is a litmus testto a certain degree. But I also
(07:11):
think it's a template. So ifthe City of Leander is looking for its
next city manager to be someone who'san insightful leader, who has community passion
and analytical prowess along with depth ofexperience, that's what we should see as
citizens coming from our next city manager. That's how he or she should be
(07:35):
perceived in the public as part ofthe direction that the city is taking.
I think what I've seen, andthis is my opinion, humbly submitted,
I've not seen that I've seen citymanagers, and there's been a couple since
I've been here who prefer to workbehind the scenes. This to me is
(08:01):
a statement of a more forward andcommunicative city management. Maybe I'm wrong,
but that's what I read into this, and I encourage you to share your
own opinions through our obviously any ofthe sites that this has posted on,
So if you have some comments thatyou want to add to that, feel
(08:22):
free. I think it's a goodconversation to start and definitely would love to
hear from people. So what theythink that means? Now, the rest
of this goes into the actual accreditationthat they're looking for. I'm not going
to bore you with those details.You can read this online. You can
definitely see what they're looking for.It is important also to note that they
(08:43):
are looking for somebody who has experiencealready dealing with similar cities as far as
size and demographics are concerned, SoI think that's an important factor to keep
in mind as well. So they'renot looking for somebody who's coming from a
small town, not necessarily looking forsomebody who's coming from a really really big
town, just somebody who's had experiencein this type of environment previously. Again,
(09:09):
this tends to make me think we'llend up with somebody who's coming from
outside of Texas because we're competing inthat particular realm with a lot of other
cities that are nearby. So Ithink hopefully we'll have some new ideas come
from outside of our direct area.Last thing to note here is the wage.
(09:33):
Again, and I think it's importantthat it's not unexpected, but it's
something that I don't think a wholelot of people necessarily think about when they
think of the city manager. Thisis a salary of two hundred and fifty
to three hundred thousand dollars a year. That's a really really good salary.
That's COO CEO level salary and compensation. The probably is the the baseline because
(10:01):
there's a lot of benefits and otherthings that will go into the final package,
so keep that in mind when youare looking at this and the city
starts to present the candidates for citymanager in the near future. Interesting as
(10:22):
well is the way that the actualbrochure that has been put together by SGR
reflects on not only the position ofthe city manager but also the city of
Leander. And I've looked at severalof their brochures. This is in keeping
(10:43):
with the style that SGR has soby no means is this different from any
other city presentation, but it isspecific to the City of Leander. So
obviously, again here the sumption isthat there's been a collaborative effort between the
(11:05):
city and SGR. I'm sure thatthere's approvals of that nature that are at
the very least necessary before this isactually put into publication. So lovely picture.
And again, if you're not lookingat this particular podcast on one of
the video channels, you may wantto do so, otherwise I'll be happy
to kind of give you the overviewfrom the audio perspective. Definitely a very
(11:30):
colorful brochure by design, that ishow they do this, So there's nothing
different here again for Leander specifically,but it does feature a lot of photography
that I think is a good reflectionof some of the more visually appealing parts
(11:52):
of the city. The first pageafter the cover page is a kind of
an overview again of the city ofLeander. This is very similar to the
short synopsis that was offered in theactual employment posting. So again we've talked
about this. Leander's a fast growingcity, definitely has its own challenges from
(12:18):
that perspective, but shares a lotof challenges for a lot of communities in
the area that have some of thesame resource challenges and some of the same
rapid growth challenges that will be incurredby central Texas, at least for the
foreseeable short term. With that,it does go into some of the other
(12:39):
amenities that are around the city.Talks about the golf course, talks about
the Lakewood Park, talks about someof the festivals that we have here at
the city. So definitely kind ofleaning into some of the things that those
of us who are involved in thecommunity, even in a mar tacit manner,
will recognize these are things that peopleattend and people are familiar with.
(13:03):
It also interestingly looks at cooperative developmentthat's going on with the North Line project.
It actually links out specifically to theNorth Line project, which obviously somebody
who were looking at this position wouldwant to familiarize themselves with. So definitely
incorporating a lot of the parts andpieces of the current economic structure and long
(13:30):
term economic development for the city ofLeander in the way that the job is
being positioned now. Page three actuallyhas some bullet points which I thought was
pretty interesting. A couple of thingshere. It talks about the location,
the economy, It outlines some ofthe major employers, definitely leans into Leander
(13:54):
ISD and it mentions connectivity. Itmentions that the city is served by Capital
Metro with a metrorail commuter station inLeander. This is always one of those
controversial topics when it comes to whetheryou are in favor of the tax that
goes to cap Metro or if youare opposed to it, But nonetheless it
(14:18):
is a key part of the waythat the City of Leander will and can
position for economic growth here in theshort term and the long term of the
city's prospects. Think of it asyou will, it is a reality that
we're dealing with. So I findit interesting that the city is not shining
away from that at all to acertain degree, calling it out as part
(14:41):
of the way that they're framing thisjob going forward. So I think that's
interesting. Maybe again I'm reading toomuch into it, but it's not left
out. So that's an important pieceof the puzzle as far as someone who
will be considering coming to Leander astheir new city manager. It talks a
lot little bit more about the safetyof Leander, one of the lowest crime
(15:03):
rates in the state of Texas.Obviously that's something that everybody would want to
see continue. And again a littlebit more about the recreational activities and the
events that are around the City ofLeander throughout the year, and the tagline
here is again what I think iskind of interesting. It's a marketing piece,
so you have to keep that inmind, but it does say embrace
(15:24):
the future in Leander, a placewhere community, opportunity and Texan pride meet
come shape the city's journey. Soagain that to me is an active language
choice. Definitely looking for somebody tocome not only to lead the city's efforts,
(15:45):
but to also be part of thecommunity. The next page actually goes
through the governance and talks about theCity of Leander from that perspective. We
know from the last episode we talkedabout this which basically is a council manager
form of government where the mayor andall the council members are elected at large
and takes care of legislative budget policy, those types of They appoint individuals to
(16:11):
non elective positions that type of thing. The city council also appoints the professional
city manager, who serves as thischief executive officer and is responsible for overall
operation of the organization. I wouldargue that the city manager from a management
perspective, is more of an operationalofficer, so co as opposed to a
(16:36):
CEO, But I can see againhow this would be positioned, and it
is really kind of outlining the responsibilities. The city manager would serve as a
chief executive officer for the functional employeesof the city. Legislation, budgets,
policies, things of that nature arerun through the council and our council members
(17:02):
at large who make the decisions ofdirection impact. From that perspective, mostly,
and we've talked about this before,it is the budget that it's always
about the budget. Where are wecollecting our money and how are we spending
our money? That is a principalresponsibility of a council manager form of government.
(17:25):
The other things are supplemental to that. I would argue any kind of
ordinance or any other kind of policythat is set is more than likely done
so from a perspective of the budget, either the short term or the long
term budget. It's problem solving fromthat perspective. But one point here that
(17:48):
I was unaware of. But againit's nice to have this type of transparency
and visibility. There's four hundred andthirty six city employees. Obviously, that
includes fire, police, piece publicworks, planning and development, parks,
and Recreation, Finance, economic development, infrastructure, and administration. Leander's annual
(18:10):
budget is three hundred and seventeen milliondollars and some change, and the tax
rate is I'd say, let's justsay call it forty two since per one
hundred dollars of valuation. So itdefinitely gives a strong outline of what the
city is dealing with from a financialperspective, at least top level. Overview
(18:32):
a three one hundred and seventeen milliondollar budget with a three hundred thousand dollars
city manager. I guess that makessense, and I guess that probably checks
out across the board in other cities. I haven't looked at that, but
I would imagine that if I did, I'd find something very similar in other
(18:52):
cities. Now, the next pageis about the position. Now here is
where we get a lot lot ofinsight into where the city will go and
what the expectation should be going forward. So it talks about the role and
playing a pivotal role in overseeing thestrategic planning, coordination and direction of all
(19:17):
the city departments. But then itgoes on to say these are core responsibilities
and this is a lot of texthere, So I'm not going to read
through it, but it does pointout the first and foremost, the number
one bullet point is economic development,and that is a very important part of
(19:40):
the conversation that kind of flies underthe radar. Not everybody's looking at economic
development and understanding it. But that'sone of the reasons that I do the
podcast is to kind of bring somelight to some of these issues in a
way that I hope is a littlebit more palatable and a little bit more
digestible. The way that this ispositioned is proactively champion and promote Leander's economic
(20:03):
development agenda. To proactively champion andpromote Leander's economic development agenda would require somebody
to be, in my humble opinion, a really good sales person, and
that is something that I think wehave been lacking, not only in previous
city managers, but an overall understandingof how to sell the city, because
(20:29):
that's what you have to do.You have to sell the city. It
has to be a place that peoplefeel when they make those investments that they're
going to get a return on thoseinvestments. And whether those investments are in
the community, whether those investments arein the business or the recreational areas.
Whatever the investment is, those areinvestments. Whether it's money, time,
(20:52):
family, whatever, however you wantto frame that, those are investments.
The reason that you're here is becauseyou want to be here or you need
to be here. But at theend of the day, you want to
feel comfortable in those environments. Youwant to feel comfortable knowing that you live
in a safe city, that youhave the services that are available when you
(21:15):
go out to parks, and yourchildren are able to recreate in the way
that you would want them to forquality of life. You have all of
the social services available in the citythat are addressing the needs, the general
services that are available restaurants and shoppingand things of that nature. Where you're
(21:37):
taking your free time and your expendablecapital and you're investing back in the city.
We talk a lot about small businessand investing in small business in the
City of Leander. That's what that'sabout. When you're spending your money within
the thirty nine miles that comprise thecity of Leander, that's going back into
the coffers and it's helping us addresssome of the issues that we have as
(21:57):
a city and be able to planfor the future. So I think that's
huge in my opinion, and Ithink also that the way that this is
outlined development of space for light industrialbusiness, class A office space and retail
establishments. There would be an argumentfrom some that retail establishments a lot of
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investment in the service industry is kindof a natural progression for the city of
Leander. So whether or not thatwould actually require economic development, that's an
arguable point. But the class Aoffice space and light industrial business that takes
planning, That takes a dedicated effortto entice investment into the city, and
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that is a very important factor goingforward. As Leander continues to grow,
there has to be a balance tothe tax base. I think the decision
has been made to move away froma bedroom community. There's nothing wrong with
being a bedroom community. If that'show you choose to grow your city and
be that a suburb of another areaand have your people spend their tax dollars
(23:04):
in other areas, that's fine.But then you overly rely on on one
particular tax source, which will notbe a long term, in my opinion,
sustainable type of process. It doesn'thelp you become very very limited.
From that perspective, but if weare able to entice the proper type of
(23:25):
industrial light industrial business, so we'renot talking about big factories with smokestacks and
things of that nature. We're talkingabout R and D and we're talking about
science and medical facilities that are lightindustrial. We also want to keep an
eye on water usage as well,because that is going to be a struggle
(23:47):
in the near term for every communityin Central Texas. Some would argue there's
not enough water. I think there'ssome viable conversation to be had there as
well. But anyway, so that'sthe economic of it piece. It does
talk about strategic planning, vision andimplementation, which I think is a direct
relationship to the economic development piece.And then stakeholder relationships. Now here we're
(24:12):
talking about city partners, government entities, county and state officials, and other
key stakeholders in groups that have representationin the city. I think that's important
too, because there has to betransparency, there has to be communication so
that all of the stakeholders. AndI would argue that you and I are
(24:33):
also stakeholders here in the City ofLeander, and that we deserve just as
much transparency as to what's going onwith our government and with our city and
the way that they're making decisions thatmay be of an indirect impact to our
lives, but they do impact ourlives from day to day. So there's
a lot of bullet points here,and those are the principal ones, so
(24:55):
at the top of the list,if you will. There's also bullet points
here pointing out legal and compliance,the advisory role of the city manager to
council and council members, the reportingstructure, which again here the city manager
directly reports to city Council while alsosupervising several key positions city chief of Staff,
(25:22):
human resource director, city secretary,executive director of finance, and the
chiefs of police and fire. Sothe city manager, again I would argue,
has a lot of responsibilities, andnot only to the city itself,
but also to the operation of thecity, which again is one of the
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reasons I would say I'd look atthis as a COO, not necessarily a
CEO, but that's my own personalopinion. Interestingly, they're the chiefs of
fire and police report to the citymanager. But I believe we've covered this
before, and the police and firehave their own organizational charts, so they
(26:03):
have their own responsibilities for their owndepartments. I believe there's some ordinances that
kind of touch on this as well. The city manager is responsible for council
collaboration, which goes back to theadvisory role. You would see the city
manager involved with the City Secretary onall agenda preparation and council directives. So
(26:26):
definitely again here operationally executing on decisionsmade by council, but advising council as
they're going through those decision making processes. Keep in mind here that the city
Council, the people who serve onthe council, the mayor and all of
the council members, are doing soon essentially a volunteer basis. There is
(26:47):
no capital invested in our city leadership. They don't receive any kind of payment
for those positions. They do soat the pleasure of the citizens of the
City of Leander. So their primaryfocus again being the budget. They are
(27:07):
doing a job that is temporary inits nature. It's supposed to be the
city manager a little bit more permanence, although we did talk about in the
last episode that there's an arc generallyspeaking on how long a city manager serves,
especially when you start getting into thissize of city. I think we
said it was three to five years, so I think that should be an
(27:27):
expectation as well. Anyway, itdoes talk about a budget and finance,
personal management, and interdepartmental coordination,so again very operational from that perspective.
The next piece of the brochure goesinto the opportunities and challenges here in Leander,
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and again I think this is somewhatof an insightful document from that perspective,
because I think it outlines what thecity sees as its own opportunities and
challenges. Taking on a role likethis, I think it's important for you
to understand where the city is.I also think it's super important for the
city to be very transparent in whatthey consider to be their own challenges and
(28:11):
opportunities. But again, we don'tsee a whole lot of this, and
you don't hear a whole lot ofthis. And I've been involved in a
lot of commissions and things of thatnature here in the City of Leaner since
I've lived here, and it's oftensomewhat of a challenge to get the type
of visibility that this document seems tobe able to present. At least that's
(28:36):
my read again my opinion. Takefrom that what you will. The three
main areas that this points out asan opportunity and challenge. Again, this
is the city presenting itself to aprospective employee. Here's why you would want
to be here, here's what youwould want to do, here's some of
the challenges, and here's some ofthe things we see as an opportunity for
you in your career. So lookat it from that perspective. The opportunities
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and challenges are outlined as city cultureand Communication, city projects and development,
and strategic city planning. So thecity itself would look at its own function
and say, hey, these areopportunities. There are potential challenges for you
as a new city manager. Thatwould be the city culture, communications,
(29:23):
city projects, development, and strategiccity planning. So when we look at
that, I think, again,there's some insight to be gleaned here.
Can we look at this and saythat the city and culture and communication is
an area that requires improvement? Maybemaybe, but it is definitely something that
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the city is looking at and saying, okay, hey, here's a few
things that you should know about us. Some of these things have already been
addressed, like one of the bulletpoints is enhanced the digitaling age. Basically,
a lot of that work has beendone. The new website for the
city is obviously a vast improvement overwhere we were. The way that that
works is a refinement to that process, so some of that work is already
(30:15):
in place. Interesting here is managegrowth by balancing rapid expansion with stability.
Something that I mentioned earlier is thatyou have to look at the long term
implications of decisions that you're making now. It's good to see the city is
looking at it from that perspective aswell. The city leadership at the very
least is taking that into account.Resident connectivity, key projects, north line
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development, old Town area. Thoseare all things that are important where the
city is investing time and money rightnow that we want to see succeed.
So I would argue, what arewe doing about that? How are we
ensuring that that success is going tobe had. One of the key developments
I think forthcoming here and it willbe something I think will fall although I
(31:03):
think decisions will be made prior tothat, but the new city manager will
be largely kind of in charge,at least from a responsibility perspective. There's
a one eighty three corridor study thatthe city has started, and there'll be
probably some more information on that herein the near term. That's looking at
how we're presenting the city of Leander, like that corridor that's the main thoroughfare
(31:27):
through our city, similar to whatyou may have seen in Cedar Park with
the Bell Street project. I wouldthink that those are the types of things
that we would see coming from theone eight three corridor project long term.
Having been on the Economic Development Committeehere in Leander myself, we had some
ideas for that, and we'll bepresenting those ideas within the construct of that
(31:52):
particular one eight three development study.So I certainly hope that there's an opportunity
for those ideas to be vetted andrise up through that process, because I
think they were good ideas. Nonetheless, strategic planning being the last of the
three points, looking at future bondelections, a visionary plan focused on water
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infrastructure. I think those are veryvery key parts to the process that the
new city manager will have to undertakeas well as And this one's always interesting
to me because it's something that happensregularly and I don't know if the current
cadence is really that great. Iwould argue the city's comprehensive plan it's a
(32:39):
living, breathing document and it canchange with the way that the city grows.
I don't know if it's necessarily linedup to the fast growth the city
is currently going through, and someof those comprehensive plans are a little bit
limiting, and so it's important thatagain that's opinion, but it's important that
(33:00):
the city manager, I would think, take a look at that and hopefully
be a little bit more directly involvedin helping those who work on the comprehensive
plans to come up with good,solid ideas that can move forward or move
the city of Leander forward. Again, just my opinion, not to say
that the efforts that have been undertakenthere so far are lacking, just there's
(33:23):
an opportunity to do more, inmy opinion. So from opportunities and challenges,
then we look at the I talkedabout this earlier in the podcast.
I think this is very insightful.It gives a lot of visibility into the
way that the city is thinking aboutthis, and it outlines what an ideal
(33:43):
leader is for Leander. Again,we talked about this a forward thinking luminary
adept and navigating a rapidly growing communityand to steer the city's voyage as the
next city manager. I've kind ofalready covered this. I'm not going to
go into a whole lot of detailhere, but there's more to it if
you want to take time to readthe Ideal Leader for Leanders some of the
(34:05):
points that are made here. Iwould also say that these are things that
we should hold our city management andcity leaders accountable for as well. If
this is the way that they're presentingthe city and what the wants and needs
and vision for the city is goingforward, these should be the things that
they should be held accountable to aswell. So when we see that perhaps
(34:28):
there is a lack of skill indissecting and interpreting communication plans, ordinances,
financial reports, that we should becalled out. And again I'm using that
as an example, but definitely somethingthat I think can help us as citizens
(34:50):
as we move forward if we rememberthese documents, remember this documentation, because
these are the things that the cityis telling us, this is what we
want to do for you citizens herein Leander. The rest of this really
kind of goes into the education experience, you know, they're definitely looking for
somebody who has a lot of experienceand a strong accreditation and degree plan that
(35:15):
they've followed definitely very specific to citymanagement, So I think that's something that
we need to look at. Andit also goes into the compensations and benefits,
and again here there's a lot ofdetail as to what this particular position
(35:36):
gets as far as salary, butit definitely is in line I would think,
with what would be necessary to becompetitive in that particular piece, specifically
as Leander grows and offers opportunities towhoever might take this on as their next
challenge. Last, but not least, is of course the application process itself,
(35:59):
which is not some that we necessarilyneed to go into, but it
is something that is reflective of wherethe city is right now. As our
final photo here is the city Councilwith what looks like to be a few
city actually ribbon cutting. I don'tknow where it was, but anyway,
(36:21):
it does show the spirit of Leander, I would argue from that perspective.
So what I've tried to do withthis episode is give you a little bit
of insight into what's happening with thehiring of the new city manager. Any
of the content here has been directlylifted from what the city has provided in
(36:42):
the application process, as well asthe brochure that outlines what the position does
and what some of the responsibilities aretherein some of this has been opinion,
and I want to make sure thatthat's understood. Some of the things that
have been said in the podcast thistime are my own opinion, but it
(37:05):
is with a little bit of insightand some exposure to some of the things
that are going on in the city. So certainly hope you can appreciate that
this is an ongoing process. RickBeverlin left around October of this year,
and shortly thereafter Isaac Turner stepped inas the interim city manager, so he's
steering the ship as this application processgoes on. The applications actually are open
(37:29):
until December tenth, so shortly thatwindow closes, and we'll start getting a
little bit of feedback from sgr ASto the candidates that they put forward to
the city, assuming that they're goingto be doing a little bit of vetting
themselves before the final candidates reached thecity council. So I'll keep an eye
on this and keep reporting on itbecause I think it's an important topic that
(37:50):
we should be aware of. AndI also want to take a moment to
wish you all a very very happyholiday season. Those are rolling right up
to us now and soon we'll becelebrating all of the holiday cheer and for
those of you who worship all ofthe holiday worship as well. I definitely
wish everyone the very very best foryou and your families, and I hope
(38:14):
to see you soon here in Leanderand on the next episode of Lean and
Leander. Thanks a lot of folks, we'll talk to you next time.
Welcome to the latest episode of Leanin Leander. In the last episode,
we took a look at what washappening in the city as it relates to
(00:24):
the hiring of a new city manager. You can take a look at the
last episode to maybe get a littlebit of a precursor to what we'll be
talking about here on this episode.And for those of you who are listening
to the podcast, I would encourageyou maybe to go to the YouTube channel
as well, because there's a lotof visual element to this. Because we're
looking at a couple of websites hereand offering some commentary. So the first
(00:48):
website that I wanted to start withwas the SGR website, which this is
the company that's handling the recruitment ofpotential candidates for the position a city manager
in Leander. I do want tostate that I think this is a really
good idea and I applaud the cityfor making this particular decision in working with
(01:10):
a subject matter expert outside of thecity to help us find the best candidates
and cast a wider net. Ithink it's reasonable to assume that the next
city manager for the City of Leanderwill move here. They will be coming
from outside of the city of Leander. Maybe they come from the state of
(01:30):
Texas. Maybe they come from outsideof the state of Texas. But what
we should be looking for in acity manager is someone who is eminently qualified
to lead the city at this time, and I do think that the city
leadership recognizes that. So I foundit very interesting the way that this was
(01:51):
being positioned. And I'm going totalk a little bit about what I think
is going on here. These arejust my opinions, humbly submitted, but
hopefully it helped give a little bitof context to what I think may be
going on. So from the city'sperspective, it's interesting that the first part
(02:12):
of the introduction to Leander. Let'sassume for a minute that the city manager
who may take the job for theCity of Leander is somebody who's looking to
make an upward move or a lateralmove. Maybe they've accomplished everything that they
could have accomplished in the city thatthey were in and they're looking for some
new challenges. Or they may besomebody who is an associate city manager who's
(02:35):
looking to take the next step intheir career. I think it's important for
us to consider as part of this, because that's the type of person who's
going to be looking at this opportunity. I think not one hundred percent sure
there, and I could be wrong, but I would think that would be
a fair assumption. So the citypositions and through sgr Obviously, I think
all of this has to be vettedby the city at some point, so
(02:57):
I'm assuming these are the reflect atleast of how the city perceives itself.
Starts with the establishment of the cityin nineteen seventy eight with a population of
about three hundred. I was unawareof that myself, so I found that
to be pretty surprising, although notcompletely unheard of. I mean, it
was a rural area outside of Austinback in the mid seventies early eighties.
(03:22):
I remember driving to the city ofAustin and driving through a lot of farmtown
so pretty much, although I maynot have noted it was Leander, more
than likely drove this way. Sothree hundred people, a very rural agricultural
community is now a community of overeighty thousand residents. It says here strategically
(03:45):
located within the Texas Triangle, whichis I think a pretty smart way of
positioning the city between Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and San
Antonio. That is Central Texas essentially, and that is where a majority of
the influx of not only population butalso investment is coming. And all you
(04:09):
need to do is look around inour neighboring communities to see exactly what that
means. Now. It is akey growth corridor for the state and it's
important here that they also position thecity of Leander as continuing to grow.
We know from our conversations that we'reexpecting probably about one hundred and fifty thousand
(04:30):
people here in the next few years. The long term prognosis is about two
hundred and fifty thousand according to thisparticular post. So when you look at
that, there's a lot more peoplehere. And that's important from a leadership
perspective in that any decisions that aremade in the ensuing few years are going
(04:51):
to be decisions that are going tobe felt downstream. There are things that
will affect people ten fifteen, twentyyears from now. Even more than that.
The city continues to grow, peoplecontinue to move and live here and
move away and all that stuff longafter you and I are gone, Long
after anyone who is currently on councilhas met their term limits, and long
(05:13):
after these decisions have been made andargued about, they'll impact people downstream.
It's always something that we need toconsider when we're looking at these types of
issues, because what we're talking abouttoday is not necessarily something that's going to
impact us right away. I thoughtit was really interesting here that the city
is saying they're on the hunt fora forward thinking, luminary adept in navigating
(05:39):
rapidly growing communities to steer the city'svoyage as the next city manager. I
think that definitely gives the focus onthe future. I thought it was really
interesting to use the words forward thinking. I think that's important, but it
is notable as well. So italso says that the City of Leander,
(06:01):
now this would be where I wouldsay, this is a reflection of what
the current council is as a wholethinking. Okay, the City of Leander
envisions its next city manager to bea blend of insightful leadership, community passion,
and analytical prowess, someone who,with his or her depth of experience
(06:24):
and dedication, will further the city'snarrative and growth and community coesion. A
lot is packed into that statement.I think it's a pretty old statement.
Considering what I've seen of Leander overthe past five years. I haven't seen
(06:46):
that many bold statements myself, notanything that has been this publicly stated.
Maybe some important things can be readinto that, maybe not. Maybe I'm
reading too much into it, butI do think it's important, and I
do think it is a litmus testto a certain degree. But I also
(07:11):
think it's a template. So ifthe City of Leander is looking for its
next city manager to be someone who'san insightful leader, who has community passion
and analytical prowess along with depth ofexperience, that's what we should see as
citizens coming from our next city manager. That's how he or she should be
(07:35):
perceived in the public as part ofthe direction that the city is taking.
I think what I've seen, andthis is my opinion, humbly submitted,
I've not seen that I've seen citymanagers, and there's been a couple since
I've been here who prefer to workbehind the scenes. This to me is
(08:01):
a statement of a more forward andcommunicative city management. Maybe I'm wrong,
but that's what I read into this, and I encourage you to share your
own opinions through our obviously any ofthe sites that this has posted on,
So if you have some comments thatyou want to add to that, feel
(08:22):
free. I think it's a goodconversation to start and definitely would love to
hear from people. So what theythink that means? Now, the rest
of this goes into the actual accreditationthat they're looking for. I'm not going
to bore you with those details.You can read this online. You can
definitely see what they're looking for.It is important also to note that they
(08:43):
are looking for somebody who has experiencealready dealing with similar cities as far as
size and demographics are concerned, SoI think that's an important factor to keep
in mind as well. So they'renot looking for somebody who's coming from a
small town, not necessarily looking forsomebody who's coming from a really really big
town, just somebody who's had experiencein this type of environment previously. Again,
(09:09):
this tends to make me think we'llend up with somebody who's coming from
outside of Texas because we're competing inthat particular realm with a lot of other
cities that are nearby. So Ithink hopefully we'll have some new ideas come
from outside of our direct area.Last thing to note here is the wage.
(09:33):
Again, and I think it's importantthat it's not unexpected, but it's
something that I don't think a wholelot of people necessarily think about when they
think of the city manager. Thisis a salary of two hundred and fifty
to three hundred thousand dollars a year. That's a really really good salary.
That's COO CEO level salary and compensation. The probably is the the baseline because
(10:01):
there's a lot of benefits and otherthings that will go into the final package,
so keep that in mind when youare looking at this and the city
starts to present the candidates for citymanager in the near future. Interesting as
(10:22):
well is the way that the actualbrochure that has been put together by SGR
reflects on not only the position ofthe city manager but also the city of
Leander. And I've looked at severalof their brochures. This is in keeping
(10:43):
with the style that SGR has soby no means is this different from any
other city presentation, but it isspecific to the City of Leander. So
obviously, again here the sumption isthat there's been a collaborative effort between the
(11:05):
city and SGR. I'm sure thatthere's approvals of that nature that are at
the very least necessary before this isactually put into publication. So lovely picture.
And again, if you're not lookingat this particular podcast on one of
the video channels, you may wantto do so, otherwise I'll be happy
to kind of give you the overviewfrom the audio perspective. Definitely a very
(11:30):
colorful brochure by design, that ishow they do this, So there's nothing
different here again for Leander specifically,but it does feature a lot of photography
that I think is a good reflectionof some of the more visually appealing parts
(11:52):
of the city. The first pageafter the cover page is a kind of
an overview again of the city ofLeander. This is very similar to the
short synopsis that was offered in theactual employment posting. So again we've talked
about this. Leander's a fast growingcity, definitely has its own challenges from
(12:18):
that perspective, but shares a lotof challenges for a lot of communities in
the area that have some of thesame resource challenges and some of the same
rapid growth challenges that will be incurredby central Texas, at least for the
foreseeable short term. With that,it does go into some of the other
(12:39):
amenities that are around the city.Talks about the golf course, talks about
the Lakewood Park, talks about someof the festivals that we have here at
the city. So definitely kind ofleaning into some of the things that those
of us who are involved in thecommunity, even in a mar tacit manner,
will recognize these are things that peopleattend and people are familiar with.
(13:03):
It also interestingly looks at cooperative developmentthat's going on with the North Line project.
It actually links out specifically to theNorth Line project, which obviously somebody
who were looking at this position wouldwant to familiarize themselves with. So definitely
incorporating a lot of the parts andpieces of the current economic structure and long
(13:30):
term economic development for the city ofLeander in the way that the job is
being positioned now. Page three actuallyhas some bullet points which I thought was
pretty interesting. A couple of thingshere. It talks about the location,
the economy, It outlines some ofthe major employers, definitely leans into Leander
(13:54):
ISD and it mentions connectivity. Itmentions that the city is served by Capital
Metro with a metrorail commuter station inLeander. This is always one of those
controversial topics when it comes to whetheryou are in favor of the tax that
goes to cap Metro or if youare opposed to it, But nonetheless it
(14:18):
is a key part of the waythat the City of Leander will and can
position for economic growth here in theshort term and the long term of the
city's prospects. Think of it asyou will, it is a reality that
we're dealing with. So I findit interesting that the city is not shining
away from that at all to acertain degree, calling it out as part
(14:41):
of the way that they're framing thisjob going forward. So I think that's
interesting. Maybe again I'm reading toomuch into it, but it's not left
out. So that's an important pieceof the puzzle as far as someone who
will be considering coming to Leander astheir new city manager. It talks a
lot little bit more about the safetyof Leander, one of the lowest crime
(15:03):
rates in the state of Texas.Obviously that's something that everybody would want to
see continue. And again a littlebit more about the recreational activities and the
events that are around the City ofLeander throughout the year, and the tagline
here is again what I think iskind of interesting. It's a marketing piece,
so you have to keep that inmind, but it does say embrace
(15:24):
the future in Leander, a placewhere community, opportunity and Texan pride meet
come shape the city's journey. Soagain that to me is an active language
choice. Definitely looking for somebody tocome not only to lead the city's efforts,
(15:45):
but to also be part of thecommunity. The next page actually goes
through the governance and talks about theCity of Leander from that perspective. We
know from the last episode we talkedabout this which basically is a council manager
form of government where the mayor andall the council members are elected at large
and takes care of legislative budget policy, those types of They appoint individuals to
(16:11):
non elective positions that type of thing. The city council also appoints the professional
city manager, who serves as thischief executive officer and is responsible for overall
operation of the organization. I wouldargue that the city manager from a management
perspective, is more of an operationalofficer, so co as opposed to a
(16:36):
CEO, But I can see againhow this would be positioned, and it
is really kind of outlining the responsibilities. The city manager would serve as a
chief executive officer for the functional employeesof the city. Legislation, budgets,
policies, things of that nature arerun through the council and our council members
(17:02):
at large who make the decisions ofdirection impact. From that perspective, mostly,
and we've talked about this before,it is the budget that it's always
about the budget. Where are wecollecting our money and how are we spending
our money? That is a principalresponsibility of a council manager form of government.
(17:25):
The other things are supplemental to that. I would argue any kind of
ordinance or any other kind of policythat is set is more than likely done
so from a perspective of the budget, either the short term or the long
term budget. It's problem solving fromthat perspective. But one point here that
(17:48):
I was unaware of. But againit's nice to have this type of transparency
and visibility. There's four hundred andthirty six city employees. Obviously, that
includes fire, police, piece publicworks, planning and development, parks,
and Recreation, Finance, economic development, infrastructure, and administration. Leander's annual
(18:10):
budget is three hundred and seventeen milliondollars and some change, and the tax
rate is I'd say, let's justsay call it forty two since per one
hundred dollars of valuation. So itdefinitely gives a strong outline of what the
city is dealing with from a financialperspective, at least top level. Overview
(18:32):
a three one hundred and seventeen milliondollar budget with a three hundred thousand dollars
city manager. I guess that makessense, and I guess that probably checks
out across the board in other cities. I haven't looked at that, but
I would imagine that if I did, I'd find something very similar in other
(18:52):
cities. Now, the next pageis about the position. Now here is
where we get a lot lot ofinsight into where the city will go and
what the expectation should be going forward. So it talks about the role and
playing a pivotal role in overseeing thestrategic planning, coordination and direction of all
(19:17):
the city departments. But then itgoes on to say these are core responsibilities
and this is a lot of texthere, So I'm not going to read
through it, but it does pointout the first and foremost, the number
one bullet point is economic development,and that is a very important part of
(19:40):
the conversation that kind of flies underthe radar. Not everybody's looking at economic
development and understanding it. But that'sone of the reasons that I do the
podcast is to kind of bring somelight to some of these issues in a
way that I hope is a littlebit more palatable and a little bit more
digestible. The way that this ispositioned is proactively champion and promote Leander's economic
(20:03):
development agenda. To proactively champion andpromote Leander's economic development agenda would require somebody
to be, in my humble opinion, a really good sales person, and
that is something that I think wehave been lacking, not only in previous
city managers, but an overall understandingof how to sell the city, because
(20:29):
that's what you have to do.You have to sell the city. It
has to be a place that peoplefeel when they make those investments that they're
going to get a return on thoseinvestments. And whether those investments are in
the community, whether those investments arein the business or the recreational areas.
Whatever the investment is, those areinvestments. Whether it's money, time,
(20:52):
family, whatever, however you wantto frame that, those are investments.
The reason that you're here is becauseyou want to be here or you need
to be here. But at theend of the day, you want to
feel comfortable in those environments. Youwant to feel comfortable knowing that you live
in a safe city, that youhave the services that are available when you
(21:15):
go out to parks, and yourchildren are able to recreate in the way
that you would want them to forquality of life. You have all of
the social services available in the citythat are addressing the needs, the general
services that are available restaurants and shoppingand things of that nature. Where you're
(21:37):
taking your free time and your expendablecapital and you're investing back in the city.
We talk a lot about small businessand investing in small business in the
City of Leander. That's what that'sabout. When you're spending your money within
the thirty nine miles that comprise thecity of Leander, that's going back into
the coffers and it's helping us addresssome of the issues that we have as
(21:57):
a city and be able to planfor the future. So I think that's
huge in my opinion, and Ithink also that the way that this is
outlined development of space for light industrialbusiness, class A office space and retail
establishments. There would be an argumentfrom some that retail establishments a lot of
(22:19):
investment in the service industry is kindof a natural progression for the city of
Leander. So whether or not thatwould actually require economic development, that's an
arguable point. But the class Aoffice space and light industrial business that takes
planning, That takes a dedicated effortto entice investment into the city, and
(22:41):
that is a very important factor goingforward. As Leander continues to grow,
there has to be a balance tothe tax base. I think the decision
has been made to move away froma bedroom community. There's nothing wrong with
being a bedroom community. If that'show you choose to grow your city and
be that a suburb of another areaand have your people spend their tax dollars
(23:04):
in other areas, that's fine.But then you overly rely on on one
particular tax source, which will notbe a long term, in my opinion,
sustainable type of process. It doesn'thelp you become very very limited.
From that perspective, but if weare able to entice the proper type of
(23:25):
industrial light industrial business, so we'renot talking about big factories with smokestacks and
things of that nature. We're talkingabout R and D and we're talking about
science and medical facilities that are lightindustrial. We also want to keep an
eye on water usage as well,because that is going to be a struggle
(23:47):
in the near term for every communityin Central Texas. Some would argue there's
not enough water. I think there'ssome viable conversation to be had there as
well. But anyway, so that'sthe economic of it piece. It does
talk about strategic planning, vision andimplementation, which I think is a direct
relationship to the economic development piece.And then stakeholder relationships. Now here we're
(24:12):
talking about city partners, government entities, county and state officials, and other
key stakeholders in groups that have representationin the city. I think that's important
too, because there has to betransparency, there has to be communication so
that all of the stakeholders. AndI would argue that you and I are
(24:33):
also stakeholders here in the City ofLeander, and that we deserve just as
much transparency as to what's going onwith our government and with our city and
the way that they're making decisions thatmay be of an indirect impact to our
lives, but they do impact ourlives from day to day. So there's
a lot of bullet points here,and those are the principal ones, so
(24:55):
at the top of the list,if you will. There's also bullet points
here pointing out legal and compliance,the advisory role of the city manager to
council and council members, the reportingstructure, which again here the city manager
directly reports to city Council while alsosupervising several key positions city chief of Staff,
(25:22):
human resource director, city secretary,executive director of finance, and the
chiefs of police and fire. Sothe city manager, again I would argue,
has a lot of responsibilities, andnot only to the city itself,
but also to the operation of thecity, which again is one of the
(25:42):
reasons I would say I'd look atthis as a COO, not necessarily a
CEO, but that's my own personalopinion. Interestingly, they're the chiefs of
fire and police report to the citymanager. But I believe we've covered this
before, and the police and firehave their own organizational charts, so they
(26:03):
have their own responsibilities for their owndepartments. I believe there's some ordinances that
kind of touch on this as well. The city manager is responsible for council
collaboration, which goes back to theadvisory role. You would see the city
manager involved with the City Secretary onall agenda preparation and council directives. So
(26:26):
definitely again here operationally executing on decisionsmade by council, but advising council as
they're going through those decision making processes. Keep in mind here that the city
Council, the people who serve onthe council, the mayor and all of
the council members, are doing soon essentially a volunteer basis. There is
(26:47):
no capital invested in our city leadership. They don't receive any kind of payment
for those positions. They do soat the pleasure of the citizens of the
City of Leander. So their primaryfocus again being the budget. They are
(27:07):
doing a job that is temporary inits nature. It's supposed to be the
city manager a little bit more permanence, although we did talk about in the
last episode that there's an arc generallyspeaking on how long a city manager serves,
especially when you start getting into thissize of city. I think we
said it was three to five years, so I think that should be an
(27:27):
expectation as well. Anyway, itdoes talk about a budget and finance,
personal management, and interdepartmental coordination,so again very operational from that perspective.
The next piece of the brochure goesinto the opportunities and challenges here in Leander,
(27:48):
and again I think this is somewhatof an insightful document from that perspective,
because I think it outlines what thecity sees as its own opportunities and
challenges. Taking on a role likethis, I think it's important for you
to understand where the city is.I also think it's super important for the
city to be very transparent in whatthey consider to be their own challenges and
(28:11):
opportunities. But again, we don'tsee a whole lot of this, and
you don't hear a whole lot ofthis. And I've been involved in a
lot of commissions and things of thatnature here in the City of Leaner since
I've lived here, and it's oftensomewhat of a challenge to get the type
of visibility that this document seems tobe able to present. At least that's
(28:36):
my read again my opinion. Takefrom that what you will. The three
main areas that this points out asan opportunity and challenge. Again, this
is the city presenting itself to aprospective employee. Here's why you would want
to be here, here's what youwould want to do, here's some of
the challenges, and here's some ofthe things we see as an opportunity for
you in your career. So lookat it from that perspective. The opportunities
(29:02):
and challenges are outlined as city cultureand Communication, city projects and development,
and strategic city planning. So thecity itself would look at its own function
and say, hey, these areopportunities. There are potential challenges for you
as a new city manager. Thatwould be the city culture, communications,
(29:23):
city projects, development, and strategiccity planning. So when we look at
that, I think, again,there's some insight to be gleaned here.
Can we look at this and saythat the city and culture and communication is
an area that requires improvement? Maybemaybe, but it is definitely something that
(29:51):
the city is looking at and saying, okay, hey, here's a few
things that you should know about us. Some of these things have already been
addressed, like one of the bulletpoints is enhanced the digitaling age. Basically,
a lot of that work has beendone. The new website for the
city is obviously a vast improvement overwhere we were. The way that that
works is a refinement to that process, so some of that work is already
(30:15):
in place. Interesting here is managegrowth by balancing rapid expansion with stability.
Something that I mentioned earlier is thatyou have to look at the long term
implications of decisions that you're making now. It's good to see the city is
looking at it from that perspective aswell. The city leadership at the very
least is taking that into account.Resident connectivity, key projects, north line
(30:41):
development, old Town area. Thoseare all things that are important where the
city is investing time and money rightnow that we want to see succeed.
So I would argue, what arewe doing about that? How are we
ensuring that that success is going tobe had. One of the key developments
I think forthcoming here and it willbe something I think will fall although I
(31:03):
think decisions will be made prior tothat, but the new city manager will
be largely kind of in charge,at least from a responsibility perspective. There's
a one eighty three corridor study thatthe city has started, and there'll be
probably some more information on that herein the near term. That's looking at
how we're presenting the city of Leander, like that corridor that's the main thoroughfare
(31:27):
through our city, similar to whatyou may have seen in Cedar Park with
the Bell Street project. I wouldthink that those are the types of things
that we would see coming from theone eight three corridor project long term.
Having been on the Economic Development Committeehere in Leander myself, we had some
ideas for that, and we'll bepresenting those ideas within the construct of that
(31:52):
particular one eight three development study.So I certainly hope that there's an opportunity
for those ideas to be vetted andrise up through that process, because I
think they were good ideas. Nonetheless, strategic planning being the last of the
three points, looking at future bondelections, a visionary plan focused on water
(32:14):
infrastructure. I think those are veryvery key parts to the process that the
new city manager will have to undertakeas well as And this one's always interesting
to me because it's something that happensregularly and I don't know if the current
cadence is really that great. Iwould argue the city's comprehensive plan it's a
(32:39):
living, breathing document and it canchange with the way that the city grows.
I don't know if it's necessarily linedup to the fast growth the city
is currently going through, and someof those comprehensive plans are a little bit
limiting, and so it's important thatagain that's opinion, but it's important that
(33:00):
the city manager, I would think, take a look at that and hopefully
be a little bit more directly involvedin helping those who work on the comprehensive
plans to come up with good,solid ideas that can move forward or move
the city of Leander forward. Again, just my opinion, not to say
that the efforts that have been undertakenthere so far are lacking, just there's
(33:23):
an opportunity to do more, inmy opinion. So from opportunities and challenges,
then we look at the I talkedabout this earlier in the podcast.
I think this is very insightful.It gives a lot of visibility into the
way that the city is thinking aboutthis, and it outlines what an ideal
(33:43):
leader is for Leander. Again,we talked about this a forward thinking luminary
adept and navigating a rapidly growing communityand to steer the city's voyage as the
next city manager. I've kind ofalready covered this. I'm not going to
go into a whole lot of detailhere, but there's more to it if
you want to take time to readthe Ideal Leader for Leanders some of the
(34:05):
points that are made here. Iwould also say that these are things that
we should hold our city management andcity leaders accountable for as well. If
this is the way that they're presentingthe city and what the wants and needs
and vision for the city is goingforward, these should be the things that
they should be held accountable to aswell. So when we see that perhaps
(34:28):
there is a lack of skill indissecting and interpreting communication plans, ordinances,
financial reports, that we should becalled out. And again I'm using that
as an example, but definitely somethingthat I think can help us as citizens
(34:50):
as we move forward if we rememberthese documents, remember this documentation, because
these are the things that the cityis telling us, this is what we
want to do for you citizens herein Leander. The rest of this really
kind of goes into the education experience, you know, they're definitely looking for
somebody who has a lot of experienceand a strong accreditation and degree plan that
(35:15):
they've followed definitely very specific to citymanagement, So I think that's something that
we need to look at. Andit also goes into the compensations and benefits,
and again here there's a lot ofdetail as to what this particular position
(35:36):
gets as far as salary, butit definitely is in line I would think,
with what would be necessary to becompetitive in that particular piece, specifically
as Leander grows and offers opportunities towhoever might take this on as their next
challenge. Last, but not least, is of course the application process itself,
(35:59):
which is not some that we necessarilyneed to go into, but it
is something that is reflective of wherethe city is right now. As our
final photo here is the city Councilwith what looks like to be a few
city actually ribbon cutting. I don'tknow where it was, but anyway,
(36:21):
it does show the spirit of Leander, I would argue from that perspective.
So what I've tried to do withthis episode is give you a little bit
of insight into what's happening with thehiring of the new city manager. Any
of the content here has been directlylifted from what the city has provided in
(36:42):
the application process, as well asthe brochure that outlines what the position does
and what some of the responsibilities aretherein some of this has been opinion,
and I want to make sure thatthat's understood. Some of the things that
have been said in the podcast thistime are my own opinion, but it
(37:05):
is with a little bit of insightand some exposure to some of the things
that are going on in the city. So certainly hope you can appreciate that
this is an ongoing process. RickBeverlin left around October of this year,
and shortly thereafter Isaac Turner stepped inas the interim city manager, so he's
steering the ship as this application processgoes on. The applications actually are open
(37:29):
until December tenth, so shortly thatwindow closes, and we'll start getting a
little bit of feedback from sgr ASto the candidates that they put forward to
the city, assuming that they're goingto be doing a little bit of vetting
themselves before the final candidates reached thecity council. So I'll keep an eye
on this and keep reporting on itbecause I think it's an important topic that
(37:50):
we should be aware of. AndI also want to take a moment to
wish you all a very very happyholiday season. Those are rolling right up
to us now and soon we'll becelebrating all of the holiday cheer and for
those of you who worship all ofthe holiday worship as well. I definitely
wish everyone the very very best foryou and your families, and I hope
(38:14):
to see you soon here in Leanderand on the next episode of Lean and
Leander. Thanks a lot of folks, we'll talk to you next time.
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