February 2023

City Council of the Year, City of Mansfield

Management transitions

Gerardo Barrera is the new city administrator of the City of Bunker Hill Village, effective January 23.

Mario Canizares will begin serving as the new town manager of the Town of Prosper, effective February 20.

John Curry is no longer the city manager of the City of Chico.

Charles Ewings is no longer the city manager of the City of Justin. 

Brian Funderburk will retire as city manager of the City of Rowlett, effective July 12.

Kimberly Judge is the new city manager of the City of Dayton, effective January 18.

Tim King is the new city manager of the City of Trinity.

Keith Kiplinger is the interim city manager of the City of Nacogdoches.

Michael Leamons is no longer the city manager of the City of Glen Rose, effective February 17.

Justin Parker is the new city manager of the City of Spearman.

Cody Petree is the new city manager of the City of Roanoke. 

Gordon Pierce is the interim city manager of the Village of the Hills.

Jim Proce will no longer serve as city manager of the City of Anna, effective February 17.

Helen Ramirez is the new city manager of the City of Brownsville, effective January 9.

Kevin Rule is the new city manager of the City of Woodcreek.

Gary Scott is the new city manager of the City of Conroe, effective January 12.

Merle Taylor will retire as the city manager of the City of Snyder, effective April 5.

Monique Vernon will no longer serve as the city manager of the City of Kirby, effective February 28.

Raymei Zella will retire as city manager of the City of Cuero in the summer of 2023. A date has not been announced at the time of this issue.

New Members

The TCMA Management Messenger welcomes the following new members approved by the Executive Committee on January 27, 2023.

Full: Ryan Henderson, Assistant City Manager, Anna; Kent Manton, City Administrator, Bruceville-Eddy: Helen Ramirez, City Manager, Brownsville; Steve Vasquez, City Administrator, Plains

Cooperating: Brandon Powell, General Manager, Lubbock County WCID#1; Steven Rapson, County Manager, Fayette County, Georgia; Jerrett Williams, Police Supervisor, Bryan

Associate: Shannon Hicks, Director of Public Works and Engineering Services

Student: Melinda Brown and Stewart Starry, Texas A&M University; Kiran Rawat, Texas Tech. University; Blake Manuel, Salvador Gonzalez, Jr., Mahamat Adoum Hassane, Paola Loera, Jennifer Nagorka, Michael Alan Penaluna, Alejandro Perea, Maryland Ruiz Quiasua, Andrew Shahidi, and Charles Wood, University of North Texas

New Member Applications

The current TCMA Board policy requires that names of new member applicants be published each month in the Management Messenger. Any written objection during the subsequent 30-day period will be reviewed by the Membership Committee. If no objections are received during this time, the names will be submitted to the Executive Committee for approval. Written objections can be mailed to TCMA, Attention: Membership Committee, 1821 Rutherford Lane, Suite 400, Austin, TX 78754. Applications received in the month of January::

Full: Anas Garfaoui, Assistant City Manager, Live Oak; Charles Kreidler, City Manager, Aubrey; Grace Matlock, Interim City Manager, Jarrell; Melisa Milliorn, City Secretary/Assistant City Administrator, Grand Saline; Aaron Smith, Assistant City Manager, Odessa; Colby Waters, Assistant City Manager, Perryton 

Associate: Jon Barnes, Assistant to the City Manager, Amarillo; Brian Butscher, Director of Public Works, Sugar Land; Andrew Deavers, Director of Parks & Recreation/Assistant to the City Manager, Southside Place; Kelsee Jordan Lee, Economic Development Director, Cibolo; Gumaro Martinez, Executive Director Parks and Leisure Serves, Waxahachie; Juan Olaguibel, Superintendent of Bridges, McAllen

Cooperating: Erika Martinez, Assistant Director of Operations, Laredo

Tom Muelenbeck Scholarship

TCMA is accepting applications for the 2023 Tom Muehlenbeck Scholarship. This $2,500 scholarship is available to a Texas City Management Association member’s dependent child who is a high school graduating senior and has been accepted to a Texas college or university.

The deadline to apply is April 7.  To learn more and apply, click Tom Muehlenbeck Scholarship. 

ethics corner

Last month, Caitlin Biggs, Little Elm director of administrative services/towns, introduced the complex topic of gifts and ethical issues associated with receiving such gifts. This month’s perspective focuses on whether or not to accept gifts even if they fall under the organization’s threshold. 

The holiday season can bring many gifts from citizens, vendors, and external agencies. Some of these gifts might be directly given to the organization as a whole to share amongst employees and other gifts might be directly addressed to a specific individual in a department.

Carol works as a customer service representative at the utility billing front desk, and she interacts with the public on a regular basis where many people are friendly. During the holiday season, multiple gifts are delivered and addressed to Carol from citizens and businesses who thank her for her help and exceptional customer service throughout the year. The gifts range from a box of chocolates to free hockey tickets. Carol is unsure of how to handle this situation and researches her organization’s policy on gift acceptance which states the thresholds for accepting gifts. Carol meets with her supervisor to report the gifts and seek further guidance. It was determined that the gifts meet the organization’s threshold and Carol decides to keep the gifts. 

Although it was determined that the gifts complied, should Carol have accepted the gifts? Could some of the citizens and businesses be trying to win favor with Carol for special treatment in the future as related to their utility billing or were the gifts simply acts of appreciation for the employee?

Regardless of how the gift is intended, it is important for organizations to instill and uphold policies pertaining to the acceptance of gifts. These policies indicate the organization’s threshold for accepting gifts and set the official, objective parameters that should be followed by the team.   

Part of this policy might specify that if a person presents a gift to a city employee as a reward for service or as an act of expressing appreciation, then the employee shall report the gift to their supervisor and the city manager.