Episode 3: Pennies, Projects, and Progress

We’re talking all things Deer Park with City Manager Jay Stokes and Assistant City Manager Sara Costlow. From the dollars and cents behind major city projects to exciting new community-focused initiatives, find out how your city is working for you.

Topics include:
✅ Project funding & completion
✅ Innovative community service initiatives
✅ The future of Deer Park

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Thank you from the Visit Deer Park Division of the City of Deer Park

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:06

Hey everybody, and welcome to the Hangout Podcast. I'm Caitlin Bluejacket.

SPEAKER_04 0:10

I'm Elliot.

SPEAKER_03 0:11

And today we have our special guest, Jay Stokes, who is our city manager, and Sarah Coslo, who is our assistant city manager. So we want to thank both of y'all for coming on the show and sharing with us y'all's insight on what we have going on in Deer Park.

SPEAKER_04 0:27

Thank you for having us.

SPEAKER_03 0:28

We're happy to be here.

SPEAKER_04 0:29

Awesome.

SPEAKER_03 0:30

You want to start us off?

SPEAKER_04 0:31

Yeah. So, you know, we go to a lot of different conferences and things like that, and people always ask us, you know, Deer Park is such a small town. Like, how are you guys able to grow so much? Can you kind of walk us through how something comes from just a general idea to full-blown construction?

SPEAKER_01 0:51

I think there's lots of different ways that that could be answered. First of all, it's great when I hear things like you've been at a conference and people know what Deer Park is and we have a good reputation. One thing I'm gonna digress for just a second off your question, but something I'm really proud of with the city is we have a long history of being very active at staff level and at a council level with organizations all throughout the state. Right. You know, almost everybody in their profession, like y'all have Tameo, Sarah and I have uh TCMA, Texas City Management Association. Dear Park has long been active in those different organizations. The the biggest one in Texas is TML, Jimmy Burke, our former mayor, was president of all of TML back in the 90s. So a long, long rich history of that. So to start with, it makes me feel good that you you hear those type of things. And as far as just kind of how these projects come to fruition, there's lots of different ways. I mean, uh there's conceptually what do you want to do, and then you gotta figure out how to fund it. And does it require voter approval or not? Are there alternate sources of funding, such as the type B sales tax or the fire control tax, or the crime control tax, or those type of things? But for the most part, especially in in the last 15 years or so, council has really focused on quality of life things. And and we're gonna be talking about a lot of the projects that are going on right now. And I think uh a very deliberate decision was made several years ago that you know we we are we're growing uh as you said, but we're not Katie, we're not uh Sci-Fair or someplace. We don't have a lot of geography left in which to grow. We're landlocked. But what we do have, we want to be the best it can be. We want to have amenities that are the best they can be, and we want to have things for our citizens and our residents that are as nice as you'll find anywhere in the Houston area. Right. So there's really been a focus on a lot of things like that.

SPEAKER_03 3:05

So how do y'all decide what goes on a ballot whenever you're you're going to like seek approval for what the citizens are looking for? Like, for example, in 2021, whenever we had the the bond election, how did y'all decide what projects were going to be available for voters to approve?

SPEAKER_01 3:27

You know, if you go back to 2015, let's say, uh at that time the council asked voters to approve the type B sales tax. Uh and we had uh four or five specific projects that would be funded as part of that. And and the concept was when those projects were fully funded, uh, the tax would would go away or or be renewed or beauthorized. So like in that instance, we put before or the council put before voters, if you pass the type B sales tax, here are the things you're gonna get. That included renovation in the Maxwell Center, renovation of the community center, which that changed, we'll talk about that later, creation of the soccer complex and some other projects. Then later, sticking with with that source of funding, we went back to voters and said, Would you like to build what's now the DAC and create funding that would help provide for the maintenance and operation of the of the DAC and other parks and rec related projects? Essentially our type B sales tax, and we're very unique, is it's principally a parks and rec related quality of life source of funding. So with those, that's that's that was their origin. In 2020, we were going to there's a bit of other projects along the way that we issued certificates of obligation, which is a form of debt that the council can approve. And we've done several of those projects along the way, the animal shelter being a good example of that. Then with other projects, we took those before the voters. We were going to do that in 2020, and then with COVID happening, and that changed a lot of things, we we decided to bump that until 2021. So we took that before voters in 2021, uh, and it it passed, and that funded the new fire station number one, the new fire station number two, the fire trainings real field, the new Jimmy Burke, some drainage projects. So the good thing about that is you know, you're you're giving the voters a choice. Do you want to do this or not? And we did not go up on the uh Avalorum tax rate. We were able to replace debt that was rolling off with new debt and keep the tax rate the same. And that was a pledge that the council made to the voters, and the council has kept. So that was a a series of projects that just kind of made sense and the voters said yes to it.

SPEAKER_03 6:12

So let's talk about the project life cycles. And uh, can you walk us through how a major project is conceived, planned, and ultimately executed? Sure.

SPEAKER_02 6:23

There's different ways that that that can happen. I think one of the most prominent ways, and I think one of the ways that our city council is very, very passionate about making sure that the quality of life in Deer Park uh continues and remains, is we have a very long-standing history of being very involved and intentional with our strategic plan. Jay, I've heard him say so many times that it's a source of pride for our city that we our strategic plan is not put together and then put on a shelf to accumulate dust. We very intentionally go through this process and then we execute what has been identified. And every five years, council has made a very firm commitment to sort of revise and revamp and update that strategic plan and figure out where do we want to go, what do we want to do. And in every single one of those, we always discuss the importance of quality of life and what's on the horizon, where what would best serve Deer Park? And in those types of conversations, that's where a lot of these ideas come from. Sometimes it's as simple as our infrastructure is aging and we know that we need to do X, Y, and Z to make sure that this remains functional. Um and sometimes it's things like, hey, we've never had a freestanding municipal court. And what would that look like? Would that serve the community? Is that something that would benefit us for years and years and years to come? And when it's those types of conversations, they're very fun. They get, we get to have a lot of discussion with council and staff and outside educators and influencers, and everyone that can sort of help us along the way. And in those types of situations, there's a lot of involvement from a lot of very, very key players and influential people. Um, the court's a very good example. For the viewers that don't know, Deer Park is one of the last municipalities in the state that operates our own theater troupe. And our court has always shared a building with our municipal theater. We've never had a freestanding court in our existence. And we we've reached a point where we were able to start looking into that and doing that. And our court staff has been very involved from the beginning. They got to work with the architect and the engineers and make sure that we were designing a space that is going to be functional for the community and for the process and for the judge and also for staff, and just the things that are thought through in those types of decisions or those types of processes are very intentional. All the way to now we see, you know, steel, we see vertical construction out there with the court. And that's supposed to be done later this year. So there's so much involvement that goes into those types of things. And it it really depends on the type of project. But we I feel like as a city, especially on at a council level, they've done a very good job at at plotting the coordinates on the horizon and and giving staff the tools to get there.

SPEAKER_04 9:26

Yeah. And one thing I want to go to, Jay, you mentioned COVID. It was a rough time for everybody, right? There was a lot of changes happening. And then you mentioned the strategic plan, which we try to stick to. So what happens in a situation where you're in the middle of a strategic plan, something doesn't go as planned, and you have to over you know, overcome a hurdle? Like what happens in that moment? Do you have to go back to the drawing board and say, well, we need to go back to year three and kind of see where we need to start from, or is it just business as usual, get through it, maybe put some things off? Like how does that work?

SPEAKER_02 10:02

Sometimes we do. Yeah. Sometimes we have to really stop and pause and say, okay, what let's assess where we are, what has happened, what we're dealing with, what are the in, you know, the and the external environments, the legislature is a really good one. COVID was a big thing that we have to deal with. But as we know very well, a lot of what we do and what we're governed by, it's very litigious. And so with the with every legislative session, laws can change. Sometimes our purview changes. And in those types of situations, sometimes we we do very much have to step back and say, okay, this is where we were going. Does that still work? Does that make sense? Is that going to best serve our community? If it does, great, then let's continue. If not, maybe we do need to take a step back and reevaluate here. And that has happened. Another thing that I take great pride in is a team member of our staff, the assistant to the city manager's office has owned the strategic plan process. And every year, for a very long time, we have done an annual presentation to council on where we are. And in those types of situations, to your point, when there is a necessary change, council is kept aware and involved in that decision and discussion the entire time. And because we do do annual updates. But in the last couple of years, we have sort of reimagined how we organize that process and how often we have these discussions and amongst at the staff level and at the council level. And it just puts even more awareness and intention behind what we do. So there are very much our times where we have to step back and pivot. Not always, but it's we have to, there's a lot of flexibility. I know that probably seems counterintuitive when you're talking about government, but there's a lot of flexibility in what we do. And we have to remain that way in order to continue to best serve the community because sometimes those needs change.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

Yeah. And the plan excuse me, the plan's not laid out as here are 15 things and you have to do one, then two, then three, then four, then five. Or in year one, you have to do one, two, three, and year two, four, five, six. There's a lot of flexibility series.

SPEAKER_03 12:03

So what are some of the, I guess, initiatives? I know y'all have the strategic plan broken up into different facets that the diff the directors oversee and things like that. How do those intertwine with each other? And how do y'all work together as a team to get those things accomplished? I know you mentioned a little bit about city council and and recalibrating and stuff like that, but yeah. How do y'all work together?

SPEAKER_01 12:27

Well, uh there are dozens and dozens of things within the plan. And so it's broken into components that different directors have responsibility over for. And in in a way that makes sense. Like something that's public safety is not gonna have the librarian over, it's gonna have the police chief or the fire chief or the emergency service director, that type of thing. But as far as what what lies ahead, there's many things. One of I I'll mention this one because uh I mean I'm responsible for this one that we're excited about. A lot of cities around us have started doing like like we have the Citizens Police Academy, and that's been here a long time and and is very successful, and lots of people have gone through that that program, and lots have gone through it and gone on to grow into leadership positions within the city and and finding ways to give back to the city, that type of thing. Doing something similar to that, but instead of the focus being just on the police department, being on the on the city overall, looking at all the parks and looking at the library and public works. I mean, you could spend weeks and weeks just doing public works. So we're we're seeing a lot of municipalities around us that are that are doing that. Pearland is one example, and we just hired a new deputy court, I mean deputy uh city secretary who was coming from Pearland and had some responsibility for that there. So we're gonna get some good input from her. But that's that's just one of many, many things, and again, something that that I'm more familiar with as far as what's in the plan, but it's in the plans for this calendar year to get that in motion, create that program, bring it city council, see if they like it, and then begin taking our first class, if you will, of participants. So the wheels and returning. Wheels and returning.

SPEAKER_02 14:21

And with those types of things, there's a lot of collaboration internally amongst our teams. I mean, we have so many examples of where it may be something that the police chief, to use your example, is leading that initiative, but maybe it makes sense to have certain people part of that project team. Um, and so when we see instances where something that's economic development related will still very much bleed into the quality of life, you know, focus. And so we we try to be very strategic about how we organize that and and what people we put on which teams. One of the things that I think we're also really excited about is the beautification of the city. That's a huge quality of life initiative that's part of our current strategic plan. We've been installing new street signs throughout the city, and that's gotten a lot of very positive feedback. We're really excited to continue that project. And that's just one of many things that have been brainstormed or implemented or put in place to continue to raise that quality of life standard. And so there are there is a lot of interaction, you know, amongst our team members and and different focus areas, to your point.

SPEAKER_03 15:28

We were just talking about the street signs earlier today, and we're like, yeah, that like it really amplifies like exactly like what Deer Park is, you know, what we're trying to do and where we're trying to go with with all of the beautification projects. And, you know, we can stand here and talk about murals and and the traffic boxes and everything like that, but it little improvements like that over time are going to make a big difference in the footprint of Deer Park, not just with like these large projects, you know, these large infrastructure and things like that.

SPEAKER_02 16:00

There's so many things that make the community great. And there's so many ways in which we strive to serve the community. And it's not just our facilities, it's the type of programming that we have at those facilities. Parks and Rec has recently, I think our director and assistant director talked about it in one of your prior episodes. They were now an accredited autism center, which is fantastic. And we have inclusive programming, and we've got amazing sports complexes for all of the youth leagues, and we have a theater program that is really heavily influential and serves our youth population, and we have a senior citizen uh community and a facility to for them. And then in top in addition to all of that, we you know have all of these beauty beautification initiatives, and so there's lots and lots and lots of ways that council is very intentional about ensuring that Deer Park continues to have the best quality of life.

SPEAKER_03 16:56

Yeah. We may be biased, but we love Deer Park. So we do we do go before I think everybody does. Yeah. Amen.

SPEAKER_04 17:02

You know, one of the things that I think about too is you know, Caitlin and I, we we get to touch a lot of different projects, and it's hard to just nail down one that you're super proud of. But can you guys, you know, most recently talk about something that you sat back and maybe just a one-off thought, maybe at your desk or at home, like, man, I'm really proud of this one. You know, is there is there one that just comes to mind or is it a a culmination of all of them?

SPEAKER_01 17:30

Well, which kid is your favorite, but keeping it. I hope my children aren't watching because I have a favorite. The new Jimmy Burke isn't open yet, so we'll have to see. But I love the deck. Everyone is loving the deck.

SPEAKER_05 17:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

The deck is it it just warms my heart when we leave at 5:30 and you have to wait 45 seconds to make a left-hand turn on to St. Augustine because there's so much traffic, and a lot of that is people coming to to the DAC. Guilty. And that's wonderful. We love that. The other day, Sarah and I talked about this this morning, that almost all the parking lot, all the way over to City Hall, the parking lot between, it was it was almost to where we park as employees. People were using the DAC. My mother-in-law was in there about a month ago on a Friday night, and she just sent me a video. She was doing the walking track up top, and there was more youth playing basketball than you could count down there.

SPEAKER_05 18:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:37

And just knowing how that the community's enjoying that, that they're proud of it, because it was done so nicely and so well, and and still has so much more potential, too, as programs get developed as we get through the summer and and you know, kids are gonna grow up. I went to the DAC. Remember the DAC? You know, that's gonna be a big thing. And just showing it off, you know, the Christmas parties that were there, any chance that that we have and other staff have to invite that the group's not talking about dirty, like TCMA. There's a regional TCMA, they're coming and we're gonna show off the DAC.

SPEAKER_05 19:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

We love having events there that people can see it. And more than once, we've had other cities around us, city managers and parks and rec directors, that have said, can I show off the DAC? Or or the architect that built it, he's called up and said, I'm working on a potential new client far away, but they they have seen this conceptually and on paper. I want to show it to them for real. That's so cool. And they're coming in. Yeah, that's great. Everyone's so proud of it.

SPEAKER_04 19:40

Yeah. Yeah, it it definitely is something to be proud of. And, you know, like I said, I go there five, six days a week. My son goes there all the time, and there's so many of his friends that, you know, they go there after school every day. And it turns into more than just something for them to do. It turns into, hey, they're not in the streets, you know, getting in trouble, they're not, you know, running with the wrong crowds or anything like that. It turns into they're hanging out with their friends, they're being active, they're staying healthy, you know, they're they're with their group that they know that they can, you know, be with getting older and and like you said, continue to be go there and and do great things. So it is something really to be proud of. I like that.

SPEAKER_03 20:22

I always know when Elliot's going because I hear the his his shaker bottle going down the hall. He's getting ready. I'm gonna go work out. Okay, bye. Or I'm going on lunch break. Yeah. It's very consistent.

SPEAKER_04 20:35

It's uh it's it's very nice there. It's a very nice facility. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 20:38

I love it. For me, that project is our municipal court. My career in government didn't start in city management. It actually started in finance. And when I first started working for the city of Deer Park, I was brought in as our finance director. Our our former finance director was retiring, and I was very fortunate to interview and be selected for that job. And uh finance has several different divisions that were make it up, and one of those is municipal court. And I remember very clearly, very early on in my career here, that our our court administrator was very passionate about wanting to get a court, and it was something that was not hadn't always been feasible. And so to knowing that, knowing that that we've shared the building with theater for so long, which has been a beautiful partnership and it you know, it has has definitely worked out, and and we've been able to serve the community well. But knowing that we were finally able to make that step, and now it it went from kind of as a joke, like, haha, you're you know you're not gonna get that court to you know, we're we're there's there's you know steel erected. Yeah. So that's probably the one that if I had to pick one, it would be it'd be the municipal court. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:58

I feel like every time we drive. By something looks different. Yeah. It's really exciting. I know we went and took some videos for State of the City for some of the reporter videos. And the next week, Mayor was like, Have you seen it? I was like, Yeah, we went by last week. And he was like, No, like they have like steel out there. And I'm like, What? Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:16

Yeah. So it's been kind of cool coming to work every day. And you you just look that way. And every week it seems like there's something new happening. First, it was just breaking ground. Now it's dirt pushed around. Now it's a mound of dirt. Now it's a frame. It's like something is always going on. I think for me personally, ours is going to be the new Jimmy Burke Center. Oh, sure.

SPEAKER_03 22:37

We're going to talk about it every episode until it gets the manifest it. Yeah. Manifest it.

SPEAKER_04 22:43

In my interview for employment, that was one of the main things that Caitlin and Gary were talking about. Uh Gary Jackson, former uh assist city manager. And oh well, one day you guys are gonna get this new building. And I'm like, okay, great. And then year two came, year three came, and where's this building? And then here we are. It's it's uh it's coming up quick, and we're really excited.

SPEAKER_03 23:07

Yeah, Elliot was the most impatient that first like two years.

SPEAKER_04 23:12

I am probably the most impatient person you'll ever know.

SPEAKER_03 23:15

He's like, I'm ready for my window. Yeah, I want my I want my baseball view.

SPEAKER_04 23:20

It's coming.

SPEAKER_03 23:21

Yes. Yeah, we're we're both very excited. So I did want to kind of talk a little bit about like what the differences in y'all's roles are and so like what does Jay oversee versus what you oversee and how y'all work together again. We're all about teamwork this episode, I guess. Teamwork makes a dream work.

SPEAKER_05 23:40

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 23:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 23:45

I'm gonna brag a little bit about Jay. I man, I have a great job. And I am very fortunate to work for the boss and the council that I do. The the amount of care that they have for us all is is tremendous. And I could that we could have a whole podcast episode about that. But I say that to say I think Jay and I work together, at least I do. I think we work together very well. And even though we have different areas that report to us, we still very much do most things as a team. I directly am responsible for finance, our library, IT, human resources, uh, economic develop, uh, development, tourism, marketing, and communications. And then our A2 also reports to me as well. And then I'll let Jay speak to the groups that he has, but a lot of that really plays against our strengths. Whenever I was brought into that role, Jay was very intentional about departments that he was going to oversee and departments that I was gonna oversee. As I mentioned earlier, I have a finance background before I was in government. I was an accountant for years. That's what my undergraduate degree is in. And I w later went on to get an MBA, which has helped serve me here, but he he was very good about intentionally, you know, divvying things up. In large part, I I feel like we're there to support our teams. And they they are the true subject matter experts of what they do. And uh we are here to help them and support them and make sure that the city continues to operate in the best possible way. And with that, I would love to hear Jay's answer.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

You'll have to help me. So I oversee Mercy Services, the police department, Parks and Rec, Sarah, uh to some extent the city attorney. I'm probably leaving someone out right now that's going to be a good thing.

SPEAKER_02 25:53

Well, there's so much. I mean, within public works, yeah, within public works, you've got, you know, traffic and streets and drainage and HVAC and in in engineering, there's code enforcement and permitting. And so when we say, when we say, you know, oh, finance, well, that's five divisions. Right. Yeah. You know, and when when Jay says EMS or police, there's there's a lot that goes into that.

SPEAKER_03 26:14

Right.

SPEAKER_02 26:14

And you you have you have a lot, you have a lot of the all of the you know, huge substantial departments for sure.

SPEAKER_01 26:21

We've changed some things up, uh, as Sarah said. When Gary was here, he had Parks and Rec and I had finance. And when we promoted Sarah up with her finance background, that made a lot of sense. And then I wanted to be more involved in Parks and Rec.

unknown 26:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

If you look at, I guess four of my new bosses in a row have all come from the Parks and Rec Commission, including one that's about to come on. So I started thinking I might want to get to know those people a little bit. And then we you uh historically there was a time when the city had engineering and public works were separated, and then many years ago they they merged into one. And that's how it was until just a couple years ago, and then we split it back out. Uh say engineering stayed with me. So that's varied out.

SPEAKER_03 27:06

Yeah. It's interesting how y'all did that. Separated that department. Did it help with their workflow a little bit or well the the some public works directors are engineers by by trade and by license.

SPEAKER_05 27:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 27:26

And you don't have to be. Uh even the city of Houston just went through, if y'all listen to that, about does the public works director D to actually be an engineer or not? Uh Bill Peterson, the previous one, was, and and the two or three before him were. But when we were making these changes, we had uh Dil Cimenez, who is our uh engineer, and she's a PE. So we didn't therefore need that that skill set at the public works director. David Van Riper, who's not a PE but has a very extensive public works background.

SPEAKER_03 27:59

Okay. Sorry, that was like a sidebar question. Just because I was curious.

SPEAKER_04 28:05

And and Sarah, you mentioned, you know, your previous background. So with that, you know, what was the initial plan? You know, you get out of high school, you go to college, and what are we gonna do? So was it always to become part of a municipality, or was it just by habits to ask? Can you tell us about that?

SPEAKER_02 28:23

Yeah, I yes, I can. Gosh, that changed so many times. I mean, when I was little, little, and I had like the dream I wanted to be a vet or a marine biologist. And then when I started college, I remember very vividly, my grandmother had read an article about how pharmacists were in really high demand and how they made great money. And I said, Well, gosh darn it, that's what I'm gonna do. And so I declared my major, and that's the path that I started down. And about a year after that, I thought, man, I don't like this. And so I changed my major to the college of business and I actually thought I was gonna be a financial advisor. And I had declared my major in in finance. And when you go through a program like that, there are a certain amount of core classes you have to take no matter what. And so you have to take introductory accounting, you have to take introductory supply chain management, for example. And so I went into my introductory accounting class, and I will never forget, I still remember that professor's name. And he, when he started that very first lecture, he said, What you think is common sense in accounting is not common sense. And this is either gonna make a lot of sense to you or you're gonna struggle. And he just went through very basic. I mean, it was the very first, the very first lecture of this introductory class. He went through some very basic things. And at the end of it, I went up to him and I said, I think I'm gonna like this class because I my my brain is everything's are things are clicking. I understand everything you're saying. And he said, Well, what's your major? And I said, Finance. And he went, No. What you think you want in finance is actually accounting. You need to change your major. And of course, I'm 20 years old and I know what I know I'm what I'm doing, I know everything. So I double majored. I didn't just change my major. I was pretty sure that I still wanted to do finance. And he ended up totally being right. And so I double majored in accounting and finance and and really liked accounting. And I so I just assumed that I was I was going to stay in the private sector and be an accountant. That's what I was gonna do. And I did that for a very long time. And I ended up, just by happenstance, working for one of our neighboring municipalities in accounting. I started, I hired in with them as an accountant. And by the time I left that organization, I was their accounting manager and I found my way, you know, here at Deer Park and and as the finance director, and that was still very much my realm. Government accounting is not the same as as private sector accounting. And so there was some learning curves there, and that was a little different at first, but I definitely never set out to be in government. That's not, you know, I didn't get a master's in public administration. I did get a master's degree in business administration, thinking that, you know, that would, that would someday serve me in the corporate world.

unknown 31:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:04

And in a lot of ways it has. And even then, once I got into government, I didn't, at the time, I didn't have these grand aspirations of being in the city manager's office. I I had been with Deer Park for several months, and you mentioned Gary Jackson earlier, our very, very accomplished and long-tenured former city uh assistant city manager Gary announced that he was retiring. And to make a long story long, I ended up being very fortunate to be able to take on that role after his retirement. And so all of the, it seems like all of the moves I have made have served me very well. And a lot of that required flexibility because it what I thought, the path I thought I was gonna go down, is not where I ended up. But overall, I'm now I'm I'm very, very happy with with where I am and what I do. I I think a lot of our staff could attest to having heard me say that it takes a true public servant's heart to do what we do. And if you're not doing it for the right reasons, you're not gonna be happy. And I have really identified with what all of our purposes are here. I may work in finance or communications or the city manager's office, but at the end of the day, even our specific tasks may be different, but our goals are the same, and it's to serve the city. And we all play a very crucial role in doing that. And there's there's a lot of there's a great sense of accomplishment that I've found in working in this profession. Yeah. And so I did not always want to be a city manager, but I'm very happy that I have ended up here. Yeah. For sure.

SPEAKER_04 32:36

Awesome. What about you, Jay?

SPEAKER_01 32:38

Well, my story is probably a little bit more boring than it's weird. When I was in high school, I wanted to be a bass player and a rock band. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 32:46

That's cool.

SPEAKER_01 32:48

I had no determinable music skills. So uh I'm glad I didn't choose that. Uh the only class I really liked in high school was government.

unknown 32:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 32:59

And back then, I probably the same today, you took in your senior year, you took one class, one semester of economics and one of government. And when I say government, it was everything thrown into one and virtually no mention of local government in that that small amount of time. But I enjoyed it. And so then I went to college right out of high school and thought, well, I'm gonna major in that and major in political science. And knew that I wouldn't have a lot of great job opportunities with a political science degree at age 22. So then I immediately went into grad school, worked on an MPA, a Master of Public Administration. In my last semester, uh, there was a requirement that you do an internship. And I interned with a guy named Ron Cox. Many of y'all know Ron, certainly knows Ron. He was the city manager of Friendswood and had been a longtime friend of my family's. Uh he'd the previous city manager of Kilcore, the hometown I grew up in. And so he hired me, and I spent a semester working with him and really liked it a lot. I spent a lot of time in the planning and development, and then a lot of time in the city manager's office, and started applying for city jobs, gotten my first job doing economic development, and after a few years, kind of needed to make a decision: do I go into city planning, do I go into economic development, or do I try to do city management? And fortunately, in in 1999, I was hired to be a city manager in a very small town in East Texas, and then left that for another town that was a little bit bigger, and then came here in 2010. So my my path has kind of always been in city government and city management for a long time has been what I wanted to do.

unknown 34:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:50

Well, I think we're both really really lucky to have both of y'all here and uh glad y'all end up where you did for sure. So can we not just hand that on the podcast?

SPEAKER_03 35:00

We would tell y'all that anyway.

SPEAKER_02 35:01

I think I think the difference in our trajectories and our story is one of the reasons that we work well together because it offers a different it offers different lenses and perspectives. And we and in so many ways we complement each other very well, but in just as many ways we think of things differently. And when we have those types of collaborative discussions, sometimes it helps move us, you know, in better directions when you've got those differences of opinion. Yeah. Or persp or just perspectives in general. So I think that's one of the I very much like that we have different professional, you know, history because I think that I think the last several years of three years it served the city really well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:42

I appreciate Sarah offering a younger person than me's perspective because and I told Sarah when when probably when he came on the finance director, certainly when when she promoted up to ACM, that I know things need to change. And I also know I'm very slow to change, way more than the normal person. But I also feel like Deer Park's pretty slow to change. And but I'm back to what I said to start with, things need to change.

SPEAKER_05 36:11

Right.

SPEAKER_01 36:12

So to hear the perspective, especially with the world is changing so much. Absolutely. But whether AI or just think of all the things that are different.

SPEAKER_02 36:22

Think of things that there's electric bikes and scooters now.

SPEAKER_03 36:27

And that's how you wind up, that's how you wind up on a podcast. Because of change.

SPEAKER_01 36:35

Um so that that that's been very good. That that's where we work very well together. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:40

Yeah. I've seen both of y'all like grow together too as administration, and and y'all have really done an amazing job. I'm just gonna echo what he said. But I mean, both of y'all together, you can definitely see a change that is happening in Deer Park. And I think it's for a positive. And I think it's it's been long overdue because now you're seeing the generations in Deer Park growing up as well. And so whenever you have a team that supports each other, I think you really see a lot of growth and not just yourselves, but you also see it across the board. And y'all definitely do that and y'all hit the mark on that. Just the way that y'all support not just us, but the the rest of the city and all of our departments and divisions. I think it it's really been impactful and it it gives people hope for what's to come in the future as well.

SPEAKER_02 37:33

You hit the nail on the head when you said it's it's about the team. And for the last several, several, several years, there's been an extreme amount of intentionality on what people are placed in what seats. Um, and we have a fantastic team of directors. Our leadership team is, I mean, when we're when the pistons are firing and we're all working together, there is so much that we can do. And in the last, you know, five to ten years, we've had so many good hires as as very well respected and accomplished people have retired from the team. And making sure that we are intentional about who is chosen to be in those seats has really served the city well. And that I mean that the process y'all started years ago has now we're seeing the to your point, we're seeing the the benefit of that. And a huge fan that we've continued it because it's it's worked out really well.

SPEAKER_01 38:32

And that starts with the mayor and city council too. They're an extremely important part of the team. And we benefit greatly by uh, you know, our our mayor has been mayor for 14, I believe he's about to start his fourteenth year. Lots of tenure on the city council, and and everyone who has come on to the city council, that there's there's not a single person on city council today as the day that I was hired. Some of those positions have turned over more than once, but all of them have turned over at least once. But the people who come on have all served the city in other ways prior to getting on city council. As I said earlier, uh Councilman Ginn was on the Parks and Rec Commission, TJ Hayde was on the Parks and Rec Commission, J uh Georgette was the chair of the Parks and Rec Commission, Justin League was on the CDC board, uh Eric's coming on, he currently is the chair of the Parks and Rec Commission.

SPEAKER_02 39:36

Miss Garrison's a huge she's the chair of our historical committee. I mean, she has done absolutely monumental and tremendous things in that area.

SPEAKER_01 39:46

Yeah. But between all of them, they've gone through not not every single one of them, but collectively.

SPEAKER_05 39:52

Right.

SPEAKER_01 39:52

They've gone through the Citizens Police Academy, the part of the Alumni Association. You've got past presidents of the Chamber of Commerce, you've got past presidents of the Rotary Club, you've got people that have been very, very active here for a long time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:07

Raised their kids in the school district, that type of thing. And they deeply care about the community and they care about us as employees.

SPEAKER_05 40:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:15

We we a saying that we say a lot, you don't have to look far and wide to see a lot of cities that are the total opposite of us, where there's lots of fighting and lots of unhappiness and the relationship between the mayor and city council is not great, or their relationship with the city manager isn't great, or then that can filter down to them with the staff and that type of thing. And we're very, very blessed in your part to have all of us together working the way we do.

SPEAKER_03 40:49

Yeah. And you see that you see that in everything in council meetings, people joking around and stuff like that. I think that's great. I know that y'all do have a engagement after this, and I don't want to take up too much more of your time, but so I'm just gonna kind of close this out with one final question, and then anything else that you'll want to expand on, you're welcome to. We've been asking or we're trying to make it a point to ask people something fun at the end of this. And so the question is if you could trade places with one department, which one would you choose?

SPEAKER_01 41:26

Ladies first.

SPEAKER_02 41:29

The easy answer would be finance because I've I've already done that. You can't but I'm I'm not I'm not gonna take the easy way out. I actually think that if I could trade spots with anyone that's not finance, it would be you. Really? Yes, I think being the city's PIO would be fascinating. Now, I'm not very good with, I mean, we we just talked about how we hire really great people, uh, and y'all are the fantastic experts at what you do. So there's a lot that y'all do that I am I I could not I could not do. But I think being PIO would be very fun.

SPEAKER_03 42:05

It's a lot of fun. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:09

Yeah. I think a lot about there's so many different positions with the city. I mean, we're doing wage and benefit survey right now, and there's a hundred and something positions with the city. And I think a lot about what could I do and what am I absolutely not interested or capable of doing.

SPEAKER_05 42:32

Or what should I not do?

SPEAKER_01 42:34

What I could do is is very narrow to all the positions. So I'm gonna briefly answer it two different ways. As far as what I feel like I could do, that I would enjoy doing if I didn't have my job is Caitlin's job.

SPEAKER_03 42:51

Oh, I'm so well liked today. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 42:55

My favorite position that I'm not skilled or capable or licensed or anything to do, but some something just really fascinates me lately is Billy Pennick's job. Billy Penick is over traffic, and he's got a great mind for the things we talked about earlier about improving all these signs. And very soon we're gonna start improving the intersections and uh major intersections like Center and Pasadena. And they're gonna be much, much nicer than they are now, and I appreciate that. I will never forget when the tornado came through, how bad it tore up P and Center, and it it just looked like spaghetti, just all strung together. God bless Billy and his crew when they went in and did all that. And then finally, my last where I think of Billy is I've I've traveled around quite a bit and I go down to Galveston quite a bit, and the traffic lights in Galveston are just absolutely horrible. I can't stand It when you pull up and there's not a car anywhere and it gives you a red light, and then you look at the crosswalk and it's counting down 45 seconds and it's four in the morning and there's no pedestrians, just on a timer. And we do it better than that here. Credit to Billy. So thank you, Billy.

SPEAKER_03 44:17

Well, if y'all ever want to treat places, I have the most perfect day, and it's this Thursday from 11 to 1. Yeah. If you want to switch spots.

SPEAKER_02 44:30

But you know, I think just to, I mean, if I could wrap all this up in a nice little bow, I would encourage anyone that has an interest to get involved in things because you just there's so many things that we do that I mean, all of our different departments and our positions and our people, if you if you were really into science, you would love our water treatment plant. I mean, there's so there's so so many things. And so I encourage anyone listening, if you have an interest and or government, you know, just piques that interest at all, do some research and and get involved. Um, there's ways to get involved in the community. And we we definitely want people to continue being passionate about government and what we do and and the professions that lie within.

SPEAKER_03 45:14

So I'm I'm very glad you asked that question.

SPEAKER_02 45:16

There's lots of fun that we have.

SPEAKER_03 45:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:19

I know even whenever we try to explain our jobs to people sometimes, we don't really know how to nutshell it for people because I I mean we are calm, so we do like kind of go into all the different departments sometimes. And the I never knew how much was actually in government until I started working here. And it's interesting to see how everybody works together and how every puzzle piece fits together in sometimes perfect harmony, but it doesn't always work like that. But we do the best that we can with what what we do, and I think the talent here is is just top tier. Yeah, it you don't find this anywhere else. Like the the employee level, like we're we're very fortunate to work.

SPEAKER_02 46:06

We have the best sanitation crews, we have the best police officers, we take such great pride, all of our employees take such great pride in where they work and where they live in the community that they're serving. And I I couldn't agree with you more.

SPEAKER_03 46:19

Yeah. Well, thank y'all both for coming on the podcast. Thank you. Um, we're very thankful for y'all, and I know y'all were a highly anticipated guest from the community. They definitely want to hear from y'all, so y'all might have to come back again. I'm sorry, Jay. But yeah, so make sure you follow us and like, share, subscribe.

SPEAKER_04 46:40

And as always, we'll see y'all around campus.

SPEAKER_00 46:53

Hi everyone, welcome back to Dishing with Destiny. And today, uh the new place that I'll be talking about is cod M Cafe. And what makes this place different? It is a Vietnamese style cafe. So that means the type of coffee beans that you use are cod robusta beans, which have are like double the caffeine, are more intense, bold, richer in flavor. Goes down very smoothly, usually paired with a sweetened condensed milk. It goes very well when you're trying to have an extra kick in the morning or throughout the day. But not only do they have traditional Vietnamese coffee, they also have their staples of mint coffee and salted coffee. They have matcha lattes, fruit teas, milk teas, slushies, frappés, they cater to everyone. I know in my recent visit, I had I had an ice matcha latte, and they've made it really well. And it's not, it wasn't too strong. You know, some I know some people are very particular with matcha flavor. I got mine with oat milk, but again, they can cater to whatever milk that you prefer. But not only beverages, they also have snacks. They have traditional coin waffles, Vietnamese rolls, they have chicken tenders, chicken nuggets, cheese fries, regular fries, you know, pretty much anything that you're craving too on the savory side. I know on my last visit, I paired my iced match latte with tiramisu, and it was really, really delicious. But they also had ube crepes as well, if that's something that you haven't tried and are willing to. And but other than that, just the place in general, the ambiance is very welcoming, cozy, a modern type of feel. So if you love to vlog, if you love to take pictures, post on Instagram, any type of social media, this place is definitely a good place to do that. And you know, and it also helps promote the plays here in Deer Park. But if you ever want to go, you don't have to wait for someone, just go on your own, go with friends, go with family. It's a really great place, you know, to, you know, build a community there or find new community, you know, host a, you know, book clubs or anything that, you know, caters to what you or your interests are. But I know that they had free board games and you know, you can pretty much do anything there and just enjoy a good drink and a good snack while you're there. But other than that, you know, we want to, you know, support any business here in Deer Park. And we, and especially M Cafe, it's a new business here that we want to welcome them. So why not support them? Get a drink, get get one on your lunch break. But if you're trying to make your morning more bold, more unique, or even just your afternoon, you need an extra cake, definitely give this place a try. So don't forget, go to M Cafe here in the city of Deer Park. And thank you for watching Dish and With Destiny. See you next time.