Claude King, Lewisville City Manager, says city is unique place to work

by Minnie Payne

LEWISVILLE — Claude King, 53-year-old Lewisville City Manager, accepted a capital projects coordinator position with the city 18 years ago, and has worked his way up through the ranks.

“The City of Lewisville has been a unique place to work,” said King. “Politics is relatively stable in that the city is effectively doing, for the most part, things that the citizens are interested in.”

King was born in Detroit, Mich., living there through junior high school. He graduated from Eden Prairie High school in Eden Prairie, Minn. in 1972. He entered the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn., transferring his junior year to the University of North Texas.

“My parents had been transferred to Houston, and one winter day I was watching a golf tournament in sunny Houston on TV,” King said. “I looked out the window, and it was snowing; I decided that Texas weather was better than Minnesota weather, so I transferred to UNT.”

King received a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of North Texas in 1978, as well as a master’s degree in Public Administration in 1990.

“Upon completing my undergraduate work in Business Administration, I worked for the Texas Department of Mental Health Retardation for 10 years,” he said.

“In 1988, I returned to UNT to earn my master’s degree in Public Administration, and started to work for the City of Lewisville in 1989.”

King said that in addition to serving as a capital projects coordinator, he also worked as an assistant to his predecessor, Chuck Owens. He was also assistant city manager and deputy to the city manager.

“When Chuck Owens retired in 1997, the council appointed me as manager,” he said. “I’m basically over all the departments, but don’t directly supervise Court, Legal and City Secretary.”

Lewisville’s general fund budget is in the neighborhood of $60 million and the utility funds budget is in the neighborhood of $25 million, King said.

“We do surveys of the citizens and ask them what they feel is their highest priority,” he said. “Some citizens say public safety; some say parks; some say garbage pickup and sewer.

“All the departments are important. We try not to do anything that is optional, in that we do what the citizens need and can’t provide any other way.”

Lewisville is pretty well built out, except for the east side property off the 121 corridor which can be developed and redeveloped, King said.

“Most of what we’ve got along the core part of the city is infill development,” he said.

“This year the tax base had $116 million of new growth and even though we’re not doing 300 acre parcels any more, the small parcels add up.”

Probably the most important thing presently going on in Lewisville is the impact of the Denton County Transportation Authority, which is going to be putting in a rail line between Denton and Carrollton, he said.

“The line will connect to the new DART Railway and provide a link to downtown Denton,” he said. “TxDOT will also start reconstructing Interstate 35 from the George Bush Toll Road to the other side of Lake Lewisville around 2009.”

King said that the City of Lewisville is attractive to new business, because it offers low cost of operation, low taxes, good infrastructure of transportation at work, good mix of labor market, and a good healthy economy.

“I consider Claude not only a top city manager, but a very good friend,” said Mayor Gene Carey. “Claude has my complete trust on his decisions dealing with our city.

“Lewisville is the great city it is today because of Claude and his staff. My job as mayor has been made much easier because of our working and friendly relationship over the years.”

King has been married to his wife, Patricia, for 27 years, and they have two daughters, Kristin and Shannon.