Saturday, December 1, 2007

Addison City Manager Ron Whitehead comfortable in “people management”

By Minnie Payne

Addison City Manager Ron Whitehead

ADDISON — When Addison City Manager Ron Whitehead was bagging groceries at age 14, he was learning people skills.

“My job entails people management,” he said. “I like the work and am very comfortable in that role.”

Whitehead, 58, has been involved in municipal government for over 36 years. He graduated from Lamar College in 1971 with a degree in government and started to work for the City of Beaumont as an intern, then became Assistant Director of Personnel. He left Beaumont in 1974 and served as Administrative Assistant to the City Manager of Irving, working in many different departments. In 1977, he became Assistant City Manager for Administration with the responsibility for council agenda preparation and direct supervision of solid waste collection and the municipal garage. He received a master’s degree in public administration from the University of North Texas in 1980, and promoted to Assistant City Manager, responsible for general supervisory functions, in October 1981. In June 1982, he accepted the position of City Manager of Addison.

“I grew up in Orange, Texas, graduating from Stark High School in 1967,” he said. “My father was mayor of Orange for six years and served on city council for eight years. I got to know a lot of city managers.”

He said that his dad would drag him out of bed on Saturday mornings to look at drainage problems and street repairs.

“He [dad] really understood service, and he instilled that in me.”

Whitehead said that his dad earned a degree in physical education with a minor in English from Sam Houston State University and taught and coached in junior high, as well as drove a school bus.

“Dad’s first teaching contract was for $2,800 a year in 1948,” he said. “The reason that sounded like a lot of money to him is because he grew up on a farm.”

He said that he was president of his senior class in high school and president of his junior class in college.

“I was always involved with student council and related things,” he said.

Whitehead explained that he is kind of a collector of people in that once he meets someone he tries to keep in contact with them. His assistant, Mario Canizres, told him that he had a connection with everyone in the world. “It’s just as a result of having lived a long time and coming in contact with a lot of people,” he replied to Canizres.

Getting to know different kind of people with different personalities is very interesting to him, he said.

“I think that’s what drew me to this work,” he said. “If you don’t like people with a passion, this is not the job for you.”

City managers come in a lot of different ilks, he said.

“Some come from a planning background; some come from an engineering background,” he said. “My generation of managers came from a more generalists approach because Public Administrators Schools changed.

“They [schools] realized that you had to know a lot more than just how to build a street or design drainage.”

While Whitehead enjoys being around people, he said that he also has a drawback. He suffers from attention deficit disorder.

“I have a tendency to be interested in everything and for a person who has trouble focusing, being interested in everything can sometimes be a problem,” he said. “My three assistants are a tremendous help to me.”

He manages 260 fulltime employees and Addison has a budget of generally around $60 million a year.

In August 2006, Citizen Advisory Committees, with 100 plus participants, were formed to review, study and evaluate certain ideas and concepts regarding future planning, development and growth of Addison, in order to make recommendations to the city council. The project was called “Addison’s ‘Next Great Ideas’” and fields studied included:

• Business Development

• Education

• Recreation and Community Facilities

• Public Relations

• Transportation

• Culinary

• Performing and Visual Arts

• Museums

• Human Services

• Environmental Design.

He said the City is in the stage of trying to determine what it has to do to implement the following ideas derived from the committees’ meetings.

• Expedite DART’s Cotton Belt Line

• Pursue Enhanced Communication

• Create Addison Community Foundation

• Create a Sustainability Philosophy

• Redevelop Inwood Road

• Research Education opportunities

• Pursue Performing and Visual Arts opportunities

• Explore opportunities for developing the Cavanaugh Flight Museum

• Implement Business Retention and Development Strategies

• Redevelopment of Belt Line Road

• Enhance Quality of Life offerings.

Whitehead is a member of Good Shepherd Episcopal Church, whose rector is Jay Hobbs.

“Ron is one of the finest men I know,” said Hobbs. “He’s a shining example of a Christian from a political standpoint.”

Whitehead has been married 27 years to his wife, Donna, and they have two daughters, Maxey, 26, and Lauren, 23.

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• Citizen Profiles
• Politics and Government > City Government > Addison
• Pegasus News Exclusive