Grapevine City Manager Bruno Rumbelow inspired by Dallas Management

by Minnie Payne

GRAPEVINE — Bruno Rumbelow, 44-year-old Grapevine City Manager, knew that he wanted to be a city manager after talking with prior Dallas City Manager Chuck Anderson in 1985.

“When I was thinking about getting my Master of Public Administration, I came to Dallas to get some opinions and viewpoints from a professional,” he said. “Dallas City Manager Chuck Anderson suggested that I attend the University of Kansas, his alma mater, because it specializes in City Administration.”

Rumbelow has a Bachelor of Science in history from the University of Texas at Tyler, and Master of Public Administration from the University of Kansas. He accepted his first job at age 25 as city administrator of Neodesha, Kan., where he served two years. He has also served as city manager in Texarkana, Ark.; assistant city administrator of Fort Smith, Ark.; was appointed Grapevine Assistant City Manager in Jan., 1998 and Grapevine City Manager in Dec., 2005.

“I was born and lived in Tyler until I went to graduate school,” he said. “Certainly, prior Tyler City Manager Gary Gwyn also had some influence on me.”

According to Rumbelow, Grapevine has a population of about 49,000, and the biggest annual event is the Grapefest, one of the largest festival events in the Southwest.

“Over 250,000 people gather over a four-day period to Grapevine’s Main Street in support of the Texas wine industry, which benefits the Grapevine Heritage Foundation and many other civic groups in the community,” he said.

Rumbelow said that city management is a collective exercise and that he and two assistant city managers, Jennifer Hibbs and Tommy Hardy, are responsible for ten different departments.

“I don’t think that any city manager can say that they alone have accomplished any one thing,” he said.

Grapevine passed a sales tax referendum that will fund commuter rail and improve the quality of life for the community, he said.

“We have worked hard on municipal finances over the last couple of years in response to 9-11,” he said. “We find that with the new sales tax and our existing resources increasing, we have improved our financial position so that we’re doing better than we have done in a long time.”

Rumbelow said that he likes the diversity of his job and working with the people at city hall, as well as the city council and mayor.

“It depends on what’s going on as to how many hours I work,” he said. “I try to work 40 hours a week, because I’m a husband and father.”

Rumbelow has been married to his wife, Stephanie, a Tyler girl, for 21 years, and they have two sons and a daughter.

“What’s particularly special about Bruno as a city manager is his level of engagement in the community,” said Jennifer Hibbs, assistant city manager. “Living here and raising a family here really gives him a sense of what matters to people everyday. There is a higher level of accountability if you run into people at the grocery store or a baseball game that really inspires you to do the right thing.”