Saturday, July 21, 2007

New Lancaster City Manager gives peek into past, future

By Brian Allen of TODAY Newspapers

New City Manager Rickey Childers described a lifetime in municipal service and let attendees at the Chamber of Commerce Membership Luncheon July 12 know he's not through yet.

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Mayor Joe Tillotson had the honor of introducing his newest hire, but first Fred Orr had to introduce Tillotson as the “greatest, prettiest and smartest mayor a city could have.”

Tillotson then walked up to the podium with a monetary reward outstretched.

“Only a dollar?” Orr asked.

“That's all that introduction was worth,” Tillotson said, and kept the quips coming. He mentioned that representatives from Windsor Court Assisted Living were present.

“That lady was not checking me in,” Tillotson said to quash any rumors that might get started.

The mayor gave a little bit of the new city manager's background, saying he was slated to play offensive line for the Kansas City Chiefs but failed his physical due to a knee injury.

“Like a lot of us, when he couldn't do what he really wanted to, he got into municipal service,” Tillotson said. Describing how much times have changed, he said Lancaster used to get six or seven applicants for a position like city manager. The council selected Childers from a field of 38 applicants.

Tillotson also said that of the six city managers he's hired, Lancaster has never had anybody like Childers.

“I owe the mayor five dollars for that introduction,” Childers said. He said after resigning as Longview's city manager he could afford to retire, but after mulling it over decided he wasn't ready to do so yet.

Childers has 32 years of experience in local government, all of his jobs being in the public sector. He recounted an anecdote from his youth in which he was selected as Abilene's Fire Chief for a Day.

He got to do a lot of things incredibly fun for a freshman in high school, like slide down the pole at the fire station. But the day culminated in his having to attend a mock city council meeting and give a public speech, both things considerably less fun.

Twenty-eight years later he spoke in those same city council chambers as a member of staff.

He credited his parents with instilling in him the value of education and the difference between right and wrong. Childers believes those lessons have served him well in his journey.

To this day, he lists ethical concerns as some of the main questions he asks when looking at a new development or change in city regulations. He admitted that not everyone has the same view of what's good for a city or why it's good.

But Childers warned that Lancaster has a large number of those questions on the horizon due to its new home growth.

“In 2006 we had 792 new homes,” he said, and contrasted that with the knowledge that his former employer, Longview, will be lucky to build 100 new homes this year.

Many of those new homeowners are African-American or Latino, he said. In the Metroplex, only Plano surpasses Lancaster in growth of African-American homes valued over $100,000.

That means city staff must set reasonable standards for development, he said. He believes anyone can look at city code and tell a developer no, but that the challenge is to work with them and come up with something that works for everyone.

Elaborating more on why he chose Lancaster, Childers talked about resources including the city's incredible history.

“Many other cities would die for that downtown square,” he said. He pointed out educational opportunities at Cedar Valley College and the University of North Texas.

Since education was on the table, Childers attempted to rally support for the Lancaster School District. He mentioned that a superintendent like Larry Lewis, who has raised test scores in a primarily urban school district, is a hot commodity and Lancaster should be happy to have him.

The new city manager also addressed community issues, such as the one that arose with the recent Fourth of July Celebration in DeSoto. He estimated 1,000 people showed up in Lancaster because it had hosted the previous year's celebration.

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