Discover Rick Menchaca

By extension, the man whose executive duty it is to keep one of these
cityships on a smooth course is a kind of social warrior, a captain of
a big ship, who, like the captain of "Big John," must maintain himself
and his crew at a high level of alertness and efficiency. The
specifics of how that works in an individual case come clear in a
review of the work, life, and career of Ricardo (Rick) Menchaca, city
manager of Midland, a man who, as the jargon of our time puts it, "has
his act together." Midland's official web site notes that the city's
manager is "the chief executive officer of the government carries out
policy and administers city programs." That's the whole story in a
sentence. Rick's days split rather neatly into two areas: one is
"routine management" (not always so routine), which includes
supervising 865 city employees—98% of everybody who works for the
city—and the other is "special projects," individual undertakings to
implement city policy, of which a couple of stand-out examples are the
new Scharbauer Sports Complex and the Midland International
Airport.Rick is the "boss man" for the whole panoply of city
departments and services. He and his two assistants, Tommy Hudson and
Marcus Johnston, are responsible for: Police; Fire; Airport; Community
Services (Health and Senior Services, two senior centers, and the
city's parks and golf courses); Development Services (construction and
repair of streets and traffic); Utilities (water, electric, sewer,
solid waste, landfill); Support Services (finance); Administrative
services; Communications and Information Services (the city's
computers; City and Midland County 911 Dispatch Center); Internal
Services (a fleet of about 800 items of rolling stock, the city's
purchasing office, and the construction and maintenance of buildings).
Lots of work to do. The year 2000 was a big one for Rick Menchaca. He
became city manager at the age of 34. And he married. His bride was
Kristin Torgeson, who had three youngsters by a previous marriage.
Since marrying, Rick and Kristin have had two more children, so now
they have a family of five, all at home: Elodie 10, Savannah 8, Hayden
6, Gabriella, who will be 3 in April of this year, and Breiten
Augustus, 15 months. (Breiten, Rick's maternal grandmother's maiden
name, is pronounced Britten.) Rick and Kristin and their children
attend the Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity in Midland. Rick and
Kristin make a special point of family dinner together (sans TV). And
they travel as a family, mostly in Texas, and to visit grandparents
and other relatives.

The full article can be found at http://www.rick-menchaca.org
Received on Tue Mar 11 2008 - 03:46:33 EST