Ed Broussard comes from a family of educators, so the importance of education and public service was instilled in him from an early age.

Although he never pursued a career in education, he said he saw giving back to the community as his vocation.

Broussard's career began when he took an internship with the city of Lubbock. He was hired full time with the city's library system where he learned about budgeting and customer service. Broussard worked as assistant city manager in College Station before working as the city manager of Navasota and, more recently, Hutto. He came to Missouri City as City Manager in January 2012.

What do you like most about working for Missouri City?

I had family who lived here for decades. I have spent many a summer at Community Park and other places. I fell in love with the community as a kid. I love our close proximity to Houston and everything that Houston entails, but this is still a place where you can go out and have fun. I am very impressed by the adventuring spirit that the community has. It is the best of both worlds here in Missouri City. We are part of a community that can feel like a small town at times but also has the density [of a large city] around us.

Describe some of the challenges facing Missouri City.

One of the biggest issues we have here in Missouri City is our daytime population is relatively small. While we have had great growth in our office parks to the north, the population working here in the day in the core of Missouri City along Hwy. 6 and Texas Parkway is still rather anemic. That is an area [residents] will see a lot of concentration from us in the next three to five years. What can we do to incentivize and really increase the office and commercial areas that will bring a daytime population here Monday through Friday? That is a big challenge we need to tackle. Other problems are related to areas of redevelopment and determining what the city can do and what the private sector can do to help these areas redevelop.

Missouri City recently held a bond election. What are the next steps?

We have a July 1 fiscal year. We have already looked at what those capital projects using the 2003 and 2008 bond funds are for in the upcoming year. Where the next projects then start to get integrated is into the next capital improvement program that will determine when [those projects] come into play. Some of this, especially projects where we have regional partnerships, will be in discussion with the county. Following that [residents] will start to see work at City Hall and the police station study over the next three years. The fire station is further out in the next five to seven years. The street projects will be completed in three to seven years.

What makes you excited about Missouri City's future?

One thing that makes me excited is the opportunity to create some type of destination here in Missouri City. What that exactly looks like is still in the draft stages, but it is something where we are trying to create our cultural identity. [Our utilities] have been fragmented throughout the years. That is not a quick fix, but we have started to get into the issue. Over the next three to five years, we will bring our MUDs together to discuss how we can have some cost savings.

What does a city manager do?

The purpose of a city manager form of government is an attempt to remove politics from the administration of services to the community.

The city manager leads the city organization and is responsible for carrying out the polices adopted by city council. Duties range from approving the city budget to managing staff members.

City managers do not stand for election. To compare a city to a business, the city manager is CEO and city council is the board of directors.

Broussard:

I deal with issues both big and small—from employees who need to vent their frustrations to dealing with the future of the city and everything in between. I work as a facilitator. I am also responsible for giving the City Council professional advice. I have a role to provide the benefit of my 40 years [of experience].