Langley was selected by the council as a lone finalist for the position during its special meeting April 14. The city had been without a city manager for almost eight months following former City Manager Scott Sellers’ resignation in September.
Langley will be fully immersed in his position later this month. Continue reading to learn more about the city's new city manager.
Why did you want to become a city manager?
I was a business major in college and really had never considered the local government profession. But I had an opportunity many years ago, when I was finishing up my undergraduate degree to work as a temporary employee in the Office of Financial Services for the city of Dallas. And so I took that temporary position, when I needed a few hours to complete my degree at the University of North Texas, and I thought, “I'll finish my degree and go on to do something else.” But I found that I really enjoyed the work; they offered me a permanent position once I finished my degree.
Then I was promoted a few times and kind of started my track in the business. And through the course of that my career and at some point, once I achieved a director of finance and [chief financial officer] position later on, I decided that I really wanted to be a city manager, and had really enjoyed the profession and loved the variety of work and working with all the different people in the community and the council that that you get to work with. I found it very appealing, but it was really something I just fell into, honestly, quite accidentally, but over time, really found that's what I wanted to do with my life.
What are your top three priorities as Kyle’s new city manager?
I think the first thing is to come in and learn the organization and community. I've got a lot of people that I need to meet. I need to understand all the things that they're doing in the organization, all the issues that they have and how I can help them be successful. I've obviously got to meet a lot of the community members as well and learn what are the issues that are important to them that we need to be working on as a city.
The second thing is to get up to speed on all of the capital projects that are underway in the city. There's quite a few of those; as you know, we have a $300 million bond program that was passed by the voters. And it's going to be one of my top priorities to make sure that we're making good progress on implementing that bond program.
And I suppose the third thing I would mention to you would be implementing, or delivering, a proposed budget to the City Council by the end of July, so within my first 60 days on the job, roughly, I've got a proposal budget to the City Council. So that'll be a top priority for me coming in.
How do you think your experience will help you in this role for the city of Kyle?
I think some of the things that we're working on in Kyle are all things that I've seen before: managing large construction contracts, putting together the financing plans for how we pay for those projects, and develop[ing] new budgets that are affordable and deliver the expectations of the community. I've had experience in all of my other cities in doing those exact things. And so again, I think it's just a strong match for things I've already done in my career. There'll be new challenges here. There'll be differences between Kyle and other places I've been, but I think my experiences and all those really provide a strong foundation for being successful here.
What do you think is one of the biggest challenges you will encounter?
I just think the rapid pace with growth in Kyle is truly unique. It's something you don't find in many places, and frankly, that's one of the things that attracted me to the position was just the rapid growth that's occurring in the corridor between Austin and San Antonio and Kyle in particular. I think it's something that's a challenge, but it's also a great opportunity and chance to be part of something really special. I think it's one of those challenges that if managed correctly, it can be a great opportunity for the community and the whole area as well.
