David Willard officially became Conroe’s city administrator Aug. 10 after the City Council unanimously appointed him to the position July 23. Willard previously served as city manager in Longview and Borger, assistant city manager in Odessa and Hutchinson County judge.
Willard, who initially joined Conroe as interim city administrator, spoke with Community Impact about his priorities for the city, infrastructure and growth, staffing, the Hyatt Regency Conroe Hotel and Convention Center and the city’s financial outlook.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What are your top priorities as you step into the city administrator role, and what do you hope to accomplish in your first year?
We have a lot of priorities that, since I've been here, that we need to work on that have become my priorities. First of all, I want to get to know the city council members and mayor really well and understand their desires and their expectations of me as the city administrator. So that's a process to get to know people and to understand how they want me to interact with them.
And of course, you have to be careful doing that because you don't want to violate any quorum rules that you might have. So I try to meet individually with them or two at a time sometimes, and so that's been a real priority to get to know them.
The next priority would be the same with my staff and the city employees. Relationships are really important to me, and so it is always a priority to establish relationships. So I've tried to do that with as many city employees out in the field as I've been able to. I've gone to most of the departments around already to meet employees and haven't gotten around to all of them yet, but I intend to do that.
Then the other big priority is to fill in a lot of staff holes that we have in the organization. We have a lot of vacancies in key departments and so we've made two appointments in Public Works and Community Development …. Real glad to get that done.
Of course, Fire and Police Chief are filled, but we have some other holes in our directorship and economic development that we're working on. So that's been a real priority.
Conroe continues to see rapid growth. What do you see as the city's biggest challenge in keeping infrastructure and services ahead of that growth?
Well, I think number one is public safety. That's always to the forefront of everybody's role and certainly it's a main priority for the city of Conroe. So our fire and police, our first responders, we want them to have the equipment they need and the personnel that they need.
I think our goal long term is to hopefully have two officers in a car instead of being alone. Of course, that's going to take time to hire that number of personnel and budget. But I think we're committed to getting the two chiefs the personnel they need.
Same with fire. There's a lot of interest in four people to an engine and we want to make sure the fire department has the equipment and personnel they need as well. So public safety is a real priority for growth. As well as what we have right now, and that's planning for the future.
This area has [had] dynamic growth over the years, and we expect it to still grow in the future. And so our water and sewer infrastructure, utilities are also very important in the growth. We are planning, we want to make sure our water resources are plentiful and that we can experience that growth, … and service our customers, keep the rates at a reasonable level and the same with all our public utility works.
So those are the main things, trying to stay ahead of the curve on growth and still take care of our current customers as well.
The city has identified significant needs related to water, wastewater, roads and drainage. How do you think Conroe should balance those infrastructure needs with the cost to residents and developers?
Well, that's a great question and it's one that every city faces. Infrastructure repairs or new construction is so expensive these days. Water and sewer treatment plants, things that you have to plan for in the future and you have to base your water rates on that future growth, because that's how we pay for those infrastructure costs through selling the water and sewer services.
It's a real balancing act to be able to issue the water and sewer revenue bonds to do the work and then not to make it so expensive on the ratepayer, and we try to keep that balance, but it's a real challenge because of the expense.
Roads, bridges, those types of infrastructure are just very expensive and that's why many cities have gone to drainage fees or they've gone to impact fees just for that very reason. Of course, you have to balance the cost for the developer coming in as well and not price them out of the market.
So it's a hard question for the council to wrestle with…
The drainage fee, I think, is facing some headwinds with the council because of the added cost to the ratepayer and the citizens of the community. So those are still being considered, but that's the reason they are being considered, is just the extreme high cost of infrastructure and replacing it, repairing it, or building new.
Conroe has gone through several leadership and staffing changes over the past year. What are you doing to bring stability to the organization and determine where changes may still be needed?
When I got here, we had several holes in leadership. Of course, there's a new city administrator. There's no deputy or assistant city administrator. And for a city this size, that puts a strain on the organization.
So, I'm taking my time with building the organization. I want to make sure we feel like I've got the right people here with us. With our vision, we want to be positive. We want to be proactive. We want to be collaborative. I want our directors to work together and try to build the morale up.
And just quite frankly, the morale of our employees was way down because of all the changes and the vacancies at the top of the leadership organization that we had. And there's just no leadership or direction for them, which is not fair to them as well.
So, I've just tried to stabilize it and I think we're making great progress in that area. I think our morale is really on the upswing. Like I said, I've gotten two key posts filled, we're looking for an human resource director now, Andre Houser retired and I'm looking for an economic development director. I'm looking for a parks and recreation director position we're going to create.
So, we're getting that filled in slowly but surely. But for sure, the morale of the staff and employees was down, and no question about it. I've enjoyed getting to know them. We have regular Monday morning staff meetings with all the directors and key staff, and we plan together, and we're trying to build a team here as we go forward.
The Hyatt Regency Conroe Hotel and Convention Center has required additional city financial support and faced concerns over its financial performance. What do you believe needs to happen to put the hotel on a more sustainable path?
Well, the hotel is a very very complicated issue for the city. And the way it was structured is a complicated structure with the municipal corporation that's involved in that, and also the CIDC [Conroe Industrial Development Corporation] that was involved to some extent in that.
There's just so many layers, and it's very complicated. The financial transactions are very complicated, and so we're looking at that. I don't have any magic bullet to give you on how that's going to come out.
We are going to work to do the best we can to make it successful. The competition is very stiff with The Woodlands and their conference center. And to get a price point at the hotel that helps them make their revenue and expense projections and still be able to compete with The Woodlands is a real—it's a hard, hard area, hard thing to do.
So I know that's an issue in the community and has been. But you can rest assured the mayor and council and city staff are working to try to find solutions and paths forward on that.
As the city works through its budget and other major financial commitments, what do you see as Conroe's biggest financial challenge over the next few years?
Well, infrastructure costs, for sure. And with growth we have infrastructure to build and to keep up with, and we've already addressed that a little bit. So that's a major cost.
Making sure our employees are paid properly, our first responders, fire and police. We compete with a lot of different agencies around, for instance, fire and police. And so we've got to make sure that we're paying them at the market. We're obviously doing some things in this year's budget to help that.
But we're—hopefully we have in the budget, and hopefully the council will approve that tomorrow, to— Find a comprehensive compensation study next year. Bring a third-party consultant in and do a comprehensive look, not just fire and police, but all employees, to make sure how we compare in the market that we compete with and make sure that we are competitive and can keep employees.
We want to keep our employees as well, not just recruit them. There's nothing more discouraging for police and fire, for instance, is to bring new recruits in, train them up, and then they go to another city for more money.
If we're going to invest the money to recruit and train them, we certainly want to keep them. And then to add to their numbers, and that's costly. You get your current staff up to market, and then you are adding people each year to become full strength on your first responders. That adds a lot of cost.
So we're very mindful about the taxpayer. Our mayor and council are not raising taxes this year, and they do have concern about the water utilities as well. That's one of the things you heard at the last meeting about the drainage fee issue. So that is a real challenge for us going forward.
At the end of your first year in this position, what would success look like for you and for the city?
To have a full staff, full leadership team. To have a good, healthy budget situation and some growth and financial growth. Also, repairing relationships throughout the city, making sure the city has a good relationship with the county, the school districts and other agencies around.
Because at the end of the day, we all have the same taxpayers, basically and serve the same citizenry for the most part. And we want to make sure the city of Conroe is good partners.
We have a couple of other things that are in the works that I can't disclose right now that would be huge for the city, some economic development things and also some utility matters that will be announced before too long.
So those things come to fruition, and the other things I just mentioned, I think that'll be a good way to start the first year.
Is there anything we haven't touched on that you would like to add?
Just that I'm happy to be here. Things have not been stable around here. But Conroe's a great place with friendly people, and the resources are here to do great things. I'm excited to be here.
I'm excited for the privilege to be the city administrator. I think we've got a lot of great positive things ahead. I know we've had a lot of controversy recently with different issues. But those things will get resolved as we go along, and I just have real positive hopes for the future. So I'm excited to be here.
