By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
A former city councilman on Tuesday urged Del Rio City Council members to trust the recommendations of Interim City Manager Manuel Chavez.
Former councilman Steve Webb spoke to the council during the citizen comments portion of Tuesday’s regular city council meeting. Webb also called on council members to answer their city cell phones.
Webb told the council, “The reason I’m here tonight is to talk about progress. A couple of weeks back, Mr. Chavez introduced a new organizational chart that he felt would be beneficial to the city operations and to assist customers with whatever their needs were.
“One of the council said they wanted to wait for the new city manager. Why would you want to wait for a new city manager to make things better today for the public? Why would you have to wait, because maybe this person might not like our organization chart?” Webb added.
Webb argued that using the new organizational chart would give city leaders a chance to evaluate it and determine whether or not its changes are working.
Webb said, “We can’t keep saying we need to wait for the new city manager. That’s not progress, that’s procrastination. We need to get something done, and we need to get it done now. Things are getting ready to get hectic with taxes and everything else, and what are we going to do? Wait for the new city manager? We can’t do that, obviously.
“Think about that when you’re voting for these things, because whatever happens today, happens today. We can’t predict tomorrow, so quit thinking about this new city manager that’s going to come in here and hopefully change the world. It may or may not happen,” he added.
Webb urged the council to trust Chavez.
“You have a city manager. He’s effective. He thinks about the community. He thinks about the organization, and he’s trying to make things better. Listen to what he’s got to say.
“I hope you do get a new city manager soon. That’s what you feel you need right now, then more power to you. I think Mr. Chavez is doing a terrific job. He’s trying to bring ideas to you all, but you keep shooting him down with ‘we’ve got to wait for the new city manager.’ Why? He’s thinking ahead. He’s trying to make things better. Use your hearts and your brains, not just your brains saying, ‘We’ll wait for the new city manager to come in.’ That’s not going to be any good,” Webb said.
He said he also wanted to address another issue.
“Another thing I’d like to address is city cell phones. You all have city cell phones, and people try to reach you on it and they can’t reach you on it. One gentleman tried for a month to reach one of the council people and never could reach him until he got (the councilman’s) private number and he answered it right away.
“That’s not what the city phone is for. The city phone is for you to answer constituents when they have concerns. They only call it when they have concerns, but if you don’t need it, turn it in. It’s costing the city. It’s just a small fraction, but it’s costing the city,” Webb finished.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
