Rick Menchaca, create a better city

Monday, 10 March 2008

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.

These projects can be of varying difficulty and expense; their common feature is that they add to the quality of life for people who live in or visit Midland. When you talk to Rick about his work for Midland, it is the second category that tends to get emphasized. His eyes light up, for example, when he talks of the new skateboard installation at Beale Park that opened April 2003 and is “the best skateboard park between Dallas and Phoenix.” But one suspects the “routine things” are what take up most of his time. Just imagine having to review, approve, and monitor the budgets and performance of every department in the city’s government to make sure that indeed, the city is not going to pile up on those shoreline rocks labeled “underdone” or “overdrawn.”

Dong Ying, Midland’s sister city in China, is like Midland, “an oil town,” although Dong Ying, with a population of a million, is much bigger. The relationship goes back ten years, and has involved the sharing of experience and the sale of technology for petroleum. Dong Ying donated the attractive Chinese Pavilion in Midland’s Beal Park off Business Route I-20 and sent workers with the wooden pavilion to erect it. Rick Menchaca has served on a number of boards of directors or trustees of nonprofit organizations devoted to public service, among them the Midland Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Casa de Amigos, United Way, Hospice, and the Museum of the Southwest. His service to his profession as a city manager has involved terms as president of the Urban Management Assistants of West Texas and as president of the West Texas City Managers Association.