As the City of Levelland has faced a revolving door of leadership in the past years, City Manager James Fisher is looking to provide his staff stability and direction.
Spending his first several months on the job putting out fires and trying to operate an efficient municipality with missing department heads, Fisher has observed the totality of the situation.
“I think more than anything what has excited our staff is that we’ve got our team together,” said Fisher. “It has been since last May or June when we had all this changeover.”
Fisher referred back to an interview in December where he explained that stability is key for people when it comes to a successful workplace.
“People want to enjoy coming to work but if key leadership positions are not filled it makes everyone feel uneasy even though it may not affect a particular person directly,” explained Fisher. “Unfilled leadership roles cause various challenges.”
Prior to Fisher coming aboard, the city was struggling heading into the last budget session with the then director of finance, human resources director and city manager leaving for other opportunities.
This year’s budget season garners more optimism as the city has Fisher spearheading the staff alongside new Director of Finance Cynthia Sanchez and new Human Resources Director Margo Garcia.
Communication within the staff and the community has been one of the top priorities for Fisher. He explained that he has had conversation with department and staff members and to address things and find common footing for everyone to move together to a certain goal.
“We just went through a lot of evaluations for all of our employees and there’s a lot of professional development and there’s a lot of personal development,” explained Fisher. “In the old days, everybody said keep your work life over here and your personal life here because they don’t interact well.”
Contrary to that belief, Fisher explained that in today’s age employees not only want to be successful at work, but they want to be successful at home.
While all department heads were accounted for during a brief moment, the City of Levelland will begin searching for a new chief of police for the Levelland Police Department as Chief Albert Garcia retired at the end of May along with Main Street Director Tania Moody.
For a city staff, the time to breathe is very scarce. With the City of Levelland Elections wrapped up in early May, Breann Buxkemper was elected as the next mayor of Levelland along with two new council members replacing Buckemper in Jaime McCabe and Bill Powell who took over the district of former Councilman Jim Myatt.
While waiting to sort out election results, it put a bit of a halt on the city staff when it comes to the big picture of how things are going to be done.
“With local elections regarding council and the mayor, different individuals come with different ideas,” explained Fisher. “With those new individuals coming in we are going to have to educate them on what the position entails while also learning what their goals and priorities are.”
Fisher added that he has had the opportunity to chat with the two new incoming council members and get an understanding of what their position is regarding the City of Levelland being in the best position to flourish.
Talking with council, city staff and community, Fisher hopes to establish the City of Levelland as a community of choice in the South Plains.
Moving forward, Fisher is eager to sit down with council and staff to look toward the future of the city.
Fisher referenced a comprehensive study being compiled previous to him coming into the city manager position.
He explained that putting together studies that are extensive and detailed are meant to be used.
“It is a disservice to our community members if we do not act on these plans we approve,” explained Fisher. “These plans are not necessarily cheap and for us to not work toward breathing fresh air into this city is not responsible.”
It is no secret the City of Levelland has an aging infrastructure as city staff and council had to work quickly to begin work on the new waste water treatment plant being built for the community of Levelland.
Freese and Nichols conducted a comprehensive study back in 2023. Their review was broken into four sections, water and wastewater, transportation, storm water and facilities.
Following the extensive breakdown, the overall price tag to accomplish all projects within each section easily broke the multi-million dollar mark.
Fisher explained that it would be impossible to achieve any part of the plan without proper planning. He is hopeful that city staff and council will find the time to meet and put together a thought out plan to accomplish small chunks of the plan to keep the City of Levelland on a healthy track.
“These are not the pretty projects, but they need to be done,” said Fisher. “I know people do not like planning studies because they are expensive, but the cities I have seen that have been successful is because they have taken the time to put together a plan. I cannot stress enough that we cannot afford everything, but we need to understand what is out there.”
While focusing on the betterment of the city, Fisher also explained that taking care of city staff has to take priority.
“I think sometimes people forget that the city workers are also community members,” said Fisher. “They care about their community and we want to put them in a position to grow.”
At a time where every business is looking for staff, Fisher has the goal of being more proactive in looking where the city stands as far as their competing neighbors and making the municipality a desirable work opportunity.
“Overall, it comes down to leadership taking a minute to look at the big picture and not skipping the details to get to our overall goal,” said Fisher. “It takes all of us to create a better community for our citizens and it will only happen if we are all on the same page and ready to work.”