The next city manager will need to effectively deal with fixing financial controls, fill the leadership void, reduce spending growth and restore public trust.
Jose Madrigal is a finalist and has a very impressive city government background. He was the deputy city manager for McKinney, Texas, a city about nine times larger than Durango with a budget three-plus-times larger. He managed several departments, including finance and human resources. I have looked at the budgets he developed and they are significantly better than Durango’s, easy to understand, excellent executive summary, and the numbers even add up!
Additionally, McKinney spending growth during his six-year tenure was modest. In the area of trust, he gets an A+. There are multiple articles on how he reached out to citizens and reduced major friction between the public and the police department in McKinney. Soon after starting his job, he engaged with the public to understand what its top development projects were and incorporated them into his long-term financial plan.
Jose has very good experience with public works, having managed solid waste and strategic services planning for the city of Irving (a large suburb of Dallas). Other past jobs include experience in planning, street repair, code enforcement, public transportation and engineering. He has a master’s degree in public administration and earned the Credentialed Manager designation from the International City/County Management Association.
Richard FultnerDurango
