HARLINGEN — City Hall’s top-level administration has been running shorthanded.
Since October, when commissioners gave the city manager’s job to Gabriel Gonzalez, officials have been searching for an assistant city manager for internal affairs, the job he held since the position was created in 2012.
Then last Friday, Carlos Sanchez, who held the position of assistant city manager for external affairs since he was hired in 2016, left to take an engineering job with Cameron County’s transportation division.
Now, officials are advertising for the two positions with the Texas Municipal League.
“Our goal is to bring in the most qualified applicants to these positions,” Commissioner Frank Puente said Monday.
Applications review
Since the TML posted the ads three weeks ago, the city has received 21 applications for assistant city manager for internal affairs and six applications for the external affairs job, spokeswoman Irma Garza said.
“We’ve got good candidates,” Gonzalez said. “I’ve looked at few.”
Gonzalez said he plans to begin interviewing early next month.
Starting salaries
Meanwhile, Gonzalez said the city is trimming the jobs’ starting salaries.
“They’re going to change,” he said. “They’re going to come down a little bit. There will be some savings.”
For each job, the city’s offering starting salaries of $103,000, Garza said.
However, Gonzalez said the candidates’ qualifications could boost that mark.
“It’s commensurate on experience, so that could change,” he said, referring to starting salaries.
In 2012, a previous commission took then-City Manager Carlos Yerena’s recommendation, creating the two positions.
At that time, Yerena promoted Dan Serna, who had been serving as public works director, to the position of assistant city manager for external affairs, overseeing public works, parks and recreation and the Tony Butler Municipal Golf Course while drawing an annual salary of $101,700.
Meanwhile, Gonzalez, who had served as assistant city manager since 2001, was making $103,100 when he took on new position of assistant city manager for internal affairs.
In 2016, Sanchez was hired as assistant city manager for external affairs after the previous commission promoted Serna to the city manager’s job.
On Monday, Sanchez’s starting salary wasn’t readily available.
Job duties, requirements
According to the TML ads, both positions require “a master’s degree in public or business administration or related field and two to three years of experience in municipal management positions, of which at least one-half would be in a high-level position.”
The ad states the assistant city manager for internal affairs will oversee planning and development, the Community Development Block Grant program, the Convention and Visitors Bureau, the health department, the Downtown Improvement District, management information systems, the arts and entertainment department and the Harlingen Arts and Heritage Museum.
Meanwhile, the assistant city manager for external affairs will oversee the public works department, the engineering department, the parks and recreation department and the Tony Butler Municipal Golf Course along with street improvement programs and drainage and infrastructure projects, according to the TML ad.
Officials plan to continue advertising until they fill the positions, Garza said.
