ALAMO — City commissioners here hired a new city manager following the retirement of Luciano Ozuna in June last year.
At the Feb. 18 regular meeting, the Alamo Board of Commissioners unanimously voted in favor of appointing Robert “Bobby” Salinas to the post.
Salinas served as the interim city manager since Ozuna’s departure, as well as the city’s planning director since December 2014.
The new city manager, who grew up in south Alamo, has spent his entire career working for municipalities since his graduation from PSJA High School in 1997.
“Basically, I started working for local governments since I graduated high school,” Salinas said. “First for San Juan, and then I worked for Mission. I came to work for Alamo as the planning director, and here I am.”
Salinas graduated from the University of Texas Pan American with a major in political science and a minor in English. He has 22 years of experience working with local city governments.
“One thing that I really want to concentrate on is moving the city forward — as far as technology goes, bringing more technology to the citizens,” Salinas said. “For instance, online bill paying. We’re very close to launching that for our water bill payments.”
Salinas said he hopes to help the city grow its public consciousness in the Rio Grande Valley.
“We’re wanting to just take it to the next level, like what other cities are,” Salinas said. “When people say McAllen or Pharr, the larger cities, I also want to be in the mix of that as well. We may be a smaller city, but I want to be comparable to other cities like that. I want to get rid of the image of the little city.”
He said he also intends to maintain an open door policy to city employees and the public.
“I look forward to working here. I’ve already been here for five years,” Salinas said. “I hope to just bring good customer service to the public. I have an open door policy when it comes to if any of the employees want to come and talk to me. Normally when people come in, they have complaints or issues or anything like that. I’m always available. That’s one thing, I want to be sure that I’m available to the citizens.”
