Special Report: How Tommy Gonzalez is running City as 1st anniversary nears

City Manager Tommy Gonzalez is nearing his first anniversary on the job and City Representatives said they’ve seen real results from his no nonsense approach and new methods for city employees.

“You can’t improve something until you know what’s wrong with a process or with an organization,” said Gonzalez during a recent interview.

A year ago to outsiders Gonzalez seemed like an unlikely choice. The former Irving City Manager’s record was mired by allegations of abuse of power that were never substantiated. What eclipsed that, according to City Representatives is that Gonzalez is willing to stand up to politicians.

The city representatives all have a similar assessment: Gonzalez is a straight shooter, sometimes even too direct. “Even when it’s an answer he thinks I don’t want and I probably don’t, he’ll tell it like it is,” said City Rep. Ann Morgan Lilly.

“He tells it the way it is. He doesn’t hide anything. He doesn’t sugar coat anything. If anything at all you can accuse him of is he makes it sound a lot worse than it really is and that’s to get everyone motivated I think. He’s like a football coach for us to get in there and really fight to get these taxes down. He’s a good motivator,” said City Rep. Michiel Noe.

There’s a consensus that Gonzalez is more blunt to the council than his memorable predecessor Joyce Wilson, most recently telling council unambiguously their revenue isn’t keeping up with expenses. “You look at your revenue growth, it’s a percent and a half, that’s what your history shows. It’s meager,” he told the City Representatives late March in a public meeting. “When we ask for something, he tells us ‘that’s fine council. You say that’s what you want but remember it’s going to cost this, this and this,” said City Rep. Larry Romero.

“Reality isn’t always pleasant. I don’t do that to get their attention. I do that so they know all the facts. Sometimes the truth hurts and I don’t try to be so direct so that you’re not able to be diplomatic how you deliver a message but I think it’s important to be upfront with people to tell them what the issues are and then tell them what you’re doing to address them,” said Gonzalez.

That no-nonsense approach has also yielded major results, according to the City. Gonzalez has restructured the city’s top management, saving the City an estimated $3.5 million. “He’s showing us real results,” said City Rep. Cortney Niland.

The results also evident in how the city operates. Gonzalez implemented a new business method for employees called Lean Six Sigma. It works by having regular city employees, not top management, analyze problems and come up with a solution sometimes with the help of regular El Pasoans who use city services. The first victory: it used to take 3 weeks and $214.00 to get a permit to reserve a park. Using the Lean Six Sigma process,city employees and a taxpayer were able to reduce the process to half an hour and $13.00.

“Really there was no rhyme and reason to some of the way we did some things. We want to find better ways of delivering our services,” said Gonzalez.

The Dallas transplant has also started incentive programs to motivate city employees, sometimes surprising them at their desk to reward them for a job well done. “It’s not always perfect. (I want to) Improve when it’s not perfect and when we make improvements, I want those to be recognized as well,” he said.

That recognition that hasn’t gone unnoticed. Walk around city hall and you’ll hear from city employees who say Gonzalez is more approachable than his predecessor.

“The morale seems good,” said Lilly. “I see an attitude change in the employees. I see an attitude change on city council,” agreed Romero.