By extension, the man whose executive duty it is to keep one of these
cityships on a smooth course is a kind of social warrior, a captain of
a big ship, who, like the captain of "Big John," must maintain himself
and his crew at a high level of alertness and efficiency. The
specifics of how that works in an individual case come clear in a
review of the work, life, and career of Ricardo (Rick) Menchaca, city
manager of Midland, a man who, as the jargon of our time puts it, "has
his act together." Midland's official web site notes that the city's
manager is "the chief executive officer of the government carries out
policy and administers city programs." That's the whole story in a
sentence. Rick's days split rather neatly into two areas: one is
"routine management" (not always so routine), which includes
supervising 865 city employees—98% of everybody who works for the
city—and the other is "special projects," individual undertakings to
implement city policy, of which a couple of stand-out examples are the
new Scharbauer Sports Complex and the Midland International Airport.
Read more about this at
http://www.rickmenchaca.com
