City Council offers excellent performance rating.
Killeen City Manager Ron Olson presented his ninth and final 100-day report to Killeen City Council in executive session at Tuesday’s workshop. He announced in June that he will retire October 1.
The report detailed organizational accomplishments for the period of April 19 through July 27.
“City Council has again rated Mr. Olson’s performance as excellent and believes his service over the past two and a half years has been outstanding,” said Mayor Jose Segarra. “His expertise has improved our organization and created the foundation for a better future for our city.”
Since his appointment in February 2017, Olson has utilized 100-day increments to plan and measure organizational accomplishments. At the conclusion of each period, he provides a summary to City Council to keep the body informed and to receive its feedback.
The City Manager provides the following summary of his ninth 100 days to the public:
Preparation of the proposed Fiscal Year 2020 Annual Budget and Plan of Municipal Services has been the predominant focus of staff efforts. I delivered the document to City Council August 6 in compliance with the Charter and Financial Governance Policy. The $209 million proposal is balanced with no increases in the property tax rate or utility fees. I’ve proposed one major new program, Compensation Equity Phase 2, to address the strategic issue of employee pay. If approved, my proposal will bring civil service employees to within 95 percent of their comparable market and classified employees to within 85 percent.
Staff successfully implemented the Street Maintenance Fee July 1 addressing another strategic issue, Deferred Street Maintenance. This effort involved multiple departments to review more than 50,000 properties, calculate and verify individual charges, set up the internal billing and collection processes and to inform the public. Collection began on bills received in August for services rendered in July. A street condition study is underway to determine the current condition of each street which will help establish priority for maintenance projects. City Council allocated $330,000 in Fiscal Year 2019 to begin addressing streets, and staff has identified a collection of streets in northeast Killeen that will receive maintenance in October.
The Bob Gilmore Senior Center was closed in February due to identified structural weaknesses, and operations were moved to Killeen Community Center. Since that time, an architect has been selected to design a new facility. Stakeholder meetings, surveys and site visits will help develop a needs assessment and preliminary design for City Council’s review.
I established a Downtown Coordination Team with members from various departments to work with businesses and other stakeholders. They are tasked to be actively engaged with property owners in identifying and addressing issues.
Recycling trailers were placed at locations in central and west Killeen in July and have already exceeded expectations. Bi-weekly servicing was anticipated but use requires service almost daily. More than 576 cubic yards, or six tons, of material has been diverted from the landfill to the recycle stream. Additional public education is planned to encourage use and reduce contamination.
In the coming weeks and months, we will continue our work toward budget adoption September 17 and the closing of Fiscal Year 2019 and opening of 2020. Staff will also work to support City Council in its transition between city managers.