By James Rincon
Pflag Reporter

Former Galveston City Manager Brandon Wade officially began his tenure as city manager of Pflugerville on Jan. 4. He’s so new to the city that his wife hasn’t yet left their Galveston home to join him in the new one in Pflugerville. But when it comes to city managing – this ain’t his first rodeo.
The Merkle, Texas native was practically born a public servant.
Before he was of school age, Wade’s daycare was the Merkle Mayor’s office, where his grandfather – the mayor – watched him while his father, an oil executive, and his mother, a school teacher, were at work. It was there that Wade said he developed a mind for civil service.
“My grandfather was the mayor of a small west texas town, and he acted a good bit as my daycare center… His thoughts and philosophies provided the foundation of the way I think. I have only worked for cities my entire career and I feel that public service is what my calling is and I believe in being a good steward of the public’s funds and the public’s trust.”
Outside of the working world Wade enjoys snow skiing, fishing, hunting and other outdoor activities a West Texas boy grows up doing.
As a professional, he has never worked for any organization that wasn’t a city. So the word he used to describe his first week as Pflugerville’s manager comes as no surprise – busy.
As of Monday night, when the City held his introductory reception in council’s chambers, Wade had attended meetings with the Mayor, each councilmember individually and the head of every city department except for Public Works, he said. Although he has just scratched the surface in his first week, Wade said he is beginning to lay the foundation of his understanding of the City and its people.
“I am still trying to determine what the direction of the community truly is as far as the citizens are concerned. I believe that Pflugerville, like any city that is next to a large metropolitan area, is going to grow. I don’t think that there’s any doubt about it,” Wade said. “What I am a firm believer in is controlled and quality growth. A combination of that, along with Pflugerville I believe is synonymous with small-town atmosphere, and to the extent possible I would like to try to maintain that small-town atmosphere despite the growth.”
A small-town atmosphere is something Wade said he is familiar with from his days in Merkle, where, he jokes, the population was 2,500 when he was born and it was 2,500 when he left.
Pflugerville’s population on the other hand is not so inert. And what else can be the enemy of a small-town atmosphere but growth?
“I think they can be at odds with each other if you don’t take into considerations making certain that families have a place to go for recreation; that citizens have an opportunity to interact with one another and maybe neighbor talk to neighbor and the like,” Wade said.“I’m not going to suggest to you that there’s going to be an old-town soda fountain on every corner, but to try to further that interaction between citizens I feel is very important.”
Pflugerville may not be a small town for much long at the rate it’s growing, but Wade said that with more citizens comes the opportunity for many more services.
“I think that that is the advantage that growth is going to bring to Pflugerville is certainly opportunity and convenience and potential job growth as opposed to stagnation like some smaller cities can have,” he said.
But keeping up with the growth requires a significant planning effort, without which citizens of Pflugerville risk a degrading quality life, Wade said.
Services like water delivery and sewage disposal need increased infrastructure as more people are using them. Another potential future problem is traffic, said Wade.
“Traffic can be like a slow-growing cancer. You don’t necessarily see it, you don’t necessarily feel it, and everyday it may grow a little bit, and you don’t necessarily notice it until it is completely and totally out of control and malignant. And I’m hoping to have the opportunity to stay ahead, although Pflugerville does show some significant traffic increases, I do not think that we have waited too late to address those issues,” he said. “I also believe you have to be very cautious in your growth in working very closely with the police department and the fire department and the like to make absolutely certain to keep you crime to a minimum level and that you keep your fire response time to a minimum level.”
To direct rapid growth toward positive development, Wade said the city much have excellent communication and vital partnerships with potential services such as the fire department, and the school district.
“Growth will happen whether you want it to or not, but controlled planned growth that will result in a good wholesome community is my goal,” Wade said. “What I mean is the actual structural appearance of things. Examples would be apartment complexes that are too tightly dense don’t have appropriate sidelines and lighting and that sort of thing. There you create pockets and harbors of potential criminal activity to give the opportunity of criminal activity. We don’t was to design and construct potential criminal activity locations.”
Another secret to maintaining the delicate balance between quality and growth is the proper use of funds, Wade said.
“I don’t think that its any secret that there are benefits to certain types of development that are different than other types of development. You have to keep a good balance in a community. If you have a community that is nothing but single-family rooftops, you have an enormous amount of service need that’s going to those single-family rooftops, but you will turn the entire burden of paying for those services right on top of those rooftops,” he said. “Whereas you can clearly see from our neighbors to the north, Round Rock, with its commercial establishments and its jobs and so forth, the commercial establishments attract dollars from not just in Round Rock. They attract dollars from all around. That’s the type of thing that I think the Stone Hill center is providing for us. We’re certainly attracting dollars from outside of the community to that center. That in turn allows the beginnings of a lesser tax burden and fee for service burden on our citizens, which I believe is the overall goal.”
Wade brings his 26 years of experience to the City, and said he won’t be shy with his ideas at the City Council meetings.
“I don’t want to get into a council meeting and go ‘ok what do ya’ll want to do?’ I don’t think that that is a very professional way to move forward. I think that it is incumbent upon me as a professional in this field to put forward what I suggest is the route to go,” he said. “If they want to do something different, I’m thrilled to do something different. What they will find from me is that if my projection of that alternative will lead them down a dark path, I will be very clear with them of my projections of what those pitfalls are and what that dark path might be.”
Wade already has plans to amp up communication efforts in the city office through continued use of social networking and other media outlets. But before he drives Pflugerville in any direction, he will continue to petition the community for their opinions on where they think the City is going.
“Ideally, which by the way never happens, the citizens would stand up and overwhelmingly say ‘I want to be this’ – and that will never ever happen and I’m under no illusions that it will. What I would like to get it through my reading of comprehensive plan updates and through my visiting with citizens and staff members is to get a flavor of where the community might like to be heading. I do want to make it quite clear to everyone that I do not expect to be a passive player in this.”