It’s official: Scott Sellers is Kyle’s new city manager

Scott Sellers, Kilgore’s city manager for the last three years, has officially agreed to assume the top administrative post here. He signed and returned a three-year contract today that calls for a base salary of $165,000 a year, although when other variables are included the total value of the contract comes to $186,284.24 a year, about one thousand dollars a year less than the total compensation package for the city manager of Buda. The base salary is about $40,000 more than his predecessor, Lanny Lambert, received. Lambert resigned in August to become city manager of Converse.

As reported earlier, Sellers will assume the city manager’s job Jan. 1, although I’m doubting he’ll be in the office that day. He will become only Kyle's third fulltime city manager.

I’ve only encountered Sellers once and that was on Nov. 15 when he and four other candidates came to city hall to be interviewed for the city manager’s position. I found him to be the most stand-offish of the five, the only one who wouldn’t even tell me his name or admit why he was in the building. I can imagine the reason for that being he didn’t want his bosses back in Kilgore to learn he was out job hunting, but that didn’t stop the other four candidates, some of whom even talked to me openly about the challenges of the Kyle job and compared our city to their current cities of employment. Mayor Todd Webster, however, has assured me on at least two occasions that Sellers has a reputation for being more open and accessible to the media than your average city administrator.

I must also admit I’m impressed with many of Sellers’ accomplishments, to wit:

• He recognized the need for more middle-income housing in Kilgore and to meet this need he created something he called the Kilgore 20/20 Vision Committee, created a residential revolving loan fund, co-created with nearby Stephen F. Austin University the Kilgore Livability Study, resurrected the Community Development Corporation and undertook the largest annexation in the city’s history. The result of all this is that, according to a document he presented, "many new homes are under construction."
• He seems to recognize what tasks performed by a city can be outsourced successfully, thus saving taxpayer money.
• He comes across as a master innovator in applying high-tech solutions to communications needs.
• Like many small towns, Kilgore had a once-thriving downtown movie theater that was sitting vacant. In Kilgore’s case, the theater had not seen a single bit of activity in a half of a century. So he had an elaborate haunted house built inside the theater that in six nights of operation generated $18,000 in revenue. He later staged a Christmas-themed event in the building. These two activities attracted the attention of a developer who has contracted with the city to restore the theater.
• He sees the value in creating Tax Increment Finance Districts which, if administrated properly, can be a valuable tool in converting unused properties into tax-generating ones.
• He seems to understand how to partner with other governmental entities such as county commissioners, TxDOT as well as private businesses, even the Union Pacific Railroad.

I am looking forward to getting on Sellers’ calendar so I can have a nice chat with him about his vision for Kyle.