City selects Stan Farmer as new city administrator

The Bandera City Council voted Friday, Oct. 20, during a special meeting to appoint Stan Farmer as the city’s full-time City Administrator.

“Mr. Farmer has over twenty years’ experience as a City Manager, with over thirteen years as the City Manager of Horseshoe Bay, Texas,” read a statement from the city. “Stan’s tenure with the City of Horseshoe Bay he completed numerous large scale capital improvement projects including expanded water and wastewater facilities and a 60-mile road improvement project. Mr. Farmer was instrumental in the City’s AA+ Bond Rating, Texas Scenic City Designation, and the Texas Government Finance Officer’s Association’s Budget Award.”

“My wife and I are very excited to join this wonderful community in our beloved Hill Country,” said Farmer, whom the city says should be starting his position in November. “I am very excited about the opportunity to serve the residents and businesses of Bandera.”

A Marine veteran who served in military intelligence and as a marksmanship instructor, Farmer has a Masters of Public Affairs degree and certifications as a Certified Manager, Certified Planner and a Certified Public Manager.

“I’d like to thank our Interim City Administrator for his leadership in this process, city staff for their professionalism, the council for their thoughtfulness and dedication, and the public who joined us in this process and provided valuable feedback,” said Mayor Rebeca Gibson in a statement. “We all look forward to welcoming Mr. Farmer and his family to Bandera, Texas!”

The decision to hire Farmer followed an Oct. 17 town hall meeting where three candidates for the city administer position were available to speak with Bandera residents.

Bandera City Council broke from afternoon interviews and opened the meeting room at the Best Western Bandera Suites and Saloon at 6 p.m.

Three large round tables were set up for residents and business owners while the candidates rotated around the room speaking to the citizens about their backgrounds and ideas for Bandera.

The candidates, Nathan (Nate) B. Smith, Mario Hune, and Stan Farmer, spent the first minutes of the meeting introducing themselves to the whole group and giving a brief outline of their prior experience.

Then each candidate was directed to a table where they spoke to a smaller group of citizens and answered questions for about twenty minutes.

Nate B. Smith is a former city administrator in Fairfield, Texas, where he worked for four and a half years. Smith said his qualities of honesty, transparency, intelligence, and intuitiveness would make him an exceptional city administrator for Bandera.

Smith talked about his experiences in Fairfield and how both towns had similar perspectives on small town life. He said that the Mayor and City Council in Fairfield understood the need for growth without changing the atmosphere of a small town. Smith spoke about the introduction of light industrial businesses in Fairfield and how that would impact the town’s bottom line. Noting that Fairfield is approximately the halfway point between Houston and Dallas, Smith touted bringing in a travel stop with an attached Whataburger. Smith also spoke about his experiences with grants and infrastructure projects like Bandera’s. Mario Hune, currently an officer in San Antonio’s City Public Works department, spoke about his experiences visiting Bandera before becoming a candidate for the city administrator position. Living in Helotes, Hune was quite familiar with the Cowboy Capital. While Hune has been in the San Antonio Public Works Department as a council liaison and translator for three years, he spent eighteen years as chief of staff for six different San Antonio City Councilmen. Hune spoke about his experiences with infrastructure in the Public Works Department, he also outlined his experiences as a volunteer for Bexar County. He helped work toward the creation of a third fire station in the district. Hune talked about the usefulness of a five-year plan to guide the city.

If chosen as city administrator, Hune said he would like to meet one on one with city staff to get their take on what the city does well and what areas could use improvement. Hune wants to get a feel for what is going on in the community.

Stan Farmer said that he was raised in Texas and had been a city administrator in Horseshoe Bay, a city located on Lake LBJ northwest of Austin and in North Carolina. Farmer emphasized that he graduated from high school in San Antonio.

Managing growth was one of the topics that Farmer addressed directly. He spoke about how he understood that residents wanted to keep the Cowboy Capital western and acknowledged that Bandera’s economy was primarily based on tourism. Farmer indicated that he was most proud of his efforts to close the gap between building permits being filed and approved in Horseshoe Bay. He said that the process started at six to seven weeks, and he had closed that to five to six days. Increasing the efficiency of employee benefits was also a point of pride with Farmer. He touted offering the employees of Horseshoe Bay a Health Savings Account which saved the city money and improved services for the employees. Farmer recommended a five-year budget forecast model and called it a great tool to help the city plan for needed expenditures like a sewer treatment plant.

He also spoke about his priorities for Bandera. Farmer stated that he had extensive grant writing experience and could work with the Economic Development Corporation to make sure Bandera benefitted from partnerships between public and private entities.

Finally, Farmer talked about creating a City Academy to educate residents on the workings of the city processes. Each city department would spend a session talking about their department’s duties and processes in the eight-session academy. Farmer said that the Academy graduated 100 people over a six-year period. This would allow the citizens to be able to share knowledge with other residents when needed. The town hall meeting adjourned at 7:15 p.m., but participants were slow to leave and spoke with candidates individually after the adjournment.