Hondo Anvil Herald
By Rosanne Fohn, Anvil Herald Reporter
September 28, 2023

Hondo City Council voted to negotiate a contract with the city’s top choice for city manager, John Naron, MPA, CPM. Naron has been serving for a year and nine months in Frisco as regional manager at Burditt Land | Place, a planning and design consulting firm.

Naron lists expertise in urban planning, strategy, reporting, business planning, government contracts and proposals, proposal writing, team leadership, economic development, process improvement and project management, among other skills, on his LinkedIn account, but was not available for an interview this week.

Before that, Naron served for nearly five and a half years as chief administrative officer/city manager of Hearne, Texas.

He earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Phoenix and his Master of Public Administration from the University of Texas at Arlington.

If terms for employment are reached, Interim City Manager Robert Herrera said that Naron would start with the city on Oct. 2, as Herrera will complete his contract Oct. 1.

Place 2 Councilman Bobby Vela made the motion and Place 4 Councilwoman Rachel Ramirez seconded it. The item passed 4-1 in a roll-call vote, with Place 1 Councilman Brett Williams and Place 3 Councilman Jose “Porky” Ytuarte also voting yes. Place 5 Councilman John Villa cast the only dissenting vote, although Ytuarte stated during his vote that he was agreeing with reluctance for the sake of council unity. Both he and Villa had voted no to hire the search firm in June.

Villa said the council should instead hire the current interim city manager, due to his 30 years’ experience.

Vela said, “With all due respect, Mr. Herrera should have applied (during the search firm’s application period to be considered). Herrera had given council an employment proposal before the vote to hire the firm.

Mayor John McAnelly reminded council that it had voted to hire the firm and the firm had conducted an extensive search and identified four candidates, which council interviewed in mid-September. After the meeting, McAnelly explained that the search firm had vetted 30 candidates, narrowed them down to 10, then recommended four for the council to interview.

McAnelly added during the meeting, “(Naron) understands that this is not a unanimous decision on the part of the council or it’s unlikely to be, but he’s agreed to come, pending our vote.”

After the vote, Herrera said, “Thank you for the opportunity to come in as your interim city manager. It took longer than what we probably all thought. We started out with 90 days and wound up with five months.

“Congratulations to the council. You did a very fair process. It was a process that council agreed to do and I will be very supportive of your new city manager. I will be glad to provide him with any knowledge I may have of any of the past decisions, and of course, I’ll be available to any of the department heads, as well. I want to say, may God bless Hondo, Texas, and may God Bless the city council. Thank you,” he said.

McAnelly said, “I want to take the mayor’s privilege to express appreciation for myself and for the council and for the City of Hondo for your service here over these last five months. We have accomplished a lot in five months’ time.” “Thank you for getting us through the budget,” Vela said, adding, “I’m sorry to interrupt.”

“Just the calmness,” the mayor continued, “with which you have helped us address several items has been much appreciated and I know that the City of Hondo and the residents of Hondo appreciate the work that you’ve done, especially these past five months, as well as the nine years you were here before. So, from me personally and I know from the council, I just want to say thank you. And God bless Bob Herrera!”