Hondo Anvil Herald
By Rosanne Fohn, Anvil Herald Reporter
October 5, 2023

Since starting his new position on Monday, Hondo’s city manager, John Naron, has been busy meeting with city staff and working to gain a better understanding of all the departments and recently passed city budget. He’s finishing up the week by attending the annual Texas Municipal League Conference in Dallas with other city leaders.

“I’m excited to be here. The staff that I’ve been able to meet so far are excellent. I’m very excited to work with them,” said Naron, 42, who is married and has three college-age children.

Naron comes to Hondo from Frisco, where he was a regional manager of Burditt Land l Place, a planning and design consulting firm. Prior to that, he was city manager for about five and a half years in his hometown of Hearne.

His other major employer was the U.S. Navy, which he joined right out of high school. He finished his hitch 10 years later in 2009 at the rank of E-5, a petty officer second class. He served as a fire control technician.

He believes joining the Navy right out of high school was a good decision, preparing him for teamwork and management.

“One of the biggest things I learned was to be open minded,” he said. Traveling up and down the coastline of South America with the military and being stationed in Dubai, he saw that people achieved goals in different ways.

Networking is another skill he feels will help him in Hondo. Knowing people around the globe has been “a blessing,” he said.

He considers other strengths to be his ability to learn from others and work as a team.

“I constantly learn from those around me. I never believe that I have all the answers. Listening to people and trying my best to understand them and learn from them is probably one of my biggest strengths,” he said. “And my belief in staff and working with them is important to me. I don’t just sit behind my desk.”

Hearne is about half the size of Hondo, but there are many similarities, he said. “We had an airport, we were a (municipally-owned utility). We bought our electricity and distributed it to the citizens. We had the same type of water and sewer systems, and it parallels in many other ways. Hearne is a diverse community on Highway 6, with many people going to Bryan-College Station to work. Here, a lot of people travel to San Antonio to work.”

One way the two towns are different is that Hondo is poised for growth. “Growth is coming from all directions. It’s great to plan for that growth, but with keeping that small-town feel,” he said.

Naron is no stranger to controversy. When he joined the City of Hearne, they were going through a forensic audit. “There was a lot of distrust in city government and accusations of financial malfeasance. I was able to lead them through that hard time. We were also two (financial) audits behind and by the time I left we had received the financial transparency award and were working on the budget presentation award,” he said.

“We really restored trust with our citizens. It was difficult, but we did it through continuous infrastructure projects and economic development. We showed them (what we could do) and it was a blessing to have the council behind me. We accomplished a lot of goals,” he added.

He left to gain more experience in urban planning and parks development at Burditt. He enjoys developing parks and other special places that citizens can enjoy, as well as projects to upgrade the centers of town. “Our downtown has great bones,” he said, referring to its character and potential.

Naron said he was attracted to Hondo because many of his city manager colleagues said it was a great town. “I love your God’s Country city logo,” he added.

Naron said he has a special place in his heart for focusing on city services for those who have low to moderate income, and providing good infrastructure.

“Infrastructure is one of the most important things to me,” he said. “Everybody is talking about it now, thank goodness. Before, you heard of infrastructure and you said, ‘What’s that?’ But now the federal government is talking about it. You’ve seen all the (federal) monies come down and projects are being done. You see here that we’re doing street projects, water development projects. We’re working on infrastructure. That’s one of the things I’m passionate about because you are basically going to get the best value for your tax dollar if we fix your water pipes, work on the (water) collection system and pave your streets.”

As he familiarizes himself over the next six months, he plans to follow the lead of former Interim City Manager Robert Herrera and the goals of city council. “Mr. Herrera did a great job, especially as an interim. He really got the ball rolling and it was great that the city was able to call on someone with past experience here. All the employees, of course, love Mr. H. and speak fondly of him. I’m definitely going to continue what he started and at the same time, the council has a lot of plans in store for Hondo. I’m here to help them achieve those goals,” he said.