Flemming takes city manager post in Panhandle town
Council will hear options at Thursday meeting before replacement search  

By KEN ESTEN COOKE
Reporter Publisher

T. Flemming has accepted a City Manager position with the town of Sundown, located about 30 miles west of Lubbock, he announced this week.
 Rockdale City Council will accept his resignation at a called Thursday meeting and Flemming said he should be completely relocated to the town of 1,500 within four weeks.
 The council will also meet in executive session to decide its next move. That could include using an interim city manager or starting a search it conducts on its own, which took three months before Flemming was hired, Mayor John Shoemake said Monday. (Former City Manager Sue Jones helped out during that transition time.)
 “Any time you have a change in administration, it puts a strain on everybody,” Shoemake said. “We’ll have to begin all over again, but we appreciate the time he served here.”
 Shoemake said Flemming was easy to get along with and helped City Hall’s image.
 “He did us a lot of good and did what we asked him to do, which was change the attitude at City Hall,” the mayor said.
 Flemming will be in familiar territory (he was a water department manager in nearby Lamesa) and said he is looking forward to the opportunity.
 “They offered a good compensation package,” he said of the town, which is flush with oil revenue. “I’ve visited the city and it’s like Mayberry without the trees. They want a city manager who keeps up with what’s going on and being said in the coffee shop.”

Hardships
 Flemming’s tenure was marked by personal hardships, including a stroke and fall a year after taking office which left him partially paralyzed for several months.
 Flemming expressed appreciation to the city several times for “sticking with him” as he recovered.
 With a background in water department management, the council hired Flemming looking to him to help upgrade Rockdale’s infrastructure and implement a 10-year water plan it had adopted back in 2002.
 “He started to have some setbacks and wasn’t able to accomplish all the goals we set for him,” Shoemake said. “But he contributed and he was personable.”
 Rockdale still has many infrastructure goals to implement, including an elevated storage tank on Allday Street, possible new wells, and replacing old lines near downtown.

‘Extra load’
 Shoemake said Flemming’s departure could mean an extra load on local department managers and council members. The replacement process comes as the council is working through the fiscal 2009 budget as well.
 “We’ll just have to weigh the costs of an interim and see what we can do,” Shoemake said. “We’ve had a lot of discussion about municipal projects, some ending and some beginning and some in the future.
 “Any time you break the continuity, you have to get somebody else up to speed,” Shoemake said of the projects.

COUNCIL MEETING
• City council members will meet at 11 a.m. Thursday at City Hall to mull replacment. They will hear from Texas First Group Replacement Services regarding interim manager services.