Shanna Johnson is the new Rockdale City Secretary taking over for Terry Blanchard who, after 13 years on the job, is now the city secretary in West Lake Hills outside Austin.
If Shanna’s name sounds familiar, for the past year and several months she has been the Rockdale MDD executive assistant working for MDD Executive Director Jim Gibson.
“Jim is actually the person who suggested I go for the city secretary position. He thought I would be good at it,” Johnson said of her former boss.
Johnson said the past two weeks have been a whirlwind. Not only is she the new city secretary, she is also still doing her old job at the MDD until her position is filled. Interviews are going on this week to fill her position at the MDD.
“Over the past year I have kept a list togethe r of my SOPs (standard oper ating procedures) so my replacement will have some good notes to follow right off the bat,” Johnson said.
It wasn’t quite that easy for her at the city secretary job.
“Terry Blanchard was, unfortunately, already gone by the time I got the position so I wasn’t able to train under her which would have been ideal. Instead, Terry trained Janie Willman who was sent by Texas First to train city secretaries, and then I trained with Janie,” she said. “However, Terry trained me for my MDD position so I got a good look at her work ethic.”
“I am very excited about the city secretary position and I’m learning so much about government and the law, which is an interest of mine. The MDD is more laid back with only one board. As city secretary I will have several boards to deal with on a daily basis, so the job will be much more fast-paced.”
Johnson went to high school in Belton and graduated from Mary Hardin Baylor in 2002. She had previously worked for Dell Technologies in Round Rock since 2015.
Shanna and her husband, Jolen, have two children— Jaret, 16, and Justice, 12—and they live in the Westwood neighborhood.
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