City Manager discusses staff changes

San Marcos City Manager Bert Lumbreras announced a handful of staff changes in late August, which he says was the result of former Assistant City Manager Collette Jamison’s retirement. 

The loss of Jamison, who had worked for the city for over 30 years, created a void, Lumbreras said. 

“Colette has just been just a very loyal, committed, public servant for the City of San Marcos for for a long, long time,” Lumbreras told the Daily Record. “When you have a retirement like that it creates a huge void and creates a situation where we obviously want to then have folks step up in the organization. And the thing that I’m most proud about our organization is that we have an organization that really we’re starting to establish what that vision is, for our community,

“...The beauty of it is that when it happens, we do have talent and we have individuals that are extremely well suited to step up in key roles,” Lumbreras added. 

Stepping into new roles are Stephanie Reyes, Chase Stapp and Bob Klett. Reyes, who previously served as Lumbreras’ chief of staff, has been named interim Assistant City Manager. 

Stapp, who served as San Marcos police chief since 2014, was named interim director of public safety. Klett has been named interim police chief but will need to be confirmed by the City Council, which meets on Tuesday. 

Reyes will continue to oversee the departments she was responsible for in her role as Lumbreras’ chief of staff, which includes Parks & Recreation and Destination Services — Convention & Visitor Bureau and Main Street. Additionally, she will oversee administrative services, which includes the City Manager’s Office, communications/intergovernmental relations, finance/budget, grants, human resources and information technology. 

“Stephanie, she’s someone who grew up in San Marcos, who went to high school here, went to Texas State has been, you know, solely dedicated in her career with the City of San Marcos, at a very young age, and has just proven herself every step of the way,” Lumbreras said.

“... I’ve been mentoring her and working with her as chief of staff, for a future move like this and so it gives me an opportunity to put her in a role where she can even continue to be more successful for us.”

Stapp, in his newly created position, will oversee San Marcos Police, Fire, Emergency Management, Municipal Court and Neighborhood Enhancement, which includes animal services, compliance, community enhancement & resource recovery, health and women, infant and children’s programs.

Lumbreras said he’d been considering creating a director of public safety position prior to Jamison’s retirement. He said emergency management plays an important role in San Marcos and he wants to ensure that the city is prepared for any situation. 

“I want that to be pretty much one of our big priorities because it’s not a matter of when the next storm will come, it will come,” Lumbreras said. “It’s a matter of whether we will be trained and prepared and ready to, you know, be responsive to the needs of the community. That’s what our goal is.”

With these new changes, Lumbreras said his goal was to put the right people in place to succeed. 

“When these changes happen, my philosophy has always been to try to find the best folks in the organization,” Lumbreras said. “The people that are those rock stars are people that have great skill sets that have good connections with the community, have proven themselves and give them a chance to flourish even better.”

Lumbreras said he’s heard some negative feedback about the changes within the community but he’s confident in his office’s reorganization. 

“What I think I try to focus in on is how do I have the best organization possible to execute,” Lumbreras said.  “And I think we’ve been able to prove that over the last couple years with the work that we’ve been doing and the track record that we’ve established in a relatively short period of time with this great organization I think we’ve proven that we can execute. So my job is to have the organization and the people to deliver. And If I’m not delivering that I’m not doing my job, and I probably shouldn’t be here. So at the end of the day, I’m accountable to not only the council, but the citizens.”