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STAFF REPORT

The city of San Marcos is hosting more than 400 city managers this weekend at the City of San Marcos Conference Center and Embassy Suites.

Leaders from cities large and small across Texas are here for the Texas City Management Association’s annual conference, “Riding the Currents of Change.”

Mayor Daniel Guerrero and City Manager Jim Nuse were on hand Friday morning to welcome the municipal leaders.

Nuse played a video, “A City Manager’s Life” featuring Nuse performing his most recent song, “City Workers,” on guitar, accompanied by violinist Ryan Delahoussaye, a member of the rock band Blue October.

Filmed by San Marcos City Council Member Shane Scott, a professional film-maker, the video details the day in the life of a city manager as he observes and pays tribute to the work done by municipal employees, from police and firefighters to clerical staff, equipment operators, planners, librarians, road builders and more.

Highlights of the TCMA Conference include a keynote address today by Scott O’Grady, an American hero who survived six days in hostile territory after his F-16 was shot down over Bosnia by a Soviet-made anti-aircraft missile.

Other topics of the conference will include the art of negotiation, managing change, risk taking and difficult decision-making, shared services strategies, and organizational communications. The city leaders will take a look at technology and the future of government, military models for leadership development, innovations, crisis management, budgeting for efficiencies and ethics.

Special events are being held at Dick’s Classic Garage for the conference attendees and at Embassy Suites. Helping host the conference is the San Marcos Convention and Visitor Bureau. The conference ends Sunday.  TCMA is an affiliate of the Texas Municipal League.