Page Two

City Manager Jesus Garza has one of the toughest jobs in town. When things go well, nobody can remember his name; when they go badly, he receives the blame. Thus he is responsible for the city's boom and the city's bust, for population growth and crowded roads, for the increased demand on ever-strained city services -- and that doesn't even begin the list of what has been laid at his doorstep. But he is the city manager, and his is, of course, the correct doorstep to which one should bring problems and issues.

Managers always get short shrift. Their job is incredibly difficult: Everything right happens by accident, everything wrong ... (All the managers reading this are nodding their heads; everyone else is thinking how inept and full of it their managers are.) It is easy to tell the city manager what is wrong and what needs to be done. Everyone does it. The question of prioritizing and executing is the bitch. Although the boom brought the city increased revenues, it brought even more increased demand. Everyone is passionate about their own issues and ready to trim everyone else's. So how to make this work? How to reach compromise not once but a thousand times?

The reality is that staff has more long-term control over the future of the city than any other entity. Lunatic reforms like term limits reinforce this trend (by the time one really understands how the city operates, one has to leave). The importance of Garza to the daily operation of this city can't be understated. Mike Clark-Madison's story in this issue ("Jesus Saves") takes a look at Garza and the city budget.

Sorry, but as with everything, it is our responsibility. This is our government, and it is our responsibility to communicate with it. The very nature of Garza's job insists on public scrutiny. Articles like Clark-Madison's are inherently complicated (he does a great job of telling the story); the budget is not light reading. But these decisions will affect us all.

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Louis Meyers used to office with us; and then, with Roland Swenson and Nick Barbaro, we started SXSW. Throughout this period, he managed the Killer Bees, so we spent a lot of time hanging out with Michael E. Johnson, who recently died (see Ken Lieck’s “Dancing About Architecture”). Johnson was great to hang out with, perfect for the late afternoon barbershop-esque, story-swapping sessions Meyers always attracted. Over the years, I saw the Killer Bees many times. Michael was a terrific musician. He was also a great person, and we send our love to his family.