Pilot Point Mayor Chad Major reminded the Pilot Point business community about the roles of the mayor, council and city manager during the PointBank Business Breakfast on Wednesday.
After opening his presentation with what drew he and his wife to settle down in Pilot Point, Major gave a brief state of the city address, beginning with how he plans to help the municipal government run smoothly, before touching on what’s coming for the council in the immediate future.
“The greatest service we can provide as city council is to conduct the city’s business,” Major said. “I’m just going to put a period right there. I’ve got some other things in here to talk about, but I’ve had numerous people, some I respect significantly, that have said, ‘Y’all just need to get in there and get the business done,’ message received.”
He presented the system of governance Pilot Point has, a weak mayor system, clarifying that the mayor is no more than part of the team that is council whose job it is to facilitate the business alongside their fellow volunteers on the dais.
“It’s about combining elected leadership with experienced professional management,” Major said. “We form a team on council. No one is better than another, and then we rely on a professional manager to get things done. This blends the value and heart of the community with a professional manager.”
He touched on his role more specifically.
“The role of the mayor is as a public representative of the community voice,” Major said. “It’s my role to serve as a unifying voice for the city. I chair meetings but have an equal vote, no greater than the others on city council.”
Major later informed the gathered business people and community members about the council’s most upcoming projects, amongst the persistent business.
“The council is going to work on a mission, vision and values,” Major said. “In the corporate world, we would do this a lot. If you don’t have a goal, you’re going nowhere and we just got finished with a master plan set, so now, based on that, we’re going to set goals.”
He said the master plan set represents the desires of a number of residents as polled over the course of several surveys, in-person forums and a website.
“My understanding from talking to our consultant is we had some of the highest engagement they’d ever seen,” Major said.
Other immediate projects are the series of budget workshops leading into the new fiscal year, as well as steps toward making the community a ‘Transparency Trailblazer,’ through the Texas State Comptroller.
“Transparency is an abused work, but basically it allows you [the community] to see the inner workings, how we’re doing and what we’re doing,” Major said. “It opens our books to the areas of traditional finances, contracts and procurement, economic development, public pensions, debt obligations, and open government and compliance.”
He explained that a lot of the record- taking and record-keeping the process asks of cities is already being done by staff, they just need to implement a way of sharing it with the community online.
The project Major said he’s the most excited for is the Master Plan Set Implementation Matrix.
“That’s probably the part I’m most excited about,” Major said. “For those that haven’t seen [the master plan set], it’s a three-ring binder that in the back has an action plan. There will be some software we are incorporating, and it will provide a dashboard for the community to look at and see how we’re doing on matching those goals.”
