Community Digest | New City Manager

On October 26, 2022, Eric Garretty began his position as City Manager after being elected by the City Council in Graham. 

So… what is City Manager?

“The City Manager is hired by the City Council to serve as the Chief Executive Officer of the city. So all the day-to-day operations and the planning and everything that goes into making the city run, the council’s primary point of contact is the City Manager.” Garretty said. City Manager is responsible for budgeting, city planning, overseeing staff, and coordinating things happening within the city. “I consider myself on behalf of the council an Ambassador for the City. Going around and seeing how everything is going.”

Before becoming City Manager, Garretty served in the Marine Corps for twenty-nine years, “I got towards the end of that and I got to looking around how I could continue to serve.” After talking to some people, Garretty became interested in government. He took classes in local government and began applying for positions. His first job was in South Florida where he worked for Broward County. “That journey took me to Fort Worth where I worked for the City.” After being City Manager of Mexia, Texas Garretty was hired by City Council to serve as City Manager for Graham.

The City Manager is involved with capital projects. A capital project is a long-term investment to build or improve a capital asset. This includes water plants, sewer plants, streets, and more. “Making sure that the community that we have is the community that we sustain for people like you.” Garretty says, “We make the decisions now that when the time comes where you want to take a job and raise a family that your first choice is Graham.” City Manager makes sure there is housing available, water available, places to shop, and businesses. 

With the position of City Manager comes a lot of meetings. They are responsible for meeting with Council Members, budgeting, coordinating, and document review preparation. “A lot of what I do is document review preparation. And that sounds kind of boring but it’s the paper that kind of makes things go.” Garretty said. The City Manager also has meetings with the public where they are welcome to discuss city issues. The City Manager has many interactions with the public, “Just recently I got asked to be a judge in the Christmas stroll, and do a lot of community engagement.”

When asked what the most surprising thing about Graham was Garretty responded, “It’s just a place that has a very welcoming feel. More than I’ve experienced anywhere else and that’s wonderful. Feeling that you have arrived here and being excepted as part of the community. I felt like I could immediately contribute. That’s been one of the most surprising things.”