When Sheryl Sculley was hired in San Antonio to be the new city manager, she was confronted with a variety of issues that had long been neglected. From internet usage to wages, she had huge hurdles to overcome immediately. By the time she left, she had become the face of the police and fire union's fight with the city over their contract. She joins the show to discuss her new tell-all book about her experience.

Transcript:

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Justin Hill: Hello, and Bienvenido San Antonio. Welcome to The Alamo Hour, discussing the people places, and passion that make our city. My name is Justin Hill, a local attorney, a proud San Antonian, keeper of chickens, and bees. On The Alamo Hour, you'll get to hear from the people that make San Antonio great, unique, and the best-kept secret in Texas. We're glad that you're here.

[applause]

Justin: All right, welcome to this episode of The Alamo Hour. Today's guest is Sheryl Sculley. Sheryl was the city manager of San Antonio from 2005 until 2019. Under her tenure, there are so many accomplishments that we're going to discuss a lot about today, but for most of us, who just look around The Henry B Convention Center being redone into what it is today, our Mission Trail, the Mission is becoming a world heritage site. Some of the behind the scenes things include how our government works, and our new contracts for our police, and fire unions. She discusses in her book a lot of these accomplishments, we're here to talk to her about some of those accomplishments discussed in her book, and her new book, Greedy Bastards: One Cities City's Texas-Sized Struggle to Avoid a Financial Crisis. Sheryl, thank you for joining me.

Sheryl Sculley: Thank you, Justin. I’m happy to be with you.

Justin: Before we got going, I made sure that we could see some of the books behind you on the shelf that people can know that this is a book tour, and I’m part of your book tour today.

Sheryl: Thank you for doing that. This morning I learned that I just made the Amazon bestseller list. I’m excited.

Justin: That's awesome. Now, you're going to be scrolling through, and paying attention for reviews as they come in?

Sheryl: Yes. I’m sure we'll get a few of those.

Justin: Okay. I start all these with a little bit of background information. Everybody knows who you were, and are, but I don't know how many people know much about you, I learned a lot about you in the book. Unfortunately, for a lot of us-- I moved here in ‘07, a lot of what we heard about you, and learned about you had to do with the public union fight. There was a lot of information put out about you, which was I think a little bit unfair obviously. Let's give a little bit of background to who you are, you came from Phoenix, Arizona. What was your experience with San Antonio prior to coming out here to work as a city manager?

Sheryl: I was the assistant city manager in the number two position in the city of Phoenix, I worked there for 16 years, watched, and was a part of that city growing, doubling in size, and expanding. We worked on major initiatives for that fast-growing city. Before that, I was city manager of Kalamazoo, Michigan. I actually grew up in the Chicago area, went to school in Indiana, and my first job out of college was with the city of Kalamazoo, Michigan. My husband Mike is from Kalamazoo, and our children were born there. I worked for that city for a total of 15 years, I wasn't born a city manager although I am the oldest of seven children. My siblings accused me of trying to city manage the family.

I started in a research position, joined the city manager's office as an assistant city manager, and worked there the last five years as city manager. Then I was recruited to Phoenix. We've never been there, but our kids were pre-school age, it was good timing to move across the country, take on that new challenge, so we did. I never thought I’d leave Phoenix, I was in the number two position and hope to become the city manager when that manager left. Then San Antonio came knocking, I did turn down the position the first time it was offered in 2005, Mayor Garza was mayor at the time. They were going through an election. After the election, Mayor Hardberger was elected, he contacted me, and convinced me to come to San Antonio.

I did, I was appointed in the summer of 2005. The hurricane Katrina hit the coast the following week, which perhaps was an omen as to the experience I’d have in San Antonio. I signed a two-year contract, it was a really great experience to work with Mayor Hardberger. He's a wonderful man, he had never been on the city council. I think for both of us, me being not from San Antonio, being new, the council was looking for an outsider to come in, improve the professionalism of the city government here, develop some big bond programs, and improve their service delivery to the community. Here I am, 15 years later I just retired from city management a year ago. That's after 45 years in public management, but it's been a great ride and I've loved working in San Antonio.

Justin: You make a joke in your book that-- You speak very highly of Phil Harburger who's been nothing but a nice man every time I've met him. He's previously a lawyer in another life like I am as well, but you made a joke that he did more courting you than his own wife. It wasn't just he convinced you, there was a lot of back and forth before you finally decided to come over. Then it sounds like baptism by fire straight into hurricane Katrina.

Sheryl: Yes, that's pretty much the case. Actually, his wife introduced me once at an event and she is the one who said that "Heck, he spent more time courting her than he did me for my hand in marriage." Yes, Linda is a wonderful person and she, Phil, Mike, and I have become close family friends. They're wonderful people.

Justin: Good. I'm hoping to get him on the show because he's got some just wild stories about his adventure stuff he's done. I ask everybody on the show what are some of your favorite hidden gems in San Antonio, you probably know the city better than almost anybody at this point. What are some of the things in the city do you think, maybe don't get enough attention, or people should go check out?

Sheryl: Yes. Let me say that you had asked me earlier about the Where I Live Column that I wrote during the COVID shelter-in-place situation this spring. I wrote it because as someone who lives on the Riverwalk, we live downtown and it was just so exciting for me to see more people coming to the Riverwalk and using it for exercising. When we first moved here, I'm an old marathon runner, I would go out and run in different parts of the community and I would rarely see anyone out running in the community. There are so many wonderful places now to run in San Antonio.

The Riverwalk is full of people walking, running, strollers, bicycles, no scooters, but there are even people kayaking on the river. Now the extension to the South through the Mission Reach, all the way to Mission Espada it's gorgeous and beautiful. I encourage people to take advantage of it to even drive to one of the locations and you can cycle, run, walk the entire length of the Mission Reach without crossing a street, and likewise to the North.

I worked with Mayor Hardberger and others on the Mission Reach extension to the north that goes all the way to Brackenridge Park. It's beautiful as well, so there are some great spots. Hardberger Park, if people haven't been there, there's a gigantic dog area as well for dog lovers, but great places to run there. Government Canyon for running is spectacular and beautiful, so lots of places to get out and about in the community.

Justin: Yes, I think I've done all of the Riverwalk and the Mission Reach, but there's that weird chunk between where you live and King William that I've never done. Last show that was somebody's hidden gem that I needed to go do that chunk, so I learns something every time I asked somebody.

Sheryl: It's beautiful, yes. It is beautiful.

Justin: Yes, sure. What are you doing now? I know you're a consultant, but what does that mean and what are you working on?

Sheryl: Yes, I'm working a little bit on consulting, not a whole lot with Strategic Partnerships. They're out of Austin Mary Scott Nabers is the CEO of that organization. I help them think through with companies that are interested in doing business with cities. Not San Antonio, because I don't want to bother my staff there, but cities around the state that are looking for help on how to improve different systems and companies that have products that can help them help. I've been helping them think through some of those issues and how to put those proposals together in those strategies, but mostly, what I've been doing is working on my book this past year.

I'm also probably over-committed on my non-profit work. I did join the Texas 2036 board that's chaired by Tom Luce and Margaret Spellings, the former education secretary, is the CEO. We're working on the bicentennial 2036 for the state of Texas, what do we want it to be in that year, in what areas does the state need to improve, in terms of education, government performance, health care, environment, transportation and infrastructure, business development? What do we need to do to be better and that's been an exciting statewide project. Here locally, I'm still involved with the United Way, working on the International Piano Competition for musical bridges around the world.

I'm also working on the campaign for the renewal of the Pre-K for SA program. Some of your listeners may recall that the voters approved that program in 2012. We implemented that program successfully. We have four schools that educate 2000 four-year-olds annually, and provide professional development for early educators throughout the city and all the school districts and also give grants to private schools as well as public schools to help them expand their early childhood education.

We have outside people that its evaluated success. It's proven to be very effective for families, and it's free to the lowest income families in the community so, educationally it's important to San Antonio more so than ever. Now through COVID and that's on the ballot for renewal November 3rd, so I'm busy working on that effort.

Justin: Well, you make a comment in your book about how you're a marathon runner and you're in for the long haul and it sounds like you haven't slowed down really since you've retired.

Sheryl: Not really full days.

Justin: Before we got started, I said you're my third Anchovy. The other two actually have commented on this post on Facebook already. You also auctioned off your great sachets full of metals for charities after you retired, what are your favorite Fiesta events?

Sheryl: Well, my favorite is cornyation. I confess I was king anchovy in 2009 at the urging of my friends, Tony Bradfield and Dr. Kevin Black and others and it was a great experience. Probably the most fun I've had since I've been in San Antonio. My husband Mike managed the green room and we have lots of--

Justin: I want to know what that means. [laughs]

Sheryl: Well, liquid refreshment before, at intermission, and between shows. It was a great time. Those who have participated know, it's a lot of fun. We raised more than $150,000 for the AIDS Foundation that year. It was a great experience. Had a lot of fun, and all my sachets and there were hundreds and hundreds of metals and we did auction those at my retirement event, and from the proceeds from that event, the auctioning of the Fiesta items and my own $10,000 contribution, we donated a total of $40,000 to the Young Women's Leadership Academy at San Antonio Independent School District to help those girls go off to college so very, very excited to have done that.

Justin: That's fantastic.

Sheryl: I know you said that you bid on one of the sachets, but you didn't bid enough money.

Justin: Well, there was an online bidding process and I think I just didn't pay attention at the time I really needed to.

Sheryl: Okay. All right.

Justin: We're going to get into the book, but what was your outfit for cornyation?

Sheryl: Oh, boy. You've probably seen it that's why you're asking. It was a one-piece red Wonder-Woman, Superwoman outfit with a big royal blue cape, red leather boots that laced up above my knees. It was definitely out of character for me.

Justin: Appropriate for cornyation.

Sheryl: Very appropriate for coordination. We had a lot of fun. Phil Hardberger, Mayor Hardberger even did a voiceover as part of the skit for my opening number?

Justin: Well, good for him.

Sheryl: It was a lot of fun.

Justin: I could talk to you about San Antonio for a whole show, but I want to start talking about your book. I learned a lot about your book. Like I said, at the start, I think my first knowledge or seeing you in the public eye other than articles in the Rivard Report or the Express was this deluge of bad publicity and ads and Facebook stuff about you during the police negotiations. I learned a lot about that process through your book, but let's just start generally, San Antonio has a different form of city government than a lot of cities. Can you explain how we run our city different than other cities?

Sheryl: We have a council-manager form of government that was adopted by the residents of the community by city charter in 1951. What that means is that the mayor and council members who are elected, and we have 11 elected officials, the mayor is elected at large and then we have 10 single-member districts, so that all areas of the city are represented that happened actually the single-member districts in the 1970s. They serve as the policy directors or the board of directors for the Municipal Corporation, and they hire a CEO to run the business of city local government at their direction.

The city manager functions in that way. I'm responsible to hire and fire all city employees and we have a total of 13,000 city employees. What they asked me to do when I was recruited here was to assess talent, make changes, get the financial house in order, I'm not sure they understood the condition of the city government when I was recruited here in 2005, but it definitely needed a lot of improvement. The city manager functions as the CEO of the Municipal Corporation to run the business to hire staff.

Justin: The alternative to that-- You just clicked off for a second we're back. The alternative to that is just a regular a city council and mayor-- Where the mayor serves the role of the CEO?

Sheryl: Well, in a strong mayor form of government, let's take Houston, Sylvester Turner is the mayor. He's also the chief executive. The mayor is appointing department heads and staff in that case. The council-manager plan is what's considered a professional local government system and so I'm not hiring friends of elected officials. There's no political patronage system. I'm trying to hire the best and the brightest from the community as well as nationally to provide the best service for the residents of the community. Chief Bill McManus was one of the first people I recruited to San Antonio. I considered internal candidates, but in the end, I thought that he would be the best, and I think most residents agree he's done an outstanding job as chief of our police department.

Justin: He tried to leave at some point and just had to come back it sounds like?

Sheryl: He did he went to CPS for about nine months I told him, I thought that he was too much a cops cop and that he would miss that adrenaline rush constantly and sure enough, he called me that summer and said, "Okay, you were right. I want to come back." I was able to hire him twice.

Justin: I was surprised. In the council-manager form, Phoenix is the largest city of San Antonio, the second-largest city who has that sort of structure?

Sheryl: Yes, we are the second-largest. Dallas is the third-largest?

Justin: Is that trending one way or another nationally, are more cities moving to the council-manager or is everybody stuck in their ways at this point?

Sheryl: Well, it's the most popular form of government nationally, more so in the medium and smaller sized cities, so there aren't as many large cities so if you think about New York, Chicago, LA, San Francisco, Houston those are strong mayor form of government cities, but Phoenix San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, Corpus Christi, El Paso here in the state, are council-manager form of government. I'm a huge advocate for professionalism and as I have discussed with the mayors I've worked with here and I worked with four different mayors during my tenure here and a total of 47 different elected officials.

There's so much turnover that you need professional management for the continuity and yet we take the policy direction from the elected officials but because we have experience at delivering those services and understand what it takes to recruit, to manage, and to service deliver in those specific fields, then if you think about it, we're a very diversified Corporation. We do everything from policing, to firefighting, to emergency medical services, to building roads, to maintaining parks, to running the libraries, public health departments, social services, municipal court, and then all the backup house that goes with those major corporations. I'm an advocate for professional city management.

Justin: Even more so we have some involvement with our water and our electric that a lot of cities don't deal with, would that be fair to say?

Sheryl: That's true. Yes, we own as a city-- City of San Antonio owns the San Antonio Water System and owns CPS Energy. If CPS Energy were a private utility, they'd be paying taxes to the city. They don't pay taxes to the city. Instead, the city is entitled to 14% of gross revenue, and that represents about 30% of the city's general fund budget. It's an important part. Then the city manager has charter responsibility to make recommendations on their rates.

We have a division within our finance department that actually studies and works with both utilities, water, and energy to discuss what their needs are. We collectively make recommendations then to city council that decides the rates for both of the utilities. Running a municipal corporation is a big and complicated job. It takes someone who has experience at doing that and understands the fundamentals and also can work within a political environment.

Justin: You talk about being a juggler. Now we're starting to get some sort of...