Al Taub

Dalworthington Gardens celebrated its 75^th Anniversary this past June.  I am very proud to be a resident and have the served the City as it City Administration from 1993-2002.  During that period I had the privilege an honor to work for the Honorable Mayor Albert Taub.  He served as Mayor of Dalworthington Gardens from 1986-2006.  I had a wonderful time at the celebration catching up with my former boss.

Although I was appointed by the whole City Council, I always say that Mayor Taub took a chance with a 26 year old kid.  I had work as a Budget Analyst for two and half years for the City of Dallas. (Please note I was promoted to a Senior Budget Analyst in that period)  I had my Masters Degree in Public Administration from Texas Tech, I thought I knew it all.  I was so wrong.

I was blessed with a caring, thoughtful, tough, difficult, frustrating, sometimes crazy, detailed, micro manager, but always understand Mayor and mentor.   Mayor Taub’s life experience as an engineer and builder, intertwined with all his years as an elected official gave me the perfect boss to learn how a city actually runs.

Small towns have all the same issues the big cities have, but no staff to handle them.  I was the City Administrator, City Secretary, Public Works Director, Water/Sewer Official, Planning and Zoning Official, Building Official, Parks Director, Finance Director, Budget Director, and Public Information Officer for the Fire and Police.  During my nine years, I made quite a few mistakes and even some huge blunders.  Mayor Taub always worked through them with me, upset at times, but always turned them into learning experiences.

Those experiences made me make fewer mistakes and open doors for my career down the road.  I am forever indebted to Mayor Taub and even today, I try to make him proud of me.

Bill Carlisle

Bill is one of my many lifestyle mentors. Bill has been my friend for over 14 years. He never meets a stranger, quick with an opinion, and always holds court wherever he goes. Our friendship grew because he joined my Kiwanis Club, which has really evolved into Bill’s club. Bill is an integral part of my Hotter N’ Hell gang and one of the main reasons I go every year.

On June 29, 2011 the Kiwanis Club of Arlington made Bill a Hixson Fellow by donating $1,000 in his name to the Kiwanis Children’s Fund in his name. This was for all his service to the club as treasure and one of the wittiest newsletter editor in the world. He has always championed Troop 5 to insure it continues to get sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Arlington. I was quite flattered when he recognized me as family and at his acceptance speech.

I make guest appearances to the club because of my job, but was glad I made it that day to Bill’s Kiwanis Club.

Catching up

I think I am going to start just catching up on the blog.  Some really cool things have happened since I dropped my 8 blogs a month dropped off in April.  So some of my items will be a few months late, but I am going to make every effort to include them in the blog.   I do appreciate the readership, but I really think I do this for my own mental health.