(Seguin) — Seguin Mayor Don Keil is offering reactions to Doug Faseler’s decision to step down at city manager early next year. Keil, who’s one of Faseler’s biggest supporters, says that this is a bittersweet moment for the city, because Faseler has been such an important part of the growth and development that’s occurring in the city.
“He’s the only city manager that I’ve known as I’ve been in city government and in looking around the state and various communities that I’ve had connections, we seem to have really had a gem with Doug and it’s going to be a really difficult time in trying to replace him and his unique abilities so it’s going to be a pretty tough time. Luckily enough, we have a bit of time to do that,” said Keil.
Keil says that Faseler has really shined as city manager. He says Faseler has been key to many of the transformative projects that have taken place in Seguin. He says Faseler’s work really has had a positive impact on the Seguin’s future.
“We were stifled by a lot of things back in the day either through political things or just economic things and things like that but what happened is that Doug through his efforts, the city began to improve, our tax base began to improve so there was more to work with and as there was more to work with, we had better improvements and things came along quite a bit through his efforts to make them happen so success breeds success and as that happens, it just builds on itself and I know that helped Doug kind of regenerate himself and keep things going on here in Seguin,” said Keil.
Mayor Keil says that Faseler may not be a high profile guy, but his presence in the city of Seguin looms large. He says the changes and the growth that have occurred under his leadership is remarkable.
“A lot of people may or may not know but he does love this town a lot and he cares deeply about his city staff and how they are treated and how well they perform for him. I think it says a lot about him. He’s not a flamboyant guy. He’s not a guy that gets out in public and boast about things but I guarantee you whatever success that we have had here in Seguin with our growth, with the great companies that have come here, with the housing developments that are happening, with all the street improvements and utilities and so forth, that could not have been done in that scale and in such a great way without Doug Faseler and I want people in Seguin to know that. This was a great man who did a lot for this city and we are really going to miss him,” said Keil.
Keil says they’ve been anticipating this announcement for some time. He says they will come up with a process in place that will help the city council find the right candidate to be the next city manager.
“We have had a few informal kind of brainstorming sessions with council and with some local consultants and things and decided exactly which way we wanted to go with this and how we wanted to post the job and how we want to go about it. There are several options that we have with either consultants or head hunting firms — things like that. I have a little bit of a head start with this so we are kind of on that road already and I know that it’s going to be a difficult thing to replace him but at least, we have enough time to try to make the right choice,” said Keil.
Keil says the council will meet soon to discuss which option is best to use as part of its search process. Faseler announced this week that he would be retiring as city manager at the end of January next year. Faseler has served as city manager for the last 14 years.