Jack of All Trades
La Grange City Manager Jack Thompson will mark his first anniversary with the City on Feb. 26. The Record sat down for an interview with Thompson last week to discuss his first year on the job.
Thompson said he didn’t know a lot about La Grange before applying for the city manager position. He’d never even been to La Grange. He was an assistant City Manager in Crowley, a suburb of Fort Worth with a population of almost 20,000. Both of his children lived in the Fort Worth area. But then his son took a position as pastor at a church in Birmingham, Alabama. And his daughter and son-inlaw moved to Houston.
“It was just my wife and I, and we liked to be near one of our kids,” he said. “At Crowley, I got to that plateau where I accomplished everything I set out to accomplish. It got to the point where if I wanted to pivot, now would be a good time to pivot. I wanted to be a city manager, so I started looking for city manager gigs.”
Thompson said the job in La Grange piqued his interest due to the proximity to his daughter in Houston.
“I started digging into it a little bit more – looking at the budget and how things were set up,” he said. “I thought, ‘OK, I’ll apply and see what happens.’ Then I got the call for an interview and I started really looking into it.
“I did economic development for almost 20 years,” he said. “I worked with a lot of cities across the state – smaller than La Grange, much bigger than La Grange. But really, there’s a few cities that make you go, ‘Wow, there’s a lot there.’ La Grange was one of those. I could see a lot of potential. The city already has a good foundation. But I could see a lot more to it. That really intrigues me.”
Some of the qualities that impressed Thompson about La Grange were its location, the courthouse square and county seat.
“You’ve got the H-E-B and Walmart,” he said. “So financially, you’re kind of sound. You’ve got sales tax coming in. You’re the hub of the county. You’re not just selling a city of 5,000, but a county of 30,000. Everything runs through La Grange. You’re on a river. You have some topography. The Community Foundation, the Community Theatre – you have a lot of little things that bring it together. You’ve got seven parks, that’s kind of unusual for a city this size. And the budget is really healthy. It’s a financially good city. So all those aspects made it an intriguing spot to me.”
Thompson said he’s always wanted to manage a city of La Grange’s size.
“You have a good amount of staff to specialize in certain things,” he said. “But you’re not so big that you can’t coach and teach and work with staff on a regular basis.”
Thompson spoke about some of the things La Grange citizens are telling him they want to see come to town.
“More stuff for kids has been the big mantra,” he said. “More restaurants. More retail. More amenities. The movie theater closed. The bowling alley closed. Our pool, unfortunately, had to close for maintenance reasons. People want more, and it’s become an issue of how do we do that? How do we afford it? I’ve been putting together a gameplan for those kind of issues. But right out of the gate, that’s what I got from the public. We want our kids and grandkids to move back here. What does it take to get them back here? You’ve got to have jobs.”
Thompson has one idea that could bring some extra employment to La Grange – an industrial park.
“Elon Musk has kind of adopted Bastrop,” he said. “He moved X (formerly Twitter) there. SpaceX is there. The Boring Company is there. The Tesla plant is only 15 minutes away from Bastrop, and that’s 45 minutes away from us. We’re seeing a lot more industry moving to Texas. I think if we were to get an industrial park in this town – and I don’t mean smokestacks … its light manufacturing and distribution, that type of stuff – I think we could be very competitive with the region. Look at Taylor, they’ve got the Samsung chip plant. Rockdale is seeing some growth off of that as well.
“That’s what we want to do – create more wealth for our residents,” he added. “The way you do that is with jobs. It’s something we’re keeping our eye on and trying to get there, to get an industrial park.”
In the past year, Thompson has made a big push to attract more restaurants, retail and entertainment. The City along with the La Grange Economic Development Corporation (EDC), has purchased several properties including the former Fayette Electric Cooperative headquarters, which Thompson wants to turn into a downtown plaza, along with the two properties on the northwest corner of the Square intended to be leased to food and drink establishments. The EDC is also interested in purchasing the Von Rosenberg Building as a possible future home for Fayette Community Theatre.
“That gets mentioned a lot, and in some ways that’s lowhanging fruit,” he said.
Thompson said property tax accounts for about 11 percent of the City’s budget.
“For most cities, that’s like 60 to 65 percent,” he said. “With that number as low as it is, we’re really dependent on sales tax. Sales tax is what makes the EDC tick and allows them to do more projects. It allows us to do more from a city services standpoint. And the great thing about sales tax, especially for La Grange, is a lot of our sales tax is paid by non-residents.”
Accordingly, Thompson said he wants to attract more restaurants and retail business to increase the City’s sales tax revenue.
“You also have Round Top that brings in thousands of people,” Thompson said. “We need to capture some of that tourism money. Bringing that kind of stuff to town creates more revenue opportunities for us. I’m a big fan of taking the property tax burden off the resident, I know my Council is. So that’s where we wanted to start – to start building up a bigger sales tax base, and eventually work our way toward an industrial park. Hopefully we can find a public- private partnership and we can do that. It’ll create more jobs for our residents, better paying jobs. Then if you got, say, a $30 million investment, even though our property tax is lower, that’s still a good chunk of change for the city.”
Not too long after coming to La Grange, Thompson oversaw the city’s purchase of the old Fayette Electric Cooperative headquarters. The City plans to level the site and turn it into a downtown plaza. Within walking distance of the courthouse square, Thompson said the plaza will enhance the City’s ability to hold events downtown. Thompson spoke about his vision for the plaza.
“As we go through the design process, there will be a public element to it for input,” Thompson said. “But some of the things I’d like to see there are a stage where we can do concerts and music, places for families to do things, whether it’s a playground, dog park, fountains, and really the biggest thing is making it a great gathering spot for people to come and enjoy. It’s to expand the downtown core, not to compete with the square. In fact, we’d like to expand the square and make our events bigger.”
“Great cities have great downtowns, no matter the size,” he added.
Last week’s news about La Grange EDC possibly purchasing the Von Rosenberg building, which includes the former Prause Meat Market, met with mixed opinions around town. Some folks welcomed the plan to convert it into the future home of Fayette County Community Theatre. Others lament the move since it ends the possibility of the old barbecue joint ever reopening.
“We do try to keep as many of the historic businesses that we can,” Thompson said. “We want to keep that historical thread wherever we can. But unfortunately at Prause’s, yeah, we probably won’t ever have another Prause’s. But that doesn’t mean you couldn’t end up with something like a Franklin’s one day, either, that everyone enjoys. That’s the thing, there’s always something new and upcoming.”
The Record asked Thompson what he thinks the City will look like a year from now.
“I hope we have a theatre with a new home,” he said. “I hope we’re fully leased on restaurants in downtown. We should be getting close to wrapping up the design phase or at least well into the design phase for the plaza. We should be done with our parks master plan and figuring out ways to incorporate that.”
The City recently hired a firm to pursue a forgivable loan from the state for water and sewer upgrades. Thompson said if those funds come through, the City should be able to start on some major water and sewer line replacements by this time next year. Thompson also hopes to tackle some drainage projects in the next year.
“We’re working on our stormwater plan, and I hope in a year from now we’ll be in the throes of construction on at least one or two of those projects.”
The Record asked Thompson about something that surprised him the most about this community after moving to La Grange.
“One thing this town does really well is supporting one another, rallying around one another,” he said. “When somebody needs help, they’re going to get help. I know that sounds really simple, but that’s not the case everywhere.
“It’s been really good,” Thompson said about his first year on the job. “I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s gone by fast. But I guess that happens when you’re having fun.”