LG City Manager in Final Week of 30-Year Career

Thirty years as La Grange city manager has dwindled down to just days. This Friday will be Shawn Raborn’s final day in the office.

“I gotta say, it’s a weird feeling,” said Raborn, 58. “Thirty years later you wake up and you go, ‘wow.’” Raborn was hired in the fall of 1992 and since then he and his wife Ann have lived in the same house, and he’s had the same office at city hall – same desk even. “I always was going to get a different desk, but I never did,” he laughed. Small town city managers often only stay on the job for a few years. The good ones are lured away by bigger jobs, the bad ones forced out. Plus they face the blame when anything goes wrong within a city. “My situation is unique,” Raborn said. “La Grange became home.”

And it’s going to stay home. Even after Raborn retires he and his wife plan to stay here. They have been active in St. Paul Lutheran Church for decades. After what Raborn calls a six-month “sabbatical” he said he will start thinking about the next chapter of his life. His wife retired as a teacher from LGISD four years ago. One son, Chris, lives in Austin, the other, Pat, lives in Houston

Currently the city council is in the search process of hiring a new city manager and Raborn said he’s glad to “still be a resource,” but whomever the new city manager is will do well, Raborn said, “as long as they care.”

He said the biggest challenge facing the new city manager, will be “attracting and retaining staff.

And those co-workers are what kept Raborn with the city so long.

“We’ve had good city councils, good mayors, good staff, they all cared,” Raborn said

During his 30 years with the city Raborn said he never applied for another job, but some opportunities did seek him out.

“But after Hurricane Harvey happened, I couldn’t leave,” he said

He continued to work as city manager for five years after the storm, but said now was time to leave.

“I’m an only child, my dad is having open heart surgery next month,” Raborn said. “Feels like this was the right time.”

He announced his impending retirement this spring to allow time for the city to hire a replacement

The city council has named assistant city manager Frank Menefee as interim city manager and they’ve hired a search firm to help in finding Raborn’s permanent replacement.

La Grange may have become home for Raborn, but it didn’t start that way. He was born in Houston and grew up in Montgomery before going to A&M

After he got his bachelor’s degree at A&M in political science he was working as an assistant manager at Walmart when he was scheduled to close the store one night and then open it the next

He ended up sleeping in the Garden Center instead of going home

That’s when I realized this ain’t me,” Raborn said.

He got his Masters in City Management from A&M, interned with the city of Yoakum before taking a job in Lubbock as the director of regional services for the South Plains Association of Governments

Then he applied for the La Grange City Manager’s job in 1992.

The next 30 years was filled with remarkable accomplishments. He likens his job to that of a coach, managing the 52 full time and 20 part time La Grange employees

Raborn is quick to heap the praise on the city councils, mayors and staff of the time, but during his tenure La Grange:

• Established White Rock Park

• Built the Rec. Center

• Built the Splash Pad

• Put up several new playscapes

• Renovated the old fire house into Casino Hall

• Renovated the library (twice) and built new sidewalks downtown

• Built a new sewer plant and water tower

“Everybody likes the things like parks and the splashpad, but I think what people take for granted are things like sewers lines – and they don’t realize how much those things cost,” Raborn said. “Most projects aren’t pretty, new water lines or building a new sewer plant don’t have the immediate impact we want today but are necessary.”

Raborn said the biggest misconception about his job is that resources are unlimited

“Everyone doesn’t always agree with how we invest those resources, but they are made with the greater community in mind,” he said.

For three decades he kept that bigger picture in mind, and La Grange was all the better for it. Friday when Raborn walks out of city hall for the last time, an encyclopedic knowledge of La Grange goes with him.

“It has been more than just a job,” Raborn said.