The City of McAllen now has eight more Certified Public Managers in its employee ranks.  The eight employees recently graduated with their certification, after the 14-month long intense program, offered by the William P. Hobby Center for Public Service through Texas State University and operates in cooperation with five other universities across the state, including the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley.  The Texas Certified Public Manager Program, accredited by the National Certified Public Manager Consortium, is designed for present and future leaders in public service.

“Graduating with their CPM certification demonstrates the caliber of employees that are found here at the City of McAllen,” said McAllen City Manager Roel “Roy” Rodriguez, P.E.  “These employees took the initiative and made the commitment to educate themselves even further and ultimately, to better serve the McAllen community.”

The CPM Program is a series of seven tracks designed to enhance the skills, knowledge and abilities of public and nonprofit managers.   Academic and practitioner faculty members organize, coordinate and teach each one of the tracks. Academic faculty come from various Texas universities, including the five participating programs.  Practitioners come from a variety of positions in city, county, state and federal government, as well as the non-profit and private sectors who have significant input into the design and delivery of the courses. 

The tracks include:

• Public Personnel Administration, which includes various issues related to recruiting and evaluating employees and compensation and employee benefits, among other topics;
• Managing for Quality, such as strategic planning and operational organization;
• Organizational Communication, with ways to improve oral and written communication skills, as well as dealing with specific types of communication with various groups;
• Public Finance and Budget, helps to provide information on various forms of public sector financing and economic development;
• Productivity and Program Evaluation, which provides the basic principles of research and evaluation;
• Information Systems for Managers, which gives insight into the various tools available, including online databases, technological systems and social networking;
• Applied Projects Practicum, which is the capstone of the CMP Program.

The CPM Program is endorsed by the Texas Chapters of the American Society for Public Administration and has been approved for continuing education credit by a variety of state and local governments. Participants receive a continuing education certificate for management training and education for each course. Academic credit may also be given.  Texas is one of 40 states to offer the CPM Program.

The eight City of McAllen employees (in order, left to right in attached picture) who received their CPM Program certification include: Eduardo Vega, Engineering; Javier Galindo, Fleet Operations/Public Works; Ester Balboa, Utility Billing; Sonia Rodriguez, Treasury Management; Roberto Treviño, Recycling/Public Works; Ricardo Rodriguez, Environmental & Health Code Compliance; Aaron Salazar, Environmental & Health Code Compliance; and Ismael Rodriguez, Customer Relations (not pictured).

City of McAllen employees can choose to sign up for the program and some expenses may be reimbursed through their department, if approved.

“The CPM Program has helped me develop skills I can effectively use on future planning, employee management, and providing better customer service for our residents and businesses in our city,” said Vega.  “Professional development is very important to me and this CPM certification is an incredible resource to my professional growth.”

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