The Mayor by Michael Garcia

A young man who was unsure of his career at the end of college is now serving the citizens of Nacogdoches, in more ways than one.
Walking into class was different than usual, a sophisticated older man stood in front of the class and not knowing who he was, it was apparent that he was going teach us a lot. Upon sitting in my seat a classmate told me who he was, “He’s the mayor” she said. It’s always excited to listen to people who are successful in their business or career field. To be able to learn from this man was going to be a treat.
Roger Van Horn, born in Tulsa Oklahoma, has been the mayor of Nacogdoches since May 2007. He is also a dentist with a full-time practice in Nacogdoches since the 1970’s. Knowing his accomplishments even made me more interested in how he became successful.
I’m not into politics or government in any way but listening to a man of his statue would help me gain knowledge of working in a high positioned job. When he began to talk, his good character gave me the notion that he wasn’t going to bore me to sleep. Hearing him talk about how the politics are in Nacogdoches it still kept me focused and interested, because he let us know how the people should help make the city function better. His humor on how meetings can be boring really made him seem more of a citizen than a politician trying to push the seriousness about working for the city.
Mayor Horn also gave good advice about reporting the facts on important issues the Mayor and the city deals with. He said, “Hold people accountable…they need to be,” when the media publishes false information. My idea of the mayor’s job is to run everything and to fix every problem the city is dealing with. It makes sense when he informs us that mayors have different jobs due to the size of the city. Texas has two types of government, which are strong management commission government, and strong mayor commission government. Nacogdoches has strong management commission government due to the small size of the city, and the mayor does not operate the city everyday but is chairman of city commission and runs the meetings. He also can put any issue on the agenda to discuss. Another important fact he taught us about how the city is operated is that the process of fixing issues is that nothing ever gets done in a timely fashion, which he said is a good thing. Every aspect of a problem can be examined with a solution that will help the people and the city. Money is a big issue and Mayor Van Horn tells us that every city wants money. It’s important because every city has needs, no matter how big it is.
Trying to steady my camera steady, it came to my attention that Mayor Van Horn has been talking for more than 20 minutes and I have yet to doze off to sleep. One piece of information I wanted to know was how much money a mayor makes a year. He talked about the difference from working as the mayor and as a dentist, and he informed us he lives off being a dentist. It’s noticeable now that being in a government isn’t always bringing in a lot of money. His position as the mayor is about serving the people and finding ways to make Nacogdoches operate better.
Being tempted to ask many questions about his life, the class understood that he may have other places to be, but one question that was asked by yours truly was, “How did you decide to be a dentist?” Being a dentist isn’t one dream or passion a lot of people have growing up. He said when he had the opportunity to be interviewed to work in the dentist field he was accepted and went along with the job. He later understood that he loves working with people.
Mayor Van Horn is a kind man who is in a position to give people relief that he will not hurt how the city is operated. I can see that he is very smart and very understanding of the people. All mayors need to have the servant’s heart the Mayor Van Horn possesses and I will happily vote for him to continue his position as mayor of Nacogdoches.