The Mayor by Taylor Hannum

A trip from Houston left Roger Van Horn’s car broken down on the side of the road in a town that he would one day become mayor. Roger Van Horn was born and raised in Tulsa but he always knew he wanted to live in a town with a population of 10,000 to 15,000 with a university. So he and his wife made a list of possible towns from Kansas City to Houston where he could practice his dentistry. They made the trip all the way down to Houston and then all the way back up to Kansas City when they unintentionally came upon their new home, Nacogdoches.
Van Horn has not always been Mayor Van Horn. He was first and foremost a dentist. He started his practice here in Nacogdoches almost 40 years ago and has remained here ever since. “I was rooming with a guy in Missouri who had wanted to be a dentist for a long time, for four years, he was a lot more organized than I,” said Van Horn. “And he was going out for an interview and I thought that sounds good, I might go try that. And I did, I took up my application and strangely enough I got accepted in the interview.” And at that point Van Horn made a big decision for his career choice and became a dentist.
Van Horn has been mayor of Nacogdoches since 2007 and is now serving his third term. For his second term election he did not have an opponent. “The reason I decided to be mayor is sort of an accumulation of my life in Nacogdoches with civic work. I started way back as the President of Jaycees, the President of the Chamber of Commerce, Chairman of the Planning Consumer Department and then ran for office as mayor,” said Van Horn as he held his glasses. He enjoys the contrast of dentistry to being the mayor. He spends a few hours Monday through Thursday and all day Friday doing mayor work.
The pace of being a mayor is completely opposite of being a dentist. Van Horn finds closure every 15 minutes at his dentist office, but he hardly finds closure with the city when he is working as mayor and finds it to be very frustrating. “I hope that by being chair of the city commission that the people have confidence in the process,” he tells people when they ask what it is like to be mayor. Van Horn believes the biggest contribution he can make to the city is by making the people trust the process of the government.
Van Horn does not actually have all the power in the city. He only counts as one out five votes when it comes to issues. Nacogdoches has a “strong manager commission government” compared to most cities in Texas that have a “strong mayor commission government”. And since Nacogdoches has that type of government, the mayor does not run the city day to day. Some would say it places the manager as the “CEO of our city.” So, Van Horn is limited to what he can do for the city. He would like the many people that come up to him at the local grocery stores to complain about something, to keep in mind that he does not have all the power and may not be able to help.
Van Horn enjoys what he does and hopes to continue being mayor for another two terms to have completed a full five terms. When asked what he plans to do after being mayor he chuckles as he responds, “Well, you know that’s a good question. I’m not sure how to answer that.” He wouldn’t mind teaching or continuing in his dentistry as a manager. But, he will find a way to serve the people no matter what will be happy doing so.