Saluting Texas Lone Star – Cesar Garcia
City Administrator, city of Kemah
My public career highlights and education:
I have a bachelor’s in management from Johnson and Wales. My master’s is in sports management or sport administration from the University of Miami, and I have a certified public manager from the University of Houston. My most recent career highlight is I received the American Society for Public Administrators 2025 Public Leadership Award for the Houston chapter. Before that, we won the 2024 All-America City Award. We won an International City Manager Association award and an International Public Service Award for our public health programming. We won a Texas Municipal League award, also in the area of public health, for our crime rate reduction. Also, in the same year we won an award with the Houston Galveston Area Council for a planning project with our parks department. We also got several awards for our water loss project in the city.
The best part of public service:
I have a servant’s heart. I grew up in the service industry with a hospitality background, raised by my grandmother, who was all about service, and there’s a great gratitude in providing quality service. Seeing the fruits of your labor, seeing when folks are having a problem with a dark streak and you provide lighting and that genuine thankfulness. Fixing a pothole, reducing crime, providing better quality water — those everyday wins that are so exciting. I work to provide the change that we all wish to see in the communities that we live in.
Some of the best advice you have ever received:
Some of the best advice I’ve ever received is from my grandmother, Anna Almanzar. She said, “You’ve got two ears and one mouth for a reason. You should listen twice as much as you talk.” That’s probably the best advice I’ve ever received. It’s rung through me professionally and personally.
Something I wish more people knew about my division of government:
Something I wish people knew is the amount of care that folks in this profession have. We don’t get very many kudos, but we don’t do this for the kudos. We do it because there’s a passion and a care for service and to fill the needs of our communities. We’re all in this thing to make the world a better place in one way or another. We have a lot of passion and care, and I wish people understood that.
A current project or initiative that I am working on:
We’re working on a few. We’re working on understanding how solar power and other forms of energy are going to change our future. None of the city buildings have any solar powered lighting. We understand where we are with the grid and the growth in the region that power is going to be a big significance, but we have an obligation to our taxpayers as well to provide. If it means changing our fleet or some of our fleet to electric, that would be a cost savings. If it’s going solar so our buildings can be more efficient, that would be a cost savings.
One thing outside of government service people may not know about me:
Outside of public service, I’m very competitive and I really like sports. A lot of folks know me to be very quiet. I’m not loud, but I can be a big fanatic. I’m an avid and very lively sportsman. I’ve actually been coaching for more than 30 years. I’ve been involved in sports since I was younger, and I didn’t stop being involved when I stopped playing.