By extension, the man whose executive duty it is to keep one of these cityships on a smooth course is a kind of social warrior, a captain of a big ship, who, like the captain of “Big John,” must maintain himself and his crew at a high level of alertness and efficiency. The specifics of how that works in an individual case come clear in a review of the work, life, and career of Ricardo (Rick) Menchaca, city manager of Midland, a man who, as the jargon of our time puts it, “has his act together.” Midland’s official web site notes that the city’s manager is “the chief executive officer of the government carries out policy and administers city programs.” That’s the whole story in a sentence. Rick Menchaca’s days split rather neatly into two areas: one is “routine management” (not always so routine), which includes supervising 865 city employees 98% of everybody who works for the city and the other is “special projects,” individual undertakings to implement city policy, of which a couple of stand-out examples are the new Scharbauer Sports Complex and the Midland International Airport.

 These projects can be of varying difficulty and expense; their common feature is that they add to the quality of life for people who live in or visit Midland. When you talk to Rick Menchaca about his work for Midland, it is the second category that tends to get emphasized. His eyes light up, for example, when he talks of the new skateboard installation at Beale Park that opened April 2003 and is “the best skateboard park between Dallas and Phoenix.” But one suspects the “routine things” are what take up most of his time. Just imagine having to review, approve, and monitor the budgets and performance of every department in the city’s government to make sure that indeed, the city is not going to pile up on those shoreline rocks labeled “underdone” or “overdrawn.”

There’s more on Rick Menchaca’s routine and the special projects he’s proudest of later in this article. Meanwhile, let us ask, how did this still young man Rick Menchaca is only 38 get to the important post he now occupies? The story begins in Uvalde, Texas, where Rick Menchaca was born in 1965. His father is Arnold Menchaca, his mother, Aurora Diaz Menchaca. They now live in Del Rio. Arnold and Aurora have four boys: Richard, Arnold, Robert, and Ray. Today Ray lives in Del Rio, Robert in Lubbock, and both Arnold and Rick Menchaca in Midland. Rick Menchaca’s father was for some years a fraud investigator for the Texas welfare system. He took up that work after a spell in music, directing a band, an occupation he concluded did not produce enough income for a family. The state work, however, resulted in the family’s having to move often to a different city; so Arnold, wanting to end the moving around, went to work for the Southern Pacific Railroad, a job he kept for more than 20 years. Working for the railroad, Arnold and his family could stay put in Del Rio.

Now semi-retired, Arnold is also an ordained non-denominational Christian minister. Tracing roots back: Rick Menchaca’s father, Arnold, was born in Crystal City. His father, Rick Menchaca’s paternal grandfather, was Martin Menchaca, who was born in Eagle Pass; and Rick’s grandmother was Maria Varela Menchaca, who came to the U.S. from Mexico in 1914, when she was 13, in the years Pancho Villa was a big name on the border. Rick Menchaca’s mother, Aurora Diaz was born in Uvalde. Her father, Fred Diaz, Rick’s maternal grandfather, was from Eagle Pass. He married Maria Breiten, from the German community of the Hill Country. She was born in D’Hanis. Rick Menchaca went to pre-kindergarten thru first grade in an Eagle Pass school, then finished off elementary, junior high, and  high school in Del Rio. Rick Menchaca’s next stop after high school was Angelo State University in  San Angelo, where, in 1986, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in government, with a finance minor. You are perhaps already getting the sense of a good student, with a firm intention to “master the books.” For a year and a half of the three years he was attending Angelo State, Rick Menchaca was president of the University Center Program Council, a post (unpaid) he speaks of with considerable nostalgia and enthusiasm.

 His job was to bring to the campus speakers and entertainment programs for the students. That meant making many contacts all over the country with booking agents and all the diverse talent that was going to end up at the school: “We booked movies, comedians, rock stars, bands like Buddy Rich’s, country singers, speakers like Yolanda King, G. Gordon Liddy, George McGovern, and Ralph Nader” that agreed to come to the school to speak or perform. In that job Rick Menchaca managed a budget of about a quarter of a million dollars each semester. Students were assessed $15 each for the service, and the school had 6500 students at the time, so the operation was pretty big time and involved Rick Menchaca’s working on marketing, promotions, and negotiation of contracts. And he had frequent dealings with the university administration—the college’s president and dean (good training for the future city manager). The Student Center program was new the year before Rick Menchaca got the job. He soon realized that some of the events, especially the concerts, needed to go off campus to a larger venue than a gymnasium that could only hold a few thousand students.