Open letter to City of Fate team members from Mayor David Billings

FATE, TX (Sept. 6, 2022) Today, the City Council honors your dedicated and servant leadership to the citizens of our great city.

Your devotion to our citizens, but more importantly to each other is the driving force behind the success of our city.

To create a cool and vibrant city it takes a lot of hard work and dedication by our city team members. Our staff works long hours to ensure we are planning to grow in a more responsible manner than other cities, that we are safe, have good roads to drive on, have well-maintained parks, and our water and sewer is functioning. They are also good stewards of the financial processes needed to maintain the economic health of our community.

It takes months, and at times years, to negotiate and sign economic development deals to bring new business to our city. Then after those deals are signed, it can take many more months and even years for the business to open. Our Economic Development team has led the way to create an exciting city for all of us to enjoy, with a focus on quality, placemaking, economic resiliency, and to give residents and visitors a great experience.

It takes our field operations people, Public Works, Streets, Community Services/Building Safety, Parks, Property Standards, and Facilities teams who have managed projects to completely reconstruct downtown streets, including relocating all the utilities, while maintaining over 82 miles of roads. From mowing grass in parks to cleaning buildings, to maintaining our vibrant downtown, they do the hard work that is required. They also inspect the buildings to ensure a safe environment for all of us. Let us not forget the work they do to coordinate with TXDOT on all the maintenance and upgrades needed on the state roads like I-30, Hwy 66, FM 551, and FM 552.

It takes our Fate DPS team to create a safe community for all of us to work and live. We live in one of the safest cities in Texas due to our Fate DPS team. Every day they patrol our city to ensure our safety and well-being. They continue to create great partnerships with our neighboring cities, county, and state partners in law enforcement, the fire service, EMS, and emergency management to ensure we have a vibrant first responder team that stands ready, 24×7, to serve you!

It takes our municipal court ensures we have fair trials and justice is served without prejudice or bias.

It takes our Information Technology team to ensure we have robust cybersecurity that protects your data and our city systems from hacking, ransomware, malware, etc.

It takes our City Attorney to ensure we comply with federal, state, and local laws. To ensure we write fair local laws that protects the rights of our citizens, developers, businesses and expertly defends the city in court.

It takes our Human Resource partner to ensure we have fair workplace policies, competitive wages, and we have culture that ensures every team member can excel in their chosen profession.

It takes our Animal Control partner to ensure our fur babies are safely returned home, promote responsible pet ownership, and work with local veterinaries to ensure the health of our pets.

It takes our Water and Sewer teams to work all hours, including weekends, to maintain our water and sewer systems. They work in the dead of the night and the heat of a hot Texas summer to keep those basic systems working, and when they break, get them back up as fast as possible. And then there are our Utility Billing and Court staff to serve you every day!

It takes our Planning and Zoning team to make the dreams of a better city a reality. They work with large and small businesses and developers to create a development plan, while still respecting property rights, to be ready for consideration by our Planning and Zoning Commission, and then your City Council.

It takes our Finance team to create and maintain a robust and transparent financial systems and processes, and due to their hard work, we have been recognized by both the State of Texas and other national organizations for financial transparency for many years.

It takes our city leadership team to provide the foresight and courage to forge a new path for local government. To encourage the team to try new innovations, and approach every decision focused on a better future. This is how high performing team’s work!

On behalf of our citizens and your city council, thank you for doing a great job! I may be biased, but we have the one of the best city teams in the state of Texas!