Keeping the pulse of Clinton
Roger Houck surrounds himself with ‘good people’ to help make the city run smoothly
Clinton City Manager Roger Houck sits behind the desk from which he supervises about 110 full-time employees and 15-20 part-time and seasonal employees who han- dle all aspects of the city operations except Clinton Utilities Board and the schools. (photo:Pete Gwada )
He has been employed by the city of Clinton for 36 years, his entire working life.
A native of Lake City, Houck was a member of the last graduating class at Lake City High School in 1982.
“It will always be Lake City, not Rocky Top,” Houck said.
He played basketball in high school, and in later years put this experience to use as a basketball referee.
Houck has a daughter and three sons. Recently he went to Chicago to see his daughter’s foster daughter graduate from Navy boot camp.
After high school, Houck went to the University of Tennessee to earn a degree in recreation administration.
During his last quarter at UT, he interned with the city of Clinton.
Upon graduation in 1987, he was offered a job with the city in the Parks and Recreation Department.
By 1990, Houck was director of the department.
Then in August 2010, he was promoted to city manager, a position he has held since.
Today he supervises all operations of the city except the Clinton Utilities Board and the school system.
That includes about 110 full-time and 15-20 part-time and seasonal employees in the police, fire, public works, parks and recreation, building and codes enforcement/zoning departments.
For his first nine years as city administrator, Houck was also parks and recreation department head.
When he took over as city administrator, the city was deep in debt with a $2 million deficit in the general fund.
Under Houck’s leadership, the financial situation began to improve. The city hired a new finance director and refinanced its debt. As the city began to grow, its finances improved.
“We’ve turned it around pretty well,” he said.
The city is on track to be debt free by March 2026.
Under Houck’s supervision, the city has been able to spend millions of dollars on improvements in the various departments.
The city has spent at least $4.8 million for street paving. Of the city’s four new fire engines, only the ladder truck required a loan; the three pumpers were paid for in cash.
Houck is the first to say he owes his success to others. “I’m as good as the people I surround myself with,” he said.
He said that when he became city administrator, he was fortunate to have some good department heads working for him. As those people left the city, they were replaced by equally competent people.
He said he also works well with the City Council, and that the council members are all working for the betterment of the city, even though they sometimes disagree with him. But he said disagreement can be good, and they are still respectful of each other.
“One of our biggest assets is our employees,” Houck said. He is proud that earlier this year the city started a program that will increase the salaries of city employees significantly.
As the city continues to grow, he wants to take care of employees and give them good benefits.
“Our tax rate is one of the lowest in the state,” Houck said. “I feel like we provide excellent service for what the citizens pay.”
The year 2015 presented a unique challenge for Houck. The fire station downtown was upgraded and the city took on the task of providing school resource officers for the city schools.
In order to hire more firefighters and police officers, taxes had to be raised. But because of better fire protection, residents’ fire insurance rates went down.
One of the major accomplishments has been the cleanup of the Magnet Mills property, an effort that took eight years.
During Houck’s tenure the codes enforcement department has grown from two people to four.
Houck is hoping that by Thanksgiving, the city’s new app that he has been working on for about six weeks will be operational. It will provide information about the city, and people will be able to interact with it to report potholes and code violations. Only four or five cities in the state have such an app.
As the city continues to grow, Houck anticipates the need for a fourth fire station near the interstate.