Duncanville names new city manager

Duncanville — The Duncanville City Council appointed Dr. Ana Alvarez as city manager effective Nov. 2 and agreed to pursue a committee to examine police facility options during its Oct. 20 meeting, which also highlighted growing demands on the fire department.

Police facilities

During the work session, council members expressed unanimous support for pursuing a police facility assessment committee after deciding on Aug. 10 not to proceed with a bond election for a new police facility. The earlier proposal had reached a target project cost of approximately $50 million.

Contreras proposed bringing together elected officials, police representatives, city staff and residents with financial or project-development expertise to evaluate building designs, space requirements, phased construction and funding options.

“One thing we all agreed to, I believe, across the table is that they deserve something better than what they’re in right now by a long shot,” Contreras said.

Contreras said he wanted to explore phased reconstruction of the existing station without steering the council toward a particular approach. He said reducing project costs could lower debt and potential tax impacts for residents.

City staff reported that two companies consulted about public-private partnerships said that financing model did not appear workable for them at this stage. Staff continues exploring alternatives, including using existing facilities or acquiring additional space.

The discussion produced a tentative committee structure of three council members, two staff members and four residents. Council members requested a formal resolution for the next meeting, leaving membership, deadlines and other details for further discussion. 

“This isn’t a bond committee,” Contreras said. “I’m not willing to call it that yet.”

Fire department faces vacancies

Interim Fire Chief James Leary reported that the department responded to 5,926 calls from January through September and was on pace to reach a record 7,901 calls for the year.

Emergency medical calls accounted for 4,296 responses, about 72.5% of the total.

“We are a very, very busy fire department,” Leary said.

The department had five vacancies among 58 positions. Leary expected a sixth vacancy within days and a seventh following a January retirement. A new-hire examination is scheduled for Nov. 14.

Three employees, Brendan Villanueva, Caleb Stith and Casey Sneed, completed paramedic school and are working on shifts, Leary said.

Council members also requested a briefing on obstacles to reaching an ISO 1 fire-protection rating. Staff said a prior assessment identified a third station as a long-term requirement for maintaining that rating.

Leary said Duncanville has no training facility within the city and must take crews out of service for facility training. 

“When one of our stations go out of service here, it’s half our department,” he said.

Council members sought clarification about whether a future third station would primarily house paramedics or require a broader firefighting operation. 

“We are in a place right now where a full third station would be good,” Leary said.

Lifesaving response

The city recognized six fire personnel, Kyle Dalton, Casey Vincent, Armando Martinez, Ben Hale, Captain James Self, engineer Robert Shaw, and two police officers, Tashaun Bond and Kevin Sanchez, for saving a pedestrian whose mechanical heart pump lost its primary power supply after a Sept. 17 collision near the 400 block of West Wheatland Road.

According to the city’s recognition letter, the patient, a heart transplant candidate, suffered severe injuries. The impact damaged the controller and power components for a left ventricular assist device, leaving about 15 minutes of emergency reserve power.

Police recovered scattered equipment from the location where the incident began and rushed it to responders. With fewer than five minutes remaining, firefighter-paramedic Casey Vincent improvised a connection using the home charging equipment. Fire personnel connected the device to the ambulance’s onboard power inverter, restoring power and allowing transport to Parkland Hospital.

Leary credited fast thinking, communication and teamwork with saving the patient’s life.

Public performance dashboard

Staff also presented Duncanville’s first quarterly briefing on a system designed to track city projects and departmental performance.

The city selected ClearPoint Strategy to connect projects with comprehensive-plan priorities, monitor funding and milestones, and measure service delivery. A planned public dashboard would let residents review progress. 

Departments selected at least two performance measures each. Examples included public-records fulfillment, code-enforcement resolution times, sales-tax collections and recreation memberships.

Staff said they would verify project information and simplify descriptions before opening the dashboard to the public. However, staff did not announce a launch date.

This article was created with artificial intelligence using public meeting materials and edited by staff.