Friday was City Manager James Loomis’ last day on the job in Lubbock.
He was appointed as interim city manager in 2013, while he was the executive director at the Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport.
“In 2013, on July the 19th, I was called into an executive session and asked to be the interim while they searched for a city manager, and we did think it was going to be 6 months, maybe 18 months at the outset,” Loomis said.
He said about three months into the interim job, it became a permanent job. He said he was always planning to retire in May 2016.
In May, there were city elections.
“Council said, ‘we’re having the elections, for stabilities sake, etc, can you stay until after the elections?’ I said ‘Sure, we can do that.’ Then I had the bypass surgery in May,” Loomis said.
“That kind of set me back. I came back from the bypass surgery, a little earlier than the doctor told me to come back, by about two weeks, but we came back, finished up the budget and my father-in-law passed away, and after I came back to Lubbock from the funeral, I said this is it, I’ve had enough,” he said.
We asked Loomis what he would miss about Lubbock.
“The town, the relationships outside of work, the great weather in Lubbock, Texas, with the exception of the spring with the dust storms, just the friendships,” he said.
The new city manager, Jarrett Atkinson, starts on December 12th. Read the associated story, Council Votes to Approve Jarrett Atkinson as City Manager for more information.
