It was 1996 when Rodney Jacks started with the City of Watonga.
He mowed lawns for the Parks Department. He spent about a year as a beat cop. He was a volunteer firefighter. He was on the city council. And then he became the city treasurer. Basically, he learned the ins and outs of the business of running the city. It took 28 years to accomplish.
Back in 1996 the city organization was so small that Jacks could yell from one department to another and get an echo, plus an answer.
Jacks was there in the years when the oil industry was doing very well, and he stayed when the bust hit. The city was still mayor-council format and there were times when the budget would not budge. Making payroll was probably pretty scary a time or two. It might have been easier to face a lawbreaker with a gun than it was to balance the books.
Times continued to change, and Jacks stayed. The city evolved to the current manager-council system. The hospital still wanted its part of the sales tax. The DEQ didn’t care how the town supplied better drinking water, provided it got done sooner rather than later. Those funding solutions had to be found. Jacks took it all in stride and he stayed.
Slowly, ever so slowly, the books began to look better. When an emergency need comes about now – like the need for heavy duty transformers or replacement power poles - there is funding to meet the need.
Jacks started making noises about retirement. But there was no one waiting in the wings to take his job. There was simply no one to hire for the job. So, he stayed.
For nine years as city treasurer, Jacks has been there, minding the pennies. Finally, earlier this year, Kenya Smith signed on with the city. Smith is a story in herself, a proud Watonga graduate who has gone out into the wider world and decided home was the place to be.
Jacks has been working diligently to train Smith in the job he is handing over to her. There is much to do, taking himself off the bank accounts and putting her on, dividing the money into appropriate silos and crunching the numbers that are used to adjust the budget monthly. It is far more complex today than it was even a few years ago.
Asked about what he will do when he is retired, all Jacks came up with was to eat a rather expensive meal in Dallas. He’s earned it.
City Manager Karrie Beth Little put it simply. What made Jacks as valuable to the city as he has been was his steadfastness.
“He has done great work for the city and we are proud of his service and commitment,” she said.
Part of that commitment was making sure things were done properly and the work completed, no matter how long that took.
Perhaps Jack’s most outstanding characteristic is his work ethic. He has been as dependable as the Oklahoma sun, seldom missing a day.
There is a lot to be said about that kind of commitment and a lot to learn from that kind of work ethic. It may take 28 years.