Tuesday was packing day for former San Antonio City Manager Sheryl Sculley, who is moving to Austin this week.
Unlike many Austin newcomers, however, she’s not going in search of concerts or nightlife.
Her mother, sisters, son, daughter-in-law, and “granddogs” all live there in addition to, she hopes, future grandchildren, Sculley told the San Antonio Report. And starting in the fall, she’ll be teaching a course in advanced public management at the University of Texas at Austin’s Lyndon B. Johnson’s School of Public Affairs.
“I’m excited about teaching again,” said Sculley, who has taught at the school before. “It’s the next adventure.”
Sculley, 68, was hired as San Antonio’s city manager in 2005 and is credited with professionalizing the City organization while bolstering economic and infrastructure development. She retired from the City in 2019 but still serves on a number of boards and works as a consultant for Austin-based Strategic Partnerships.
During her tenure as city manager, she led the fight to change health care benefits in police and firefighters union contracts. The new contracts reigned in ballooning costs that threatened to bankrupt the City. That power struggle culminated in a contentious, but successful, ballot proposition in 2018 that capped the salary and tenure of future city managers.
Sculley will still keep an office in downtown San Antonio, remain on the Texas Biomedical Research Institute board of trustees, continue her consulting work, and promote her recent book, she said.
“I’ll miss my colleagues at City Hall,” she said. “I confess I’m not going to miss City Council meetings. But I miss – even now – I miss the work. So I’m glad to be consulting and teaching because that keeps me connected.”
Austin isn’t far away and she plans on visiting often – she even has dinner plans in San Antonio on Friday.
Disclosure: Sheryl Sculley is a member of the San Antonio Report’s board of community advisors. Learn more about the board here.
