Ferris City Hall, Ferris ISD to share space, save taxpayer’s money

FERRIS – “Why not look for ways to save our taxpayer’s money across the board. That’s really what we’re looking at,” said Ferris City Manager Brooks Williams last week after the City of Ferris and the Ferris Independent School District recently combined individual strengths creating a stronger synergy within the city overall.

That – and the fact it really is saving taxpayer’s money. And what resident in Ferris or any city for that matter doesn’t want to hear they are saving money?

It’s not a new concept.

The City of Cedar Hill has had their city hall and ISD offices in the same government center for a number of years.

On a statewide level, the City of El Paso also has a strong city hall and ISD synergistic bond.

“If we go purchase land for a building, and the ISD has land for a building – we just did something in duplication at a cost to the taxpayer, Williams said.

“If we bond for a new city administration building, and the ISD has room in their administration building where we could have done something with them for a lesser cost, we’ve just asked taxpayers to pay for something twice – and we haven’t put the taxpayer first.”

In 2015, when current Ferris ISD Superintendent James Hartman took the helm, one of the goals given to him by the Ferris School Board was to cultivate a better relationship with city hall.

While it took a few years, that goal has now been realized.

“Today, we are building a great relationship, which is in line with what they originally asked him to do when he became superintendent,” Williams said, “and it is in line with what our goal should be for taxpayers – to provide the greatest bang for their buck – which is good for the entire community.”

Hartman is in agreement.

“We restructured our central administrative operations this summer which resulted in some vacant office space in the administration building,” he explained.

“Permitting the city to lease that space for the city manager and his executive leadership staff makes good financial sense for the school district and creates efficiencies, which will ultimately benefit taxpayers in the community.”

Currently, Ferris City Hall space is leased from a private building owner.

With the unused space in the ISD Administration Building and the necessary expansion plans for city hall, the move could not have come at a better time.

“As a positive byproduct, having the city’s key decision makers in the same building will create additional opportunities for collaborative discussion and joint planning as the Ferris community continues to grow,” Hartman added. 

“Overall you have an ISD trying to meet its obligations to taxpayers, cities, counties, etc and this is a win-win for everyone.

“A lot of times, there are entities that plant their flag in their sandbox – and they don’t want other people playing in it,” Williams said. “Those entities don’t want to figure out how to make the two work together.

“What the ISD and the city have done now is to take those barriers down and say hey, this is not about a turf war – this is about doing what is right by our taxpayers.”