Sierra Kondos

Special to the News

Bridge City’s City Council announced Bart Bartkowiak as the new City Manager this week at City Hall. Bartkowiak will take office on Jan. 6, 2025.

Bartkowiak is currently the Director of Public Works in the city of Beaumont.

“I joined the city of Beaumont 19 years ago,” he said. “Oh the years, I’ve managed probably 80% or more of the divisions and departments within the city, other than police and fire and some Human Resources stuff. So, I’ve had a lot of experience with a lot of different areas of city government, and I felt that with that experience, I was ready to take the next step into the City Manager role.”

The Port Arthur native said his plan for his new role is to get to know the city.

“Anytime I’ve started a new position, the first thing I like to do is talk to all the people that are there, and learn the environment first, and then look for ways to improve things,” he said. “I’m going to learn first, and then we’ll look and see what we can do to improve things. I’ll start with the staff, talking to the employees, and then also getting involved with the local civic organizations and talking to the citizens. I know they’ve got a Rotary Club and various things of that nature that I’ll get engaged in along with the Chamber of Commerce. I just like to talk to people directly.”

Bartkowiak said there aren’t any pressing issues at hand as Bridge City seems to be well run.

“There’s been some things mentioned that they’d like to have a strategic plan and things of that nature for the city that they haven’t been able to get in place as of yet,” he said. “But Bridge City seems very well run in terms of their fiscal management, and the council seems good and on top of things. So, I think it’s a man a matter of incremental improvements, rather than them having big issues that need to be addressed.”

The new City Manager says that getting into public service “Just kind of happened.”

“I born and raised in Port Arthur,” he said. “I graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School, went to Texas A&M, graduated with an electrical engineering degree, and I stayed and got my master’s in business administration. And I went initially into it and worked there for quite a few years through several companies, starting with what’s now Accenture, used to be Anderson Consulting, and then moved on to what’s now Rico. It was Night Rider when I joined it, and then it moved icon office solutions, and then Rico. So, I worked in private industry, up through fortune 500 companies.”

Bartkowiak said finding a job in local government was due to having small children and looking to eliminate travel out of his career.

“And I found a position that offered those things in the City of Beaumont,” he said. “I started in 2006, and once I joined the city, I got on top of it and got things moving. Then I just kept picking up other areas of the city and the libraries. The mayor wanted to open a 311 center, so we built that from scratch,  I’ve managed the 911 Operations Center Communications, which includes the regional radio system that goes across Orange and Jefferson counties, and then eventually, when the Public Works Director left and went to DD Six, the city manager at the time asked me to take on Public Works, which started in 2020 and so I ended up taking on Public Works and water production, streets and drainage.”

“I’ve always just looked to do a good job and help where I can,” he said. “And I wouldn’t say that I initially started out, back when I graduated from high school, thinking I was going to get into public service. It just kind of happened.”