AGENDA
Sessions and speakers are subject to change without notice. Please check the app for current updates.
TUESDAY • MAY 6, 2025
Pre-Conference – Municipal HR Boot Camp
1:00–1:50 p.m.
Round Tables
Room: Conference Room 20-21
Hosts: Haley Archer, Human Resources Director, City of Burnet; Jeriana Staton-Hemb, Director of Human Resources and Special Projects, City of Sanger
Join fellow HR professionals for an interactive roundtable where open dialogue meets innovative thinking. This is your space to exchange ideas, tackle tough challenges, and uncover fresh strategies to elevate your HR practice.
1:50–2:50 p.m.
Self Care for HR Pros
Speaker: Justin Dorsey, HR Director, Wiseda Corporation
Room: Conference Room 20-21
How are you REALLY doing? With the flurry of changes, adjustments, and learning opportunities presented by the past few years, it’s time to take a step back and check on ourselves. HR has been tasked with many responsibilities that they were not trained or even qualified for and the impact on mental health has been significant.
The goal of the presentation is to help attendees:
1. Put their own oxygen mask on first by recognizing signs of stress, burnout, and anxiety.
2. Learn how to remove obstacles and develop as a HR professional during times of uncertainty.
3. Create a clear path for moving forward in order to thrive personally and professionally.
2:50–3:50 p.m.
Plasticity in Policing
Speaker: Mike Alexander, Managing Principal, LION Organizational Development Institute, LLC
Room: Conference Room 20-21
In an era where law enforcement faces unprecedented challenges, Plasticity in Policing offers a transformative approach to leadership, officer development, and community trust. This course explores the intersection of neuroscience, leadership engagement, and psychological safety to reshape the way policing is approached.
Participants will delve into the principles of neuroplasticity—how the brain rewires itself in response to experiences—and learn how intentional leadership can foster resilience, adaptability, and nobility within the profession. Leaders will be equipped with strategies to mitigate the effects of hypervigilance, fear-based decision-making, and habituation, ensuring officers remain mission-ready while maintaining emotional and mental well-being.
By incorporating key leadership principles, this course emphasizes the shepherding role of law enforcement leaders—guiding, protecting, and developing their teams while fostering a culture of trust, accountability, and engagement. The Law of Three will be explored as a framework for bridging the divide between law enforcement and communities, reinforcing the importance of shared responsibility.
4:05–5:00 p.m.
Tips, Tricks, and Techniques: How to Improve Your Internal Investigations
Speaker: Rodney Klein, Rodney Klein EEO Training
Room: Conference Room 20-21
Rodney Klein brings a career’s worth of experience to this session and answers a question he is repeatedly asked: How do I become a better investigator? There is no one answer to this, of course, but Rodney will tell you what he has learned, from law books and through practical experience. This session will help you improve your skills and possibly give you new ways of thinking about the job. A must attend session for both new and experienced investigators
WEDNESDAY • MAY 7, 2025
7:30–8:30 a.m.
Breakfast
Room: Salon E
8:30–8:45 a.m.
President’s Welcome
Speaker: Tadd Phillips, Director of Human Resources, City of Lewisville, and TMHRA President
Room: Salon E
8:45–9:45 a.m.
Awards Ceremony
Speakers: LaShon Gros, Director of Human Resources and Civil Service, City of Taylor; Cat Schlueter, Human Resources Manager, City of Azle
Room: Salon E
9:45–10:15 a.m.
Networking Break
Room: Salons A-E Foyers
10:15–11:45 a.m.
Keynote Speaker
Speaker: Joe Brown, Motivational Speaker
Room: Salon E
No description is available.
11:45–1:15 p.m.
Lunch
Room: Salon E
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
1:15 – 2:15 p.m.
From Resistance to Readiness: Breaking the Change Barrier
Speaker: Dee Maddox, Chief Excellence Officer, DMX Consulting, LLC
Room: Salon E
Change is tough—especially when your team digs in their heels. Leaders face resistance, uncertainty, and exhaustion. But what if change didn’t have to feel like a battle? Inspired by Switch: How to Change When Change is Hard, this session unpacks the psychology of transformation, blending strategy with empathy. Learn how to engage hearts and minds, reduce friction, and turn change from a struggle into success. Ready to lead the charge? We need this now more than ever as technological innovation impacts us daily.
Equity in Classification and Compensation: What is it and why does it matter?
Speaker: TL Cox, Vice President, Segal
Room: Salon A-B
Equity is becoming increasingly more prevalent (and politicized) in all aspects of our daily lives. Its long-standing impact on human resources, and specifically classification and compensation system administration, has arguably never been more visible (or important). It’s often necessary, therefore, to accurately explain to elected officials, executives, department directors, staff, and external stakeholders why equity is so essential to HR, and how it can serve your organization’s recruitment, retention, development, and employee relations goals. This session will define different types of pay equity, explain how today’s environment exacerbates employer and employee decisions, and provide a variety of national case studies, recommendations, and perspectives from Segal’s Compensation and Career Strategies team.
Core Workout with Core Competencies
Speaker: Jennifer Curtis, Director, Baker Tilly
Room: Salon C-D
Come join us to work on your core – and by that we mean core competencies! Just as muscles support the body, core competencies underpin vital aspects of HR, from recruitment to learning and development to performance management. But they take so much work to develop, right? Wrong! In this interactive session, you will step into the shoes of department directors in a simulated core competency workshop. Through role-play and collaboration, we’ll collectively define key core competencies across departments and classification levels. While there’s no plank challenge here, expect to get some steps in as we encourage movement and lively interaction. By the end, you’ll not only have firsthand experience of a core competency workshop but also the tools to lead one in your own organization.
2:15–2:40 p.m.
Networking Break
Room: Salons A-E Foyers
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
2:40 – 3:40 p.m.
Succession Planning: The Time is Right Now!
Speaker: Patrick Ibarra, Owner, The Mejorando Group
Room: Salon E
Are you worried that your internal bench of potential successors is not very deep? Are you trying to figure out the most effective methods to develop people skills for your future managers and leaders? Then this might be the session for you, because employee seniority doesn’t always translate to competence and technical proficiency isn’t always a predictor of supervisory effectiveness. Succession planning isn’t solely an HR Department issue, it’s not about pre-selection, and it’s not simply about pumping up your training budget. Gold standard organizations use succession planning to develop and maintain strong leadership at all levels and to ensure that they address all the capabilities employees require for today and tomorrow’s work environment.
Every organization is designed to achieve the results it gets, so by attending this session presented by one of the leading experts in public sector succession planning, Patrick Ibarra of the Mejorando Group, you will develop the skills you need to design and implement organization-wide succession planning that will ensure your agency’s high performance.
Bridging HR and Risk: What You Didn’t Know You Needed to Know
Speaker: Kristina Peters, Senior Consultant, Charlesworth Consulting
Room: Salon C-D
• Why HR Should Care About Risk Management –Overlapping responsibilities between HR and risk management and the financial and operational impact in public entities
• Insurance 101 – Breaking down key insurance coverages: workers’ comp, general liability, EPLI, and cyber liability.
• Real-World Case Studies – Examples of HR decisions that led to increased claims (and how to prevent them).
• Practical Risk Mitigation Strategies – Steps HR can take to reduce liability and collaborate with departments.
• How to Build a World Class Risk and Safety Culture – Roadmap for how HR can build a culture of risk awareness without fear-based decision-making.
3:40–3:50 p.m.
Break
Room: Salons A-E Foyers
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
3:50 – 4:50 p.m.
Safer People vs. Safer Places
Speaker: Jeff McKissack, President, Defense by Design
Room: Salon E
Most focus today in safety and security is placed on places versus people. Yet it is and will always be the latter that determines the former. Whether addressing physical security for internal as well as external staff; whether addressing your city’s data security overall versus its cyber security in particular; whether addressing the on-the-clock or off-the-clock behaviors and actions of your people that can negatively impact the reputation of the city — literally all of these have to do with your people, not simply their place or venue of employment.
This presentation focuses on these three areas of physical, data and reputational risks and how you can better mitigate such risks as well as better document the process should claims of negligence later arise pertaining to any of the same.
This is about better protecting you in your position, your people in their position, and your city in its position in the community and media. It’s about learning to better spot trouble ‘before’ trouble spots you.
Pfinders Keepers
Speaker: Robbi Craig, People and Culture Director, City of Pflugerville
Room: Salon A-B
In the Pfinders Keepers presentation, Robbi shares what the leaders in the City of Pflugerville are doing to create and maintain a culture that has improved our recruiting and retention of employees in a competitive time. The presentation discusses how the City approaches universal benefits, such as compensation and insurance, and also how we Pfocus on the employee through our unique policies and initiatives.
Sharing Law Enforcement Personnel Records: New Legal Requirements
Speaker: Cullen Grissom, Deputy Chief, Texas Commission on Law Enforcement
Room: Salon C-D
The last two Texas legislative sessions have increased the requirements for the sharing of police personnel records for the purpose of reducing the “wandering officer” problem by empowering police chiefs with more information to make informed hiring decisions. Texas HR managers have faced questions about what files should be shared, and under what circumstances. This breakout session, led by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) staff, which regulates the licensing and hiring of law enforcement licensees, will cover the increased requirements on cities to share police personnel files with other law enforcement agencies for hiring purposes as required under Senate Bill 24 (87R) and Senate Bill 1445 (88R).
6:00 p.m.
New Member Dinner
Sponsor: HUB
THURSDAY • MAY 8, 2025
7:30–8:45 a.m.
Breakfast
Room: Salon E
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
8:45 – 9:55 a.m.
Stay in Tune with Your Employees: Striking a Human Chord in the Age of AI
Speaker: Jason Barrett, JD/ Principal and Founder, JAME Consulting, LLC
Room: Salon E
AI is everywhere and is here to stay. This presentation will discuss how organizations can and should maintain a “human” or empathetic focus on their employees in the age of AI. The speaker will also play “disc jockey” by incorporating certain music trivia/songs into the content for a fun engagement with the audience.
Learning Objectives:
-Current statistics and best practices on the use of AI in HR and people management
-We answer the question why human connection and empathy is still critical in managing employees
-We will have fun with music using chords/songs to demonstrate the ongoing importance of a human, empathetic approach
Succession Planning for the Coming HR Challenge: The Silver Tsunami
Speaker: GM Cox, Chief, Retired
Room: Salon A-B
Baby Boomers are leaving the workplace at rates never experienced in the American workplace. Generation X is making plans to retire and soon. City leaders, both elected and appointed, especially at the point of the public sector spear — local governments — will be challenged to prepare for and meet this tsunami of an exodus of talent. Public sector leaders and their down-stream managers need tools and proven human resource management methods to identify, prepare and promote talent for those critical positions that will be impacted by this tidal wave of people exiting the public workspace (and this will also be happening in the private workspace at the same time).
Competition for talent will be brisk and critical to meet the continued challenges of public sector. Via a combination of values, tools, and processes, decision makers can identify personnel with potential so that those people can be groomed for promotion and assigned to those critical positions when, not if, they become vacant. Assessment and information is critical. Critical assignments should not be filled by crisis management.
A methodical and rational model exists for human resource professionals to assist local government managers in identifying talent with potential by utilizing several tools to include the inclusion of the core 21st Century leadership responsibilities of coaching, mentoring and servant leadership. Clear, concise and proven methods to help identify the needs and the core competencies that will be necessary for future managers and leaders will be presented to include matrices and assessments that can effectively be utilized in the performing of this vitally important responsibility.
9:55–10:25 a.m.
Networking Break
Room: Salons A-E Foyers
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
10:25 – 11:25 a.m.
Trends in Local Government Compensation
Speaker: Bradley Ford, Owner, City Compensation
Room: Salon E
This session will focus on Bradley’s nationwide, leading research on trends in local government compensation.
It will cover two main points:
1) Trends in Local Government Compensation in Texas
Bradley has recently conducted significant nationwide research of compensation for more than 320 positions in Local Government, surveying more than 3,500 cities nationwide, including more than 450 cities in Texas. This report would focus on hard-to-hire job titles like Civil Engineers, Inspectors, Dispatchers, as well as various leadership positions. The speaker will include summary datasets and trends that would be of interest HR Directors. This information would include reporting compensation by job titles, population ranges, race/ethnicity, and other factors.
2) Trends in Executive Employment Agreements.
Bradley will be releasing his 2025 Report on City Manager Contracts in the weeks ahead of the TMHRA Annual Conference. A portion of the session would be dedicated to providing summary analysis to HR Directors who are often involved in the creation and modification of Employment Agreements. Bradley’s research has analyzed more than 1,500 city manager, city attorney, and city clerk/secretary contracts and will report on key terms/provisions, as well as emerging trends in employment agreements that HR leaders will want to be aware of.
Creating a Thriving Culture with Sacred Leadership
Speaker: Chad Wright, Founder and Coach, Forward Partners
Room: Salon A-B
Building a thriving culture in public service is more vital today than it has ever been. In the daily grind of never-ending tasks, it’s easy to lose track of the truly important work that will build a thriving culture. What are the core pillars of a thriving culture and how can we make sure every employee has a place to thrive? How can HR become champions to ensure that a thriving culture is created? We need thriving public servants ready to face the mounting challenges for the future, to ensure our society is growing and thriving as well.
Sorting through the Fallout: Exploring Employer Obligations to Employees in Light of Federal and State Bans on DEI Initiatives
Speaker: Cara White, Partner, Taylor Olson Adkins Sralla Elam, LLP (TOASE)
Room: Salon C-D
This presentation will focus on the latest actions by state and federal government to limit DEI programs and explain what effect those actions have or could have on current local employment practices.
11:25 a.m.–12:50 p.m.
Lunch
Room: Salon E
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
Understanding Social Security and Medicare
Speaker: Tom Clark, Social Security Speaker and Consultant
Room: Salon E
Tom Clark will go over Social Security and Medicare information.
Policy Meets People: Making HR Compliance Work for Workplace Culture
Speaker: Thomas Faulkner, HR Director, City of Kenedy
Room: Salon A-B
HR policies are designed to protect both employers and employees, but unfortunately, they are too often viewed as constraints that limit employee involvement and stifle innovation. Municipal HR professionals walk a fine line to ensure they maintain legal compliance while fostering a workplace where employees feel valued and motivated. What if compliance wasn’t just about risk management, but also a tool for building a thriving organizational culture? This session will discuss how compliance can be used as a tool by the HR department to enhance employee retention, engagement, and satisfaction in the workplace without compromising legal or ethical obligations.
HR’s Role in Fixing What Pay Can’t: Leadership, Culture, and Retention in Municipal Government
Speaker: Michael Boese, President, Clear Career Professionals
Room: Salon C-D
Municipal HR professionals hear it all the time, “we just need to pay more to get the right people.” But salary alone won’t fix high turnover, disengaged employees, or a lack of leadership accountability. Pay is only part of the equation. The real challenges in recruitment and retention stem from failed leadership, politically charged cultures, and a lack of strategic workforce planning.
This session will shift the focus from HR as a compliance function to HR as a leadership force in municipal government. Attendees will learn how to:
– Identify the leadership and cultural issues that drive good employees away.
– Position HR as a true strategic partner, not just policy enforcers.
– Develop workforce stability strategies that attract and retain top talent, even in politically challenging environments.
– Help city leadership understand and embrace their role in workforce retention.
– Implement key principles from the 540 Leadership framework to improve leadership accountability, culture, and engagement.
– This session will provide real-world strategies and leadership-driven solutions for HR professionals who want to reshape workplace culture, drive organizational stability, and build a more engaged workforce in their cities.
Learning Objectives:
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
1. Recognize why employees leave—and how leadership plays a bigger role than pay.
2. Reposition HR as a strategic partner in municipal workforce planning.
3. Advocate for leadership development as a key retention strategy.
4. Develop proactive strategies to stabilize and strengthen workplace culture.
5. Apply the 540 Leadership framework to improve leadership accountability and workforce engagement.
2:00–2:30 p.m.
Networking Break
Room: Salons A-E Foyers
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
2:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Paid Family and Medical Leave: What’s Happening and Why It Matters
Speaker: Melissa McDuffey, HR and Benefits Consultant, American Fidelity Assurance Company
Room: Salon E
Paid family and medical leave programs are trending across the country. Each year, more state and local governments introduce and/or pass legislation to require employers to provide paid family and medical leave to employees. This session will discuss trends in paid family and medical leave programs at the federal and state levels and explore the impacts these programs have on employers and employees. Additionally, this session will discuss some of the difficulties employers face when a mandatory paid family and medical leave program is implemented, particularly as it relates to their existing leave-administration practices.
Addressing the Recruitment and Retention Challenge
Speaker: Sallie Harborth, Regional Director, MissionSquare Retirement
Room: Salon A-B
MissionSquare Research Institute has been partnering with The National Association of State Personnel Executives (NASPE) and the Public Sector HR Association (PSHRA formerly IPMA-HR) to conduct an annual workforce survey since 2009. This survey of human resource professionals tracks key challenges facing state and local governments in the recruitment and retention of talented employees and the strategies being employed to managed and compensate those staff.
Benefits 101
Speaker: Hailey Painter, Vice President, Lockton Dunning Benefits; Brittlyn Pohl, Senior Account Executive, Lockton Dunning Benefits
Room: Salon C-D
This session will provide new hires, or those new to benefits, with a baseline understanding of the concepts, programs, timelines, communications, financials, and benefit options available to municipal employers. Given the design of the content, it may be best suited for pre-conference training sessions or as a component of other events/sessions for newer members.
3:30–3:45 p.m.
Networking Break
Room: Salons A-E Foyers
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
3:45 – 4:45 p.m.
Do Your Performance Evaluations “Need Improvement”?
Speaker: Albert Foster, CEO, Express Evaluations
Room: Salon E
For many reasons, performance evaluations have a bad rap. They are associated with cumbersome processes,
being used as a way to terminate employees, or as a way to point out the negative. In this session, Albert
Foster, CEO of Express Evaluations, will teach attendees how to flip the script and turn evaluations into an
incredibly effective employee engagement and retention tool.
Investigations: Solving Complex Problems
Speakers: Catherine Clifton, Attorney at Law, Gannaway Clifton, PLLC; Alan Nelson, Principal- Digital Forensics, High Technology Investigations
Room: Salon A-B
Investigations are rarely simple, but some require expertise beyond HR or Legal. This session covers how to work with investigations that require forensic accounting or IT skills in the municipal environment. Join Alan Nelson with Catherine Clifton for a walk through the practices and processes that result in successful investigations.
Reflect Respect to Connect – How Being Civil Can Help
Speaker: Craig Barnes, Human Resources Outreach Consultant, Texas Municipal League Intergovernmental Risk Pool
Room: Salon C-D
As Aretha Franklin shared so emphatically “R-E-S-P-E-C-T”, her wisdom was not left at just spelling the word but rather challenging us to go beyond and “Find out what it means to me!” As we are a member of our organization that is larger than just us, in order to for us to effectively go beyond the WHAT we do into WHO we are and WHY we do what we do, we need to be able to see beyond ourselves. While we each hold individual value, we are called to be A PART of something bigger than just us rather than being APART (siloed) from it.
Some items in this session will include:
– What is Respect/Civility in the workplace?
– How can Respect/Civility support and reflect our organization’s Mission, Vision, Values?
– What does Incivility look like and what are some costs?
– How does Incivility/lack of Respect hurt our organizations?
– How can I Reflect Respect?
– How can I Connect with Respect?
– What are the BE’s of Respect/Civility
– “20 Things We Should Say More Often” – Kid President
5:00–6:00 p.m.
Past Presidents’ Cocktail Reception
Location: Fogo de Chao
Sponsored by Work Shield
6:00–10:00 p.m.
Denim and Diamonds- 75th Anniversary Celebration
Location: The Grand Promenade, 113 Alamo Plaza, San Antonio, TX 78205
Dinner included.
FRIDAY • MAY 9, 2025
7:30–8:30 a.m.
Breakfast and Sponsor Raffle Drawings
Room: Salon E
8:30–9:00 a.m.
Business Meeting
Speaker: Tadd Phillips, Director of Human Resources, City of Lewisville, and TMHRA President
Room: Salon E
All TMHRA members are requested to attend this meeting, as this meeting includes board member nominations.
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
9:15 – 10:15 a.m.
FLSA – Getting the Details Right
Speaker: Julia Gannaway, Partner, Gannaway Clifton PLLC
Room: Salon E
The Fair Labor Standards Act can be complicated to interpret and apply. Join Julia Gannaway and Catherine Clifton for a discussion on the FLSA’s regular rate of pay to accurately calculate overtime pay for employees.
Cornerstone Skills for Managers: Essential Skills for All High-Performing New People Leaders
Speaker: Dr. Juandré Peacock, Founder and Chief Organizational Psychologist, JPI Consulting, LLC
Room: Salon A-B
Every organization with people leaders faces a critical challenge: new people leaders. This unavoidable reality is a ticking time bomb. To cultivate seasoned leaders with invaluable institutional experience, promoting from within is essential. However, this is where the cracks begin to show.
Typically, new leaders are elevated because they are rockstar individual contributors. The belief is that their stellar performance will seamlessly transition into their new leadership roles. Unfortunately, this assumption is flawed and fraught with peril. These new leaders are often unintentionally set up for failure. As these new leaders struggle and underperform compared to their seasoned peers — leading to decreased performance, engagement, and increased uncertainty, anxiety, and attrition — the organization is left questioning what went wrong. The issue isn’t with the identification of talent; it’s a failure of preparation.
In our engaging and interactive talk, participants learn why the old system is flawed and the chaos it brings to the organization. Audiences are introduced to a contemporary, science-based approach to new-people-leader development, discovering strategies to significantly enhance the performance of their new leaders and teams.
When new leaders are equipped to handle the most critical aspects of their roles, they gain clarity, confidence, and drastically reduce ramp-up time. This leads to better outcomes for the organizations and the followers they serve, transforming a challenging situation into a gateway for growth, performance, and success.
10:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Bullies, Jerks, and Backstabbers, Oh My! Civility in the Workplace
Speaker: Julie Burch, Professional Speaker and Author
Room: Salon E
Civility in the workplace is a cornerstone of organizational culture and one of the hottest topics in business today.
The way we treat each other matters. Have you ever had to deal with incivility in the workplace? Where the bullies, jerks, and backstabbers seem to run the office? It creates frustration and negativity that can spread like poison. On the other hand, when we have civility in the workplace, we foster a culture that promotes dignity, courtesy, and respect for all, and it is a strategic key to a company’s success. When employees feel respected and valued, we see a rise in cohesiveness, innovation, and productivity. It is also a key factor in employee retention. There really is no downside to building a culture of civility. So, how do we do it?
In this dynamic, interactive, and fun session we will explore key techniques to build and sustain a culture of civility. We will have a better understanding of what incivility looks like and how we communicate through it. And the next time you are confronted with a bully, jerk, or backstabber you will know what to say! Never be left speechless again!
Some of what the participants will learn:
Leave with a clearer understanding of what civility looks like and sounds like. And what it doesn’t!
12:00 p.m.- Adjourn. Safe travels back home!