Heverly named Sallisaw city manager

The search for a new Sallisaw city manager is over.

Brian Heverly, a 25-year Army veteran who has served as Public Safety Director in Durant for the past 18 months, was approved by Sallisaw City Commissioners Monday night at their monthly meeting.

The hiring of Heverly ends a six-month search to replace Keith Skelton, the embattled city manager who resigned in June after 30 years as a city employee, the last six as city manager.

If city commissioners — and the community — are looking for someone to come in and make wholesale changes, the city may be searching for a replacement again very soon, because that’s not Heverly’s way of doing things.

“Through this process, there’s a lot of folks that come in with vim, vigor and vitality, and want to mark their territory and everything,” Heverly said after Monday night’s decision. “I’m a guy [who takes the approach], ‘Hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ Let me understand something before I start swinging a broad sword and start cutting stuff that doesn’t need to be cut.

“I assess first, so if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Are we doing the right things, are we doing the right things correctly? You can’t assess if something’s broke if you’re not doing it right. You may be doing the right thing, you just may not be doing it right. Some people would just default to, ‘Well, we don’t need to do that anymore!’

“If we tweak something — if we tweak our business hours or we tweak an intersection or the time of day — we could fix it and it would work perfectly. So that’s my goal. To come in, get a feel for what’s going on — in the Army we call it ‘situational understanding’ — understand what’s going on and the history behind it. It’ll take me awhile, because there’s a lot of folks who have been here a long time, I’m not naive to that. The first 90, 120 days, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it; are we doing the right things, are we doing the right things correctly?” Heverly said in explaining his management style.

“Now, if guidance comes from Council, ‘Thou shalt do this,’ then, hey, I work for them, we shalt do that. So unless it’s illegal, unethical, immoral or unsafe, then you fix those right away. If it’s not those things and it’s working, why change it? And I’ve got to be able to assess that to be able to tell whether or not it’s working. That’s my hope, that’s my starting point.”

In his first city manager position, Heverly said he is eager to get started, but also tempers expectations by admitting he’s only human.

“I’m excited to get my feet wet, to get in here and get to work,” he said. “At one of my previous jobs, a co-worker and I joked about having ‘new-guy energy.’ So, hopefully, I can bring that and do well. I’m excited to get in here.

“But I don’t know what I don’t know. I like to think I’m an open book. So if somebody’s got a question, ask it, because I suck at reading minds. And if I don’t have an answer, I’ll get it — I’ll do my darnedest to get it.”

Heverly has already embraced his new home city.

“What I told the commissioners when I interviewed with them, Sallisaw appears to be on that cusp of just exploding. You heard about it tonight with finances — we’re positioned really well. And now it’s exciting to see — somebody’s done a lot of hard work — and it’s exciting to see that come to fruition. I’m excited to be part of it.”

The new city manager’s first day on the job will be Jan. 6 — “A day that will live in infamy,” he says.

Background

Before working for the city of Durant, Heverly was Director of Emergency Services for six years at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. At West Point, he oversaw a police department of about 100 Military Police officers, as well as the West Point Fire Department.

Prior to being stationed at West Point, he was a Military Police officer for 19 years, and held leadership positions as platoon leader and Provost Marshal for the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He deployed seven times, including stints in Liberia, Afghanistan and Iraq.

A 1998 graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a degree in criminology with advanced training at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Heverly also served as Chief of Police at Fort Bliss, Texas.

In his capacity at Durant, Heverly focused on police, fire, neighborhood services, animal control and emergency management. According to his resumé, he has been successful establishing strategic objectives, creating operational plans, and identifying, mitigating and working through risks to completion.