HOUSTON — Houston City Council confirmed Randy Macchi as the new director of Public Works as the department aims to improve its reputation with residents following scrutiny of the agency.
Macchi previously served as the chief operating officer for the department before helping lead Public Works after the departure of Carol Haddock earlier this year.
A city ordinance required the head of the department to be an engineer. Macchi is not an engineer which led Council to pass a change to the ordinance to remove the requirement.
Macchi takes over a department with nearly 4,000 employees, the third largest in the city, at a time when Public Works is aiming to improve its reputation among residents.
Public Works was under scrutiny this year after water customers complained of unusually high water bills. The issue centered around problems with remote reader devices. Mayor John Whitmire's administration announced a plan alongside Public Works to replace all remote reader devices by the end of the year, a task originally set to take five years.
Macchi told KHOU 11 that Public Works remains on schedule to replace all single-family home remote reader devices by Thanksgiving, with all other devices set to be replaced by the start of the new year.
Macchi said infrastructure and systems are a priority but he also added that customer service will be an important emphasis under his leadership.
"Our people come to us across town with a problem and it's our job to make sure that we're able to help them find the solution, not that we expect them to know what the solution to that problem is," Macchi told KHOU 11. "If we can put them first and foremost, if we can make sure that the communication channels are open, if we can listen to them and listen to what they're actually trying to accomplish for us, I think we're going to make some amazing improvements across the city."