Allen City Manager Peter Vargas was awarded the Texas City Manager Association (TCMA) Lifetime Achievement Award on Friday, June 12. The award recognizes city managers who have made a significant contribution to the field of local government for 20 years or more.
Vargas joined Allen in 1999 and led the city through an unprecedented period of growth. He helped develop new standards to manage development, forged public/private partnerships to bring new amenities to Allen and provided sound fiscal management to greatly improve the city's bond rating. TCMA also credited him for building an employee culture of integrity and customer service.
TCMA praised Vargas for his "selfless devotion to the ideals of representative democracy" and a leadership style that "earned him the trust, confidence and respect of city councils, his peers, employees and the citizens he has served."
Before joining the City of Allen, Vargas served as the Executive Director of the City of Dallas' Trinity River Corridor Project. He also spent seven years as the City Manager in Laredo, Texas and held various local government positions in the state of Colorado. Prior to his government service he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay, South America where he developed a dental hygiene program and built a four-room school house.