Thriving under pressure: Mike McClendon

In the midst of a complex project, an email notification chimed on Mike McClendon’s screen.

The issue in the email required immediate attention and promised a detour from his routine. A thrill, not dread, shot through him. Unlike those who crave predictability, the Brazos River Authority’s upper basin regional manager enjoys the shifting landscape of challenges.

“The things that can frustrate a lot of people the most are actually what I enjoy most of the time,” McClendon said. “My job is different every day. I can get a phone call, and in two minutes, your day has changed.”

The potential, the opportunity for change, and the appeal of the unknown have continued to propel McClendon’s 20-year career with the BRA.

And his dedication to the BRA is unquestionable, said David Collinsworth, the BRA’s general manager and CEO.

McClendon moved from the Rio Grande Valley when he was five but always returned to fishing on the coast and hunting in south Texas, then spent the rest of his teenage years in Waco. His educational journey started with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Baylor University. He then decided to obtain an associate’s degree in hazardous materials management from Texas State Technical College. He then built upon that foundation, earning a Master of Science degree in Environmental Science, also from Baylor.

He held several jobs throughout high school and during college, many of which were construction-related, something he’d come to love. He enjoyed being out in the field instead of behind a desk and was energized to see a project go from inception to completion. There was the brief stint at the Waco Tribune-Herald, where he sold subscriptions for the newspaper door-to-door or by phone. A job he once held at the same time as the now-BRA general manager and CEO, David Collinsworth.

McClendon had been working in Waco a few years before he began to look for a change. Having heard a positive buzz about the BRA, he began a targeted job search, determined to land a foot in the door.

He succeeded, and in January 2004 he was hired as the regional government and customer relations manager, a title that changed to regional customer relations business manager in 2007. He immediately began making weekly trips from the BRA’s central office in Waco to Possum Kingdom Lake, the organization’s oldest reservoir, located northwest of Fort Worth. The trips helped him form relationships with the community as he served as a liaison between the BRA Board of Directors and the public.

When he was behind the desk, he was fielding 40 to 50 phone calls a day from the public, answering questions about water rights, reservoirs, regulations, treatment plants, all the way to, “Can I build a pond on my land?” It was an incredibly beneficial time because after a few months there weren’t many questions he hadn’t heard, and his knowledge of the industry had skyrocketed.

“What I enjoyed the most is that it was different every day and I enjoyed coming to work every day,” McClendon said. “It wasn’t monotonous, I was extremely busy,” McClendon said.

In March 2009, he was named the interim upper basin regional manager and was ultimately promoted to the position in August 2010, where he’s been ever since.

McClendon now is responsible for operations and maintenance of the Morris Sheppard Dam at Possum Kingdom Lake and the DeCordova Bend Dam at Lake Granbury - two of the three water supply reservoirs owned by the Brazos River Authority. He is also responsible for business development and community relations efforts in the Upper Basin Region including property administration and conveyance, asset transfers and acquisitions, treatment plant operations, planning and development, and flood control projects.

“His fingerprints have been on BRA’s success for years,” Collinsworth said.

During his career with the BRA, McClendon has worked on several large projects, including the decommissioning of the hydroelectric generation facility located at the Morris Sheppard Dam on Possum Kingdom Lake, the divestiture of land at PK, the divestiture of the surface water treatment system at Lake Granbury, and the conveyance of Lake Allen Henry among other things.

A lot of the work continues to follow his initial passions: construction work and constructing relationships.

“Mike’s management of BRA’s reservoirs have saved our rates payers millions of dollars, Collinsworth said. “We appreciate Mike every day.”

Managing the dams at the two reservoirs can be very different, McClendon said. Construction of the Morris Sheppard Dam began in 1938, making it much older than the DeCordova Bend Dam, which was completed in 1969.

PK Lake also has a dedicated crew of highly skilled Brazos River Authority employees tasked with extending the life of the oldest water supply reservoir in the Brazos River basin, McClendon said.

The Reservoir System Maintenance Unit, also known as RSMU, works solely to maintain the Morris Sheppard Dam and is made up of welders, painters, blasters, and concrete workers who are skilled in fabricating, coatings applications, metalizing, and heavy equipment operation, among other skillsets. The RSMU staff has proven they can repair, replace, construct, install and maintain challenging engineering projects. Due to their talents, they help the BRA save money by not having to go out to hire a firm to complete work.

“It saves a tremendous amount of money and time for the BRA,” McClendon said.

That being said, the DeCordova Bend Dam is getting older and will require more maintenance in the coming years. McClendon said work is expected to ramp up there in the next 5-to-7 years.

With that in mind, McClendon said one of his big initiatives currently is working to create a similar RSMU group for Lake Granbury. It’s a process that will take time; it didn’t happen overnight at PK when it was first formed in 1992. McClendon said he’ll work to start transitioning the existing BRA maintenance staff into a group to build a similar program.

“We have that talent at Granbury. We just have to use it,” he said.

Meanwhile, McClendon has three college tours looming on the horizon as he helps his youngest son navigate the world of university selection. His oldest son is currently flourishing at Texas A&M University. He and his wife of 30 years are very proud.