• David Tewes •
• Originally published January 6, 2009 at 10:31 p.m., updated January 6, 2009 at 10:31 p.m.

When Benny Ortiz went to work for the city of Victoria, he didn't have plans to be around long.

"I thought I'd pick up a couple of paychecks and move to the big city, Houston," he said. "But guess what? I never left."

Ortiz will mark his 30th year in January as a city employee. It will also be his last.

The veteran city employee will be retiring and plans to take life easy for a while after one of the biggest challenges - and highlights - of his career.

Ortiz, the city's solid waste manager, helped engineer and implement the switch to automated residential garbage collection in 2008.

"We've been trying since the 1990s to go from the three-man crews to this automated system," said Ortiz, 56. "But the public really wasn't for it."

Customers were satisfied with the manual, twice-a-week garbage collection and some said they were willing to pay more to keep it.

Ortiz also saw the other side of manual trash collection. It was difficult to find and keep garbage collectors and the job was one of the most injury-prone positions in the city.

"I had confidence I'd see the whole city automated before I retired," he said. "As you know, I got to see that."

Ortiz had worked at odd jobs after being discharged from the U.S. Army in 1975. Uncles Raymond and Julian Lopez, who both worked for the city more than 35 years, encouraged him to apply for a city job.

"They said the city doesn't pay much money, but it's a nice place to work," Ortiz said. "They weren't lying."

He went to work in the Purchasing Department and later signed on with the survey crew before transferring to the Solid Waste Department.

Then-Assistant City Manager Denny Arnold was also interim director of solid waste.

"I could see really fast that Benny was a people person and a customer service person," Arnold said. "He quickly grasped the customer service program we initiated and took pride in answering customer complaints on an individual basis."

Arnold promoted Ortiz to solid waste manager because of his obvious abilities. Arnold said he has no regrets about that move.

Mike Wagner, Ortiz's previous boss in the solid waste department, said it would be difficult to find a better employee.

"I adored him," said Wagner, now the solid waste director in Abilene. "He was very knowledgeable and he wanted to learn and he learned quickly."

Ortiz took care of his employees and made sure they got what they needed to do the job, he said.

Ortiz said he had seen garbage trucks all his life, but it wasn't until he went to work in the Solid Waste Department that he understood how things worked.

His goal when he went to work for Wagner was to put his degree in business administration to work by becoming some sort of supervisor. And he accomplished that, climbing to the No. 2 position in solid waste.

"At the time when I came in, there weren't too many minorities in high positions," he said. "I've been fortunate that I've been able to climb the ladder."

Ortiz said if he had any regrets about working for the city, it might be that he didn't reach the top spot in the department.

"That's the only thing that maybe I regret - maybe," he said. "But I got close."

• A BRIEF BIO

  Age: 56

  Education: Graduated from Stroman High School in 1971 and from the University of Houston-Victoria in 1986 with a bachelor of science in business administration degree.

  Military: U.S. Army from 1972 to 1975, including a stint ...

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A BRIEF BIO

Age: 56

Education: Graduated from Stroman High School in 1971 and from the University of Houston-Victoria in 1986 with a bachelor of science in business administration degree.

Military: U.S. Army from 1972 to 1975, including a stint in Okinawa, Japan.

City employment: From January 1979 to present.

Wife: Melba Castillo Ortiz, who next year will celebrate her 30th year at Dow Seadrift.

Children: Jose Luis, 25, and Monica Elisa Ortiz, 22.

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