G. Chris Hartung

Chris Hartung is the owner and President of Chris Hartung Consulting, LLC.  Chris has over twenty-five years of public sector consulting experience in the areas of executive search, compensation, classification and other management consulting projects.  Chris also has almost 20 years of experience in managing in city government, including service as Director of Finance, Assistant City Manager, and City Manager in full service municipalities with populations ranging from 15,000 to 160,000.  Mr. Hartung served the City of Garland Texas for ten years, seven as Assistant City Manager, and served as City Manager of Denton, Texas for eight years.

Chris has conducted management-consulting assignments in a number of areas including compensation planning and implementation, strategic planning, organizational staffing, total quality management, and executive recruitment. His executive recruitment assignments have included chief executive officer, city manager, city attorney, assistant city manager, fire chief, director of parks and recreation, director of public works, and other key executive positions. He has written and presented training in a number of subject areas including recruitment and selection of key employees, effective performance evaluation, leadership and management skills, and customer relations in a public sector environment. Chris authored an article on local government budgeting in hard times which introduced the term “Backcast Budgeting” and which was published by the Texas Municipal League in the May 2010 issue of its magazine Texas Town & City and an article on the job interview which was published in the November 2011 issue of Public Management, the magazine of the International City/County Management Association.  In 2013, he authored an article on the history of Zero Base Budgeting in Garland, Texas which was published by the Government Finance Officers Association.

Education

Chris received his bachelor’s degree in government from Southern Methodist University and his master’s degree in public administration from the University of North Texas. He has conducted lectures and seminars for Texas A&M University, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Texas at Arlington, and the University of North Texas.  Chris is on the faculties of the Bill Blackwood Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas (LEMIT) and the Certified Public Manager Program (CPM), which is managed by the faculty at Texas State University, San Marcos.  Chris has served as an Adjunct at the University of North Texas. He has been a speaker at the annual conference of the National Society of Executive Fire Officers.