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Reyne Telles: Crafting the Message for Fort Worth

By Todd Fuqua

At its core, the art of communication is about persuasion. To persuade, you must first inform, which is Reyne Telles’ (BS 94) goal as the first-ever Chief Communications Officer for the City of Fort Worth, Texas, the 13th-largest municipality in the country. The newly-created position represents a new direction for the city regarding interaction with the community.

Reyne with Fort Worth City Council members, officials and former mayors at a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of new council chambers at Fort Worth City Hall in September.

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“I really want to focus on how the city uses two-way communication to interact with Fort Worth residents, listening to their needs and questions,” Reyne said. “We’re trying to create an environment where residents can trust that they can come and give input. Sometimes it’s tiny things, like how to create a municipal website that is easier to use.”

Prior to starting his role in Fort Worth, Reyne also worked for the City of Austin, the Austin Independent School District, and as a vice president and Public Sector Practice Leader with Cooksey Communications of Irving, Texas.

Reyne with Austin ISD television producer Bobby Longoria (center) and executive producer Tiffany Saunders (far right) at the 2019 Lone Star Emmy Awards.

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After graduating from ENMU, he worked in local broadcast news in Amarillo, Texas, first as an executive producer at KAMR-TV and later as a political reporter at KFDA-TV. These positions trained him to boil down the complicated governmental and political issues into short, easy-to-understand soundbites.

Reyne shares a moment with television personality and author John Quiñones at Dan Rather’s Austin home.

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Not long ago, Reyne finished his Masters degree at the University of Texas at Austin Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs. Attending classes on a campus with more than 50,000 students helped him realize how ENMU had been the right school to prepare him for this endeavor.

“As a first-generation college student, ENMU provided the academic guidance and financial support I needed to be a successful undergraduate student,” Reyne said. “ENMU also provided fundamental skills and experiences I believe I use to this day.”

Reyne teaching students at Gus Garcia Young Men’s Leadership Academy in Austin, Texas, to tie their ties.

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With Cooksey Communications, Reyne worked with many municipal clients in Texas on communications audits, figuring out what is and isn’t working when it comes to informing the public about such things as bond elections, infrastructure messaging and other city needs.

While with the City of Austin, the 11th-largest city in the nation, Reyne earned recognition many times from the Texas Association of Municipal Information Officers for Best Media Relations and Best Social Media. His experiences include working for Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell, who was nearing the end of his final term.

“It was supposed to be for a few months, and it ended up being much longer,” Reyne said. “I asked the mayor what he wanted to focus on in his last two years in office, and he said he wanted to be ‘fun.’”

Reyne helped arrange Austin, Texas, Mayor Lee Leffingwell’s appearance on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmell Live during Kimmell’s stay in Austin at the South By Southwest Music Festival in 2014. During a skit on the show, Leffingwell presented Kimmell with a key to the city.

Reyne with Guillermo Rodriguez of the Jimmy Kimmell show.

Being mayor of a major metropolitan city might not be fun to some, but Reyne did his best to achieve the mayor’s objective. Among the events he secured was an appearance for Mayor Leffingwell on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Kimmel brought his show to Austin for the South By Southwest Music Festival in 2014 and was given the Key to the City on the show; only after the mayor had trouble finding the exact key on a very large key ring full of keys.

With the Austin Independent School District, Reyne led communications efforts in support of 130 schools, serving more than 81,000 students. Among his accomplishments was the messaging about a successful $1.1 billion bond, the largest in Central Texas history by any public sector entity at the time.

“The school district was such a large entity. Though I tried, I knew I couldn’t possibly visit all the schools I was a spokesperson for,” Telles said. “That’s where I cut my teeth on the engagement portion of communication. If you don’t have the trust, people won’t pay attention to your messaging.”

Reyne listens as Elizabeth Powell with Sanders\Wingo Advertising speaks about Austin ISD’s efforts to increase enrollment, at a national conference of The Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS), an organization for the nation’s largest urban public school systems.

Reyne is doing much more than writing press releases in his Fort Worth position. He has oversight of Legislative Affairs and Educational Partnerships and oversees a team of like-minded professionals dedicated to creating an image of positivity and involvement with residents. That means he’s integral to city planning, funding and administration.

“It’s a hands-on position. That was the idea at inception, to have someone as a part of the decision-making process,” Reyne said. “It’s essential to have someone in there when tough decisions are made, so the message can reflect the reasons why.

“I’m glad I work with a team that understands the message crafted is important,” he added. “Whether that be information shared with employees, elected officials, partner school districts, other government entities, the public or the media. The message crafts perception. I see it as a big responsibility.”