Bob Harvey officially began serving as Magnolia's city administrator on July 14, following an offer extended by the City Council after its June 9 meeting. Harvey's professional background includes executive operations, supply chain management, logistics and manufacturing restructuring, contract negotiation and oil and gas operations. He has also served on multiple boards of directors and previously ran for Montgomery County Precinct 2 commissioner.

Harvey's priorities regarding the challenges facing Magnolia include:

• An internal priority to address high turnover by building a firm foundation for city employees.

• An external priority focused on transparency and building relationships with homeowners through workshops and meetings with HOAs.

• Managing rapid growth by getting the city, residents and developers to work together.

• Addressing infrastructure lag, roads, traffic and drainage, which previously led to a building moratorium because the city ran out of water.

• Standardizing water plants that currently use different software, valves and pumps.

The Italian cuisine chain Olive Garden is set to open a new location in Tomball on Oct. 26.

What's on the menu: The new Olive Garden is opening within the Grand at 249, which is a 450,000-square-foot mixed-use development space. The restaurant is known for its breadsticks, soup, salad entrees and assortment of pasta.

The development is set to be completed in 2027, and Olive Garden is one of many restaurants that have leased space within the development.

Some Texas Republican leaders have vowed to get rid of the property taxes that homeowners pay to their local public school districts, and lawmakers are analyzing how much it would cost to do so.

The big picture: Texas school districts collect about $29 billion per year in maintenance and operations taxes, which cover schools' daily expenses.

Of that $29 billion in school tax revenue, the state comptroller's office estimates that about $8.6 billion is paid by homeowners, and the rest comes from commercial and industrial property taxes.

This means the state would need to spend at least $8.6 billion annually to zero out homeowners' school property tax bills, officials said.

Quote of note: "Broadly speaking, you have a question about how much you want to fund schools, and then separately, where does that money come from?" Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath said during a Sept. 15 legislative hearing. "If you have a target of how much you want to spend, you need to make sure you have enough variable revenue sources to reach that."