Conversations with City Council Candidates: Dex Ellison, District 6

Why are you running for city council?

I contemplated this decision for a while. It was a decision that was almost a year in the making. I moved here in 2010. Ever since I moved here, shortly after, in 2011 I met Diane Hervol who is the current mayor pro tem. I met her at the chamber gala. I remember being at one of the auction item tables and I didn’t know who she was. I was just talking to her about local government and how I’d always been interested in government and had never really put much of my interest locally. It’d always been on the federal level that I had interest in government and how it works. Lo and behold she revealed to me who she was and she said "Start coming to city council meetings. See how things work from that end and perhaps you’ll join a committee or something." I took her advice. So in early 2011 I started attending city council meetings and ever since then I will say I made at least one per month. With my schedule, sometimes I couldn’t make both of them. But it intrigued me. I learned a lot about the city that I don’t think otherwise I would have known about. Through that I heard about a lot of different programs the city puts on. One of which was the Kyle Leadership Academy. In late 2013 I decided to join that. I think I have one class left to go with that. It’s a great program. I would encourage as many people to get involved with that because it’s a great way to learn about local government. Not just local government but government here in Kyle which has its differences from other cities. For example, the public library is a part of local government here. So that was very informative. It really caught my attention, got me engaged. Also learned about the Kyle Citizens Citizen’s Police Academy through attending those meetings. And that’s another class I think every citizen in the city should take. It’s a great way to learn about your police department. Not only to get to meet the police officers who serve and protect our city but also learn how to protect yourself, your business and things like that. Fast forward to last year. I always have known I wanted to serve my community. I do that in a number of different ways whether it’s with the Kyle Invaders, the youth football program I am a part of. I love working with youth, young people. I come from a background of poverty where I really didn’t have many positive, especially male, figures in my life growing up. So I knew as an adult male I wanted to be that. I don’t have a wife and children so I can honestly say the community is my family. I continued to be involved in that and a number of different things. I regularly volunteer at the food bank every month. That’s been one of my favorite things to do as well. But seeing all the different things I was involved in really got me to thinking that "Dex, perhaps this is a good time to get outside your comfort zone" because I am typically a private person. I like my privacy. I live alone and my friends always ask me about that. I enjoy it. I love having my sanctuary. In my employment I am constantly around people and I love that. I love my job. I love the employer I work for. I love the fact that it’s a not-for-profit organization. I loved that they encouraged me to get out into the community. Being involved in all those things really got me to thinking maybe this is the time to pursue that. Personally, I will admit, I have had ambitions about being a representative. I think that’s a way to really serve your community. I think a lot of times folks that get into that get into it for the wrong reasons. I really, truly want to be a representative for the people. That’s why this decision has been one that’s been in the making for almost a year. I went home the last two weeks of December. I took vacation from work. I went home to my grandmother’s house and I prayed and meditated because if I was going to do this I wanted to do it for the right reasons. I wanted it to be not about me and if I was ready for it. I think it’s a huge responsibility and one someone should take seriously. Not on a whim and not last minute. So I knew after that little sabbatical, if you will, that I took in December, that this was the time for me and so on January 28^th I filed on the very first day and I’ve been campaigning ever since, walking the neighborhoods every Saturday, just anytime I’ve had outside of work to really get the pulse of the people, specifically in my district because that’s where I’m voted from, but I’ve also talked with others who are not in my district in the city or have a vested interest in the city. I’ve talked to a lot of local small business owners to get a perspective on that relationship between the city and local business and how that relationship can improve. I’m not one who is really content. I feel like contentment is a beautiful place but nothing grows there. There can always be improvements. If I’m blessed to have the opportunity to be elected to the city council I want to go on there not with my own agenda but with the thought in mind of what the residents, small business owners, the people who care about this city want.

Did you end up serving on any city committees?
No. My initial idea after getting involved with the Leadership Academy was that I would learn about the different parts of government and that would be a great way to get my foot in the door, to get my feet wet on the experience. That was my initial thought. In going through the academy, I enjoyed it. Jerry’s (Chief of Staff Jerry Hendrix) doing a great job with that. As I was going through it and seeing last May representative (Ray) Bryant step down and representative (Tammy) Swaton run unopposed … I’ve lived in District 6 the entire time I’ve lived here. I think there’s a reason why I was led to run for District 6 and not the city as a whole. It kind of reminded me of where I am from. I’m from a small town outside of Houston, Conroe, Texas. I grew up in some rough neighborhoods. I grew up in some under-served communities, where the representation wasn’t there for those communities. So I felt a bond with District 6 and the area there. Not to completely say it’s under-served, but if anyone unbiased comes into this city and looks on the west side of town and looks at how those roads are and then goes on the east side of town it’s just a different infrastructure that’s in place. You’ll see it. Like I said, I wanted to get a pulse of the residents there and see those that have been there much longer than I have. I only moved here in 2010. So after the hospital and after H-E-B came to town and that’s obviously where the population boom really happened. So I wanted to hear the voices of that population that have been here for a while, have seen that change, that were here when there were more cattle than people. So I wanted their perspective as well as the perspective of newer residents. I had my own opinions and my own perspectives but I still wanted to get others so that’s kind of been my drive.

What are you hearing when you’re talking to people?
It’s mixed. Like I said I’ve talked to people who have lived here 10 years, 20 years, even some people close to 30. I’ve talked with those who have just moved to the city that are even newer than I am. Overall, I’d say, from the responses from people who have been here the longest – I wouldn’t say there’s been so much reluctance to the growth. Yes, they kind of reminisce and miss the days of old when it was a little bit simpler here. I can understand that. That’s probably one of the reasons why they moved here in the first place. But I would say the majority of them – and of course you’re going to have your outliers – are embracing the growth. They’re embracing it, but they want their voice to be heard. They don’t want to be forgotten. For example, I talked with the owner of Hair, Etc., down on Center Street, the salon. She’s been there 22 years. She’s not a resident of Kyle but she gave me a history lesson I was thankful for. I sat down for a little while and we talked about Kyle, And the reason I bring her up is because I think she kind of summarizes the best. They’re welcoming the growth. They understand the importance of it. "But don’t forget about us" is what she said. I think that voice needs to be heard. I know a lot’s being thrown around about Kyle being a destination city, a tourist city, bringing people in. The city manager has talked of a primary lure and things like that. I think in order to do that and keep that feel you’ve got to embrace the local small business owners. You have to embrace the history of Kyle because these box stores are great, 1626 has really been built up. But people aren’t going to travel to Kyle to go to the Wal-Mart or the Best Buy, if they throw one up. They’ve got that in their own cities. The people who want those are the newer folks like me that are coming from somewhere else and are saying "I need an H-E-B here. I need a Wal-Mart." But I also want to keep in mind what Kyle was before. I really respect that. History is something I’ve always respected. That’s the way I was raised. I was raised by my grandmother so I think I’m an old soul because of that. I definitely want to champion that part of Kyle and not let that be forgotten. Like she said "Don’t forget about us." They have a voice and I want to hear that voice. I want to hear every voice possible. I was very saddened by the fact I could not make the forum earlier this month because that’s one of the things I talked about with every person I knocked on the door of. Accessibility. I want you to be able to reach out to me. That’s why I’ve given out my personal cell phone number. That’s why I’ve given out my personal e-mail address. If you have anything you want to speak to me about I’m more than willing to meet with you and that’s why I felt unfortunate I could not make that. It was something I committed to months ago I just couldn’t get out of. But I still want people to have that feeling that they can reach me and whether it’s a new resident, an old resident, a small business owner whether they live here or not – anyone who cares about this community because I do as well – I want them to be able to come to me and express their thoughts. We’re not going to always agree. We’re not always going to see eye-to-eye. But I want your voice to be heard.

You talked about preferring to run from a single-member district. Would you like all of Kyle’s city council districts to be single-member?
I wouldn’t say I’m necessarily opposed to that. I think it’s important to have different perspectives because every neighborhood has a different issue. In my district there are seven or eight main neighborhood that pop up on the map when you look at the district map. But each one of them – and I’ve been through them all – they each have their own concerns. They each have their own issues that they care about. They each have things that are affecting them that aren’t affecting the neighborhood even just down the street. Many larger cities have gone to that. Obviously they are even more diverse than this city, but we’re growing. The San Marcos General Partnerships estimates over 80,000 people here after 2030. In 17 years we’re going to almost triple in size. That’s something we need to be cognizant of. We need to keep in mind we are a growing city. It’s not a "don’t-build-it-they-won’t-come" type of thing. That’s what happened with Austin. Folks are coming to this area so let’s make the decisions now. Not just the budget-to-budget year, not just my three-year term. I want to bring to the dias a look at our future and how we can best get things in order now for when that happens because it’s going to happen. So, yeah, I would definitely hear that out. I wouldn’t say I’m opposed to that because every community has their own things they want to bring to the table. For one person to encompass all of that as an at-large candidate or representative, I just don’t think it’s doable.

Do you feel so strongly about that you would want it to be a part of the new charter that will be up for approval after the election?
I would definitely bring it up. And I would like to have a discussion about it. Absolutely. Like I said before it’s very important for everyone to feel represented. I think it’s great we have the different districts. Obviously there’s a place for that and dividing it up even more so people feel even more that they have their voice heard. One of the most frustrating things I’ve found from walking the neighborhoods is not only that people aren’t registered to vote. That’s probably the most frustrating thing. But the other thing is they don’t know who their representative is. They asked me "Who represents us now?" That concerns me. Like I said, I’ve always been interested in federal government – government on a larger scale. But nothing that’s one on a federal scale affects you as quickly as what’s done on a local scale. We get millions of people to turn out for a federal election but we can’t get 500 people in this city. It’s saddening. It really is. The decisions that are made at City Hall twice a month, sometimes more, are going to affect people probably the very next day. For people not to be engaged in that or not concerned about that, for me that’s a problem. But they don’t know who their representative is. They’ve never had a conversation – they don’t know how to get a hold of their representative. I talked to one lady in her driveway for about 20 minutes and she talked about that. She said she doesn’t know who’s working for us, who’s got our back. She had a laundry list of issues and she said she didn’t even know who to bring them to. I can hear the cry. Yes it does take an amount of responsibility on the constituents part, not only to get registered, not only to get informed and then vote, of course. But I think there can be some effort on our part as well. One of the things I remember from reading the charter was being registered 30 days before the election. I can understand the points for that. But I think in a city where our voter participation is so low that would be another thing I would bring up for discussion was decreasing that amount. Because I would love to get people registered when there’s no election involved because that just gives the idea you’re just trying to get someone elected to office. But let’s be honest, that’s when the peak interest comes. People start thinking about voting during the election process. So when that’s happening, if there’s an issue that arises them enough or a candidate arises them enough, why not make that ability to register them a smaller number? I mean whatever it takes to get folks registered and involved in the process. I would like to work with realtors. When they show someone a house and someone moves in why not have voter registration cards as part of the packet for every 18-and-older person? We’re not telling them who to vote for. This could be in July. But you’re giving them the opportunity to simply fill that out and send that in. Or maybe the city could have registration days twice a year. Go to different businesses or have some place centralized where they have voter registration cards so people could come by and register to vote. I don’t know. Something like that. We’ve got great minds in this community that we could get people interested or at least registered. That’s the first step. Getting them registered. Because I’ve talked to a number of people that weren’t and have been here for more than a year or two years. And I asked them about that. "Why aren’t you registered? Why don’t your participate in the voting process?" And I get a number of different answers. "I don’t want to be called for jury duty" and all this and it bugs me.

In order to decrease the likelihood of voter fatigue, how would you feel about moving the municipal elections to the November general election and not having a city council election every year?
It’s interesting you bring that up because when I tell people both inside and outside the city I’m running for office but they are always shocked when I tell them the election is May 9. That’s a part of that education as well. Once again, I would love for that to be brought up. If no one else brings it up, I would definitely lead the charge and bring that up. Everything should be up for discussion. As our city changes we need to review our charter. We need to review our policies, different ordinances and things because what was working before the population boom 15 or 20 years ago may not cut it now. I would like to see some data on whether voter turnout is increased moving the election to November but if cities really feel that moving it increased the number of voters than why not. I can’t stress enough: Whatever gets people registered, whatever gets people to the polls, I’ll consider it. It’s a travesty the population percentage that comes out to vote. Right now our population is, conservatively, let’s say around 32,000 now. But when you have maybe 500 show up out of that amount, that does not represent the population of Kyle. It’s the same old people going to the polls and it’s those people that are deciding what’s going on in the city. I’m not saying their vote shouldn’t be heard either but there are plenty of people in this city that have a voice as well and we need to get them engaged. My old man’s a barber or he was until he retired in Austin. I remember as a young boy going to the barber shop and sitting in there after school and listening to those men talk. I would hear them talk about everything. Faith. Politics. Sex. Doing things. It was everything. Anytime they came up with the subject of politics or government there was always the ignorance of "My vote doesn’t count" or "the electoral college doesn’t really elect the President" or whatever it may be. But even as a young boy I understood that ignorance there. And that makes even more sense in a city with lower voter turnout. I mean (council member Becky) Selberra won her seat by less than 10 votes. That proves every vote matters. Even on a larger scale, you should still exercise your right to vote. My ancestors fought and shed blood for the right to vote so I will be damned if I don’t exercise that right. Anything that get’s people interested, registered, gets them to the polls, whether that’s changing the election date to November, whether that’s having all single member district seats with just the mayor elected at-large, I’d love to hear it, I’d love to see the data on it. Always when I make a decision I want to make sure I have as many facts as possible. See both sides of the argument. But on face value I think that would be a great idea.

Did you pause at all during your decision to run knowing you were taking on an incumbent and what would you do differently than the incumbent?
I don’t necessarily say council member Swaton is doing a bad job. I just feel like much of what I’ve heard when I’ve been out canvassing the neighborhoods a representative should be more accessible and definitely be more vocal especially with the issues going on in District 6. Like I said, I’ve been attending council since 2011. I’ve obviously been there since the time she’s been on council. I saw how Bryant was when he held that seat. I’ve talked with him. He’s make himself accessible even at time when he wasn’t accessible. That’s fine. He talked to me about being in H-E-B and having a half-hour conversation in the aisle. That’s great. When you take on that responsibility you should be understanding of that. If you ask people I work with they’ll tell you "Dex is very vocal. He’ll speak up. Even if it’s not a popular opinion." I get shot down all the time with my thoughts and opinions I present to my upper management but I don’t take offense to it. If bring something up and the constituents don’t like it, great. I want to hear from them. So what I would do differently? I would definitely be more vocal on the dias during meetings. I would definitely promote my accessability. I have a full-time job. I work in my district as well. That accessability, that being vocal on the dias are some of the things I would do differently and I would be more of an initiator and not just a responder. I would not just sit up there until something happens. I’m not saying that’s what she does. I’m just generally speaking here. I’m not going to be that candidate that just sits up there until someone comes up to me and says we have an issue with this. I want to visit with you. If you have me in your home, I’ll come to your home. That’s one of the things I thought about before I decided to run because I knew it was going to be time consuming and it was going to be a commitment that was more than just me,. That’s why I thought about this for nearly a year. That’s why I knew on the first day I could file I was in for this for the people.

What steps would you take to initiate contact with your constituents?
I thought about councilwoman (Samantha) Bellows. She had those coffees on mornings every Saturday. I think that’s a great way. Definitely having an e-mail list where folks can e-mail their concerns. Some folks are not about going out in public and talking to you in person. Some people can express themselves better by writing it or texting it via e-mail. I definitely will keep my Facebook page going. I’ve already had people reaching out to me via e-mail from my canvassing. I tell them, I want to hear their concerns now and if you don’t have them, here’s my card, perhaps you will think of something later. Shoot me an e-mail. You know different things like that. You’ve got to present that to the people. Let them know these are ways you can be reached. I think if you provide them with different opportunities whether that’s in-person, or by e-mail, calling me, writing me a letter, pigeon carrier, whatever it may be I’d be open to it. Whatever the constituents are comfortable with, the residents are comfortable with voicing their concerns to me that’s what I would do.

What do you think are the top issues facing the city right now?
Definitely the growth. That’s the word out of everybody’s mouth. Like I said earlier, I feel like whenever I go a council meeting and it’s the budget meetings it’s all year-to-year, very small portions that they’re thinking of. No one’s thinking down the line. I think we need to do that. We don’t want to find ourselves in a position that South Austin is where everything is already developed and now they’re trying to go back in, put new infrastructure in the roads, get everything caught back up. I think we’re already a little behind to be honest with you. I think we’re just trying to keep pace. Some of the things I’ve heard from the local small business owners is that the city is in a reactive position. They’re not progressive. They’re mot pro-active. Every little scenario that comes up it’s "here’s what we do in this case." And it’s not always consistent. We need to definitely plan ahead, working down the line for our future, 10 plus years down the line. We’re really at a point in our city’s time line where we need to start doing that. That’s one of the big issues.

So how should the city council start doing that?
Every meeting. Bringing things to the agenda that are just not what is happening now. Yes, we’ve got a lot of work we need to do now, And there’s some month-to-month things. But bringing ideas to the agenda that put to rest that thinking. When I sit in there and listen to meetings and it’s offered about what to put on the agenda for the next meeting very few times do I hear proposals. That’s where that time is apt, We need to meet with our constituents. I think the city manager has done a great job of trying to initiate that thought process and initiate that dialogue by sending out the survey. I think he missed out on some key opinions by only doing with it with the water bill because he missed out on people in apartments. That’s where a lot of younger people live. You didn’t get the perspective of people my age or people under 40, because they way they put it out didn’t get to those people. I know they were disappointed in the response from people under 30 but that’s because the survey didn’t get to them. I had to go and ask for mine because it didn’t come to me. I know they’ve got the web site, the Style Kyle, right now. I think that’s another way to keep the dialog going. I like where the mind set is going but we just need to fine tune that process. I hear the calls for something to do in Kyle. I know a rec center is a very popular thought as well. For the kids in our city to have to go to other cities like the San Marcos Activity Center or the South Austin recs and they talk about there’s nothing to do here. I talked to some kids at the Victims Coordinator event that they had this past Sunday and there were four young men out there skateboarding. And I went and talked with them. I asked them what was something they would like to see in the city. They all said a skate park. And I agree with them. Because here they are at a busy intersection – Front and Center – and they’re skateboarding. They’re not trying to create mischief. They’re not trying to get on anybody’s nerves. But they don’t have a place to go where they can do that. I think a recreation center with skate park would provide that outlet for them. It gets them out of the way of the roads. Everybody’s kinda happy. One of the young men in that group told me he started a petition and he got signatures, He was doing it all right and he presented it and he was just overlooked. Unfortunately the youth do get overlooked in our communities. I meet with KAYAC (Kyle Area Youth Advisory Council) and that’s a great group of kids, man. I encourage as many adults to go in and sit in on those meetings. They’re not only sharp, they’re not only bright, they’re not only inquisitive, but they really have a perspective I think a lot of adults miss out on. If we’re thinking about this city as a place for people to want and go and raise their families and entice people to come to our city, I think why not get the perspective of young people. They’re the people who go off to college and will they want to come back to the city and raise their family? They’ve gotten their education, their degrees, whatever it is. Are we attractive enough to bring them back? So I think that’s reason we need to get their perspective. I am certainly a supporter of keeping them funded because I think that’s a great way to get youth involved in what’s going on in this city. I remember when they first proposed having a KAYAC member sit on the dias. I remember hearing naysayers about that. Dissension. What can be bad about a young man or a young woman sitting up there on the dias? Their vote doesn’t count. They’re getting that experience. Why are we turning our backs on kids on learning environments? I don’t understand that. But it happened and it’s great and we’ve had two great representatives sitting there on the dias. When I’ve gone to their meetings the last couple months they always get so excited and they thank me for coming. It’s like no one else attends their meetings. Why not? We need to have that support out there. Show them we care about what they’re doing and we think what they’re doing is important. They’re trying to build their resumes and these kids out there are our future. Why not invest in them?

Items like recreation canters and skate parks cost money. Hoe would you fund them, by taking money out of other items in the budget, and. If so, where, or raising property taxes?
Definitely not even the last resort would be to raise property taxes. I don’t want to do that. I know folks in the city benefit from things like this but I want to come up with unique ways of doing that. I talked with (Hays County) Commissioner (Mark) Jones a couple of months back and he talked about how he built schools without raising the tax rate. There’s a way to fund things without raising taxes, whether that’s getting the city in partnerships with companies moving here – I mean we gave Walt-Mart a tax abatement for 10 years. Get with these companies that we apparently need to have to help us finance that. There’s so many different avenues. I talked with a grant writer about pursuing a grant for that. He seemed a little pessimistic about getting a grant for that, but why not? That’s what I do all the time. I ask, ask, ask. About eight times out of 10 I’ll get told "no." But let’s exhaust all our different ways of doing funding without raising taxes. And that’s what I would do.

What are your major budget priorities?
I think we definitely need infrastructure communications systems. As our city grows, we’re already understaffed with our police department. I work with the police academy and I hear the concerns in there. We talked about this many times. We’re already understaffed for the size the city is now and we’re only growing. So we need to make sure we have the proper amount of officers to patrol our streets. That’s another thing I’ve heard out there. Folks just don’t feel like there’s any presence of police officers in our city. I’ve talked to people in Kensington Trails, I’ve talked to people in Timberwood that have vocally expressed that. That they just don’t ever see law enforcement. I’ve got a perspective, too, after going through the academy and what they do. And I’ve been on the ride-alongs with them and I see that they actually go through the neighborhoods, but a lot of people may not see that because they’re at work or what-not. So that would be a key thing. Mainly for me, it’s making sure we’re always thinking down the road. Obviously it’s important to go on a case-by-case basis, month-by-month, year-by-year. But we need to make sure we have the structure in place for down the line. I would look at every budget item in regards to how is that going to affect us down the road. Is that something we really need to invest in, invest in more, scale back more.

What’s your opinion on TIFs and PIDs?
PIDs, specifically, let me talk on that. I think they can be beneficial if they’re done the right way. You’ve got a community that really wants to get something done and the money’s not in the budget. I think then if the residents in that community feel strongly enough that they want whatever that is, PIDs can be a way of accomplishing that. You’ve taken that responsibility on to yourself and the community and they’re going to fund that. And you provide the city with those finances from the loan and you get the job done. I really don’t see an issue with that.

But the city of Kyle seems to be granting PIDs to developers.
Yeah, let me tell you, I spent my entire last Wednesday with small business owners;. I was glad that I did that. That provided me a perspective I hadn’t thought of. That past two and a half months or so since I’ve been out campaigning , I’ve heard the residents’ thoughts. And after hearing those small business owners I realized the playing field isn’t fair. Abatements are going to larger businesses and corporations. How can you do that and also talk about this being a tourist city? You’re not being unique. And the uniqueness of this city is those small business owners. Those are the people who, if anything, need a tax abatement. Nothing against the Wal-Marts and the Lowe’s. Nothing against them. I see the importance of them. I see the revenue. I see the jobs they create. Now me personally I would like to bring more businesses in here that have higher income jobs – employers that have jobs that you can raise a family on. That’s a whole other issue there. To me that reasoning just doesn’t make sense. So if I got on city council that is one thing I would really want us to take a look at is how our ordinances, how our permits affect small business owners. I’ve had some great talks. I visited with 11 different small business owners on this past Wednesday. I wish I could have done more, because each of them offered a perspective that I had not thought or. I think we need to hear from those people. I believe in the American dream but we’re crushing that American dream by making it more difficult for them to just conduct their business. This is a great spot we met at today (Ilario’s restaurant). I don’t know if you’ve heard Steve’s story, but it’s a great one. He came in with the pizza place, Panhandlers. It wasn’t very popular. You open a business, if it works, great. If competition or someone else does it better, then your business fails. That’s the way it should be. But he revitalized himself. He put out a survey: "What do you want in your city? What type of restaurant would you like to see?" Overwhelmingly it was an Italian restaurant. And here is now thriving. He’s doing better than ever. I think that’s a great story. I think that’s awesome. That’s what we need. It’s so funny when I hear people say "We need an Olive Garden here." I’ll ask them: "Ever been to Ilario’s? Try them out." I’d much rather come here. If they put an Olive Garden next to my employer, I’d still come here. I love local business. I love the fact that I can go somewhere where it’s not in every other city. When I travel places, I’m not going to go to a McDonald’s, I’m not going to shop at a certain place I can find back home. I want to go somewhere unique that even if I have to pay a little bit more, I don’t care. I want that experience. I want that welcoming feeling.

Do you think the city should invest in mass transit and, if so, what form should that take?
I’ve been to the Lone Star Rail meetings. I’ve heard the opposition to mass transit. If they build the rail from Georgetown to San Antonio – mainly Austin to San Antonio – oh, yeah, great. I could get to the River Walk. I could get to downtown Austin. I could even get to the airport if they’ve got one going out there. No problem. But I’m thinking about coming in. I’d like those people to say "I need to make a stop in Kyle because they have this." That’s the way I think about it. A lot of people don’t like the thought of people coming in, people coming in. When I was at the (FM) 150 realignment meeting the other day one person spoke up and said "Waddya all trying to do? Y’all trying to bring more people here?" It’s happening! It’s happening! I think mass transit is good for a large portion of the population. That’s another thing I’ve heard when I talk to young people. "Build it here, because I can’t get to that part of town." That’s an issue. I think we need to address that. One of the surveys KAYAC did – I’m bringing them up because I think they’re a great group – they had a survey and it asked the young people how easy is it to get around this city if you don’t have a car. That’s a question we need to address. I know we’re not very large but we’re growing. We’re getting there. If we have mass transit and that’s less people on the roads – (Interstate) 35's not going to get any better. Let’s just admit that. You can only build so many lanes. So having multiple options for people to travel, whether that’s inside the city. Obviously a lot of folks travel to Austin to work. Some even go down toward San Antonio. That would be another outlet for them to avoid that traffic. But ultimately I would like those people to have a job here in town. So, to me, it’s one of those things where we’re thinking about that, yeah. Short term solution, it gets those people to Austin where they work and then back home. Long-term solution I want those employers to be here so they don’t have to ride that rail. But I definitely think it’s a good idea. We need to definitely know how we’re paying for it, be judicious about that. But I think it’s a great idea because there’s a large portion of the populace that don’t have a vehicle or a means of getting around the city. They’re taxpayers, they’re consumers, just like you and I that have the vehicles.