Why are you running for city council?
Because I love my city. I have been here long enough to know some ins and outs and I would like to help out and I think I can make a difference.
In what way?
With my knowledge as a prior business owner. To me, a city should be run as a business. To me, they seem to be spending a lot and not in all the right areas. I think I can lend some foresight on that.
Where do you think spending should be adjusted?
I think they need to work more towards bringing business, industries so that the tax burden would be alleviated somewhat from the homeowners. Buda had an economic development corporation and they want out and brought in industry, the U.S. Foods, the Cabella’s and stuff like that. They had the means to do that where I don’t think Kyle has looked at that. It was all about building rooftops and so now we’re just the opposite of them (Buda), where we want industry to come. Our rooftops are here. Kyle’s going to grow. I’m about growth but we’re at a point where we should have industry that will pay people viable wages so that they can live and retain jobs here and not have to go south and north.
Would you be in favor of Kyle dedicating a portion of its sales tax to fund an economic development corporation?
If you’re not giving away that tax as an incentive to bring big box retail here, yes, I could see that. I know there’s a lot to building an economic development corporation but I think the city of Kyle is getting big enough now that we could use that in the future. Kyle’s going to grow, We’re along the I-35 corridor. Businesses will come so I don’t think it’s necessary to give too much of your sales tax back as incentives for people to come to Kyle, but I would be willing to use sales tax dollars to fund an economic development corporation. I think that would be a smart move. Kyle grew really fast and I don’t think the foresight was there to realize the impact of what was coming down as far as the water, the wastewater, the infrastructure that needed to be updated. I looked in the past whenever I moved here and they spent frivolously as far as I’m concerned and now it’s almost like we’re back paddling. There should be some viable business here besides big-box retail so that we don’t have some a huge property tax burden on home owners.
How would you go about finding that business and then convincing them to locate here?
I understand they have manufacturing type conferences or conventions you can attend to attract businesses to your city. I know city staff is planning on attending such a conference on retail in Las Vegas soon, which is fine, but what we need to concentrate on attracting is industry and I mean viable industry and manufacturing. We’re not far from the technology corridor and there’s no reason some of that could not flow down this way.
What would you do differently from the person who is now representing District 5 on the council?
I wouldn’t want to say I would do anything differently. My aim would be to become more knowledgeable on things that are coming, things people want changed. To me, you need to take the time to look, to read, to get that knowledge and then look at the whole picture. How is that change going to affect Kyle in the long term. Not just how it’s going to impact us now, but what’s it going to do in the future. So you have to weigh all those things. You have to have a little more common sense — not that she doesn’t have common sense — but common sense on how what we’re going to do now is going to impact us in the future. Here is one of the things I would look at. What’s the ordinance for developers and are they following that ordinance? One of my deals would be if you’re going to make a development here, you’re going to put in sidewalks and you’re going to put in lights. We don’t have that. We don’t have that anywhere. There’s a little bit of sidewalk going down Burleson. I see kids everyday on 2770 walking from Barton, walking from Hays — that’s dangerous highway. So that’s foresight that wasn’t utilized when they were developing that area. Now it’s developed and it’s getting more so everyday. Where are our sidewalks for our children to walk to school? Wouldn’t that save on school taxes if they didn’t have to run so many buses. Give them a crosswalk. Give them two crosswalks. Give them some sidewalks. It’s exercise. Kids need exercise today. Those are things I really want to see. Do we need to write a new ordinance to cover this or rewrite the ones we have? Why are these developers getting away with this? And why are the streets so narrow everywhere you go? It’s little things like that, but it’s also big things. I don’t want to step on somebody’s toes and say you’re not doing this right but I want everybody’s input. Don’t you agree we need some sidewalks around this town? I think they’re going to put some in on Bunton when they start redoing that, then I heard they were going to stop at Lehman Drive and not taking out that huge curve. So what is that going to do for those kids? Hopefully they’ll put some sidewalks down Lehman Road for the people who live in Steeplechase and those neighborhoods down there.
The Planning and Zoning Commission recently recommended relaxing the city’s landscaping ordinances. How do you feel about that?
I would not be for that. We want our city to be nice and attractive. Why would they want to relax that? To me I look at a city and ask myself "It is pretty? Do I like it?" Yes, I like Kyle and that’s one of the things that brought us here, just the beauty of the landscaping, so I would not be for that.
What are the best, most efficient ways for a council member to have ongoing communications with his or her constituents?
E-mail. There are only so many hours in a day so I think constituents can come before the council and make their three-minute presentation if there was something on their minds. Between that, e-mail, a telephone call and leaving a message and I would return a person’s call.
How do you feel about town hall meetings?
I’m for those. I think it would help get people out. People today are so busy, but I would give something like that a try, certainly. You would have to give those meetings time to grow. What day would you have it? Evening or afternoon? You have to factor in a lot of things to make meetings like that work. But if would give you the opportunity to inform citizens about what’s coming up, what’s going on, how do you feel about that.
How important do you think town hall meetings might be during that six or so week interval between the time the city manager unveils his proposed budget and when the council votes on its final passage?
I think that would be awesome. I think the citizens need to become more involved with who they vote in because it is a non-paying position. Maybe that would bring out more people to vote if they had some means with which to reach a council person through a town hall meeting like that. That would be awesome. I would be all for that.
What are the top issues facing the city right now?
The roads and why they haven’t started construction on them. The re-doing of wastewater, sewage and pipes in Old Town Kyle — I think that’s a huge thing, too. I don’t know where the city is with their lawsuit with Aqua Texas and the wastewater. But I know that the preliminary budget has $500,000 for a fix and then they set aside $2 million and something to totally re-up it. That’s a small fix because eventually we’re going to need another (wastewater) plant. Where are you going to put it and why are you spending all that money on that particular plant?
What do you think of the city manager’s desire to make Kyle "a destination city"?
I am undecided at this point in time. Here’s what I think Kyle has to offer. We’re going to be the medical hub between Austin and San Antonio. We have awesome medical facilities coming here. I think that’s awesome. Our population is older — not just in Kyle, but the population generally is getting older. If you have good medical facilities, people are going to come. We’re not a medical destination, yet, but it’s coming. That’s my personal opinion. In order to be a destination, you’re going to have to build some more hotels. I understand he wants something bigger. He came from Kilgore where they have the Kilgore Rangerettes. That’s huge. He’s right. We don’t have anything to make us the destination but I’m not sure I would spend a lot of taxpayers’ money researching that out. I think it just needs to come naturally and then build on it. We can’t just put a river through the town and try to become another San Antonio. We are on the way to the Hill Country and it’s beautiful. I think Kyle is pretty. If you’re wanting to be a destination and if you’re wanting to put loops around this city — as the county is trying to do — what’s gonna stop ‘em? Then what’s going to get people to stop here? I think the beautification of downtown has definitely fallen through the cracks.
Would you accelerate that?
I would. Now I don’t know if we have the money to do it or if the city would be willing to spend the money to do it but certainly think there are things to be done in the future as people leave.
What are some of the things that could be done to downtown?
I think they are giving money to refurbish buildings. I wouldn’t have wanted that Auto Zone that’s right there. That Auto Zone, to me, is not attractive. There’s nothing pretty about that, especially that close to the train depot. I think they could not have put that building there and utilized that as park space and then have your train deport there and perhaps brought in a museum. But there was no foresight going into those decisions.
What do you think of the idea to restructure the city’s board/commission/committee format?
I think some of that is good because I think we did have an abundance of committees. And I understand that input from the citizens is good. But it seems like it’s always the same people appointing the same people to these committees. It comes across as cronyism. What’s the city staff doing? Why aren’t they researching things and bringing things to the council? Doesn’t it have enough manpower? Instead of giving it all to your police department, you might want to think about hiring some more efficient people who have foresight. You don’t have to have a committee for every little thing that goes on in your city. I think you need to pick and choose and then when somebody sits on that committee then the next year get someone else to sit on that committee. There are a lot of people who don’t want to take the time out of their schedules to serve on committees and that’s why you get the same old people just moving from one committee to the next. So you’re never getting any new input, new ideas. Look, P&Z recently voted to change the zoning on property on the I-35 frontage road south of Kohler’s Crossing from agriculture to warehouse. Did P&Z do any due diligence about what the developers wanted to put on that land? Do you really think warehousing on the frontage road is going to bring you any sales tax dollars? They don’t think about things. You should zone that for retail that will bring you city sales tax. A warehouse is going to give you some property tax but no sales taxes. We need that property tax AND that sales tax. So that committee didn’t do its due diligence as far as I’m concerned. Fortunately someone woke up on city council and said "we don’t want warehouses there." You think? They already destroyed downtown. An auto store is not going to make us a destination. They should have thought about that. I like the idea of beautification of downtown. I think that could be viable. But we still have people in this town that are so old school you’re going to be hard-pressed to get them to do anything around that downtown square. But back then we were too busy buying trolley cars and sending the city manager and his right-hand man to Georgia and everywhere else they wanted to go. The ramifications are coming for what happened in the past. They’re seeing it, but they’re not seeing it to the extent that I‘m seeing it, being from a business background. I understand the needs and the wants but we have to separate the needs from the wants. I want a lot of things for my business, but we set goals concerning what we can afford. I think that’s part of the city’s problem. Let’s take a closer look at the city’s budget. There are things last year where I was going "Why are you doing that?" Why do we give $5,000 to the greater San Marcos whatever? What have they done for that $5.000? Nothing. Why do we want to give $50,000 to Lone Star Light Rail when they’ve done nothing? Their website is from 2000. Why do you want to hand somebody money that could be going for something else? But they don’t think about that. They see visions of rail stations. Look, that’s not happening in my lifetime. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that’s the truth. Besides, I could drive to South Austin cheaper than I could take a train.
Along those lines, does Kyle need to look into any forms of mass transit?
The mass transit that I would like to see is Metro coming out of Austin. Make a deal with Metro. Lone Star Light Rail is never going to move the railroad tracks. You’re never going to get the domain to put it on the east side. It’s just not going to happen. People can make other people believe this is going to happen. But it’s not going to be in my lifetime. As of right now, what would be wrong with Metro coming? You go to Southpark Meadows. Why not come another 10 miles. If I didn’t have to drive into Austin and I wanted to catch a bus to go somewhere in Austin I would certainly do it. I used to ride the bus in Austin, years and years ago. But it took me right where I needed to go. I think there are other means of transportation and mass transit. Then you have to think about this: Texas is Texas and we’ve always driven. When we want to get from Point A to Point B, we want to do it in our own vehicle on our own times. So what do you do? You build roads. Then the roads get more congested. And, sure they’re planning on widening I-35, but all those new lanes are going to be used up. It doesn’t matter how many lanes they widen to, they are going to all get filled. So you have to learn to live with what you’ve got and sometimes I think our younger generation doesn’t get all that.
How do you feel about increased density in housing/business for Kyle?
People want to work, eat, sleep all in the same place, Look at the newspaper here. They bought that corner building, redid it and put those apartments on top. Then you had somebody who owned a lot a couple of lots over and they wanted to build a duplex and the city turned them down. It was two families fighting over a two-story building. Why can’t you build a two-story duplex? Who cares, especially if you’re going to landscape it and make it nice? It’s density for downtown and wouldn’t that be awesome to build a miniature density downtown where people can walk, bike and shop. So maybe the city manager ought to look at that for a destination. It was in the plans they were going to do that off of Kohlers Crossing on the side opposite of Plum Creek. Behind where that new veterinarian’s office is supposedly was going to be a town center with living, retail, hike ands bike, etc. I’m sure that’s still in the plans. Whether or not it will ever happen Is still up in the air. I would hope that it would. There’s going to be retail past the fountains. The signs are up for that being retail. 1626 is going to be a retail corridor. And it should be. You’ve got the schools there and those kids should be able to walk and get themselves an ice cream or whatever. Downtown Kyle should be the same way. They’ve got a school down there. They’ve got the library. But at what expense? But I would love to see something like that because you get a return on that investment. But are they willing to do that now?
What do you think about TIFs and PIDs?
I don’t know that much about TIFs, but a PID could be OK if the developer and the city wrote the contract together and established the contact and it wasn’t just the developers side. Obviously the developer wrote the one for Bunton Creek. Obviously that was kind of a cluster mess up. I think if you’re going to do something like this you need to figure out how to do it right and make sure your plans are in order in order to collect that money and in order to assess those fees and in order for those homeowners to know what they’re getting into.
As a resident of Plum Creek, you are familiar with roundabouts. How do you feel about roundabouts in general and specifically one to replace the four-way stop sign at Kohlers Crossing and Kyle Parkway?
I don’t mind the roundabouts in Plum Creek. To put one at such a huge intersection as that, I would really have to look at what the design would be before I could really answer that. It would have to be designed in such a way so that a school bus can get around that roundabout because that is a huge intersection. Show me a design where a school bus is going to be able to make that along with Metro if they come Along with all the cars. I have only seen roundabouts in Plum Creek and they are little ones. Right now I’m for a red light at that intersection and I want it right now. You’ve got 300 apartments coming in, you’ve got ACC there, you’ve got another 1,500 homes coming. You better do something.
How do you feel about spending money on items some might describe as frivolous such as art in public places?
Depending on the amount, I don’t know if I would have a problem with that. But with the civic groups that we have and the ones that are up and coming that could be something they could work for and help fund, So I don’t think it all has to be on the city’s side.
How do you feel about the current council makeup of three single-member districts and three at-large districts?
It would be fairer to have all of them at-large districts because you shouldn’t be working just for one district, you should be working for the city as a whole.
How do you feel about having city council elections every year?
That would be a good change. Here’s what I think. If I was to win a three-year term, I think I could make a difference in three years and then I would be ready to forego it and pass the hat. But everybody’s terms should start and end at the same time. There should be term limits as well. Two terms or six years is plenty. I don’t think you need to be there nine or 12 or however long we have some of them there.
What specific changes would you like to see made to the city charter?
Moving the city elections to November, having all the council terms start and end in the same year and setting the two-term limit. That would be huge.
Would you be in favor of changing the city charter so that the mayor and city council members receive a salary?
Yes. If the positions were paid, the council members would be able to take the time to do their due diligence more and you would have more qualified people doing better work for the city.
Would you be willing to go before the charter commission to make that recommendation?
Absolutely.
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