Why are you running?
I am running because I feel that the citizens of Kyle have lost their voice in the City Council. I don’t think the City Council listens to what the people in Kyle want. I don’t think they listen to the taxpayers, I don’t think they listen to the workers, I don’t think they listen to the homeless and the homeowners. I just don’t think they listen anymore. The things that I hear on a daily basis being in this business is where I’m getting my information.
Do you think the reason the City Council may not be hearing them is because those citizens aren’t speaking up loudly enough? There’s pitiful voter turnout for municipal elections. Not that many people attend the average City Council meeting. Are they really attempting to make their voices heard?
I can’t speak for them. I can say from what I’m seeing, from the records that I’m seeing, no, they’re not. They’re not attending the City Council. They’re not going out and voting. They’re not speaking to the people they need to speak to. They’re kinda all talking amongst themselves. But there needs to be someone who does listen to you. Maybe we need to get out there and start beating on some doors. Get the word out that "If this is something you’re interested in, if this is something you think affects you, you need to come and speak. You need to be before the City Council giving your information. You’ve got to do something about it."
What would you do to recruit more citizen participation in the voting process and the on-going policy decisions made by the Council?
I think as far as the voting process goes, there seems to be this idea floating around about moving the elections to November. I think that’s a good idea because I think what has happened is we have too many little minor things going on all over the place and people just say "I don’t have the time" or "I don’t like dealing with that" or "It’s not going to help me." I think if we move and consolidate everything into one time, I think we’ll have a bigger turnout. I know that flies in the face of a lot of people, but, to me, as a voter, that makes sense to me. I’d rather go vote on a bunch of different things then vote here and there and piecemeal.
That’s one of the many proposed charter amendments that will be on the same ballot you will be appearing on. Do you support the other recommended changes to the charter? Is there any one specific change you don’t approve of?
I have glanced over the charter amendments and as of right now, other than the voting amendment, I would have to vote "no" on all the rest of them.
If elected, what two or three things would you like to accomplish in your three-year term?
A better transportation system for our citizens of Kyle. I think this new system we’ve just pushed through is just ridiculous. Picking up our citizens — and mainly our people that are going to be using this are senior citizens, our disabled citizens — taking them somewhere and dropping them off at 8 o’clock in the morning and not being there to pick them up until 4 o’clock in the afternoon to me is just ludicrous. I just think there has to be some way we can carry this back to the CARTS model. It doesn’t have to be through Cap Metro, it doesn’t have to be through the CARTS system, but I think if somehow we can tailor a new system that more fits into what we need to provide for out citizens.
Do you honestly think that in the city the size of Kyle there is enough of a demand for a transportation system such as the one you’re proposing? And, if there is, where would you get the money to pay for it?
Well, we had the money to begin with and it got voted out of there. I don’t know exactly how much we’re paying to the Kyle Taxi but that money could be re-diverted. It doesn’t have to be anything expensive. I’ve heard it tossed around a couple of times by clients that they would be willing to, for say $25,000 a year, if the City would provide a vehicle, they would , Monday through Friday from 7 o’clock until 6 o’clock be available to drive a vehicle around. I don’t think it has to be a $70,000 deal we get into.
What do you think the Council’s No. 1 priority should be in the upcoming budget?
The No. 1 priority would have to be, to me, lowering taxes. Taxes are getting out of hand. Like I’ve said before, I’m brand new at all of this, I’m still learning all of this but I really think we need to go back and do a line-by-line where we sit down and say "Are these options necessary?" "Do these really make a difference?" "Do we have to have an events coordinator?"
Would you support a zero based budgeting system?
I don’t know what that is. But I would do the same thing we do here in the restaurant. We sit down in November and say "This is what we’ve done in the past year. This is what we’re looking for in the budget next year. This is what our increases are going to be. This is where our expenditures are." You have to look at what you did in the past, but you also have — what I mean by line-by-line — to say "Do I need to spend $50,000 for an events coordinator? Can that money be moved somewhere else? Do I need to spend two and a half million dollars on road infrastructure or maybe can we move that somewhere else?"
What do you think of the idea of budgeting for outcomes?
It comes with the territory. If you’re going to budget, this is what you’re going to get out of it. So you have to budget so that you get something out of that at the end of that.
A major concern right now is the amount of traffic on Center Street. Most of those problems could be alleviated by spending $2 million. Would you be in favor of spending that amount and, if so, where would you get the $2 million?
Well, my first question would be "Where are we going to move that street to?" That’s the first I’ve heard of this. If we’re going to alleviate our traffic from downtown, that’s something I would like to sort of build up — our downtown — and build on what we have down there and turn that square into more of a square like you see in other little communities you have around here. I don’t think moving the traffic away from downtown is necessarily what we need to do.
Because of policies outside city government’s direct control Kyle will never be in contention to land businesses like the Amazon distribution center that recently located in San Marcos or that Samsung facility that went to Manor, of all places. But do you think the city should exert pressure to get those policies changed and, if so, what form should that pressure take?
I think we do need to look at seeing what kind of manufacturing — like those kind of deals — we can bring in. I think a lot of the problems that we have is because we don’t have the ability to expand land-wise like San Marcos has the ability to expand. They have a little more areas they can put manufacturing like that. We would have to go back in and rezone areas.
What changes would you propose to the city’s board, commission, committee structure?
I’m going to pass on that one because I would actually have to sit down and look at that. I’m just a baby at doing all of this.
Are you concerned about Kyle’s long-term sustainability?
Yes. I’m very concerned.
Why?
At the rate we’re going right now with some of things I’ve seen proposed coming in — more restaurants and hotels without any real job growth — we’re just going to get to be where we’re nothing but one giant Taco Bell-McDonald’s-Applebee’s-IHop blob on the Interstate. It’s just going to be a place for people to stop and get a quick bite to eat and not a place where people are actually going to come in and spend their money. If we don’t start bringing these big jobs in, we’re just cutting our throats.
Should the city prioritize growth alternatives it will incentivize?
Yes.
What, in your opinion, are the top 3 alternatives Kyle should concentrate on?
One would be infrastructure. If someone’s going to come in and bring in a manufacturing plant or a hotel or a large Costco’s, we could help bring in the infrastructure — the roads, the sewers — and do a tax break on the back end. Instead of giving them a tax break at the very beginning, do it five years down the road, 10 years down the road. I think we also need to capitalize on the fact that this is the quickest growing area on the I-35 corridor. If businesses want to come here, I don’t really think we should have to incentivize them to come here. I think giving tax breaks ultimately hurts the homeowners, the taxpayers because we’re the ones who have to offset that burden. Look what happened with Cabella’s in San Marcos. They got all these tax breaks and then it fell through.
Would you be in favor of, if a company gets tax abatements to convince them to locate here, they would have to pay that money back if they ever closed shop and left?
Yes.
Do you think city government should take a more active role in regional planning or is that, in your opinion, the exclusive prerogative of county government or organizations such as CAPCOG?
I really do think it can be involved in regional growth because I think it’s kind of help-your-neighbor-out situation. If Austin is planning on doing x, y and z, maybe we could find a way to tie into that and the two of us can work together. Or we can go into San Marcos and the two of us can work together instead of one entity having to put out for the whole project.
Kyle, like just about every other city of its size, assumes in its transportation planning that the private automobile is the primary means of mobility. The result is that, for many families, transportation expenses now rival housing expenses. Do you think there is a need for Kyle’s transportation planning to bring transit investment into parity with roadway development?
I think the two kind of go hand-in-hand. You have to have roads in order to have transportation. If you have transportation, you have to have roads.
But, again. isn’t that type of thinking assuming the automobile is the primary source of mobility?
In this town, right now, the automobile is the primary source of mobility.
But would you seek other transportation means?
Yes, I really do think we need either some form of light rail or buses or some other form of transportation because the roads are getting crazy.
Do you think land use patterns play a part in achieving this parity?
Yes and no, because the more densely populated the area the more traffic and congestion you’re going to have and the more needs you’re going to have for other forms of transportation besides just the vehicles.
Do you think Kyle has an air quality problem?
Yes.
Do you think that problem could be solved by having the city commit resources and personnel to organizations such as the Central Texas Clean Air Coalition?
Yes. Very much so. If we brought the truck stop into town we would be right at that line of bad air. Health issues, air quality issues, environmental issues have always been a big deal to me because I see so many people be affected by poor air quality. You’re from New York City. I’ve been in New York City. I know what that’s like. You go to California, it’s terrible. You can’t breathe out there. There have been several days when we have been dangerously close to that level where you don’t go outside and I really think we need to pay attention to that.
What are the city’s most prominent infrastructure needs?
Bringing in businesses. We need to bring in more businesses. That’s the only way we’re going to grow. I think more businesses versus more neighborhoods. I think we’re at that point where we’re outgrowing our neighborhoods and we’re building just for the sake of building but we don’t have the economy to sustain us.
Under current policy, if the city council rejects a zoning request, the applicant is forbidden to resubmit the request for an entire year. Do you think this is fair?
I would agree that that is fair. That’s a fair policy.
If the City decided to draft an entirely new Comprehensive Plan from scratch, what process would you recommend drafters take in developing that plan?
I think we have to go back and look at where we are now and where we want to be in 10, 15, 20 years. Do we want to become just a bedroom community to San Marcos and Austin or do we want to become our own entity? Do we want to start drawing in all these businesses besides just restaurants and chain stores? We need to start bringing in more mom-and-pop stores, more local stores, more Texas stores. Just go back and look at where we’re at. Look at our roadways and revisit where our roads are. I don’t think our roads have been optimized to where we put our roads. It’s "Oh, we’ve got to play catch-up here."
On the issue of roads., building new roads is expensive and maintaining and repairing those roads through the years is also going to be even more expensive. Are we just condemning future generations with an impossible tax burden and, if so, what is the solution to that dilemma?
One of the things I would like to see is when these roads are put in, we stay on top of these builders that put these roads in because a lot of times the issue is the roads were not put in properly in the first place. If you go in some of these neighborhoods on the east side, you drive through them and you go through there, you’ve got your manhole covers sticking up two or three inches above your asphalt. That tells me right there that ground base wasn’t laid properly. It really shouldn’t be the responsibility of the cities to have to go back and fix that this soon after those roads were put in. It needs to go back to the road builder. I know in Austin they’ve held a few of these builders accountable and said "No, you have to go back and fix these problems. You didn’t do it right in the first place. You have to come back and fix it."
How do you feel about single-use zoning?
I’m OK with it. I think you have to kind of look at exactly what your zoning that area strictly for. Is there any other use for it? You’re zoning it just for housing, but can you zone it for housing and for retail? You have to look at things a little bit. I think we have to stay away from single zoning like that.
Is the city doing enough to manage stormwater?
Obviously not.
Do you support the creation of a stormwater utility in Kyle and the implementation of stormwater fees to pay for that utility?
Yes, I believe that we desperately need that in light of what has happened the past year and a half — the two storms that we’ve had. It’s obvious that we are way behind in building that into our infrastructure. I think we assumed that it was never going to happen — these 100-year floods. Look, we had two 100-year floods in a year. That’s unheard of. I’ve been in Texas for 40 years and I can remember one in ‘81 and one I believe was in ‘89 or ‘90. But I’ve never seen two that were this devastating in one year like this. And I really think this means our looking at our stormwater.
Earlier in this conversation, however, you told me the council’s No. 1 budget priority should be lowering taxes. Some, if not many, could argue a fee is another word for tax. So couldn’t the implementation of a stormwater fee be interpreted as a tax increase?
It could be, but I think there’s also ways to go back and look at the way we’ve structured our water utilities and figure out a way we can maybe divert some of that money that’s being put in there for that, instead of just saying we’re going to add another three cents onto your bill or 30 cents or whatever.
The estimates I’ve heard are that, on the average, a $4-a-month fee would be added to a homeowner’s water bill to pay for a Stormwater Utility.
But anytime you look at anything like that it’s always considered in some people’s eyes a tax on things. It doesn’t matter how you word it. But at the same time you have to ask "Is that a necessary evil or something that we can do without." I think that at the point that we are at now, it is a necessary evil.
Does the city need to improve its park network?
Yes, I think so because a lot of people don’t even know where some of our parks are or that they even exist. Every once in a while I will go into the Parks Department and I didn’t realize they were upgrading Gregg-Clarke Park. And they have a brand new, I think it’s called "Neo System" that’s going in that’s inter-active. I really think if we got the word out about all these different activities like movies after dark or movies in the park, the new Neo that’s going in, we need to promote these kind of things. People don’t know they’re out there.
Do you see a need for additional pocket parks?
I’m always for green spaces. It doesn’t matter. One of the reasons I moved out here was because there’s green spaces. And I really think that needs to be taken into consideration by the development, by the builders. For X amount of land they pave over to put houses on, they need to preserve X amount of land as a park. It doesn’t have to be developed so much as a park, but it needs to be set aside as green space.
Anything you want to add that I didn’t cover?
No, I think we’re good.
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