Why are you running?
I am running because for the last six years there have been different issues that just have not been resolved to their fullest and I continue to believe there is still work that needs to be done. And I feel that I can make an impact and focus on those issues.
What are some of those issues?
There are some issues in regards to luring employers into the city limits of Kyle. I think we need to adopt more of a policy in regards to keeping as much of our resources within the city limits and become self-contained not only with major employers but with a transportation program and making sure that we’re reaching all citizens not just some. We’re in a particular time in which we’re having new residents move in and, of course, we have those who have been here many years. There are different things that need to be addressed like the wastewater, the water, infrastructure, etcetera.
You brought up bringing new businesses so I am going to ask you a question now that I was originally planning to ask later. 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 new 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 certainly think we can play a major role in changing those policies. Here again this is something that is probably going to need more of a detailed approach. You’re not wrong. We’ve been sidestepped many times because of for whatever reason, whether it was because we could not provide the economic incentives, because we don’t have a 4B corporation (EDITOR’S NOTE: a corporation funded by a municipality using sales tax funds to pay for industrial development projects such as business infrastructure, manufacturing and research and development) or because we don’t own land ourselves, etcetera. There are some pros and cons to having a 4B corporation, but I truly believe that if we had that 4B corporation in place we could be a major player and perhaps be able to make more of an impact on how those dollars will be spent and what we could spend them on and whether or not we could lobby for certain legislation. But I could only imagine if Cedar Park or Leander or those areas are becoming more and more developed, people are going to start looking to the south. And I think we’ll be in a very good position at that time.
What two or three things would you like to accomplish during your three year term?
First of all, infrastructure for me is huge. It’s going to be the basis of what our city is built on — that’s wastewater and water. I truly believe we have water resources secured for the next 20 years. However, I’m concerned about our wastewater and the infrastructure foundation Kyle is laid on, especially in the downtown sector. I would like to see more improvements done. 2010 was probably when we first passed the southside sewer line. I think that will only open that end to more viable business solutions to come in and be a part of Kyle.
What is the city council’s No. 1 priority in the upcoming budget?
Infrastructure, of course. Now that we’ve purchased the sewer plant and that’s going to have a major impact on our budget to make sure that we have the proper personnel and what the future will hold as far as expansion and what those needs will be. I also think road maintenance. We really need to have more of an emphasis on road maintenance and the infrastructure that has been laid by certain developers within these subdivisions and making sure we’re making the investment to maintain them. I also think that safety is a concern whether it’s with the police department in regards to making sure we have the manpower to ensure the citizens of Kyle are protected. I would like to see more patrol in my next three years and within this next budget season. And to make sure we are meeting the needs of our citizens. The city manager is going to put out a survey. It will be interesting to see what comes back from that survey. I’d like to encourage all of our citizens to make sure that they participate in that survey because that’s what staff tends to look at as far as recommending different budget priorities. But I would be concerned more with the overall infrastructure.
You mentioned more police patrols. Would that take the form in your vision of more police in cars, foot patrols, bicycle patrols?
When I first moved here, I went to Target and I left the sun roof on my car open and there was a note thrown in the car saying "Hey, you might want to consider not doing this in the future because it invites some sort of theft." That was nice to have at that particular time. We used to have the bicycle patrols during the holiday season within the Kyle Parkway corridor. I’m not sure there’s the manpower that can continue to do that type of thing. But when I did move here for the first time I saw a police car several times a day. I don’t see that now. And so I would like to see that more. We’re having more and more subdivisions who are having to hold and create neighborhood watch programs and to make sure that they stay vigilant. I’m not saying that they should become lax in those responsibilities. I’m saying the reinforcement of having the police within the neighborhoods and seeing them more often is essential.
In Dallas, where I recently moved from, they have a program called VIP, or Volunteers in Patrol. The program is designed to reduce crime by having citizens patrol their own neighborhoods in their own vehicles and reporting any suspicious or criminal activity to the police by calling 911. To be a VIP member, a citizen must be a member of an established crime watch group who has successfully completed a VIP training program conducted by the Police Department. Would you support instituting a similar program in Kyle?
Of course I would. I tend to feel that would be something in addition to the Citizens Police Academy, perhaps another level of it. Yes. Of course. I think having the citizens involved in whatever way possible is really important throughout the city. So if they were involved in patrol or in what-have-you, that would be very important.
Do you think the city should adopt a zero-based budgeting system?
Yes. We’re really moving towards making sure that we’re budgeting not only for our existing needs but a few of our CIP projects and making sure we are taking care of what is necessary for our citizens to maintain quality of life.
How do you feel about budgeting for outcomes?
I would have to do some research and discovery to really make sure I understand that fully because I would be concerned with when anticipating certain outcomes within the city — in particular, we having rising manholes, especially on the east side. Would we be focusing on that whereas we have citizens in the downtown sector who are seriously complaining about the fact that they don’t have water pressure? What is the priority and who would determine that priority? In which instance would it be better suited for which particular item to be taken care of within that particular budget year. I would need more information to better understand whether or not there was enough income to make sure each one of those issues was resolved to its fullest.
Everybody talks about the amount of traffic on Center Street. Most of that traffic could be alleviated by spending $2 million. Do you think the city council should approve a $2 million item to fix those traffic problems as part of the fiscal year 2016-17 budget and, if so, where should that money come from?
No. I think there are some other remedies. There used to be an old town advocacy group. I could see us re-igniting that group and getting some citizen input into how they think the traffic could be alleviated and whether or not they think that switching station is the outcome. It’s my opinion that if we hear more from them and perhaps those in Hometown Kyle because they’re coming through downtown to get out there. I’d actually be interested in hosting a town hall on that particular subject.
Along those lines, what changes would you advocate to increase citizen participation in municipal government?
As a council we need to be more objective on how we are involved within the community. I think each one of us has a certain responsibility as being an elected official that we should step up. The more that we’re involved with the community, I think the more the community will be involved with us. And we’ll hear from them. I’m not opposed to doing additional town halls. I’m not opposed to offering different kinds of forums whether it be social media, whether it be through city staff, or holding them on my own. I’m not opposed to that at all.
What additional changes would you propose to the city’s board, commission, committee structure? In your opinion, is someone appointed to a city board, commission or committee answerable to the city council member who appointed that person? How much influence should council members have over board, commission, committee members?
I think the committees as a whole if they have the objective and the right description of what their mission is, I think their allegiance should be to what that mission is. It’s not necessarily to that council member who appointed them. I certainly do not want anyone to feel that if I was to appoint them that they have that particular type of pressure. I like more citizen input. I like to hear from my citizens because it gives me the basis of whether or not I’m making an informed decision. The more I hear from my citizens, the better I feel. Recently, we’ve had different types of hot topics. And we get quite the citizen input. And that’s what makes your job a little bit easier as an elected official when you hear from your constituents. In what we have in the current committee structure I’d like to see something a little bit different. We’re offering more actual options to our citizenry as to how they can get more involved.
So what type of options should be offered?
We have a lot of different topics going on and we have yet to create an ad-hoc committee on any of those hot topics, whether it’s a public works item, whether it’s road maintenance, whether it’s purchasing — the purchasing of the sewer plant was probably one of the better options — but there are things we need citizen input on that we have yet to create an ad-hoc committee on. We haven’t done it.
The mayor recently said he would like to see if joining the Clean Air Coalition might adversely affect economic development. He referred that to the Economic Development Committee. Do you think that was a topic that should have been considered by an ad-hoc committee?
Possibly. I wouldn’t be opposed to it. But whether or not it affects economic development I think we can reach out to our neighboring cities and see how it affected them, whether there was a bad impact or a good impact. I think we’re the only city within so many miles that’s not participating. I think we’re one of two. Yes, that’s something that possibly could have been referred to an ad-hoc committee because I understand the Economic Development Committee has tabled it. They, too, need to be brought up to speed as to how it will affect us. But I would be interested to see what was the impact of adopting and joining the Clean Air Coalition among other cities surrounding us. What impact did it have on them?
Are you concerned about Kyle’s long-term sustainability?
Yes, to a certain extend. I want to make sure that we’re putting things now into effect that’s going to have a direct impact on our long-term sustainability. That is, for me, attracting businesses to help with our financial viability. Not only that, but making sure we’re making solid decisions on our wastewater plant and our infrastructure.
Should the city prioritize growth alternatives it will incentivize and, if so, what, in your opinion, are the top 3 alternatives Kyle should concentrate on?
I’d like to see something that would incentivize employers that would employ some of our local citizens or a major employer. I would incentivize something like that to a certain extent. You have to understand the economic ramifications of how that will impact our current citizens and then go from there. But that is something I would put as a top priority to incentivize.
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 think, of course, we have to worry about planning within the city limits. However, it doesn’t hurt to make sure we’re reaching out to some of these regional providers and making sure that we’re understanding what may be on the horizon that we could take advantage of. I’m certainly concerned sometimes that we are getting to the point where we might be participating in certain organizations but not receiving the full benefit of our participation within that group. And I want to make sure that if we’re participating through tax dollars, we’re getting the actual benefit from it.
In your opinion, does Kyle have a transportation problem and, if so, what specifically is that problem and what actions should the city take to remediate those problems and how important is it you that those actions should be contextually appropriate?
Oh, yes, We have many of our citizens who have to leave — whether they’re going to San Marcos or San Antonio or Austin — to seek employment. I think that if we had a major employer here within the city limits that could reduce the actual amount of traffic at different times. I’m disappointed in regards to the light rail although I do believe it was quite expensive. I would like to see some sort of other viable solution come up in whether or not we could participate in something like that. Our transportation within our city — I would not only like to see all sorts of housing but we also need to make sure we’re reaching out to our constituents at whatever age level they are as to whether we’re meeting their transportation needs.
I have referred to the latest transportation plan presented to the city as a roads plan, not a transportation plan. It assumes the only viable transportation alternative is the automobile and for those citizens having to work in Round Rock or Georgetown or San Antonio, their total automobile costs are rivaling their housing costs. How do you deal with that?
Again, if we look at attracting a major employer or we’re participating in some form of mass transit in some form or fashion that may resolve some of those transportation issues. But you’re right, Pete. We have 10,000 homes projected to come in. We have two or three subdivisions coming in that have already started building not to mention all the subdivisions that are still building homes. We’re going to have so many rooftops within the next year or so and building this way is going to continue. How are these people going to get from Kyle to wherever they’re going to go? It needs to be seriously looked at because otherwise it’s going to be gridlocked. I go into Austin once a week. I used to travel to Far West and Mopac. Last June my employer actually looked into moving closer to Kyle or within the Kyle city limits. The price of office space was something that did not meet our needs at the time and so we ended up going into South Austin. However, I do have to travel to different locations within the state. And when I travel outside of Austin and in an automobile I’m stuck within the gridlock. And whether it’s going to Austin or going to San Antonio — San Antonio is getting the same way to a certain degree. So if there were other options — to take a train — I would certainly look at that.
You spoke about the problem of Kyle maintaining its roads. But now you’ve just discussed all these new subdivisions that are going to require new roads that at some future point are going to have to be maintained as well. Are we just creating a giant pyramid scheme here?
(Laughs). When you look at this — the rooftops — I think are going to come. They are going to come no matter what because when you look at the picture of how many people are moving here a day — it changes daily — according to the Chamber of Commerce one day it’s 30, one day it’s 40 — I don’t know how many. A lot of that population is going to move south. More and more, Kyle is going to be like that because we’re not too far away from certain things and the different options we have for mobility and by that I mean the different avenues we have to get into the city limits of Kyle or just the fact of where we are strategically located. I think we’re at a great place for an employer just because of our location to 21 and the tollway. I hope when these rooftops are being built hopefully it will be at what capacity that they will be built as to whether or not the infrastructure can keep up.
What are the city’s most prominent infrastructure needs? Which of those needs are of immediate concern? What do you see as the source of the money that will be needed to address those concerns?
Wastewater is just as high ranking as maintaining our roads. Wastewater infrastructure is expensive. However, maintaining our roads is to me the basis of infrastructure whether it’s wastewater infrastructure or water infrastructure or road maintenance infrastructure, that’s the basis of what this town is going o be made on. And that’s the basis of what are citizens are going to look for as the type of services in addition to police. That’s the basis of what we’re going to make sure that we’re going to be maintaining for our constituents.
Is the city doing enough to manage stormwater? Do you support the creation of a stormwater utility in Kyle and the implementation of stormwater fees to pay for that utility?
I’ve been a proponent of a stormwater utility and I’m hoping it will be fine-tuned and we will have citizen input. The more citizen input we have on it — we just experienced on Halloween 2015, we experienced a horrendous flood here, it was a 700-year-flood. There are some serious areas within the city of Kyle that were flooded. And I think the basis of some of that flooding was because of drainage ditches and/or retention ponds. Whether they were built to a certain capacity or not or the growth that is surrounding some of these subdivisions that are supposed to be maintained by some of these subdivisions, those subdivisions and/or the HOAs within those subdivisions weren’t aware of the requirement to maintain those particular drainage ditches. I just think drainage is not a landowner/HOA issue. In my opinion, drainage is a city issue and I think the city should maintain it.
Do you support the proposed charter changes that will be on the May ballot? What additional changes do you think need to be made to the charter?
I am not in favor of all of them. I’m not in favor of changing the elections to November. I’m not in favor of changing who the finance director reports to. I think we need to look at those charter amendments carefully as to how they will affect the future of the city and the Council.
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?
No, not necessarily. I think I would look more towards what are other municipalities doing in regard to similar zoning types and whether or not that is something we would be interested in adopting in the future. Kyle is growing and along with that growth there are certain decisions that need to be made as to whether or not the way we handled certain different types of zoning issues in past should be handled differently in the future.
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 would make sure they are enlisting the assistance of consultants, for sure. And I would make sure that we have an on-going maintenance program set up with that consultant for the five years. As the city changes we’re also implementing whatever those changes within the Comprehensive Plan as time goes on. I think that’s one of the things we didn’t do with the prior Comprehensive Plan. I want to make sure that our citizenry is continued to be included. I think as changes are made, as the different viable solutions to whether it’s a major employer or what-have-you that would be attracted to Kyle it’s great to make sure that we have our citizens informed and they are playing a part in that Comprehensive Plan.
But, at least to me, in Kyle it means the same group that comes out every time to voice their opinion, but the overall voice of Kyle is not heard because, for whatever reason, they choose not to voice an opinion. So how to you prevent the voice of a small but vocal minority inserting its will on the citizens as a whole?
I think that goes back to the long-range planning committee. That’s the one committee I would consider — whether it’s long-range—I think they had a five-year commitment. It’s not necessarily about the five-year commitment but it’s necessary about the people that were involved in that long-range planning because there is historical information that is in those particular committee members that has an affect. It’s valuable information that others need to be made aware of. And that’s the part that doesn’t get disseminated. We need more solutions in the sense that if we’re going to have citizenry input how are we going to reach more of the mass and less of the select group. I think we need to look at that differently in the sense that when you’re appointing people should you do it through a committee or what-have-you or through our communications specialist that you’re pushing it consistently whether it’s through social media, whether it’s through the press or whether it’s on the website. You’re offering all these different venues and hoping somebody is subscribing to one of those.
How do you feel about single use zoning?
I guess I really don’t have an opinion.
Does the city need to improve its park network and, if so, how?
Parks and rec is always an added benefit to any community and I think that our Parks and Rec Department does a very good job. Part of making that particular department very successful is that the parks need to be maintained. We’ve gotten more compliments in the past few years as we’re slowly but surely bringing those parks back to life and maintaining them. One of the things that I think is truly an added benefit to a community is their parks. People like to take walks. They like to get out in the sun. Hike and bike trails. There was a plan talked about many years ago to be able to connect all the neighboring communities, the neighborhoods. And I think that would be beneficial either through walking paths or bike paths. I think it would be beneficial not to have to walk on a major artery to get to the next community.
Do you think all the new subdivisions you talked about earlier should be required to include some kind of park space, even if it’s just a pocket park or some open area where families could gather?
I do. It’s beneficial to the community some sort of area where people can relax, have some sort of recreational type activity happening in the greenspace area, whether it’s through just a walk or playing basketball, what-have-you. I think getting the community out to a central location is beneficial and I think the residents that live there and have children I think they would be less concerned about their children if they were just going a certain distance within that subdivision instead of going from one subdivision to another. When I was little and my mom called me you could hear her and you came running because dinner was ready. Like here, we have two areas now that provide recreation for our subdivision and I think it’s beneficial that the kids are staying within the subdivision for that particular recreation.
Anything else you’d like to add?
I’m looking forward to serving the citizens of Kyle for another three years and I think that I’ve learned a lot in the last six years and I think I’ve been real consistent in my decision-making and I hope to serve the citizens of Kyle for another three years.
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