Early voting for next month’s city council election begins today. The two council seats being contested this year are the at-large District 5 seat, currently held by Mayor Pro Tem Rick Koch, and the single-member District 6 position held by Michael Tobias. Both Koch and Tobias are seeking re-election to second terms on the council. Tobias doesn’t have an opponent. Three persons filed to challenge Koch in District 5.
I sent a five-item questionnaire to three of the four candidates in the District 5 race: Koch, Daniela Parsley and Donny Wills. I tried several times and failed each time to reach the fourth person who filed, Leah Kaufman. To be frank, I’m not certain this person even exists. She has not made an appearance at any candidate forum. I was told that a float bearing her name was included in the recent Founders Day Parade, but no one with her name was on the float. So there’s that.
Here, in the alphabetical order of the respective candidate's last name, are the responses I received from the other three District 5 candidates:
Rick Koch
1. What are your qualifications for serving on the City Council?
I know what I don’t know.
The truth is, we often elect local representatives to make big decisions that impact our quality of life who don’t know enough about how their city functions, and base their decisions on personal experience.
While serving on the Planning and Zoning Commission for two years, a city-appointed board that studies and recommends changes in our land use matters, I learned there is a lot a city council member should know before starting their service. An unwise city council can do a lot of long-term damage. I’ve heard many former council members explain that once they figured out what was going on, they spent their time and taxpayer money fixing the mistakes of those who came before them, and then their own.
This year the City of Kyle has a $172 million budget. When people say that being on council is a heavy responsibility that is not an overstatement.
If you’re not aware of your limitations, of what you don’t know, or where to look for the best answers, you’re going to make bad votes that have a lasting impact in a way you didn’t intend.
2. What changes in the way the city prepares its annual budget would you support?
The budget is a road map of what we as a city plan to accomplish in any given year. I have seen the city benefit from starting the budget process earlier in the year, as we have the last two years. The council has added several more meetings to allow for better planning, setting of priorities, and execution once approved.
That was evident this year with road planning during the budgeting process. Council is moving forward to approve plans for the engineering of 13 new road projects. They encompass all areas of the city and range from Old Stagecoach Road and Center Street to Bebee Road and Windy Hill. Being a proactive city by better understanding our goals during budgeting is resulting in moving many long ignored projects along.
3. Here, listed in alphabetical order, are eight areas municipal governments can focus on: (1) Economic Development; (2) Environment and Sustainability; (3) Government Performance and Financial Management; (4) Housing and Homelessness Solutions; (5) Public Safety; (6) Quality of Life, Arts, and Culture; (7) Transportation and Infrastructure; and (8) Workforce, Education, and Equity. Please rank them in the order you think the Kyle city government should consider most important through least important and briefly explain why you ranked them in the order you did.
Safe neighborhoods, green space and attention to infrastructure and traffic congestion are my priorities. While serving as mayor pro tem, I’ve led Kyle to become one of the safest cities in Hays County, reallocated spending and invested heavily in infrastructure, roads, park land and public safety.
Due to our rapid growth, like it or not, we must concentrate on all areas to protect and improve our quality of life. What is important to our city’s long term prosperity is finding ways to fund our growing needs through business growth and economic development. It wasn’t until recently that our sales tax revenue finally surpassed our property taxes. That’s a good direction for us as a city to stay focused on for the betterment of everyone.
There are several public improvement projects under construction right now in Kyle. They are the result of uniting our city leadership, so instead of kicking the can down road we identify and fix the problems now!
4. List the names of four persons born on or after Jan. 1, 1900, you would place on a political Mount Rushmore.
I don’t spend much time admiring nationally known political figures. My Mount Rushmore would probably be more local and reserved for people belonging to Team Kyle — the people who’ve mentored me, work with me, and challenge me to make the most of my time on city council.
The Mount Rushmore question is similar to a question The Hays Free Press asked candidates: If I was Left Brained or Right Brained. I consider these to be political questions and honestly, I feel most political questions rest on the idea of division. I have spent the past three years on city council looking for ways to bring people together rather than pointing out what makes us different or choosing sides, even if it’s just picking the side of our brain or deciding on a Mount Rushmore of politics.
If a city council member wants your vote, the expectation appears to be that they need to belong to the team you’ve decided to associate with, regardless of the candidate's desire to represent the interests of every constituent.
I understand why we as humans move towards tribalism, which can manifest into “us” versus “them” mentality. Tribalism can bring people together, but also drive them apart. I respect that there are benefits that this way of thinking brings, but I also acknowledge the detriments and separation it can cause.
City council is non-partisan by design. We aren't supposed to let party rhetoric interfere with the day-to-day needs of the city. From the beginning, I have pledged my allegiance to Team Kyle, not to a party. If I need to create a team to beat, I’ll gladly make the rivals Buda or San Marcos, not that I wish harm on them, because I love our neighbors, and Hays County as a whole. But when it comes to Kyle, I want us to WIN in the region on all fronts. My vision is to offer in Kyle, a better quality of life, to be united in the things that matter most in our daily lives, and to have the kind of city staff and leadership that represents more than empty words.
When first running for city council in 2018, I knocked on neighborhood doors in the midst of the Supreme Court (Justice Brett) Kavanaugh hearings. The good people of Kyle would answer their doors, often with CNN, Fox News, or MSNBC in the background covering the proceedings. Imagine being caught up in this national story and a local citizen running for city council comes knocking on your door.
It made for quite an experience. Without hesitation, nine out of 10 times the first question fiercely asked of me was whether I was a Republican or a Democrat, followed by a stern look, ready to pounce if I gave the incorrect answer.
Based on many factors, I knew exactly what answer they wanted to hear. Sometimes it was obvious by what they were watching, how they phrased the question, or what political signs they had in their yard. But the No. 1 indicator was their primary election voting record, which by state law requires all of us to pick a side if we want to participate in the primary election vote.
Knowing all this, I did not give them the answer they wanted to hear that could have easily won the day. That would be doing anything for a vote and I'm not going to represent myself that way for a nonpartisan seat on city council.
Instead, I did my best to redirect and find a city issue that mattered to my neighbors such as talking about roads, neighborhood patrols, keeping crime low, or how we should grow the business community to shift the tax burden off homeowners, etc.
While a few doors did abruptly slam in my face when attempting to talk city issues, I am happy to say that most of the time voters didn’t allow political party to be a hard and fast dividing line. Most engaged with me and shared their thoughts, experiences, and expectations for the City of Kyle.
It said something to me about the invested citizens of our community. Through long and thoughtful conversations, I came to a real-time tested conclusion that at Kyle’s core, most voters want the same things when it comes to our community, a place where people want to live and thrive, share common goals, connect, contribute, and have freedom of expression.
I do my best to represent Kyle as a whole, as a growing city. Through sound policy, I aim to create ways for our quality of life to grow for every resident, no matter our individual take on national issues.
I recently spoke on a national podcast sharing my thoughts on Kyle and where we are going as a city… It is my hope that we, as a community, can continue to create policy that is in our best interest, that brings you and I together, and increases the chance of connection instead of division.
5. What was the last book you read?
The last book I really enjoyed was Empire of the Summer Moon. It was recommended often by people who love Texas history. I like learning about the history of where I live so I decided to “read it” through Audible while on a family road trip to New Mexico.
Little did I realize I had set my family up for a treat. The book is about the Comanches and how they lived and fought for the Great Plains, the land spanning from Texas to New Mexico. As settlers from the east were moving in and claiming areas of Texas, it illustrates in full brutality the history of that time.
As I drove by San Saba, Texas, I heard the story of the San Saba Massacre, a dangerous western territory that cost many people their lives in their attempt to inhabit it. I didn't I plan to experience Empire of the Summer Moon this way, but it made for a one-of-a-kind drive to New Mexico.
Daniela Parsley
1. What are your qualifications for serving on the City Council?
Although I understand that my love for Kyle and desire to see it succeed are not enough, I do have an engineering background which makes me very analytical and a critical thinker. I was also a small business owner in a downtown area. I have experience with development, business codes and regulations. I also worked as a personal banker for Wells Fargo, and I have a good understanding of budgeting and planning.
2. What changes in the way the city prepares its annual budget would you support?
I would change the interaction that residents have with the budget. I believe residents need to pay more attention and get engaged when we talk about budgets. Once it passes, and things get done, that’s when residents tend to complain.
3. Here, listed in alphabetical order, are eight areas municipal governments can focus on: (1) Economic Development; (2) Environment and Sustainability; (3) Government Performance and Financial Management; (4) Housing and Homelessness Solutions; (5) Public Safety; (6) Quality of Life, Arts, and Culture; (7) Transportation and Infrastructure; and (8) Workforce, Education, and Equity. Please rank them in the order you think the Kyle city government should consider most important through least important and briefly explain why you ranked them in the order you did.
I believe that having great plans in place for Kyle’s successful economic development and doing better market studies on Kyle’s needs, as well as analyzing demographics, will lead to increased revenue from the businesses and industries that set roots in Kyle. This will, in turn, provide an increase in the taxes collected, and therefore, more funds to be allocated for every sector of our city.
4. List the names of four persons born on or after Jan. 1, 1900, you would place on a political Mount Rushmore.
I’d not limit myself to elected political figures, but rather people that, in my opinion, have changed the way I perceive the world: Rosa Parks, Muhammad Ali, Ronald Reagan (and) Maria Corina Machado.
5. What was the last book you read?
Educated, by Tara Westover
Donny Wills
1. What are your qualifications for serving on the City Council?
I was the platoon sergeant in the U.S. Army that led elements as large as 120 soldiers. I was the VP of Guardian Overwatch, a national charity that assisted veterans. I also own several successful local businesses. These have given me the knowledge of how to properly lead our city. City council is one of the most basic political seats in our country, and doesn’t require someone to be a career politician to lead us. It requires someone with compassion, problem-solving skills, and someone who listens to their community.
2. What changes in the way the city prepares its annual budget would you support?
We really need to dig down and look hard at what citizens actually need: roads, infrastructure, public safety. We need to ensure these funds aren’t wasted on unneeded items. Mismanagement of funds is an extreme issue in all forms of government. It’s the citizens’ money and it needs to be spent appropriately on items that have the most impact on the local residents.
3. Here, listed in alphabetical order, are eight areas municipal governments can focus on: (1) Economic Development; (2) Environment and Sustainability; (3) Government Performance and Financial Management; (4) Housing and Homelessness Solutions; (5) Public Safety; (6) Quality of Life, Arts, and Culture; (7) Transportation and Infrastructure; and (8) Workforce, Education, and Equity. Please rank them in the order you think the Kyle city government should consider most important through least important and briefly explain why you ranked them in the order you did.
3,5,6,7,8,1,2,4
Government Performance and Financial Management. The government needs to properly manage finances in order to be able to do anything.
Public Safety. The public needs to feel safe and be safe to go spend money at businesses and to enjoy our parks.
Quality of Life, Arts, and Culture. If the quality of life is poor and there is nothing to improve locally, residents will not live here and/or spend money in the outlying towns.
Transportation and infrastructure. If the roads are bad and transportation is scarce, how are residents going to enjoy our parks and local businesses?
Workforce, Education, and Equity. If we don’t have a sustainable, educated, and equitable workforce, residents will work and spend their time and money elsewhere.
Economic development. When a city has great economic development this will keep residents working locally and spending their time and money locally.
Environment and Sustainability. While the environment is important, Kyle is doing a decent job at not destroying it and coming up with solutions for sustainability locally.
Housing and Homelessness Solutions. Kyle has a relatively small number of homeless people and while the market is doing its best to keep up with housing and affordability issues, much of this issue can be solved by focusing on some of the other issues and will be solved as a byproduct of another issue.
4. List the names of four persons born on or after Jan. 1, 1900, you would place on a political Mount Rushmore.
Martin Luther King Jr., Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Ronald Regan, (and) John Glenn.
5. What was the last book you read?
2021 IRC Building Code Book. I will say it was only for reference for building.
Early voting
Those wishing to vote early may do so today through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.; Monday, Oct. 25 through Wednesday, Oct. 27 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.; and Thursday, Oct. 28 and Friday, Oct. 29, between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. at the HCISD transportation building, 21003 Interstate 35 Frontage Road; the Live Oak Academy High School, 4820 Jack C. Hays Trail; or Simon Middle School (HCISD Clothes Closet), 3839B East FM 150.
Election day is Nov. 2.
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