Austin and the 7-10 Split
Candidates in west and west-central districts find common cause
By Richard Whittaker
9:30AM, Tue. Jul. 22

When people first started talking about shifting Austin to single-member City Council districts, the logic was simple. You add more geographic representation, more diversity of opinion, and a more accurate reflection of the city’s needs. Well, the neighboring districts of 7 and 10 have a nice bucket list lined up.

It’s tough to describe what’s happening in District 10 as resentment, but then then it’s not hard to see it either. It’s regularly written off as “suburban sprawl” (with a subtext of being “not really Austin”). Candidate Matt Lamon said, “The number one issue that I hear when I’m knocking on doors is that they feel they don’t have a representative at City Hall.” But in conversations with candidates in both areas, the term “sister districts” came up about 10 and its neighbor to the east, District 7.

In both, public safety (i.e., policing) is going to be a key issue, with a steady demand across candidates in both districts for, at minimum, a redrawing of patrol zones, and preferably a new station house further along to the west. At the moment, the whole area is in Austin PD’s massive and sprawling Baker District. Over in 10, candidate Jason Meeker said that, while the residents don’t feel underpoliced when it comes to emergencies, “There is a very strong feeling among residents that they would like to see more police in the area, not just responding to a crime.”

That’s the complexity facing neighboring 7. It has some of Austin’s most well-established middle class neighborhoods – Crestview, Allandale – but it also has some of the highest need areas of town as well. As candidate Jimmy Paver called it, “a semiaffluent district with some high needs issues.” Ultimately, District 7 comprises two very different areas of town, as highlighted when a recent Allandale neighborhood meeting referred to “Lower District 7.”

Continue reading at:

http://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/news/2014-07-22/austin-and-the-7-10-split/

 See also:

Chronicle:  Deliver Us From Traffic
https://austindistrict7.org/chronicle-deliver-us-from-traffic/

Statesman:  Growth, Traffic Encroaching on Neighborhoods in District 7
https://austindistrict7.org/statesman-growth-traffic-encroaching-on-neighborhoods-in-district-7/

Zandan Poll Finds Young Austinites Happy, Older Austinites Less So
https://austindistrict7.org/zandan-poll-finds-young-austinites-happy-older-austinites-less-so/

Yes, I Am a Nimby
https://austindistrict7.org/yes-i-am-a-nimby/

Help Make People Aware of District 7 and AustinDistrict7.org – buy a $3 yard sign. Email editor@austindistrict7.org to help. Thank you!

From Leslie Pool, candidate for City Council, District 7

Dear Friends,

I am pleased to announce that I am running for Council District 7 on the Austin City Council.

We need a strong voice to protect our neighborhoods, our environment and our quality of life. Key elements of the kind of city where we want to live – affordability and sustainability – seem to be slipping away. I have lived and worked in Austin for 34 years. During that time, I raised a family, and served our community as a volunteer, a member of city commissions and citizen bond task forces, and volunteered at my daughter’s school and for many local organizations.

My firm grasp on the issues affecting us and my history of advocacy for a livable city will be instrumental in moving Austin forward under the new single-member districts system.

The outpouring of encouragement I’ve received to enter this race from so many neighbors, friends, and colleagues is very humbling and energizing. It will be a tough race, but I’m ready and I know we will succeed with the help and support of the residents in Council District 7.

I am proud to have the support of many neighborhood, community, and city leaders, including Council Member Laura Morrison and Democratic nominee for County Commissioner Precinct 2 and former City Council Member Brigid Shea.Their willingness to support me publicly is wonderful, and they have chosen to go one step further to share some thoughts about my candidacy:

Hon. Laura Morrison: “Leslie Pool has been serving the residents of Austin for decades as a community volunteer, as a member of city boards and commissions, and as a champion for neighborhoods. On the City Council, Leslie will be a strong voice for all residents of District 7.”

Hon. Brigid Shea: “I have known Leslie Pool for over 20 years. She works tirelessly, listens thoughtfully, and shares my passion for protecting our environment and making corporations pay their fair share of property taxes to lessen the burden on Austin homeowners.”

Stay tuned for more exciting news coming soon about my campaign kick-off event. In the meantime, please feel free to contact me at Leslie@LesliePoolforAustin.com.

I look forward to visiting with you soon along the campaign trail.

And now – onward to November!

Warm regards,

Leslie Pool

Candidate, Council District 7

See also:

District 7 Candidates page

District 7 Council candidates Jeb Boyt and Jimmy Paver easily overpowered their competitors in second quarter fund-raising, tapping into citywide and even national networks to raise tens of thousands of dollars.

Meanwhile, Melissa Zone demonstrated on-the-ground strength, with the most number of contributors within the district.

Total contributions for the period April 1 to June 30 were as follows:

Jeb Boyt –        $20,339         (~85 itemized contributors)
Jimmy Paver – $18,582         (~107 contributors)
Melissa Zone – $6,634           (~50 contributors)
Ed English –    $3,245           (~26 contributors)
Pete Salazar – $2,405         (~20 contributors)
Josiah Ingalls – $190             (~4 contributors)
Leslie Pool – not campaigning in Q2

Contributions from within the district, excluding family members, were as follows:

Jeb Boyt –         $2,400        (12 contributors)
Melissa Zone – $1,530       (17 contributors)
Jimmy Paver – $1,300         (7 contributors)
Ed English –      $815         (9 contributors)
Pete Salazar –   $420         (6 contributors)
Josiah Ingalls – $70           (2 contributors)

Contributions (including family members) broke out as follows by geographic source:

.                              In District             Rest of Austin            Outside Austin
Jeb Boyt –       $2,559 (14%),            $11,875 (64%),         $4,150 (22%)
Jimmy Paver –   $3,256 (18%),        $9,630 (51%),           $5,945 (32%)
Melissa Zone –   $1,880 (28%),        $1,280 (19%),           $3,325 (50%)
Ed English –      $825 (25%),            $1,610 (50%),            $685 (21%)
Pete Salazar –   $420 (17%),             $1,410 (59%),           $575 (24%)
Josiah Ingalls – $70 (37%),              $0,                                $120 (63%)

In addition to contributions, candidates have taken out loans as follows:

Jimmy Paver –    $40,000
Ed English –   $10,000
Josiah Ingalls – $8,000
Jeb Boyt –       $5,025
Pete Salazar –   $4,805
Melissa Zone –   $550

The above analysis uses the zip code of the contributor. For zip codes like 78731 or 78727 that fall in more than one district, the street address was reviewed. Jeb Boyt’s report did not itemize the source of $1,755 in contributions of $50 or less, and that amount is not included in the above break-downs by geography. Paver’s District 7 contributions increase significantly, by $1,957, if family members are included.

In a subsequent article we’ll dig deeper into who the contributors are.

See also:

Q2 2014 Campaign Finance Reports:
Jeb Boyt – http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=213329
Ed English – http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=212856
Josiah Ingalls – http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=213229
Jimmy Paver – http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=213269
Pete Salazar – http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=213211
Melissa Zone – http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=213239

District 7 Candidates Page

This is the first of four interviews with City Council District 7 candidate Melissa Zone on her candidacy and the issues identified in the AustinDistrict7.org candidate scorecard. The interviews are organized as follows:

*     Top Priorities, Experience, Community Involvement
*     Livability, Affordability and Housing
*     Transportation, Open Space and Infrastructure
*     Public Safety, Small Business, and City Budget

Melissa Zone has worked for the last four years as a senior planner with Travis County, in the transportation and natural resources department. Prior to that, she worked as a planner in southwest Florida and in Cleveland. Her parents were both Cleveland city council members and community leaders. Zone has a history of community involvement and volunteerism. She raised funds and provided hands-on services for the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland. She co-founded the Rose Institute for Life-Long Learning, an organization that provides continual learning opportunities for senior citizens. She holds a master’s degree in public administration from Cleveland State University. In her neighborhood, Crestview, she has been active seeking a local park.

Why are you running for Council?

I have a unique opportunity where I can apply my personal and professional experience at a critical time in Austin, where what I deal with everyday is something that Austin needs in a leader.

I want to protect our neighborhoods. That doesn’t mean keeping things exactly the status quo, but it certainly shouldn’t be all multi-family. It’s possible to find a successful balance. We can protect neighborhoods, provide affordability, provide various housing options, provide transportation, and reduce the traffic jams within our neighborhoods. There are tricks to getting the balance right.

 What are your top 3 priorities?

It’s our quality of life, affordability, housing options. The number one is protecting our quality of life in the neighborhoods. A great example – think about Little Deli. You’ve got the little homes. There’s commercial development. But it’s done in a way that just lifts everyone’s spirits. I’ve never seen anyone walk in or hang out there miserable. And you can’t define that – you have to see it. I want to keep that character.

Tell me about a past experience shaping policy or making a decision that illustrates how you would serve on Council.

I’ll give you two examples, one relevant to the north end of the district, and one relevant to the south end, from when I worked as a planner in Florida.

So suburban Florida was booming, and developers were coming in and throwing up gated communities with no sidewalks.   It was just an unhealthy environment. One such project was called Bradford Square. The developer was open to the idea of working with me, and arranging the housing in clusters around shared open space. Instead of spreading out the houses, I said, “You have a lot of vacationers, you have a lot of second-home owners. Build cute condos and townhomes here along the main street, so you don’t see the parking from the front. Maybe along the golf course you put your little McMansions, because they all love them. And the other housing you clump a little closer together so you’ve still got wildlife habitat.” The conservation space and storm water feature became the focal point for the community. They put a walking path around the conservation space, and we added more shade trees and sidewalks. Kind of like what you have up at Riata Trace. The developer liked the idea. Where you had the housing was a little bit denser, but it looked nicer and was integrated with the natural surroundings. It actually looked less congested.

Here’s another experience a bit relevant to the upcoming Burnet corridor plan. In Ft Myers, Florida, we had two corridors, Veronica Shoemaker Blvd and Martin Luther King Blvd, both going through poor neighborhoods. And there were also some very wealthy second-home communities. Those people had to get off the highway and drive through the poor areas. And they wanted it to become a showcase neighborhood, pretty much to gentrify it. I was the neighborhood planner. Council and the mayor were giving my director and me direction to do that. We heard what they said, took their direction, but we took extra measures to ensure that people who would have been pushed out stayed in their homes. We found HUD money for community development. In Florida, developers have to pay for growth. We worked with them, and where there were improvements that we could do using federal and state funding through the local equivalent of CAMPO, we leveraged that money. We used the developer money to upgrade utilities to people’s homes. They had 2” mainlines for water, so their houses would have been flooded. We got the big lines along the boulevards to support new density, but then we made sure that feeder lines ran off the main lines into the old homes – they got clean water and didn’t get flooded. HUD has programs where we were able to do painting, roofing. The state had money for improvements in low-income neighborhoods to improve hurricane safety. There was FEMA money. We played social services in a way, we did everything so people didn’t have to leave their homes. Staff just worked hard because we have a heart.

Tell me about your involvement in North Austin, what you’ve accomplished on the ground

My very first problem that I helped to solve was when we moved here. We had a U-haul, and we were looking for a place that would take the dolly. Phil found them on Yelp – it was a mechanic, Riethmeyer’s automotive repair near Parmer and Mopac. They’re right next door to the Hideout. Phil took the car over, and had them remove the dolly. I was waiting while Phil was working with the mechanic. The woman there was asking me questions – it was a quiet day. “My husband’s from here, we’re moving back,” and she asked, “Oh, what do you do?” I said I was starting work at the County as a planner. “Ohhh – you work in government. Can you answer this question? She had a notice from the city about a watershed problem. Their business is in a watershed, they had to do some stuff. I said I hadn’t even started, so I don’t know the regulations yet. But I offered to look it up. I gave her my cell.

She called me that week – she did not waste time. She read the letter to me. All it said was, “Your property has been deemed to be in a watershed, and you’re going to have to do some improvements.” She said she had been trying to call the city, but they don’t return calls. The same old problems.   Well, I went, looked up everything, and according to the city’s map, they were just outside the watershed boundary.

There was a doctor who was wanting to buy the property, and was saying, “well, I’m going to have to give you less, because it’s in a watershed.” The engineers they called were going to charge tons of money to make improvements. And I said, “Sandy, you don’t have to do a thing!”

That was my first one. Then the park project. Went to a neighborhood association meeting and they were like, “We were supposed to get a park, and they’re not doing it – how do we get answers?” I raised my hand and said, “I could probably figure it out.” Where’s the land, what’s the address? I started researching. That’s how I found out the Huntsman tract was deeded to the public. The northwest part really is supposed to be public. So I found all that history, Phil helped me. We wrote a resolution that gave the whole history of it. And then I said, “Let’s go get us a park.” I told people we were going to Austin Energy first [Austin Energy owns the land] and then straight to Sara Hensley [the parks director]. I said, “We’re going right to the top – we’re talking to all the players. And we’re going to meet with all of them within a week, so they don’t have time to converse and like ‘how do we deal with this.’ We went right to the director, and I said, “Everybody – you talk first, you tell them why – you do the heartstring. And then when they come in, I’ll start.” And by the time they ended the meetings, they’d be like, “Council says it’s ok.” And then we started taking it to City Hall. We’ve had protests, we’ve been on TV, we had an article by Impact News.

I just do whatever someone has issues, I’m like – yeah, I’ll help you. It’s just who I am – a problem solver. It’s interesting to me.

As a candidate who lives in the south part of the district, what do you bring to voters who live in other parts of the district?

When we moved here we lived for over a year at Metric and Lamplight Village. We tried to buy a house in Gracywoods for a long time. I have a coworker who lives there who was always trying to help us. Phil’s niece lived up there too. We understand the traffic issues because we had to deal with that. The uncertainty of some of the crime in that area. I saw it first hand.

I guess what I bring to this district is that I lived in both parts of the district. Our vet is up there – Vet Care. Our mechanic is up there. Our favorite breakfast place is Café Java. I guess we don’t see it as “up north” because when we first came here, we settled a lot of our services in the Parmer area. I guess I don’t see me as “the southern part.”

See also:
District 7 Candidates Page
Melissa Zone to Run in District 7; Prioritizes Quality of Life, Affordability
Zone Would Use Planning Experience to Champion Neighborhoods

Leslie Pool is expected to announce her candidacy for the District 7 City Council seat in the coming week.

Pool, a resident of Rosedale, is a long-time Austinite who has served on several City of Austin boards and commissions. She is backed by current Travis County Precinct 2 commissioner candidate Brigid Shea, and purportedly by City Council Member Laura Morrison.  She has worked in the past for Ann Kitchen, who is herself running for Council in south Austin’s District 5.

This is the first of four interviews with City Council District 7 candidate Pete Salazar on his candidacy and the issues identified in the AustinDistrict7.org candidate scorecard. The interviews are organized as follows:
* Top Priorities, Experience, Community Involvement
* Livability, Affordability and Housing
* Transportation, Open Space and Infrastructure
* Public Safety, Small Business, and City Budget

Pete Salazar Jr. is a former employment specialist at Goodwill and Caritas of Austin. He is a native Austinite who grew up in the Crestview area and in East Austin. Salazar earned a degree in history from The University of Texas at San Antonio. Following graduation he served in AmeriCorps, working with returning veterans. He continued his work with veterans working at non-profits in Austin.

Why are you running?

You know I came back to Austin from university in 2006, and started working with Goodwill as an employment placement specialist. Employment and housing are closely related issues, and they asked me to serve on the board of ECHO [an umbrella group of area non-profits that addresses homelessness]. I did previous work with Americorp working for veterans, so they asked me to focus on veterans, and give recommendations to City Council.

I kind of cut my teeth on that, really getting involved. And as I was doing this work, I always knew I wanted to serve in such a capacity [on Council]. But I knew I couldn’t do that until I had a full scope of what it means to work in one’s community.

And it just so happened that this 10-1 happened right when I felt like I was at that capacity. And now there’s been a tremendous need as far as how we define ourselves as a city. You saw this cultural shift in Austin, from a community that was a small college town, to one wanting to be more international, and taking the conscious steps to become that. We’re having to redefine ourselves, of what Austin do we want as a community. Do we want to be this flavor of the world, or do we still want to be this city with a soul?

And I think there’s a way to be both, but we need to sieze the opportunity now. And we need to focus on how we restructure our infrastructure, how we strengthen that, how we redefine our supports as far as community and business development. And I think given my experience of not only being born here, but coming back and working within these communities, of all communities of Austin, I have a hold of that, I think I know the heartbeat not only of our district, but just the people in general.

What are your top three priorities?

Responsible growth, obviously. Austin’s going to grow, but there’s ways to do it responsibly. Greater access to transportation, and that’s public transportation. And it’s doing an investment in support of local businesses.

Tell me about a past experience shaping policy or making a decision that illustrates how you would serve on Council.

Building coalitions. An example is my work with ECHO – the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition – we called it ‘the Justice League’, a coalition of non-profits like Goodwill, Foundation for the Homeless, Salvation Army. I cochaired the employment committee. We had a lot of veterans coming in from Ft Hood, Killeen, that area. And we had to make sure they didn’t fall into homelessness. We had people who had been homeless, and we wanted to get them back on their feet. We had refugees. So we got the non-profit representatives and the Veteran’s Administration in a big room. We looked at the numbers of troops coming in. We asked, “how do we get these people employed.” But more important, we asked, “how do we address the needs of employers in Austin?”

An example – we had Hyatt Place coming in. They had staffing issues. Our job was to make their job easier, help them manage their capacity needs for workers – engineers, housekeepers, whatever. They don’t want to come to Goodwill. They don’t want to come to us and get “This is why you should hire a vet.” They just want to know – here’s a need, do you have people who can do that?

So we developed a job board. If I was the CEO of Hyatt, I can come and say, “I need five engineers, I need ten people to take care of the rooms, I need managers.” They make one request, and that request shoots out to all the non-profits of Austin in our coalition. The job board greatly simplified communication.

It was an investment in Austin. Once we got those people jobs, their lives stabilized, they were able to go beyond assisted housing. They could redefine their lives. Those people became managers. So when they had work, they came back to us.

Setting that up took a lot of work. It took us three and a half years. People think non-profits – we sit around singing kumbayah. But giving up your job resources, getting people to buy into this common process – that was a battle to establish trust. It’s not about one’s personal placements, or about one individual organization looking good or looking bad. It’s about how we can serve Austin.

It was hard too, breaking into the HR networks of these companies. They get inundated with calls from non-profits, saying, “help us, help us.” What we needed to ask, was “What do you need? What do you need as an HR person, to get the best person to further the mission of your organization? That was the first time that someone sat down with them, and wasn’t trying to sell them a service or a person, but asking them what do they need to further their mission as an organization.

Tell me about your involvement in North Austin, what you’ve accomplished on the ground

I’ve helped Austin through my work – every part of Austin. These were apartment communities in areas that we now consider part of District 7. That goes to business owners. Obviously I looked at it in a business owner way, because my main component was helping people get jobs. Maudie’s Café and other things coming to The Triangle, before they thought about anything else, they were asking, “How do we get employees?” I know the owner, I called him up and asked, “What would you need to make this successful, as far as putting people in there?” That was just me doing my job, but I was always aware of business owners and housing entities because I worked on that on a daily basis.

Have you had a close relationship with businesses in what has become District 7?

Yes, but that’s just from being around. That’s just like going into Crestview Barbershop – he was my backup barber when my other barber was out of town on vacation. My main kind of relationships with businesses around Austin were just because I was here. It’s like doing a good job at work – first you gotta show up. It’s the same thing of knowing your community and doing a good job as a city council person. First you gotta know your community. I know it because I’m here. This is where I’m from.

As a candidate who lives in the south part of the district, what do you bring to voters who live in other parts of the district?

Just because I live in the south doesn’t mean I don’t know businesses in the north. And it’s not how I think. I think about Austin. One of the good things about my father being a cab driver is, even though I grew up in this community, we didn’t just stay in this area. He was all over the place and I was riding shotgun. Which means I ate at the restaurants, I ate at the bars. I got to know the people. I’ve had a beer at C. Hunts. I talk to people – I sit down and talk to people. I still make it a point to go out to those places and talk to people in the community.

It’s not just about who represents District 7 the best. There’s nine other people, and the mayor, that we have to work with. And we don’t have a veto over those people. The person who’s going to be successful is the person who can build coalitions. Being from here, working in these different communities, knowing these different groups, I’m going to build those coalitions. But my first responsibility is to the people of District 7.

See also:
District 7 Candidates Page
Salazar to Champion Working Class Austin

This is the first of four interviews with City Council District 7 candidate Jimmy Paver on his candidacy and the issues identified in the AustinDistrict7.org candidate scorecard. The interviews are organized as follows:
* Top Priorities, Experience, Community Involvement
* Livability, Affordability and Housing
* Transportation, Open Space and Infrastructure
* Public Safety, Small Business, and City Budget

Jimmy Paver was born and raised in District 7. Over the last 10 years he has worked as a campaign manager and district office manager for US Congressman Lloyd Doggett, served State Representative Mark Strama as legislative aide during the 2009 session, and is a graduate of the LBJ School of Public Affairs.

Why are you running for City Council?

At City Council we need good, well-rounded, pragmatic people who can protect the interests of various groups across an entire district. They’ll need to also work on a comprehensive way to redistribute dollars to the entire city, and work on things in a more complex political system that will not only benefit your district but the entire infrastructure of Austin.

I’ve spent over 10 years in public policy and leadership at the state and federal level. I’m a life-long Austin resident who believes in public service and the benefit of what it can do for people and the city.

One of the things too often we do in Austin is we look at only what the city can do, and fail to consider that there’s multiple entities that are going to affect how we are going to grow. I can reach out to regional partners, which is what I think Austin is going to need in the coming years. I have existing relationships out there that I think will be a benefit.

So I want to provide a voice for this area, having been here my entire life, and be in public service. It’s what I do, it’s what I’ve been trained in, and I think I can be effective at it.

What are your top 3 issues?

Fiscal responsibility. Going in and finding a new form and function for the Council to look at the budgetary needs that we have, and distribute them in a way that actually provides services. We continue to see a ballooning budget without a corresponding increase in services. Money that is spent should be equitable based on need, not just for the loudest voice. Somebody who can evaluate real need, do some proactive planning, is going to be useful in terms of looking at that budget.

I’ve been trained in policy and budgets and public finance. Fiscal responsibility requires a change in the way that we look at the budget. Currently City Council looks at 3 or 4% of what the budget actually is when the City Manager brings it. They play around with the property tax, a few other things, but as far as a line item review of what the City Manager is doing, it doesn’t happen, certainly not in session, not in public. There are certain parts of the budget that are just signed off on. As elected leaders, you should take a more critical look at what’s happening, and demand more of a performance evaluation for dollars that are spent year over year.

Some of that analysis happens before the public session. Are you saying it needs to happen more transparently?

That’s exactly what I’m saying.

Constituent services. Government should always be responsive. When you serve a district of 80,000 people, you should receive a response whether you’re calling about a pothole or a policy position. Nobody in my office would ever be turned away. It’s one of the most important things that officials do.

The other priorities would be transportation and affordability. You need a policy position that’s rational and balanced. The district-wide needs are different from the citywide needs. I am very concerned about the affordability question. The rate of growth, the pushing out of families that I have known and grown up with, especially in middle-income neighborhoods like in our district.

Tell me about a past experience shaping policy or making a decision that illustrates how you would serve on Council.

I served as legislative director to State Representative Mark Strama. We did a lot of work on renewable energy. It was his primary focus. That year he was chair of the economic technology committee, so we had a lot of committee work in that vein – some work force stuff, some childcare, and quite a few local issues – police pensions. We would take policy ideas, determine their viability, have a bill drafted, submit it, and work the process to get it to the floor. It taught me how to get things done legislatively. Moving them through is a very complex thing.

We had an idea about how to promote residential solar. It was a program that worked in California, where you tied the upfront cost of a solar array with Austin Energy’s rebate. But the upfront costs were tied to people’s property taxes. So it would just be something that went into escrow as people were earning back the utility benefit from having the solar array. The net cost to the homeowner would have been just $5,000-$6,000 for having the array, that would have normally cost $25,000-$30,000. And they could get the benefit of using it immediately. You get them off the grid. You’re sponsoring adoption. We got the bill to committee, and it didn’t pass out of committee. But in a subsequent session, they were able to pass a form of it.

Drafting the legislation, getting it moving, getting the idea out there is part of what you have to do. You have to present an idea, and you’re not going to get buy-in immediately, especially in a partisan legislature. But if it’s a good idea, cost-neutral, and a benefit to just have on the books, even if it’s not going to fly off the shelves, you can succeed. Just about everything failed that session. That was when Perry was vetoing everything under the sun.

Tell me about your involvement in North Austin, what you’ve accomplished on the ground

I work in a small business that is within the district, I’ve lived here my entire life both in Crestview and Allandale. I’ve been involved in public service and public policy at levels of complexity that will help me service the district. Operationally in every capacity I have serviced my time, and what I can provide to the district is a real understanding of what’s happened over a span of time that nobody else has …

Tell me about that – tell me what you’ve seen

I’ve seen Austin go from a town of 300,000 people to 1.1 million. I’ve seen barren areas in the northern end of the district, like The Domain, things develop in a way that diminished the quality of life in certain areas. Frankly, in this town where I grew up, neighborhoods really didn’t want for much. We were happy, we could ride bikes to Northwest Park or across Far West. What I see now is a constricting of people to enjoy that quality of life as I did when I was a kid.

It’s jobs that are bringing people here. But for the people who are already here – I’m in that boat. I want to help them. I want to continue to protect the things that they care about, and have their families here, as do I.

As a candidate who lives in the south part of the district, what do you bring to voters who live in other parts of the district?

I bring a philosophical approach that service does not mean just my neighborhood. It means I’m going to be in every neighborhood, talking to every person about every interest or need or concern that they have, whether I can do something about it or not.

I will not defer to the southern end of the district on a given issue, nor will I over-service those people. I have no interest in just being a south-of-183 representative. I think that there is a lot of diversity in the district, there’s an opportunity to reach out to the Hispanic community, the Vietnamese and Korean population, new residents at the Domain. I would like to be the point at which all the tributaries meet, and take it from there, ingest it, and do the best thing for the district in general.

We can’t be extreme about what we’re going to do – we can’t be polarizing. We need to bring solutions based on coalition-building, based on smart policy thinking. We can’t be an ideologue about things, but serve as many needs as one can with limited resources.

See also:
District 7 Candidates page
Paver Would Leverage Federal, State Ties to Fix Transportation
Jimmy Paver Enters D7 Race, Brings Small Business, Family Perspective

This is the first of four interviews with City Council District 7 candidate Josiah Ingalls on his candidacy and the issues identified in the AustinDistrict7.org candidate scorecard. The interviews are organized as follows:
* Top Priorities, Experience, Community Involvement
* Livability, Affordability and Housing
* Transportation, Open Space and Infrastructure
* Public Safety, Small Business, and City Budget

Josiah Ingalls runs a landscaping service. He ran for mayor in 2009 and for City Council in 2011. He participated in early proposals for single member districting. He also has advocated for more local pedestrian beacons (“hawk lights”) after two teenagers were killed by a speeding driver while crossing a street near a South Austin high school. He has lived in Austin since 2004. With his wife Janet, he has two daughters – Heather (3) and Kelly (1).

Why are you running for City Council?

I’m bringing the same message that I brought in my previous races – that we shouldn’t be looking to just put a band-aid on our issues.

This City Council, and past City Councils, have never looked at the true cause – what is the cause and effect. They just look at – “This is the effect, how do we fix that. How do we put a band-aid on that.” But in doing that, they often pass ordinances and policies that contradict existing ordinances and policies. And so they’re just making a further mess of our legal system and our local government, instead of bringing real solutions.

Every time I run for office, none of the other candidates are talking about this issue. But this is the real issue. Because if you just put a band-aid on everything, generation after generation, of course everything’s just going to be a mess. And that’s what we’re seeing now. You’re seeing departments falling apart. They’re not working right, they’re not working with City Council on what they’ve passed. When are we going to start, as a society, looking at the true cause and effect. When are we going to have a government that looks to solve problems, not only now, but long-term?

What are your top 3 issues?

The number one priority that I would have, for every single day on City Council, would be ensuring that every policy that we pass is not creating contradictory language within the laws.

Most of our social and economic issues that we have can be related to a policy that a department has, that contradicts another policy in the same department, or our local laws contradicting one another. When I look at this, there’s an ‘ah-hah’ moment – this is what’s really the problem, but nobody’s ever said it. We try to say it, but nobody ever says it – it’s the contradictory language.

My second priority would be spending, because the budget affects everything. I don’t think we should be allowing City Council to approve a budget and then go back and change that. This City Council and past City Councils have done that. They pass a budget and then they go back and amend that. That’s not fair to the society. It’s not fair to the departments of the City. It’s deceitful. Say City Council passes a resolution – they want to do a study. That study’s going to cost us money. Where in the budget previously passed was the alloted budget for those types of things? They’re not there. We’re just adding more money, just because we decided it’s a great idea. But we never had a set amount for potential costs.

So would you add a reserve fund for unexpected expenses?

Actually, if you go back and look at our reserve funds over the last 25 years, our reserve funds are half of what they used to be. They keep taking away from that, but increasing our bond spending. They’ve pushed our bond spending nearly to the limit. What happens if we end up with a natural disaster, or the economy starts to crash? If no one’s trying to preemptively prevent this, we can go into deficit. The State does not allow for us to have a deficit – if we go into deficit the State can remove our local government.

My third priority is similar to my first priority – bringing cohesion not just to laws passed by Council, but to administrative rules developed by staff. We see a lot of break-down in government, like code enforcement versus the departments that issue permits. They go and say, “here’s your permit – go and build this thing,” but code enforcement says, “oh no, you can’t do that and we’re going to fine you.” If we give them a permit, that’s our promise that this is alright. But what we have are policies within separate departments not working together.

What experience do you bring? Can you think of a specific example of an initiative that you were influential on, to demonstrate how you would approach work on Council?

A good example is in 2012, a good friend of mine passed away because he and his girlfriend were hit by a car in a pedestrian crosswalk. I never gave up, going and picketing at that corner for three months. So when I take up an issue, I want to see that it’s solved. And I will never give up. I will always keep fighting until we’ve solved the issue. Because of that action, the City finally started putting up HAWK lights. Before that, the City had never put much emphasis on pedestrian safety. But yet we’ve always said, “Walk, bike to work. Walk, bike to school.” And yet we’ve never had any pedestrian safety. We’ve never educated the community. And now, because of that work, me and just four other people, who actually stuck it out for the full 3 months, until City Council said, “We’ll have it built in 3 months, just give us time to get a contractor.”

If something needs to happen, needs to be fixed, I’m not the candidate who will let it slip to the wayside. I will not be that elected official.

Tell me about your involvement in North Austin, what you’ve accomplished on the ground

I’m a member of the Wooten neighborhood association. I’ve attended some of the meetings for the neighborhood-in-a-box meetings – they’re starting to do the whole Burnet Rd corridor plan. I’ve been working on that. I’ve only been here in this neighborhood for just under a year. I haven’t had a lot of time to solve issues solely on my own. I would have loved to have done so, but I’m not about to claim other peoples’ work. After I joined the neighborhood association, we agreed that we wanted to be a part of District 7, and sent a letter to the commission drawing the lines. Together as a group I’ve been working, but I’m not about to claim all of their work.

Were you involved in things on East Riverside?

Yes, I attended the corridor plan meetings. And of course I worked to get HAWK lights.

As a candidate who lives in the south part of the district, what do you bring to voters who live in other parts of the district?

I bring the mindset that it’s not just about my neighborhood association. It’s not just what I see on a daily basis. When I look at a community, when I look at the district, even when I look at the city, I start looking at “What is good for all of us?”

I think that’s a very different outcome than the other people who are running against me. They’re looking more at their neighborhood. One of the people running against me has been talking about a specific park that that community was denied. Well what about the other 3,000 things or more that are important in this district?

And I’m trying to focus on every district. In fact I have on my calendar the dates of all the neighborhood associations that have regular meetings. And I’ve already started attending those. And I want to know, “What are all of their needs – what do they want?” That’s a very different mindset, and that mindset affects the outcome. Because if you get on City Council, and you’re only running in this race for one or two reasons, what happens when you get 4-5,000 things that come across your desk in a year? What about all those things that weren’t on your agenda to get elected? So for me, I’m running to be a representative for the city. I really don’t have my own pet project. And that’s going to give not only the north part of District 7, but the south part of District 7, someone who can really represent them.

See also:

District 7 Candidates page
Ingalls, a Refugee of East Riverside, Raises Concerns Over Burnet Corridor Plan  
Ingalls: Seniors Should be able to Stay in their Homes 

This is the first of four interviews with City Council District 7 candidate Ed English on his candidacy and the issues identified in the AustinDistrict7.org candidate scorecard. The interviews are organized as follows:

*     Top Priorities, Experience, Community Involvement
*     Livability, Affordability and Housing
*     Transportation, Open Space and Infrastructure
*     Public Safety, Small Business, and City Budget

Ed English is a retired sales and marketing professional who has lived in Milwood for 30 years. English served in the navy during the Vietnam era, mainly at Kingsville naval air station. He was active in Austinites for Geographic Representation (AGR), the group responsible for the 10-1 redistricting amendment passed in 2012. During the redistricting process he helped organize the Northwest Austin Coalition to advocate boundaries for northwest Austin. English says he is a centrist, unaffiliated with any party.

Why are you running for Council?

I’m running for City Council because I’ve lived here for a long time, and I’ve seen lots of changes, some good, some not so good. Being a big believer in the district system, I think it’s long past time to have district-based representation. I believe that given the length of time I’ve lived here, the various projects I’ve been involved in, I could be a good voice.

I’m a high level person who has experience with negotiating. I can get down in the weeds with details on things that come before the City Council – contracts, that’s a big deal. What are the pluses and minuses here, what is our return on investment.

I have excellent contacts throughout the district, who I think are very good representatives of their neighborhoods – I have a good working relationship with them. That’s going to be an important part of what the next Council person will need to have — some credibility as an honest voice for the district. We’re staying down the center, middle of the road. We’re open to input from anybody. We’re not playing partisan politics here.

One vote on Council isn’t going to get you anywhere. You have to be willing and able, and I believe have the experience, at working at the table with other people, who may or may not at times have the same interests and the same direction as you. If there’s a strength I want people to be aware of, it’s that I’ve done that – for years and years and years. I’ve built coalitions with people who many times came to the table with some extraordinarily different viewpoints. Like with AGR, or complex contract negotiations in the private sector.

What are your top three priorities?

One of the challenges, call it a disappointment, is that not nearly enough attention has been focused on the impact of Council actions on the cost of living, especially for families that have average income or below.

I also think that traffic is an issue that everybody faces. Every area of the city faces that issue at one level or another.

Another area we need to focus on is accountability and fiscal responsibility on the part of the city.

Anyone on City Council is going to face two tiers of issues. The top tier is citywide issues, things like transportation or affordability that affect all parts of the city. But the beauty of what you have now is a system where you can have a second tier of concerns, that should command a goodly portion of your time. Those are district-specific issues. Someone needs a sidewalk. Some of the old-established neighborhoods along the north end of N Lamar, Walnut Creek, Oak Ridge, they don’t have any storm sewers. You have the ability to address those kinds of issues like never before.

I think I have some ideas that are very workable, and that with citizen input to tweak them, the results would be beneficial for the city.

What experience do you bring?   Can you think of a specific example of an initiative that you were influential on, to demonstrate how you would approach work on Council?

I did volunteer work with Red Cross during the Bastrop fires. I worked at the shelters out there while the fires were still in progress.

There were lots of people who wanted to help. But in the chaos, there wasn’t a lot of structure to the help. And I find it personally rewarding to look at a situation like that, where you have help, interested parties, who have the best intentions at heart, but who have no one there to organize it, to lead anything. The first day I got out there, it was pretty obvious that there were a lot of things that the citizens coming in needed help with. And there just wasn’t any structure to it. It was a lot of, “well, check with this person, go over there, it might be around the corner.” I don’t know, it’s just kind of a natural tendency of mine – I was in the military, I was a supervisor throughout various periods in my work, I ran a small business. Whenever I was out there, the first thing I did was, “Who’s here, what do you like to do, what are you best at, what area are you from – are you local, are you out of town, do you know the residents?” Just basically, you’ve got to kind of step up to the plate, and say, “There’s a need for someone here to sort of take charge.”

The next Council’s going to need some time to ramp up. There’s no question about that. You’re going to have a lot of new faces. And I would feel it incumbent on any of those who are more forward with taking a leadership role, to offer whatever assistance we can to other members, new members on the Council, as far as suggestions for where they might go for resources, what departments they might query for answers. We’re going to need to work together as a team. And that’s going to take someone who’s willing to step up and go the extra mile, and offer to help the new Council members come up to speed.

Tell me about your involvement in the North Austin community, what you’ve accomplished on the ground

My role has been more city-based. I was involved with AGR, involved with the mapping process that followed the actual passage of 10-1, helped found an organization, North West Austin Coalition, which needs some explanation because some people misunderstand what the whole point of that is. I haven’t been focused on anything that was North Austin specific, because my focus over the years has been much more broad-based than that. Some water-related issues, some taxing-related issues, some park-related issues. But they haven’t specifically been North Austin oriented.

Tell me more about North West Austin Coalition (NWAC) and how you were involved in it. As I understood it, NWAC was organized to influence the boundary of districts after 10-1 passed and the Independent Citizen Redistricting Commission (ICRC) began drawing up the 10-1 map. You presented detailed maps on preferred district boundary lines. What was NWAC trying to accomplish, and why was it important to you to go to that level of detail in terms of how NW Austin’s council districts were defined?

NWAC was nothing more, and was never intended to be anything more, than a collection of people from North Central – and I want to put an underline under that – and Northwest Austin, a collection of leaders, people who were engaged, with different levels of expertise and different interests to come together and share information. We don’t have bylaws, we don’t have dues, we don’t endorse, we don’t vote on things. It’s just an opportunity for people to interact with others who may have information which they can take back and use for their neighborhood or their part of town, for any purposes.

Having said that, with 10-1 coming down the pipeline, what we thought would be a very worthwhile venture was to collect input. Not just from Northwest Austin, but from all of North Austin, as to “Well what do you think this is about. Where would you like to see the lines.” We had many many meetings, well-attended. One I will always remember as being sort of the high point of attendance was at Marie Calendar’s, over at the Gateway shopping center. We reserved that big room in the back, and we had standing room only. And we had people from dozens of organizations, from all over town, of course mainly focused on North Central and Northwest. We said, “Hey, this is an idea we’re working on – what do you think?” We got input from many many many people, as to what their concerns were, what they thought about 10-1, where they thought the lines should be. And we, as wanting to give the commission a starting point, we said, “Here’s a map, that a lot of people said thought had some merit.” We had no agenda. It was based entirely upon input that we received.

Now, given my background with AGR, and my familiarity with the mapping process, I voluntarily assumed the responsibility of presenting that information to the commission. Some people want to make it something personal – it was never anything personal. I presented the information that I collected as a voice, and nothing more.

As a Council person, you want a person who is open minded, a good listener, who can fairly evaluate things based on collective input. And that’s what I did as a representative of North West Austin Coalition. It was a responsibility that I took on, and I took it seriously, and I’ll be the same way as a Council representative.

As a candidate who lives in the north part of the district, what do you bring to voters who live in other parts of the district?

Primarily a sensitivity to and openness to a variety of ideas, suggestions, criticisms, solutions. And I think that’s got to be a primary consideration in who you vote for – that you don’t have a neighborhood-specific focus. I mean, it’s 80,000 people. It’s 10 districts but it’s 80,000 people, they’re not 80,000 clones. And it covers a lot of geographic area.

The nature of your question almost sounds like the two are operating in two different worlds. Yes there are different priorities, only because here in the south, zoning, commercial encroachment, the focus down here, because you’re closer to the core city, is a little different than we have in the north.

I see a Council representative regardless of where they live as being tuned into those neighborhoods because they’re there, they’re talking to those people, they’re making the neighborhood association meetings. One of the things I’m real big on, I’m sure I’m not the only one to say this, is having an office in the district that people can visit.

We’re kind of all in this together. And it’s just a matter of making sure that you’re in touch with the various ends of the district, and understand their needs. I don’t know that anyone in the south can say that I’ve got this one characteristic or trait that’s going to be really attractive to the north and be a great benefit to them, or vice versa. I see us all in the same pot.

See also:

District 7 Candidates page

This is the first of four interviews with City Council District 7 candidate Jeb Boyt on his candidacy and the issues identified in the AustinDistrict7.org candidate scorecard. The interviews are organized as follows:
* Top Priorities, Experience, Community Involvement
* Livability, Affordability and Housing
* Transportation, Open Space and Infrastructure
* Public Safety, Small Business, and City Budget

Jeb Boyt has lived in the Burnet Rd area since 1993. He has worked as a land use attorney for the Attorney General of Texas, the Texas General Land Office, and the Railroad Commission. He has served on the City of Austin Downtown Commission, the Parks Board, and the 2012 Bond Advisory Task Force. He has volunteered for several trail, land conservancy and environmental groups.

Why are you running for City Council?

I can’t imagine not running for City Council. I’ve looked at serving in office for years. Of course I’ve served on boards and commissions and worked on bond campaigns and matters like that for years here in Austin. I’ve been involved in community groups and politics for the last 25 years. I considered running for Congress in 2004 when District 10 was open. That was not a good time for me. I had been thinking about the Travis County Commissioner 2 race that we just had. When Sarah Eckhardt resigned, I was on the short list to be appointed to fill her vacancy. That race was already pretty full.

Then we passed 10-1, and that was open. I can’t imagine sitting on the sidelines this year. This is a huge opportunity to change the city. The new council is going to have the opportunity to establish the new governing culture, the rules, the expectations, procedures for how Council’s going to work. It’s important – not just serving on Council, but the opportunity to be part of that first Council, to put in place the precedents.

What are your top 3 issues?

Top 3 are transportation, affordability and accountability. The accountability part is about making sure that the Council works and that the city works, in particular to the district, which is the whole promise of 10-1. Transportation – whew – transportation’s a huge problem. I bring a lot of expertise, a lot of experience. I think I bring more experience than anyone running other than Mike Martinez, and probably Sheryl Cole now that she’s running. And affordability – that’s key. It links into so many of the issues and concerns, for everybody, at all income levels. From people who are worried about finding any place to live, to people who are worried about being priced out of where they’re living, to people who are worried about being able to keep their business in the city. We’re not going to keep Austin weird if we don’t keep it affordable.

What experience do you bring? Can you think of a specific example of an initiative that you were influential on, to demonstrate how you would approach work on Council?

It’s hard to think of one example. There’ve been several examples where I’ve worked with diverse stakeholder groups, and helped build consensus around a project. The 2012 bond commission was one. The development of the Texas Coastal Management Program was a big one – an intense multi-year process. The work that we’ve done on trails in the city has been another. Rail-Trails with Capital Metro – though we don’t have great examples on the ground yet of that.

The pattern here, is when you’re looking to do something, or an issue comes up, is figure out who all the stakeholders are, talk to them, make sure people have a chance to be heard, go around, find what you can put in that’s going to work, and try to address the needs of most folks, get the balance that you need to get the project forward.

A good counter-example that didn’t work was the chicanes on Shoal Creek – the islands. That was – I was on the edge of that conversation. I’m a cyclist, I live two blocks off Shoal Creek. I drive it and ride it all the time, so it was a big concern for me. When people in the cycling community started pushing the issue forward, I said “Don’t go forward on this.” They had a dogmatic approach, that parking and bike lanes is bad, which it is. They were convinced of it, but they didn’t have any evidence of it to convince other people. Even today there’s not like tons – not like parking on Shoal Creek is a problem. And so they pushed it forward, got into a huge conflict with the neighborhood, that chicane solution came forth as a compromise idea. Initially it wasn’t that bad, but then Watershed modified it for storm water purposes. It got compromised down where the initial objectives were all bad. And probably that’s a project that should have been killed, and that shouldn’t have gone forward. We spent money, we put them in, we took out, and now we have 10 ft parking lanes.

Why didn’t the standard approach to consensus-building work there?

Good question. There was a lack of leadership. We had a couple of diametrically opposed stakeholders. Council Member Goodman was fairly involved in that issue, but there wasn’t the direct accountability like we’re going to have in the new system. There was one of the first examples I saw where staff wasn’t very accountable to the Council members. Although she was pushing it forward and had a fairly clear vision about how the process should work, staff just kind of blew her off. And that was really surprising. In my experience working with state agencies, I was really surprised at city staff just not responding to the concerns expressed by Council.

So when you talk about accountability, part of what you’re talking about is the interface between Council, and the public, and staff.

Absolutely. Another great example is the Walnut Creek trail. That project has just stumbled along. There’s been some contracting issues and problems that I’m not up to speed on the details of. I’m not clear on whether the problems were with the contractor, or with the manager at Parks and Rec Department. A lack of oversight, one of the things that we’re going to have under the new system, is that Council members are going to be accountable for all of the projects in their districts. And they need to hold staff accountable for how those projects are proceeding, how communications are going out to the public, Council Members are going to have to facilitate some of that.

[There needs to be] a real clear chain of accountability – if a citizen has a concern about a project, calls Council member, Council member calls staff and asks, “What’s going on.” By the same token, if staff is moving forward with a project, they need to be communicating to the Council member, and the Council member hopefully can help facilitate communications out to the citizens.

Tell me about your involvement in the North Austin community, what you’ve accomplished on the ground

Well I’ve lived in North Austin since 1993. I worked with Allandale on the VMU proposal. I’ve worked on trail and bicycle projects, especially along Shoal Creek, more on lower Shoal Creek than upper Shoal Creek. Walnut Creek a bit as well – the creek trail. On the Parks Board I worked very hard in support of the funding that connected the Walnut Creek Trail across Mopac to the Milwood neighborhood. But then also more importantly I spent a lot of effort trying to work on the connections between the Walnut Creek park and I-35 and those trail segments.

One of the projects that I’ve looked at is called the Great Loop, which would form a bikeways connecting the Shoal Creek trail north up to the Walnut Creek trail, and the Walnut Creek trail all the way down to Govalle Park, and from there a bikeway back to Shoal Creek. A big loop all around the town. And we’re actually getting pretty close on that. I worked as part of the stakeholder committee for bicycles and trails connections along the Mopac managed lanes, working to improve a lot of bike connections at the bridges across Mopac from the Lake all the way north, across 183 at least up to the south gate of the Pickle Campus. There were some funding limitations on what could be done, unfortunately – really unfortunately.

Of course on the citizen bond commission I worked on the N Lamar Burnet bikeways and sidewalk improvements, which even though N Lamar didn’t vote for it – really still not happy about that. I’m not sure what happened. N Lamar did an amazing job advocating for it – they showed up almost like every meeting. Those precincts did not vote for the bond proposition that included the sidewalks. It was some of the most effective citizen input during the bond process, and those neighborhoods didn’t vote.

I’ve helped develop the proposals for the Rails with Trails as part of the Red Line. And unfortunately I worked with the consultant who developed a lot of the gold-plated plan that has resulted in CapMetro shelving a lot of the ideas for what they could do. But I look forward to putting some of that back into place. We are seeing more pieces of that come together.

I’ve worked on access to the BCP lands which we haven’t yet achieved, although that’s actually District 10.

While Serving on the 2012 Bond Advisory Task Force Transportation Committee, you were the only one on your committee to oppose funding of pedestrian improvements along Burnet Rd. The bond committee had to make a lot of hard decisions, and subsequently you supported the Burnet improvements. But in the context of a District 7 Council election it seems fair to ask where the balance lies between District 7 interests and citywide interests.

That’s a totally fair question. And part of the issue I had with that project was – it was really like three or four projects to me, instead of one project. But City staff fought very aggressively for, and eventually convinced me that they wanted a pool of money for a large area so that they could opportunistically build out these projects in conjunction with other work on the corridor. It was such a large area, that it didn’t look like they could actually get the work done. But, Howard Lazarus in Public Works, Gary Schatz in Transportation, persuaded me otherwise.

As a candidate who lives in the south part of the district, what do you bring to voters who live in other parts of the district?

I’m going to serve them equally. I mean, yeah, I live in almost the most southern part of the district. But the folks on Parmer, the folks in Milwood, the folks on Dessau Rd, are still in District 7. One of the things I have long knocked against in my work with community groups, was dealing with people in the Austin neighborhood association and at City Hall, other community groups, who don’t really know much about Austin north of Anderson Ln. And you know, I’ve lived in North Austin since ’93, and I value North Austin. And all of what North Austin needs, needs to work together. I’ve worked on the Walnut Creek trail. District 7 is largely defined by the Shoal Creek watershed and the Walnut Creek watershed. I look forward to improving the quality of life for folks in the North part of the district just as much as for folks in the south part of the district.