Background

I moved to Leander in 2010, which means I’ve been here long enough to proudly claim myself as a Texan! When we first came to Leander, our family lived in Northcreek Estates, on the Northwest side of town. We lived there through the Great Road Widening of 2243 (and yes, I know it’s called ‘Hero Way West’ now, but it will always be ‘2243’). During our years in Northcreek, I was active at my children’s school: Jim Plain Elementary, where I was in the PTA, first as Secretary, then President, then semi-retired to fundraising chair (if your kids brought home little lanyards of penguins or ducks, they probably had a visit from me).

After a few years in Northcreek, we built a house in the then-barely-opened Mason Hills subdivision where we have been ever since. It was a zoning change next to our neighborhood shortly after moving in that eventually turned me toward local politics. I felt like nobody knew what was best for my neighborhood better than those of us who lived here. It’s like your family, right? You see them every day and you understand them in ways that nobody else can. Our pleas to the City Council fell on mostly deaf ears. What the actual what? How could my elected officials not care?

Change became a theme I saw all over town the next few years: the changing landscape of Leander as more and more homes and monolithic apartment complexes were built; the change within my children, as their ages became double digits and they aged out of city activities; and the slow change of a town that just a few years ago was fully connected, to a collection of neighborhoods where residents suddenly had many degrees of separation from the City’s decision-makers.

In 2017, I got involved in the city: joining the Economic Development Committee and Chairing the city’s Charter Review Commission.  It was a great introduction to how the city worked and how to get things done.  So in 2018, I ran for City Council and won.  I spent that 3-year Council term absorbing everything I could, obtaining CMO designation from Texas Municipal League, meaning I attended a ridiculous amount of training.  Through TML, I networked and became involved in legislative policy making, which gave me an understanding of issues outside of what Leander was facing at the time.  I also represented our city on the Capital Area Council of Governments, which gave me a deeper understanding of emergency management, our 911 system, and how various regional and state issues impact Leander.

While my term on Council was enriching, I found that I vehemently disagreed with the direction the city was headed.  Problems were coming to the surface.  The city had grown for decades without anybody watching over the infrastructure.  Our growth was unsustainable, our residents felt it in their homes, and then to add insult to injury, we had limited public comments so we wouldn’t have to face our critics.  We were reactive and dysfunctional.  My term on Council was coming to a close and I knew I could not do another 3-year-term with the path we were on, so I ran for mayor to change it.  It would be all or nothing.

I’m happy to say that I won that election and we put a lot of changes into place.  We restored people’s right to tell us publicly what they think.  We re-opened public spaces that had been restricted to the tax payers that were funding them.  And importantly, we poured $200 million of overdue improvements into our water system, secured enough water rights for decades to come, slowed the growth rate of the city, and put in plans to make our road and wastewater infrastructure better funded in the future.  All that while making historic cuts to the tax rate.

Thank you, Leander, for allowing me to represent you. It’s an honor and I will continue do my best to earn your respect each and every day.

Credentials