One of the responsibilities of being the mayor, is that every January, you give a State of the City presentation to the Chamber of Commerce. It’s open to the public and anyone can attend, but it isn’t something that is widely known.
This past January was my third time writing and delivering the speech. I thought that this year would be the easiest since I had two years of experience to learn from. The truth is, in some ways, it was harder because this one came with so much reflection.
I was elected in May of 2021 alongside 3 first-time council members. We had all campaigned on restoring civility, transparency, and strong planning to the city – things that had gone by the wayside to the council serving before us. Our term expires next month. Writing the State of the City means reflecting back on the last year of accomplishments, but I found myself continually reflecting on the last 3 years – where we started and how very far we’ve come.
I think people vote and they check and see if their candidate won and then they just go on with their lives and figure the candidate gets into office and then everything is fine. For us though, it wasn’t fine. We were unwelcome to our fellow council members. Those who had already been serving on Council were unhappy we won and were determined to make sure we knew it at every turn. On the night I was sworn in, as soon as I began to lead the meeting, a council member chewed me out and embarrassed me publicly. Another would at times blow up in anger on the dais, even once leading me to call a recess until the council member could calm down on their own. This didn’t go on for one or two meetings – it went on over a year.
But the good news is that the voters of Leander chose 4 strong women that year to represent them, and as such, we never deterred. Slowly and steadily, we made change. These days, I hear regularly from the public that our meetings have become boring. That’s music to my ears. We’re government – our meetings SHOULD be boring. We choose not to embarrass ourselves and our residents with needless controversy.
I wanted to share with you all today some of those changes we got through – my proudest moments on Council.
First things first: we have to talk about water
It was one of the main issues when we were campaigning and it’s been our number one focus since day one. I immediately appointed Na’Cole Thompson as our city’s voting representative on the BCRUA board – she went on to serve a year term as the board president. She’s represented Leander well and I hope all our residents are as proud of her as I am. I can honestly say that in all of my years on the Council, this is the first time I’ve felt like we had a solid and secure relationship with our BCRUA partners. It’s also paying off dividends – our BCRUA partners agreed to move up construction on a future phase that greatly expands our capacity but isn’t needed by the other cities. They did it out of good will because our participation is no longer selfish and adversarial.
We took a number of other actions on water the last 3 years as well. In 2021, we passed a resolution in support of construction of BCRUA Phase 1D and Phase 2 projects. In 2022, we sent the additional redundant treatment module at our Sandy Creek Water Treatment Plant out for design, approved the San Gabriel water line, amended our landscaping ordinance so new developments don’t plant so much grass and use so much irrigation, approved a 6 million gallon clear well for BCRUA, purchased land for the Travisso/Hero Way elevated storage tank, and received $3.5 million dollars to put toward the city’s second reclaimed water system. In 2023, we approved and began construction on the San Gabriel Elevated Storage Tank, approved the BCRUA operations reorganization that now makes the utility much more functional, approved an agreement with Cedar Park to recommission an old emergency contingency water barge we shared years ago, began engineering on new pipelines to run along Lakeline Blvd, updated our water and wastewater impact fees for building, authorized the BCRUA Phase 1D expansion construction contract, updated our drought contingency plan, and importantly, secured the rights to more water from LCRA, bringing the city’s total allotment to 31,000 acre ft. Each of those years had a number of smaller tasks as well – things like purchasing right of way and oversizing water lines throughout the city. We even facilitated a deal to allow the City of Georgetown to annex an area of land that was supposed to become annexed to the city, so long as they also took the responsibility for serving them water, protecting the needs of our current residents.
This year will be another big one for water. Our San Gabriel Elevated Storage tank is near completion, and engineering on the Travisso/Hero Way one has already begun. We awarded the construction contract for that second reclaimed water system. BCRUA just completed a successful replacement of a large area of the pipe that has given us so much trouble in the past, and while the plant was closed for that repair, they took the initiative to do a significant amount of maintenance to ensure the plant is operating its best. Council is currently working on an Automated Metering Infrastructure that would allow every one of our water customers to track their usage in real time and receive alerts of unusually high usage, making it easier to spot leaks or deficiencies in their homes and saving them money.
But there’s other infrastructure too
Some of you may remember that about a year prior to that 2021 election, a PEC substation on Hero Way West was denied by Council because it was “ugly” even though no members of the public spoke against it. We all know how important the electrical grid is, so at our second meeting, we approved that substation and it’s in operation today. Additionally, we added our water and wastewater structures to PEC’s “Critical Load” list and they’ve created a special emergency call line that bypasses the normal customer service number so we can alert them of critical outages and issues without delay.
Over Christmas of 2022, the city experienced a long, cold freeze. During that time, some of our residents went without heat when Atmos couldn’t adequately deliver gas to them. To make matters worse, there was little communication with their customers due to the holiday. This was in no way acceptable, so we called Atmos to the carpet. In front of all of you, recorded in our Council meeting, Atmos owned up to their shortcomings and gave us the plan they were putting in place to ensure something like that never happens again. I’m proud to say that they’ve kept their word. They added looping to their system to give it more pressure to push the gas through the lines, curtailed industrial users upstream to conserve supply, and they’re meeting with us regularly to talk about updates to their plans. We’ve fostered a true partnership with them and I know that I can call them any time if ever our residents aren’t being taken care of.
We’ve been working on our wastewater treatment system – adding dual feeds to give it resiliency, and making interceptor and collection improvements, as well as adding and upgrading lift stations around the city.
Why not just stop the growth already?
Long time readers here will remember we talked about moratoriums a while ago. For those of you who haven’t read it, the short version is that the State of Texas feels they know better than the people who govern cities, and so they won’t allow us to enact a moratorium unless we’re in imminent dire straits, and even then, it’s only for a short amount of time. The City of Leander currently does not qualify for a moratorium. But instead of acting helpless, we decided a few years ago to get creative and start steering our growth in a way that is responsible, measured, and not at the break neck speed it once was.
In 2022, we added phasing to large developments – requiring them to come online in stages rather than causing huge upticks in population as fast as builders could get homes on the ground. We also created the city’s first roadway impact fees. Roadway impact fees are assessed on new construction and they provide for widening or expanding streets due to new growth. That same year, we also approved what’s come to be known as “the water resolution” – a resolution putting developers on notice that unless they had a compelling reason, this council had no interest in increasing the residential density of any piece of land in the city – meaning whatever zoning you had or whatever the future land use map said, that’s the most housing you should include in your project submission, otherwise, stop asking.
We made our roads safer
In 2022, we approved construction of traffic lights at the intersections of Sonny & Bagdad as well as Hero & Reagan after both had been held up for years without reason. Later that year, we also approved the design for a light at CR 175 & Journey Pkwy and another at Bagdad & Collaborative. We also changed the speed limit on Reagan to be 55 mph for the entire stretch until Kaufman Loop – this eliminated the old speed limit which fluctuated from 45 to 65 and back every few miles, causing driver confusion.
In 2023, we added future expansions of both Crystal Falls Pkwy and Bagdad Rd to the Williamson County bond package, which was ultimately approved by voters in November. That same year, we also initiated a study of the Old 183 corridor, so we can plan its next stages as a safer, more pedestrian and business-friendly environment. And of course, we approved the start of construction on the widening of Raider Way and Woodview Drive – 2016 voter-approved bond projects that had fallen by the wayside for too long.
2023 was a year we focused strongly on our rapidly growing Reagan Corridor. We conducted a study of the traffic and future construction around Reagan to determine future improvements that will be needed. That year we also approved an agreement to add a light at Reagan & Bar W Ranch in conjunction with Williamson County and Liberty Hill ISD. At the end of the year, we shut down the problematic low water crossing at CR 177 that most of you will remember as the place the where the school bus was swept away.
And of course, there’s CapMetro
I haven’t written about CapMetro since the election of 2022 when residents decided that they wished to stay in the service area. It doesn’t matter if you love or hate CapMetro, it is a part of Leander for the foreseeable future. So we decided to make the best of the situation. I appointed Becki Ross to the small cities seat on the CapMetro board – she represents us and 5 other non-Austin cities in CapMetro. Becki immediately began building relationships and searching for possibilities. In late May of 2022, thanks to Becki’s year-long effort, CapMetro agreed to an Interlocal Agreement where they would fund transportation-related projects in the city with taxes they had collected from Leander that were over and above their service costs. This is the most significant contribution of any Council member I’ve seen in all my years here. Becki Ross is directly responsible for bringing in more than $10 million to city projects. To date, some of that funding has been applied as follows: $130,000 to the Old Town Master Plan; $500,000 to the 183 corridor study; $2.3 million to South Street improvements; $4 million to West Dr. improvements; $1.5 million to downtown fire improvements; $800,0000 to the San Gabriel right turn lane; and $1.6 million to construct a road we needed in order for Home Depot to agree to build here. It’s remarkable and these are projects we could not have easily accomplished without that financial assistance, and in the case of the road for Home Depot – this is going to pay off in substantial ales tax revenues for years to come.
Of course, the problem with being in a transit district is the way it’s funded (the city loses half of its sales tax collection to the transit district). The only way to change that is to get a change in state law. Make no mistake, that is where the city’s effort needs to move in order to remedy the funding issue. CapMetro has been supportive in this department, assisting us in getting in front of the right audiences and meeting the right people. Last year, CapMetro invited myself and Becki Ross to sit as panelists at a transit conference. We talked openly about the hardships on the city because of the financial impact of transit. That audience was full of influential people in Texas transit, including the team at TXDOT that is working on the state’s first ever multi-modal plan and they were shocked. The conventional wisdom has always been that transit is good for economic development, so hearing about Leander rocked them. They have eagerly invited our participation in creating the multimodal plan. Why is that plan so important? Because the legislature won’t change funding out of the goodness of their hearts, they need supportive documents and plan from TXDOT before jumping in to something like this.
I remember being on Council in 2019 when CapMetro gave a presentation about what they were doing everywhere but Leander. It was a feeling like they didn’t care. When they first came to us to choose the best area for pick up service, they brought outdated maps. Our response was to put someone on the board who was belligerent and just as undedicated to them as we felt they were to us. But I can say now that the CapMetro of today is an entirely different organization – they value us, they see us, and they understand us. And Becki’s diplomacy and ability to understand how to work within the system and treat people with respect and dignity, has gone a long way to creating a symbiotic relationship.
And we improved Public Safety
In 2022, we added a significant amount of new positions to the Police Department. We also created new step pay plans for both Police and Fire, to make our hiring more attractive and competitive. We also approved a process called Meet and Confer for both Police and Fire, allowing their representatives to choose to enter into a negotiation process with the city to create a contract similar to what you see in some other cities. In 2023, we purchased a generator for the Police Department and lowered employees insurance deductibles across the board for all of our staff.
We’re currently planning Fire Station number 6 and some time in 2024, we expect to begin working on a Police contract. We’re also looking at city facilities and determining the future for our Police Station which has become too small for all that it needs to protect.
When our term first started, I appointed our current Mayor Pro Tem, Esme Mattke-Longoria to CAPCOG, the regional board I had sat in that was near and dear to my heart. Esme has continued the important work there, recently approving the regional Homeland Security Strategic Plan, Law Enforcement Academy training grants, and an upgrade to all the region’s 911 call centers.
But we were also really fiscally responsible
I don’t just mean that we were responsible with the city’s money, we were responsible with yours too. Shortly after taking office, we enacted the city’s first residential homestead exemption. We followed that with the biggest property tax rate cut in the city’s history. We want to see you stay in your own home and have extra money to spend in our shops and restaurants.
In 2023, we refinanced bonds the city had issued previously to get a better rate, saving tax dollars from being thrown away on debt service. When projects went out to bid and came back too high, we rejected them and found new ways to repackage them to get a better deal. And when the Old Town Master Plan came back sub par, we refused to accept it until the contractor gave us our money’s worth.
This year, you’ll see processes go into place to allow the city to work on more grant writing, to bring in federal and state dollars waiting for communities like ours, to decrease the burden on our taxpayers.
We made it easier to open a business here
In late 2021, we reviewed our development services and found processes that could be smoothed to make building a business here easier and more efficient. A few months later, we removed references in our codes that made development confusing and replaced them with a new, easier system. We also updated our ordinance to allow more food trucks, and we overhauled the long-problematic sign ordinance, to make it easier and less cumbersome for businesses to get approval for permanent signs that fits their brand. We also recognized the impact of supply chain issues that are still happening in construction, and amended our processes to help construction continue on when a site is waiting on pieces that are outside of their control.
In 2024, we’ll be creating some new land use designations like “Entertainment District” that are going to make it easier to have areas of bars, restaurants, and recreation.
And we did some serious economic development
You hear a lot about economic development in terms or restaurants and retail, but that’s only part of the picture. True economic development means diversifying your tax base so your city is safer in an economic downturn. If the market crashes, restaurants and retail are easy to cut out of people’s budgets. What we want is a mix of the restaurants, retail, and primary jobs = that’s the magic combination that keeps a city thriving.
In 2022, Council approved a Destination Restaurant Incentive program. While restaurants aren’t typically something you’d want to incentivize, we recognize that for one that would pull people in from neighboring cities could be worth the incentive. So we set up a list of criteria our economic development staff can use to entice those very special restaurants to come here.
While most of the shops and restaurants coming here never end up at a Council meeting, we’ve been excited for the few that did come to us because of a special circumstance. We approved a deal with Leander’s first Home Depot last year and we’re looking forward to them breaking ground in the next few months. And just last week, we approved a Spec’s – a tenant who was very excited to come to Leander.
But I want to tell you about a few of the projects we’ve approved that don’t get as much attention, but will likely contribute handsomely to the city’s finances. Last year we approved the Highway 29 Commercial PUD, now known as the Leander Tech Park. It’s 50 acres containing 8 buildings totaling 270,000 sq ft. and is expected to employ about 850 people. More recently, we approved a development from Titan Development to build more than a million sq ft of class A business park on 115 acres. Leander is on the map.
In the coming months, you’ll see us begin to talk about the hotel study we began late last year, to determine what kind of hotel the city can support and where it makes the most sense. Spoiler alert: it’s going to be a really nice hotel.
We added transparency
One of the first things I changed when we took office didn’t require a vote of Council and it’s possible most people haven’t noticed it, but it’s important. For the last 3 years, on every Council agenda, if an item requires any city budget, there’s now a fiscal impact statement at the bottom of the item summary. This statement allows everyone to know if this expenditure is new, approved in the budget, which budget it comes from, and whether it’s one time or recurring. It gives our residents a quick and easy way to ensure we’re being responsible with their hard earned dollars.
In 2022, we also began requiring that anyone looking for an economic development incentive from the city had to register as a lobbyist if they wanted to talk about the incentives with council members prior to staff completing their jobs. This allows our process to work more professionally and removes a loophole that could have allowed for council members to make side deals in the past.
Importantly, we also restored public comments to Council meetings. In 2019, those had been removed so members of the public who had a grievance with how the city was run, could no longer openly criticize us in our meetings. We are elected to represent all of our residents all of the time, and whether we enjoy it or not, it is our duty to hear and respect the voice of the public in our meetings. Restoring this fundamental right was foundational to us becoming the functional Council we wanted to be.
And we improved the quality of life for our residents
In 2021, we reopened the library room rentals to allow for vital meeting space, regardless of what you want to meet about. The following year, the library enhanced its digital programing with Cloud Library, a new way for patrons to borrow ebooks and audiobooks wherever they are. And just a few months ago, we approved removing overdue item fines from the library so everyone can be welcomed, even if they loved a book a little too long.
In 2022, we negotiated a great rate and opened the Leander Activity Center, allowing for indoor parks programming. This center has been home to hundreds of kids making memories at day camp, seniors connecting every day in their community, and to residents attending any of a number of programs we put on every day.
In 2023, we approved brand new playgrounds to replace the aging ones at both Bledsoe and Divine Lake Parks. I drive by Bledsoe Park almost daily and have yet to see that new play structure empty. That same year, we also approved a mural commissioned by Leander Public Arts and Culture Commission called Love Leander Wildly. It brightens up the park and is situated right next to that popular playscape.
Last year we amended our building codes, adding new safety requirements for facilities that provide animal boarding, because we heard loud and clear that our residents don’t want to see a tragedy here like our neighbors in Georgetown did a few years ago.
And we recognized that not every day is a carefree day at the park, so in 2022, we approved an agreement with OWBC to provide low income household water assistance to those in need.
Currently, the Council is working on addressing the shortage of parkland in the city. The city typically gets parks from new development: either a developer giving the city actual land or more commonly, paying a large fee for the city to use to build and maintain parks. Unfortunately, our parkland ordinance has been inadequate since the beginning – great for developers, terrible for residents. We’re correcting that and those changes will be approved in the coming weeks, providing for more parks and trails for all our residents.
You’ll also see this year an ordinance requiring vape shops to open in locations that more than 300 ft away from schools. While I typically don’t like adding new regulations to businesses, I do believe that vapes, which are now marketed as a cute accessory have no business opening next to snow cone shops across the street from high schools. It’s insidious, and while we can’t stop what’s already happened, we can at least say we won’t allow it to happen again.
So why am I reflecting on all this now?
Because our terms are coming to an end: me, Esme, Na’Cole, and Becki. But we’ve all decided to run again because we’ve started so much good work. We want to see the city continue on its track to being thriving, transparent, and drama-free. We just hired a new city manager and we need the city to have stability.
And to top it all off, there are challengers in some of these races who are openly stating that they’re running to “get back” the previous majority that was on council. That majority was petty, more interested in penalizing dissenters than getting the city business done. It was toxic, dysfunctional, and embarrassing. We’re not handing a good city back over to that kind of governance.
So here is what I’m asking of you: get involved. Be prepared to go vote. Early voting is April 22-30th and Election Day is Saturday, May 4th, 2024. This year is different, you have to vote at a location within your county, so I’ve put the links for both county’s polling locations on a page for you. I’m also asking you to tell your friends, neighbors, anyone you think values the city not going backward as much as you do – make sure they cast a well-informed vote too.
If you want to be more involved, I have free yard signs and car magnets, delivered to your door, just fill out this google form. And if you want to volunteer, I have this other google form. And of course, if you wish to donate (because campaigns are stupidly expensive), the options are here.
And finally, thank you!
It has been an honor to serve you these last 3 years. It’s exhausting at times, but worth every minute. I’m so very proud of the work we’ve accomplished and could not do it without thousands of you standing behind us. Thank you so much for your support and I hope you will allow me the privilege of another 3 years.
Before I forget
Here’s this year’s State of the City address. We had a lot of great news to share.
State of the City 2024 from City of Leander on Vimeo.
All the best,
