Cedar Park City Council swore in new Council Member Bobbi Hutchinson at a May 25 meeting.
Hutchinson ran unopposed for Place 1 in the city's May 6 election. Former Council Member Stephen Thomas was unable to seek re-election due to being appointed to the role previously in June 2022.
Hutchinson has lived in Cedar Park since 2012 with her husband and four children. From early 2020 to May 2023, Hutchinson served on the city’s planning and zoning commission and was elected chair in 2021.
“When I started to feel that connection to Cedar Park, I then felt a responsibility to be a part of what makes it successful and what makes it a wonderful place to live,” Hutchinson said about her decision to join the commission.
A keen dedication to public service inspired her to run for City Council, she said. She previously worked as an operations research analyst at the Pentagon for the U.S. Department of Defense. Hutchinson now works as a real estate agent.
As a council member, Hutchinson said her main priority isn’t to push for widespread change but to help maintain the city’s current, positive state.
“I think our city is really well run and doing amazing with the stage of development that it's in now,” Hutchinson said. “My goal really is to just kind of keep that train on the track and keep it the wonderful place that it is.”
Hutchinson said she would like to focus on enhancing the city’s economic development by bringing in innovative, diverse businesses such as the Bell District. She wants to help the city be prudent in the use of its remaining land and maintain its parks and recreation and public safety departments like the city’s mental health unit, she said.
One area Hutchinson would like to improve is traffic and mobility as Cedar Park grows, including improve walkability, hiking and biking. She said the city's Mobility Master Plan accomplishes many of those goals.
"I hope to leverage that body of work to find comprehensive solutions for all of our city’s residents while remaining fiscally responsible to our taxpayers," Hutchinson said.
Moving forward, Hutchinson said the city will have to consider how to adapt to factors and trends affecting the larger economy.
“That will require us to be flexible and nimble going forward with budgets and things like that in a way that we haven't had to necessarily in the recent past,” Hutchinson said.
