The agenda, which prioritizes protecting local control, planning for growth and preserving a high quality of life for residents, was developed by a task force made up of residents and adopted by City Council.
During a Dec. 3 Georgetown Chamber of Commerce event, Clark said her job entails drafting position papers and acting as a translator between the city and the Legislature.
“Somebody is always advocating at the Legislature, whether it's paid lobbyists, whether it’s your local nonprofit, somebody is down there advocating for the things they believe in,” Clark said. “The city believes it's important that we’re advocating for you: the residents, the businesses, the people who live here.”
The specifics
Clark said over the last 10 years, there have been a number of bills directed at cities. She said this trend is representative of a change in the Legislature’s approach to cities.
"We've seen this change in mindset from the Legislature of having sort of a hands-off approach to cities and municipal government to very much having a top-down, pretty heavy-handed approach toward city government," Clark said.
She said in this process, the Legislature often clumps all cities together, even if their aim is to curb the behavior of a few cities. In her role, Clark said she spells out for the Legislature what Georgetown does differently from other cities.
The city’s first legislative priority of preserving local control serves to remind the Legislature that cities are the closest form of government to residents, Clark said.
“Cities are the closest level to people,” Clark said. “They have the fastest ability to respond to an issue that they may be facing, and so as the Legislature continues to work on these bills to try to get at problems caused by a few cities, they’re also impeding our ability to respond to our constituents in a timely manner.”
Other pillars under this priority include advocating against unfunded mandates, including letting the city to continue to work on its own budget as it’s historically been able to, citing a bill that’s already been filed that would tie the budget to population growth.
What else?
Clark said the second plank of the legislative agenda—planning for growth—is arguably the most robust as Georgetown continues to grow.
She said the city doesn’t have any tools to stop growth outside of a moratorium in case of an extreme water shortage.
“We can’t stop growth—it’s going to continue—so the best thing we can do is respond efficiently,” Clark said. “We can plan well for it. We can make sure that we’re planning the right areas for where new roads need to be, and planning for density.”
Clark tied this prong of the agenda to a push for affordable housing coming from both chambers and both sides of the political aisle. She said the Legislature’s approach to affordable housing hinges on increasing supply and making areas more dense.
She said there’s already been several bills filed focused on increasing density, and removing cities’ ability to regulate density in areas without a homeowners association.
“There’s a place for density; there’s a place for different types of housing, we just think that should be done in a thoughtful way to make sure we are putting the right roads in the right places.”
One more thing
The final component of the city’s legislative agenda is to preserve the high quality of life residents enjoy.
Under this priority, the city will ask for continued ability to collect hotel occupancy taxes, which Georgetown uses to fund its art programming, the Red Poppy Festival and The Christmas Stroll.
“You ask people what they love about Georgetown—our parks and trails, the library, the square—a lot of this is just making sure the legislature continues to allow us to do these wonderful things.”
