7 highlights from Bee Cave City Council candidate forum

With three positions open on the Bee Cave City Council, five candidates–incumbent Marie Lowman, incumbent Kara King, challenger David K. Busch, challenger Scott Cronk and incumbent Monty Parker–participated in a candidate forum April 12 to answer audience questions about the city, including its traffic, local employment, sports facilities and campaign contributions. The forum was held at Sonesta Bee Cave, 2525 Bee Cave Pkwy., Bee Cave, and moderated by Community Impact Newspaper. Opening statements

• Lowman: “I’m a mother of four and have been a Bee Cave resident for the better part of 15 years, so I’ve seen what we used to be and what we are, and I like to think about what we’ll become someday.”
• King: “I’m a mother of three, and picked to live in Bee Cave nine years ago. We fell in love with the Texas Hill Country. It had the perfect blend of what we had in Hawaii and our Texas roots that we both grew up in. It’s been a privilege and [an] honor to serve the last four years.”
• Busch: “My platform is straight forward. It’s about family; it's about community; it’s about balanced growth and efficient revenue management. I will do this with the utmost honesty, integrity and common sense. “
• Cronk: “I love our community and families, and I believe my experience as a business owner and as the Executive Director of [Lake Travis Youth Association], one of the area’s largest non profits, will make a positive impact on the shaping of our community in the future and our children.”
• Parker: “I’ve been a resident here for about five years and made a point to start going to all [of] the planning and zoning, and city council meetings. I will finish 18 months as a council member next month and I would like to be on for another term.”

What is the biggest issue facing Bee Cave and how would you address it?

• Busch said traffic resulting from development outside of the city’s jurisdiction is Bee Cave’s biggest issue. “We don’t have much control over developments outside our area,” he said. “The control we have is the discussions we have with [Texas Department of Transportation] about making sure we get our roads addressed in a timely manner.”
• Cronk said, without a doubt, the biggest issue is traffic, and it is intertwined with development. “Clearly, we need to manage traffic and that is a function of development in the city of Bee Cave and the management here,” he said. “It’s also how we work with both TxDOT and the communities around us.”
• Parker said the community can complain about traffic but it is at a crossroads because the only major road that is a city-operated road is Bee Cave Parkway. “We do need more dialogue with TxDOT—maybe a resolution that gets on their radar,” he said.
• Lowman said having a strong relationship with TxDOT is most important because the agency controls most of the thoroughfares in Bee Cave. However, she said the city can also work more with developers. “Working with developers to improve infrastructure as part of those projects that they are proposing to bring to our city could help [traffic],” she said. “Having developers work together to make curb cuts in our city would improve internal circulation.”
• King said growth, not traffic, as a result of the city's low property taxes and good schools is the biggest issue the city faces. “We are one of the fastest growing cities in the state,” she said. “This is where my philosophy of a balanced Bee Cave [comes in]—being able to communicate efficiently with the residents that live here that this is their community and for developers, who are buying up property, to bring about projects that work for all of us. If we do that effectively, we are going to balance our growth with the needs of our community and the needs of our developers.”

If elected, what improvements would you undertake?

• Parker: “Our connectivity plan has been in the works for a long time. I would really like to see all of those trails going and get that behind us. It would enhance the community.”
• Lowman: “If we are going to collect a hotel tax, we should allocate it and not hang onto it. I think we have to make a concerted effort to take action on how to utilize those funds or make a decision to no longer collect these [funds].”
• King: “I would like to see [Bee Cave] presented as—instead of as a suburb of Austin—as a Hill Country destination; a place to come and spend a weekend and tour the wineries a little bit west of us; and come back at night and experience what we have to offer.”
• Busch: “I think we need to develop and institute a traffic plan. I think that needs to happen now because it takes years to put this into full fruition.  [The] second thing is we need to put more effort into our youth sports facilities.”
• Cronk: “If everyone agrees traffic is the highest regard, then addressing that has to be the highest regard. I think the council did a great job with the 2037 Comprehensive Plan. We need to go back and look at that and understand how to implement it.”

As a dark skies city, how would you plan to bring the Field of Dreams into compliance?

• King said LTYA currently has an application in front of the Bee Cave City Council and therefore she could not legally comment on the Field of Dreams. She did say she was excited that Bee Cave was a dark skies community.
• Busch said the lighting issue at the Field of Dreams needs to be resolved, but LTYA should be able to continue to use lights during games because it is important to speak for the kids in the community who use it.
• Cronk said there are definitely things that LTYA can do about the lights, and as LTYA executive director, he has reached out to the city to try to work with them. The Association is working to get a new light control system that will help manage the lights, he said.
• Parker said, taking the kids out of the equation, Field of Dreams has been an issue for The Homestead development and lights that are not in compliance have aggravated the issue.
• Lowman referenced a recent list of potential future changes mailed to LTYA parents regarding the park and said she was hopeful some lighting changes would be included in the field improvements.

What can be done to bring more hourly employees to the area?

• King said Bee Cave is in a unique position because teenagers are busy with school and not in a position where they need to work, taking away a chunk of the city’s typical hourly employee base. “One thing we have done is work with the high school during job fairs to get the word out about local jobs,” she said. “I [have] started talking to business owners about being flexible with their business hours.”
• Busch said getting workers from Bee Cave will be difficult and the city should focus on looking outside the community, although higher wages and more affordable housing might not be solutions. “One way is to make [the jobs] more attractive,” he said. “Paying higher wages to get them here is not good for business, so frankly I don’t have an answer for this, but I think it’s something we need to bring people together to [discuss].”
• Cronk said housing affordability is a challenge for hourly workers who could be interested in the area. “As a business owner who talks to a lot of local business owners, it’s definitely something that we wrestle with,” he said. “It’s going to have to be solved outside of just the city of Bee Cave. It’s a problem in surrounding areas.”
• Parker said he feels it is a problem business owners have to solve for themselves. “I don’t like higher wages either, but if business owners can pay it and that draws employees to them, then fine,” he said. “It’s going to be a business decision.”
• Lowman said there’s been a cultural shift from when she was younger and would bike to work. “We do offer [hike and bike trails] here and I think the city can offer further encouragement of those types of things,” she said.

Who is your biggest campaign contributor to date and what was the contribution?

• King: “My biggest campaign contributor is Don Waldon. He’s an old friend of mine. He advised me before I was on the council and I rely on his history of the area. He no longer has business in front of the city and he donated $1,200 to my campaign.”
• Busch: “At this point I have only spent my own money. I have received one donation I have not yet cashed from a family in the neighborhood. One business interest has pledged money to me that I have yet to spend or taken any of the money at this point.”
• Cronk: “I’ve had a number of people give me money and I think my largest donation was $2,500. I don’t recall whom it was from or the company name.” (Community Impact Newspaper confirmed Cronk filed a Correction/Amendment Affidavit for Candidate/Officeholder April 13 reflecting the "return of a previously accepted donation of $2,500 from AXB")
• Parker: “I remember all of my contributors. The largest one was one of my neighbors, [T.L.] Brad Bradford, for $1,300.”
• Lowman: “I have received a significant amount of donation money from many different entities, many different businesses, many different developers and many neighbors and friends. I made a decision that I would not accept any donations from any developers with interest in the city. I have accepted three donations from neighbors and I think the largest one was $100.”

If elected, do you anticipate having to recuse yourself from any city council discussions due to a conflict of interest?

• Lowman: "No."
• King: “Because I take a salary from Lake Travis ISD, anything they put on the agenda, I recuse myself.”
• Busch: "No."
• Cronk: “I would likely have to recuse myself from anything related to Lake Travis Youth Association and the Field of Dreams.”
• Parker: "No."