Two new candidates pledging to support local business joined Place 1 Councilman Matt Powell in the race for Cedar Park mayor in March, including former Planning and Zoning Commissioner Eddie Hurst and former Parks and Recreation board member Wayne Ruark.

Hurst filed to run for mayor March 5, challenging Ruark and Place 1 Councilman Matt Powell. Hurst was a Cedar Park Planning and Zoning commissioner for three years and a commissioner for the City of Austin's Construction Advisory Committee for the past eight years. He said his primary plan as mayor would be to promote small businesses through public transit.

"The main thing that's going to anchor a successful first year is if we can purchase 10 shuttle buses from the sale of Cedar Park City Hall," he said. "My plan is to have bus stops at some of the shopping centers where it's difficult for business to service a large volume of customers."

He said a bus shuttle program, if supported by City Council and staff, could get rolling within one year.

"Shuttle bus routes provide sustainability for the community businesses that Cedar Park is so aggressively going after," Hurst said. "That would do a lot for the city."

Hurst said he would also like the city to use Cedar Park–based businesses to fill service needs.

"When the City of Cedar Park purchases services, like engineering services or file storage services, I want to work to provide work for the stakeholders of Cedar Park," Hurst said.

One of Hurst's opponents, Ruark, filed to run for mayor March 2. He ran and lost the Place 4 City Council seat to Lowell Moore in 2008 and ran against Hurst and Don Tracy for Place 6 in 2010.

Ruark said he supports plans for a business center within or near the new City Hall property, located at 450 Cypress Creek Road.

"The idea was to use one of the buildings near the City Hall complex as a small business meeting area to help support smaller businesses in any way we can, and promote them so they don't fail," Ruark said.

Ruark said he also wants to carefully evaluate zoning and focus on fiscal responsibility.

"A lot of things I'm into doing are promoting term limits for council members and mayor and looking at ways of improving life in Cedar Park without raising taxes or even maybe cutting them," he said. "One thing I'm good at is finding waste in things, and I'm sure I can find the waste in any budget, and that's one thing I want to do."

Powell filed his application Feb. 24. In accordance with Texas election code and the city charter, Powell has until March 28 to resign his City Council seat, Cedar Park City Secretary LeAnn Quinn said.

Powell said he plans to vacate his seat in the next week or two, in time for the council to call a special election May 12 to fill his seat for the rest of his term. Powell said City Council, citizens and businesses should work together to make Cedar Park a haven for new business, especially emerging technologies.

"I've always talked about small- and medium-sized businesses. They are the backbone of our local economy," Powell said. "I think it's time to take a holistic view of Cedar Park by doing a review and refreshing of our comprehensive plan."

Powell said he would like to include the business community in revamping the 15-year-old plan.

"I think it's important to get a small-business perspective on it to find out what conditions they need us to meet in order to maximize their productivity," he said.

Mayor Bob Lemon filed to run for re-election in February but withdrew his application. Election Day is May 12, and early voting begins April 30.

March 5 was the last day to file an application to run for mayor, as well as Place 2, Place 4 and Place 6 on the council. All three places—held by incumbents Mitch Fuller, Lowell Moore and Don Tracy, respectively—are uncontested.