In a special election Dec. 8, Buda Place 2 City Councilman Todd Ruge defeated Place 1 Councilman Ron Fletcher by a count of 159 votes to 126 votes for the position of Buda mayor.
City Council called the special election after former Mayor Sarah Mangham resigned Oct. 23, citing health reasons. Ruge holds a degree in finance from St. Edward's University and lives near downtown Buda. He answered questions from Community Impact Newspaper.
How will you manage growth without sacrificing Buda's "small-town charm?"
The small-town charm is really what drew my wife and I here. We live in the old town area. We want that charm to remain, and as a city, we can do that by being very selective on the types of businesses that we bring into town. One thing that we have done as a council is that we've instituted stricter building standards so that when things do come in, they're going to look like the area they're a part of. We've always had that in old town, but we've expanded that across the whole city.
Besides growth, what is the biggest issue facing the city?
I think there's two issues really. The first one being traffic, and that goes hand in hand with the growth. When we annex new land for neighborhoods and businesses and things like that, there's a price that comes with it. We do get the tax base, but we get more vehicles, and we don't have new roads. The other pressing issue is wastewater. We just completed a renovation and expansion of our wastewater facility, and then a few council meetings ago, we got a report that—guess what? Because of growth projections, we're going to have to expand that in seven or eight years.
What is something unique you will bring to the table as mayor?
Well I come from a financial background, so I would say that's probably the one difference. I hold a degree in finance from St. Edward's University. So I understand that you see something on paper, and if we annex this or bring this business in, we can get X more revenue in, but along with that comes an expanded police force, city services, water, sewer, trash, things like that, that we're going to have to think [about] long and hard because there is a price with expansion.
How should new laws allowing bars and liquor stores in Buda be managed? How will you ensure that Buda doesn't become "just another bar town," as some residents have said?
As a council we [implemented] the strictest rules that we can, and [bars and liquor stores] can't be within 300 feet of a school or a church. The other thing that was already on our books was the operation time. [Bars must at midnight]. The notion of downtown becoming this rowdy area, we'll have to wait and see, but we have ... taken steps to make sure it's as smooth of a transition as can be and everyone knows exactly what they have to do.