On Dec. 9, Chris Koob entered the race for the Place 3 seat on Round Rock City Council.



Koob will face candidate Frank Leffingwell in the Jan. 24 special election to complete the unfinished term of former Councilman Joe Clifford, who resigned Nov. 13. The next full-term election for the seat will take place May 9.



Leffingwell leads the Round Rock Planning and Zoning Commission and is president of Leffingwell Law PC.



Koob said he is a principal engineer and manager at Qualcomm and designs microprocessors for cell phones. He has lived in Round Rock since 2002 and has a wife and a 16-year-old daughter who attends Cedar Ridge High School.



Koob's application for candidacy form was filed with the city secretary Dec. 9.



Koob said Round Rock faces challenges. He said the city is overly dependent on tax revenue from Dell Inc. If elected, Koob said he would work on diversifying Round Rock's tax base and alleviating traffic problems such as the congestion at the intersection of Sam Bass and Hairy Man roads.



Koob also said red-light cameras are another problem in Round Rock.



"Red-light cameras really are not benefiting the community, but they are costing the community money," he said.