Phil Osars-Emia
Occupation: businessman Experience: lived in Pflugerville since 2002
What’s your vision for the continued growth of Pflugerville, and what can make it better? To foster better police/community relationship, also our municipal court. Improvement/solution to the water system (hard water) as is presently consumed by the community. To work on improvement of the electricity, coupled with communication/cable provision to the city. To lower property tax. Transportation. Pro-business. Support President Obama task force, 21st century policing reports. To provide meaningful solutions to help law-enforcement agencies, communities, etc.
What can be done better to alleviate service and infrastructure issues as new development commits to building here? I noticed that the city is growing at a tremendously fast rate than when I started living here (2002). The relationship between the cops/courts gradually starts deteriorating between them and particularly the minority community and many of the so-called poor white people.
What do you see as the strengths of Pflugerville to bring new residents and businesses here? What are the weaknesses that need attention? Having lived in different countries (Europe, Canada), also after living in different parts of America—Philadelphia; Boston; Trenton N.J.; Burlington/Cairo, Iowa—and I have lived in different part of Texas, Marble Falls, Austin and Schulenburg. These are all practical beautiful experiences I will bring to the city of Pflugerville. Accessibility of all parts of Pflugerville to different communication/cable providers. Time Warner Cable, Grande, etc., included.
Victor Gonzales
Occupation: senior account manager, Office Depot corporate sales Experience: more than 40 years’ experience in the public and corporate work environment, elected to Pflugerville City Council for 9 1/2 years and mayor pro tem for five years, served on the Texas Municipal League board of directors for four years
What’s your vision for the continued growth of Pflugerville, and what can make it better? There are multiple initiatives to make Pflugerville better, including: Keeping Pflugerville Beautiful, basic upkeep, landscaping, street repairs, improving the appearances of storefronts, improving the amenities in public parks and open spaces, improve city facilities including the animal shelter and a new City Hall. Expand hike and bike trails and maximize Lake Pflugerville with more beachfronts. It is imperative that we include robust and calculated commercial development, but we must also include a collaborative relationship with the school district to create career- and job-ready work force. We must drive an initiative to gain and maintain an active hospital project and we must help design better mobility models for an emerging senior community.
What can be done better to alleviate service and infrastructure issues as new development commits to building here? Infrastructure development is imperative to the growth and mobility of the community. We must plan deliberately to collaborate with commercial and residential development to design creatively and have the developers contribute their fair share of infrastructure. Water resources will be critical moving into the future. We must be ready to invest in long-term projects to acquire and reserve an adequate water supply inventory.
What do you see as the strengths of Pflugerville to bring new residents and businesses here? What are the weaknesses that need attention? The strengths are public safety first and foremost. Additionally, it is a community where we have plenty of opportunities for our youth to participate in. We are a family-centric city. The weakness is we do not have enough resources to address the needs of an emerging younger population. We must also address the needs of an aging population. We desperately need an exciting and vibrant senior community services center facility. Band-Aiding our current facilities for seniors is not enough. We must cooperate and partner with the emergency services district to provide a state-of-the-art responder department.
Brad Marshall
Occupation: custom homebuilder
Experience: 5 1/2 years as Pflugerville councilman, served more than six years on Pflugerville Finance and Budget Committee, former member of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization Transportation Policy Board, served on the Capital Area Council of Governments Committee, owned a business for 11 years
What’s your vision for the continued growth of Pflugerville, and what can make it better? My vision for the city is that it’s a balanced and safe place to live, work and play. I’ve spent the last 5 1/2 years on our City Council working to lower our property tax rate to make living here not overly burdensome from a tax standpoint. And we’ve been successful in doing that but it is only through doing two things: Keeping our city government spending in check while at the same time fostering commercial growth that brings in much-needed sales tax revenue. Coming full circle with my vision, improving the commercial base for the city where people can look to our own city as a viable place to hold down a professional job really is the next priority. That balance will contribute to the health of our city economy and our citizens’ quality of life.
What can be done better to alleviate service and infrastructure issues as new development commits to building here? Prioritizing and planning. We have to prioritize necessary city services that involve the health, safety and welfare of our community. This includes water, wastewater, police, fire and roads to a large degree. But you have to institute adequate and efficient development planning that has a direct effect on those services every time you add another business or household. All of that being said, strong commercial economic growth is what will continue to be one of the largest funding mechanisms through sales tax revenue to pay for those infrastructure needs.
What do you see as the strengths of Pflugerville to bring new residents and businesses here? What are the weaknesses that need attention? There are multiple strengths we can point to. One is simply our proximity to Austin without being in Austin. We have cultivated an environment in the city development office that cuts through much of what frustrates developers and business owners in other municipalities. Another strength is the overall value that homeowners feel like they get when purchasing a home in Pflugerville. One of our weaknesses continues to be our property tax rate. Even though we’ve been successful in lowering the rate nine of the last 10 years, we still need to get it lower, in my opinion. That will continue to be a focus of mine.
