Why did you decide to run again for council?
When I ran the first time in 2017 it was because residents did not like the direction the previous leadership was taking the town. I won that election with an overwhelming popular vote of 73% against an incumbent. Since then, I believe I have accomplished what I had promised I would, namely to find ways to preserve our charming small-town community. I also helped revise the town’s Comprehensive Plan, helped create the largest “shovel-ready” inventory of commercial properties for the retail amenities the citizens desire, led the town in a budgeting process which has created the largest surpluses—all while launching the largest road reconstruction project, just to name a few.
What are some of the biggest issues facing the city?
Traffic from surrounding areas, creating a Comprehensive Plan for “One Argyle” and maintaining our financial sustainability. The Comprehensive Plan is a vision of what the town itself would like to see in the future. It identifies property uses and the need for roads and other infrastructure among other things. We need to create a Comprehensive Plan supported by ALL of Argyle which I believe can be done, since for a large part our town is still relatively untouched. Our finances have never been better, and we need to assure through careful planning that this does not change, all the while finding ways to continue to reduce the tax burdens on our residents which we have done for four years in a row.
What do you hope to accomplish on the council, and is there anything you’d like to see the city pursue or accomplish?
My goals include:
- To review and revise Argyle Comprehensive Plan for “One Argyle”
- To protect the small-town charm while adding commercial and retail amenities for our citizens
- To increase Sales Tax Revenue by 30% in the next two years and to ultimately reduce the tax burden on residents
- Lower the property tax rate
- More town sponsored community events
- Identify ways to better support local businesses making Argyle more business friendly
- Continue to serve ONLY Argyle residents, no outside special interest groups!
- Continue to improve Argyle’s roads and infrastructure, including drainage issues
- Quality development along the I-35 corridor while protecting the current property owners
- Improving the transparency and citizen engagement of the town’s governance
- Continue to be transparent and citizen focused leadership to the Argyle voters—Since serving on the Argyle Town Council I have always maintained an open door policy for the citizens of Argyle. Always, I serve you!
It has grown probably that much again since 2020, but we have been able to manage that growth through creative management like outsourcing tasks identified largely and isolated due to the growth. We have recently outsourced our street maintenance which will allow us to recognize a 13% savings over what was originally budgeted. Moreover, the last Comprehensive Plan revision has set residential lot sizes to be no less than 1 acre, which will alleviate some of the infrastructure pressures normally experienced by other townships. Lastly, we have a good staff that is well qualified and will be able to adjust to any growth pressures that may arise in the future, which most likely will be more commercial/retail in nature.
As the city grows, is the city doing enough to meet its demands for public services or could it do something different?
I believe it is at the moment, but only expect it to get better as time passes. We have substantially increased our public safety services, which in 2017 only provided one patrol officer on duty at any given time, while now we are up to three patrol officers during the evening shift hours. Our development team has increased in size and scope as has our financial team. We are working hard on developing processes which we feel will make these teams more efficient, effective and sustainable going forward, allowing us to be more nimble doing more with less.
