Keller Mayor Armin Mizani delivered his State of the City address at Keller Town Hall Nov. 18, highlighting the city’s accomplishments across a range of local issues.

Mizani was first elected as mayor nearly a year ago, in December 2020. Part of his mission upon taking office, he said, was to make Keller the most family-friendly city in the state. He noted the city’s new vision, which reads: “Keller is Texas’s premier family-friendly community in which to live, work and play. We will face the issues of tomorrow while preserving our unique character.”

As part of that mission, the mayor said the city has focused on providing tax relief to citizens, ensuring public safety, improving infrastructure, increasing transparency and developing family-centric spaces and events.

“I'm a firm believer that you've got a good team here at the local level—we've got strong leadership at the local level,” Mizani said. “The local level's an incubator to tackle those types of issues, and I'm proud to say that that's what we're trying to do.”

Mizani emphasized the city’s biggest accomplishments during the first half of the year from January to June. Keller held its first Independence Day celebration in July, and over 21,000 people attended, he said.


But one of the main things the mayor highlighted was that the city increased its homestead exemption from 14% to the state maximum rate of 20% in June. The city also approved keeping the fiscal year 2021-22 tax rate at $0.395 per $100 assessed value, which was the same as FY 2020-21.

Mizani also discussed some of the city’s accomplishments during the second half of the year. On Nov. 2, Keller residents overwhelmingly voted to renew the city’s crime control and prevention district, which helps fund the Keller Police Department with a quarter-cent sales tax, for another 15 years.

“To me, again, I think that's what makes Keller so unique,” Mizani said. “We understand that we can't accomplish all these things that are complicated without the work that the men and women of our police and our firefighters do on a daily basis.”

The Keller City Council also passed an ordinance on Oct. 19 that prohibits registered child sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of places children frequent. Mizani stressed the importance of the ordinance and thanked Keller Police Chief Brad Fortune for bringing the issue to the council’s attention in the first place.


“That’s good public policy that’s been needed ... that protects our kids because, ultimately, that’s who we are as a community,” Mizani said.