He was elected to City Council’s Place 2 seat in May after serving on the planning and zoning commission and the zoning board of adjustment.
Will, who ran for City Council in 2019 but did not win a seat, also graduated from the Keller Citizens Academy and the Keller Citizens Police Academy, and plans to continue volunteering for the police department.
The backstory
A native of Erie, Pennsylvania, Will moved around frequently in his youth because of his father’s job, and his family moved to the area in his high school years. He graduated from Fossil Ridge High School in 2000. After high school, he attended college for a while before enlisting in the Air Force and was a military police officer. He was stationed all over, he said, including Germany and Saudi Arabia, and finished his stint in Fort Worth. After his time in the military, he went back to college at The University of Texas at Arlington.
Through his love of the White House television drama “The West Wing” and time in the military police, he found he loved politics. He earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from UTA and then he eventually earned his law degree from the Texas A&M School of Law. He works for the Small Business Administration’s office of disaster assistance, where he works as a disaster case manager. He has worked for the SBA since 2017 and has lived in Keller since 2009.
He is married to Alisha, and they have two children: Abigail, age 8, and Gregory, age 7.
"Keller is my home, and it's very important to me, and one of the reasons why I ran was, I wanted to make sure that I could have a voice in making sure it stays my home, the place that I grew up and the place I want to raise my kids in," Will said.
This story is edited for clarity and length.
Do you think serving with various associations and different groups has better informed you as a council member?
I do. I think it’s given me a better feel for where the community is. I’m also on the board of directors for the Keller Rotary Club, and I think having all those insights into where our residents are and what their concerns are has made me more ready to step into the role.
What are your hopes for the city? What do you hope this council can accomplish?
One of my goals, coming from planning and zoning, is I really think we should go in and rework or streamline our UDC (Unified Development Code, which oversees comprehensive land development), make it easier to anticipate the [development] requirements. I think a lot of people who are not professional developers look at that and [think], "I don't know what I’m allowed and what I’m not allowed to do by right." I think that results in a lot of unintentional violations on the part of the applicant through the homeowner. So what I’d like to do is go in and make it more streamlined, easier to understand for the layperson. I think that’s something I think my experience with SBA comes in handy with. Really, my entire goal is helping borrowers and applicants navigate the intricacies of government bureaucracy. ... I’d really like to see a metric system for us to gauge how successful we are in serving the public. That way, we can identify bottlenecks in our processes and find ways to work around them or eliminate them.
What do you think the city of Keller is doing well right now, and what can it do better at?
I think we’re doing great at a lot of things. When I was knocking on doors, most people are pretty happy with the status quo. They like what we’re doing; they like what we’re focusing on with regard to family-friendly activities like Keller Lights, Keller Summer Nights, Holly Days. They like that we’re investing in our park infrastructure, our parks and trails. They like that we’re focusing on really kind of the bread and butter of what local municipal government is, which is providing infrastructure and maintaining the things that they take granted on a daily basis, like roads, sidewalks, waterlines. ... I struggle to imagine an area that we could improve on.
How do you think the city is managing growth right now?
I think we’re doing a really good job. We’re almost at build-out. I think a big focus of what we’re going to be looking at going forward will be redevelopment. That is on the horizon for council.
