Residents of Katy and will go to the polls May 5 to choose city council members to take office later that month. Wards A and B and the at large council seat are up for grabs, with two candidates campaigning for each position.
City Council incumbents Ray Boothe and Durran Dowdle are running for reelection.
Steve Pierson, who currently holds the at large council position, meets his term limit in May and is leaving office.
Ward A
Boothe is the current council member for Ward A. He is an insurance executive who has lived in Katy for 26 years. His opponent in the race is Janet Corte, a retired IT consultant and resident for 29 years.
Corte and Boothe both indicated that flood mitigation would be their primary focus, if elected. Boothe added that his second priority would be to maintain and improve infrastructure and city services.
“I’m concerned that growth is coming to Katy,” Corte said. “I want to see city council work better with developers to get in front of change and manage change. [The city needs to] Increase services to meet demand.”
Ward B
Dowdle represents Ward B and currently serves as Mayor Pro Tem. He has lived in Katy for 30 years and is a project manager for an area construction firm. He will be facing Sam Pearson, a Katy resident for 16 years and a retired peace officer and minister.
Dowdle also said that his first priority would be flood mitigation and said that he plans to push forward with the current mitigation plans recommended by Costello, Inc. The engineering firm has worked with the city since the 2016 Tax Day Floods to reduce flood risks. He said his second priority would be updating old infrastructure that had not been properly documented when the city was younger.
“With new developments and old developments, some of the things that should have been meshed together didn’t come out as they should have,” Dowdle said. “Let’s back up. Let’s look at some of our older neighborhoods and see what we need to do to take care of them.”
Pearson did not respond to inquiries in time for publication of this story.
At Large
Larry Gore, a local entrepreneur will run for the at large council position against Chris Harris, a criminal justice analyst for the U.S. Department of Justice. Gore has been a Katy resident for 15 years, while Harris has been in Katy for 12 years.
Gore and Harris both said their top priority, if elected, would be flood control measures. Gore said his second priority would be working to advocate more to respond to the concerns of citizens and be increase responsiveness to community concerns. Harris said that his second priority would be improvements to city services while being fiscally responsible.
