Katy City Council Member Frank Carroll will seek to keep his seat to represent Ward A, according to a Jan. 4 press release. He was appointed to the position in September after the seat was vacated by J. Gary Jones. His three priorities as a City Council member include fully funding first responders, continuing to improve and fund the city’s drainage systems, and maintaining Katy’s small-town atmosphere by strictly managing growth, according to the press release. Carroll—who is a partner in the law firm Roberts Markel Weinberg Butler Hailey PC—became deeply interested in local politics after Hurricane Harvey, he said in an interview. After the storm, he began regularly attending City Council and budget meetings and became a member of the city's board of adjustments in December 2017. "After Hurricane Harvey, everybody should be acutely aware that what (the city does) on a local level, especially for infrastructure, has a huge impact on people's real lives," he said in the interview. "That's why I became really interested in local government: I wanted to make sure that the things that were being approved in order to build out our infrastructure were going to be good ideas and moving expeditiously." During his first 100 days on the council, the First Street drainage and road improvements project broke ground, and he aims to keep the Ward A project—which is scheduled to complete in November—on time, he said in the interview. He added that his experience as real estate and corporate lawyer makes him an effective council member who does his due diligence before voting for multiyear, multimillion-dollar projects as well as negotiates the best contracts for the city. "These negotiations and my training as an attorney—that's what I do professionally," he said in the interview "I negotiate contracts; I ask tough questions; I fight for the best deal. And in this case the residents have me advocating on their behalf." The release also noted that during Carroll's first 100 days on City Council, he voted for the city’s $28.5 million budget, which included funding for seven additional police officers as well as maintaining the city’s property tax rate at $0.48672 per $100 valuation. Carroll expressed his support to Community Impact Newspaper for the additional officers at the time. A member of the Katy Economic Development Council and the West Houston Association, Carroll has lived in the Katy area for 10 years and obtained his law degree from the University of Houston Law Center, both he and the release stated . He has lived in Ward A for almost five years, he said in the interview. He and his wife, April, who was born and raised in Hempstead, have two sons enrolled in Katy ISD, he said in the interview. Other council members up for re-election in May include Jimmy Mendez, who represents Ward B, and Mayor Chuck Brawner, who announced his bid for re-election in late December. Former Katy Police Chief Bill Hastings is also running for mayor. Interested candidates for City Council can file their application for candidacy with the city between Jan. 16 and Feb. 15. The election will be held May 4.