Meet the candidates for Buda mayor

How should the new liquor laws allowing bars and liquor stores in Buda be managed? How will you ensure that Buda doesn't become "just another bar town," as some residents have expressed concern over?

Fletcher: The revitalization of downtown and economic development in downtown Buda was a topic of concern in both of those comprehensive plans, and one of the big recommendations in the 2030 Plan was that the city look at relaxing our liquor laws as part of a plan to revitalize downtown Buda. We expected, after what happened in Kyle, that it was going to pass, so we adopted a new ordinance; in fact we did the final reading the Tuesday night before the election. That new ordinance captures every power that the state allows cities to have regarding the regulation of bars and liquor stores, so we're already prepared. We have codified all the powers that the state allows the city to have. What's left is to ensure that our development codes, especially the zoning regulations, are codified as necessary to make sure that any liquor-related businesses are complying with our Buda 2030 vision. Unlike 2001 or 2002, we've now got a full-time, dedicated planning staff full of really competent people, so I'm confident that we're going to do this in a way that's good for Buda.

Ruge: The [Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission] really dictates what we can and can't do. There are minimal things that we can do, but as a council we had the foresight to actually pass an ordinance right before the election because we saw how the results were in Kyle, and we thought, 'We need to make sure we have a level playing field so everyone that operates that type of business knows what the rules are going to be.' We did the strictest rules that we can, and [bars and liquor stores] can't be within 300 feet of a school or a church. The other thing that was already on our books was the operation time, and we had that down [for bars to close] at 12 a.m. The notion of downtown becoming this rowdy area, we'll have to wait and see, but we have, as a council, taken steps to make sure it's as smooth of a transition as can be and everyone knows exactly what they have to do.

Besides growth, what is the biggest issue facing the city?

Fletcher: We still haven't been able to fix that second thing that the old timers and the newcomers, as well, wanted and that was getting the trucks out of downtown Buda. And the only way to guarantee that that happens is to complete our truck bypass that currently dead-ends into [RR] 967 South. I was successful, I went up as the sole elected official from Buda, and I lobbied [the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization], the folks that control the state and federal funds, and I lobbied successfully to get state funds to add the missing lanes as well as eight on- and off-ramps, and the Texas turnarounds both at FM 2001 and on both sides of the truck bypass. I was successful in that lobbying effort because for over a decade now I've been going to meetings all over the region and meeting other elected officials and key staff people, and so when I got up there to speak, the policy board there for CAMPO was, not a majority, but close to a majority of other elected officials that I've been hanging out with for years now. As the mayor, I'll just have that much more [credibility] when asking for other people's money to do stuff here in Buda. I've got stuff done just by being council member Fletcher, but there's a lot of additional prestige that goes with carrying the title of mayor.

Ruge: I think there's two issues really. The first one being traffic, and that goes hand in hand with the growth. When we annex new land for neighborhoods and businesses and things like that, there's a price that comes with it. We do get the tax base, but we get more vehicles, and we don't have new roads. So we recently did our transportation master plan, and there's a price tag to all that and it looks great on paper, but we need to figure out how to make sure people can get around town and it's not a big traffic jam. The other pressing issue is wastewater. Since I've moved here, we've doubled in population. We just completed a renovation and expansion of our wastewater facility, and then a few council meetings ago, we got a report that—guess what? Because of growth projections, we're going to have to expand that in seven or eight years. So we need to be very selective about what we bring in and what we annex. Expanding the tax base is a wonderful thing, but at some point we're going to have to redo that wastewater facility and that's tens of millions of dollars.

What is something unique you would bring to the table as mayor?

Fletcher: One thing that's not different between me and Todd is our voting records. If you go back and check the minutes of our meetings, they're almost identical. The citizens are going to get the same kind of leadership from the dais no matter which one of us wins. But there are three major areas that I think make me the best qualified candidate. The first is availability. Todd's a younger man and he holds down a full-time job, but I'm semi-retired, and I usually only teach two half days a week, which means that I've got considerably more time to attend to business that requires the attention of the mayor. The second major area is that I'm completing my second term on City Council, and Todd is still completing his first term. I began way back in 2000 and 2001 as an interested and involved citizen during the creation of our first comprehensive plan. The last area is connections. I was on the CAMPO board for a brief period of time, and I have for the last two years been on the executive committee of Capital Area Council of Governments. The people that are on that committee with me, like Commissioner Will Conley, just happens to be the current chair of the CAMPO board. This network of connections is on my list of acquaintances, and so I plan to mine that work for every dime I can get of other people's money to build projects here in Buda.

Ruge: Well I come from a financial background, so I would say that's probably the one difference. I hold a degree in finance from St. Edward's University. So I understand that you see something on paper, and if we annex this or bring this business in, we can get X more revenue in, but along with that comes an expanded police force, city services, water, sewer, trash, things like that, that we're going to have to think [about] long and hard because there is a price with expansion. So far it hasn't really hurt us, but we're at a point where we can either keep our small-town charm, or we can become Round Rock, and nothing against Round Rock, but it's really a crucial moment in Buda's history.