May 12, 2006 19:46 - Groceries and guerrillas
Commentary
By Bill Peterson
Elections in Northern Hays County are sometimes dull, but not this time.
Kyle voters, frustrated with the slow appearance of a grocery store, will go to the polls Saturday with that little issue apparently resolved. Whether it changes votes, we’ll never know. But maybe it will change turnout. A record 460 early voters already have weighed in and the city expects to break 1,000 voters for the first time.
H-E-B finally told the world definitively Tuesday that it will open in Kyle next summer, the first such direct utterance since H-E-B development partner Barshop & Oles took the concept to the city planning board in Nov. 2002. Kyle was a much different town then. Which might be why this has taken so long.
The original plan called for H-E-B to build at the intersection of Center Street and IH-35, but traffic congestion there has always made the location suspect. An H-E-B there would cause indescribable traffic nightmares. But as of Nov. 2002, it was Kyle's best business location from a traffic standpoint.
H-E-B's reticence about taking the best location in Kyle pointed up the city's worst economic development problem – the absence of good business locations that are friendly to car traffic. But the opening of the FM 1626 extension down to the new Bunton Overpass on IH-35 finally will create a business thoroughfare. And that's where H-E-B will be, at FM 1626 and IH-35.
Barshop & Oles development vice president Milo Burdette warned us from the beginning that H-E-B doesn't rush. By taking it's time, H-E-B appears to have secured a much better location. Not that Kyle residents should like the three or four years of hassle that have come in the bargain.
Maybe the election will tell us if they're feeling better because of the news. Two seats are up on the Kyle City Council.
Lon Taylor is stepping down from his at-large seat after five years on the council, but straight-shooting former Kyle Councilmember Mike Moore is back in the mix for the position. Moore was always a voice for the fundamentals on the council before taking a breather in 2003, always the last guy to rubber stamp a development or move the discussion away from roads, water, sewers and budgets.
Two relative unknowns are campaigning across the city, trying to beat Moore. Michelle Lopez won plaudits for her work on the Charter Review Committee and Jaime Sanchez is a Kyle native new to politics.
On Kyle's East Side, the often fiery and always busy Todd Webster faces a fierce contest from Serena Starkey. Whether or not Starkey is at all involved with Kyle Klips, the anonymous, Webster-bashing flier that's caused so much buzz, it's not good for her. Webster reportedly discovered her name on the source code for the newsletter's website, kylenewsletteroftruth.com. The publication said in response that its editors just liked the format on Starkey's campaign materials so much that they used her template.
So, we're supposed to believe that an anonymous publication more or less dedicated to smearing Webster uses a template provided by his opponent, but his opponent has nothing to do with the publication. Uh huh. One can hope that's true, especially because political advertising that doesn't identify itself as such is a violation of Texas election law.
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May 12, 2006 20:10 - All's quiet in Buda, even on Election Day
Commentary
By Bill Peterson
As recently as 2002, Buda city leaders considered themselves fortunate to stay out of the newspapers as a council split between pro-growthers and slow-growthers bickered over the parliamentary basics.
Buda didn't know quite what to do with itself. It was a tense little town uneasy with the changes ahead. But the council has substantially changed since then, the pro-growthers have won out and if their opponents have any strength left, it's not enough to play in the elections.
So, Buda voters will choose two at-large candidates today and - what do you know? - two incumbents are running as the favorites. Mayor Pro Tem Bobby Lane has been a peaceful, reasonable presence on the council going back to the rougher days and Councilmember Hutch White has won a couple elections himself. Running against them is Sharon Faulk, who took a stab at it a year ago.
Chances are, the incumbents will be returned to the council in a light vote, which indicates the folk aren't too riled up about anything. Only 78 voters chimed in for the early ballot and indications point to a turnout around 400.
You don't hear anymore in Buda about bloodworms. Now, the city is opening road projects and big stores, putting on nationally known wiener dog races. It doesn't mean all the growth trauma has passed. Only that we're quiet. For the moment.
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May 12, 2006 21:28 - A two-seat trustee?
Commentary
By Bill Peterson
It appears that Hays CISD Board of Trustees Secretary Joe Muñoz comes to Saturday's election in an enviable position. Even if he loses, he wins. Or does he?
Muñoz, who represents the eastern Kyle on the school board, is running as an at-large candidate, hoping to win the seat vacated by Joe Graham. Recall what a contentious 2003 race Graham won as the presumptive candidate for Citizens for Responsible Education (CFRE), a grass roots group driven by an ousted school establishment. Graham beat the incumbent, David Wiley, who might have rightly complained that the non-CFRE vote was split by the candidacy of Patti Wood.
Wood is back this time, challenging Muñoz' at-large bid. Muñoz has said he wants to represent the entire district. Some believe he wants to move to another location within the school district and remain on the board. Whether he wins or not, Muñoz will remain on the board - in his present seat if he loses or the at-large seat if he wins. Thus, Wood sensibly argues that voters have no reason to vote for Muñoz. And if Muñoz wins the election, then the trustees either appoint someone for his present seat or hold a special election.
That's basically the question for voters across the school district: Is it worth the trouble of holding an additional election if that allows Muñoz to represent the entire district? Muñoz has been at this game for a long time and made plenty of allies on the Buda side of town during the days of one high school.
A third candidate for the position, Griselda Lopez of Kyle, has generated little excitement and isn't as well known as Muñoz or Wood.
The Buda seat on the board also is up for election, but the incumbent, Henry Altmiller, is automatically in because no one ran against him.
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May 13, 2006 23:23 - The votes are in
By Bill Peterson
Buda voters went for more of the same, Kyle voters chose experience and voters across the Hays CISD said they'd rather not vote for a trustee who's already on the school board.
The most dramatic electoral outcome Saturday occurred on the school front, where Patti Wood overwhelmingly beat eastern Kyle Trustee Joe Muñoz, the board secretary who wanted to switch to an at-large seat.
Nearly 1,500 voters weighed in, a pretty impressive total for a single school board race, though the turnout almost certainly was influenced by contentious city elections in Kyle. Wood took 826 votes, 55 percent in a three-way race. Muñoz remains on the board representing his Kyle district, but only 565 voters across the district picked him for the at-large seat. Following Muñoz' 37 percent, Griselda Lopez brought in only 96 votes, six percent.
In Kyle, the candidate who was connected, rightly or not, with the controversial Kyle Klips newsletter paid the price at the ballot box. Todd Webster, the east Kyle incumbent and Kyle Klips whipping boy, still received 69 percent of the vote in a 232-104 drubbing of Austin city planner Serena Starkey. Though Starkey told media she had no idea who was behind Kyle Klips, the source code for the newsletter's web version contained her name as author, which really just means she owned the template.
In addition to Webster, Kyle voters leaned towards returning experience to their city council. However, it will take a run-off election to finish the job.
Former Councilmember Mike Moore easily won the at-large election with 349 votes, 44 percent of the citywide ballots. However, Moore's strong plurality falls short of the majority needed to join the council, so he will face Michelle Lopez in a run-off election. Lopez brought in 254 votes (32 percent), while Jaime Sanchez received 196 votes (24 percent).
Voters also approved all 24 charter amendments, often with three-quarters of the voters in approval. The measures are the first charter amendments to go before voters since Kyle went to home rule in October 2000.
The total voter turnout in Kyle wasn't immediately available, but we can guess that because the heaviest action was 899 voters in the at-large council race, the total probably didn't match the record 980 votes from last year's council races. The early vote drew 460 participants, prompting reasonable speculation that the Election Day turnout would push it over 1,000. But the announcement early this week of H-E-B finally building in Kyle evidently killed some of the unrest.
In Buda, council incumbents Bobby Lane and Hutch Lane received 139 votes and 119 votes, respectively, to maintain their two seats. Challenger Sharon Faulk received 99 votes.
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