Max for Mayor

Austin Analysis Questionnaire

Austin Analysis
Vol. 2 No 10/11
March 1997

Balancing affordability with your priorities, how would you like to see downtown develop? Specifically, what type of development and how much of it?

I like to see Downtown develop with more housing ... Downtown housing does a lot of things; it has an impact on public safety; it has an impact on transportation if you can develop a density downtown, then you'll get mass transit and other types of transportation to respond ... It will bring in the retail services to service a lot of people. There are some 60,000 people working Downtown and only 3,000 people living Downtown so that points out the opportunity we have in providing more downtown housing. It can have a significant impact on the daily rush hour ... There will be air quality implications. I have not been in favor a big mall downtown. I have not been in favor a public subsidy of a mall. I prefer the more natural, organic type of downtown redevelopment that is happening now with the private sector moving their headquarters downtown ... Of course, the expansion of clubs, restaurants, and entertainment downtown is very promising, along with the profusion of art ... I'm not sure that a Tax Increment District (TIF) is the right or necessary vehicle ... I would support putting the Waller Creek Tunnel project on the next bond election.

Do you favor signing a contract with large primary service customers to lower their rates?

No, I do not. The City Council should at least wait until the Legislature is done and see what actions fall out of this great nebulous cloud of talk about deregulation. I don't think it's going to happen as soon as a lot of people think and I think some folks, FAIR included, are using all the uncertainty and all the talk about the possibility of deregulation to push their agenda and try to get lower rates ... I think the prudent thing to do is wait and see what actually happens here at the State level before we do anything with the Electric Utility ... We are undergoing one of the biggest booms in the City's history right now with our current electric rate structure; it has not had a negative impact on our business economy. Samsung could have located anywhere in the world and they chose Austin, Texas, and I assume they knew what our electric rates were. It didn't keep them from locating here ... I don't see any need in a boom economy to give tax abatements or electric rate breaks ... I do not support the creation of an independent board to run the Electric Utility and both of my opponents support that ... I think you would be concentrating power in hands of too few people.

In the next bond election do you favor asking voters for millions of dollars for roads and issuing the debt for roads over the next three years even if this causes a tax increase?

No. In the next bond election, I would not support that. Maybe in the bond election after that I would. I don't know the current Austin Metropolitan Area Roadway Plan and the current ATS plan and the priority of roads and I'm interested in addressing our transportation plans from a different perspective, that is, light rail, alternative means of transportation, amending the helmet ordinance so that people will ride their bikes again ... I'm talking about sidewalks, being able to walk, being able to bicycle safely in town, improve the bus system we have currently, improve the on-time and headways where we can ... I'm very interested in working with the big high-tech companies on tele-commuting. If people can, arrange their work week where just one day they can stay home and do their work, we've made a substantial impact on traffic. If they can do two hours worth of work at home every day, and drive to their office at IO or I 1, we've made another significant, impact. It's very similar to the peak demand at our Utility ... the problem we have is with the peak. If we can spread the load a little better through high technology, I think we have that opportunity.

Specifically will you support a reevaluation of the sticker program for garbage collection? Do you feel it is an incentive to recycle or punitive? If you feel it is an incentive, how do you justify it on a cost of service basis given almost all of the costs are already embedded in the monthly garbage rate?

I support going ahead with the sticker program as proposed ... We're getting to where we are finally putting in place all the elements of our recycling program that the Solid Waste Advisory Commission has recommended and been working on all this time ... In a year we'll look at how it is working ... I don't think it is punitive at all; I think it is simply going to a system that, reflects the true cost of taking away the garbage from the curb ... I don't know the basis on which the Solid Waste Advisory Commission or the Staff recommended $2 per bag ... We want to encourage people to think about what they are generating.

Many people believe that your running will force Kirk Watson into a runoff and possibly elect Ronney Reynolds. Many liberals who have supported you in thc past are supporting Watson's candidacy. How do you respond to this criticism?

I'm in the race to offer the citizens a choice ... I have a good record of service to the community. Kirk Watson, for instance, has no record in municipal government ... You have two candidates for Mayor (Watson and Reynolds) who take the same position on campaign finance reform, they have no use for it at all ... I disagree with Watson's position on the Utility Board. I have a track record on the issues ... Kirk doesn't know what he's going to do once he gets into office. He may say anything right now, and bless his heart, he doesn't an idea what it is like. He's chosen to live outside our city limits for all these years because he doesn't want to pay our taxes, he doesn't want to vote in our elections. That was not important to him. But now that he's trying to run for Mayor, he's coming into our city limits and saying, yes I'll live amongst you if I can be your leader and if you pay me a salary. I think that's terrible ... Kirk is the only candidate who felt the need to put the name of the place he is running for Mayor on his signs as a reminder to him that and yes he is living in Austin now and he's running not for Mayor of Westlake, but Mayor of Austin ... I have a record, not just a resume. Kirk has a great resume. I'm not running on my resume, I'm running on my record.

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