PEOPLE Greg Blasko Hill Country Village City Council, Place 4
BY EDMOND ORTIZ
A WEALTH OF EXPERIENCE Before Greg Blasko was elected to the Hill Country Village City Council, Greg Blasko already had experience offering his skills on a global scale with accounting-based nonprofit, Accountants Without Borders.
1950 Born in Germany, lived with military family in different places, including Conroe, Texas. Moved to San Antonio as a third- grader 1973 Earned bachelor’s degree in mathematics at University of Houston 1980 Earned master’s degree in accounting at University of Texas at Austin 1980-84 Worked as certified public accountant for global accounting firm Arthur Andersen 1985 Self-employed as an accountant since 1985, specializing in income tax planning, estate planning and other tax issues 2020 Founded Accountants Without Borders/Comptables Sans Frontieres, a nonprofit that provides free accounting and business consulting services to small charities overseas, AWB has been active with nonprofits in Zambia, Sri Lanka and India 1981 Moved to Hill Country Village. Has served two stints on the city’s zoning commission, and sat on the economic development corporation and business district review boards
A self-described military brat, Greg Blasko was born in Germany and lived in many places, including briefly in San Antonio, before settling down in Hill Country Village. Blasko was a researcher with the Baylor College of Medicine and a teacher in Houston ISD before a career path as a tax accountant led Blasko back to San Antonio and then Hill Country Village, where he lives in the same house he bought in 1981. Blasko sat on several city commissions and boards for years before being tapped for the City Council, unopposed, in the May election. This article has been edited for length and clarity.
YOU WERE THE ONLY RESIDENT TO APPLY FOR THE PLACE 4 CITY COUNCIL SEAT. WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO SEEK THE POSITION? I had thought about running for City Council, but I put it off for so long. I was so busy. I’m a tax accountant with a lot of clients. I don’t really have a staff. My staff is [my clients’] staff. I needed to wait until I could transfer some clients to other people. Now I’m at a stage where I’m not retired—I don’t want to be retired right now, I really like what I’m doing—but I now have a window of opportunity to come in. I didn’t want to be a council member unless I knew I could do the job. WHAT HAS YOUR CIVIC EXPERIENCE BEEN LIKE IN HILL COUNTRY VILLAGE? I was on the zoning commission for about five years; then I became zoning commission [chair] for 10-12 years; then after a time, I got back onto the commission five or six years ago. I’m also on the economic development corporation board and the business district construction review board.
WHAT GOT YOU INTERESTED IN ACCOUNTING? I’m a numbers guy. It’s really something I think people are born with. It’s an innate ability. … After three years of teaching, we had a career day, and it was one of the best days of my life. For some reason, they assigned a certified public accountant to my class, and he was talking about [a master’s in professional accounting], which was a new thing in 1978. After class, nobody went up and talked to him, but I did and asked him to tell me about it. I told him, ‘You mean to tell me there’s a thing called applied mathematics?’ I immediately applied and got accepted for the master’s of business program, took my first accounting class, switched to the master’s in accounting program and got my master’s in accounting with an emphasis in taxation in 1980 at [The University of Texas]. Then in 1980, I came down here and got accepted to work for [global accounting firm] Arthur Andersen. [My then-wife Mary] and I bought this house in 1981. I’ve been here ever since.
WHAT ARE THE CITY’S CURRENT PRIORITIES? We do have issues regarding roads. I walk every morning. I’m self-employed; almost everyone else is out working, but I can take the time to drive around and see what [road workers] are doing. These roads are not just being built for us, they’re being built for the people who are going to come in after us 10-20 years down the line. We just want to make sure they’re done right. As for the current City Hall, it would take so much money to renovate it. For a few more dollars, we can actually build a new City Hall. That’s the way that I look at it. Whether it’s built at the current site or at the [city-owned Bitters Road tract], that’s a decision for the city to make, and we’ll let the citizenry tell us what they want to do. WHAT’S THE CITY’S NEXT BIG ISSUE? The deal with City Hall puts at the forefront the land on Bitters. It’s been many, many years that we’ve been sitting on that property. It’s done nothing but appreciate in value. What needs to be done?
PUBLIC CONTACT INFORMATION
City phone: 210-494-3671 Council Member Greg Blasko, CPA
Email: blaskogreg@gmail.com
SOURCES: GREG BLASKO, HILL COUNTRY VILLAGE/ COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
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