BY SARAH BRAGER
Jersey Village City Council, Place 5
Brian McCauley Occupation & experience: Senior arbitration manager, large auto auction company; Jersey Village resident since 2011; Charter Review Commission ... Facebook: Brian McCauley for Jersey Village
Steven Gill Occupation & experience: Director of sales United States, BioZone Scienti c; years working with city governments and global retail ... Facebook: Steve Gill for JV City Council Place #5
What is your top priority for Jersey Village, if elected?
My top priority is implementing Pay-As-You-Go funding: Phase in Fort Worth-style PayGo over 5–10 years for infrastructure and capital projects. Pay with current revenues, reduce unnecessary debt, protect reserves and prevent future tax hikes, ensuring long-term scal health while maintaining our small-town charm and quality of life.
We need to bring new businesses into our city and make sure that we are supporting those businesses we do have. I would like to help in the creation of an Economic Development Committee to assist our city in this priority. Remember, sales tax revenue helps reduce our property taxes.
How will you ensure transparency and accountability in City Council decisions?
I will build on Jersey Village’s strong foundation of open meetings, posted council packets, and nancial transparency by being readily accessible to residents. I’ll publicly share my positions and reasoning on social media, encourage open dialogue, and use my mediation experience to foster fair, inclusive discussions.
Our city has obtained ve of the six Comptroller transparency stars, a very admirable accomplishment. However, we should continue to lead but I feel we can make improvements on social media and resident engagement.
What is the biggest challenge the city is facing today, and how would you address it?
Aging infrastructure combined with growing debt for projects like ood mitigation and utilities. I would address it by implementing modest, across-the-board budget eciencies, asking each department to trim a nickel per dollar spent, while protecting core services and shifting to pay-as-you-go funding to avoid future borrowing and keep taxes stable.
One of the challenges is re department costs and ensuring we have enough tax revenue to continue providing a high level of service. Another is focusing on proper management of the utility fund, maintaining our infrastructure but also working to have reasonable water rates. Also focus on increasing citizen engagement.
How should the city balance budget sustainability with investments in city infrastructure and amenities?
The city should prioritize Pay-As-You-Go funding for infrastructure and amenities, using current revenues to build projects responsibly without new debt. We can achieve sustainability through modest eciencies and resident unity, such as community crowdfunding to substantially reduce pool-related debt, ensuring investments strengthen our city while keeping taxes aordable for families.
Budgets should have priorities. A budget sets the focus and rhythm for the whole year. We need to maintain our core services and frequently evaluate additional services to ensure we are getting value. If a service is not providing value, we cut that funding.
How will you overcome dierences of opinion on the future needs of the city?
Drawing on my years as an arbitration manager, I overcome dierences by facilitating open, respectful dialogue and seeking creative, fair solutions everyone can support, even through compromise where all sides feel a slight stretch. This builds consensus around Jersey Village’s shared goals: scal responsibility, strong services, and quality of life.
Everyone has dierent methods to accomplish that goal. It’s important to be willing to listen to the viewpoints of others and consider that my viewpoint could be skewed. I can work with anyone on council provided we have the same long-term goal of the city’s infrastructure and public safety.
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CY FAIR JERSEY VILLAGE EDITION
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