A question for Lago Vista City Council.

I have reviewed the City’s budget, but I would not responsibly label any specific program the “number one waste” without first reviewing the contracts, invoices, and results behind that spending. What concerns me most is taxpayer money being spent without a clearly defined purpose, measurable results, or meaningful followup. One area I would examine closely is outside legal and professional services. Many of those services are necessary, but residents deserve to know what was purchased, why it was needed, what it cost, and what result the City received. On the other side of the ledger, one of the best uses of City resources is maintaining essential infrastructure before it fails. Water, wastewater, roads, and drainage may rely on different funding sources, but the principle is the same. Preventive maintenance is generally less costly and less disruptive than waiting for an emergency. Responsible spending means verifying the facts, understanding the full cost, measuring the results, and making sure residents receive lasting value for their tax dollars.

Written by the candidate

My #1 waste of money may sound a little unusual: staff time lost because we haven't kept our technology and systems current. We have talented people doing work that sometimes takes far longer than it should because they're working around older applications, systems that don't communicate well with one another, reports that aren't easily usable, or processes that still require too much manual effort. That's real money. If we're paying a skilled employee to spend hours assembling information that a modern system could produce in minutes, the old software may look inexpensive on the budget, but it isn't inexpensive. That's one reason I've pushed so hard on updating our financial systems and reporting. Technology shouldn't replace our people. It should give them more time to do the work we actually hired them to do and serve our residents. For money well spent, I have two answers because they really go together. Invest in our people. Training and professional development make the employees we already have better at their jobs, give them opportunities to grow within the City and help us build institutional knowledge instead of continually having to buy expertise from outside. And invest in infrastructure that solves more than one problem. I'm particularly interested in the work we're doing with our effluent and reclaimedwater system. If we can improve how we treat, move and beneficially reuse water we're already producing, there is potential to improve our system, support irrigation and recreation, and possibly buy ourselves valuable time before some much larger capital investments are required. That's the kind of spending I like: fix something we already own, make it work better, get more useful life or capacity from it, and reduce a larger cost down the road. For me, the question isn't simply, “How much did we spend?” It's what did that dollar accomplish? If it saves staff time, builds expertise, extends the useful life of an asset, improves service or helps us avoid a much larger expense later, that's money I can feel good about spending.

Written by the candidate