3 running for Austin mayor – Austin Daily Herald

This year’s mayor’s race will feature three people vying for the chair — two of which ran in the last election and the third being a political newcomer.

Incumbent Steve King is running for a second term as Austin mayor and will be challenged by City Council at-large councilor Jeff Austin, who ran against King in the last election.

Joining them is Bradley Johnson, who is running for his first office position.

The three will be on the ballot for a primary election on Aug. 13.

Steve King

King has served 36 years in local government, 16 of which were on the Austin City Council, serving Ward 2, before running for mayor and winning against Austin in 2020.

It’s that sense of continuity that was the push for King to run for a second term.

“I do enjoy it. I do like to give to the city of Austin,” King said. “I think there is an amazing amount of work being done and I wouldn’t mind continuing.”

Some of that work includes the advancement of housing in Austin as King pointed to a pair of apartment building projects — Mill on Main and the 1st & 3rd Apartments — the latter of which is nearly completed.

King said that they have been wins for market rate housing, something he wished to see continued. However, he also pointed to Austin wins in the area of drawing new projects to town during his term and helping others to grow in the realm of bioscience as areas he would like to continue pushing for in order to “make Austin relevant in the bioscience community.”

Alongside that growth is the desire to help “drive” already established businesses, pointing to the new construction of the Hardy Mechanical headquarters in Austin as an example of fostering established growth.

However, King said he understands there are challenges that still need attention, including the employee engagement process the city is currently embarking on.

“I would say the biggest challenge is employee engagement and satisfaction,” King said. “Improving the workplace is certainly important.”

King referenced the recent past frictions with the Parks, Recreation and Forestry and the Parks and Rec Board as one part of that, and while he admits work with employee engagement continues, he was confident in the destination.

“Things are moving forward as they should,” he said.

A major win in that area King points to is the improvement of the city’s insurance plan, something King believed had to change from a 55% city share and 45% employee share. It’s since been shifted to a 75-25 format.

“The move we made with providing better insurance was certainly a driver that I was not going to budge on,” King said. “It came with some resistance, but I think we were reasonable with insurance. I want to continue to maintain that.”

As for other goals heading into a possible second term, King said he would like to revisit a proposed position that failed to make the last budget regarding enforcement for housing and properties that are rundown or not maintained.

“There are some pretty run down existing homes,” King said. “Some of those are code violations and nuisances. We only respond to neighbor complaints. Putting that on the neighbors and citizens is still too much.”

King feels his experience and time serving over three decades in local government put him in a position to continue helping Austin move forward.

“I find myself willing to work with anybody,” he said.

Jeff Austin

First elected to the City Council in 2006, Austin has served for 18 years and feels strongly that it’s time for new leadership at the top.

“I’m just dissatisfied with the leadership we have and the person in that role now,” Austin said. “That’s what motivated me. I think I can do a better job than Mr. King.”

Getting directly through to the heart of things, Austin argued that under King’s time as mayor it’s been a one-sided affair and that other opinions aren’t being considered as they should.

He also argued that because of that, King wasn’t working with the council like he should have been.

“I think over the last four years it’s been his way or the highway and it’s felt like that if you’re not on his side, with him, you’re against him,” Austin argued. “You need to include the council more in the decision. There needs to be more collaboration with the council.”

Included in that is the perception that only certain people made it on to boards.

“We want good people on boards and committees and giving them the opportunity to do that, not just the people that do what they want,” Austin said.

If elected, Austin singled out a couple avenues he would like to pursue in order to help the community move forward into the future. One of the first is continuing the work of improved housing in Austin.

He added that both of the downtown apartment complexes have been wins for housing as well as smaller multi-unit housing, but Austin believes that more work needs to be done in other areas of the housing question.

“I think we need to do what we can to encourage some single family housing,” Austin said, adding that work also needs to be advanced into business. “Encourage businesses to expand and come to Austin and work on that.”

Another area that Austin would like to give more attention to is flood mitigation, something he said came to the forefront after heavy rains in June brought about flooding to downtown.

Acknowledging the work that’s already been done, Austin said it’s worth another look.

“We’ve done a lot, but I think we have to take a look at it and see if there is more to be done,” Austin said. “What can be done? Just try and be as prepared as we can.”

However, one of the biggest challenges Austin sees is ensuring that taxes don’t impact citizens unnecessarily and that it also ensures a balance of fairness.

“The biggest challenge is growing our tax base,” Austin said. “We have such a diverse demographic and economic conditions in town from poverty to executives. We need to craft a budget with the right programs and right things to make sure the city grows and the citizens aren’t overly taxed.”

Bradley Johnson

Though he hasn’t run for public office before, Johnson has served on a number of boards and committees in Austin and was looking to do so again when he applied to be a member of the Parks and Rec Board, building on time spent on sports boards and committee work he had already been involved in.

However, Johnson became disenchanted with the current way things were going when he heard nothing back from the city.

“I feel I was qualified for that and disappointed that I didn’t get any response form the city in that respect,” Johnson said. “I found out they appointed other people without any call response or anything, which disappointed me.”

Johnson said his decision to run for mayor was because the process of board section fell on the mayor, though he also expressed that he’s had an interest in running for several years and can make good on his ability to work with people.

“I would like to think I have the ability to listen,” Johnson said. “I think I understand well how things work from the city perspective.”

Through his 40 years of working alongside construction as a utilities locator, Johnson feels that has developed an ability to work with people at the ground level, something that Johnson has cultivated by his public service work.

“I would like to think I have the ability to listen to people’s concerns,” he said.

Johnson believes that that ability can serve well in the process of improving the atmosphere among city employees, using an outside-the-box approach and the willingness to listen to others.

“First, listen to see where the dissatisfaction lies and then being an outsider I like to think outside of the box some days. How can we make something work along these lines?” Johnson said. “I don’t have all the answers. I would like to investigate it to see where the bulk of the dissatisfaction is.”

That kind of thinking works alongside his management style, Johnson said, which includes taking in the considerations of those working down through the ranks.

Johnson said that bears out over the last four years as a locator for Metronet and the employees he manages.

“The last four years, I’ve had one guy retire. Zero attribution,” Johnson said. “I work well with people, mostly because I feel I try to treat them like people as opposed to people on a piece of paper.”

Johnson said that if elected, he would like to investigate ways to keep people spending their money in Austin. As an example, he uses the idea of bringing a movie theater back to Austin as an example of how something like that helps everybody involved.

When Austin’s left, Johnson pointed out that people were going outside of Austin, taking dollars spent at corresponding businesses with them. By giving people a reason to stay in Austin, that money can then be spent at a local restaurant or bar.

Ultimately, Johnson hopes a vote for him bolsters a different perspective of helping the city.

“I’m looking at it from an outside perspective and I think I can bring some non political aspects into the mix,” he said. “The biggest thing I would like to add is to vote on Aug. 13.”