Vote In Leander - Becki Ross (Place 6)

Continuing the Vote In Leander Series in 2024 with Becki Ross, current occupant of place 6 on Leander City Council. Becki is running for re-election and we chatted about her experience over the past 3 years and what she sees going forward here in Leander.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I recently had the opportunity to sitdown with Becky Ross, who's currently occupying
Place six on the City Council andis running for reelection. I invite you
to join us in that conversation hereon Lean and Leander. So we're back

(00:32):
here at Lantern Media Studios and forthe second time in the Voting Leander series,
which this is a whole new setupwith a whole list of new things
to play with and figure out.But what hasn't changed is what we're doing
here at Voting Leander, which istalking to the candidates. And I'm very

(00:55):
happy to have as my guest todayBecky. Thank you, thanks for the
invitations. Right yeah, I waslike, but I forgot our last name
for a second. No, sorry, long day anyway, Okay, So
yeah, and you are in Placesix right, yes, okay, I
remember that from when you were running. So what we're going to do,
just like we typically do here atLean and Leander and for the Voting Leander

(01:18):
series, We're going to talk toBecky in a way that hopefully you,
as a listener or a viewer,will be able to find out a little
bit more about her, and wewon't steer away from the politics per se,
but we're not necessarily going to diveinto that. We really want to
kind of give people an opportunity tosee the person behind the candidate. So
again, I appreciate you taking time. I appreciate the invitation. So last

(01:42):
time we met, we were atWaco Taco and years ago, three years
ago, and you were running forplace six at that point. So to
familiarize people with you know, whereyou come from, who you are,
and whatnot you are. You wereborn and raised in Louisiana, right correct,
Okay, and then you it overhere to Texas as soon as you
could, right of course, intwo thousand and thirties, one of my

(02:04):
family and I relocated, okay.And then how long have you been in
Leander? Just to We've been inLeander since twenty twelve, but we moved
to the Cedar Park area in twothousand and three, okay. And as
I've speake, I've spoken to acouple of people, actually a couple of
candidates who that seems to be kindof if you were already out here in

(02:24):
central Texas, you know, saybefore two thousand, a lot of people
were up here in Cedar Park andthen Leander starts developing and you moved to
well, we moved here in twothousand and three. I want to say,
there was thirteen thousand people in Leandermaybe, so there really wasn't much.
And even in Cedar Park. Wedrove into Austin for everything. There

(02:44):
was nothing in Cedar Park. Soit's changed quite a bit in the last
twenty three years. I think that'san easy thing for crazy day, right,
Yes, so I've you know,I always like to reflect on that
just from the perspective of you werehere a little bit longer than I've been
here. But you know, I'vebeen here now going on six years,
and in six years it's changed dramatically, like it has. I'm constantly reminded

(03:09):
of how much changes not only hasoccurred, but is continuing to occur.
It is and a lot of timesLeonard gets compared to Cedar Park and why
aren't we doing what Cedar Park isdoing? But cities grow from the inside
out, and so you know that'sthe progression, and now Cedar Park is
actually they're just about grown out.And also they're entering their redevelopment phase right

(03:32):
right, and we're still developing.So you know, Cedar Park is going
to be ten to fifteen years aheadof us on things. So we're right
where we need to be and pluggingforward. Yeah. No, And I
think that's a good point to callout because a lot of times for people
who are you know, maybe littlea little less aware and you know,
frankly probably new to the area generallyspeaking. Sure, there's that question.

(03:54):
It comes up, like, youknow, why aren't we doing what they're
doing in Cedar Park And why aren'twe doing what they're doing in Georgetown for
example. Those are conversations that wehear when you're tuned into this conversation.
Sure, but I think it isimportant to point that out that you know,
well, yeah, I mean,just look at it from Austin.
If you zoom into Austin for aminute and you look at where Austin was

(04:16):
twenty three years ago or whatnot.I believe there was like eight hundred thousand
in the metro there wasn't then you'reright. I mean, I remember driving
We talked about this in one ofthe other episodes. I remember driving to
Austin when I was in college,and I more than likely drove through or
by rather at that point Cedar Park. Leander Georgetown, et cetera. Like

(04:38):
you just they weren't really there.They were can pastors, right, right,
So all of this has been exponentialfrom that perspective, and you know,
finding yourself in a situation where you'reliving in Leander and the early twenty
odds, right turn of the century, right, some of the things that

(04:59):
you were doing at that point,I'd like to kind of bring that up
and just help people understand how youkind of ended up in this political space.
You did a lot of volunteer work, right in addition to what you
were doing in your career, soshorthand on this, you were, if
I remember correctly, kind of doingsome human resource stuff and then you kind
of you kind of changed direction andwent into insurance, right, Yeah,

(05:25):
yeah, more or less the same. Yeah, I'd decided to open.
I'd worked in the entrance on thecorporate side for years and years and really
wanted to be out on my own. So in two thousand and nine,
I bit the bullet and quit myday job and opened and opened an insurance
agency. I was in South Austinfor a lot of years and just the
community was killing me so and ithad always been my dream to be able

(05:49):
to see my customers be involved,whether it was the school or whatever.
It was to be just a partof the community fabric. That was very
important to me. And so whenI was able to relocate my business up
to this area back in the endof twenty seventeen, twenty sixteen, twenty

(06:11):
seventeen, it allowed me the abilitybecause I wasn't sitting on a thirty five
anymore. Right, it was nearBeuty, right, Yeah, it really
was. That was when I exit, I remember you saying that. So
I was able to really take mylife back and do the things I wanted
to do. My daughters were youngerat the time, and so I spent
a lot of time volunteering with theschool district. Whether it was booster clubs,

(06:33):
team sports, club sports, youname the sport, we were probably
there. And then as the kidsgot older and I got involved in the
Lander Chamber of Commerce, I justsaw much, so much opportunity to be
involved in things that I thought woulduse my talents better, and so this

(06:55):
is where I ended up. Sothere was a period of time where with
the Chamber you were actually director orpresident of the Chamber something like that,
right in twenty twenty, so Iwent through. When I moved my business
up here, immediately joined the interChamber of Commerce and got involved, threw
my name in the hat and wasaccepted into the Leadership Leander program. So

(07:16):
I graduated from that in twenty seventeen. From there, there are opportunities for
the Chamber of Commerce Board, Sowhen those nominations rolled around, I threw
my name in the hat consideration andwas interviewed and accepted for that, and
then in twenty twenty I ended upserving as the Chamber Board president. So
the chambers where you and I actuallymet each other for the first time because

(07:40):
there was an Economic Development committee.Yeah, that's it. That's funny.
Yeah, So that's where you andI first became acquainted. And then subsequent
to that you started kind of throwingyour hat in the ring again to your
year terminologyes in the political arena,kind of taking the next if you will,

(08:00):
correct, and you ran I thinkyou ran for you ran for council
one time prior to three years ago. Correct, you didn't win that election,
correct, And then you were Idon't want to say you were reticent
this last time, but I don'tthink that you were necessarily planning on it.
Right. It was kind of somethingthat that came up. It was

(08:22):
something that it was rolling around inmy head, but I wasn't quite sure
because the election process is it's hard, right, and it's not for the
faint of heart, and I justcouldn't decide if that's what I wanted to
do again. And but I wantedto serve. I wanted to be on
council because I thought I could reallymake a difference, but I wasn't sure

(08:43):
if I really wanted to wade throughthe prom the process, right. So,
which I always like to and pointout in perfect segue, the council
seats, the mayor, those areall technically not technically they are they are
volunteer positions. Yes, unlike othercities and neighboring cities may differ. There's

(09:05):
no one getting paid to be themayor or paid to be on council.
It's in essence, it is anothercommittee. It's just a committee with a
little bit of pull, like you'redeciding budget issues and you're deciding ordinance issues,
right, and the business direction ofthe city overall. That's a fair

(09:26):
assessment, right, yeah, totallyOkay, So again, for those of
you who might have just found thepodcast. You're stumbling across stuff and you
run into this. That's an importantnote for you as a voter to understand
that that the people who are puttingthemselves forward for these positions are doing so
because they care about the community andthey want to be involved there. This
is a level of engagement that theywish to accept because, like to your

(09:50):
point, the politics of it,the running for the position in the first
place is stressful. Well, it'sstressful and it's expensive. You know.
The first go around when I lost, all those campaign dollars came out of
my pocket, right, and it'slike, how much money do you want
to spend to be in a committee? Right? So the second go round

(10:13):
I did a little bit differently andI was able to offset my cost,
you know, barely, but Idid it. And so you know,
it's just a different mindset. Sogoing into this go around, I'm like,
you know what, I want tocontinue the good work and if you
know, and the chips will fallwhere they all, right, you know,
on the money part, so that'llfigure itself out. But I just

(10:33):
feel so strongly that we've done suchgood things over the last few years that
it's important to continue yep, no. And again that's part and parcel of
what we try to do here withthe podcast is to kind of give people
an opportunity to get a different perspectiveon some of that stuff. I use
the turn of phrase that when electionseason rolls around, you start seeing the

(10:56):
bloom of the political signs across theroads. And so I would say,
and and you know, I canpoint to previous podcasts where I've actually done
some work on this anywhere of aroundfive point three five point five percent of
the registered voters will actually turn outin any one election. So it's thousands

(11:18):
of people. And there's almost onehundred thousand people living in Leander now,
right So even if you take thatjust like you know, there's eighty thousand
and eighty nine thousand right now orsomething to that effect, and then about
fifty percent of that are registered tovote. Okay, So now you're looking
at around forty five forty seven thousandpeople, and of that about five thousand,

(11:43):
seven thousand will vote. So it'sa small minority of the populace that
is taking the time to get involvedand at least exercise that and which again
I applaud everybody who does that.I just want to encourage more people to
do that, like get yourself registered, get yourself to the voting booth,
and you know, express your desirefor the direction of the city. Well,

(12:05):
and I think with on the themore local the election, the more
impact you have, agreed, agree, Right, we can see our actions
better on the local level, thoughmckinn, even on the county or the
state or the national level. Right. And then, and the local elections
are are by design, they're nonpartisan, right, so you supposed to be

(12:26):
you Yeah, I won't go intothat, no, don't. But the
the the intent is you're getting communityrepresentation. Right. I've said this before
and I stand by it, isthat these are not these positions are representative
positions outside of the mayor. Themayor has somewhat of a leadership role within

(12:52):
council, right, But every otherrepresentative, everybody else who's on the dais
anybody who's in place one through six, they're representing the entire city of Leander.
It's not it's not not districts oranything like that. It's at large.
Correct. So in a way,you can kind of say everybody's running
for mayor, but only certain peopleare running to have the title of mayor,

(13:15):
right, because you're representing the wholecity. And that's the idea.
And the reason that I bring thatup is it because a lot of times
people don't understand that those They lookat it very much in my backyard,
right, like what's going on inmy backyard, and they're concerned. And
then that's perfectly fine. I'm notsaying there's anything wrong with this, but
they're concerned about the pothole or theor the stop sign or you know,

(13:35):
or the fact that the you know, their neighbor's yard is in mode or
whatever the case might be. Right, And at the end of the day,
from the dais and when you're oncity council, you're dealing with issues
that are far that you still todeal with a little bit of that,
right, But the issues that you'redealing with are more complex, they're more
involved, and they are more directional. Because when you are serving on council

(14:03):
and you and I are not livingin Leander or you know, we're you
know, move on to whatever elsewe do, the city's still going to
be here. Right. The decisionsthat were made five, ten, fifteen
years ago are a lot of whatyou on council today are trying to manage
right, kind of the growth thatyou see now is stuff that was approved,
right, yeah, a long timeago. So I again, and

(14:26):
the reason I'm mentioning this specifically withyou is because there's a there's an issue
that comes up almost as often asthe elections. And I again, I've
only been here a short time.Okay, I've only been here a short
all, and in full transparency,I do have an opinion on this.
But the cap Metro issue, Okay, if I were to frame it,

(14:50):
I would say it has been Idon't know how to quite how I say
this, but it has been broughtup at least three times that I know
of in an electorate in an electioncycle, like do we want to stay
in basically you know, in erout kind of class? Should I stay
or should I go? Right?And each time the population has said we

(15:16):
want to stay in, we wantto stay in, we want to stay
in. And again there's for thoseof you who are you know, maybe
again first time listeners, first timewatchers. There are episodes of Lean and
Leander where we go into the capMetro issue and we discussed it in a
lot more detail than we're going totoday. But the last election cycle came
up again, city said let's stay. And then you were elected in that

(15:39):
same cycle and part of your responsibilities. I don't know if this was an
appointment, if it was by design, if you drew the short straw,
I don't know what happened, butyou ended up on the cap Metro board,
right, right, So how thatworked. So when the year I
got elected on council, the mayorasked me if I would be the small

(16:02):
cities representative on cat Metro. Sobasically it's the non Austin cities and it
just so happened that Leander was gettingthe board seat. So I accepted it.
And then the following so in thefollowing year, so it was the

(16:22):
elections for the following which would havebeen I don't know. Twenty two was
when it was actually put on theballot, or we adopted to put it
on the ballot and oh, that'sright, that's right. Er elections prior
to a scene on the ballot,right, And so it was a big
course of conversation, and so Ispent between February and May of that year

(16:49):
trying to do my car chats andtalked to as many people who would ask
me the question to make sure thatwhen people went to the polls that they
were had all the tools in theirtool belt, because there was so much
misinformation at the time. Sure,sure, and but are but we did

(17:11):
the majority said we want to stayin. And and so what I found
my role as a city council memberis the residents spoke, our voters spoke
and said we want to stay in. So now my job is to make
sure that I make the best tohave that partnership. And what I found

(17:32):
when I became the board member oncut Metro is that we hadn't done any
of the work. There were noconversations there. There had been a lot
of a lot of supposition and nota lot of screaming, but just not
a lot of work. And soI was like, Okay, it's this

(17:52):
is what I need to do.And so I started meeting everybody and talking
to everybody and figuring out where theissues were and what needed to do and
how could we take advantage or advantagein the right word, but how could
we make the most of our partnershipwith cat Metro. Cat Metro is also
going through some staffing changes. Theychange CEOs, and so I don't think

(18:14):
cat Metro actually had the right leadershipin the right places either. Now they've
got a great executive team and we'vegot a group, and I feel like
I've made a lot of good connectionsand created some relationships and with either cut
Metro staff and also fellow board membersthat we can figure out what makes the

(18:37):
most sense and how we can andhow speaking Dellian specifically, but how we
can utilize the partnership to its fullest. Right. So, again for the
uninitiated, part of that is theway that the state legislature has designed mass

(18:57):
transportation. It's not just here,it's across the state. Is when a
project like cap Metro is when you'retalking about that, it was the same
in Houston, it was I forgetwhat their metro is called, but it's
the same thing. You have themember city in Austin, it's that's for
cap Metro. And then if theyare to engage with any cities outside of

(19:22):
their their area, those cities optin, right right, So you either
have to become a member, whichis a vote, or some cities will
do basically just contract with Metro,right right. So there's a couple of
different ways you can do that.And the history of Leander. Leander decided
to opt in a member, bea member, right, be part of

(19:45):
that. Yes, and so therewas a decision made number of years ago
with the intent of the rail beinga conduit to growth in Leander. You
know that that was the idea,right, so as an investment in the
future. And the dynamics of theconversation never really changed, but the conversation

(20:07):
did in my opinion, because there'sthe issue of thes like it's there's a
two percent out of the tax rate, right, it's eight point five,
right, and two percent is thecity. So Leander gets back out of
all the sales tax. And we'retalking just sales tax, not property tax

(20:27):
and anything else, right, justsales tax. We chose at that point
to say, okay, we're goingto give half of our sales tax,
so one percent goes to cap Metro, right, and then cap Metro uses
that and you know supports us.Well, that's the way the leg it's
supposed to be written, right,That's how it is. And yeah,
and come to find out, andI'm no expert here, but that each

(20:48):
of the metro systems there, it'sa different part of the code. So
everybody is a little different, evenin Texas and so, but there's no
there's no fluctuation or in the legislationto be able to scale the sales tax
percentage based on the size of thecity or anything like that. It doesn't

(21:11):
allow for that. So as ourcity grows, right, that penny grows
right. Right, So I thinkat the the last time we took a
look at this, and I saywe me at the podcast, I looked
at it and I was we andLeander with our contribution equal one percent of
the total budget for cap Metro.And this was what a year and a

(21:33):
half, two years ago? Maybeokay, right, that same math applies
even as the money grows, right, it's still going to be just that
small little it's a small contribution tothe overall budgeting for cap Metro. Oh
sure, right, it's and soto us it seems like maybe a lot.
And I know there's some people whosay that's a lot of money,

(21:56):
we can do other things with it, right, But I would also offer
that you know, you're investing inthe future of your kid, and you're
going to put one percent away everyyear for their college education, right,
it's not that much at the endof the day. Well, and I
think the struggle is trying to balancethat, right, because it's not being
willing to pay for the service,but it's how does it offset until we

(22:19):
are grown out, until we areusing where we can have pickup service around
the city, where we can havethe light rail is built so that we
can go more places, and allthat sorts of things. I mean,
so there's things that are down theroad, but for you know, it's

(22:40):
about figuring out what that middle piecelooks like, right, and to that
point, and the reason I broughtthis up, and again I don't necessarily
shy away from the politics per se, but this one is really important because
your work here has really been notableand I want to make sure that the
people who are going to the pollsunderstand the work that's been done. And
one of the factors, and youprobably explained it much better than I will,

(23:03):
but there was there was an opportunityto get some of that contribution,
some of our tax money back intoLeander, like invested back in Leander.
So what we've done is cap Metriccreated and infrastructure fund for lack of a
better way to put it, becausethere are rules around what a transit oriented

(23:30):
company and metro entity can spend moneyon right, So they can't just willing
nearly do things. It has tobe approved. So they created this ten
million dollar fund and then that moneygot divvied up between all of the suburban
cities, which Leander's about seventy fivepercent of those funds. So we got
seven point four plus million dollars tobe able to use towards projects. We

(23:56):
were able to fund the one eightythree study. We were a little fun
old town study. We were ableto do some street improvements. It's not
perfect, but it was seven milliondollars or seven and a half million dollars
we didn't have before. The otherpiece of that is the Built Central Texas
Program, and that was an ISLAthat was between cap Metro and the other

(24:18):
suburban cities. But Lander had notbeen able to be a part of that
because of the metro wheel and sowe ask and the board asked that cat
Metro revisit that and Lander was ableto become a part of it. Plus
cap Metro reduced the cost of servicethat was being allocated to Lander because of
ridership, and with those changes,we've what's come back to the city.

(24:45):
Thus far is about three and ahalf million, but that number gets recalculated
every year based on our cost ofservice and a few other things. So
it's it was a very much agreat place to start. I don't think
those conversations are over. That areactually ongoing right now, and the work
needs to continue. Kat Metro alsohas the ability to they have grant writers

(25:11):
and things like that, which issomething that especially Mayor Christine has been really
looking into and we've tried to leanheavily into because having grant writers or having
those people out looking for grants isa great way to supplement our staff right
right and figure out a way forfunding right and it helps us manage this

(25:32):
gap. So, and I don'twant to put words into your mouth,
but in my opinion, and againI do have an opinion on this,
sure, a collaborative approach has beenfar more productive than what we were doing
prior to that. Would that befair? I mean, yeah, you

(25:52):
know, you just I think it'slike anything else in life. I mean,
if you're not willing to sit downat the table and have a conversation
and to figure out where you're where, the compromise is and and I'm you
know, cat Metro has not askedme or the City of Lander to give
up anything, nor has it beenthe other way around. We both have
a mutual it's a mutual beneficial relationshipbecause when Landers built out, we need

(26:22):
mass transit. We've got a largeland mass, what is like forty five
square miles something like that. We'vegot to be able to get people around
the city, right, right,you know, efficiently, And this can
be a part of the puzzle.Yeah, no, and I think it's
painful right now. It is Andthat's okay. Yeah, And you know

(26:42):
had had in another universe. There'sa multiverse somewhere where it worked exactly the
way they planned it in the firstplace, right, right, So there's
another Leanders somewhere in the universe thatthey they did the rail and then within
five years Central Texas blew up andit was you know, it was perfect.
It's like Chicago, that's great.That's not the reality that we live

(27:03):
in. But I do that alittle tongue in cheek, because again,
my opinion on this is very simple. It's like, this is an investment
in the future of the city,and you and I may not necessarily benefit
from that. But the people whowill benefit from that will look back at
that and say, yeah, thatwas a pretty good decision. That was
a good thing that you did there, and for the city of Leander.

(27:25):
In my again, in my opinion, to constantly be relitigating this in an
election every three to five years isjust it's not conducive to that type of
relationship. You you don't build trustif every five years you don't know what's
well, you in, er youout kind of thing. So, you

(27:45):
know, again that's my opinion,and I don't want to speak for you,
but I just think it's one ofthe silly things that we do out
here. And you know, ifthere had ever been a question as to
whether we should stay in or orcome out, it would have been resolved
in prior elections, right, Andwe keep bringing it back to say do

(28:07):
we want to do that, wewant to do this, and every time
the answer is yes. So atsome point it's like, accept the answer.
Right, Well, there is that. And you know, I got
asked yesterday were you gonna are yougoing to vote to put it on the
ballot twenty twenty seven, And myanswer is, I don't know. I
don't know what the city's going tolook like. I don't know what the

(28:29):
residents are going to tell me.I don't know what the voters. I
don't. I don't. I can'tanswer that question. And anybody that tells
you that they can, well they'renot representing the city and the voters because
you don't know what the voters want. That's two and a half years,
three years down the road, right, So you know, my job right
now and hopefully through the next threeyears is to figure out a way to

(28:56):
best utilize and partner will cat Metro. That's it. It's very easy,
right And again, you know,we don't shy away from the politics,
you know, but to me,this is such a big part of what
you've done on council, and againit's my opinion that it's a good thing.

(29:18):
So I want to highlight it.I think it's fair to bring it
up because it's going to be aconversation point for your place and in general
for the city, and then peopleare going to bring that up. So
you are the source like that,Well, here's the person who's doing is
that. There there are five othercities in this suburban group, so you
know, come election time, thecat Metro board can decide they want Leander

(29:44):
to stay and have that suburban city, or they can rotate it to a
different city. So right now Leanderhas a seat at the board table and
a seat having conversations if they butthat's up to the cap Metro board as
to whether or not or whether ornot we're we go back into the rotation.

(30:04):
I mean, well, hopefully there'senough of a partnership there and a
leadership perspective in my opinion from Leanderas well, because I think I think
there is. I think that's what'shappening is that like there was a there
was a void of leadership from bothsides. I think your pointed it absolutely
from and now that has been gapand we bridge that gap. So now

(30:26):
it's an opportunity to do the thingsthat when you are in a collaborative environment
and you are working to the bettermentof the citizenry, which, let's be
honest, from a Leander perspective,that's what the modus operandi is, right,
that's what we're trying to do.From cap Metro. It's a little
bit different because there's a profitability pieceand there's a few other things in there.
But overall, the general mission ofa mass transit organization is exactly that,

(30:52):
it's mass transit. It's it's optionsfor your population to remove vehicles from
the freeways and to facilitate ease ofuse and ease of transit between the suburban
areas and the and the central hubthat is Austin. There's so many things
that we can take advantage of theirlong term in my opinion that I certainly

(31:17):
again I applaud what you've done thereand the reason I'm featuring it so heavily
here. And we talked about itbeforehand, so it was okay with Becky
I did and just bring this up. Yeah, it's important, it's important.
It's important. I think it's oneof the topics that we can really
really speak to and that you havea very unique perspective on. So we
can talk about the other stuff too, like water, and we can talk

(31:38):
about all of it. But yeah, but my time with ket Metro has
been significant over the last it's wehave because not only do I sit on
the board, but then they alsohave subcommittees of the board, so I
said, on the Finance, Auditand administration team too, So we meet

(31:59):
on that once a month. Thenwe have board meetings once a month,
and then there's all the work thathappens in between. So so this kind
of segues into that whole like,are you sure you want to do this,
because man, it's a lot oftime. I talked to Esmy a
little bit about this when we spokea few weeks ago, and you know,
one of the things that that Ipoint out in the process is that

(32:22):
a it's a three year term,right, so you're making a three year
commitment. You're volunteering your time forthe next three years. What by monthly
minimum? Right, that's two twomeetings a month, right, Yes,
But what a lot of people don'thave insight to is all the other stuff
that occurs. Right, So youbring up the cap Metro and you're on

(32:42):
that board, and then you're ona subcommittee there, and so you know,
three years twice a month turns intothree years, four or five,
right, Well, and then inthe chamber, right then you throw in
the chamber and then you throw inall of the appearances. And then on
top top of that, there's yourown personal volunteerism, which I know you,

(33:06):
I've seen you at many events.What are you doing here? I
volunteer do like, don't you haveenough to do? So it's a lot.
It's a lot at the end ofthe day. And for my audience,
that's one thing that I like toreally surface and point out is like,
this is not just the Thursday recordedmeetings that are far too long,
but they've gotten a whole lot shorterthough statistically. But you know, we

(33:32):
really wanted to make the meetings.There was a concerned effort to take the
drama at the meetings into oh,there are a lot more more. We
just want to handle the work inthe city and be done. I think
it's it's a good direction. Iwon't lie that, you know, the
the level of drama, to useyour term, is significantly less over the

(33:55):
past. I stopped popping it mysubscription with horble red and Baker right out,
so I let it expire. Andand but to the point there is,
like there's a lot of other stuffthat you do, right, So
you know, I I appreciate youbeing so open and so willing to talk

(34:17):
so much about the cap Metro thing. So thank you so very much for
that, because I think it's important. But I do want to talk about
some other stuff too, right,So what else have you Now you have
this desire to serve, you havethis servant leadership kind of you know drive,
you know, you do the chamberstuff. Now you're on counsel.

(34:38):
What are some lessons that you've takenaway from that? Like, share with
me a time where you were workingon council and you were really excited about
what happened in that in that particularexercise. Maybe it was the leadership forum,
maybe it was something else. Justshare with us something that really kind
of like got you excited. Youknow. I think it's feeling like things

(35:00):
were moving in the right direction whenI got on council. You know,
again, it's like strinking through afire hose, right, everything's trying to
that. Sometimes it's terminology. Sometimesit's just learning the people. I mean,
there's just a man different things.And but I didn't feel like there
was a direction, Like we didn'tour city manager. No, I'm like,

(35:22):
where's the strategic plan? Who youknow? What? What does the
city manager do? How are weall? How do we know to march
in the same direction? You know, we're getting all these complaints and I
just I know our staff and Iknow they're good people. I just I
don't understand what's happening, and soit was there was some gnashing of teeth,

(35:47):
but we ended up getting a movementon having goals and actions plans from
the city manager, because you know, the city manager runs everything. You
know, we're the board of directorsand the city manager is running the show,
right, it's the CEO, it'sthe CEO of the city. And

(36:09):
so but we didn't. We werelacking that leadership, and so we spent
a lot of time trying to makesure that we were getting that in the
right direction. And it took awhile. It took a long while.
It's taken several years, but I'mprobably that's right now. I mean,

(36:30):
that's really top of mind for methat I am thrilled to pieces that we
should have true leadership coming in andwe've had it. Our interim city manager
is a wonderful human being that hasall the right qualities that you want a
city manager. All right. Iknow you guys are trying to talk them

(36:51):
into it. We did. Weknew we couldn't. We did it tongue
in cheek, but you know,one of the things that Isaac said was,
you know, I just want youto miss me when I'm gone,
And well, you guys were missinghim when he got here. Well,
we're definitely going to miss him whenhe's gone. But we're thrilled the pieces
that Todd's going to be joined inour team and that he understands from the

(37:13):
interview process and all the conversations becauseit was a very long interview process.
Because this city manager is going totake us to the end of our growth.
I mean, you know, we'llprobably get ten years, yeah,
maybe fifteen before we're built out.Well, I mean, and that can
accelerate, Let's be honest, theeconomics behind that growth are pointing in a

(37:40):
direction where you know, and thisis one of those this is one of
those times where something that is aa I'll say it, like a national
issue affects us locally. If theFED decides that they're going to loosen up
the purse strings a little bit andkind of not can either keep the rates
the same or drop them a littlebit, that will that'll supercharge what's going

(38:07):
on right now. Well, sure, and there's even some you know,
the projects and things that have beenin motion, but when interest rates,
you know, the skyright, itslows them down and they have to rethink
either the size of the project orin all the in all the things.
So there's been you know, somethings that are probably postponed four five years,

(38:29):
right because of either the pandemic,right, and then the inf interest
rate environment after that post pandemic.So yeah, it could ten to fifteen
years is probably on the far end. But I think that's a fairly reasonable
explanation. And I think the councilthat will be coming on board and our

(38:52):
new city manager are going to bethe group that are going to make the
decisions that are going to see,right happens over the next ten to fifteen
right, right, Well, sothe city's going from middle school to high
school, right right, because we'rekind of in that middle school period right

(39:15):
now. And then in high schoolis where all the growth happens. You
know, That's where you get yoursea legs underneath you and you decide you
want to you know, be abig boy or girl eth case, maybe
well and that's yeah, and that'sin for Leander. Over the last bit
of time, we haven't been ableto stop and go oh, or maybe

(39:36):
we should have. It wasn't enoughtime to try to figure out and learn
from your sakes that you get whenyou're slow growth, right, It's I
mean, it's no excuse, right, but it's just no matter. You
just got to make decisions a littlebit quicker, sure, and and well,
yes, that's part of what thereality is today. And but again,
like what we talked about at alittle bit earlier is that you know,

(39:58):
you're dealing with decisions that were madewhen it was slow growth, right,
So there was not necessarily the sameyou know, influencers, if you
will, are the same impetus tomake those types of decisions. You think,
it just wasn't happening. That wasbefore we went into a seven year
drought, right, that was beforeyou know, and then we came out

(40:21):
of it for I don't know,ten minutes, and then we're right back
into a drought again. So someof the watering decisions, some of the
all of those things that were made, and then there are hard decisions.
So nobody wants to change it becauseit might make somebody mad, right,
right, But our role on councilis to do the best thing for the
city as a whole. That meansnot everybody's going to be happy all the

(40:45):
time, right, But in theend, you hope that even the folks
that may not have been happy witha particular decision and have the ability to
understand the reason behind it sure andto know that it really was the best
call. And to your point aboutthe lack of drama or the reduction of

(41:06):
drama, let's say it hasn't beencompletely correct. The reduction of drama it
allows for someone like myself and hopefullyas a conduit to some of those conversations
other people who might listen to meand say, oh, this guy's actually
bring up good points. May nothave any people like that. I don't
know. But the idea is isthat one of the things that I found

(41:29):
was missing, like when I gothere, was clarity and communication, right,
And it's one of the reasons Ido this is because it was hard
to find the information. You couldn'tfigure out what's going on, and then
you would be I would be oncommittees, I'd be talking to the people
who were supposedly doing these things,and there were no answers, right,

(41:49):
So I'm like, wait a secondhere, what's actually going on? Like,
what is actually going on? Andsome of that is is a factor
of the growth and the explosiveness ofthe growth, and like you said,
you know you're dream want it froma fire hose, right, It's just
a lot. And then the otherpart of that too is just when you
go from let's say thirty thousand toeighty thousand, that's fifty thousand, and

(42:10):
you have to communicate, you Ihave to communicate differently. You can't talk
the same way right, right,And I think that's and that that's been
part of definitely part of our growingpains. And you know, one of
the the things that I started talkingabout when we got on council was,
you know, we need to updateour website. You know, somebody needs
to be able to go I'll onlytake six years to forever. And there's

(42:34):
still content that's being added to it, right, But it's so much the
pat it was. I talked toChristine about this. I was like,
it took six years, but whenyou got it's actually it's very good.
Yes, it's like much well thatthat's kind of my space in the teenth
world and whatnot. So when Isaw what we did, like when I
saw the new one launched, I'mlike, okay, there's a few things
here that still need to be tweaked, but but it's better, and we

(42:57):
were going to have a newsletter withit. You can sign up for a
newsletter. No, there's a lotof neat stuff there. Our PIO team
is doing an incredible job with thesocial media aspect of it. You know,
even and I'm sure Christine may haveeven mentioned it when all of you
know, when this major water repairwas going on. I mean we talked
to I don't know she could quoteit for you, but like eleven news

(43:21):
outlets, all the social media inyour water notice or your water bill and
a few other play at the Warren, Central Texas. I mean, if
you didn't get that information, itwas almost how did you avoid it?
Yeah, you had to because weput it into so many different places because

(43:42):
we knew how crucial it was.I mean, the timing wasn't great,
but the reality was that was thiswas the only time. When you order
the parts last April, they comein and you've got teams from around the
country coming in with these highly specializeddivers to be able to do this work.
And it's fourteen hundred square fourteen hundredfeet I think of pipe underwater.

(44:08):
It's not an overnight thing, andthose crews will work in twenty four hours
a day. I mean, it'samazing that work. And for a government
project, it is on time andit is on budget, right right,
which are all very very good pointsto draw out because again and I don't

(44:30):
I don't necessarily count myself as someonewho's not aware. I try to stay
up on this kind of stuff,you know, but I was still.
I was still people will come tome. I get asked while walking out
and doing, Hey, what's goingon with the water, And I'm just
like, did you not receive thenotice of this is but this is what's
happening. Yeah. Again, hereI would say, you know, not

(44:52):
ideal, not the perfect time.It never would be. It never would
be. It never would be.So you got to find the best right
to control the things that you cancontrol, right, So that's so we
could control, so we controlled it. I think the citizenry has done a
good job in response. Yes,I think the weather patterns have really helped
with that, especially this week.If we get the rain that they're talking

(45:15):
about this week, please then ittakes away that onus. And I'll cop
to this myself. I spend alot of money in my yard, you
know, I invest in that.It's part of my house and we're right
at that point, We're like,I need to water my grass. No,
I know. I mean I putin new flower beds in my front
yard last year. I didn't plantmy vegetable ward this year, right,

(45:37):
I'm hoping for I'm holding off onmy as well, you know so.
But in the big scheme of things, it's a minor sect, no big
deal, no big deal. Imean the grass is greening, it's coming
through, and it's just it's justyou know, if I were watering every
day and we had this green,right, if it rains this weekend in

(45:59):
a second, I can how youthat? So I'm I'm doing a rain
dance. Yeah, you can joinme. I've been doing it, I
promise. All right. Well,I do like to again thank you for
your time, absolutely, and Iwant to offer you the opportunity here.
Obviously it's part of this to kindof let people know where they can find

(46:19):
you, Like, what are yoursocials, what's your website? How do
they find out more about Becky?And where can they find you to talk
to you? Sure? Probably theeasiest two ways to reach me is through
my city council Facebook page, whichis going to be Becky ross Land or
City Council Place six. And youcan also find me on my campaign website,
which is www dot Becky b Ec K I the number four Ross

(46:45):
dot com. And yeah, youcan reach me by text or phone that
way, and also can leave acomment on my Facebook page and I'll reach
out back to you that way.Becky. Thank you so much. I
appreciate you doing this. I reallyreally appreciate this, and I hope that
you have gotten something out of this. That's the intent. If you have

(47:07):
any complaints about the content of theVoting Lander series or lean call me.
Don't call Backy, call me,because I'm directly responsible for that. But
I really do appreciate the candor andthe ford wrightsness that we've answered these questions
today here together, and I appreciatethe insight into who you are and a
little bit of how you think andwhat makes you text so perfect. Thank

(47:29):
you so much. Invitation, folks, that's it for this episode. I
invite you to tune in and orlisten. I again subscribe on all the
socials, and if you're more ofthe podcast kind of guy, you can
find me on Apple Podcasts and severalothers. So wherever you listen, just
you know, subscribe so you getthe content alerts you understand that there's new

(47:50):
stuff coming up. I do separateall the Voting Leander stuff into its own
series, so there's a couple ofother ways you can find it. And
of course there's always voting Leander dotcom, so feel free to go there
to find information on voting, who'srunning, and some other things that I
think are topical to us here andLeander. So that's it for this episode.
Again, I appreciate Becky and hertime here, and I look forward

(48:10):
to having the conversation with now allof the candidates. Because I've completed the
incumbents. Kind of, I mayhave to redo Nicoles because we've lost a
video on that one, but regardless, we have the content and I'll be
distributing that, you know, overthe next few weeks, and hopefully we
can wrap up with all the candidatesby the end of the month, so
that you guys have the entire monthof April to look at the videos,

(48:35):
listen to the podcasts, and makesome decisions on your own. So I
appreciate you tuning in, thank youfor your time, and we'll see you
next time. Bye. The na