Vote In Leander - John Cowman (Mayor)

Continuing the Vote in Leander series with a conversation with former Mayor John David Cowman, who is returning to the local political stage in a run for Mayor in 2024.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
As we continue the Vote in Leanderseries. I had the opportunity to sit
down this week with a former mayorwho's throwing his hat back in the ring
here in twenty twenty four, Joinme as I have a conversation with John
David Cowman here on Lean and Leander. So we're back here at Lantern Media

(00:36):
Studios, continuing in the series ofVote in Leander. For those of you
who are familiar with the podcast,you'll know what I'm talking about, and
we'll touch on that in a littlebit as well. And today I have
the pleasure of speaking with John DavidCowman, who is running for mayor in

(00:56):
the upcoming election. And some ofyou may know John because he's been mayor
here and Leander previously. And sowhat I want to do is I want
to talk to John a little bitabout his history here in Leander and then
we'll touch on the fact that hewas previously in the position of mayor on
the dais and we'll go from there. So John, thanks, I appreciate
you coming out, I appreciate thetime, look forward to talking to you.

(01:18):
And I have had I don't knowif you'll remember, but you and
I have had a conversation over emaila few years ago because I was doing
a little bit of research into capMetro and your name came up. So
I did reach out to you andyou responded, You're very kind. You
kind of give me the information thatI was looking for. So I want
to thank you for that if Ican never thanked you before. But it

(01:41):
was one of those things that itwas kind of like someone told me your
name and I was like, oh, well, let me see if I
can find the guy. Maybe hecan answer this question for me. Right,
if you go back and look atthere, there's a I think two.
I think I did two episodes oncap Metro and I do talk about
that, SOFIA want to go backand look at that one anyway, So
how long have you been in Leander? Now? I know you've served as

(02:01):
mayor before, but overall, justpersonally, when did you move here?
Where did you move from? Areyou a native Texan? Sure? Well,
how it began arriving in Leander?It was, of course through a
divorce, okay, and a flatand a flat tire. Okay? All
right, that sounds like an interestingstory. So did they happen at the
same time or are these they wereseparate occurrences. Flat tire saved me.

(02:23):
Basically, it wasn't my flat tire. I fixed a woman's flat tire on
twenty two to forty three, okay, on the coldest day of the year.
In the back of my head gotI stove her and I had a
headache for probably three or four dayswow after that, but I fixed her
flat tire. About four years later, she called me and said she had
an issue in Leander. I'm theonly person she knew, okay, so

(02:44):
I She said her name was CharlieSue, and I said, I I
don't remember that Charlie Sue. AndI actually said something funny. I said,
did I ask you to marry meor something? You know? And
she said, I have a home. I have a mortgage company nationwide in
Hershey, Pennsylvania, and I havea prob min Leander. Would you go
look at this for me? I'masking you again. I was going through

(03:04):
that divorce. She instructed me togo to the home. I looked at
it. It was half built,and I said, would I need a
home? And it was here inLeander, And so I finished the home.
I'm still there in nineteen twenty Hollyhill. My mother lives with me.
She's ninety three and a half,going to be ninety four in July second,

(03:31):
and I'm caretaker and I love herdearly. And it's part of our
family culture. We don't send ourparents anywhere. We take care of them.
So that's how I got to Leander. I am a developer by trade.
I'm in real estate. I starteda process of developing some land and

(03:53):
basically the city and the powers thatbe at the moment said we don't like
you, and we don't like theway you look. I was going to
divorce. I had to do somethingnoble because she was after me and I
had to do something. So whatI basically did said I'm going to run
for mayor. Okay, And Iran for mayor and I won. And

(04:14):
I didn't know how to be mayor, right, but I knew something about
this town intrigued me. All wehad was a golden Chicken, the sonic
on one eighty three post office wasthere in a restaurant called Brinhams, which
is now Harding Deal Ray. Okay, Brinham's always is it open or not?
You never knew, But I said, I think we can do something
with this town. I think wecan do something incredible a town. I

(04:38):
think our population was about seven thousandgad. I was going to say,
what was it? This is aroundtwo thousand and three, okay. And
so I was mayor from two thousandand three to twenty twelve, okay.
And during that time, I'm veryshy. I don't like crowds. I
speak with a lisp. I I'mdyslexic, and I go, I'm going

(05:02):
to break every one of those I'mgoing to speak in a crowd. You
know. I'm going to do everythingI was fearful of, which is part
of why I ran, among otherthings. But I did that. I
was can I say a bad word? Sure, I don't censor. Well,
they my part of my council andthe city manager at the time,

(05:28):
because I had trouble reading the northside side of the southeast section of the
you know, it's very tongue twisting. I was known as Mayor dumbmass Okay.
And when the newspaper they had somejuice they wanted to come. They
came to me and said, hey, this is what they're calling you.
Your council members, some of them, and your city manager. And I
said give us some juice. Whatdo you retort? And I said,

(05:53):
I have done a very poor jobas showing them who I am. What
they said is my fault, andI'm going to show them who I am.
And the next year I became thelocal Leader of the Year for the
state of Texas because of all thewonderful, incredible things that we were doing
in Leander. We started a developmentprocess. And remember in two thousand,

(06:14):
if you said, hey, John, are you in town? I would
be in I'd say, no,I'm not in town. Well that means
I'm in round Rock or Georgetown,maybe as far away as Austin. But
I was put on the board ofCapital Metro and they sent me somewhere and
I saw something that was unbelievable andit shocked me and I said, I'm

(06:35):
bringing this to my city. Andit was the birth of the Leander to d