Vote In Leander - Mike Herrera (Place 2)

The Vote in Leander seris continues with the challegers, with new faces throwing their hat in the ring. Our first conversation was with Mike Herrera, challenging for election to place 2 on the Leander City Council. 

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Continuing in the series, we nowturn our attention to the challengers, and
I had the opportunity to sit downwith Mike Herrera, who is challenging for
place two on the ballot. Andthis is our conversation. I hope you'll
enjoy it. Here on Lean andLeander Lantern Media Studio for the continuation of

(00:36):
the Vote in Leander series Here onLean and Leander, and with me today
is Mike Hedeta. Hi. Mike, Hi, Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you too. Sothis is the first time Mike and I
have had a conversation outside of someemails that we've sent, which is typical
with the new candidates, and Mikeis presenting himself to the citizens of Leander

(00:58):
as a representative for place two onthe city council. That's correct, So
welcome to the candidate forum, Iguess. So we'll kind of proceed from
here. For those of you whohave watched us before, the next subsequent
interviews will all be with candidates whoare presenting themselves for the first time.

(01:19):
So our approach here is very similarto what we do with the incumbents,
but obviously I have more familiarity withthe incumbents and Mike and I are sitting
down for really the first time.His wife is outside. I met them
lovely, lovely people and so yeah, this is just the conversation. This
is what we do at Voting Leanderand help you as citizens of the city,

(01:44):
to better know and understand some ofthe motivating, motivating factors that our
candidates bring to the table. Soagain, Mike, thank you so much.
I appreciate you making the time officiallythe first candidate that I'm talking to.
So you and I were having alittle chat before we started here today
and you were telling me you've beenin Leander for about five years. So

(02:07):
give me the origin story for Mikeher Era. So you know how I
came to Leander or yeah, justlike what brought you here? You know
where are you from? Right?So? I was born in Stockton,
California, Okay, And when Iwas about seven, my mom moved to
Aurora, Colorado, and I wentthrough high school and everything there, and
then I was going to college there, and then my grandfather was having heart

(02:30):
problems, so I moved back toStockton worked at his grocery store in a
MPM mini market, worked there fora few years for him and then he
sold the business, and at thatpoint I had California residency, so I
stayed there and I went to collegethere, and I graduated from California State
University Stantis Lass, which is inTurlock. I like to call it Turkey
Tech. They get up that whenyou say that the school started literally in

(02:53):
a turkey shed at the fairgrounds.All right, Okay, So then when
I graduated college, I got ajob with aw Slee Beverage Company, and
I moved up to the San FranciscoBay area and I worked for them for
about a year and a half,and then they promoted me to be a
route sales supervisor and they moved toNew Jersey, and then I supervised an

(03:14):
area New Jersey, and then Ibasically got a promotion from there to an
account manager, to a zone analyst, to a regional sales manager. And
so at that point I lived,we'd moved the office to Pennsylvania, and
I covered from basically Maine to SouthCarolina to Chicago, and I did all
the headquarters calls for them, sellinggourmet coffee. I'm not much of a

(03:34):
coffee drinker, but I was sellingGormet coffee, Holping coffee, and then
I met my wife and we gotmarried, and so she lived in Dallas
and so she sold it. Well, we kept the house in Dallas for
a year or two, but shebasically sold all her belongings and moved into
my little apartment in Pennsylvania, andwe started a business. She started a

(03:58):
business, and then I quit myjob with Nesley and went to work for
her. So that was basically wegot married in nineteen ninety five. She
started the business two months after weh after we got married, and our
anniversary was actually Monday. Oh really, so happy anniversary. How many years
now? Twenty nine? Wow?Okay? And so May eighteenth will be
the twenty ninth anniversary of the company. So she started the company. I

(04:21):
left my I quit Neslie a yearlater, went to work for her,
and then I've been basically running hercompany for the last twenty nine years.
And so what we do. Soduring that when I when I started dating
her, we we came out toAustin because her brother he picked us up
at the old air the old airport. Because it's funny because I flew to

(04:42):
the old airport and then and thenyou fly back a couple of years later,
and it's like it's a completely differentplace. That's actually one of those
things that we talk about on thisbecause it's the the uh, the expansion
and the growth in Central Texas hasbeen it is. It's when you take
a look at it and you reallyconsider the changes, it's like, that's
pretty monumental at the end of theday, Like have an entirely new airport.

(05:04):
Right, that's crazy, right,But go on, you were saying,
you're visiting brother, right, yourbrother in Austin, My brother and
my brother in law, her brother, Okay, her brother is and stuff.
So that we we'd come out hereevery single Christmas. And so my
nephews and niece is all over here, and so the whole family's kind of
down here. And so then aboutten years ago, my mom calls my

(05:27):
wife Diane and says, we're thinkingabout moving to Pennsylvania, And she goes,
why would you do that? Shesays, so to be near you.
You you know, when you guysare going to retire there. And
now she says, we're not retiringhere, We're going to retire in Austin.
So then my mom literally moved downhere to Austin. She moved moved
into cap Rock within, like