Written by Ben Cox – This is the second of a two part series highlighting the candidates for Brownwood City Council, Ward 5. The election will be May 4th. Wards 2 and 3 are also up for election, but those seats are running unopposed.
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Walker Willey is running for a first term on the Brownwood City Council, running against incumbent Jerry DeHay.
Walker is married to Jessica Willey, and is the father of Aeryn and Ember.
Willey is a Brownwood native who is currently working for the Office of the Attorney General, Juvenile Justice Department and is a veteran of the Brownwood Police Department.
Willey says the idea to run for office was not something that came like a flash, but rather a slow simmer. “I began entertaining the idea when I saw the campaign for Mclaughlin and Jones for that Ward. Just the idea of bringing up somebody with a little younger outlook, the next generation so to speak.”
Willey says that campaign made him think about what he could bring to the city. “Over the next year or so I tossed around the idea and talked with my family and then realized that for being fairly young I know a lot of people. I bounced it off of them and they didn’t laugh me out of the room, so I decided it was a good start.”
Willey says his roots in the community are what drive him to want to help keep Brownwood on the right track. “I live right in the middle of this ward, I’ve got two daughters who will grow up and graduate from Brownwood High, I have a wife that works in Brownwood, most of my family lives in Brownwood. I don’t think Brownwood is broken, by any means. I think a lot of the decisions that are made by the council now are fine decisions. “
He even goes so far as to say that he has nothing against his opponent, Jerry DeHay. “I like Jerry, we get along great.” (They even live on opposite ends of the same block!)
He continues “But as far as where I come in, I don’t have 60 years of teaching and business running like he has. What I do have is 17 years of public safety and law enforcement with an intertwined 6 years in Corpus Christi’s fire department. So when you look at the city’s two largest budgets, the two biggest pieces of the pie, that is public safety: fire and police. I think the money is allocated correctly. But there is no one on the council who has first hand experience with law enforcement and fire on a municipal level.”
Willey says that knowledge could help him in steering future needs of the city. “A fire truck costs $750,000, so the question comes into play if it comes down to a year where all the sudden we have an apparatus, an engine company or trucks company that’s needing to be replaced it’s nice to know at least the terminology so that when the reasons for the need come down we can decide if it is an immediate need or one that can be tabled for the next budgetary cycle.”
Willey also says a fresh perspective can benefit the city by finding ways to attract “Brownwood boys and girls, once they’ve become adults, to stay here. I think with any small or midsize city, once you have large amounts of that age group moving out as soon as they’re able, and if you don’t start finding a way to bring people back, your population is going to die due to attrition. Things with entertainment value, with retail, so you don’t have to drive an hour to pick up anything.”
“There is a lot in Brownwood that is important to me, and to the future of my kids. So I want to make it more of a self sustaining town so we don’t have to go here and there to purchase things and entertain ourselves.”
Early Voting begins April 22nd, and ends the 30th, with election day May 4th with polls open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Polling location details are available on the city website under the Notice of General Election
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