The Brownwood Area Chamber of Commerce hosted its monthly luncheon on Friday, April 22. An invitation was extended to both candidates in the mayoral race to address community members ahead of the May 7 election. The two candidates for mayor are incumbent Stephen Haynes and Patrick McLaughlin IV. Mayor Haynes was in attendance and chose to address the luncheon, while McLaughlin did not attend.
Haynes began by thanking the chamber for the opportunity to speak, then continued with his speech which is transcribed below:
I think when I talk about my vision for the city, I have to start by telling you a little bit about my past. I know a lot of you know me and you know my past, but some of you may not and it’s hard to understand my vision for the future without understanding what shaped that vision.
I graduated from Brownwood High School in 1992. I played football here and was involved in theater. I graduated and went on to Abilene Christian University and I received a degree in Business Administration. I had a particular emphasis on economics and political science. While I was at ACU, I met my wife Laurie. We started dating in the Fall of 1992 so I guess we’ve been together for 30 years this fall, and we’ve been married for 27 of those years. Again, we got married our senior year at ACU, and then I went off to Texas Tech of Law and got my law degree. Then after Lubbock, we moved to Grapevine and that is where we began our family. Laurie was teaching at Colleyville ISD and I was working at a downtown Dallas law firm when our first son Austin was born. We now have four children, 3 who were born in Grapevine – Austin, Emily, and Ally. Ella was not born until we got home to Brownwood.
But when we were living in Grapevine, I was working in a downtown Dallas law firm driving back and forth, and I’ll be honest with you, there were some things we loved about living in the metroplex. We loved having opportunities, wages, and pay. We loved having nice restaurants. I think we could go to a different restaurant every day in the metroplex without ever having to repeat. We loved the fact that we could go shopping and anything that we needed or wanted was available. In Grapevine, they had a center where you could go work out and it was $25 a year to be involved in their YMCA. They had sports complexes with green grass as far as the eye could see. They had running trails that connected all of their city parks and I’m going to be honest with you, I loved those things. What I didn’t like of course was traffic. You couldn’t get anywhere. I didn’t want to miss my kids growing up because I was constantly on the road. I didn’t like the fact that I couldn’t drive home and go hunting or fishing. I didn’t like going to the lake on the weekend and it was so crowded that I couldn’t get around. And so in 2006, Laurie and I decided that rural life was a better quality of life and we chose to move our family home.
Now with that background, you’ll understand my perspective and the goal. The goal is to bring some of those things that I loved about the city to Brownwood without losing the quality of rural life. That means those restaurants, those parks, those wages and those opportunities.
So what have we done over the last few years? We’ve recruited new businesses, and to be honest with you, I would say that we’ve changed the landscape of our retail corridor. From the traffic T to the bayou – it looks nothing like it did a few years ago. We have created beautiful sports facilities that are second to none. We have dramatically improved our parks with things like splash pads, playground equipment, murals, and shade structures. We’ve built running trails that connect our schools and our parks. We’ve worked with local entrepreneurs to completely revitalize downtown. Most recently, we saved a beautiful, historic structure and we’re turning that into an amazing conference center that will be a benefit to Brownwood for decades and decades to come.
Now, I know the criticism of some of those things could be at times and that is what is the cost of those things. The reality is it is 1.7 percent a year. If you look at the city’s budget, between 2009 until now, the average spending increase is 1.7 percent a year. In my opinion, that is exceptionally fiscally conservative. We have planned. We have saved, and we’ve worked towards those goals. And we’ve done it when we could afford it.
I know the other concern that is happening right now, and I want to address it. That is rising appraisals. Our success is causing property value to go up dramatically. I will tell you that I have two pieces of property that have doubled in value. My home has gone up 40 percent in the last 5 years so I understand. Unfortunately, the only tool that the city has available is to lower the tax rate and the truth is that we have lowered the tax rate 3 of the last 4 years. And we will lower the tax rate again this year as those appraisals. That is the only tool available to us to help offset those appraisals.
So to talk about the future, what are we going to keep doing in the future? We’re going to keep making things better. We’re going to keep paving roads and improving your parks and public facilities. We’re going to keep recruiting businesses. We’re going to help local entrepreneurs improve and revitalize downtown. With some hope and some thankfulness, gratitude, good fortune, and prayer, we’re going to see the downtown hotel revitalized and turned into a modern hotel. We’re going to recruit events to the event center in a way that has not been done in Brown County in decades. We’re going to create opportunities for people to have better paying jobs and better quality of life for their families.
Now with that being said, I get to make a special announcement today and that is that TJ Maxx and Boot Barn are coming to Commerce Square.
I know that I’ve stood here and talked about the successes of the City of Brownwood. Please understand that when I say that, I’m not talking about them being my successes. I’m talking about them being the successes of some incredible city leaders. I’m talking about them being the successes of an incredible group of men and women who serve on our city council. But even in a larger sense, they are the successes of the people in this room and in this community. Those businesses didn’t open downtown without great local entrepreneurs and people who invested their money and their time. They didn’t open without supporting organizations like the chamber, Kiwanis, Rotary, the Lyric Theatre, and Downtown Inc.
Mayor Haynes closed by recognizing Keep Brownwood Beautiful and introducing the organization for their portion of the luncheon.
Early voting begins Monday, April 25. City elections will be held on Saturday, May 7.
[Story by Bayley Ramphal]