A summer update: water, roads, the budget, Flock, parks, and a few things that didn't go as planned

September is upon us; the kids are back to school, and summer is basically over, so I thought this might be a good time for an update on what City Council has been working on over the last few months.

This isn't intended to be an exhaustive list or a victory lap. Some things went well, some involved difficult tradeoffs, and there are definitely things we could have handled better.

Water

We spent much of the spring and summer dealing with the water emergency caused by problems with the raw water pipeline, aging treatment plant membranes, and delays to the water treatment plant expansion.

One of the more important things we did was authorize the emergency purchase of a full train of replacement membranes for the existing plant. Those started arriving ahead of schedule in July and gave us additional treatment capacity while the expansion continues, getting us out of water restrictions.

The larger lesson is that Pflugerville has outgrown the amount of redundancy we historically had in our water system. We're spending hundreds of millions of dollars right now on the new water treatment plant, wastewater expansion, transmission lines and other utility infrastructure. Getting those projects finished remains one of my highest priorities.

City management

We also went through a major leadership transition this summer.

Rather than conduct a lengthy national search, Council selected James Hartshorn as our new City Manager. James had already spent years working in Pflugerville, including as Deputy City Manager, and had been directly involved in many of the projects and challenges we're working through today.

There was a real tradeoff here. A national search might have produced other qualified candidates, but it also could have taken months during a period when the organization had already experienced significant leadership turnover. Council ultimately prioritized continuity and institutional knowledge.

No new city bond election this year

A resident bond committee spent months reviewing proposals for parks, a new animal shelter and downtown parking.

Ultimately, Council decided not to put roughly $87 million in new City bonds on the November ballot.

That doesn't mean those projects aren't needed. In fact, I think several of them absolutely are.

The concern was timing. Residents are already dealing with higher costs everywhere, we have substantial projects already underway, and some of the proposed projects weren't far enough through planning for me to be comfortable asking voters to borrow the money yet.

Instead, we've started looking at how to keep the highest priorities moving without issuing the construction debt today.

For FY27, we've directed staff to prioritize planning and immediate improvements for the animal shelter and Reunion Park. We've prioritized moving forward.

I'd much rather have projects substantially designed and ready to build before asking voters to finance construction than approve a bond and spend the next five or six years figuring out what we're actually building.

Roads and infrastructure

We approved a $3.17 million reconstruction of Parkway Drive, including drainage improvements, ADA sidewalks, lighting and other safety improvements. About $800,000 is being leveraged from federal Community Development Block Grant funding.

We also awarded the construction contract for improvements at FM 685 and Kelly Lane, including turn lanes, U-turn improvements and signal modifications.

At the same time, we decided not to increase roadway impact fees this year. There is a legitimate debate about these fees. Development should help pay for the infrastructure it requires, but fees can also reach a point where they discourage the restaurants, businesses and development we're trying to attract.

We're going to take a harder look at the underlying growth assumptions and fee structure rather than simply accepting the maximum calculated fee.

Economic development and tourism

We created Pflugerville's Tourism Public Improvement District.

This is funded through an assessment on larger hotels rather than property taxes on residents. It's expected to generate about $361,000 in its first year for marketing, events, group travel and efforts to bring more visitors and hotel stays to Pflugerville.

That's important because growing our commercial and sales tax base is one of the best long-term ways to reduce how much pressure we put on homeowners to pay for city services.

Flock and surveillance technology

This was probably the issue that generated the most attention at the end of the summer.

After Flock provided audit information showing Pflugerville's camera data had been accessible far more broadly than the City authorized, I worked with the City Manager to disable and cover the City's cameras.

Council subsequently voted unanimously to defund the system and not renew the contract.

I want to be clear that our police department found legitimate public safety value in the technology. The problem was trust and governance. If we tell residents their data is being handled one way, and the vendor's system is actually doing something materially different, that's unacceptable.

The bigger work now is making sure we don't simply replace Flock with another product without addressing the underlying issue. We're working on citywide rules for high-risk technology, inventories of what we're currently using, stronger contract requirements, auditing and a meaningful role for resident oversight.

And not everything went right

We didn't have City fireworks this July 4th.

There were legitimate circumstances that led to that outcome, including the budget, water restrictions and the inability to put together an alternative that I thought was worth spending taxpayer money on. But I also think the decision and communication process could have been better.

The proposed FY27 budget restores funding for Red, White & Boom in 2027.

That's part of governing too. When something doesn't go the way we want, figure out why and make it better next time.

If there's something from this summer you think I left out, or something above you'd like more detail on, ask. I have the meeting transcripts and I'm happy to dig into the actual votes, numbers and discussions rather than relying on memory.

Hello! We recently realized that we've got some invasive trees growing pretty rapidly on our property, and they're impacting the native plants we're trying to establish. Looking for recommendations for a somewhat affordable removal service, for about 4-6 trees. They're pretty tall, over 6 ft. I believe they are called china Berry trees.