CITY OF KATY, Texas (Covering Katy News) — Katy City Council candidates addressed numerous issues including rising water costs and making the Katy Civic Center available for rental at a forum held Tuesday night at the Dryer, 5321 1st St.
All the announced candidates for the three open council seats spoke at the forum:
- At-large: AJ Bailey is a graduate student, and Paul Follis a former interim Alief ISD police chief and Houston police captain.
- Ward A: Johnston Dietz, an operations manager at JDR Cable Systems, and JR Richardson, an account manager with Fidium Fiber.
- Ward B: Roger Lowry, a retiree; Michael Meihls, a business owner; Michael Payne, an IT manager, and Lyn Sullivan, a graphic designer.
Dealing with water shortages and rising costs
Asked how the city should deal with a water shortage and the rising costs to bring in more water, Bailey said he wanted to see discussions between officials at different levels of government to identify how best to move forward. Follis agreed with Bailey about having discussions with other officials, and added the city is moving to a new water system that will use surface water, and that system is a few years away.
"That's going to come into additional cost," Follis said. "I don't know if that's been made clear to everybody and know that it's probably not a popular thing."
Dietz said it was important to remember that the rising costs of water were more about how Katy recycles water and not consumes it.
"I know we have several initiatives that are intended to lower costs, like the recycling of water," Dietz said. Richardson agreed with Dietz about recycling water, saying water from flooding could be recycled.
Lowry said city restrictions on yard watering, as has happened in some years past, has saved water, though residents don't like it.
Meihls said after the city completes construction of a surface water system, the city should adopt a usage-based pricing model.
Payne said he would only echo what other candidates were saying about the topic but added that nobody was discussing climate change.
Sullivan said while other candidates have discussed rising costs for water, she hoped to see some discounts for older, retired residents. Also, she said, it would be good to educate people on native landscaping and how much less water it requires.
Making the Katy Civic Center available for rent
Presently, the city does not rent the Katy Civic Center, which sits across the street from City Hall, for events. It typically gets used for events held in the Historic Town Square, such as the monthly Katy Exchange. The city does rent Woodsland Park, 443 Danover Road, for events. The candidates were asked whether they favored making the civic center available for rent.
Bailey said he favored making the civic center available for rental, but he wanted to first speak with constituents to get their views. Follis said he was also in favor, but there needed to be some sort of deposit.
Dietz said he favored making the civic center available for rent and did not understand why it was not happening now. "It should absolutely be open to members of our community," Dietz said. "You can pay a deposit, and assuming that you follow all the rules that would need to be in place in order to rent this thing, and it comes back clean, you get your deposit back if you're a member of the community."
Richardson favored making the civic center available for rent but wanted to be clear about who could rent it. He said he favored clubs and nonprofit groups being able to rent the facility provided they paid appropriate fees. He also favored Katy police being on site just in case.
Lowry said he had no problem with opening the civic center for rent, but he said it wasn't that big and there wasn't much parking.
Meihls said he knew some proposals have been made to restrict usage to certain groups, but some groups, such as homeowner associations or Boy Scouts, should be allowed to use the civic center for meetings.
"If you wanted to limit certain activities, I'd understand," Meihls said. "If you're not going to allow that, then it needs to change the name. It should be an annex at that point if the public's not going to be allowed to use it."
Payne said the civic center should be open for weddings, indoor small events, get-togethers, meet and greets, or whatever citizens might need. "There are other venues to rent, but one of the biggest complaints is that they cost too much money, and the city could provide an affordable option for those people who can't rent out the Merrill Center or anywhere else," Payne said.
Sullivan said she had no problem with renting the civic center provided the city has the liability insurance.
"We're paying city employees to be there to make sure that any rental fees cover those, a deposit, basically just all the logistics," Sullivan said. "But I don't see an issue with this."
Council turnover to be largest in Katy history
The winning candidates will succeed three incumbents who cannot seek re-election due to term limits: Council Member-at-Large Chris Harris, Ward A Council Member Janet Corte and Ward B Council Member Rory Robertson.
Between May's election and January's special election of Ward A Council Member Paula Taylor, the city council will have the largest turnover in Katy history, with four of the five council members being new to their roles.
Ward B Council Member Gina Hicks cannot seek re-election next year due to term limits. Taylor's seat is also up next year. Mayor Dusty Thiele's seat is up in 2028, and he is also under term limits.
Absentee voting runs from April 20-28. Election Day is May 2.
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