My wife and I have lived in Rowlett since 1983. Since then, we’ve built two houses here, raised two graduates of Rowlett High School, participated as citizens and voters in several City issues and watched Rowlett grow from a population of less than 18,000 to the 65,000 plus, we have today.
I was born in Washington, D.C. and spent most of my childhood in the Maryland suburbs of DC with a 3-year stint in northern California. My wife and I moved to Rockwall, Texas in December 1981 after I completed my Master's Degree in Economics from the University of Maryland, having accepted a position as a research economist for the Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas. A couple of years later, we bought our first home in Rowlett and a few years after that started our family.
I spent 35 years at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, serving in the economic research, accounting, lending and bank supervision functions, the latter with a stint overseeing the nationwide ethics system. Over my career, I’ve performed economic and financial analysis, hired/fired and managed people, prepared budgets, pitched proposals for multimillion dollar systems, built multimillion dollar systems and overseen the operations of a system processing hundreds of billions of dollars in loans.
I have been in and out of City affairs over the last 25 years or so as issues have surfaced in which I had a particular interest. I have been on the citizen's side of the podium for issues such as challenging developer's plans when they did not meet neighborhood expectations, initiating and supporting the rezoning of property to a less dense zoning classification, and arguing against the widening of Rowlett Road south of Miller Road to six lanes. I’ve gotten more directly involved in City governance the last couple of years. I served as an alternate on the Community Investment Advisory Board in 2019/2020, then served as Chair for the Board in 2020/2021. I enrolled in and attended the Citizens Academy in the Fall of 2019 until the COVID-induced suspension of the class. I volunteered for and was appointed to the 2020/2021 Charter Review Committee, serving alongside Jeff Winget and several other outstanding citizens. From January 2020 until October of 2020, I coordinated the Take or Pay petition, asking the Public Utility Commission to overturn this component of the City’s contract with the North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD).
My Council goals are: get the design/planning started for the Miller Road bridge, finalize the contract with the NTMWD that eliminates the Take or Pay provision, improve the financial information and budget impact presented to the Council to allow for sound financial decisions, get the trucks off of Rowlett Road, initiate a charter update such that Council has greater control over the municipal court and City departments, oversee the initial internal audit plan to validate or improve internal controls, and last, try to improve the Waterview Golf Club by making sure that American Golf is upholding the tenets of their contract with the City.