From Constable To Candidate For Mayor: Building A Safer, Connected Pearland

We sit down with Constable Buck Stevens to explore how Pearland can grow without losing what makes it feel like home, from parks and arts to public safety and small business. Buck shares a lifetime of service and a practical plan to connect people, cut confusion, and strengthen community.

• Pearland’s evolution from ranchland to family hub
• Civil role of constables and partnership with police
• Small business ownership and local economy insight
• Nonprofit basics, board health, and community impact
• Why run for mayor and what success looks like
• Keeping small-town feel through smart zoning
• Communication gaps and a shared community calendar
• Arts, markets, and a mid-sized convention venue
• Roads, traffic, and realistic timelines for relief
• Homelessness, right-of-way enforcement, and services
• Balancing growth, taxes, and neighborhood voice

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Mission Of The Show
• 0:31 Meet Buck Stevens
• 3:10 Growing Up In Pearland
• 5:10 Early Career And Law Enforcement Path
• 9:40 Business Ownership And Constable Role
• 13:20 What Constables Do In Texas
• 16:40 Service, Lions Club, And Nonprofits
• 21:30 Why Run For Mayor Now
• 26:00 Keeping Small-Town Feel Amid Growth
• 31:20 Communication Gaps And Community Calendar
• 36:00 Parks, Infrastructure, And Public Safety
• 41:10 Youth Spaces, Skate Park, And Private Investment

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:04

The podcast of veterans helping veterans talking about things happening in the veteran community, things we've experienced and overcome, such as addictions, PTSD, depression, legal trouble. And we also promote veteran-owned businesses. If you're talking about it, we're talking about it. This is Charlie Mike the Podcast.

SPEAKER_02: 0:31

Yo, welcome back to another episode of Charlie Mike the Podcast. As always, I'm your host, Raul. Today I got a special guest in the house, and it's Buck Stevens. Now, let me tell you, Buck Stevens, I'm not going to tell him. You tell him a little bit about yourself. And um what what brings you here today?

SPEAKER_01: 0:49

Okay, well, um, first of all, thank you. Thank you for uh providing the opportunity for me to be here and and be a part of this. Um always looking for ways to engage the community. So this is uh something like I said, I haven't ever done one before. So this is gonna be new for me. But uh native Paraland, been here all my life, uh uh born and raised. I say born, I was actually born two months prior to moving here. So uh we lived right on the outskirts of uh Parland. And then uh as I was uh as my mom was giving birth and those kind of things, uh, we were moving to Pareland. We were they were already moving here, so I I consider myself uh you know uh living here all my life. And so uh that's so that's all your life, right?

SPEAKER_02: 1:26

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:27

So yeah, and uh so we raised, you know, raised horses and uh and uh did trail rides and all kinds of things in Pareland for years and years and years, and so just kind of raised here and uh worked here a lot, a lot of different areas of Paraland and did a lot of volunteering and things like that. So it's been my home.

SPEAKER_02: 1:43

So especially since it's been all your life in Paraleland, I can just imagine the growth that you've seen from when you were younger to now.

SPEAKER_01: 1:50

Absolutely like that. Well, uh yeah, so uh in the beginning, of course, being young, not really knowing what growth looked like, uh just saw it, right? And and but it was kind of cool, I guess, growing up because we could see new I'll never forget when we had uh just one Sonic and then all of a sudden we had two and one Walmart, then we had two, now we had three and four, and you know, it was kind of cool seeing that the opportunities uh for businesses and things like that were were kind of cool. I didn't have to go far to go, you know, Parallel's kind of always been the nucleus for me. It's always I've always tried to tell people uh from a marketing standpoint or even just in conversation that we have the greatest of everything right here because within a few minutes you can have anything in the world, you know, everything from NASA and Clear Lake area to Houston and all of it has to offer and uh Sugarland, all those kind of things. So we're kind of the nucleus of the hub of the wheel right here, but it's a good location to come back home to. Right. You know, you feel safe, it's a good community vibe.

SPEAKER_02: 2:44

Definitely. That's one thing I always tell people, no, I don't leave Paraland. And if I do leave Paralyn, it's for a sporting event that's probably like an NRG or toyota center, and and that's pretty much it. Yeah, that opportunity exists though, within a short amount of minutes, right? Right, exactly. So tell us a little bit more about yourself. I know you're a Parland native. What got you into the field? What are some of the organizations that you volunteer with? Um, just a little bit about book.

SPEAKER_01: 3:09

Okay. Well, uh uh went to school here, of course, graduated in 1980. Uh, actually got my GED uh in 1980. My father had passed away right prior to that, and I was going through some struggles, et cetera, trying to get in keep going in school, et cetera. And so uh me and my mom were kind of on our own and do doing our own thing. Had a brother, younger brother at that point as well. So I I got out of school a little early, graduated with my GED, went to Alvin Community College, got my police uh certification, and then um off uh for some reason uh uh my dad had done law enforcement prior to this. Uh and so uh I I guess I kind of thought that's where I wanted to go. I didn't know anything else but police work at the time because I remember uh going to the police station, just sitting there with the dispatchers, and they would keep me kind of almost like a babysitter while my dad was working. I mean, back in those days it was nothing in Maryland. And then um, and so anyway, but uh once I graduated to the police academy, I put in my applications everywhere, and then I ended up going to work in the petrochemical industry. Wow. And so uh became my mom worked for a company in Houston and uh went up there and learned to be electrical draftsman and did uh drafting work for about four years, five years. And um, I did odds and ends various other things here in Parland. I was a manager at the old Radio Shack that used to be here. I worked at the old Kroger's actually was my very first gig uh out of out of the box there, so to speak. And that was when it was across the street on Broadway. And uh then there was a uh a hardware store called Handy Dan. I worked there for a little while and actually was in the same building when Kroger's moved across the street. And so it did a lot of those uh little small odd and end things. And then um, and then one day I got a friend uh that called me. He was with the police department and uh here in Parrand and he said, Hey, uh, are you still got your license and all that? And I said, Yeah, and he said, Well, one of our mutual friends was going down to be the chief of police in Hitchcock, Texas, and um he's needing some police officers because they've uh terminated everyone that was in the agency. They had some corruption going on, and so they were starting all starting off fresh. So I went down there and applied and got the job and worked there for uh almost well, almost exactly two years to the day. Uh then the sheriff's office called me and said, Hey, uh, we're hiring patrol deputies and um uh we know media application back several years ago. We're just kind of updating their stuff to see if you're still interested. And I said, Well, I love I like where I'm at, but it's it's cut it's cool in Hitchcock, Texas, but uh, you know, make me an offer. So they did, and and I came over to Brisoria County. Uh so I worked for the sheriff's office for a number of years, and then um during that time or towards the end of that time, I bought a business here in Paraland. And uh it was actually a combination of two businesses, an old trophy shop called Plaques and Plates that was around for years. It was the oldest trophy shop in the whole area, in the south, south Houston area. We used to do all of the awards for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and all the all those things for um Dad's Club and the Little League and all that we had. I remember when we work in there, we had thousands of trophies and stuff like that. So did that for a little bit. Um, and we uh merged those two companies together. The other one was a signed company, Paraland Signs, and then became A B Products. And we've owned that for 25 years here in Paraland and went through all the you know the hassles of owning a business here in town and uh and the good part, uh you know, selling locally and and doing those kind of things. And then I had some friends of mine, some JP's uh justices of the peace here in in town that had worked me with me when I was with the sheriff's office and said, Hey, we'd like for you to consider running for constable. And the first thing I said is, Why in the world would I want to do that? I got a I got a nice business here, everything I set my own hours, I do my own thing. And uh they said, Look, we think you're the right guy for the job. It's going to expand, and we need someone that can take it to the next level that can manage it and manage the growth and do those kind of things. So I've jumped off into it, and 28 years later, I'm still doing it. Still doing it. And so uh it's growing a lot. It's gone from a part-time uh one-person facility to uh 22 full-time uh employees and a lot of growth, a lot of growth.

SPEAKER_02: 6:59

Your and your office is located uh kind of in your killings, right?

SPEAKER_01: 7:02

Yes, we have uh my main office is on Grand Boulevard, uh right there, downtown, what I call downtown parallel. Most people don't know it as downtown anymore. And then we uh uh have a sub-office in Alvin. So we have two areas uh within within precinct three of Brisoria County.

SPEAKER_02: 7:17

So being the what what are some of the things that y'all are involved in with that as far as being the constable?

SPEAKER_01: 7:23

Okay, uh so a lot of people do ask questions about constable, what do we do, et cetera? So we're you know, in the state of Texas, every peace officer is exactly the same. We get licensed by the same agency, we take the same testing, we take the same academies. So peace officers in general are all the same. However, we generally have different geographical responsibilities and ours um responsibilities that are uh unique to us. Like in the constable's office, we're more civil oriented. We take care of the courtrooms, we bailift the courtrooms and keep security. We serve civil process that comes out of any court in America. Uh, we serve that process to anybody that lives here. And we we can still do all the criminal stuff. We can work traffic, we can do all those things, but uh it's always been my belief that we we stay in our lane. We do our good thing, we do really good at what we do. And then the you know, the sheriff's office and the local PDs they can handle and the DPS, they can do all the criminal stuff and all that kind of things. Not that we're not asked every once in a while to come help them and and do that, but that's our forte, and we I enjoy doing it. And now, and now and I would I look back, I wish I'd started 10 or 15 years even before. I love it. I love what I do, and uh and uh the main thing is interaction with people.

SPEAKER_02: 8:29

What are some of the organizations that you're currently involved in that you I see you everywhere. You know, I said the same thing to Jeff because it's true. Yeah, um, I know you're real involved with the Lions Club, correct?

SPEAKER_01: 8:40

Yes, I've been in Lions Club since 1985. Um in in 1980, uh right when I graduated as well, uh, I wanted to become a Paraland fireman. And at that time, they wouldn't allow anybody under the age of 18. So I went and started, uh actually started my fire career or fire background in uh Brookside Village and became a volunteer fireman over there. And that was about the time that the big explosion happened here in Paraleland, and uh it scared me to death. I was a little, you know, young fireman, not really knowing what to do and what to where to go and what to be or anything. But uh soon after that, I uh went back. As soon as I turned 18, I joined Paraland Fire Department. I was with their volunteer department for 28 years, uh, retired as their first assistant chief uh uh out of the volunteer department. And I was the kind of the bad guy because I'm the one that uh recommended going from an all-volunteer department to uh what they call the combination department and now a full-time career department. And so um a lot of the volunteers didn't really think that was cool, but at the time apparently it was growing, tremendously growing, and you got to be able to manage that and and and move with the growth. And so um uh we were just answering way too many calls during the day on weekends and weeknights, no problem. Had enough volunteers to take care of everything, but that Monday through Friday, 6 to 6 was giving us a struggle. And then, of course, through that, I became a member of the chamber. I was always out in the schools doing fire prevention education. Uh people would see me and say, hey, come be a part of this. So I joined the neighborhood center. I joined uh the 100 club in Paraland. Um, a lot of those organizations I became board members, some of them I'm still board members on. There's three right now that I'm uh, well, two of them I'm president of, I'm treasurer of a couple of them. So I enjoy the interaction and the camaraderie that has to do with 501c3s and nonprofits. In fact, uh I was gonna retire no matter what in three years, and that was one of the things that I was going to jump off into is become a certified uh nonprofit executive and try to figure out how I can help more nonprofits do the right thing. Just as simple as following their 990s and getting that on time to making budgets and running meetings and conducting meetings how to five, how to even file for their 501c3 and keep that. I I'm pretty good at that. I've started three or four nonprofits now, so I I wanted to that's what I wanted to do.

SPEAKER_02: 10:50

I think it's definitely hard, especially getting into a nonprofit world where you want to do something special as a cause, a good cause, but it then you just go in not knowing anything. Absolutely, and then it just becomes a lot. Yeah. Yeah. So that that's definitely something I've seen. So you're happy, you've been doing this, you've been doing the constable precinct precinct three, constable. Why?

SPEAKER_01: 11:11

Why change? Yeah. So uh in the 1990s, uh, I was asked to run for city council, and I was really considered it uh in the early 90s, and then 95 rolled around. That's when I got approached about the constable's position. And I've been in law enforcement, I love doing that, and uh, you know, I figured if if someone's coming to me and asking me to do something, that's kind of my calling. It's an opportunity, right? And so um uh I went off into the constable's world and and did that as opposed to you know, kid all that's gonna be around forever, and I can always dive into it at any point. So that's the way I looked at it, and I went into the constable's deal knowing that that I could make a difference. And so um when uh Mayor Reed, uh longtime good friend, uh and and certainly a good community advocate, uh was he called me and said, Hey, I'm thinking about stepping down. Would you think about running for mayor? And I said, Well, I you know, I really like what I'm doing now. I don't know, we'll kind of see whatever. And just so happened, about the same time, uh Mayor Cole, uh Kevin, had had uh we had conversed a little bit and he was interested in running for mayor. And I said, You know what? I like it where I'm at. I'm just gonna stay where I'm at, you go for it, and you know, you know, good luck with everything, right? And uh and I told him, I said, no, make sure you don't mess up because I'm gonna come in and run again if you don't. But uh no, he he did it, he's done a great job, uh, uh a great opportunity. So I uh like I had indicated earlier, I was gonna retire uh at the end of this. We serve a four-year term as constable. I've been in 28 years now, unopposed 90% of the time, 99, 95% of that time. And I was gonna retire this last time. I've had a, you know, I said, you know, it's time to turn over the reins, let a new breath of fresh air come in, see if there's something that needs to be changed and and and keep up with today's society. And so I was gonna retire anyway in four years, or actually three years now. Uh and so all of a sudden these doors opened. Um and so when uh Maricola announced that he was gonna run, I said, you know, I went home and prayed about it, talked to Michelle uh about it, and we just kind of said, you know what, if we're gonna do it, let's do it. And so I said, you know, I'm I'm jumping in all feet. And so it's an opportunity, I'm gonna do it. And um it's something I've kind of always wanted to do. I'm more I'm more so in line with running for council, I thought, at the time, uh, for for uh all this time because uh, you know, the council members actually make a difference. They get to vote on the things and discuss and cuss and everything else about it. Uh the mayor is just uh a figurehead, uh so to speak, but he's you know really a commander in chief, but he's uh he's the face of the Parland, right? Right. And so you know what, that's really what I like doing too. So I really like going out and and selling and marketing uh and and being an ambassador for Paraland, and that's what I'm hoping to do.

SPEAKER_02: 13:46

So would you coming in as the mayor, what are some of the things that you're gonna be running on?

SPEAKER_01: 13:50

What what what are some of your uh Well, so I've had a I've had a longtime stretch with uh with you know uh you know being in the business for 25 years, being active in the chamber for so many years, uh, and all these nonprofit organizations, I really want to see Paraland. I've always even though we've always pushed for Paraland to be um a place where people want to come visit and and and do those kind of things, I really think that's a that's a big thing. But I think also people feel comfortable here as a community. I think it's uh I despite what all we ever try to do, I think we're always gonna be that kind of a bedroom community. People love coming here, bringing, raising their family here. We have great schools, phenomenal schools. And so I think people move here for a purpose. I think they feel safe. I think they feel like this is community, it has a little bit of everything. And again, within 15, 20 minutes, you can be anywhere and do anything else you want to do, and then come back home. And you know that your house is protected, you know that um uh your family's protected. Uh do we have crime? Absolutely. I mean there's no community in the world that doesn't have crime. And so um uh, but it's much less here than is it is in any of our regional counterparts. And so people uh I think people know that. Um and and the reality industry does a great job of marketing that. And so um I really want to push for more things for when people do come visit our community and spend their money here and then go away. I want to use that money, right? So arts, uh uh things that people can come, walkable districts, things that people can come and visit for the day, have a great time, want uh want to be part of Paralands growth in those kind of areas, and then spend time here and spend money here, and then go back to their homes, wherever that may be, too. So I'd really like to see some more art arts. I'd like to see, I've always wanted, I've been shooting for a skate park for probably 40 years now. I've been trying to get a skate park in town. Uh I would love to see a skate park. I just think that's a great opportunity for our youth. I'm one of those believers that if you don't do something to collaborate that, that you know, they end up in places that they probably should not be. Right, 100%. And so parks do that. Parks are already centralized centric people, uh, skate parks centric people, and I think there's a good collaboration that could happen there. But um, doing things like markets, uh, you know, the um part of the re downtown revitalization project I set in on many of those meetings. I'd love to see that downtown uh redone, but I realize it's it's all about money. Right. Uh a lot of it about money. So some private partnerships are gonna have to really come into play there.

SPEAKER_02: 16:18

So with with you coming in, so one of the things is I love Parland and just like the hometown, small town feel it has, but at the same time, it's huge. Yes. So how do we keep that small town feel? And and uh what I'm worried about is having more franchises come in and losing our small businesses.

SPEAKER_01: 16:36

Yes, a small b that's what I was a small business. Started with two of them and combined them. Like I said, we did trophies for every every uh team here for years and years and years. That that's a struggle. Uh it's a balance. Now we can't, you know, I'm all about free enterprise. Um, you know, if people are owning property, they ought to be able to sell it and do what they need to do on it within reason, right? Uh we have codes and ordinances and those things in place that will control and manage the growth that's happening. Uh so I I I I it I know it's a struggle for some, but I uh, you know, even recently I reflected back and I still think just uh if you're really involved in the in the in the things in the nonprofits and organizations that are in town, that small town feel is still there. We when something happens in our community, we rally up and we all come together and we make it work, we get it done, and then we go back to our busy lives, right? I don't think that happens in a lot of other communities. I mean, we saw it in Central Texas when that happened. We all went there, right? That was a statewide effort trying to get things back in line. I think that happens more so in Paraland, too. Protecting the small business owner, you know, that's getting tough everywhere uh for small businesses, period. Um there were some propos propositions that were one about tax incentives for uh businesses and and small businesses inventory-wise. That you know, I'm all for that. If we can figure out how to incentivize small businesses to get to keep them going, I think the downtown revitalization project's gonna be made up of a lot of small businesses. The franchise businesses, I think they do a lot of work. Uh, you know, people have said for years, well, I don't understand why so-and-so doesn't come here, or why don't they build a restaurant here, or why don't they do that? Those companies spend a lot of money uh coming and looking. And they say, you know, if um if the demographics are right, then we'll build here. If it's not, then we'll go to another location. And we still may be in line somewhere maybe 30 restaurants down the road, but uh eventually we'll have all those things. But I think most demographical people look at Parallel again. I think I I am pretty certain that a majority of people come home, probably 60, 70 percent of them, come from Houston or Clear Lake or other business opportunities. They come home, they go to their home, they want to go walk around the parks, do some exercising, go to a few craft shows, do some kind of things like that, and then go home, go to bed and feel safe. Uh so I think that's what I don't know that the business, the company, the uh community doesn't want a whole lot of growth, right? But you gotta have some. Because we have all of we want all this protection. We want the fire and the police and EMS and the infrastructure and the roads and all those things done, that all takes money, right? And so uh if there's businesses not here creating sales tax and other generating uh inventory tax and those kind of things, then guess who's gotta pay that? Yeah, right. And so it's a good balance. It needs to be a good balance and stay that way. I agree.

SPEAKER_02: 19:24

I uh I that's one thing. Um, you know, when I was young, I've been here since the early 90s, 90s, I think, fifth grade, graduated, joined the military. I said I was never coming back because I just wanted to grow, you know, grow. I wanted to get out in the world and experience it. After I did my military service, I said, all I want to do is go back to Paralyn. That's all I wanted. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I've come here. I've uh you know, I tell people a lot about you know, I've got this place has seen me grow. Absolutely. You know, from a kid to a man, mistakes, you know, everything. And I I I love it. I love it here. I have what's the biggest problem that you see in the city that we don't talk enough about?

SPEAKER_01: 20:07

Communication. I mean, I I one of the things that I would really like to see happen is is the ability uh to to and I'm not even sure I don't know if I know the answers, but it seems like we miss a lot of opportunity to get more in you know those few citizens that say, Hey, I wish more of this was happening in Parliament, and and then I turn around and go, Well, that is happening. You're just not connected to it. How do we how do we fix that, right? We have a superb uh media section, I guess, within the city, if you want to call it that division. And maybe we need to work on that somehow where we have a community calendar, um something that everybody can go up to. I know the chamber works desperately to try to have a community calendar, but a lot of people feel like, oh, I gotta be a member of the chamber before I can get on there, you know, kind of that kind of that feeling, right? Even though I know it's not there. But I need I want to get something that that that we can collaborate and connect on so that people have one source that they can go to and say that's the right source, and this is where it's happening. You know, used to in the day, we talked about it almost every weekend now, but um we go to things and we say, you know, I remember the day that we only had one, maybe two events a month, and everybody kind of knew when that was. It just happened every year, and that's where everybody went. Now we got three or four or five every weekend, and uh they overlap each other, right? And it and that's part of the growth, that's part of the the greatness, I guess if you will. You have it now a choice of several events you can go to. Uh, and then you'll go two or three weekends without nothing going on. Yeah. And you have to wonder, did those nonprofits get together and try to work something out, or did that event try to get together and see if there was something else? The visitors and and uh convention bureaus doing a great job of marketing things here in town. But I will tell you that the east end, I I look at I look at ends instead of sides. I don't say east side or west side, I say ends, east end and west end, because I look at ourselves as elongated 14-mile piece of property. Yeah, yeah. And uh but the people on the east end don't know that there's all kinds of events going on at town center at the west end. The west end doesn't seem to collaborate over to the east end. And I think as downtown paranoia revitalizes and those things happening, we I'd like to see that cross somehow or another, that's let's get across each other, right? Right. And I know every every community is broken up into cultural divisions as well. So uh seeing we we have uh last time I heard, I think we have 27 dialects in Dawson High School. That's a lot of different dialects of people that are living here. We're we're uh we're a uh a smudge pod of people, right? And so uh we wanna I wanna how do we capture those people? How do they stay here and engage?

SPEAKER_02: 22:32

That's a lot. I didn't know it was that many, to be honest with you. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. What's okay, so we what what's one of the things that we're currently doing as a city that you just want to continue to build on?

SPEAKER_01: 22:43

Well, I think that uh, you know, uh that's a that's a pretty good question. Um I think our parks and record department does a great job. You know, unfortunately, a lot of communities suffer because of the of the decisions that previous councils made or previous managers made, supervisors, and so I think Paraland got caught up in an issue where there was a lot of growth happening, but a lot a lot of lot of forward thinking wasn't done where we acquired some parkland, maybe some larger pieces that would make it into a good a better park, let's say for example. Uh so we struggle with that now, and and you know, if we want to go in and buy that or um you know attain that land somehow, the price has just gone astronomically crazy, right? And so the taxpayers of uh, you know, if they want more of that, then they're gonna have to pay to have that done. So unfortunately, uh the school district, however, did a much greater job of going out and acquiring a lot of land early on and saying, you know, we may have to have uh based on our growth, we may have to have these partials for schools, right? Those the city councils back in those days didn't do as much of that.

unknown: 23:46

Right.

SPEAKER_01: 23:47

And some would say, oh well, well, you know, that you know, that may be a waste, right? We we may not ever need that land. Well, if you had that land now and you had to turn it, look how much money, you know, we probably could pay off a lot of debt, you know uh if we had done it early on, just like in it, just in the private. But I think we do a good job there. I know that we've done a great job with our water sources and our infrastructure on the water. I know we're we're again we're an older city, especially on the east end. Infrastructure's gonna have to be redone over time. That costs money as well. We can't do it at yesterday's dollar, you know. And so um that's gonna be a struggle. But I think our our supervisors and people that are in our public works department are doing a great job of keeping up. So I'd like to see that, you know, continue. Our fire department and police department are doing a they are so much just being from the law enforcement side and from the fire side all these years, we are so far advanced than other communities are. And I know the citizens don't feel that maybe, or some don't don't feel that or sense that, but while it is so in working with so many other agencies, I'm just so proud of our Paradelline Police Department and fire department. They're so much more advanced, so much more aggressive in their training, their thinking, their abilities. And that keeps our crime and our and our responses low. We're not gonna, we can't do away with traffic, we can't do away with growth. All we can do is manage it, right? And so I think they do a great job of what they do. Are they perfect? Absolutely not. Nobody's gonna be perfect. I mean, I want to move to the perfect bubble city somewhere, wherever that's at, that's where we all want to go, right? But uh we're gonna make some mistakes, and uh, but you know, I think if we come out on the good side of everything, I think we're in good shape. When uh let's say like in the 80s or 90s, did you ever picture Paragon's growth to be this type? Absolutely not. Again, I go back to uh we we had a uh Cullen Cullen Boulevard and 518 uh that actually made a curve right there, uh, and that was called Dead Man's Curve. And um, and people would come out of out of Houston and flying down Cullen Boulevard. And uh back then I was with the fire department, and unfortunately they didn't make the curve. And so uh that got its tagline there. But uh, you know, when I was growing up as I was in high school, actually uh even prior to high school, uh the uh some pr pretty predominant families in the area knew uh owned a lot of land, and we did a lot of plowing. I I worked on tractors for probably four or five, maybe six years during my what we used to call intermediate and high school areas, and I would go out and plow fields after school, and we knew soy and rice and those kind of things, belled hay. I used to be able to throw a bell of hay. I bet I couldn't even pick one up now, but uh but it was um you know, we there was cattle everywhere, everything was just like home. You know, it was a ranch tall, everybody knew everybody. I mean, that was back in the days when you know mom and dad said, okay, be home before the streetlights come on, you know, and uh and uh but the other thing you'd get in trouble in school and you'd think mom and dad didn't know about it. And when you got home, they knew. So everybody, you know, talked, but so that growth has happened. And um again, I never thought we'd see, you know, four different types of Walmarts and three sonics and all these other things that have come along. But I love it. I I mean I I I like it because it gives me variety, it gives me the opportunity to not leave home, still have have variety and still be home, still.

SPEAKER_02: 27:07

Yeah, I think uh, you know, I wish more people understood that. Uh I have like family members and things like that. How come you don't ever leave? I said, why? Everything's right here. Absolutely. Why would I go anywhere? What kind of food are you craving? It's in the studio. Absolutely. You know, what do you want to do? It's here.

SPEAKER_01: 27:21

Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02: 27:23

What's what's uh okay, so with with Paraland growing bigger and getting bigger, and what are what can we do better in Paraland for the young kids that and the teens?

SPEAKER_01: 27:33

Yeah, so that's always been a missing uh niche, right? And um I was set on the parks board for six years, I'm actually seven, but you know, we struggled with that. The leagues have always been very active and very good, like the the little league, the baseball, the football, all those have been very active. But we had a new growth of people, kiddos come in that were wanting skateboarding and other things that we weren't accustomed to, right? Now, you know, trying to fulfill those things, fill those little niches in in our parks or in our system, that's a struggle because that because what you saw, what I saw from the inside looking out, was parents that were raising those those children and wanting those things. And then we had parents that have lived here for many years saying, oh, we don't need that, we got baseball, we got football. So you had this struggle as, you know, I'm not giving up that territory because you're gonna you're gonna you're gonna put concrete and make it into a skate park, but we can use it as a baseball field. So that's always been kind of the deal. But what I found as a police officer is that again, like I said earlier, if you don't engage these kiddos and keep them, I'd much rather have a group of kiddos and young adults in one area, have a police officer interacting with them, uh, doing things with them, playing basketball, whatever that looks like, than the not than the not. You know, they could be out. And I'm not saying I'm certainly not saying every child is is a bad child, but if if some people go adrift, they have opportunities, you know, and so I don't want to see that. I think it's safer um to have a collective unit, you know, in places, in pockets, those kind of things too, as well. So I uh we have always struggled with that. So I've always thought we could have one of those uh like a main event, uh, you know, the bigger line. And I know some some private owners have tried to get that going. I think it's interesting that I see posts on Facebook from time to time where people say, well, the city needs to do a better job of bringing this company in or this this type of atmosphere in, or you know, a uh you know, a main event in. Well, we don't, the city doesn't have control over that. All we can do is say, hey, here's you know, uh private property owner, you know, can you go and see if you can find somebody that's like that to buy your property? Or uh, you know, so uh I think a lot of people think the city controls what does or doesn't come in. The only thing we do is is once you decide that you're going to build, you have to build to these conditions. Right. And you have to meet these objectives. And you have to be in the zone correctly, or else you guys for a zoning change. So so that I think the lay people and the citizens that live here don't understand that there's a there's some puzzle pieces there, but the city doesn't have really. Now we have an economic development corporation that goes out and really looks at industry and good growth and try and and I know for a fact they have over the years looked for clean growth. Some of the medical field up in the in the Beltway area, that's all good, clean, good inventory, good taxation, good partners to have in our community. We don't want to have industrial, a lot of industrial stuff that puts off hazardous materials or those kind of things. We don't want to see that. Now we have we have good, clean industrial companies here. And I live right behind right next to one, in fact, right now right now. And those are good partners to have as well. Um, but they have regulations they got to follow, both both federal, state, and local that they got to follow to make their site and uh environmentally friendly and clean. So I think we've done a it's hard to go out and you know, the EDC and other people go out to these uh conventions and they try to say, come to Parentland, come to Parentland, but we can't force them. We can't force them. And so the same thing happens on the kids' side, right? We want, I I really still truly think we need some type of convention center. It doesn't have to be huge, but I think we need a place that can hold, you know, tens of thousands of people, or at least 10,000 people, that because there's so many of our nonprofits and our things that are having to go outside of our community to host an event. That's money that we're missing out on. Somehow or another we need to capture that. Uh, and every time we do a study and we look at those things, it ends up being a sports-related thing. Well, uh, we haven't got enough sports stuff, I think. We need something for the arts, something for the craft show, something for the chamber to have their banquet at, something, you know, all we're missing. Everybody's going to, you know, over to the Lone Star Museum or they're going down to South Shore Harbor. And the only reason why is because we don't have a facility large enough to host that.

SPEAKER_02: 31:47

So that's uh amazing. Um I'm I'm I love hearing all this input that you know, some of the things I I didn't know. One one thing I have, so you say the Paralleline, like the so any business can come to Paralleline? Absolutely. The council and nobody has anything to say what type of businesses come in and come out?

SPEAKER_01: 32:08

No, uh the the previous councils and currently councils, uh they you know, a long time ago we have these comprehensive plans and we do uh zoning. We have zoning in Paraland. So we uh they've tried to do the best they could to say, okay, on this major street, we want this type of environment along both sides of that. Then we have these residential streets, we don't want that. We want residential areas. So each our parent uh uh city is zoned out as best they could do. You know, now when new roads come in, like McCard Road when it came in, that changed the zoning along McCard Road. It was all residential. Now it got changed because that's a major or uh corridor now. And so the property owners that that probably had or were thinking that, oh, I'll just sell all my property to to a house, somebody wants to build a house one day, and well now they can sell it to build a stop and go or whatever. And so we can't we can't um restrict the only thing we can do is say if you're going to build a U-totem or a stop and go or or a strip center or whatever in this area, as long as it meets the conditions, they don't they don't even have to come to city council. They can pull their permit and start building.

SPEAKER_03: 33:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 33:13

Now, if there's some change that they need to do, if they're trying to put something that's not compliant with that zone, then they got to go forward planning and zoning and possibly even city council to say, hey, I want to change this one thing to make this work. And at that point, we can say, No, you're not gonna change it. Uh, it's gotta stay this way, or because we we speak for the people that are around you. Yeah, we're there to protect them first. We didn't ask you to come, you decided to come, and so because of that, you got to meet this criteria. And so um uh I've seen that over the years, and that's a hard decision. That's a really hard decision. Some would say, you know, I remember there was an issue with uh independence park. There's a partial across from Independence Park that wanted to put in a um a gas station and and a little small little strip center. And everybody came out and voted against it. They filled the council chambers. That's your opportunity to go say no. I don't want that in my area. Is there good in it and bad in it? Yeah, bad is possibly uh maybe it could bring a little bit more traffic flow. The good is is I don't know how many times I've gone across the street to my local convenience stores when I run out of a loaf of bread or I need a milk on Sunday morning or something that it's kind of convenient to have it there, right? And so uh there's good and bad in it. And it also, depending on the way it's structured and way it's built, it could add property value, it can increase your property values. Of course, when you increase your property value, that increase the tax bill at the end of the day. So all those things happen. But if you ever decide to sell, that's gonna it may increase your property value right there.

SPEAKER_02: 34:37

Yeah, I had the I'm you know, there was a there was a thing about mccard road, and there was a an apartment apartment complex that was, you know, had to go to city council. And I uh, you know, I sat in on a few of those just because I was curious. Yeah. And uh yeah, I love the way that was handled. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 34:52

I I I I agree 100% what and and you know it's funny because uh if they they don't again, they were they weren't they were required to go and give uh uh public opinion or uh public input because of the something they wanted to change. Now, if they just moved, you know, just slightly left of that scale, they wouldn't have even had to have done that. They would have gone in and just built and everybody would have been non- They probably wouldn't have been happy, but there's nothing you can do to stop it. Right. Okay. And so uh that there's a challenge in that. Um uh and that's happened on several pieces across town.

SPEAKER_02: 35:21

What's let's say uh what's something that you believe in, that you believe in for Paralyn, even if it's not gonna be a popular decision, a choice, maybe.

SPEAKER_01: 35:32

Is there anything like that? Um Well, I think our transportation is one of our uh struggles right now. I tend to believe, and I don't have any uh uh just based on my involvement in the community and the nonprofits and things that I interact with, I tend to believe our community is getting older in age and so uh demographically uh getting older. And I think at some point we're gonna have to think about how do we get those people around? You know, do we offer a service? Do we do we do something local uh with a service? Do we co-op with some other company to do the service, a metro or somebody else? But I think part of getting people off the streets or getting traffic reduction is is offering one vehicle as opposed to 30 vehicles that are taking up space, right? I don't know if I have the answer to that. Um, and I don't know if it's good or bad. I haven't seen, I've seen a little bit of trials that they've attempted to do. It didn't work out as well as they thought. But I also think that the other thing we're gonna struggle with is as we we know there's an infrastructure plan in place for our road, our transportation roads. And so when those, when 518, for example, starts to grow, and it's gonna grow, it's a it's a text dot road and it and it needs to grow. It needs to grow wider. I wish they'd done it a long time ago as opposed to now, but that's the way it is. When that starts, it's amazing to me that as we start to expand to get make things better, people complain because of what's going on to make things better. And so you're not gonna make everybody happy anyway. I think we all have a uniqueness about us to be able to absorb that. Some know that uh with growth comes some change, uh, it comes some struggles, but man, at the end of the day, when it's all done, I think it's a lot better. You know, we we went McCard Road's a good example. I'd hardly ever go on 518 anymore. I I hit McCard Road and it's it's great. You know, did I ever think I'd use it? I didn't think so at all. But yeah, I do now. And Magnolia, I mean, I think the I think the forward thinking of councils before that thought about those plans and put them in place and put them on print. Everybody got to see them, everybody got an opportunity to put input into those, and they then approved them, and now we're just not getting to the point of putting them in. I think that's where we lose the communication. People think that all of a sudden somebody came up on council drinking this thing up and said we're gonna put this road there. A lot of that was designed years ago. Years ago. We don't communicate that very well.

SPEAKER_02: 37:47

What um me is that as the town grows, one of the things that I've seen is a lot more, I guess, homeless people. How how is how is something like that handled or how is that I don't I don't know if you have the answer or Yeah, uh yeah, unfortunately I don't have the answer.

SPEAKER_01: 38:02

I what I you're you're absolutely right. I do see more and more. I think we have uh I think last time I heard we have like 12 confirmed uh people we interact with on a on a daily basis or weekly basis anyway. There's probably many more. So I think the key is to get ahead of it. Um I know uh one of our cities, the south of us, ha struggled with that. They didn't get ahead of it and then they all of a sudden started causing us a lot of problems. A lot of what I see is not allowed to begin with. Um and I'm not not talking about just homeless, but peddlers, uh things like that. When you start allowing things like that to happen, it tends to allow other things to grow. And so it's kind of like, oh, well, they got a rig with it, so I'm gonna come do it too.

SPEAKER_03: 38:45

Right.

SPEAKER_01: 38:45

And I noticed just today, in fact, I think it was in today's paper where Houston turned or Harris County turned down the peddlers uh uh thing uh countywide, which I thought I, you know, I didn't get to hear the conversation, so I don't know what all happened there. But you know, it's illegal to to pedal anything from a state right away anyway. You're not even supposed to be on a state right-of-way physically, being standing or moving or doing anything on a state right-of-way. It to me that's more of an enforcement thing. It's already a state law. You can't be there, just get the local law enforcement to go by and say, hey, you can't be here, move on. Uh in the city of Parland, we have a permitting process. You have to have a permit in order to solicit. Uh, that's for the solicitation side. On the homeless side, I don't uh again, I one of the things I think we could do, uh I know there's a couple of camps around town, but they tend to be on property that is overgrown. And have we, I don't know the answer to this, but have we reached out to that property owner and say, hey, can you can you undercut this? Can you brush this out, clean it up, clean it? First of all, it makes the property look more valuable, better, but it also doesn't provide any opportunity, right? Uh I think if we and then the other side of the whole coin is is those that do need help, how do you help them? Where do you where do you get that help? I know uh we have a friendly uh visitor at the neighborhood center that comes in all the time, and I know our goal at the neighborhood center is to try to get people back on their feet, not to not to continue to uh feed that machine, right? And we try to help them say, hey, you know, what about getting a job? You know, whatever that looks like uh in their life. Uh a lot of its mental health uh and and and the challenges that come along with that. And I think unfortunately America as a whole is is beginning to see that. Yeah. Uh and so that's that's a challenge as well.

SPEAKER_02: 40:22

What does uh success look like for you in four years?

SPEAKER_01: 40:26

You know, uh still still doing what I'm doing. Yeah, you know, I love life, I love people, I love engaging people, I like being around uh my community. I think I'm one of the unique ones that has had the opportunity and and God has blessed me to be able to be involved in many, many organizations over time. Many have come and gone, uh, et cetera, but it's allowed me to open my eyes to a different point of view from every aspect of our community. I hope I'm still able to do that. I hope I'm healthy, being able to engage. I want to be, I want to be a collaborator. I want to be those those. I enjoy uh when someone calls me and says, hey, I'm thinking about starting an organization. How do I go about doing that? That makes me feel like I've done my job. I tell my kids all the time that, you know, and I have this little blurb that they did when I did a Men Who Cook way back in the days, and they they said they made a statement and said, Dad, you're too involved, you know. And I said, But but yes, I'm involved, but you are with me too, right? And so I'm building this, uh, I'm building now what I want to leave you into the future. Now, one stayed, one's moved off, but you know, I want I want our community to be something that people will, you know, we don't it I think there's this misnomer that people just move here and then uh and then they pass away here and then the city just becomes dormant. Well, that's not what happens, right? The reality is people continue to move here. What is that purpose? What is that reason? Well, I'm hoping to leave a legacy that that people will continue to want to move here, enjoy life here, and grow and bring their kids here and do those kind of things, bring family here. And I hope I'm still able to do all that at the end of the day. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_02: 42:05

What do you want people to remember or to get away to get from this podcast? What do you want people to remember or to get from this podcast?

SPEAKER_01: 42:13

Well, uh, I need people to remember I'm just I'm just a plain old buck. I'm just I'm not nothing fancy. I have a how I have a mortgage, I have uh, I pay taxes, I um I uh I get involved in my community. I'm not, you know, I think each individual on council or commissioner's court or whatever we're or even an organizational board, we all bring a, you know, God provided us a uniqueness, each of us. We have a unique talent. And I think each of us have to harness that talent and bring it into the room and say, how can we be best served, right? Some are really, really good at finances and things like that. Some are really good at collaboration, uh, some are good at at you know budgets and doing all those kind of things. I just want, I just I I um I want everything to be, I want people to know that first of all, I'm open, that I they can come to me and ask me. I may not know the answers. I'm pretty resourceful, uh, have a lot of resources, but I also uh I I will admit I don't know all the answers. Right. Uh and and you know, even though I can study the budget, I can study, I I watch City Council online probably, I would say 80% of the year I'm watching City Council online. Sometimes I'm actually physically there. And I've been doing that for 25, 30 years. Some of the stuff I hear them vote on, I'll go, eh, I probably wouldn't win, you know, but I'm not I'm not privy to everything, I'm not privy to the background. And so and I'm and I'm very quick to say I don't want to judge a council member of their vote because maybe they're privy to something I'm not, right? And so um I want to make sure that that that I I'm not gonna be perfect, and um and then and and and I want to be able to uh have grace to be able to go through and and make some challenges. Uh I don't get a vote, but I probably do get a say. And you know, if if a if a if a group of individuals or citizens want something one way, they at least want to be able to portray that in a right way.

SPEAKER_02: 44:09

That's it. Buck Buck, I really appreciate you coming in. And and um, you know, on this podcast, I I spotlight, you know, veterans and first responders, and I started to to branch off to leaders in the community. You fall under the first responder, but you also fall under the leaders. And you've been a leader in this community for a long time. Uh I and I appreciate it. Uh, continue doing what you're doing, and I look forward to seeing what what happens next for it.

SPEAKER_01: 44:34

Okay. Well, I appreciate the opportunity, and uh, you know, uh, God willing, everything will work out the way the way I hope uh that it does. And and if it doesn't, then uh you know I'm okay with that as well. I'm still not I'm not going anywhere, still gonna be engaged, still gonna be doing things. Uh it's not gonna slow me down. Yes, sir, and I appreciate it. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02: 44:52

And you guys, thank you for tuning in. As always, if you're in a crisis, be sure to dial 988. Uh check on your friends and family this holiday season. Mental health is real. That's what I wanted to say. So uh again, Buck, thank you for being here. And as always, guys, Charlie Mike.