Running Your Small Town Like A Business I Josh Schroeder - Mayor of Georgetown I AO 48

What makes a small town thrive — and how do you grow without losing what made it special in the first place?

In this episode of American Operator, we sit down with Josh Schrader, Mayor of Georgetown, Texas, for a wide-ranging conversation on leadership, small business, community, and the real work behind building Main Street America.

Mayor Schrader shares how Georgetown became one of the fastest-growing cities in the country while still preserving its small-town charm, why community involvement isn’t optional for business owners, and what leadership actually looks like when the headlines don’t matter.

This conversation covers:

• Why small businesses must give back to the communities they serve
• How Georgetown avoided becoming just another suburb
• Leading through rapid growth, COVID, and hard decisions
• The importance of humility, honesty, and accountability in leadership
• Why young people are returning to trades and small business ownership
• Balancing growth, culture, and long-term sustainability

From law to local government, from downtown squares to generational leadership, this episode is a masterclass on why Main Street still matters — and why the American Dream is alive in places willing to protect it.

If you care about small business, local leadership, and the future of American towns, this is a conversation you don’t want to miss.

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• Newsletter: https://americanoperator.substack.com

Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:09:15
Unknown
All right, team, we are here with the mayor. Georgetown, Josh Schrader, good old Texas boy. Good to have you in today, sir. Thank you all for having me. Appreciate it, man.

00:00:09:17 - 00:00:34:11
Unknown
So as a former guy who used to live in Georgetown, my wife and I, I will tell you, that town has been a true beacon of, like, what a good old school Main Street town can do. And I think folks think of it being, you know, small towns mean sleepy and uninteresting. Y'all crack the code like it's as interesting and as vibrant and a lot going on in Austin, Texas, while also maintaining that, like earthy, grounded values.

00:00:34:11 - 00:00:48:12
Unknown
You know, it's just a cool town to be in. I'm stoked to get in all of that. And like, glad to have you here today. Yeah, thanks. And yeah, this time of year is probably the the best time of year to be in Georgetown, Texas. It's kind of that Mayberry time of year. The whole square is lit up for Christmas.

00:00:48:12 - 00:01:08:05
Unknown
It's like a hallmark movie. Yeah. We've had the lighting of the square in the last couple of weeks, and I'm fortunate. My office is downtown on the square, so every evening I'm leaving the office late at night and kind of, you know, sad about having to work so many hours. But that square is all lit up with all the Christmas lights and people walking around with, you know, packages of Christmas presents.

00:01:08:10 - 00:01:23:21
Unknown
It makes it pretty hard to be, to be in a bad mood. Yeah, man. It's, it's a sad to see for folks who are in Texas right now. If you can make yourself out to George, I promise you, you will leave happier than when you got there. Hey, man, it's just a good place to come give us some sales tax dollars while you're there.

00:01:24:03 - 00:01:37:23
Unknown
Yeah, we can always count on that. Well, we got again. We have this new ritual we've been kicking off with where our community of owners and people who are aspiring to be owners send question in. And so we got one we'll kick off with and then we'll get into, we'll get into the rest of the show here.

00:01:37:23 - 00:01:59:06
Unknown
But we got Tori Clark actually from the Georgetown area, I think I know Tori. Yeah, she owns Spa Luxe out there. Yeah, absolutely good people. She's an absolute just good human and good owner. And so I'll kick off a question should be near and dear to your heart because very Georgetown based and I'll read exactly how it came out says Georgetown has such a warm and engaging community.

00:01:59:10 - 00:02:30:14
Unknown
From your perspective, what can small business do to best support the city's growth and strengthen the culture that we're all invested in, so that everyone that who lives here and works here continues to thrive? Yeah, I mean, that's a great question. And what I would tell you is. So I moved back to Georgetown, Texas in 2007, went to work for a law firm, in Georgetown, Snead, Vining, Perry, and, our law firm has been in Austin for 100 years.

00:02:30:16 - 00:03:04:05
Unknown
Next year will be our 100th year. And we've been in Georgetown for 36 years. And so the day I got to town, the, the law partner that I went to work for said, first thing we're doing is we're going to lunch at rotary. So we went to the downtown Rotary Club, and they said first thing we're doing after after work today is we're going to the Chamber of Commerce networking event, after that, and then he said, and tomorrow morning, you're going to join the Partners in Education, nonprofit board.

00:03:04:07 - 00:03:26:09
Unknown
And then, when the fall rolls around, you're going to take a leadership Georgetown class, kind of like the Austin leadership, class here. And what he told me is in Georgetown, if you're going to do business in Georgetown, Texas, we don't just take from the community we give to the community. And that's not just because, you know, we do that for for business reasons.

00:03:26:09 - 00:03:49:23
Unknown
And you got to do that to make money in the town. That's just the culture of this town. And that wasn't just that wasn't just something he said that was true. As they want to this day, that was all day one. And and that was it. And so for, for from day one, it was about being involved in the community and the, the great thing about it was it also it worked.

00:03:49:23 - 00:04:16:12
Unknown
It was a way for, you know, a young lawyer, who'd never had a client as his entire life, to, to meet people and get to know people, in a way that just would not have been possible even in Austin or Dallas. I, we we moved my wife and I moved from Dallas, and I could not wait to get out of Dallas and could not have imagined building a law practice in Dallas, Texas, in the same way.

00:04:16:14 - 00:04:39:12
Unknown
And the other great thing that happened was when when I moved back to Georgetown, I was 32 years old, and there was a generation of folks above me that had been working their tail off in the community for for a long time. And there were a group of young folks about my age, and it all kind of moved back to town about the same time.

00:04:39:17 - 00:04:57:03
Unknown
And those old guys said, hey, we're tired. We're tired of running the chamber golf tournament. We're tired of running the Partners in Education board. It's your turn. And so there was never this, this, you know, kind of, hey, you guys, wait your turn. And then y'all can be on city council and y'all can be, you know, running the Rotary Club.

00:04:57:05 - 00:05:24:23
Unknown
It was the exact opposite. Like, hey, here's the baton. You guys take it and run with it. But they also stayed and supported us. And that's always kind of been the, the, the culture of Georgetown, which is, is very unique at that exact same time, you know, if you go look at like what was going on and round Rock, Cedar Park, Leander, very similar communities, they were having this huge like generational battle over like, no, no, no, no, you guys wait.

00:05:24:23 - 00:05:52:06
Unknown
You turn over turf and and not in the political world. In the business world. And so we were just blessed to have kind of that generation above us that set the example for us. And so, you know, hopefully we're trying to do that same thing. Now, I'm an old man, you know, turn 50 next summer. And so hopefully we can kind of set that same example for, for people like Tori that that generation towards a young up and comer.

00:05:52:08 - 00:06:14:10
Unknown
She's still young and spry, but is doing that same thing. I mean, I think I see her at every single event. Community involvement. Yeah. And because of that, everyone knows who she is. Everyone knows who her business is, and is going to go patronize that business because you want to do business with people that you know, that you trust, that you see in the community.

00:06:14:12 - 00:06:31:02
Unknown
And so, you know, while we're growing as fast as we're growing, you still have that, that small town charm, that small town feel and that you can, you know, still interact with people on a day to day basis. That's a whole lot harder to do in a, in a big city. Yeah, I know it's killer. I mean, getting involved.

00:06:31:07 - 00:06:49:22
Unknown
What would you tell an owner out there that says, yeah, me and mayor like I. Brian have time. I got to run this business. Right. Like, what do you do to make time or what do you when you just don't have time? Not to you don't have to be. You know, we've got, we went from I was the second attorney in the Georgetown office.

00:06:50:00 - 00:07:09:02
Unknown
Now we're up to about 12 attorneys. And I tell young associates when they come in who are, you know, we attorneys work by the billable hour. And so if we're not at our desk billing hours, we're not making money. And so you get in this trap, like, like all business owners, I got to be there. I got to be working.

00:07:09:02 - 00:07:30:15
Unknown
I got to be working. But you know, if you're not out getting the business, there's no work to do. And so you've got to be out in the community. And that's the great thing about Georgetown is there is no substitute for literally being out in the community. And there's still so many community events to be at Chamber of Commerce, rotary.

00:07:30:15 - 00:07:53:08
Unknown
You know, the school district has events all the time. And so you're accomplishing two things at once. One, you're actually, you know, investing your time in the community. You're out there. You know, I tell people all the time when you're you're at a, a Education Foundation fundraiser and you're picking up trash alongside one of your fellow small business owners, you've forged a bond that is not going to be broken.

00:07:53:10 - 00:08:12:23
Unknown
And you've gotten to know someone in a way that, you know, you have fast forwarded that relationship, in a way that's hard to do. Outside of that event. And so, you know, you're there, there's no marketing dollars that you can substitute for. That makes a ton of sense. You don't have time now to

00:08:12:23 - 00:08:33:03
Unknown
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00:08:33:05 - 00:08:43:07
Unknown
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00:08:43:07 - 00:08:49:04
Unknown
tell me about Josh, how you grew up, where you I mean, August Taylor, Texas is how you just mentioned that.

00:08:49:04 - 00:09:10:13
Unknown
But tell me about what was life like growing up in the Lone Star State? Yeah. So, grew up in Taylor, Texas, son of a football coach and a teacher. My dad coached football for 54 years. Wow. Is is still teaching, but but not coach. And finally got him to to retire from coaching, after 54 years.

00:09:10:13 - 00:09:36:05
Unknown
Mom is still teaching as well. And they they've slowed down a little bit, but but not much. But in Taylor, their, their dad's in thrall and mom's and Thorndale but in the area there and and dad. Dad left and went off to West Texas for a while. Was a college football coach out. So Ross out in alpine and, he was he was out there coaching and then has moved back to town recently.

00:09:36:07 - 00:10:08:06
Unknown
But yeah, great, great life growing up as a coach's kid. Teachers kid, you know, couldn't hide from couldn't hide from me. Every time I got in trouble, they found out five minutes later and, you know, both sets of grandparents in town and just kind of had that, you know, very, very idyllic childhood and love that. And, left there, went down to San Antonio for one year to Trinity, and then transferred to UT, and finished up my undergrad there, met my wife there, fortunate to to meet her there and then went to law school.

00:10:08:08 - 00:10:28:16
Unknown
She, she taught, bilingual kindergarten here in East Austin, to put me through law school, which I'm forever grateful for, and got out of law school and, and then we moved around a bunch. I kind of spent the first few years out of law school trying to get as much experience as I could.

00:10:28:17 - 00:10:47:20
Unknown
I worked for a law firm in Dallas, and then I did two judicial clerkships for federal judges, down in Brownsville and then one back here in Austin and did another stint in Dallas. And then then made it back to Georgetown. My had family in Georgetown as well. My uncle was actually mayor of Georgetown in the 1980s.

00:10:47:20 - 00:11:04:19
Unknown
Is that right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he was actually much younger. He got elected mayor at age 32. Get at it. Yeah. Did you ever think the. Do you start to smell at all that maybe this might be for me or you and. No no no no. Yeah. The the whole story kind of how I ended up mayors I had no desire.

00:11:04:23 - 00:11:22:13
Unknown
The, the story is I try to talk seven other people into doing it and they wouldn't do it. And I drew the short straw, and my uncle was in the back. Goad me to do it. And I kept telling. Why don't you do it? You're still young enough to do it. But no, no, he he was.

00:11:22:13 - 00:11:46:04
Unknown
It was an interesting time when, when he got elected, Georgetown was still, you know, a small town, and he and a young group of folks there were living in the community there in the 80s. Georgetown was going through this period of very, very anti-growth. And the whole community was, you know, very much adamant that they were not going to grow, didn't want any more businesses, didn't want any more people.

00:11:46:05 - 00:12:06:01
Unknown
And you had this whole group of, you know, 30 SMO, you know, that had kids and businesses and were like, hey, we want to grow. And so the year he got elected, it was a 32 year old, the 30 year old, the 34 year old. They took over city council. Wow, man. It's like they had to do something refresh or so they did, and change the entire trajectory of the town.

00:12:06:01 - 00:12:32:13
Unknown
And so that that's it's been an interesting perspective as, you know, as, as, as I got elected and as Georgetown has exploded in growth and, you know, people understandably get get upset about that and all the, you know, the stress that comes with growth, that generation, you know, above me, those guys, have come and said, hey, we put a lot of blood, sweat and tears to make this town grow.

00:12:32:14 - 00:12:53:20
Unknown
You know, there were 30 years when we were doing everything we could to get a single business to open. Yeah, to get, you know, another job into this town. And so for folks now to look back and go, oh, goodness, we're griping about having too many jobs in this town. Like, tell them to come back to 1984 when every bank was failing, when the square was boarded up.

00:12:53:22 - 00:13:15:15
Unknown
You know, when people were losing their homes, losing, you know, going bankrupt. You know, we don't get to we don't get to choose all the time to have the perfect amount of growth, the perfect amount of economic, you know, development. You know, there are bad sides to this thing too. And so it can go sideways real fast. And so let's be, you know, let's count our blessings.

00:13:15:19 - 00:13:34:09
Unknown
Yeah. Well, before mayor, while I'm just curious, why become an attorney? Because I had no other skills whatsoever. I went to the dark side for a little bit, and kids school, too. I, so I was a history. My major was history. My minor was African-American studies. My my brother's three years older than me.

00:13:34:09 - 00:14:03:20
Unknown
He was also, a history major, got his teaching certificate. My dad forbid us from going into coaching. His, and my brother disobeyed and went and coached out in Dripping Springs for three years. And this is great. Says his third year coaching. He was coaching baseball, and they made the state tournament. Dripping Springs lost in the state tournament, and my brother did the math, and he made $1.14 an hour coaching, and so decided that maybe even back then, it wasn't that much.

00:14:03:20 - 00:14:18:23
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So that, that that was probably not going to be the long term plan for him. And my dad said, I told you so, even though he's a coach, an addict, he's like, you know, it's a whole different profession now. And so my brother and I went back to law school at the same time together.

00:14:18:23 - 00:14:36:03
Unknown
He. Oh, really? Yeah. He's three years older. So I was getting out of undergrad and, we went back to the law school at the same time he went to Baylor. I went to UT, but we're going to same time. And, and really, I was kind of coming out and I didn't know whether I wanted to be, you know, teach maybe on the college level or something like that.

00:14:36:07 - 00:14:52:00
Unknown
I love history and reading and writing and, and so I was well, I don't know what else got to do with those skills besides, law school. So let's go to law school and, give it a shot. Yeah. Did you like it? Was it a good call for you? Oh, I loved it. I love law school.

00:14:52:00 - 00:15:13:14
Unknown
Was an absolute blast. All these people that talk about, you know, the the stress and horrors of law school, I loved it, I loved it. What about it? What was it that. Oh, I love I love arguing, as my wife will tell you. Yeah, I can argue with the wall, and, like. And I enjoy it, like, it's not even, you know, I don't get angry.

00:15:13:14 - 00:15:30:05
Unknown
I don't like. It's just fun. It's like racquetball for you. Hey, give me a topic we can argue about. I mean, you get me going on college football or books or movies, I can go all day. And she likes to remind me that other people don't enjoy it as much. And my brother and I say the same thing.

00:15:30:05 - 00:15:47:03
Unknown
She's like, we get together over the holidays and just find a topic, and we'll. This is a racket we'll get. Yeah, we'll get rolling on it. But yeah. And so and UT is very much geared towards that Socratic method and that's, you know. Yeah. That that's the entire point. Teach you how to think, teach you how to argue, teach you how to read and write.

00:15:47:05 - 00:16:02:16
Unknown
Which I tell people all the time, you know, I don't care if I'm want to be a lawyer or not. Law school is a great, you know, it's just a great environment. Great way to learn. You know, any business owner, I'd tell you go. Yeah. I had a friend of mine who went to law school, and he said.

00:16:02:18 - 00:16:18:09
Unknown
And he said in the most esteemed and respectful way you can, he goes, but man, it's almost like learning a trade is what he told me. And I was like, what do you mean by that? You guys, I know didn't sound that way. He goes, but like, now I have these tools in my brain that didn't know how to use and now I know how to use.

00:16:18:10 - 00:16:55:06
Unknown
Was that resonate? That is exactly right. You know, the, the some of the, the best lawyers and business people I know are, are people that have taken their legal skills and use them in the business world. They're, you know, and some of the best lawyers I know or folks that have worked in the business world and taken those skills and brought them to the legal world, because I just, you know, you, it teaches you a different way to think is the best way to put it this analytical thinking.

00:16:55:08 - 00:17:20:15
Unknown
That and it's not that other people can't do it. It really is. It's just it's just a skill set that, you know, until you've kind of been exposed to this way of thinking and trained to do it. You just don't don't do it until, you know, till you've gone through that process. Yeah. Now, helpful to us and folks that I know that have that I'm always been impressed the way they can break something down, be objective about it and kind of bring folks along to the solution.

00:17:20:15 - 00:17:40:19
Unknown
That's the hardest part that I think for a lot of business owners is just trying to get folks think, come along. Yes. Yeah, yeah, that that that advocacy component to it that that it is somewhat it's you know it's arguing but it's hey I've got to convince you to get from point A to point B. That's right. In a way that it's not you know, it's not bullying.

00:17:40:19 - 00:18:16:15
Unknown
It's not lying. It's not I've got a genuinely gets you. So I've got to walk you through the steps. Yeah. In a convincing manner to get you there. And the ones that can do it. Well, they, you know, they succeed. They succeed. What's a mayor? What's a mayor do? Well, in our system, it's interesting. So, so Georgetown and most of the cities in Texas are set up in what's called a city manager managed system, which is a very, very good thing because politicians are not good at running anything.

00:18:16:17 - 00:18:41:06
Unknown
So cities are normally run by a city manager. And the best way to think of is kind of board of directors and CEO. And so the city manager is kind of the CEO, and the CEO runs day to day operations. And then the board is up here, you know, running policy and strategy. And so, our city, we've got we literally have the best city manager in the state of Texas.

00:18:41:06 - 00:19:05:22
Unknown
He just won the award for that. Oh, David Morgan. And so David runs day to day operations, and then our council mayor system is set up where we have seven, districts within the city. And they're, you know, geographical districts within the city, each of those districts, Alexa Council person. And then the mayor is elected citywide.

00:19:06:00 - 00:19:48:18
Unknown
And then the council people are the only ones that actually vote when we have a matter that comes before council, the mayor truly acts as just kind of the moderator of those meetings, which is is another great thing. So I tell people all the time, yeah, I, I am powerless and that's exactly how you want it. And because it really does allow for, for the mayor to moderate and create an environment where we can have truly vigorous civil debate where the moderator doesn't have his thumb on the scale and doesn't have, you know, a, doesn't have a say in the outcome of how it's going to go.

00:19:48:20 - 00:20:11:21
Unknown
And so, I'm truly up there just trying to create. Okay. Council person X has said, you know, made this argument. I heard council person Y say this, this guy over here thinks, you know, somewhere in between those two. Now, you flesh out what you said there. Now, this person. No, hold on a second. This person is saying this.

00:20:11:23 - 00:20:32:05
Unknown
And and if you watch our council meetings, you see that that that truly does happen. And we've got an environment where, you know, our council. And a part of that is because we have great, great council people who all have a very unified vision of, you know, what they want Georgetown to be and are just just great people.

00:20:32:05 - 00:20:51:19
Unknown
And so they can do this, but they'll be, you know, there'll be A52 vote on this matter. And then the next matter will be, you know, for three completely different people. And then you'll see, you know, two people just adamantly disagree on something. And then the next item they're joined at the hip and disagreeing with everybody else.

00:20:51:21 - 00:21:16:09
Unknown
And then my favorite thing is and then you watch and in between everybody's laughing joke and making fun of each other, making fun of the city manager, making fun of whoever's at the dais. It's just this very collegial atmosphere that we have. But part of that is because, you know, we've got this system, you know, that that creates that structure in that environment.

00:21:16:11 - 00:21:35:21
Unknown
And then the other thing, the the other role that the mayor has is, is I do my job is to kind of interact one on one with the city manager to help, you know, create the agenda for, for the council. And then to, you know, act on as the spokesperson for the city, and the spokesperson for council.

00:21:35:21 - 00:21:58:13
Unknown
So I've got to do a lot of the, you know, dealing with, you know, third parties, whether it's economic development, or, you know, dealing with the state legislature, which is a whole other ball of wax. And so those types of things where it's, it's usually me that speaking kind of for the city. But I'm, I'm always representing the city's viewpoint, not my viewpoint.

00:21:58:15 - 00:22:25:05
Unknown
It's good. And for the council, for the folks sitting on the council there, how have you seen them stay in touch with their districts? Like how are they not just making sure they're just personal opinions coming out? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's it's you know nowadays it's it's interesting is it's easy and it's hard. It's easy in the sense that we've got all this social media and we've got all this technology that allows you to, you know, push stuff out and also receive feedback.

00:22:25:07 - 00:22:54:01
Unknown
But it's also really, really hard to determine how valid any of that is. You know, you feel like you're doing a lot of communication because you're, you know, posting stuff on, you know, 20 different platforms. And so you, I mean, I'm, you know, I'm doing a lot I'm doing a lot, and then you talk to somebody and like, you know, you're like, well, I, you know, posted on five different platforms, sent out, you know, a mass text message, sent out a mailer that it.

00:22:54:01 - 00:23:24:10
Unknown
And then people like, why don't you ever communicate with us and bang your head against the wall? You need to respond. Yeah. And then the flip side is, you know, trying to trying to validate what that communication back is and how you know, how accurate it is, because there is a lot of ways for people to talk back to you, you know, whether it's through Facebook, through social media, through texting you people, you know, you would everybody in town has my cell phone.

00:23:24:11 - 00:23:38:12
Unknown
You know, it is. It's insane. I have no idea. But they all have it. Although I do know I screwed up when I first started running for office, and, like, you're signing up for Facebook and all this stuff, and I don't know how to do any of this stuff. And my cell phone ends up on Facebook and all this on everything that's.

00:23:38:12 - 00:24:00:03
Unknown
I'm getting calls, like, left and right from everybody in the world. But but you, you, you get a lot of feedback, but you don't know whether, you know, most of the time the, you know, the people talking the loudest don't necessarily represent the, you know, the viewpoint of the masses. They're just the people that talk to the loudest.

00:24:00:05 - 00:24:26:01
Unknown
And so it's really hard as an elected official to kind of parse through that and go, you know, all right, well, what do people actually think? Because, you know, the average folks, the average small business owner and, you know, mother and father of kids that gets up in the morning and goes to work, and does their business and takes care of their kids and goes home at night and is pretty pleased with how things are going on, never talks to their elected official.

00:24:26:02 - 00:24:44:18
Unknown
Yeah. And get their head down and moving perfectly happy with how things are going on and you're never going to hear from them. And so their voice never gets heard. And so it's, it's difficult, but you got to kind of go through that. It's, it's super interesting though to watch from even kind of from the outside.

00:24:44:23 - 00:25:11:19
Unknown
You know, I've seen it happen where you're watching a city council race and if you if you went and looked at Facebook or next door, you'd be like, oh my gosh, this is going to be, you know, this guy's going to lose 9010. And come to find out he won. He wanted him. And so, you know, it really does shed some light on, you know, how valid social media is and the public's, you know, actual sentiment.

00:25:11:23 - 00:25:27:13
Unknown
Yeah. You gotta go get your hand on the polls in order to go see it. I think it is. It's what you said before I think they probably, you know, about like you can't afford not to. I think the same thing with, just your average citizen out there, just like, go get involved. And I think it's probably, I don't know what it is.

00:25:27:13 - 00:25:42:00
Unknown
I mean, for myself, a couple years back, I started to like, it's I don't know, it's just like a when God made us or whatever, like you start to just, like, at a certain point in life, you start to care about different things beforehand. Just like, didn't even hit your radar. It wasn't even, like, negligence or didn't care.

00:25:42:00 - 00:26:11:08
Unknown
Just like it didn't even hit your radar as I should care. And all of a sudden you see something in your community impact and it just pisses you off. Yeah. And I don't know if that's just a timing thing or what have you. Have you noticed your personal pattern? And I think it's, you know, unfortunately it's usually something that it pisses you off and but what's, what's great is I and I've seen this is where you'll for good folks, it'll be something that pisses me off and that that gets them.

00:26:11:08 - 00:26:28:11
Unknown
Hey, I need to go. What's going on here? And and they'll go get engaged, and I've seen it so many times where they go get engaged and. And I've had it. Or don't call me. I don't want to talk to you about it. And you go sit down with them and 15 minutes later, like, oh, okay, I got it.

00:26:28:11 - 00:26:47:02
Unknown
I see what's going on. Oh, and by the way, how can I get involved now? And now that I'm in, now that I'm engaged and involved and I see that like, there's this other world now I want to go, like, how can I help? Because those are the type of people that do like, yeah, once they see that, there's, you know, it's the same thing.

00:26:47:04 - 00:27:06:04
Unknown
Nobody gets involved in PTA until they got kids in elementary school. Yeah. Then they see that there's this need and boom, that's the next ten years of their life, you know. And that's my wife is PTA president the like. And then she won't be the minute the kids are, you know, then that phase of life is over. And that's great.

00:27:06:04 - 00:27:24:17
Unknown
That's that's, you know, what you do. But a lot of folks have that same way with what their local government is. You know, they're not involved. And all of a sudden something happens and they get involved. But it can be a good things to like. And what's great thing about like, our downtown folks come down there and they see, you know, hey, this is amazing.

00:27:24:17 - 00:27:46:19
Unknown
What's going on? How can I help you, man? There are lots of ways. There are lots of ways you can help. And we got all these boards and commissions and stuff. And then people get involved and they get passionate about it and boom, they're in fired up. Before we jump off the mayor topic here, because I want to talk about your sound, a couple of the things you do not strike me as a very standard, typical mayor politician type two.

00:27:47:00 - 00:28:01:17
Unknown
Two things stick out of my brain. One way you dress right now, you can see you're, you know, it look like you just came off the ranch, right? Which is cool. I mean, literally, the boots are messed up, man. So, yeah, these are especially messy today. No, I like it is great. And then the other thing is I've.

00:28:01:17 - 00:28:17:12
Unknown
Any time I've had a chance to catch up with you, I've always. I don't feel like you're talking around me. It always just even way we're having a convo right now. And I sure as heck wouldn't have thought you were an attorney or, you know, law trained or whatever you want to call it. Where is that from?

00:28:17:12 - 00:28:39:23
Unknown
Where? Like, why is it that way? And and it's obviously working folks in Georgetown seem to really talk highly of you. Yeah. I mean, I, I don't know, I mean, one like I said, I never had any intention of being a politician. And, and don't have any intention of doing anything else. So, I think that that helps in the sense that I don't care about, you know, anything beyond this.

00:28:39:23 - 00:29:01:02
Unknown
And this is not a stepping stone. No, not at all. And, you know, and I understand folks that are trying to to maneuver up and we need good folks to, to maneuver up. And God bless them for doing it, because it's a hard life and it is hard to have to navigate and go, well, you know, I got to say this or do this because these people are going to do that.

00:29:01:02 - 00:29:27:06
Unknown
And, you know, and yeah, there's part of it. You just got to do that. And so I'm blessed with the fact that I don't have to, you know, the mayor's role is a nonpartisan role, so I don't have to play, the party politics, which is huge. And I'd probably be unelectable by either party if I had to play that, which is fine with me, but, you know, so that's part of it.

00:29:27:06 - 00:29:57:01
Unknown
The other part is, you know, I think I found that, like, just leading with when you got bad news, just lead with it, and tell people the truth works a whole lot better than than trying to, you know, snow them under like this doesn't work. People. People are smart. They figure it out, real quick, and, you know, just kind of found in my life if you just, you know, tell them you're sorry first and tell them what's wrong and tell them how you're going to fix it.

00:29:57:03 - 00:30:19:09
Unknown
That's probably the best way to get through something. And that's just kind of how I was raised. So, you know, that's my my parents taught me that is, you know, just be upfront and honest and do it. So, yeah, that's kind of that's my mentality at least. And yeah, that's, this my I'm running one more time from for mayor and then I'm done.

00:30:19:11 - 00:30:39:03
Unknown
And and so having that mentality is great too, that, you know, I've only got to get elected one more time. And so, you know, if I can just not tick anybody off, too bad until next May. And then the other part of it, too, though, that really is, is that, you know, my mentality is I'm not.

00:30:39:04 - 00:30:58:17
Unknown
There's a former mayor of Georgetown, love this guy's former banker in Georgetown, Gary Nealon. And, I've told him this on the other day, Gary Neal like to be walking down the street in Georgetown, Texas, and nobody would know who he is. Nobody would know that he was mayor. And I was like, that is the most.

00:30:58:22 - 00:31:25:03
Unknown
And he did so many great things for Georgetown. And I was like, that's the ideal is that you can get done with this and never be on the front page, but have done, you know, have set the stage good or, you know, and that's that's what I love. I love the idea of, you know, we're working on some stuff right now that is going to have, you know, 5000 year impacts.

00:31:25:05 - 00:31:50:02
Unknown
And I'm, I'm thrilled of the idea that 50 years from now, somebody is going to be set up and in a good place because we did something today and I'm I'm perfectly happy that no one knows that I did it. That but that's the type of stuff that I, I love, like the nitty gritty details that that's what excites me because that's where the real work's done.

00:31:50:02 - 00:32:11:08
Unknown
The work's not done on the headlines. It's just not, you know, you looking back 50 years in Georgetown, it's the stupid, boring stuff that that nobody really knows or cares about. It's not the, you know, groundbreaking with the shovels. It's that some guy decided, hey, we should sign this contract or we should do this. And that's why we're here today.

00:32:11:10 - 00:32:23:02
Unknown
And so that's the stuff that excites me. Yeah, you can tell you're into it. You're into the work. And if it happens to me, then I got to be mayor for a little bit to go make that happen. Yeah, but I'll go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think we'd all probably live a little bit happier doing it that way.

00:32:23:02 - 00:32:45:15
Unknown
It's kind of an unexpected like, released from any expectation. More just about your own personal, like, sense of duty. Almost. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's and I think that's that's the way it has to be available. I've always told people, you know, you don't want anybody doing this job that wants to do it. Anybody that feels like they, they, they, you know, they deserve it or they need to do it.

00:32:45:15 - 00:33:08:20
Unknown
You do not want doing it. I think that's any role in politics. Yeah. You got to be honest or reluctant, and I think it works. Why is Georgetown so special? Maybe the two side an answer on that I'm looking for is maybe for folks who don't know. But for folks who do know it is a unique place and I not just the way it feels and the way it is in the way that you can, you know, but it is iconically mainstream America.

00:33:08:20 - 00:33:33:06
Unknown
I mean, it is just kind of what you think of a storybook. Why is it that way? And then some guy sets in, you know, folks beforehand set the groundwork. But folks who don't know, mayor, what makes it so special? Yeah, we're you know, we're we're blessed in a lot of ways, geographically extremely blessed to be, you know, as much as everybody in Georgetown likes to bag on Austin, Texas.

00:33:33:08 - 00:33:57:13
Unknown
And believe me, we do. We are very, very blessed to be located exactly where we are located in relation to Austin. Just close enough. Just far enough. We've never been a suburb of Austin. We've always been just far enough away at the right time in history that we kind of had to be our own thing. As Austin was growing.

00:33:57:17 - 00:34:16:17
Unknown
We're just far enough away that, you know, Pflugerville and Round Rock, where the were the suburb bedroom communities and nobody wanted to live in Georgetown and commute to Austin when Austin was booming at that time. So we kind of had to have our own thing going on. And then when you, you know, Georgetown of Pflugerville really started booming.

00:34:16:19 - 00:34:38:17
Unknown
As much as I, you know, disagreed with it, that Georgetown kind of had this no growth mentality. And so all that growth stayed in Pflugerville and Round Rock. So again, Georgetown kind of stayed isolated during that period. What could have turned into a bedroom community? And so we kind of had to be our own thing. And then, you know, be in the county seat.

00:34:38:17 - 00:34:58:00
Unknown
That's that's a huge part of it. We're blessed with this downtown square, which is different than a main street, which is different than, you know, any other community. And there's lots of town squares and, you know, county seat squares in the state of Texas. But again, we're, we're we're right close to Austin, which is hugely helpful.

00:34:58:01 - 00:35:18:08
Unknown
We're on our 35, which is hugely helpful at the scene. You know, us and Lockhart, a beautiful town square. I love it to death and it's going to explode. It's already exploding. Was not 35. And so we've got that that blessing. Then we got, you know, ten, 15 years ago or almost 20 years ago now we got 130.

00:35:18:10 - 00:35:51:00
Unknown
And so 130 comes up the east side and can explain the impact that had on Georgetown over the last 15 years, being another transportation node where, you know, then all of this, you know, industry started following, and so and then, man, I'm telling you. So we were growing from 2000, you know, 2007 to 2015, we're growing three, 4% a year.

00:35:51:00 - 00:36:16:23
Unknown
And then we start growing at 6% a year. And things are humming pretty good. And then Covid hits and I'll never forget. So I got elected right in the middle of Covid. 2020 and called the city manager up and, and all the developers and builders in town were blowing up my phone and going, hey, if y'all shut this thing down, we all go bankrupt.

00:36:17:05 - 00:36:37:11
Unknown
We got houses on the ground halfway finished. If y'all shut down the building industry like they were doing here in Austin, we all go bankrupt. And if you all shut down the planning department, the permitting department, the inspections department, you know, we're going to we're we're going under and called city manager. And he said, you tell them to get out there.

00:36:37:11 - 00:36:53:02
Unknown
Keep going. Tell them they need an inspection to call us. We're going to be out there. You tell them the planning department may not be in the office, but they're going to keep going. Department is going to keep going. Let's roll. Well, and we did. And I mean I think Georgetown, Texas was shut down for about 36 hours.

00:36:53:02 - 00:37:29:14
Unknown
And then we forgot about Covid. And we we kept rolling. Yeah. And that coming out of and in the middle of Covid, it just exploded. And then again, as much as we wanted, you know back on Austin Ellen coming. That was this boom. And then the Samsung deal and Taylor another boom. And so we start going in 2122 and 23 fastest growing city, the United States three years in a row.

00:37:29:16 - 00:38:10:19
Unknown
In 23 with the fastest growing city only behind Fort Worth and pure numbers. Yeah. And it just starts getting getting crazy. And here's what I tell people to and and try not to, to tell people this that are too worried about growth. It hadn't even started. It has not even started when you look at the the Tesla, Samsung and everything, that is happening now with the server industry moving into this area, the best explanation I can give is, it's what I would say California in the 1950s is where we're at.

00:38:10:19 - 00:38:29:11
Unknown
And then everything that is that happened there over the last 70 years is about to happen here. About to happen here. Do you take me back to your. Just kind of. You just took over. I mean, mayor, now you had to make a decision on this Covid thing. I'm curious what, like going through your head about how you make the right call there?

00:38:29:11 - 00:38:51:11
Unknown
Because I think that's something that's not. A lot of folks were hesitating and said or said no and would have just taken the the more risk averse route. Yeah, I was I was extremely blessed. So so I start running in January of 2020. Election was supposed to be in May of 2020. The governor cancels the elections.

00:38:51:11 - 00:39:25:11
Unknown
So local elections are in May and governor cancels the elections. So, so which, you know, had raised a bunch of money, spent a bunch of money two weeks before early voting starts. He cancels the elections, moves into November. So my predecessor had to make all the hard decisions. Okay. And by May. And, you know, I've got a lot of grace, though, for all the folks that were, having to make those very, very difficult decisions, you know, from the mayors to the county judges to the governors to the president.

00:39:25:11 - 00:39:43:11
Unknown
I mean, you know, I can't imagine sitting in a room with people that are telling you, you know, millions of people are going to die. And, you know, I get it, 100%, our mayor took a very, very you know, more relaxed approach to it and said, hey, we're going to let people take care of themselves.

00:39:43:11 - 00:40:07:02
Unknown
And, we had we had orders in place, but they were, you know, much different than, than what was going on in Austin, in Travis County. So when I came in, came into office, all I had to do was allow the existing orders, which were already very relaxed, to expire. So I was set up in a pretty easy position, honestly.

00:40:07:04 - 00:40:28:23
Unknown
Yeah. Imagine there's still the even with your predecessor and you imagine just kind of the, the kind of the mental jujitsu that goes in there. I mean, you can game theory yourself in and out of this thing all day long. The fine, just from like a leadership perspective, even decisions you made after sitting in the seat, do you have a certain thing you gravitate to that just kind of grounds you in the right call, even if it isn't, you don't have all the facts.

00:40:29:00 - 00:41:00:12
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. I mean, the humility, really honestly, you know, we had best example I give. So we had very controversial, before I was elected in Georgetown, we had this, issue with our electric utility, and our electric utility signed some contracts and these green energy contracts, where our electric utility went 100% green energy.

00:41:00:14 - 00:41:21:11
Unknown
And we were touting that we were, you know, a Republican city who had gone green energy. And it made us real, real famous. I mean, we were all over the map. We were in Al Gore's sequel to, you know, his movie. And, it was a big deal. Well, come to find out, those were really bad contracts. We were losing $30 million a year.

00:41:21:11 - 00:41:46:19
Unknown
And it was it was bad. And so not only was all that happening, we were also had a bunch of egg on our face that we were out there, you know, touting how smart we were. And, you know, that that we were going to revolutionize how, you know, city utilities were run. And so, so when I came into office, which is one of the reasons that I came into office, was because, that debacle had happened.

00:41:46:21 - 00:42:16:23
Unknown
You know, I had the mentality of, hey, we've got to approach. And the folks that made the decision who at that time to sign those contracts thought they were making the best decision they could make with the information in front of at the time. It was a very complex decision. But after that decision was made, there wasn't a whole lot of humility and, and how that decision was, you know, rolled out to the world and how it was handled.

00:42:17:03 - 00:42:53:03
Unknown
And then when it was, alleged that maybe that wasn't the best decision, there wasn't a lot of humility. There was a lot of defensiveness and a lot of, you know, defending of it. And so that really was a lesson for me, and how things should not be handled. And so the lesson that I learned was, hey, look, you know, when when we're going to make a difficult decision and we're right now in the process of making one of the most important and difficult decisions in the history of the city of Georgetown, our long term water solution for the city.

00:42:53:05 - 00:43:15:17
Unknown
And it's a hard one. And it is the thing that keeps me up all night, every night. And there there is not a right answer. There are multiple difficult answers. But as I've told everybody in the community, every time I can, we're going to make the best decision we can. The information in front of us.

00:43:15:19 - 00:43:31:17
Unknown
I can't guarantee you it's going to be right. I can guarantee you that, you know, we are agonizing over it. We're listening to every expert that we can. But we're going to make the best decision we can. If it turns out not to be right, we're going to come tell you we screwed up, and we're going to.

00:43:31:17 - 00:43:49:22
Unknown
And we're going to come to you with a plan to to mitigate it the best that we can. And if we screwed it up real bad, you should vote us all out of office and not let us into leadership positions ever again. And that's honestly the best that we can do. You know, and our city manager will tell you the exact same thing.

00:43:50:04 - 00:44:09:18
Unknown
He's like that. That's that's part of being in leadership is that, you know, if you screw it up really, really bad, you don't get to be in leadership anymore. And that's, that's, you know, that's part of the, the consequences for your actions. And, and, you know, we all signed on to that when we stepped into the leadership role.

00:44:09:20 - 00:44:28:21
Unknown
But it's also our job to go, you know, to make sure that we are, you know, taking care of the folks that that we signed up to lead and that, you know, we've got to go if we if we screw up the best way to fix that is to expose the fact that something has gone wrong. Now, let's bring in folks to help us fix this.

00:44:28:23 - 00:44:44:23
Unknown
Yeah. As you're talking about that, mayor, one couple thoughts go to my head. It's going back to your probably your father coach. And it's very akin to sports and stuff. It's like you when you raise your hand to sign up for the game of leadership. And it's not a game, but let's just say the the, the path that you're on.

00:44:44:23 - 00:45:09:20
Unknown
I think the part we always forget, whether it's business ownership or leadership or whatever the consequence to it of not doing well or failing. I think a lot of folks take it with emotion, which I think helps on the passion side. Like it's great the folks care, but it also they don't. I don't know that they give themselves also enough grace that like, it's also just the objective consequence of what happens when you don't like you could still be a good person and fail and having leadership anymore.

00:45:09:20 - 00:45:30:12
Unknown
And that's just you play the game and that's just what happens. He's just get fired. Yet coaches get fired. Teams don't make it to the Super Bowl like that's my dad says coaches end up two ways you retire or get fired. That's the only way to leave. Yeah, it's I think that's kind of where I can tell a lot of folks don't always jump into leadership or jump in and help in their community and stuff, because I think of that failure thing.

00:45:30:14 - 00:45:45:08
Unknown
I know you just articulated a little bit of like, hey, look, I didn't really want to do it, but I'm doing it here. I'm going to do the best I can and we'll see what it is. Any other like insights you'd give folks that are just on that fence? Like, did the right folks to step in the arena and at least try, but they won't OG you tell them.

00:45:45:08 - 00:46:06:23
Unknown
Yeah, well, one thing to that I would say to that, that you bring up real good point on it kind of translate into small businesses. You got to create that environment in your organization too. And that's one thing that, that we really try to cultivate in the city is, you got to push that same culture down and go, hey, if you've screwed up, come tell us.

00:46:07:01 - 00:46:44:05
Unknown
And and, you know, we're going to take care of the problem now. Yeah, there may be a screw ups that are so bad that, hey, you got to go. Yeah, but the best thing you can do is come tell us that you screwed up and let's go try to fix it. Because, as we say, all the time, and this has happened, I've seen this happen numerous times over the last five years where coming and telling us you've screwed up, build so much trust that that you know you are now the most valued employee in that, you know, in that department because you raise your hand and go, hey, we messed up.

00:46:44:06 - 00:47:06:21
Unknown
You know, we messed up. Here's what happened. Here's how we're going to keep it from happening again. And, you know, we're sorry. And making it very public. And boom, that person is now on a, on a path to leadership that that, you know, they weren't we didn't even know who they were beforehand. And now boom, they're they're headed towards department leadership because of that.

00:47:06:23 - 00:47:32:17
Unknown
And so yeah I think creating that that environment in your in your organization is is huge. Like a sure fire way to get fired is not say something I find out and then you're gone man. Yeah. At least the other way around. What do you speaking of. Just kind of the way culture and people are. Have you when you think about like the we talk a lot about it, especially in the last 15 or so years, maybe even 20 big tech, big companies.

00:47:32:22 - 00:47:51:03
Unknown
It's all good. It's really the American dream on steroids, right? Like it's just this cool thing to say. But the culture is small. Main Street America, towns, right where there's the businesses on the square or in the small manufacturing plant just outside of, you know, one of the offshoots on 130 or whatever. I innately know they're important. I know you do, too.

00:47:51:05 - 00:48:08:23
Unknown
What about Main Street America? Are you hopeful about, because I do think there's a lot of there's a lot of rhetoric out there that's just, hey, you know, part of one of the big ones work for one of the big ones or whatever. Good luck. I obviously think that you don't find that to be true. What are the things that keep you hopeful about those small business America?

00:48:08:23 - 00:48:29:06
Unknown
Man, I, I think that the, the most hopeful thing for me is that the young people get it. And I think the generation, my kids and, and the folks in their 20s, I think they get it. I feel sorry for the Googles of the world and the Meadows. The world is they're not going to those kids. It's going to be real tough for Google to hire those kids.

00:48:29:06 - 00:48:48:09
Unknown
They ain't coming because they're literally going out and trying to find the plumbing shops, the, you know, the the number of kids in my day job, you know, representing small business owners that, you know, a generation ago, those kids would have been looking to go to work for Deloitte or go to work for, you know, Google now.

00:48:48:09 - 00:49:06:19
Unknown
They're like, no, no, no, mom and dad, can I please come back and run the drywall business? Yeah, that get it? You know, I've got got a client whose son went off and his sharp, sharp kid went off to law school, got the law degree, could have gone to work for, you know, major law firm in New York and came back and, let me give you an estimate in the drywall business.

00:49:06:20 - 00:49:34:20
Unknown
Is that right? And work, work. My way up. And now he's going to be this, you know, he's going to take it over and be the CEO of the drywall company. What do you think leaks for them? What's what's in their brain that's different? You think man, you know, one, I think that those folks I don't know what happened that they saw, that sitting in a cubicle is the worst thing in the world that they got it, you know, way before other people, you know, our generation maybe didn't get it.

00:49:34:22 - 00:49:52:10
Unknown
I got a buddy that that, I graduated college with that he went and bought a bunch of Sonic franchises down in Florida. And he came back and was, you know, he was in his 30s at that point, and he came back and was recruited at UT out of the business school, to try to get regional managers for a Sonic.

00:49:52:12 - 00:50:12:02
Unknown
And he's like, look, you come out of business school 22 years old. I need regional managers. You can make $150,000 a year running Sonics. He's like, no, listen, you're going to what? You can wear a shirt that has Sonic on it, and there may be some Saturday nights where you're flipping burgers and pouring drinks because somebody didn't show up.

00:50:12:04 - 00:50:27:13
Unknown
But is that or do you want to go sit in a cubicle at Del, you know, 40 hours a week staring at a screen and he's like, and this was, you know, in the early 2000, he's I couldn't find a single person to come work for. I nobody raise your hand. There we go. Climbing the ladder somewhere, right?

00:50:27:13 - 00:50:45:02
Unknown
Yeah I know, got to go, Dell. Got to go work my way up. Nothing. You know, nothing against del, but. And I don't think that's the case anymore. I think those kids are like, no, no, no, I'd rather go do that. Yeah, I'd rather be flipping burgers, you know, if that's the path to go, because I'm going to go own my own Sonics in one day.

00:50:45:04 - 00:51:01:18
Unknown
I really do see that happening across the country now. You see it everywhere. And it's I think it's a it kind of goes back to this kind of core DNA as we are, is just like the as Americans like that sense of agency and that sense of just like coming back, hey, if I fail, I want to be my fault.

00:51:01:18 - 00:51:17:08
Unknown
If I win, I want it to be my fault. Like, those are the things that for some reason or another, you lose and I do. You had a gentleman on here the other day. Matt who? He was talking he big mean. He could have been continue to be very successful in the corporate world. He now owns and runs Eco Air here in Austin.

00:51:17:08 - 00:51:34:01
Unknown
Yeah. And he just I asked him was thing is most excited about it. And he said two things are just like I don't think I could have captured any better. He goes, one man, it's it's all on me now. He goes, and I thank God I married into a family that her the his father in law is a longtime business owner.

00:51:34:05 - 00:51:48:18
Unknown
Taylor actually, he says, and he just told me how much freedom that is. Believe it or not, he is carrying that backpack he gives. But the other thing that I never had a chance to do before, he gives my kids run around my business. Now he goes where I wasn't taking him to the office because it might have gone to a Christmas party.

00:51:48:20 - 00:52:06:07
Unknown
He goes, but man, you don't. I can't put a price on how cool it is to see the girls running around, you know, even for just during lunch. Mom brings by whatever all the text saying hi to them, and they run out. And then I go, you know, whatever it is, I can't put a price on that. But it sure as heck of a lot more than you could pay me when I, you know, is doing what I was doing.

00:52:06:07 - 00:52:30:13
Unknown
I think that stuff that don't always make it into the race, I mean. Yeah, so my dad being a football coach, folks don't realize coaches how much coaches work. I mean, during football season, it's 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on, you know, that's Monday through Thursday, Friday nights. It's, you know, 2:00 am coming back from the football game, doing laundry where you go home, back up there 6 a.m. Sunday night.

00:52:30:13 - 00:52:51:07
Unknown
So that's that's all football season. But my brother and I were standing there right next to him the entire time and thought it was the greatest thing that ever happened. You know, I slept on a yellow bus better than I've ever slept in my entire life. And that was just. It wasn't even for us. We didn't even register that dad was at work.

00:52:51:11 - 00:53:11:20
Unknown
Like that was just life. And, you know, the idea that you ain't doing that at dad's a partner at a law firm. You know, they could be working the exact same hours, but you know, never see him. We spent more time with him than I guarantee you, than any kids have ever spent with, you know, their parent. You know, it was insane.

00:53:11:20 - 00:53:32:03
Unknown
And so, yeah, I agree 100% that that small business owner and the ability to like, hey, Johnny's got, you know, something at the elementary school today at 2:00 young walk out the door and go, and yeah, I may work till 8:00 tonight to cover for it, but that's my decision. And I will tell you that's, you know, we were talking about kids earlier.

00:53:32:05 - 00:53:54:16
Unknown
Number one thing I've told my kids is work for yourself. That like that, that is it. Above all else, if you can work for yourself, you know, prized that above, above money, above where you live, above what you're doing, you can figure out how to work for yourself. You know, you've made it. Somebody said the other day, it was literally that there.

00:53:54:16 - 00:54:13:13
Unknown
Like, if you can go to your kid's stuff, elementary school in the afternoon, whatever you're doing in life, something's worked out. Yeah, that. Yeah, that's a different, measuring stick for success, you know, and I don't it's. And I think it's a human thing. It's like when your parents tell you not to touch the stove, you know, you do it anyway.

00:54:13:13 - 00:54:29:00
Unknown
It's almost like you don't learn till you burn your hand, you know, fortunate for the younger generation coming up, they just. Maybe it's through observation that it clicks. I agree with you. They just get it. For most of us, we kind of had to go climb that ladder, get beat, get our soul sucked a little bit and go like, this ain't feel right.

00:54:29:01 - 00:54:48:16
Unknown
Something's off. Yeah. And I think, you know, part of it, too, is that, you know, we kind of came up the the traditional everybody had to go to college, go get the four year degree, then the college career services are pushing you into all that stuff because, you know, all the college rating stuff is based upon, you know, you get out of college and you get a degree and it gets reported back.

00:54:48:16 - 00:55:07:23
Unknown
And we're all choosing our colleges based on U.S. News and World Report. Did it. I think all that stuff's out the window. You know, nobody cares about that stuff anymore, you know? And so that that has created a freedom for those kids when Elon doesn't even won't even let you tell him where you went to college, you know, it's changed the game on all that stuff.

00:55:08:05 - 00:55:29:04
Unknown
And, you know, my my kid, just graduated high school. He's got kids that are graduate with him that can out code. Anybody that graduated from Harvard last year, they don't need a college degree. Yeah. They're gone. They're you know, they're doing what they want to do. The day they got walked off stage. Graduation as we kind of round the bases here, their mayor.

00:55:29:04 - 00:55:50:20
Unknown
One of the things I want to ask you about, I know just kind of watching you work and watching you do the council members work in the town? I know one thing right now that, the blessing and the curse of growing so fast is, you know, development. And I know state of Texas has, you know, you know, announced like, hey, we're going to allow folks put more houses in, you know, Square Acre and all that other kind of stuff, which on its no sounds great.

00:55:50:20 - 00:56:11:11
Unknown
I'm sure for the developers out there, sounds good to just be able to put more housing. People need it. You can get behind that. I'm sure water is a factor, but I'm sure a lot of other things are too. You know? And just the general way a small town feels a certain way, because it also is a certain way, not just because it's got a great square, but it's also just because you're not running into a bunch of multifamily homes everywhere you go.

00:56:11:13 - 00:56:33:07
Unknown
So I'm asking this, or setting the stage all this to say that how do you balance growth? Because, I mean, think I have the heart of the owner in my mind. There's a lot of owners that come here and sit in that chair, and they're always balancing growth with also balancing like what's really the right thing to do, which those things are sometimes in competition with each other as capitalists are very much like grow at all costs.

00:56:33:09 - 00:57:01:16
Unknown
But that's not always the right answer. Just want to get your thoughts on that. Like how do you balance those two things, growth and also do it's doing the right thing for my town myself, my family, whatever that. Yeah, man, that's super interesting that you say that and like it just kind of clicked with me this idea of like thinking about, you know, the town like a business and what comes to mind is, you know, growth versus culture and, and do you grow at the expense of culture?

00:57:01:18 - 00:57:21:08
Unknown
And, you know, you've seen it with businesses and, you know, you grow too fast and you lose the culture and then you lose the business. And it's almost always follows. Yeah, exactly. And that's and I never, never thought about it till you said that. But that's exactly what we're talking about when we talk about growth in the community.

00:57:21:10 - 00:57:46:13
Unknown
Is that what we're trying to do? And we we say this all the time, and it's so hard to to we can articulate, you know, we're going to grow in, in population size but maintain small town community charm. And so that's really easy to say. Then you go, well what does that mean. And then how do how do we put that into a policy that you can, you know, enforce and enact?

00:57:46:15 - 00:58:09:14
Unknown
And, you know, what does that mean when you have a development code and permitting regulations? How does it the rubber meets the road when you do that. And it's really, really tough to do. And so, you know, yeah, well, what we're trying to do is when we say small town community charm, we think about things like, well, a lot of that does mean we want to encourage ownership.

00:58:09:16 - 00:58:32:02
Unknown
And so to the extent we can encourage owning a home versus renting a home, and there are some things we can do in our development code that helps that, to the extent we can encourage, you know, more family, you know, oriented homes. Yeah, we want to encourage that. Now, that's never going to be the the sole type of, you know, housing product that we have.

00:58:32:02 - 00:58:51:10
Unknown
You know, we all lived in apartments in our life and we got tons of apartments. We got to have two, sometimes tens of thousands of apartments in Georgetown. And happy to have that. And you know, we want places for teachers, policemen, firefighters, all those folks. But but it's all about, you know, trying to create. Well, what is the theme that we're trying to create here?

00:58:51:12 - 00:59:24:15
Unknown
And when we think about, you know, neighborhoods. Well, what does it what does a neighborhood look like when you think of a neighborhood that encourages that small town charm feel, now, one thing I think is super interesting is that for a long time in America, we built neighborhoods, that we thought did that. And there were these master plan subdivisions that were, you know, these are the houses and they're in this row, and I and I tell people all the time that, you know, that they, they live in these neighborhoods and they think that that's what a neighborhood should look like.

00:59:24:16 - 00:59:43:08
Unknown
It was like, and then we all pay $10,000 every summer to go to Europe and walk around communities that don't look anything like that. Yeah. We go, oh, we want to walk around the corner to a coffee shop, and then there's a pizza place over here, and there's a store over here, and the houses are all intermixed in the houses above the coffee shop.

00:59:43:10 - 01:00:11:00
Unknown
And, you know, so so I think that that's that's one of those things that's very much changing, in our communities is kind of a move back to what is actually the more traditional, environment, which is a mixed use environment, an environment that is activated all day long where, where you've got folks a family business that is in a neighborhood, which is exactly what happened, which was for 2000 years.

01:00:11:00 - 01:00:34:10
Unknown
And until we started creating these, these suburban neighborhoods. So we're really pushing back to that, that idea, the idea that, you know, guess what? You can have a bakery, a coffee shop in a neighborhood. And that's a great and wonderful thing. And it can interact with the neighborhood. So stuff like that, that we're trying to push back because, again, those are the things that actually call back to that small to small town charm.

01:00:34:12 - 01:01:02:20
Unknown
And then the other is investing tons and tons of money, time and effort into that downtown square, which, you know, on some level is is a symbolic gesture. You know, only a certain a number of people can live in the downtown area. Only a certain number of people can be downtown at a given time. But when you talk to people about why they love Georgetown, they may live ten miles away from that downtown square.

01:01:02:22 - 01:01:25:20
Unknown
They may only go down there once a month. But having that as a cultural touch point for the community, it creates this bond. It creates this, you know. Yeah, yeah. We all love the square. We're all down there, you know, as often as we can get down there. And it really does just create this environment that, that was still.

01:01:25:20 - 01:01:45:12
Unknown
Yeah, this is Georgetown, this is Georgetown. And we love it. Versus when you see other communities or people just this just sour taste in their mouth about their community, they're always griping about everything, that, you know, everything's bad. If we can only get away from here, and you really just don't. You don't get that feel in Georgetown.

01:01:45:14 - 01:02:06:02
Unknown
And we're blessed to have that other thing, too, that I will say that that I think is always huge in a community is, is school district. And I think schools are what bring, you know, especially that age demographic together. People can rally behind the schools. If people love their school district, they love their community. Yeah. So that's one thing that I think that we've got to fight for.

01:02:06:02 - 01:02:29:05
Unknown
And, you know, we get into a whole other political discussion about how that's going in the state of Texas right now. But, I will say is sort of to public school teachers, when, when people are happy with their school district, especially in small towns, it's another one of those things that just bonds people together. And, as my dad says, you got a winning football team.

01:02:29:05 - 01:02:52:12
Unknown
The community is, is, together and united. Is that what can someone do on the what is it can the everyday human do to help, like school district, school district seems like a really good, like, first step. Yeah, I school district and city both like, I can't convey enough how easy it is to get involved and how just a minor amount of involvement will make such a huge district.

01:02:52:14 - 01:03:14:02
Unknown
School district and city. Both, have so many avenues to get involved. Committees, you know, whether it's a standing committees or ad hoc committee, you know, the school district's going to you know, they're going to have every 3 or 4 years going to have a bond PAC committee where, hey, we got to go decide what we're going to build in terms of new schools and athletic facilities, whatever.

01:03:14:02 - 01:03:38:16
Unknown
Go volunteer for it. And they want your they want your input, they're begging for your input. And you can have an impact as to where the next high school is going to be, what it's going to look like, you know how big it's going to be. On the city side, we have 37 boards and commissions in our in the city of Georgetown, and that's everything from the planning and Zoning Commission that decides where stuff's going to get built, or our arts Commission that decides what statues are going to be on the square.

01:03:38:18 - 01:03:59:01
Unknown
To, you know, we have a, just every state, a library commission, parks commission, whatever your passion is, there is an avenue for you to engage with the city. And we're talking like one hour a month. That's that's the that is the commitment. Yeah. But the flip side of that is the impact that you will have.

01:03:59:03 - 01:04:20:07
Unknown
So choosing where the next park is going to be, you know where that starts. It starts with that. Parks committee. Yeah. And and once that gets to the city council it's pretty much the city council is going to defer to that parks committee. Who's who spent a lot of time thinking and looking at that. And so, you know, one person volunteering one hour a month could have a 100 year impact on the city.

01:04:20:10 - 01:04:40:20
Unknown
Yeah. And so it really is easy to engage and we're begging people to do it. And all you got to do is go click a link on the website, volunteer to sign up, and you can have huge impact and jump right in. Last one mayor, you mentioned water. I know that's been someone keeping. Yeah. What can just if you don't mind giving for just a quick thing what's on your brain.

01:04:40:21 - 01:04:59:17
Unknown
Maybe folks can send you good graces and sure everybody else is kind of out there to make that right call. What is the thing you weigh out every single night? Y'all are weigh now. Yeah. So I mean, we are in the middle of the biggest shift in the history of the state of Texas, from a surface water economy to a groundwater economy in central Texas.

01:04:59:17 - 01:05:29:09
Unknown
You know, we essentially live in a semi-arid desert here in, in central Texas that folks don't realize everything west of the, the fault line of 35 is, is basically a desert. And all of the surface water that you see in the state of Texas, other than, you know, the, the, 1 or 2 natural lakes are all manmade lakes, and all of that water is basically owned by the people, the people of Texas.

01:05:29:11 - 01:05:55:18
Unknown
And so we built those reservoirs and the government or governmental entities, river authorities parcel out that water to all the different folks that need it up and down those those river basins, all that water is essentially spoken for in central Texas, the, the Colorado River authority, the Brazos River authority. They have contracts with all the different entities up and down those river authorities that need that water.

01:05:55:20 - 01:06:20:01
Unknown
And every drop of it is essentially spoken for. And so what that means is we have to find other sources of water, and that water is extremely cheap because it's owned by the people. It's the people built the reservoirs. And so the people own that water and it gets doled out very cheaply by those governmental entities. Now, when we shift to a groundwater economy, we shift to basically groundwater oil.

01:06:20:03 - 01:06:45:21
Unknown
And the folks that own it sell it like oil. And it's not where it's supposed to be. It is it is far away from us. And so this entire I-35 corridor that is just booming, just happens to be where there is not a lot of good groundwater. And so the groundwater mainly is to the east of us, east and northeast of us.

01:06:45:23 - 01:07:06:01
Unknown
But fortunately, there's a lot of groundwater. There's 4 billion, gallons of water in the Carrizo Wilcox aquifer. That depending on where you're at. And for it's 20 to 70 miles away from us, kind of depending on where you're at. So what we've got to do is got to figure out how to get that water over here, which is going to be expensive to do.

01:07:06:01 - 01:07:23:04
Unknown
And we got to buy it from the people that own it. Yeah. And so what we're in the process of doing is negotiating water agreements with those people, to move that water, from there to here. For, for the next, you know, 100 years, is 4 billion a lot, a lot. Okay, that's a lot.

01:07:23:04 - 01:07:50:06
Unknown
Yeah. I was just trying to get news about 15 million as a state. So that's that's there's plenty of water. There's great. Plenty of water. It's just a question of moving it where it needs to be. And it's, you know, there's there we're obviously going to continue to conserve water. Conservation is number one thing that all of us can and will do, because remember that water is going to be extremely expensive.

01:07:50:08 - 01:08:07:10
Unknown
There's no two ways about it. We got to move it. We got to buy it. And so you are going to change your habits in Central Texas. There is not going to be a golf course, lawns all over this, this region going forward is not going to happen. And so conservation is going to be number one thing.

01:08:07:11 - 01:08:26:10
Unknown
And so that's going to happen. But then we're also going to have to bring more surplus water to this area. And so we'll get it here. And it's just a question of money money and time. But you're going to see a major shift in our economy because of that. Yeah, man. It's, and that's not just Georgetown, right?

01:08:26:10 - 01:08:44:21
Unknown
It's all those towns that surround it, right? No, no, it's well, it's it's everywhere from the Rio Grande Valley. Yeah. Up to Dallas. Honestly, if you go down in the valley, they're facing the exact same issues. And it's everything on the 35 corridor coming north. The folks kind of between San Antonio and Austin have done a good job.

01:08:44:21 - 01:09:10:22
Unknown
San Antonio has done a good job of kind of getting some of that groundwater already. Everything north of Austin is is struggling right now, where we own the largest water service territory north of Austin. And so we're about to make our ground water play and get that taken care of. That will will take care of that region, you know, for, like I said, for the next, for the next hundred years, but it's going to be a major shift.

01:09:10:22 - 01:09:26:04
Unknown
And, you know, we're hoping we get it right, as we said, my my greatest fear is we're going to solve it with this very, very expensive solution. And then you know, Ellen's going to come up with some way to invent water out of thin air or something. And we're going to everybody. It's going to be free for everybody.

01:09:26:04 - 01:09:40:00
Unknown
But God bless him. I hope he does. Yeah. Well, like you said, Ellen, and I hope if that every time comes, I hope it does. And I hope you guys make the best call you can. But if that time comes, if someone like you sitting in that seat, I'm sure they'll go. We didn't make the right call at the time.

01:09:40:00 - 01:10:02:14
Unknown
That's what we're doing to fix it. So yeah, I think that's the way it goes. Mega man, so good to have you on. Yeah I really so much. And thank you guys. Everything you all are doing for small businesses. Like I said, it is amazing to see how small businesses are growing and thriving in this country and in this state and to have, you know, folks that are guiding them, leading them through, is an amazing thing.

01:10:02:16 - 01:10:23:09
Unknown
Yeah, man. It's, when I think about the American dream, I was just telling somebody earlier today, there's many multiple versions of what that means. Kids are safe at school all the way to, you know, you can, have a pay for house, whatever version of that is. But ownership is like a core American dream pillar, like owning something.

01:10:23:09 - 01:10:47:13
Unknown
And like you, you're working for yourself. That level of agency and that level of just like it's on your shoulders. It's American as it gets. And I'm so glad right now we that current we we all feel like we're swimming with the current. But to your point, we still got to do it right. Like if you don't want to do is create a situation where you have, it is a particular person that is a good owner that gets in the right seat.

01:10:47:15 - 01:11:01:21
Unknown
And here in Cabo is like for folks like you about how you think about people, culture, way and hard decisions. That is the backpack of an owner for the rest of the time that they own something. So we appreciate you coming on and sharing some of your wisdom and insight. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.