9 candidates running for 3 seats on Leander City Council
Nine people, including two incumbents, are running for three seats places on the Leander City Council in the May 7 election.
Incumbent Kathryn Pantalion-Parker, a 59-year-old fashion consultant, is running for her second term in Place 1 against Trey Schisser, a 47-year-old director of IT security.
The four Place 3 candidates are Juan Alanis, a 45-year-old Round Rock school district teacher; Steve Hanes, a 57-year-old software engineer; Roslyn Littles, a 62-year-old retired budget/finance manager; and David McDonald, a 53-year-old traffic incident management coordinator and retired Austin police officer.
The three candidates running for Place 5 are incumbent Chris Czernek, who is seeking his second term and is a new home sales counselor for DFH Coventry Homes; Annette Sponseller, a 42-year-old administrator for Girl Scouts of Central Texas and a former council member; and Bill Louden, a 75-year-old custom furniture shop owner. He is also a retired General Electric executive and a retired professor and chairman of international business and logistics at Austin Community College.
READ: Leander voters to decide whether to quit CapMetro, agency offers millions for projects
Council members serve three-year terms.
Place 1
Pantalion-Parker said residents are concerned about having enough water for the growing city, speeding in neighborhoods and not having enough restaurants or local jobs.
She said her goals if reelected include balancing commercial and residential growth to "alleviate the burden on homes and infrastructure." She said she also wants to maintain a fiscally responsible budget while ensuring safety and city services, continue lowering property taxes and "protect a sense of community."
What makes her the best candidate, Pantalion-Parker said, is her years spent serving the community on boards, commissions and committees, and attending council meetings.
"My decades of sales experience gives me the temperament to handle the job through listening, connecting, building trust and coming up with common sense solutions and creative problem solving," she said.
Schisser said residents are concerned about water, property taxes, public safety and public transportation.
His goals if elected include pushing for a more "contemporary master plan and zoning ordinances to help balance our tax base and improve our quality of life."
"Our over-reliance on traditional residential developments leaves us with a costly sprawling infrastructure that translates into higher than necessary residential taxes," he said.
Schisser said he is the best candidate because he has project management experience "balancing the conflicting needs of multiple stakeholders, including budget limitations, time constraints, resource availability, and risk mitigation."
Place 3
Alanis said residents are most concerned about the water supply, housing affordability and the lack of major retail stores and restaurants in Leander.
His goals if elected include bringing more retail, restaurants and small- to medium-size companies to the city, developing more parks and ensuring that the city's water and transportation systems are ready to handle growth, he said.
He said he is the best candidate because he is not officially affiliated with any political party. "I will view issues from the perspective of how it will impact an average person that works multiple jobs to survive," Alanis said.
Hanes said residents have told him the most important issues the city faces include having an adequate water supply and planning for growth.
If elected, he said his goals include supporting improvements to the water system to increase distribution and increasing the number of parks and athletic fields in the city. He said he wants to renegotiate with Capital Metro based on what voters decide.
Proposition A on the May 7 ballot asks voters to decide if they want the city to remain in a partnership with CapMetro, which provides rail and bus services.
"We pay entirely too much to CapMetro based on the current services provided," Hanes said.
He is the best candidate, he said, because he is the only one with "significant" experience volunteering on city boards
Littles did not answer requests for comment about her campaign. She said on her campaign's Facebook page that she is running "to bring awareness to our growing community that we must focus on how expensive it is to care for our disabled family members; loved ones; and/or friends."
"With too few available places where they can go, families could find themselves in this expensive problem situation; which will take money from the family budget, household, and less to spend (on dining out, movies, vacation travel, etc.) taking funds from the community overall," Littles wrote.
McDonald said residents have told him their concerns include having a secure backup power source for water and more restaurants and entertainment options.
His goals if elected, McDonald said, are to secure a secondary water source for the city and ease restrictions on developers to encourage smart economic development. The city currently gets its water from Lake Travis.
He is the best candidate because of his "background in public safety within city government and traffic and transportation issues."
Place 5
Czernek said residents want water infrastructure improvements, more entertainment options and traffic solutions.
"My goals are to steward our growth and infrastructure properly, help position ourselves in a great spot to land campus employers, do the same with businesses that offer entertainment options for our families and also continue setting a great example of promoting unity in our city," he said.
What makes him the best candidate, he said, is that he provides "steady, well-tempered and common sense leadership for our city."
Sponseller said residents have told her the future of Leander's transportation system, which voters will decide on the May 7 ballot, is the most important issue facing the city.
If elected, Sponseller said her goals are to "prioritize improvements to our city’s water and transportation systems. "I will support and advocate for small businesses, support emergency services, listen to citizens and be transparent," she said.
What makes her the best candidate is that she has lived in Leander for more than 10 years and had significant experience working in volunteer roles with the city and community organizations, Sponseller said.
She ran unsuccessfully ran for the City Council for Place 2 after she was appointed to fill the seat from November 2020 to June 2021.
Louden said residents have told him their main issue is that they concerned and confused about whether or not the city should remain in its partnership with CapMetro.
He said CapMetro provides more than train service. "It is buses, park and ride services, commuter connections to Austin, senior and handicapped services and will go away if the voters vote no on proposition A on our May 7th ballot," he said.
His said his goals if elected include increasing the efficiency of city departments by 5%. "A 5% efficiency would provide the $9 million the city is thinking it can get by canceling CapMetro," Louden said. He said he also wants to partner with builders and developers who want to help the city grow.
His 45 years of experience as a businessman, executive and entrepreneur make him the best candidate, he said. "I’ve led high tech companies from startup through years of explosive growth and yet was able to maintain a sustainable bottom line," he said. "I was chief executive and founder of a GE business unit and was a senior executive at Delphi/News Corp.
About the candidates
PLACE 1
Kathryn Pantalion-Parker
Education: Attended Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches.
Community involvement: Served as ambassador for the Leander Chamber of Commerce, on the city's Charter Review Commission, the board of Texas Pregnancy Care Network. Helped start Old Town Street Festival. Volunteer on Golf Tournament Committee, volunteer at Old Town Christmas Festival, 5K run and other community events. Literacy Partners and Connection Point at church, editor and writer of neighborhood magazine, served as vice president and president of the Downtown Business Association in Nacogdoches.
Trey Schisser
Education: N/A
Community involvement: Volunteered with Boy Scouts of America and Leander school district
PLACE 3
Juan Alanis
Education: Bachelor's degree in meteorology from Mississippi State University, bachelor's degree in radio-television-film from University of Texas, master's degree in educational administration from Texas A&M International University in Laredo.
Community involvement: Serves on board of Leander Library Foundation. Served as vice president of South Central Texas chapter of American Meteorological Society/National Weather Association; served as chairman of youth advisory council for city of Laredo; co-chairman of community involvement subcommittee of Laredo-Webb County Education 2000
Steve Hanes
Education: Bachelor's degree in speech communication from Miami University
Community involvement: Served as chairman of Leander Economic Development Committee; served on Leander Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, served on Leander Youth Baseball and Softball Alliance Advisory Board. Founding member, board member and vice president of the Leander Foundation.
Roslyn Littles
Education: N/A
Community involvement: N/A
David McDonald
Education: N/A
Community involvement: Volunteered as a counselor for church youth camps, taught marriage classes in church and out of church, volunteered as youth baseball coach
Place 5
Chris Czernek
Education: Bachelor's degree in business administration from California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Community involvement: Serves on Hill Country Community Ministries Future Site Committee; has volunteered as youth sports coach
Annette Sponseller
Education: Bachelor's degree in sociology/criminal justice from Purdue University; master's degree in criminal justice analysis of criminal behavior from University of Cincinnati
Community involvement: Chairman of Leander Charter Review Commission and serves on board of Bagdad Senior Activity Center. Served on Leander's Planning and Zoning commission, Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee and Ethics Commission. Served on Leander school district's Curriculum Advisory Committee.
Bill Louden
Education: Bachelor's degree in English from Ohio State University; master's degree in international management with a specialty in electronic commerce from University of Maryland
Community involvement: Served as mentor for high school students in Leaders of Tomorrow Program provided by National Black MBA Association; served as chapter president of a St Vincent de Paul Society in Houston; served with Mobile Loaves and Fishes in Austin.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: 9 candidates running for 3 seats on Leander City Council
