Lakeway voters reelect Tom Kilgore as mayor
Lakeway Mayor Tom Kilgore won a second term on Saturday after receiving 54% of the vote. Kilgore finished with 2,040 votes, defeating Ron Cooper, who had 1,714 votes (45%) and Roy Paar, who had receiving 59 votes (2%).
The three winners among the five candidates running for three seats on the Lakeway City Council were Gretchen Vance, Kent O'Brien and Christopher Forton. The positions are elected at large, so the top three vote-getters won seats.
Vance was the top vote-getter with 2,269 (24.9%). O'Brien finished with 2,016 (22.1%) and Forton had 2,008 votes (22.1%.) Dan Vardell place fourth with 1,512 votes (16.6%) and Kevin Bernzott was in fifth with 1,302 votes (14.3%).
Council members Sanjeev Kumar and Keith Trecker did not file to run again.
Race for mayor
Kilgore, 64, is a retired U.S. Army officer and finance executive who specialized in energy. Kilgore lost his first bid for mayor to Sandy Cox in 2019, but defeated Alain Babin with 63% of the vote in 2021 to succeed Cox.
Kilgore said the biggest issues facing Lakeway are development and maintaining local control. He said that for the past two years, the city has been proactively managing development to maintain the character of Lakeway by revising and updating zoning ordinances.
Kilgore said his goals are to finish Lakeway road improvements, prepare new zoning rules for RM 620 widening, improve and expand the city’s parks, keep a conservative city financial position, maintain transparency and accountability at City Hall and to keep the city’s character intact.
“I’ve been mayor for 23 months now," he said. "I’ve kept every campaign promise I made when I ran, but there is still more to do.”
Cooper, a 41-year-old public insurance adjuster, and Paar, a 39-year-old technology consultant, were both seeking public office for the first time.
City Council race
Vance, 56, ran for reelection for a third term. She owns Electric Avenue Athletics. She said the top issue Lakeway faces is transportation.
“We need to put pressure on (the Texas Department of Transportation) to prioritize the expansion of (RM) 620,” she said.
Vance said that while she aims to be accessible to the residents so they can be heard, she also goes through data-driven research on the issues brought to the council to ensure that members see all angles and vote in the best interests of the community.
O’Brien is the vice president at Quiddity Engineering LLC, and his work history includes land development, water resource and transportation projects. He worked for the Texas Department of Transportation, where he served nearly 10 years as assistant area engineer for the Seguin and New Braunfels areas.
O'Brien did not respond to questions from the Statesman. His website says he has expertise in “residential, commercial and industrial land development, federal and state rural highways, route and cost feasibility studies, schematic design and development, right-of-way requirements, site grading plans, construction administration, and municipal and private utility systems.”
Forton, 46, is a life insurance specialist and was a firefighter/paramedic and retail manager. He ran for the City Council in 2018 but was not elected. The mayor then appointed Forton to the Zoning and Planning Commission, and he is now its chairman.
Maintaining low property taxes and preparing for the RM 620 expansion project are issues Forton wants to address.
“My work history has included aspects of budgeting, short- and long-term planning, teamwork and decision making,” Forton said, “all attributes which will be needed on City Council.”
Both Vardell and Bernzott were seeking political office for the first time. Vardell, 55, is the senior director of health solutions at Oracle. Bernzott, 69, is the founder and CEO of a boutique institutional investment management firm.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Lakeway voters reelect Tom Kilgore as mayor
