Old Town, Georgetown Texas

By Ross Hunter

UPDATE April 28, 2013: I have felt for more than 2 years that we were fooled by Tommy Gonzalez. His actions have proved him unworthy of this endorsement. I made this endorsement at Mr. Gonzalez’s request, and took a lot on trust to do so. Everyone who supported him very quickly came to feel betrayed by his subsequent actions on the council. I have now formally revoked this endorsement (see Tommy Gonzalez Bad for Georgetown).  — Ross Hunter

We at OldTowners would like to declare our support for Tommy Gonzalez, soon to be our District 7 council representative, as Ben Oliver retires from the excellent fight he has made on our behalves these last six years.

Tommy is running unopposed, but even so he wants to run a modest “campaign” in order to meet his new constituents. If you’re involved in this district or in city affairs please try to get to meet him, and to support him if you can with volunteer or financial assistance. A quiet campaign with no pressure is actually a far better time to meet a candidate than during the pressures of a contested race.

I personally believe the two greatest qualities Tommy will bring to the council are his reasoning ability and his commitment to transparency in that reasoning. He declares himself independent of any pre-existing agenda and says he’ll listen to every side of an issue – and then give full responses to all points. This is what Ben Oliver gave us faithfully during his time on the council, and I think we can afford nothing less. Tommy has already given us a glimpse of his leanings during his tenure at HARC – he allowed no shoddy argument to pass unexamined, and he stood up for the integrity of our hard-won design codes.

Here’s a brief bio/position statement from Tommy:

TOMMY G. GONZALEZ
FOR DISTRICT 7
GEORGETOWN CITY COUNCIL

EDUCATION

B.S.B.A. University of Florida
Major Economics Minor History

EXPERIENCE/COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

• City of Georgetown Historic Architectural Review Commission (2 years).
• Past Ambassador of the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
• Past Board member of the P.B.C. Y.M.C.A.
• 19 years in the Financial Services Industry.
• Treasurer Summercrest H.O.A. for past two years.

KEY ISSUES

• Focus on transportation, roads, and infrastructure, preparing for expected growth in Georgetown.
• Work with GISD and its Board of Education to expand the number of of quality schools and improve the overall quality of education in Georgetown.
• Promote new quality business’ to Georgetown to help increase revenues for the city; my focus would be on projects east of I35.
• Maintain the nature and character of the historic City of Georgetown as we experience rapid growth and change.

PERSONAL

Married 15 years to wife Melissa
11 year old son Joshua and 5 year old daughter Liliana
3 Year old pet dog, Shiloh.

Resident of the SummerCrest Development