• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •By Mayor Bob Higley
Page 11 | THE ESSENTIALS
WEST UNIVERSITY
MAYOR INSIGHTS
Tough decisions today pay dividends in the future
West U is our little slice
of heaven inside the
nation’s fourth largest
metropolitan area. To maintain
our status, current and future
West U city councilmembers
will have to consider a myriad of
issues that will come before them
— some of these issues will be
affecting the here and now, while
other issues might not actually
materialize until years down the
road.
Higley
Our West U city councilmembers carefully consider all the
issues that arise, with equal weight given to both short- and
long-term issues — thus successfully avoiding falling under
Parkinson’s law of triviality, which observes that the human
tendency is to devote a great deal of time to unimportant details
while crucial matters go unattended.
An example of the City Council’s effective long-term decision
making occurred in the 1990s, when city management and the
councilmembers had the gift of foresight and the intestinal
fortitude to undertake the city’s infrastructure program, which
relocated water and sewer lines from West U backyards to the
street side. The project also resurfaced the majority of the city’s
streets.
Thirty years ago, the $100-plus million spent on this project
was a huge investment in the city’s future, causing a major
increase to the tax rate. The community’s investment in in-frastructure
and services, however, has propelled West U into
an elite category as a city of choice for families looking for a
community to call home.
Additionally, this improved infrastructure has helped us to
better weather storms over the years, most notably Hurricane
Harvey. Our hearts go out to those 102 homeowners who
experienced flood damage in West U during this storm, but as
a community, we fared very well compared to our neighboring
cities to the west and south.
In 2021, a large majority of our indebtedness from the 1990s
will be paid off. Rather than patting ourselves on the back for
this upcoming feat, the city council finds itself at another cross-roads
vital to our future.
We have the opportunity to reinvest in West U’s future, with
minimal impact to the debt portion of the tax rate. So, over the
next few months, the City Council and its staff will be discuss-ing
improvements to our infrastructure, namely drainage —
deciding if the discussed improvements to our drainage system
will be worth the cost, and how these improvements should be
paid for if we elect to make the improvements.
I would be remiss in this column if I did not declare how
impressed I am with our hard-working council and staff. They
have worked long hours to pass a budget that will lower our tax
rate for the first time in three years, while continuing to invest
in the maintenance of our infrastructure and improving the
quality of life for the taxpaying homeowners of West U. I want
to say “thank you” to all these dedicated individuals who help
ensure that West U remains a wonderful city for all our resi-dents.
Higley can be contacted at bhigley@westutx.gov.