AUSTIN (KXAN) — There are five people in the running to be Austin’s next mayor, including incumbent Mayor Kirk Watson. You’ll vote for the next leader of our city in November.
Jeffery L. Bowen, one of the five candidates, sat down with KXAN’s Grace Reader to talk about everything from why he voted ‘no’ on Project Connect to his role in the lawsuit that undid Austin’s land development code rewrite to why he decided to jump in the race when he did.
Bowen entered the race just hours before the deadline to file to be on the ballot.
This transcript was edited for clarity and conciseness. Answers were cut down for time and addendums may be added for additional context. You can watch the full video above.
What’s on your resume?
I actually did over 20 years in the service. I did various jobs in the Air Force. I started out working on airplanes, then went to civil engineering where I became basically construction manager, a surveyor. Also did some special duty assignments surveying radar units all over the world. Then did a stint here in Austin at the NCO [Noncommissioned Officer] Academy that was at Bergstrom, teaching leadership and management and writing leadership and management curriculum for the Air Force. Retired after 20 years and almost six months. Then went into the commercial business, so to speak, with different contractors, different developers, those type of things. And went out on my own in 2001 and [have] been self employed ever since. Have my own small company — doing consulting, doing project management, doing projects and pretty much that’s it. Been here since 1989, we moved back to Texas because I was raised here outside of Houston.
You’re Council Member Mackenzie Kelly’s pick for the board of adjustments, you work with the Austin Neighborhoods Council, tell me about that work?
Well I was asked to join the board of adjustments, and I’ve been on it roughly, coming up [on] one year now. Her appointee decided he didn’t want to do this anymore. He felt like he was not really right for it and suggested me.
I’m also involved in Austin Neighborhoods Council currently, right now, I’m a vice president. I’ve been with them roughly eight years or so. Started off just as a neighborhood rep for the neighborhood I live in, and then became a sector rep for the entire southwest side of town, and then have basically kind of moved up the proverbial food chain of Austin Neighborhoods Council.
It’s my understanding that you were involved in the lawsuit that undid the writing of CodeNEXT. Can you talk a little bit about your involvement?
I’m actually one of the many plaintiffs. I believe there was 12 of us. I was the only one from the southwest side of town. Honestly, when I was asked about what my feelings were, if I wanted to join the lawsuit, I said, ‘yeah, sign me up.’ I had a problem with the fact of the city wanting to take away my protest rights and also violating state law. That was the main thing, because I do believe in property rights, and I’ve even spoken at the legislature about property rights during the last session. I’m glad we won. It was a long draw. It was a long, it was a long journey through that whole process.
Then we ended up also going back through Mr. Becker, which was our attorney, he again sued the city over compatibility and over VMU 1 and VMU 2 and those type of things, which, once again, there were no protest rights, and the council just basically ignored those, and so they ended up back in court on that.*
*You can read more about what CodeNEXT was and the lawsuits filed against it in our coverage here.
So to be clear…are you against changes to land development code that incentivize more building, or were you strictly against the notification process failing to meet state law?
For me, part of it was the notification, but part of it was also the guise that we were looking for affordability and the people that I deal with — even on ANC, those type of things — we are not against affordable housing. We’re all for those things. But when the city has a tendency to not tell you the truth and say, ‘Oh, well, it’s about affordability,’ but then changes their minds and the misnomers that goes along with this…and a lot of it also comes back with, how far are you infringing on somebody else’s property rights when you decide that you want to put up a six story building and block the sun away from them and it’s only 50 feet from your from your own property line? So there’s there’s a lot of complexities in it, but there’s also some issues that were never really discussed to where the public understood the entire complexity of these issues.
What changes to the land development code do you think would both benefit neighborhoods and make Austin a more affordable place to live?
My main emphasis is, if somebody wants to put an ADU (accessory dwelling unit) in their backyard, I don’t have a problem with that. But to be told by our city council and our leadership that you can go do this to help offset your taxes, or you can do this to help bring in more income — somebody will believe that and have not done the homework, so to speak, of what it costs to do permitting, drawings, your impact fees, all of the other things, the impact on your property taxes, because you’re now changing what may be your homestead, and you’re now going to have part of it that’s your homestead but part of it that’s not and have a totally different tax rate.
But also when it starts then to hamper our safety with fire, EMS, by not being able to get to them, by not being able to get to buildings and backyards. Also our own infrastructure issues, and we have plenty of infrastructure issues, and that just never really gets really talked about.
What are the cons, the unintended consequences of doing this? That gets to be very disturbing to me for the lack of of transparency and also the lack of truth in being able to understand that.
Project Connect is another example of where the city’s taken a step back. Now they’re facing a lawsuit there as well. Where do you stand when it comes to Project Connect?
I honestly voted against Project Connect.* We did a debate on that, we had a couple people that were for Project Connect that came from the ambassador’s network, and a couple people that were not that we did here on the south side of town. I truly believe that what the voters were sold versus what it was and what it is now is two totally different things. There was a very strong lack of transparency and the truth, which many of them were called out on and it needs to be brought in front of the people so that they understand that this is not a bond.* And there’s many that still believe it’s a bond when they don’t understand it, it is a forever tax and that will never end.
And I’m not against, I’m not against transit. I don’t particularly care for the train issue, because it’s not being equitably serving everybody across this across this town, and that needs to be, you know, they talk about equity, yet the bus service in my neighborhood is every 30 minutes.
*You can read more about the Project Connect lawsuit here.
*You can also read more about the funding structure for Project Connect, and the debate about it, here.
How do you balance making some of the changes that need to be made in the city and getting through all of the things on that [city council] agenda while also giving people all of the robust information they need?
I’ve also thought about that. It’s like, I can’t promise you that something is going to happen because there’s 10 other votes on that dais, but the fact that it’s brought up for discussion, clear, honest discussion, that’s really the only thing at this point that you can do to then try to convince somebody else on the dais that this is a worthwhile cause. Versus just doing something along the lines…with the city charter thing* coming up saying, ‘Oh, we’re going to have one discussion over all of these different charter amendments we want to add, and there’ll be one vote versus a discussion over all of those different changes. That’s not the way things are supposed to be done.
*Austin City Council voted to push charter amendments to your ballot after a months long process, you can find the details on those here.
These folks [other candidates] have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. They’ve got campaign signs out. They’ve got social media websites going. How do you make up that ground?
Well, you start by putting the phone down because your phone is blowing up with people going, ‘what the hell did you just do?’ And you start talking to different people that you’ve worked with in the past, and getting different sources. My wife has jumped up and said, ‘okay, I’m going to build a Facebook page.’ I did an email strictly for the campaign type thing. So it’s just a matter of now dealing with going and getting the bank accounts, getting it set up. So yeah, I’m behind. But you know what? Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
I’m in this to go out there and try to be a voice for those that really haven’t had a voice. And there’s going to be people I know I’m not going to appeal to, and that’s fine. That’s fine. I’m not going to promise you something that I can’t deliver on, because there’s 10 other voices on that council. You have to be able to get that through them, and get them to change their thoughts and minds on that process that I just…for once, maybe, maybe somebody can actually be an adult on the council and say, ‘no, you can’t have this.’
Finally, pitch yourself to the voters. What do you want them to know about you?
I’m not going to tell you how to vote. That’s your choice. I’m just out here to try to be a voice of reason in some point, in some fact, some fashion, that’s all I can ask for. That’s what I try to do. And just try to be that, to be that voice in the back of your mind that goes, ‘now something’s not right,’ but if it’s good, then we need to be moving forward with those type of things.
Maybe this will even get some other people to finally just say, ‘you know what, I’m going to go vote, I’m going to go vote, and I’m going to start listening.’ And that’s all you can do is just try to get people to understand this is their city. This is where they live. This is where they want to grow up, their kids to grow up, whatever the case is. It’s going to be difficult over the next several years, with all of this unaffordability coming in, with tax hikes, all of these other things, and the lack of people having any — I don’t want to say whereabouts — but their their limit to how much they really understand, or how much they really want to understand, affects all of us. So that’s it.