In a attempt to simplify the voter's understanding of where the five candidates stand on  key issues I sent all of them a note on the morning of April 30th giving them until the end of day on May 1st to respond to this - one of three questions:

 

Question:  "How critical do you think our water supply situation is and how can the City leverage its two seats on the PUA to protect the water supply of existing area residents?"

 

Candidates Goodwin, Coleman chose not to respond, but Matzen submitted his answers on Friday the 2nd.

 

Carrell Killebrew responded first with :

"We are in an extended drought. The City has to manage water supply with both the PUA and the LCRA because the PUA gets its water from the LCRA.
 
PUA board members currently derive their governing legitimacy by representing the constituencies of their appointing governmental bodies, such as Bee Cave.  Current customer needs must have priority over new customers, and all expansion must be funded by new customers.
 
The PUA and the City need to work to keep the LCRA from implementing rate changes which would have residential customers subsidize bargain-basement agricultural customer rates and better agricultural water supply. "

 

Marie Lowman came next saying:

"The water supply situation is critical.  It is the cities responsibility to appoint two individuals to the PUA.  That responsibility includes fully vetting candidates and selecting the best person for the appointment.  The PUA inherited a myriad of challenges, they are working hard unraveling some of those, that being said the City of Bee Cave is not their only constituent, and their responsibilities cross county lines.  The City must closely monitor the work of the PUA and developers to implement best practices and lessons learned from other affected areas so we can bring the very best to this City. "

 

Tom Matzen's reply:

"The City has the responsibility to appoint two individuals to the PUA. The PUA also has 3 other members whose allegiance is not solely to Bee Cave.  Bee Cave should nominate the best consensus builders to work with and challenge the LCRA who ultimately controls water rates. The water shortage will likely continue to deepen and current residents should not disproportionately fund future expansion.  The City Council can actively monitor the PUA and make changes to its nominees if we think that would yield a better result and also City Council should push for water conservation of all types on new and existing development. Saving water is saving water and we can all do more."