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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLynn McIlhaney TranscriptionCity of College Station Heritage Programs Oral History Interviewee: Lynn Mcilhaney Interviewer: Unknown Place: College Station, Texas Project: Mayors and City Council Transcriber: Brooke Linsenbardt 00:00: Lynn Mcilhaney (LM): I won in 1982 and then I ran again, at that time they were two terms, so I ran again in ’84 and won. And then in 1986, I lost and I figured I was out of city politics. And I guess, the, my love for the community and several citizens encouraged me to run again in 1987. And I, I don’t know, I, you know, I can’t say if there’s an edge because I’ve run before because every campaign is different. So you can’t say that well when you ran one year, this worked so it, it should work this year because the, the community changes. And the political process changes. And so you have to just, you just work hard to get your message out to the community, why you’re running and what’s important to you to try to accomplish should they give you the opportunity to serve them. I: There’s a saying that all politics is local. And I wonder if you’d comment about whether city politics has changed through the years to what you see it to be today. 01:34: LM: I think it has. You know, I, for me it’s public service. I don’t like the politics side of it, I like the public service side of it. And back in the eighties and the nineties, when you ran that, the community seemed to not focus so much on the politics, they focused a lot on the community service aspect of it and what you were interested in bringing to the position. I think the last several years, I’ve seen politics play more of a role in the election process, and I don’t know if that’s always good. Because it is true that the local level is the closest to the citizenry. That’s where the services are delivered. And even though it is government, it is really different from state and federal politics. And so I, I think the, the fact that the city of College Station seats are elected at large, the fact that they are nonpartisan has helped keep that local aspect. I: How would you characterize any difference in your relationship when you were a member of the city council as opposed to being the mayor? There’s only one mayor, you have other council members serving at the same time. 03:20: LM: In terms of the relationship between the council members and the mayor? Or between council members and council members? I: Yes. Both. 03:27: LM: Okay. As a council member, you, you function as a team. You put your, when an issue comes before the council, you research it, you listen to your staff, you listen to the, to the community and then you discuss the varying view points as council members and then you, you make a decision. So your interaction with, with the council member at that level is your view, my view, let’s discuss it, let’s bring, see what (stats?) professional position is and then let’s, let’s try to make a decision that is in the best interest of the future of the city of College Station. The role as mayor is a, is a little different because you, you are operating as the basically chairing the meeting. And so you’ve got to, you have to have an environment in which your council members can, can have that free flow discussion and keep it focused on the issues. And as mayor, if you see someone wondering off of the issue or bringing something in there that is counterproductive to the discussion, than it’s your role to try to, to focus it back in on the, on the issues so that a resolution can be made and clear direction can be given to staff on where the council was. As a council member, you just have the discussion. But as mayor, you have to show each council member respect, but you also have the responsibility of keeping them on point. I: Do you have any particular advice that you’d give to someone who might be thinking of running for local office? 05:39: LM: Well I think it’s important to, to know the process. If you’re thinking of running, go through the citizen’s university. That’s a good way to get to know the staff, get to know the issues that are facing the city, sit down with the current council and mayor and visit with them, and then talk, get out and meet the public. And, and then use that, give them the opportunity to freely talk to you and not feel like they, they’re gonna get a two-minute time limit response. [chuckle] I: City employees sometimes feel that they’re precluded from knowing and talking with the mayor and other local officials. During the time of your tenure on the council and as mayor, did you reach out to employees? 06:39: LM: Our council believed that, that we were a team. And not only the council, but part of that team is the staff. And so we made sure that we respected the professionalism of the staff. Your staff is your third party independent source of information when an issue comes before you as a council. So you get your packet, you listen to the public, you listen to the individual that may have made the request, and your staff is that third party independent voice. And then of course council members bring, bring their view point forward. There’s a fine line between reaching out to your staff and operating as a team and the council actually directing staff. And it’s important that, that as a council you realize, you’re the policy making board for the city. And you’re the future eyes of the city. You need to be out ten years ahead of, of where the city, the citizens are, and really where the staff is so that you can be looking at what policies you need to put in place to keep the city moving forward. Your staff deals with the city on a day-to-day basis. Your city manager manages your city. The council doesn’t manage the city, they, they set the policy and then they direct that policy. But the city manager implements that policy so there has to be that co-, good two-way communication. But each side has to recognize when that line from professional or policy, management and policy has, has been crossed. I: That’s a good way to put it. Texas A&M has been central to College Station from its very beginning. Indeed most of the services first came through the university when we were very small. How would you characterize the relationship between the city and the university during your time as mayor? 09:26: LM: The university is a big part of the city of College Station as you mentioned. And I’ve, during my term as mayor, our council believed that it was important that we reached out and that we had communication with, with the university. We realized that the university is a state agency and they’re gonna make decisions. However, a lot of the decisions can impact the city of College Station. And so during my tenure, I set up meetings out every three months, three or four months, with the president of the university and one other council member and that would rotate among council members and then the city manager. And then if there was a specific issue that the university had questions on than, than we had that staff person available at that meeting. So we tried to formalize those, that line of communication. And if something occurred at the university that the city needed to be aware of, there was some personal relationship between the staffs that needed to be able to communicate with each other. I: Are there any special things about being mayor in a, in a town with such a huge university in it that, that would be different from what you would expect in, in another town our size? 11:11: LM: Well of course you have the community swelling in population when you have home games and parent’s weekend and, and major events at the university. And, and so I think that has an impact because you’re looking at your traffic patterns, you’re looking at your signalizations at peak times when there’s traffic flows. There’s safety issues, getting people in and out of the venues that they were going, going to safely. So I think there is some uniqueness to having a university. And again the fact that a lot of that, of the city of College Station there, the land is non-taxable because it’s university owned or city owned or school district owned. And, so that from a revenue side has an impact. And you have to really look at okay, what makes up the revenue that helps us operate the city and how can we best capitalize on that as an asset. I: Now growth is always critical to an expanding tax-base as (historians?) say. How did services to the citizens increase, expand during your time as mayor? 12:38: LM: Well we did add additional parks. The Bush Presidential Library opened up during that time period. Our business park, the first business park south of town opened up during that time period. Over the years, I you know, I’m not sure if it happened between the time I was mayor or when I was on the council, but I know we went to curb-side recycling. And that’s been a big success. And the, the council has always focused on a high-level of service delivery to our citizens. And, so we, we looked at how can we, how can we manage the city in a more efficient and effective way, yet maintain that high-level of service. I: Well it’s acerbated too by the fact that there are so many more students that keep coming in and there doesn’t seem to be room for them all to live on campus. So they live in our local neighborhoods and, and there’s always a dynamic tension between neighborhoods and developers and did you see much of that during your tenure? 14:06: LM: Yes. There’s, there’s always that dynamic. But I’m a firm believer that you have to have strong neighborhoods. If you do not strong neighborhoods, the businesses are not going to be successful. It’s not an either or, it’s both. And it’s, and it’s working out and finding a way where both can be successful in the community. A home is someone’s largest investment, outside their business. Neither one wants to fail. And neither one wants to lose that investment. And so as the, as the council, the city had to look at that and say, “Okay, how can we foster the kind of relationship that, that we need to make decisions realizing that that tension exists.” And so we, we started some of that small area planning which brought in property owners and developers and staff members to start looking at what do we need to do. I think it was formalized later in the new comprehensive plan, but that process was started. The city manager would sit down and we would try to work through some of the real, tough issues before it actually got to a council meeting because the last thing that a council wants to do is to make an emotional decision. You really want to be able to make a logical, well-thought out decision based on what’s in the best interest of the future of the city. And if you can work out a lot of those really strong feelings and tensions within the, the group itself, you may not, they may not all be happy, but at least you’re not getting these st-, these strong pros and cons at, so much at the meeting. You’re able to, to focus on what direction do we want to go in. And I think that’s where the council has to stay focused because if you, if you allow a particular emotion to sway you, than that has a ripple effect for any other decisions. And, so it’s, it’s not easy, but you try very hard to keep it’s, it’s keeping those lines of communication open. I: Do you think College Station has been hampered by not having an identifiable downtown? 17:04: LM: No I don’t. I mean if you look at a lot of the communities that have downtowns, when they were thriving, they were thriving because there were neighborhoods surrounding them. As the down, as the neighborhoods started to deteriorate, so did the downtown. And it took a lot of tax dollars to bring, to start bringing those downtowns back. And many of them came back in different ways. If you look at downtown Houston, they have a, a museum district and a theatre district and it’s not what I remember growing up as a teenager in Houston. It’s not your typical downtown. So I don’t think it’s hampered the city of College Station. I think it’s added to its uniqueness. I: Transportation’s always a, a, a point of great interest in growing communities and certainly College Station is a, is a growing community. Was transportation an issue in, in during your administration? 18:11: LM: Yes it was. I, I was very involved with Texas Municipal League, both as a council member and as mayor. And through that process, I got involved with the, the transportation, I’m trying to remember the, what they’re, what they were called now, but it, it’s a group out of Dallas. And they have a transportation institute forum every August. And the council started working with them, and we actually had a regional transportation forum here. We started the s-, the a-, the discussion of looking at transportation from a regional standpoint because traffic doesn’t start at the city limits and it doesn’t end at the city limits. And if you don’t have a regional approach to your transportation, than you are not going to make wise decisions for the future because you’re gonna have roads that don’t connect where they need to connect or rail that isn’t doing its job or airports that aren’t doing their job. So, or public transportation if, if that every wants, you ever want that to occur. You need to look at your, your zoning in, in light of your transportation if you’re looking at public transportation in the future so you have your hubs. And again, if you’re not planning than roads can go in and development occurs and then you realize, “This isn’t where it needs to be.” And so transportation was a big issue during the councils term from, my term with the council from ’96 to 2002. I: College Station has a really strong parks department. Did the parks department continue to expand during your tenures? 20:26: LM: Yes it did. And in fact Veteran’s Park. The citizens actually, we were looking at just doing one phase of Veteran’s Park because of the bonds issues and citizens actually came in and asked that the council put a bond proposal on the ballot to do more than that first phase. If I remember that correctly. [chuckle] I: Were there preservation efforts to mark city historic buildings or other places of interest? 21:01: LM: Yes. We, we were very supportive of the historical efforts and we realized that if we, we didn’t get it now than there’s a good chance we would not get it ‘cause you know, we were approaching fifty years and a lot of the people that had the historical knowledge that we would need to be able to document the history may not be here. And so the council was very supportive. And it, and it’s important, if you don’t understand your history, it’s very difficult than to direct where you want to be. [chuckle] I: How about interest in the library? 21:45: LM: The library was opened. We c-, we worked with the city of Bryan and, to get the Larry J. Ringer Library here in College Station. And it was through an inter-local agreement that we have with the city of Bryan. When I first got on the council, I actually worked with Clara Mounce to have a bookmobile come to some of the neighborhoods. I: Where did it go? 22:11: LM: Well it went to Raintree for sure ‘cause I was living. [laughs] Well this was actually before I got on the council, but dur-, during the summer get, to get the kids involved in reading programs. I: Oh absolutely, absolutely. 22:28: LM: And so I. I: That was a precursor to the library being over there where Brown’s Shoe. Was it, was it Brown Shoe Company there? 22:39: LM: It was. That was a temporary site I think. I: It was kind of the store front place. 22:43: LM: And, but yes, we did. Yes, we did have the book mobile coming into the community for a while. I: I didn’t know there was a book mobile. 22:53: LM: [shakes head “yes”] I: Well that’s wonderful. 22:54: LM: I, yeah. I: That’s, well that’s great. That. Was there any interest in promoting historic tourism? 23:03: LM: We had talked about. Well one of the council’s goals was tourism and we had talked about the you know, setting up some type of, of program, but that was really the Convention Visitor’s Bureau role to that and not so much the council. But, trying to s-, to start marking a lot of the homes with the historic, historical marker plaques and recognizing them at council meetings to bring attention to the fact that some of these homes were actually on university property and then moved and restored so. I: There are nearly a hundred markers. 23:53: LM: Are there really? I: Yes, there are. I think we’re up to ninety-seven. And we only have three more and then we may have to face a struggle to reorder. 24:04: LM: Yeah. I: ‘Cause they, their more, they were all bought when it, stuff was less expensive than it is now. Anyway let’s, let’s talk now for a minute about the relationship between College Station and Bryan. Throughout our history, we have had upsides and we’ve had downsides. Tell me how you characterize the relationship with the city of Bryan during your experience? 24:38: LM: [sighs] I, again, communication. I would sit, you know, have meetings with Mayor (Stapler?) who was the mayor at the time that I was mayor. And we worked together on the ani-, at the animal shelter board. I think we had a good working relationship. We, at that time, we were also looking for a new site for the landfill. And that was an interesting process. [chuckle] I: Say a little bit about that. 25:16: LM: Oh well there were several sites that were looked at but, the site that, that was chosen, is the, the one currently now in Grimes County, and so working not only with the city of Bryan and Brazos County representatives, but also working with county representatives in Grimes County. And the process that we had to go through to, to get that approved before you even purchase the property and. So I, you know, you can focus on the differences and there will always be differences, we’re, we’re two different cities. But our council chose to focus on how we can work together and in the areas, that we can’t, we just agreed we cant’. And we’re not going to let that deter us or ha-, make us think negatively in any, in other terms of working with them. I: What about the overall relationship with Brazos County? 26:35: LM: We had started a meeting with the school district, county district, and the city of Bryan where we would meet on a, again, a regular basis and share information, so we knew what the county was doing and what the city of Bryan was doing and what the school district was doing. And the city and the school district would meet and then the city would meet with the, the county and the city of Bryan. So it, it was called the inter-governmental committee. And it was again, you just try to keep tho-, lines of communication going. But the county is a se-, separate entity and [chuckle] they, they’re services are different from city, from municipal services. I: Now did those meetings around the, the school systems make it easier when you began to get into other areas like the land fill for example, because you had been meeting on a regular basis? 27:57: I think, I think with the city of Bryan and with the county it, it did. I think, of course, the school district really didn’t have anything to do with the land fill, but with the school district it helped us look at. I: But at least you weren’t strangers. 28:12: LM: Right. And again, the same tax base is funding your school district as, as its funding your city. And so what we focused on was, “Okay, what areas can the, can we work on together.” If the new school was opening up, why don’t we put a park, “Y’all put in a playground, why don’t we work to, to make that a playground and a park.” So we’re adding extra amenities that the school district gets benefit from, but the citizens aren’t paying twice. And so there, we, we talked about shared facilities when it came to maintenance of the bus vehicles or city trucks. I mean there were a lot of topics that we, that we talked about in trying to find ways where we can provide the s-, same level of service that the school district was providing and the city was providing, but do it in a more effective way. I: When you ran for office, where there specific goals that you had that, things you wanted to achieve during your time in public service? 29:29: LM: Well yes. It’s, it’s an old story and I, but it’s, it’s a true story and. The reason I got involved is I had gone, I grew up some in Houston and I had gone back for one of my high school reunions and I had people tell me, “Don’t go back to your neighborhood. Don’t, don’t even go there. And if you do, don’t go past three o’clock in the afternoon.” And I thought, “Oh this, it, that’s only been a few years is, can’t be like that.” But it was and it was like it was forgotten that the corner store where we would go get ice cream was just broken concrete. The roads were in a terrible condition. All the homes had bars on them and that’s not what I grew up with. And I never wanted my children who grew up here in College Station, if they moved away and wanted to bring their children back, to ever, ever have to have that feeling “What happened? That’s not, that really isn’t what I grew up in.” And so it was important to me that we did focus on keeping our neighborhoods strong and healthy and viable, while encouraging growth in the business community. I: Did you have other goals? Or was that main driving force for you? 31:13: LM: That was the main driving force, but then as I got into the city and the longer I was on the council, I realized that public communication and information was really important for the council to do a good job ‘cause there’s always so much misinformation out in the public. And then you spend all your time and energy trying to correct the misinformation, you’re not moving your city forward. And so we started the citizens’ university. A-, it’s a way to get other voices out there that could, that knew the city, knew the issues, and could speak ‘cause sometimes, especially when it’s a very controversial issues, if elected official speaks out, they’re, it, it doesn’t resonate as, as much with the public as when your neighbor says, “Well wait a minute. A year ago I went through the university, we heard about this. And this is, this is the policy behind or this is the thought process behind it.” And I really believed that a-, if citizens had, understood how fortunate they are here in the city of College Station. Their staff truly are public servants. I mean, I’ve worked, I’ve worked through a lot of years with di-, a lot of different city staff, but a lot of them are the same. And a lot of them could have gone to other cities and, to move up in their professional life, but they chose to stay, here in College Station. And in the eighties when economic times were bad and the council had to make the decision not to give raises. Our staff hung in there, they worked hard and they provided the level of service that the citizenry has come to expect. And then when things improved, the council was able to go back and look again at the pay plan, look at the schedule and, and try to catch the staff back up. And at that, there were times where that we were the only entity in the community that didn’t give the raises, but the staff worked very hard. And I think it, it, through that citizens’ university, the citizens themselves get to see who is, who’s delivering those services every single day. Who are the lineman working on the electrical lines when a storm comes or a squirrel gets, gets caught on it. Who’s checking the sewer lines. Who’s doing the, doing the water lines. Your fire department, your police department, your finance department. Citizens don’t always have an opportunity to experience that, but through the citizens’ university they did. I: Do you have any regrets about things that were unfinished when your term of, terms of office were completed? 34:49: LM: I would say, I had, I was blessed to work with great council and great staff. I wish that the convention center had not become as negative as it was, as it did become and that we had been successful in getting that built because if you look at our budget, at I’d say close to thirty-eight, forty percent is sales tax revenue. And the best way to grow sales tax revenue is you either grow as a city, which means it’s offset because you’re having to increase your, your police, your fire, your parks, your infrastructure. Or you grow it through tourism. And with the university right here. And the many departments that go to other cities to do regional workshops. We have the resource here to do that, but we did not have the facility. And to be able to, to have people look at it in terms of it’s an economic development and a revenue asset. You know, ‘cause if you don’t have, if your sales drop, tax drop, your property tax right, has to go up. So if you can find a way to keep new sales tax dollars coming into the community, than you can help keep that sale, that property tax rate lower. I: Tell me, what did you enjoy most about being the mayor? 36:50: LM: I really enjoyed working with the citizens. I think that’s. To me, you know, I never minded getting the eleven-thirty at night phone call, if I felt like I could help. And. I: Now what kinds of things would people call the mayor about at eleven thirty at night? 37:10: LM: [chuckle] Oh you. [chuckle] You’d be surprised. The neighbor’s dog is barking. [laughs] I: Oh my (gosh?). 37:19: LM: But that’s okay. But I do, I, I enjoyed working with the, with the public. I enjoyed working with the, with the staff and with the council. I: Now you know that since I asked you what you enjoyed the most, I’m gonna ask you what you enjoyed the least. 37:38: LM: I would say the, the politics of it. [chuckle] It’s, and having to try to correct misinformation. I: That’s tough. 37:54: LM: It, it is very tough. And especially when that misinformation doesn’t allow the, the community to move forward. Being, being on the council really it’s visionary leadership. Is what it is. It’s not day-to-day management. Yes you have routine items that you approve—contracts and road projects and park projects—but the phone part. The exciting part is looking at what your city is today, getting together and saying, “What can we be in ten years? What, what will we look like?” And getting that picture. Then coming back to today and putting the policies in place to get you there. I: So that, that’s the excitement that, that made you feel rewarded for your service. 39:03: LM: Well that. And like I said, being able to help people. [chuckle] I: Is there one thing that your proudest of? 39:16: LM: I think it’s, I think it’s the city. Th-. No one does anything alone. And I had wonderful family that supported me through good times and bad times. Staff that went through some difficult times, but stayed focused. Council that went through difficult times. But we all, we all stayed together. We all stayed focused and we’re, we’re friends. [chuckle] And you know, you can just completely disagree with someone, but once that vote is over with and you walk out in the hallway, the next meeting’s the next meeting. And you don’t carry it over and that, that helps, everyone function a lot better. I: Now you’ve spent an awful lot of years being a public servant and attending all kinds of activities and getting the eleven-thirty at night telephone call about barking dogs and so forth now, once you went off the council and you weren’t a council person and you weren’t the mayor anymore, did you have a hard time making a, a transition back to being a, a citizen? 39:39: LM: I think, when your heart is with the city, it, it is a little bit hard. Th-, you know you, you try to walk away from it but if, it’s just like someone in your family. I: (Word?) 41:18: LM: Yeah. If, if they’re going through a difficult time, your, you can’t ignore it. So, there’s a part of you that’s still, cares and it, so, and at the time that I got off of the council, my, I lost my mom and so it’s sort of like a double loss. [chuckle] I: Be a double-whammy. 41:45: LM: Yeah. [chuckle] But, but I think that you know, God, He delivers. [chuckle] He delivers you, gives you the opportune-, other opportunities and I’ve had people calling, I’m playing bridge more often than I used to. And, and I still bowl so I still do, do those things. But now I’m able to, to say I had a great time and a wonderful opportunity that the citizens gave me to serve this community. And I wouldn’t trade any of that, good, good times or bad times. But now it’s someone else’s future and they need to, it’s time for, for them to see what the city can be in ten years and try to make it happen. I: What are your projects now? You talked of bridge and bowling, do you have other projects? 42:44: LM: [chuckle] Well I have nine grandchildren. I: Oh my golly, that’s nine projects right there. Wow. 42:49: LM: [chuckle] Yes, yes. And a wonderful family. [chuckle] I: Is there anything that you wish I’d ask you that I didn’t? 43:03: LM: No, I, I would just say that it is, it’s really an honor to be able to serve the community. And I, I was blessed ‘cause not only was I given the chance to serve the citizens of College Station, but I was also very active as I mentioned, in Texas Municipal League. And so I was able to serve as president of the Association of Mayors, Council Members, and Commissioners. And through that process, we also started a training program. It’s, it’s the Texas Municipal Leadership Institute. So educating the, the citizens on municipal government, was always an important issue to me. And I was ble-, I was really blessed with having the opportunity to do that, not only locally but at the state level. But, I just, I think it’s great that we are documenting our history and, so that future generations can look back and se-, and see why College Station is College Station. I: That’s an appropriate note on which to end this. Thank you so much Mayor Mcilhaney, I’ve just enjoyed talking to you. 44L27L LM: Oh you’re welcome. I: Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. 44:30: LM: You’re welcome.