Incumbent Tom Matzen drops out of Bee Cave council election
Saying recent lawsuits have taken the joy out of his job, Bee Cave City Council Member Tom Matzen announced Wednesday night he is withdrawing from the May 5 election.
“I’m stepping aside,” Matzen said at the start of a candidate forum at the Sonesta Bee Cave hotel. “I won’t be running for City Council. I’ve done it for four years. It’s been a pleasure.”
His announcement came one day after Mayor Caroline Murphy, who was not seeking re-election, announced she was resigning.
Matzen said he initially only wanted to serve on the council for two terms, then decided to run for another term, “but the lawsuits make me rethink that,” referring to litigation between the city and the developers of the sprawling Backyard concert venue and hotel project, as well as the developers of an office building on Bee Cave Parkway.
“To be honest, it’s not fun anymore,” Matzen said. “We have a city that’s split. It’s not even rewarding anymore.”
Matzen said he made the decision to withdraw after the City Council meeting Tuesday, when Murphy announced her retirment
With $120 million, just under the amount a task force recommended for Austin’s aquatic system, the Parks and Recreation Department could keep all the swimming pools in the city functioning, plus add four, city staffers said in a memo this week.
With half that amount of money, the department would replace all six pools at imminent risk of closure, with only short-term closures as some fail before construction could occur.
But the department is only expected to receive a maximum of $33 million for aquatics — the amount it requested — from a bond package to potentially go to voters in November.
With that amount, the department would build a new pool at Colony Park in Northeast Austin, which does not have any pools, and repair Givens pool in East Austin and Mabel Davis pools in Southeast Austin. That would leave four pools most in “critical” danger of failure: Northwest, Gillis in South Austin, Civitan in East Austin and Montopolis in Southeast Austin.
“It is likely that any pool (ranked critical), for which the department cannot properly address renovations and upgrades, will eventually have a failure of some sort,”