Hellyar, At-Large 4
‘Passion for municipal government’ will help improve services in candidate-rich contest.
After Amanda Edwards announced that she would be running for U.S. Senate, the City Council At-Large Position 4 race was left with no clear front-runner — and a diverse field of 11 candidates vying for her seat.
The contenders, who bring a wide range of experience and involvement in community advocacy, include Bill Baldwin, a civic activist known as the “King of the Heights” and member of the city planning commission; Letitia Plummer, a dentist and granddaughter of a Tuskegee Airman flight instructor; James “Joe” Joseph, pastor and founder of a Fifth Ward nonprofit, and Tiko Hausman, a business consultant with a background in government procurement.
Their qualifications and grasp of the issues facing Houston — from flood mitigation to city finances — are impressive.
The residents of Houston should be heartened by the caliber of candidates seeking to represent them.
One, however, stands out for his knowledge of the inner workings of city hall: Nick Hellyar isa 37-year-old real estate agent with a “passion for municipal government” that grew out of early jobs working as constituent services manager for then-City Council member James Rodriguez, whose three-term tenure representing District I ended in 2013. Hellyar also served as district director in then-state Rep. Carol Alvarado’s District 145 office.
It was there, Hellyar told the editorial board, that he learned how important city services are in the everyday lives of Houstonians.
“If their trash can doesn’t get picked up, and they call their council office and it gets picked up, that makes a huge difference in somebody’s life,” he said.
“We need common sense leaders at the city level just to get everyday stuff done — make sure our roads are smooth, make sure we have adequate drainage, ensure
that the water runs when you turn on the tap, ensure that we have public safety. So I want to be a common sense leader.”
Hellyar says his two top priorities as an At-Large council member would be to improve infrastructure and to get the city’s budget under control — both issues he said sorely need attention.
As Hellyar pointed out, “nobody should ever go to sleep at night when it's raining wondering if they're going to wake up to water in their homes.”
For far too many city residents, that is the reality — and Houston needs leaders ready to tackle the issue of flooding and drainage and who understand the importance of balancing the city’s budget.
Hellyar’s pragmatic approach, his professed desire to build a consensus with other elected officials, and his experience in municipal government may be what it takes to get work done.
We recommend him for At-Large Position 4.