Council on Kirk

The Old Mayor and the New (l-r): Mayor Kirk Watson and Mayor-elect Gus Garcia march to Palmer Auditorium. (Photo By John Anderson)

Kirk Watson's departure from the dais this week means readjustment time for City Council. Here is how members reflect on the Watson era and ponder the future with Gus.

Daryl Slusher: Kirk and I are allies. He's a good friend. One of the defining things of his administration is that I was able to get more of my agenda done by working with him, and I think the reverse is true. Our policy overlapped in a lot of instances. And with Kirk, if you didn't like something he had come up with, he would come back with an alternative: "What about this?" Some folks thought he was inflexible, but I didn't find that to be the case. I think people are going to run things a bit slower now, but I think that's reflected in the city in general. Not that less work will get done, but it'll be at a less hectic pace and with more discussion at council.

Jackie Goodman: Kirk was a really dynamic mayor. Now that we have sort of a different world, with an economic downturn and the Sept. 11 events, I think that Gus has a totally new dynamic to work with. As Kirk leaves, it's like we're seeing the beginning of an era. But the fact that Kirk is running for a statewide office is very exciting; not since (former mayor) Carole McClellan [now Rylander, state comptroller] has that happened.

Will Wynn: It's been very fun for me for 18 months to serve with the guy, and I've learned a lot. I'm going to miss his sense of humor, his work ethic, and his complete commitment to the city. The Austin political scene had suffered from bipolar disorder, in my opinion, but after a year or so of Kirk's first term, we saw a paradigm shift. I credit that shift to encouraging somebody like me to run for City Council; there's no way I would have run prior to it. I'm looking forward to the next 18 months, which will be very different -- primarily because of external forces. But I'm looking forward to serving with Gus. I fully expect to learn as much -- if not more -- from Gus as I did from Kirk, but probably wholly different lessons.

Raul Alvarez: Certainly Kirk has had a very productive tenure as mayor and really made things happen, which I personally think is a good thing in this day and age because the issues we face are still pressing. If you're going to make an impact now, you have to be real aggressive. I think he did an incredible job in looking at some of the biggest and most difficult issues: affordable housing, environment, downtown development, and putting something on the ground real quick that would help us address those issues. There was a lot of progress made in a short amount of time. What needs to happen next is that we need to break the big picture down into the core issues. We need to examine the services we provide to the community and determine how we fill in the gaps.

Danny Thomas: Let me put it this way -- I know we all have some areas in which we wish things could have been done better. But I enjoyed working with Kirk. Wherever he's going, I send him my blessings. I think he would make an excellent attorney general because he does have the heart of the people. It will be hard to replace him. I wish him success.

Beverly Griffith: Mayor Watson is one of the most talented people I've ever worked with. His energy, imagination and skill will serve him well in whatever role he chooses.