AUSTIN (KXAN) -- There are currently four people in the running to be Austin's next mayor, including incumbent Mayor Kirk Watson. You'll vote for the next leader of our city in November.
Doug Grego, one of the four candidates, sat down with KXAN’s Grace Reader to talk about everything from public safety to transportation to what his campaign finance report says about his chances of winning.
This transcript was lightly edited for clarity and conciseness (Addendums may be added after each answer that provide context):
I grew up working class down in the coal region of eastern Pennsylvania. Went to college at Brown University, played football there and acted in a lot of theater productions. I came to Austin in 1996, started teaching on the east side at what was Johnston High School, now Eastside Early College High. I taught there for five years. And in that five years, we had seven principals. That's where I got involved in community organizing, eventually worked with an organization called Central Texas Interfaith. I was the executive director, lead organizer for a total of 12 years. I also worked in the LGBTQ rights movement with the largest statewide LGBTQ civil rights organization. And I was chief of staff with State Rep. Gina Hinojosa.
Launched my campaign on Feb. 5, and now I'm running for mayor of Austin.
Overall, I decided to run for mayor because the city needs a leader who fights for all Austinites -- not big money, not big donors, and certainly not Gov. [Greg] Abbott. Two big reasons why I jumped in the race: Number one, our affordability crisis is driving working families out of the city and out of the middle class. We are the fastest growing city for millionaires, but our income inequality continues to increase. And our percentage of Black and Latino residents continues to decrease.* So we need robust investments in education, workforce, living wage jobs, affordable housing, and housing for those experiencing homelessness.
Number two, Austin needs a leader who will stand up to Greg Abbott and state leaders when our local decisions and our civil rights are under attack. I will work with state leaders, I won't work for them. And I won't stand with the governor and bring DPS into our neighborhoods, or give his deputy chief of staff a special favor for his kids' charter school and I won't hire my top fundraiser and give him the job of running the city.*
So you know, I think in this election, we have a choice, we can be a people of fate, or we can be a people of faith. If more people have fate -- that we think the guy who's running for his eighth election, he's raised the most money from, you know, millionaire donors, he's been there done that -- let's give him one more shot, that's being a people of fate. Being a people of faith, faith in democracy, faith in our agency as active citizens and our collective power to solve issues like affordability, to protect our civil rights and to take the responsibility to shape the future of Austin, that's the kind of campaign I'm running. That's why I'm running. And that's the kind of mayor I'll be.
*According to City of Austin data presented in December 2023, Austin's population of color was 38% in 1990, 47% in 2000, 51% in 2010 and 53% in 2020. But city staff also said Black and Brown populations were largely being pushed east, and were disproportionately being displaced.
"Austin's unique demographic shift includes a loss of Hispanic and Black children," city staff said.
*Links for context: Watson working with the governor to bring DPS to Austin (true), helping governor staffer secure charter school permits (reported by local radio station KUT) and hiring his top donor to run the city (needs context).
On the last point, Greco is referring to Interim City Manager Jesús Garza, who has since been replaced by a permanent city manager. Garza was Watson's city manager during his previous term as mayor and ran the PAC that fundraised significant money for Watson in 2022. But it is worth noting that Austin City Council as a whole is tasked with bringing in and removing city managers.
Look, I think we need to pay our officers well, like all public safety officers, especially for the work they do. And at the same time, we need to have robust recruiting and recruit from all communities of Austin so our police force reflects our population. We need to give them the right training and implement the best community policing strategies, the best training for cadets and sworn officers for race equity, double down on that training.
And we do need to implement the voter-approved police oversight measures that overwhelmingly passed. At the same time, I think we need to pay competitively and recruit robustly.
I support Project Connect, I still support it. I think we have to be very careful that it is now brought in on time and on budget, on the current budget. It was resoundingly approved by voters, so we owe it to voters to implement it. I think it's good for quality of life, for the environment and it's bringing good jobs. But I will be the mayor that implements it on time and on budget. I think we need that.
I-35. Obviously, it looks like the project is moving forward. I did file the civil rights...I did sign on to the civil rights complaint as a community member because of the challenges that it provides. I think, you know, the mayor was the one that negotiated this deal at the legislature when he was state senator and has stuck us with a bill for $900 million for caps and stitches.* Now if we're going to have the highway, we should have caps and stitches. But he stuck us with the bill that should have been negotiated. The state should have paid for that. And I think the big problem now is that we are on the hook for almost a billion dollars in what the mayor could not negotiate for. So I'll be a stronger negotiator with the state and make sure we implement our transportation projects in a way that takes the environment into account and our quality of life into account.
*While the City of Austin is responsible for identifying the funding for caps and stitches over I-35, no announcements have been made yet to indicate funding would come directly from city taxpayers. The city has already been rewarded more than $100 million in federal funding for the project.
Look, I was the top fundraiser among all the challengers in dollars raised, number of donors, and cash on hand. The gap between Kirk Watson and Celia Israel was $750,000 after this first report two years ago. The gap between me and Watson is just a little over $600,000. So I'm closer. And I would have loved to have raised what Celia raised. But his fundraising is down $300,000. And we've got four challengers, you know, raising money from Austin. So I'm proud that I'm the top fundraiser among the challengers. And I'm proud that my gap is less than the gap between he and Celia two years ago.
So we have the resources to get our word out around working class families and standing up for civil rights. We're continuing to raise money and, you know, we're raising what we need to to communicate our message.
My mom was a single mom raising three boys. She bought her house for $30,000 in 1985, after my parents divorced, and she sold it in 2008 for $15,000. It lost half its value. So I understand what it means to come from a working family, okay?
Austin has been losing working families partly because we have not been investing in education and workforce. We need to invest in kids that grow up in Austin, underemployed adults that could be nurses, could be working in information technology, medical technology, and invest in them.
I just called on the city council and the mayor to invest 40 million new dollars in this budget in education and workforce initiatives. I have a track record and fighting for those items and winning them. As a former high school teacher, I know the value of investing in education is rarely ever wasted. Those dollars are never wasted. So that's where I would put my money first -- investing in people.
First of all, like I said, I would invest in people, education, workforce and things like affordable housing, rental and mortgage assistance. Mayor Watson has been a big fan of giving away large tax incentives throughout his career to major corporations. My organization fought for strict requirements and living wage standards and we would follow those in the city.
I would also end what I call sweetheart deals for major corporations for their utility rates, for water, for gas, for electric that they've gotten over the years. They have gotten lower increases and lower percent rates for their utility bills. Samsung, Tesla, NXP would pay their fair share when it comes to utilities. And frankly, when it comes to negotiating deals for the city, I would be stronger than the mayor.
The mayor...put us on the hook now for almost a billion dollars for caps and stitches.* Local taxpayers are paying for the medical school,* which we needed, but that's a state medical school. It's a state university. And he should have negotiated that the state pay for it and he's left us on the hook and Central Health. So I'd be a stronger negotiator for the city. I'd be more fiscally responsible when it comes to taxpayer dollars given to multinational corporations. And that's where I would draw the line.
*While the City of Austin is responsible for identifying the funding for caps and stitches over I-35, no announcements have been made yet to indicate funding would come directly from city taxpayers. The city has already been rewarded more than $100 million in federal funding for the project.
*Dell Medical School receives both public and significant private funding. You can read more about the contributions made by private donors vs .public entities on the University of Texas history page dedicated to the hospital.
Well, let me first talk about what I think is is working. In 2021, when I was with [Central Texas] Interfaith, we worked with the mayor and the county judge to get $200 million in ARPA dollars for permanent supportive housing and services. Now, by the end of the year, there'll be over 1,000 units built where we only had a few 100 built before then, and that's a major accomplishment.* So we're doing well with permanent housing, we need to do better with overnight shelters and emergency shelters and the medium-term housing to get folks into that permanent housing. We need to invest there as well and do a better job.
*Overall, the City of Austin received $188.5 million in ARPA funding, KXAN has previously reported. Of that, the city spent more than $100 million on homelessness. We have also reported that Travis County received roughly $110 million in total ARPA dollars, which it has voted to spend largely on addressing homelessness. Additionally, you can read more about the permanent supportive housing units Greco references here.
I will say that the same year that Kirk Watson was first elected mayor and started giving corporate tax giveaways to companies, I started my teaching career and helped organize to bring the school off the low performing list for the first time in several years. Before he spent a day in the legislature, I helped lead campaigns and actions that helped increase equity for students. And the organization that I worked for had a hand in expanding chip access before Watson was ever elected to the Senate. And you know, during the pandemic we fought for and won $200 million in city and county funding for homelessness -- $50 million for rental assistance. At that time, the mayor took a job at the Hobby School, could have mentored the next generation of leaders and left within a year because I guess he thought he can do it better himself and had to run for mayor again.
And again, you know, I was at the center of killing the state's largest corporate tax giveaway program -- a program that the mayor voted for in the Senate nearly every time he could.*
I'll close and say in the 27 years since the mayor has first been elected mayor, Austin has become increasingly unaffordable. It's become a city for the wealthy. During that same time, I fought for real improvements and investments in workforce education and working families. I come from a working class background, and I put my accomplishments up against the mayor's any day.
And I will say that, you know, that I think we need to look forward. I mean, the mayor is doing some short-term, you know, kind of addressing some small ball issues. I want to look to the next 30 years and what's our vision for the next 30 years? I don't think the mayor is looking that far down the line. I think he's looking at you know, like I said small ball items, trying to be a Mr. Fixit. I don't know that he's doing a great job of that. We need a mayor that’s going to look into the next generation and that’s the type of mayor I will be.
*The Texas Observer reported in 2016 that then Senator Kirk Watson pushed to reform Chapter 313.
“The burden of proof ought to be on those who say ‘Let’s have this program,’” says Watson, who supports incentives in principle but has argued in vain to reform Chapter 313, the Texas Observer reported. “If you favor these kinds of programs, you have a special obligation to show they work.”
KXAN is doing one-on-one interviews with all candidates for mayor so that you can be better informed heading into the November election.
You can find our sit down interviews with the other candidates here:
Carmen Llanes Pulido is also running for mayor. Her one-on-one is scheduled for a later date. You can find information about her background and platforms here.
