Incumbent Mackenzie Kelly faces Krista Laine in D6 race

Council Member Mackenzie Kelly and her lone challenger, Krista Laine, will go head to head in the Nov. 5 election. Kelly touts her credentials as a promoter of all things public safety, while Laine says she will do better for the district in that area as well as others.

One factor favoring Laine is that she is a Democrat and Kelly a Republican. Only one of the city’s eight Council districts offers Republicans a chance to be elected, and that’s District 6 in Northwest Austin. Although Republicans won in the original districts 8 and 10 in 2014, as the maps have been revised and the candidates have changed, no Republican has been elected in D8 or D10 since then. And D6 has become more mainstream with some Republicans being moved into District 10, according to Republican Party Chair Mack Mackowiak. District 6 first elected Republican firebrand Don Zimmerman, then Democrat Jimmy Flannigan, and in 2020 chose Kelly.

As the Austin Bulldog reported in June, “Laine’s primary base of support are fans of the work she did in starting Access Education RRISD and serving as its president. That organization rallied support to defeat a slate of the five candidates fielded by the conservative One Family Round Rock PAC, who ran for the Round Rock ISD board of trustees” in November 2022.

Since then, a variety of groups have endorsed Laine, so while the Round Rock school board may have been her springboard, she is certainly not stuck there.

A former professional real estate appraiser, Laine is not a City Council regular. In fact, she says she only watches the meetings occasionally, but she is well aware of city land use regulations and hopes to help speed up changes that will make it easier for developers and homeowners to get permits. She told the Austin Monitor that the city’s Development Services Department “takes significantly longer” than development departments in other Texas cities. She said one supporter told her it had taken him nearly six months to make improvements to his back porch because of city regulations.

Laine supports the changes to development rules set forth in the HOME (Home Options for Middle-Income Empowerment) initiative, while Kelly does not. Kelly said the added density allowed by HOME in many neighborhoods would hamper the movement of fire engines through the streets. She observed that people park on both sides of the street in neighborhoods that already have duplexes and fourplexes, and that adding more density would not improve the situation.

Laine’s support comes from a variety of Democratic organizations and from people who admired her steering of the Round Rock ISD elections in 2022 away from a slate of extreme conservatives, including Zimmerman.

Kelly’s background includes working as a firefighter and first responder. She has endorsements from the Austin Travis County EMS Association, Austin Firefighters Association and the political action committee for the Austin Police Association.

When asked about the most important issue for her constituents, Kelly said, “I feel strongly that it’s still public safety,” adding that District 6 has always been farthest from a police substation. Laine agreed with that sentiment.

Kelly told the Monitor that one of her biggest accomplishments recently was getting a new temporary public safety substation in District 6 on Parmer Lane and Pecan Park Boulevard. She said the police department already had a trailer that was appropriate for officers to conduct investigations, write reports and engage with community members. Kelly noted that Chief of Staff Jeff Greenwalt said during the substation’s opening that it sometimes takes 30 minutes to get an officer from downtown or another location to District 6.

Moving the trailer to the Parmer location did not take any action by Council since the city already owned the trailer and it could be moved relatively easily. Former Interim City Manager Jesús Garza handled the matter, she said.

Two other issues that are important to District 6 residents are traffic and the impact of homelessness, she said. Kelly noted that the city recently installed a new traffic signal at Anderson Mill and Pecan Street. That might not seem difficult to accomplish, but Kelly said it took several years of talks with the Transportation Department to get it done. She also noted that she had worked on a number of other traffic problems, including the lack of a crosswalk at Jollyville Elementary School after it was annexed into the city.

Kelly pointed out that she had successfully advocated for two additional dispatchers for the Fire Department as well as advocating for an additional aerial fire truck in the budget. She said she was proud to have worked to get APD’s license plate reader program back in operation.

Recently, Kelly donated $150,000 from her office account to the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, money that is specifically earmarked to improve an undeveloped piece of parkland at 8020 Spicewood Springs Road. Kelly noted that she is the only Council member ever to make such a contribution.

Laine said the district has a real problem with slow responses to 911 calls, but that the problem could not be resolved unless the district has “an effective advocate” on the dais. She pointed to traffic as a major problem for the district, saying she would put her experience to work in solving transportation problems in the district, adding, “I think that there are quite a few missed opportunities.”

Laine had a variety of ideas about express bus connections, more park-and-ride locations, and other ideas to improve Capital Metro’s service in the area. When it was pointed out to her that City Council did not have any direct control over Capital Metro, Laine said she knows a lot about transportation, adding, “I want to be part of the transportation conversation.”

Laine told the Monitor her house used to be in District 10, whose Council member is Alison Alter, and that she had spoken with Alter and her staff about issues in her area at that time.

After the many problems her area had in the aftermath of Winter Storm Uri, she said, Austin Energy seemed not to know that her neighborhood had lost power for three days. Since then, the utility has trimmed many trees in the area and it has not lost service. But Laine still has complaints about Austin Water and what she perceives as a slow response to fixing a lift station in the district.

Kelly said she is confident Austin Water is responding to the problem appropriately.

According to the city’s demographic profile for District 6, about one-third of the population is in the low- to moderate-income category. Like most of Austin, the residents are well educated, with 96 percent saying they have a high school diploma and 62 percent a bachelor’s degree or higher.

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Posted In: Elections, District 6