By Kim Hilsenbeck 

With just 231 residents, the City of Hays – a small, incorporated community in the northern part of Hays County – rarely has contested city council races. In years past, council members and mayors often ran unopposed for multiple terms.

In those rare elections where opponents challenged a seat, voter turnout was low.

But this year, things changed.

Sixty voters, which is just under 36 percent of the 136 registered voters in the City of Hays, cast a ballot in the May 10 election.

“It was the biggest turnout [the city has] ever had,” Gayle Hudgins said. “Usually 11 people bother to come out.”

Hudgins is the wife of the City of Hays’ newly elected mayor, Harvey Davis.

What are Davis’s mayoral aspirations and how did he unseat a two-term incumbent?

“I thought I could do a good job,” he said.

Of those 60 voters, 36 (60 percent) voted to oust the incumbent mayor, Michael Warnken, replacing him with Davis in a landslide decision.

So how did Davis convince 60 percent of the voters in his community to get involved?

“Both [Michael and I] ran positive campaigns,” Davis said. “But [my campaign] worked harder.”

He and council candidate Amy Werst worked in concert, canvassing the neighborhood and meeting with residents. He said there was even an informal citizens forum where community members asked questions of each candidate.

All of the effort was a bit new for residents.

“We don’t normally even have elections because they aren’t contested,” he added.

Davis is no stranger to elected office in the City of Hays. He held a city council seat for several terms before leaving office in 2010. But this CPA by trade has since retired from Travis County.

“I felt I could devote a substantial amount of time to being mayor,” he said.

He thinks the job may require some additional effort.

“With SH 45 coming and the ongoing water issues that everyone is dealing with,” Davis said, referring to the proposed new road that would connect northern Hays County with southern Travis County, SH 45 SW.

It’s been a hotbed of controversy for the past two plus decades, mostly in Austin, thanks to the environmental group Save Our Springs (SOS).

Last year, the City of Hays entered into an agreement with developer Walters Southwest, owned by Bill Walters, for apartments, single-family homes and retail in the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction.

But that deal will only move forward if SH 45 SW goes through – which is as of yet up in the air.

During that time period, vocal residents in the City of Hays felt the council and its mayor didn’t provide enough opportunity for feedback and input to citizens.

Then Wernken and his wife, Missy, were both on the council and voted in favor of the development, as did every other council member with the exception of Sandra Ramage, who at the time said she voted her conscience based on what voters told her they wanted.

Ramage decided not to run for her seat this go-round. Eric John ran unopposed for her seat.

Is there any lingering bad blood within the community over that development agreement?

Davis said there was some concern that the community wasn’t given a heads-up on that development.

“But that’s kind of past now,” he said. “Council executed the agreement.”

He doesn’t foresee the new council taking any action to undo the development deal with Walters.

In fact, he believes the deal may be good for the City of Hays.

“It has the potential to be financially positive for community,” he said.

Davis said the development deal may have left a lingering bad taste in people’s mouths, which could have resulted in the city council shake-up.

“I think that’s maybe a pretty accurate on some people’s part,” he said, but added he doesn’t see any big animosity.

Mostly, Davis said he thinks voters just wanted a change.

“Let’s try some new people in there,” he said, referring to sentiment among community members.

What was Davis’s campaign platform?

“Water,” he said. “That was number one priority.”

The City of Hays owns its water utility. It also provides water to nearby Elliott Ranch, another incorporated city just down the road.

Is his town in danger of having water troubles?

“Historically have had a good, reliable well,” Davis said. “We never ran out.”

He said they are under all the same drought restrictions as every other municipality in the area.

Davis has other priorities for his tiny town.

“I got a lot of things I want to work on,” he said.

One of his other priorities is a city attorney.

“We don’t have one. Want to make sure we get one,” he said.

Of course, that wouldn’t be a full-time or even part-time position. The City of Hays only has one employee on the payroll, the city secretary. An attorney would only be used on an as-needed basis.

Looking back over this campaign season, Davis said it was positive. He also complimented Michael Wernken.

“He’s a friend of mine and he’s given service to the community for a long, long time. He’s done a lot of work,” Davis said.

In the end, though, he thinks the shake-up was a positive thing.

“It was really good that we had a contested election for a change,” Davis said. “It made people tell why they wanted to be elected or retained.”