A changing of the guard will occur in Buda this November as a longtime city leader is forgoing an attempt at a third term in office.
Wiley Hopkins, who was first elected to the Buda City Council dais in November 2013, did not submit a candidate filing prior to Monday’s deadline for the Nov. 3 election, according to the Buda city website. As a result, the Single Member District C seat is now up for grabs with candidates Jeffrey Morales and Terry Cummings preparing to jockey for it.
Morales, a veteran and a state of Texas employee, unsuccessfully ran for the Buda City Council Place 2 seat in 2016 and was defeated by Hopkins. Morales has lived in Texas for 51 years and resides in Garlic Creek.
The Place 2 seat, which had been at-large, transitioned to a single-member district in 2018. District C encompasses several subdivisions along FM 967, including Garlic Creek and Cullen Country.
Morales will go up against Cummings, a Michigan native who moved to Buda in 2012. Cummings is an employee at Ascension Seton Hays In Kyle and has worked as a registered nurse for 22 years, per a press release.
Cummings said she plans to run on a three-part platform centering on open and transparent government, a fiscally responsible city and a commitment for responsible growth.
“I’d like to bring my love for this city, my fiscal and management experience, and my eye for detail to bear on every discussion that affects the Buda that we all love,” Cummings said.
Hopkins, who will exit the dais following the November election, is a retired veteran who won reelection in 2016 and was unopposed when his seat transitioned to a single-member district in 2018.
Meanwhile, incumbent Position 1 at-large council member Lee Urbanovsky is poised to claim reelection after he failed to draw an opponent prior to the deadline.
Urbanovsky, a Garlic Creek resident, was first elected to Buda dais in December 2016 and is going through his first reelection bid.
F
ilings in Kyle
In Kyle, Place 3 incumbent at-large city council member Robert Rizo, who has campaigned for the dais two times in a year’s span, will take on Amanda Stark Nov. 3.
Rizo, a property management supervisor, was elected in May as part of special election to fill the Place 3 seat vacated by former city leader Shane Arabie. Before his election, Rizo unsuccessfully ran against Rick Koch in the November 2017 race for the Place 5 city council seat.
Stark, an operations manager who has lived in Kyle for four years, will make her first run for political office.
Meanwhile, incumbent Kyle City Council member and Mayor Pro Tem Dex Ellison will face opposition after Yvonne Flores-Cale submitted her filing roughly 40 minutes prior to the 5 p.m. deadline Monday.
Flores-Cale, an office manager and paralegal in the Austin area, has lived in Kyle for the past seven years and is making her first run at political office.
Flores-Cale will go up against Ellison who was elected to the dais in November 2017. Flores-Cale said she intends to speak with residents about their concerns during the leadup to the Nov. 3 election.
“I love Kyle. I like the idea of progress, but it needs to slow down a bit and we need to plan responsibility,” Flores-Cale said.
