Brownwood Mayor Candidate Profiles: Stephen Haynes and Mike Tittle

Stephen Haynes

• Personal History:

I was born in Brownwood, Texas and graduated from Brownwood High School in 1992.  I obtained a Bachelor’s of Business Administration degree from Abilene Christian University and a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from Texas Tech University School of Law.

I married my college sweetheart, Lori, who is still the love of my life.  We have been married 22 years.  She teaches first grade at East Elementary.  We have four children.  Austin is a junior at Brownwood High School.  Emily is a freshman.  Allie is in sixth grade, and Ella is a third grader.  I enjoy serving as mayor, but I love being dad.

After law school, I was offered a job at a law firm in Dallas.  We lived in Grapevine, and I commuted back and forth for several years.  I longed for home.  I missed driving dirt roads, hunting, fishing, and boating across Lake Brownwood.  I worried about living in a metropolitan area.  I wondered how I would teach my son valuable lessons like how to change a tire, dig a posthole or tow a trailer. I worried about my daughters dating in a city with too much anonymity.

I distinctly remember the day I decided it was time to move home.  Austin was five years old and playing soccer for the first time.  His first game was on a Thursday night at 6:00.  I left work as early as possible, but the highways were gridlocked.  I missed the game, and I was done with the city.

Three months later, we sold our house and moved to Brownwood.  I started practicing law with my father, who had been an attorney in Brownwood since the early 1970s.  The practice of law in central Texas was not exactly the same as what I had done in Dallas, but I adapted and together we grew the business.  There are now four lawyers in our office and several very loyal and hard-working assistants for whom I am very grateful.

I have served as the mayor of Brownwood since 2010.  However, I have also been involved in many other community activities as well.  My family attends Austin Avenue Church of Christ, where I serve as a deacon.  I have participated in several productions at the Lyric Theatre.  I am not a very talented actor, but theatre is like golf.  You do not have be good to enjoy it.  I have coached youth soccer, baseball, football and basketball.  I am a past-president of the Brownwood Area Chamber of Commerce, and I have served on numerous other boards and committees.  In my free time, I enjoy raising livestock, and I have traveled the state with my children showing goats, sheep and cattle.

• Why are you interested in being mayor?

The short answer is to continue the progress we have made. In the past 8 years, we improved our parks, paved our streets and recruited new businesses to our community.  The growth we have seen in retail is amazing with businesses such as United, Cotton Patch, McAllister’s Deli, Aldi, Buffalo Wild Wings, Golden Chick, East Palace, Los Cazadores, Harbor Freight, Pet Sense and others.  Yes, there have been a handful of retail businesses that closed due to bankruptcy or corporate decisions beyond the local level, but the openings far exceed the closures.  Further, where would we be today, if those same closures had occurred without our efforts to promote and create new retail?

Also, we have seen expansive growth in other sectors of our local economy with companies like Wright Asphalt, VRC Technologies, Ethos Pet Nutrition, Lortscher Animal Nutrition, Hendrick Medical Center, and Trafalgar Homes.  These new companies, together with our retail sector, have invested tens of millions of dollars in our community and hired hundreds of employees.

Perhaps the thing I am most proud of, however, is the improvements to our parks.  Take Mayes Park, for example.  There had been no improvements to this park in my lifetime.  There was simply nothing there but an old backstop.  The restrooms did not work, the lights had not been turned on in decades, and the bleachers were fenced off so no one would fall through the decaying structure.

Now, Mayes Park is vibrant.  It has a skate park, a splash pad and a modern backstop.  When I drive by each evening, it is full of families.  There are kids practicing soccer or baseball, while siblings play at the splash pad, ride a bike, or use the skate park.  These “quality of life” improvements are what make cities a desirable place to live.

Those same quality of life improvements, however, are also critical to economic development.   New employers look at the condition of our streets, parks and public facilities.  In fact, Robert Taylor, the CEO of United Supermarkets, once told me that he would not open a new store in a community that refused to invest in itself.  Thus, we simply cannot afford to turn a blind eye to our aging and deteriorating streets, parks, and public facilities.

Now, I realize that some have seen all the accomplishments over the past eight years and assume that local spending is out of control, but that simply is not true.  In the past 8 years, the city’s budget has increased 13% for an average of 1.6% per year. During that same period of time, inflation was 2%.  While we all would like to think that government spending should never increase, the things our government purchases, like health insurance for employees, go up in cost every year.  But when compared to inflation, we are spending no more today than we were eight years ago.

• What is your vision for Brownwood?

Originally, my goals were pretty simple.  I wanted to bring the best of what I had seen in Abilene, Lubbock, and Grapevine to our community, while still preserving our rural way of life.   I wanted people to have options on where to eat and where to shop.  I wanted people to earn a higher wage and have better opportunities for their family.  I wanted to improve our deteriorating parks and civic facilities.  I wanted roads without potholes.  I wanted families who drove through our town to think and say, “This would be a nice place to live.” Above all else, however, I wanted Brownwood to be a place where my children and grandchildren longed to live.

These are still the goals.  So, how do we achieve them?  We must continue to recruit additional retail businesses.  This increase in sales tax helps offset inflation.  We must address housing shortages, which increases the tax base without increasing the individual tax burden.  We must recruit primary jobs, particularly those that pay high wages.  We must create opportunities for our children to return home after earning a college degree.  We must continue to invest in our deteriorating parks, streets and civic facilities.  Finally, we must manage to do all of these things without increasing spending substantially beyond inflation.  Is it a difficult task?  Yes, but with your vote, we can continue the good work that we have achieved together over the past 8 years.

In closing, let me give credit where credit is due.  While I am proud of the leadership our city council has shown, most of these changes were implemented by our hard-working employees who do not often get the credit or recognition they deserve.  Also, these goals were not accomplished by our city government acting alone.  Consider this undeniable fact, the businesses who invested millions of dollars in our community did not invest in me, the city council or even our hard-working city staff.  They invested in you.  They saw value and opportunity in the people of Brownwood, and that is what we have to sell in abundance   Mayor or not, I will go to my grave telling the world that the best people on the planet live in Brownwood, Texas, and they should get here as soon as possible.

Mike Tittle

• Personal History:

• Why are you interested in serving as Brownwood Mayor?

• What is your vision for Brownwood?