Pegasus News Election Survey: Rob Undersander, candidate for Grapevine City Council - Place 3

Pegasus: What is the one greatest thing that the Grapevine City Council has achieved in the past year?

Undersander: Funding for the Trinity Rail Express (TRE) expansion to Grapevine is the single greatest achievement this past year. Voters overwhelmingly approved the one half percent increase in sales tax last November to pay for Grapevine's first mass transportation. The total sales tax increase of 1 percent, including that for crime prevention, equates to an additional 18 million dollars per year. Getting the voters to pass the increase took planning, marketing, presenting the facts, and educating the public. This is clearly a responsibility of good city government.

Council members are also directly responsible for being good custodians of their taxpayers money. Grapevine was the only city on the Cottonbelt Rail Line capable of increasing their sales tax for such an important multi-city project (others were already at their 8.25% state-mandated cap). This is yet another example of the good leadership and foresight within the existing council. I will continue this tradition of excellence, and ensure these funds are spent wisely to result in efficient, reliable, attractive, and minimally invasive transportation, as well as increased crime prevention.

Pegasus: What is the single biggest improvement that the Grapevine City Council needs?

Undersander: Easy question - easy answer: The Grapevine City Council needs Rob Undersander in Place 3 on the council!

Pegasus: What is the toughest problem that you have ever solved?

Undersander: Working for the Boeing Company in the airport security industry, I managed a pilot project at Chicago's Midway Airport. The project involved design, installation, test, and training for a Remote Monitoring and Maintenance system for some of the airport's high priority security equipment. With no contract in place, I had to resolve numerous issues with multiple agencies such as the airport authority, city government, unions, and the federal government. The system performed as expected. User's were able to securely monitor near real time equipment performance from any internet enabled computer anywhere in the world.

Pegasus: If you are elected and can only achieve ONE quantifiable thing in your term, what would it be?

Undersander: I would like to say reduced traffic through the "Grapevine funnel" (very measurable), but because this is largely out of the city's control (it's a TXDOT responsibility), I will have to say I want to have a TRE program that is on schedule, on budget, and meets the public's performance expectations. All three (schedule, budget, and performance) are measurable.