WACO, TX — Kyle Deaver became Mayor of Waco when Waco was still a relatively quiet oasis where the Texas Hill Country met the prairie.
His term saw unprecedented challenges, but one thing you should know about Kyle Deaver: he never aspired to be mayor.
"Why in the world politics? You know, I have never really considered. I had never considered being on the City Council and Malcolm Duncan Jr. who was representing district five, got elected to the mayor position, and that opened up the district five position and I had a good friend called me and asked me if I would be willing to to apply for that appointment by the council," Deaver said.
"And that just kind of got it all started I had done a lot of work. I served on the Planning Commission for six years before that been on a number of boards and, you know, love our city...have always been proud of Waco" he said.
On the Planning Commission, what were some of the things Deaver dealt with that he believes helps set the stage for becoming a better city councilperson?
"You know, I think it's in that situation it's mostly just starting to understand the procedure and listening to constituents when they come to state their case, whether it's the applicant, or somebody that is opposed to what's being proposed and trying to learn how to process that information, because that's that can be challenging," the outgoing mayor explained.
When Kyle Deaver graduated from Baylor law school, he never imagined he'd get into politics.
In fact, he might say even now, he still doesn't.
"And I really don't consider local, local politics to be politics I mean it's certainly not party politics and I'm not interested in that. I just really wanted to have a chance to serve my city," he said.
Deaver learned you can't totally leave politics out of everything. Still, he managed to navigate the ship of state.
In a matter of some, state took the best attributes of both. "I hope we can remain firmly nonpartisan. I think it's really important and I think that's one of the reasons, our council functions so well," said the Mayor.
