Ya Gotta Have Friends

Less than a year ago, the Friendship Alliance -- a neighborhood coalition in northwest Hays County -- was pegged as a fledgling bunch of old hippie no-growthers. But the group (whose membership, for the record, is a cross-section of conservatives, liberals, and Libertarians) turned out to be a pretty well-oiled machine that now wields influence in planning and development issues in this growth-weary county. Recently, for example, Alliance member Mike Kelly secured a strategic appointment to the Dripping Springs Planning and Zoning Commission (in real life, Kelly is an engineer with the city of Austin's watershed protection division). And president Rob Baxter was named to the Central Texas Regional Visioning Project board -- the team charged with drawing up a sensible growth-management plan in Hays, Travis, Bastrop, Caldwell, and Williamson counties.

Recognizing the group's influence at the polls, no Hays County politician worth his or her salt would refuse a phone call from one of the group's leaders, particularly during an election year. Even Rick Green, the arch-conservative state representative from Dripping Springs, is courting the group's support, apparently willing to forget last year's unforgettable dumprickgreen bumper sticker campaign -- the brainchild of Alliance president Baxter. Baxter printed the stickers and established an Internet domain by the same name (still under construction) in direct response to Green's sponsorship of several bills to create special taxing districts, designed to ease the financial "burden" of big developers in securing utility construction and the like. In the end, two of the so-called water-hustling bills survived, and two died.