If you were to tweet something about Southlake—good or bad— don't be surprised if you were to get a response from Laura Hill, mayor of Southlake. She's not afraid to communicate with her constituency, in person or via social media. And even when her constituency has issues they are upset about.
She also wants to let people know that whatever their concern or problem, it's not too small to be addressed by community leaders. Working with others, inviting their input and ideas, is something Mayor Hill does well. When she decided to run for mayor, she reached out to four people in the community.
“I said ‘Can I buy you a coffee?'” she recalls, “And I said, ‘I want you to tell me what makes this community special and what we can do to keep it that way.'”
Since she became the mayor in 2015, Hill, who runs Downey Publishing, a company started by her father, has been working to not only keep the community special, but to make it better. Her challenge has been to foster the development and growth in the area while still maintaining the city's small-town charm.
“The day you come to Southlake is the day you want development to stop,” says Mayor Hill. “My job is to help people understand why and how we're changing.”
Asked about what she's added to the community since taking on her role as mayor, Hill says that she has delivered a “sense of urgency to get things done.”
Next up on her list: bringing a trolley to the city. “I want to be the trolley mayor,” she says.