Council Candidate Andrew Justis Talks Family, Trash and Politics

 Early voting for city council starts on April 27,  and this week LIVE! will highlight each candidate in order to help you, the voters, gain insight on who’s in the running for Single Member District 4, and Mayor.

Andrew Justis is one of the SMD 4 candidates. LIVE! met with Justis in an exclusive interview at Off the Pages Bistro in the Stephens Central Library downtown last week, where we talked about everyday life and his drive to become a city councilmember.

Most everyone has a routine in the morning time before the 9-5 hustle; Justis shares his morning with us.

Justis works as a senior sales associate for a Christian book store off of Sunset Dr.

“For all intents and purposes, without naming it (the bookstore) [I am] an assistant manager,” said Justis as he explained his job. “So I help with the sales, I help with either opening or closing the store, checking in items making sure sales go along, that sort of stuff,” he said.

Justis recently left his job of six and a half years running a low powered radio station for his church, Calvary Chapel, saying that it was just time to move on.

In 1985, Justis was working at a U.S. Navy facility in Ridgecrest, Calif.

“I was doing drafting and design work work for the Navy as a civilian. I finished up my Associates’ Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1987, and went to work full time for them,” he said.  “In ’92 I had to go back to school again because I had switched jobs, and started working on military radars. It is all very interesting work, but also can be very time-consuming, hard work. I had to go back and get an electronics degree to fully understand what I was doing."

With a diverse work background, Justis's home life centers around a wife and two children.

“I’ve been married for almost 27 years to my wife and my best friend. We met in a volleyball class in college,” he said smiling. “We were both taking volleyball class because we needed the credit to fill the physical education requirement for our degrees. I saw this striking young girl, and I thought 'wow! she’s really athletic', and that appealed to me because I was still athletic at the time.”

The Justis’ have a  21-year-old son that has a mild case of cerebral palsy. Justis says he has encouraged his son to not let his condition be a barrier in what he can accomplish.

“He is junior at ASU in the applied physics program. He drives himself to school, he takes care of his own homework, he does it all,” Justis said proudly. He also works part time at the radio station from which Justis just recently resigned.

The Justis’ 18-year-old daughter is a junior at Lake View High School, in her second year of JROTC and choir.

“She’s very intelligent, she’s wonderful,” he said. “She has a different way of looking at things that some don’t understand, and so we have some interesting conversations.”

Justis believes in hands-on parenting and being supportive of his children, with a step-up-to -the plate-approach, acting as a responsible Dad, which he admits is not always easy.

Why does Justis want to be on the city council?

“I felt it was my turn to give back to the community,” he said. “When we moved here in 2008, the school district bent over backwards for both of my kids. The school district in Flagstaff, Arizona was about to put my daughter into a life skills program. 'Life skills' meaning they just teach you how to live, and do little things you are supposed to do in life and nothing else. I knew that she was far greater than that, and when we got here, she was in fifth grade and the school district here just pushed her and brought her up and said you can be better than this, and didn’t let the little things, confusion and distraction get in the way of her growing,” he said appreciatively.

“With my son, they got both hands in and just said whatever you need, and helped and never stopped. The biggest thing with someone with cerebral palsy is that the motor skills are affected and that’s the case with him, so being able to write with a pencil and pen is something that’s a no-no for him. I encourage him to write his signature, but sitting down to write at length is impossible for him” he said. “Finally someone else understood.

“Being a Christian man, a man of the Word, I spent time just meditating one day, and God told me you need to go to San Angelo. I said really? Where is San Angelo and He told me it was in Texas, and I said where in Texas? And He said come on open up a map and take a look, and that’s pretty much how the conversation went.”

Justis said that they came for a visit to San Angelo a year before they moved here, to test the waters. “We just so happened to go to the church we are going to now and it was really just a series of mind-benders,” he said. “There was a pot luck lunch after the service that Sunday, and the pastor comes and sits down next to me and starts talking to me about radio. He didn’t know me [and]I didn’t know him, he had no idea my skill set, and yet the connection was God and radio,” he said. “It all just fell in together and within a year we were here, it just felt like it was the right thing to do.”

What does Justis think about the Republic trash contract?

“I know that there are a lot of emotions with that particular contract,” he answered. “I just sense that there are a lot of people that are unhappy one way or the other, because of time, because of money, or because of other circumstances. To me, part of it is either people didn’t come clean with all of the information right at the beginning, which is a typical thing that happens. If you don’t come clean with the plans or timeline from the beginning, you create a lot of misgivings and problems because now it looks like you’re really not dealing fairly with the other party. It looks like you are trying to hold something back, when in reality if you just came clean with the timelines, because of delays they probably would not have these problems."

Justis said that when he lived in Flagstaff, the city had a trash and recycle program, which had it's "pros and cons".

“I think [city council] could’ve done better," he offered. "I’m kind of coming in on the back end of that, I haven’t watched all of it, so I can’t really give you a definitive answer on what should have been done different because of the fact that I don’t know the scope of the whole story.”

How does Justis feel about government transparency?

“Being honest about what you are doing and trying to accomplish is important. You have to throw out all of the numbers, and give that information to the public, and be willing to trust the people with the information,” Justis said. “Anybody that is afraid of transparency doesn’t need to be in leadership. Transparency makes us or breaks us. I look at our federal government, and the present administration claimed they would be the most transparent administration yet, and as far as I can tell it’s been the least transparent. The President has been so afraid to come clean on so many fronts, or he chooses to claim to not know anything about [a situation]. He is a great public speaker, and a very good liar. One way or another you always get caught in a lie, eventually you won’t be able to keep your story straight. If you are transparent, you don’t have to worry about your story because your story is the fact, and facts don’t change.”

Justis said that he would like to see more town hall meetings to discuss the bigger issues, like the controversial Republic trash contract, before they are decided in closed session meetings without public knowledge.

“To me when you are in a position of authority, you have to maintain, and you maintain in such a way that not only do you trust the people with their answer, but that the people trust you with the authority,” Justis said.

Water is always a chief concern in west Texas. San Angelo has been on water restrictions for quite some time now. Drought has caused many changes in the way the public conserves ofwater. Many have xeriscaped their lawns and collect rain water. The city even tapped into the Hickory Aquifer to seek relief of its water woes.

“Ten years from now we will know for sure if that was a bad idea or not,” Justis said concerning the Hickory Aquifer water. “I have to say I commend the community and city for actually using less water in the last three years, there was a big drop in the usage when we knew we had less water, so to me that’s the start, people saving the water.”   

Another hot topic is bringing business to San Angelo, a subject that’s frequently found on the city council agenda. In the past some bigger projects and/or companies have been rejected by past councils for one reason or another. The revitalization of downtown is spreading and the city's Development Corporation (COSA-DC) and the San Angelo Downtown Association have been promoting economic growth, resulting in a marked focus on growth witnessed over the past several years. When asked where he would like to see San Angelo in 10 years, Justis finished up with his thoughts centered on city economics.

“I love Goodfellow AFB. [The base] is something that is great for the community. Oil is wonderful too, but I have seen the fallout from an oil crash, it devastates communities when that happens,” Justis said. “I really want to see many different businesses in town to protect the citizens from the down times when oil is kind of going sour. The military lost the budget and they’re starting to make cuts here and there, and I think we will see more of that. Having a more diverse economic structure is key.”

Justis is running for city council against Lucy Gonzalez for the Single Member District 4 (SMD 4) seat being vacated by Don Vardeman, who chose not to run for re-election. The election is May 9. Early voting is April 27 - May 1.