APRO Board member Briley wins city council seat
APRO Executive committee member Robert Briley will now add city governance to his growing list of roles after winning a place on the Abilene, Texas City Council Saturday.
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| New Abilene City Council member Robert Briley |
Briley, who serves as APRO board treasurer and runs 10 Aaron’s franchises across west Texas, won a commanding 56 percent of the vote in his race for City Council Place 4. Briley will join a 6-member city council headed by mayor Norm Archibald, who handily won re-election.
According to an article in the Abilene Reporter News, Briley ran an active campaign employing a staff of college students who waved signs at polling places and placed an estimated 1,500 phone call to voters at their homes.
"I’m just thankful," said Briley in the article, "Our people worked hard. Ever since we announced, we’ve been running at full speed. I’m not about the fanfare. I’m ready just to get to work."
Abilene has a population of 115,000, and Briley now plans to make good on his campaign promises of bringing more jobs to Abilene, working with neighborhood associations and watching the city budget.
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| Young Robert Briley supporter on election day. |
"I look forward to working with them (neighborhood associations), to sharing information and taking part in that sort of grass roots politics," Briley said. "It’s the same concept as being on the state association coordinating committee at APRO. You just have to reach out to everyone. When you do that, good things happen."
Water is also on Briley’s long range planning "to do" list and he looks forward to pushing for approval of the long-planned Cedar Ridge Reservoir project in the Texas Legislature.
In other council races, Abilene’s incumbent Mayor Norm Archibald beat Ron Konstantin by landing 80 percent of the votes cast and place 3 councilman Anthony Williams beat out Linda Horsley by garnering 74 percent of the vote.