A new face will populate Woodcreek City Hall as Suzanne MacKenzie will take over the position of Woodcreek Secretary.
Despite being the new person in City Hall, the reaction for Mackenzie’s new position has been positive.
“Everybody here has been really positive,” MacKenzie said. “Met all the council members in several meetings, I was able to meet the committee members. The residents that have come in have been very nice. I like the community.”
Despite working in Austin, Mackenzie originally lived in the Live Oak area in San Antonio before finding out about Woodcreek and making the decision to move to the area.
“Originally I was working in Austin,” Mackenzie said. “But I was living in Live Oak in San Antonio. I like visiting parks and things like that. I kind of discovered Woodcreek/Wimberley as part of my touring and driving around. When I started looking at houses, because I didn’t want to live in Austin, I stumbled across Woodcreek and found the house that I’m living in. I fell in love really and just fell in love with the area.”
Mackenzie’s work through the Homeowners Association in Live Oak, Lytle Girl Scouts, Lytle High School Band Boosters, and being a founding member of the Lytle Education Foundation helped her prepare for the job as City Secretary as well as being close to her new home in Woodcreek.
“I ran across the posting on Indeed,” Mackenzie said. “I thought it would be perfect. It’s very close, and it’s the same community. I’ve done work like this before when I was in the Homeowners Association in Live Oak, and I like doing the researching aspect of it. For us it was researching county documents, taking things from ground zero, taking financial records and stuff. This is very similar and I’m just starting to dive into the permitting so I’m learning that. Reading all the ordinances and stuff and getting things on the wall to be organized. The work is very familiar, and I enjoy it.”
Being in the role of secretary means helping out residents understand what they can and can not do is a strength Mackenize has learned to like.
“I like being organized, figuring things out and relaying information to other people,” Mackenzie said. “...This is what the city deems as an ordinance, helping the residents understand what the ordinances are, and making sure we can get the residents to comply as pleasantly as possible. We are making sure everybody understands what we can or cannot do. Everyone has been really nice.”
As the city of Woodcreek continues to grow, population growth also means the demographics are changing.
“There is a lot of growth here despite the city being here since 1984,” Mackenzie said. “The demographics have changed from a traditionally retirement neighborhood to new families coming in especially during COVID where there was a lot of growth in 2020 and the population has changed. So that changes what people want to see in their neighborhood. So it’s learning who is here, what they want, and building the committees and the work groups to figure everything out and get as much as we can for the community.”
Being in a small community, unlike in Austin or even Live Oak, means Mackenzie is also more accessible to the citizens than in most places, which she likes.
“Woodcreek is more personable,” Mackenzie said. “It’s a smaller city, and more accessibility and more accountability for us, because it’s a smaller operating unit on the city side. But in a larger city like Austin, you get lost. You put in a request and you may not hear from it forever. But here we are literally in the middle of the city limits, and we are very accessible to the residents while trying to answer everyone as fast as possible.”
For what Mackenzie wants to add to her role, she wants to leave a positive impact on her community and help the residents of Woodcreek to the best of her ability.
“I like to streamline processes, that is kinda my thing that I’ve done in the past,” Mackenzie said. “Making sure if I’m out of the office, things are accessible to where the residents can get the answers they need, so I want to make sure the information is available. Then, of course, the more I learn about ordinances and things like that, I can interpret those and get that information to the residents. Everything is a learning process on my part and the residents’ part. I just want to know what kind of positive impact I can make based on how much I can learn, interpret and relay information to everybody.”
“As I learn my new position,” Mackenzie continued. “With the support and guidance of City Manager Brenton Lewis, City Administrative Assistant Maureen Mele and City Inspector, Joe Tijerina, I hope to be able to translate what I learn into ways to help my Woodcreek community members.”
