Taylor’s mayor stepping down; supporters, critics say impact will be felt for generations
TAYLOR — “The right man at the right time” — that’s how some folks describe outgoing Mayor Brandt Rydell and a legacy they say will last for decades.
Rydell, the District 3 representative on the City Council since 2012 and elected mayor in 2017, has announced he will not run again in May. His time in office has been eventful, supporters and critics agree.
The COVID-19 pandemic and Ice Storm Yuri happened on Rydell’s watch. An attorney by trade, Rydell was a key player in the the successful bid to bring Samsung Austin Semiconductor’s $17 billion fabrication plant to Taylor, a deal that will create new opportunities, growth and challenges in years to come.
As he steps down, what legacy does Rydell leave?
Former Mayor Don Hill, whose 30 years on the City Council included 11 terms as mayor, called Rydell “the right person at the right time to bring Samsung here.”
“We didn’t always vote the same way, but he was always easy to work with,” Hill said. “His biggest legacy is his work bringing Samsung to the area, and the growth spurt that’s going to happen to Taylor in the future. And continuing to work with city staff to maintain and upgrade infrastructure, improving water lines and sewer lines .... To be able to spread himself out and get all that done is something.”
Rydell’s sense of calm helped the city move ahead no matter what was going, the former mayor said.
“You live in a glass house as mayor, and some people have got some pretty big rocks,” Hill said. “But Brandt had a good run. He can always look back on the city like I did and say, ‘I did my best, and I’m proud of it.’” Another former mayor agrees. “Brandt has been a great mayor. He was the right person at the right time,” said Jesse Ancira Jr., whose term as mayor immediately preceded Rydell’s.
“We were opponents when we started – when I first ran for council, we were running against each other, and I prevailed,” Ancira said. “But once we got to know each other, we found we had the same vision for Taylor, and the same pride in its history. The next year he ran again. I helped him, and we worked hand in hand on the council to move forward, to get a foundation in place for the future.”
Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell has worked closely with Rydell on the Samsung deal, but he said the mayor’s legacy will extend beyond that single accomplishment.
“He first really stood out to me … during COVID,” Gravell said. “I was at a vaccination center in Taylor and Brandt that night brought in a couple in their 90s to be vaccinated. He was delivering Meals on Wheels that day and they wanted to be vaccinated, so he brought them. He doesn’t just talk about caring for people, he cares.”
The judge added, “When the ice storm shut down Taylor’s water supply for days, we got 300-gallon tanks in back of county trucks and ran a shuttle service between Round Rock and Taylor, and the Texas Beer Co. canned that water for distribution. Brandt Rydell was there every day, literally loading water into the back of cars.”
The mayor worked day and night to help convince South Korea-based Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. to open a second Austin-area fabrication plant, the county official added. The first Austin facility debuted in the 1990s; the Taylor site was announced in November 2021.
“Candidly, the city wouldn’t have Samsung if it hadn’t been for Brandt,” Gravell said. “He and I did Zoom meetings in the middle of the night with folks from Korea and he would get up and do his job in the morning. He kept saying, ‘Judge, this is going to transform the city of Taylor.’” According to Gravell, “Brandt transformed his community in ways that we can’t even comprehend today, but they will see it in generations ahead.”
Whomever follows Rydell will have a lot to live up to, Gravell added.
“Will the next mayor be able to sit in the room with me and negotiate with leaders around the world?” Gravell said. “Taylor is no longer a sleepy little hamlet. They’re playing on the world stage. Because of Brandt’s leadership and humility, he has had more success than a lot of governors.”
Precinct 4 Commissioner Russ Boles also called landing the Samsung plant Rydell’s greatest accomplishment. But he named others, including his leadership during the pandemic.
“You want to be a good steward, so what’s the right amount of protection people need? I know Brandt has scars from that. But he is a smart, forwardthinking, very dignified man who cares deeply about the community. He is good at communicating. He’s someone people could trust,” the commissioner said.
“There are other things maybe only a county commissioner could appreciate,” Boles added, noting Rydell’s support for infrastructure projects including roads.
“The East Wilco Highway, he wanted to make sure there was connectivity with Taylor. He’s trying to expand Taylor’s wastewater treatment plant, and to make sure Taylor has enough water in the future,” Boles added.
Rydell’s support for Taylor’s LBGTQ community has stirred up some angry opposition, particularly about the annual Parade of Lights, which the city took over after sponsoring an alternative to the traditional church-sponsored parade in 2022.
For the past two years, the council has made a Pride Day proclamation, and in 2023 Rydell wore a Taylor Pride T-shirt as he read the proclamation aloud.
“That meant the world to us,” said Taylor Pride Vice President Trisha Lewis. “He has always been a very vocal supporter of our organization, and over the years that has come to mean even more. We have had a lot of people not being supportive. Now with his not running for re-election, we don’t know how things will go for us. He will be missed.”
Rydell also leaves a legacy of community service. He is a volunteer for the Mentoring a Pasemann Student program at Pasemann Elementary School and for Taylor Meals on Wheels.
“Every Tuesday, he picks up hot meals to deliver to homebound senior citizens. Since the pandemic, he has run a regular weekly route,” said LaTuan “L.T.” Williams, director of senior nutrition for the Taylor Senior Center and Meals on Wheels.
“He wears the mayor’s hat, but his feet are on the ground. He is a very selfless person. You think about the jobs he has to do, yet he still makes the time every single week,” she added.
Not everyone views Rydell’s work with Samsung in a positive light. Chris Johns, an attorney for several groups of Taylor homeowners, recently filed a lawsuit against the city on behalf of clients attempting to get out of Taylor’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, which places strict limits on the use of their property.
“I sense the city was trying to pick winners and losers in regard to the land around Samsung,” Johns said. “I would have loved to speak to the mayor and get his perspective, but I’ve been stonewalled.”
“One question people may ask in a small Texas town is, ‘Is Samsung worth it?’” Johns added. “If it totally changes our way of life, the character of the community, will it make us happier? When you look at small towns that have invited these multinational behemoths, you wonder. It may bring more money, but is life better?”
Rydell’s wife, Julie Rydell, called her husband’s retirement from the council “bittersweet.”
“He has been a wonderful leader to our community,” she said. But she’s looking forward to having him home with the family more.
“He’s been mayor as long as your 7-year-old has been alive,” she said. “Samsung is probably the thing that has touched him most. It’s going to be the future, not just for our kids but for Taylor. When I met Brandt, I wasn’t exactly sold on Taylor. It took me a while to warm up to living here. It was a decent place, but it lacked opportunity. People would move away and never come back — Brandt was one of the very few who did (return). Now there are opportunities here.”
Rydell has been too busy to look back at his time at City Hall — he’s been focused on the “golden age” he often says Taylor is entering. Asked about his legacy, he started by praising “the great team we have put together at the city and the Taylor Economic Development Corp. during my time.”
Samsung was by far his biggest deal. Now, he said, Taylor needs more companies, and diverse ones, so the future doesn’t hang entirely on the semiconductor industry.
A fifth-generation Taylor native, Rydell said his goal has been maintaining the town’s down-home charm even as it grows.
“It’s great to have that tax base, but it’s also important that we have a town where people live and play, with quality of life,” he said.
He’s proud of the plans for a new City Hall and Justice Center. He also said he’s hopeful the council will complete a community recreation center.
“Looking back, nothing really dogs me as, ‘We really missed on this…,’” Rydell said. “In my time on council, we were able to achieve things beyond what I ever could have comprehended. I didn’t dream big enough.”
Rydell says he plans to return full-time to his day job as assistant general counsel for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which oversees the state’s power grid. ERCOT has an operations center in Taylor.
“It’s a wonderful place to work, and I’m indebted to them for how flexible they’ve been with me,” he said.
Rydell added he’s looking forward to spending more time with his wife and their children and getting back to their shared love of organic gardening.
“Taylor’s future is challenging and exciting,” he said. “I’ll be out in my garden, checking the East Wilco Insider.”
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