Aly Van Dyke will be Georgetown’s new communications and public engagement director. After an extensive search, Van Dyke was selected from more than 130 applicants to serve in the role. This is a new position for the City to help elevate and enhance the City’s communications and community engagement.

Van Dyke currently serves as a marketing and communications consultant for the City of Austin, directing and managing strategic communications planning. She manages marketing campaign development and execution for a variety of city departments. While in Austin, Van Dyke successfully oversaw social media policy development and brought best practices for online engagement to the city.

“Georgetown has a remarkable story to tell,” Van Dyke said. “I’ve seen firsthand all the incredible things the city of Georgetown has going for it – from its beautiful town square and parks to its ability to attract talented, creative people from across the globe. With such an active and enthusiastic community, it’s thrilling to think about being part of the team working to increase pride for, awareness of, and engagement with the community.”

In Georgetown, Van Dyke will oversee the newly formed communications and public engagement department, with a focus on developing a communications strategic plan, ensuring brand consistency, and developing a culture of meaningful public engagement across the City organization. Reporting directly to the city manager, the new director will have responsibility for a team of five employees.

“Aly is the perfect match to lead our communications and public engagement department through a time a significant change. She has a record of success improving and executing strategic communications plans that involve multiple departments,” City Manager David Morgan said. “We’re fortunate to have Aly to join the City of Georgetown team. She is well-suited to elevate our communication and engagement efforts to meet the ever-changing and evolving challenges of connecting with our residents.”

Prior to Austin, Van Dyke served as the media relations director for the City of Topeka, KS where she managed social media accounts, wrote news releases, coordinated media interviews, and served as the primary media liaison during emergencies. She and her team produced all the graphic design, live broadcasts, and videos within the City, in addition to coordinating public engagement opportunities and leading the internal communications team. Prior to Topeka, she was a reporter for The Topeka Capital-Journal, The Ottawa Herald, and the Kansas City Business Journal.

Van Dyke has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Kansas. She was named a Top-100 local government influencer by Engaging Local Government Leaders, won first-place for the use of video on social media at the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors earlier this year, and is a regular speaker on social media and engagement at civic groups and professional associations. Her first day at the City will be Jan. 6.

At its Nov. 26 meeting, City Council was briefed on several items related to the City’s electric utility. The utility is expected to end Fiscal Year 2018-19 with reserves of more than $6 million, which is up from last year’s balance of less than $2 million. The goal of the electric utility is to have reserves in excess of $19 million.

In addition to growing financial reserves, the City is working to contain costs for energy. The expected bill for all the City’s energy in 2020 is $59.5 million, up from $55.6 million in 2019, and $52.5 million in 2018. Several factors contribute to these increased costs, including the relatively low cost of energy on the open market throughout the year, the large amount of energy the City is obligated to purchase beyond what is needed to serve Georgetown electric customers, and challenges associated with the City’s energy providers generating and transmitting energy to the statewide grid.

In 2019 the City worked to improve the finances of the electric utility to account for increased energy costs. This included selling assets, increasing rates, decreasing expenses, and completing a management assessment. Based on that assessment, the City is finalizing a new risk policy and retaining a new team to manage the City’s energy contracts. The City is currently in negotiations with Shell Energy North America and Tenaska Power Services to manage the City’s energy portfolio, with a final contract expected to go to City Council for approval in December. Finally, the City hired a new general manager for its electric utility in October.

“I am focused on ensuring our electric utility is safe, reliable, and cost-competitive,” General Manager of Electric Daniel Bethapudi said. “It is a top priority of mine to reduce our customer’s electric rates, but my immediate concern is to ensure that our community’s electric utility is financially stable.”

Earlier this year, the City took advantage of an opportunity to sell renewable energy credits, or RECs, which resulted in more than $700,000 of additional revenue for the electric utility. These RECs traditionally are retired against energy usage and measure how much renewable energy an electric utility can claim.

“The sale of the RECs does affect Georgetown’s status as a 100 percent renewable electric utility,” City Manager David Morgan said. “Right now it is more important that we stabilize the utility’s finances than maintain our renewable energy status.”

The City’s policy for its energy portfolio is for 30 percent of Georgetown’s energy to come from renewable sources.

Background on Georgetown’s electric utility

In 1910, Georgetown voters approved a bond to build the Georgetown Light and Water Works plant on Ninth Street. Over the last century, Georgetown has developed and maintained a highly reliable, community-owned and -operated electric utility. It is owned by the residents of Georgetown and reinvests directly in the community.

Historically, the electric utility has paid a return on investment to the City’s general fund in excess of $5 million annually. These dollars directly offset additional reliance on property taxes, sales taxes, or other revenues to operate core services like the police, fire, library, and parks departments.

Early in-person voting starts on Monday, Dec. 2, in the runoff election for City Council District 1. Early voting is Dec. 2-6. Election Day for the runoff is Tuesday, Dec. 10.

Alex Fuller and Mary Calixtro, who received the highest number of votes in the Nov. 5 election, are the two candidates on the ballot in the District 1 runoff. The election is to fill the vacancy on the City Council for District 1. The winner of the election will complete the remainder of the term ending in May 2021.

The polling location for the runoff election is the Williamson County Inner Loop Annex, 301 SE Inner Loop. Details about polling hours are posted at the Williamson County Elections office website at wilco.org/elections.

Georgetown City Council members typically serve three-year terms representing one of seven single-member districts. To see maps of council districts, go to maps.georgetown.org/council-district-maps.