Cedar Park Council member will not seek re-election

By Melissa Mixon Monday, 01 February 2010

CEDAR PARK — Place 6 Cedar Park City Councilman Cobby Caputo announced Thursday night that he will not seek another term in the upcoming May elections.

Caputo, who served on the council from 1996 to 2002 and then ran again in May 2005, said he would say more about his decision at a later time, but that he wanted to get the news out before the council called an election in May.

“I certainly enjoyed the heck out of the last five years, and if I didn’t have phenomenal amounts of work to do starting about October of this year and lasting until May or June of 2012, I wouldn’t have a second thought about running again, but it’s time to step aside,” he said, after the council reconvened from executive session during its Thursday night meeting.

Caputo is a private practice attorney for the Austin law firm of Bickerstaff, Heath, Smiley, Pollan, Kever & McDaniel, LLC. Caputo’s work revolves around complex litigation, including civil rights, constitutional claims, whistleblower claims, construction lawsuits, annexation disputes and water disputes, according to his bio on the city’s website. He also advises cities and school districts on routine matters such as Open Meetings issues and Public Information Act requests.

Caputo decided not to seek re-election in 2002, but after watching government from the sidelines, he ran for an unexpired term in May 2005.

Since then, he and the council have overseen the opening of the Cedar Park Center, the city’s selection of a new solid waste provider and the decision on Thursday night to open a Schlitterbahn water park resort in the city.

“I think the city is in a great place right now, and this is a great staff and council,” Caputo said. “There’s some good people in the community that I think are ready to step up, and it’s the right time for me to step aside.”