Attendees at the Feb. 17 Westlake Chamber of Commerce annual awards banquet at County Line on the Hill were likely convinced that West Lake Hills Mayor Dave Claunch deserved the citizen of the year when he promptly donated the $1,000 check designated for the charity of his choice to the runner-up in the award voting, Richard Troxell of House the Homeless.

Claunch, who was elected mayor two years ago after serving as chairman of the WLH Wastewater Commission, was singled out for a history of volunteering. He helped build consensus after a long delay to extend centralized wastewater service to the business community, persuaded the Capital Area Metropolitan Transportation Organization and Texas Department of Transportation to allocated $6.3 million to complete the stalled Bee Cave Road Improvements Project and ended what had become regular contentious City Council meetings.

Claunch began by thanking the WCC board for the honor and quickly segued into a lighthearted explanation of why he was successful as chairman of the wastewater commission, which he called, “a crappy job.”

He said the key was making sure every agenda had only two choices, “so that we would have to choose from doing number one or doing number two.”

Fueled by an eruption of laughter from the crowd of approximately 75 business people in attendance, Claunch went on to say that he got roped into the job.

“At the time, the sewer project was headed for disaster, and we needed to get the business owners on board,” he explained, blaming that situation in part on assumptions by his predecessor that the residential system should be built before the commercial phase, and that business owners would pay three times that of the residents.

“I helped put together a deal that would preserve the commercial property owners’ interests and make sure they were going to pay roughly what residential guys would pay,” he said. “It ended well. We got the commercial guys on board, rescued the system and created a financial solvency that we needed to keep our residential customers from going in the toilet.”

Because 70 percent of the city’s revenue comes from sales tax, Claunch said he feels good about making sure the business people were not forced to pay an unfair portion of the wastewater costs.

Although he revealed to the crowd some bad news that TxDOT’s accounting issues might result in a significant delay of up to three years in the Bee Cave Road project, he promised to continue working toward getting the project funded.

Troxell, a longtime Rollingwood resident who is dedicated to helping improve opportunities for homeless people, accepted check saying, ‘It’s not bad to finish second in this town.”

Claunch, the owner of Liaison Resources, later said that he was honored to receive the award from a chamber that has a history of networking, community service and philanthropy.

“This award is truly the result of a team effort at City Hall,” Claunch said. “Everyone there works daily to make me and the City Council look good, and I thank them for their efforts. I especially thank Robert Wood, our excellent city administrator, for bringing calm and steady leadership to our team.

“[My wife] Susan and I thoroughly enjoyed the award ceremony last week, and we were touched by the kind words and support of this great organization.”

Also receiving awards at the banquet were Vicky Gouge of Full Moon Design, WCC member of the year; Jillian Houghton of As the Hair Turns, ambassador of the year; and counselor Ryan Harkryder, Eanes school district faculty member of the year.