Charlie Culpepper

Charlie Culpepper

Written by Cathy Kincaid Wednesday, 07 March 2007

If someone asks Charlie Culpepper today what keeps him busy, he first mentions his two grandsons who live five minutes from his house. His love for them and his family are obvious with pictures and toys scattered throughout his living room.

But for 17 years, he also was busy making a difference in the city he has called home for 30 years.

Getting Involved

When he and his wife Kathy moved here, several people in his neighborhood were getting involved in city government. His neighbor was on the Planning and Zoning Commission and he suggested Culpepper get involved, too.

“I just figured if this was where I was going to live, I ought to get involved. I served there from 1982 to1985 until I was asked to run for City Council. I served there three terms, the last as mayor pro tem. Then I ran for mayor in 1993 and served until 1999,” Culpepper said.

As mayor, he saw Dell Computers, a young, promising personal computer business locate in Round Rock and the Round Rock Express minor league baseball team established.

It would be hard to imagine either of those landmarks located elsewhere, but Culpepper says either of them could have gone to another city if the fates had not stepped in.

Dell Moves to Round Rock

The city had an election to bring a minor league baseball team to Round Rock in 1991 using city sales tax to pay for it, but it was soundly defeated by a majority of two to one.

“Ironically, if that had passed in ‘91, we were going to put the stadium where Dell World Headquarters is now. So if it had passed then, there would be no Dell here, and there would be no Round Rock Express here,” he said.

The stadium was defeated and when Culpepper was elected mayor in ‘93, an agreement already had been put together for Dell to move to Round Rock, but Culpepper’s name as mayor is on the final contract with Dell.

The Call from the Ryans

Dell moved its headquarters to Round Rock in 1994, and the idea of a baseball team was dropped until Reed Ryan contacted him in late 1997. Reed and his dad Nolan were interested in bringing a baseball team to Round Rock.

The Ryans liked the friendliness of Round Rock and the fact that Round Rock was also a baseball town with lots of little league participation and great high school teams.

“I told him that we were interested,” he said, “if we could figure out a way to build a stadium without using sales tax or property tax.”

Culpepper went back to City Manager Bob Bennett and others to figure out a way to make it work.

“Steve Sheets [city attorney] did some research and figured out that if we could use it as a conference center, we could use hotel/motel tax to pay for it,” he said.

There was some opposition to this and it was decided that they would have to take this to the voters. Before the vote, they offered a trip to San Antonio to see the Jackson Generals [now the Round Rock Express] play.

“We ended up taking 10 busloads of fans to that game,” Culpepper said. “First inning, Lance Berkman (now with the Astros) hit a home run and everyone from Round Rock stood up to cheer. I knew then that the vote would pass.”

Next they had to find a place to build. They talked to several landowners about possible locations, but none seemed quite right unil property owner Arnold Teelander called Steve Sheets who was also his personal attorney. He was considering donating his land to a church or to the city.

“I took Nolan Ryan out to look at the [Teelander] land in my Tahoe,” Culpepper said. “It was about this time of year, and you could see the little league fields from where we were standing. Nolan said this was where the stadium should be,” Culpepper now says that perhaps his work did have some impact on the city.

“I’d say for family life Dell Diamond has made a difference; and financially, Dell Inc. made a difference for all the people of Round Rock.”