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A retired minister and community volunteer has cast his name into the Ward 3 Austin City Council race.

Ronald Kelly, running on the platform of “Faith, Family and Freedom,” will be running against incumbent Joyce Poshusta.

Kelly, born and raised in Austin, is hoping his background of community involvement and  time in the church where he was a minister for 30 years with nine spent ministering in Austin can earn him a seat on the City Council where he can help work toward concerns he sees coming to smaller communities in the United States.

“I’ve become more and more concerned with the country as a whole,” Kelly said. “Even small towns like Austin are inheriting big city problems. It’s caused a great deal of concern.”

In particular, Kelly said he was concerned by society being pushed away from traditional values.

“I think the move toward society structures has been pushed from a leftist position,” Kelly said. “Where they’re more concerned about what personal pronouns are used rather than reading, writing and science — things that are important to a functioning society.”

Kelly said that his work within the community has taken him to all levels of society in Austin including philanthropic groups and organizations such as Rachel’s Hope, time spent helping the developmentally disabled and working as a para-sub in the schools puts him in a good position to help lead Austin forward.

He’s also spent time helping within the migrant community in an effort to help them adapt to their new country.

“I found out that a lot of them have more Christian-orientated values than those in the United States,” Kelly said. “Helping them become a functional part of the society will be a big benefit toward restoring a proper focus on faith, family and freedom.”

One of the areas Kelly would like to concentrate on is continuing to build support for law enforcement.

“Law enforcement needs our support and us standing behind them,” Kelly said. “Our society is supposed to provide safety for all of our citizens.”

He also hopes to work toward strengthening  support systems for victims of crime that would bring counseling and churches working close together.

Kelly said that in the end he wants to help return traditional values to the forefront should he be elected.

“I’m the faith, family, freedom candidate that will be fighting for every citizen for an opportunity to make their way in the society,” Kelly said.