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May 11, 2018 • Local News

El Paso Inc: Where are the City Council candidates?

The November election will be a big one for El Pasoans. It includes U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s race for the Senate, Veronica Escobar’s for the U.S. House and four City Council seats up for grabs.

Usually, candidates would be elbowing into the race, appointing campaign treasurers and quietly building support among potential donors. But this election season, things are off to a slow start.

So far, five City Council candidates have appointed campaign treasurers, indicating they’ll run. Most are fresh faces and have not served in public office before.

“When it comes to municipal elections, there are not a lot of people running,” UTEP professor Richard Pineda said. “That’s a bigger issue than people not voting.”

City Rep. Peter Svarzbein, who represents the Upper Valley and half of the Westside, told El Paso Inc. he will seek re-election. He appears to be the only seasoned candidate in any of the City Council races so far.

The four seats up for grabs in November are District 1 and 8 on the Westside and 5 and 6 on the Eastside.

The official filing period for City Council candidates begins July 23 and ends Aug. 20, but usually the posturing begins well in advance. The absence of candidate announcements got the attention of city Rep. Cassandra Hernandez Brown, who has long been involved with city politics.

“Where are the candidates?” she asked.

In the past, city elections are held in May, and candidates begin their campaigns by January. But this year is different. It’ll be the first time city races are married with national elections on the same ballet.

The change was approved by voters in the May 2013 city charter election. Supporters said the move would increase voter turnout in El Paso where turnout is traditionally very low.

However, it also means candidates in local non-partisan races will have to compete for attention with candidates in partisan national races.

So far, Svarzbein is running unchallenged to keep his seat.

“I think there’s a lot we can do to keep El Paso moving forward,” Svarzbein said. “I look forward to helping the city grow economically and culturally.”

City Rep. Michiel Noe, who has represented District 5 since 2011, can’t run again for that seat because of term limits.

For now, only one candidate, John B. Hogan, is running for his seat. Hogan could not be reached for comment, but according to his Facebook profile, he is a professional photographer, web designer and voiceover artist.

He wrote in a Facebook comment, “I am tired of our district being unrepresented in a meaningful way as well as our city as a whole throwing our money away without result for every citizen.”

George Stoltz, a 25-year-old history and political science student at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, is the only candidate vying for city Rep. Claudia Ordaz’s seat so far. Ordaz did not return phone calls from El Paso Inc.

Stoltz said he would be an advocate for the LGBTQ community in El Paso and is not happy about how the city relocated residents from the Duranguito neighborhood.

The city provided relocation incentives for residents living in the neighborhood to make way for the proposed $180 million Multipurpose and Performing Art Center, better known as the arena.

Rich Wright, known for his blog El Chuqueno, and Nicholas Vasquez, a 27-year-old sociology student at UTEP, are running to replace city Rep. Cissy Lizarraga.

Wright said, “I’d stop spending money we don’t have. I’d stop misrepresenting City Council’s actions. I’d get the city out of the business of creating entertainment centers and back to the business of maintaining the streets and other core functions.”

Vasquez said he wants to create a partnership between the city and UTEP to recycle electronic waste.

Lizarraga did not answer calls from El Paso Inc.

In November’s election, certificates of obligation, a form of city issued debt not approved by voters, may become a major talking point for candidates. However, it can be a challenge for candidates to run on issues the general public may perceive as “boring” but affect their lives, said Pineda, director of the Sam Donaldson Center for Communication Studies at UTEP.

Certificates of obligation became a hot issue when City Council voted last week to approve more than $80 million of them to fund street projects, site work for the redevelopment of Cohen Stadium and other projects.

“My guess is the average voter doesn’t know what a certificate of obligation is; they may not know what they are but recognize it as a potential taxing issue,” Pineda said. “Unless people have a grievance, they are less likely to get involved in the election process.”

Another important issue that will be on the November ballot is a proposal to increase the salaries of city representatives. Right now, the annual salary is $29,000.

In April, City Council created an Ad Hoc Charter Advisory Committee to consider changes to the City Charter, including salary increases, which voters must approve.

Pineda said El Paso city representatives don’t get competitive salaries, and they are lower than in other cities.

“You shouldn’t get rich at this capacity,” he said. “But looking at how much an elected person puts in, the late hours and all the work, it’s close to being minimum wage.”

Steve Ortega, a former city representative who serves on the charter committee, said serving as a city representative is a full-time job.

“We’re the 19th most populous city in the country and our municipal corporation’s board presides over an operating budget of about $900 million,” Ortega said. “El Paso’s made huge strides over the past 10 years and those strides often required controversial decision making. This issue will be no different, but raising the salaries is the right thing to do.”

Source: http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/local_news/where-are-the-city-council-candidates/article_58a8712e-516a-11e8-92ee-53c46c48cf55.html