Ernesto Lopez
Hometown: Brownsville
Other political office held: None
Education: Associate’s at Texas State Technical College in Applied Science, General Studies, Social Work, Education 6th-8th and Agriculture
Occupation: Owner and founder of nonprofit “Boss For The People,” and a construction business owner
Family: Married, with five children.
What qualifies you for the position? “The experience that I have throughout the years from the military and also starting a nonprofit that’s been functioning for almost 17 years, and the last one, I started a company. A construction company.”
Goals if elected: “We know … that people need … the bus stops, benches and shelters. … That’s the [concern]. And then, another thing is, I would like to get together with the permitting and licensing department for inspections to find a better solution to work with contractors, so contractors can build faster and find a way. You know, ‘What this is, what you need on the list to inspect.’ Inspect everything at one time. And then ‘OK, you know what you need to fix this.’ So we don’t need to be going back and forth, back and forth, and we get delays at the same time. That’s for the contractors. Then for all the entrepreneurs, the entrepreneurs have a time opening their business and a fast time. For example, to get a food truck … you need inspection and then another inspection and they tell you to upgrade this, upgrade that. So all the time that you’re being delayed, you’re losing money and the entrepreneur or investor has to pay the payment of the food truck. So, we need to find a way to open doors faster for entrepreneurs. We need more resources for our first responders, and not only the first responders, also for the city employees. … We need to also help a lot more and give more resources for the PUB employees. I’m also for getting more resources for our pet center, for the animal shelter. No kill. Continue to get more resources so the no-kill program can continue. And we need a cemetery for veterans in Brownsville. Brownsville has the highest-decorated veterans in all South Texas. I believe that the veterans in Brownsville should have their own cemetery. Then we have the expansion of the airport and bring more airlines to the airport. Brownsville is in a unique location because we’re on the border. So, we have international trade. We also have an aerospace industry. We have the Port of Brownsville. We have many things that we can continue growing. Brownsville has a lot of opportunity for investors and for the citizens of Brownsville. One of the things, main things … if given the privilege to represent not just the district, but also the whole entire city of Brownsville, is [to] work together. Whoever is the mayor, work with the current commissioners and work with the new commissioners as a team. And together we can address all the concerns of [the] entire district and entire city.”
Brownsville Public Utilities Board and Tenaska: “I know [the] scandal going on of Tenaska and stuff like that. We need to create preventative measures so that won’t happen again and accountability of whoever was responsible for that. But PUB employees are really good citizens. They always help us when the lights go and stuff like that, they’re there. They should be getting paid more for the hard work that they do, because it was not really them. It was, like, behind the scenes everything that happened.”
SpaceX: “SpaceX is a big opportunity for our youth to continue expanding education, and it’s also good economically for the city. I believe that as long that we work with SpaceX together and put the procedures guidelines, like with the [state and national wildlife agencies], the City of Brownsville, all the agencies and federal agencies work together to just keep a close eye on how [it] can impact our environment and make a diligence to make sure that everything is accountable and make sure to create the [least] damage. … And if there is any damage, what can we do to repair that? As personally, I have seen them really active. They are always cleaning the beaches and they help with the sea turtles.”
Downtown renovations: “So, for downtown … it’s been growing really nice. I also believe that it’s good to have investments in downtown, but at the same time we need to spread the income throughout the city, not just in downtown. 100% pro downtown. Downtown has been transformed in a really nice way. But we also have to make sure that, balance out, and put money also in Southmost, District 2, District 1, various. Not just in … downtown.”
Road capital improvements: “There’s a lot of concerns, from the streets, fix the common things. Repair streets, more lighting on streets that are dark, control where to throw trash, illegally in the streets, cleaning more irrigation canals. Help more the areas that are getting flooded when it rains, like Boca Chica [Boulevard] for example. A lot of concerns were to add speed bumps in a lot of neighborhoods. Not just repair potholes, but actually repair the whole street. … Because when you just fix potholes … it would end up a routine just patching up and patching up instead of actually fixing the problem. We need to fix the problem, not patch the problem.”
Caty Presas-Garcia
Hometown: Brownsville
Other political office held: Brownsville Independent School District Board president, secretary and board member
Education: American College of Real Estate
Occupation: Texas licensedrealtor, business owner
Family: Married, with three sons.
What qualifies you for the position? “I was formerly a school board member for eight years, so I was able to become familiar. Prior to being a school board member, I worked for the school system, so I was familiar with federal funding, state funding, local funding. So, it’s really necessary to know and understand where we’re able to spend the funding and question, or challenge the state and federal when we are in need of certain funding to be able to provide assistance to our own citizens of the community. So, it’s the knowledge that I bring. And, besides that, I also served on [the Council of Urban Boards of Education], which is an urban board of education. I was one out of 17 that helped make policies and implement the policies with the Education Director of the U.S. and the White House, to make sure that our students had the right policies, protect their rights and the parents’ rights and understand what was our purpose as board members and as leaders for our local students and parents in our community.”
Goals if elected: “I need to and I will work on the commitment of embracing the citizens to have better communication with their leaders. The infrastructure, the streets, the drainage. Be able to be innovative and creative as to what other opportunities we can bring for the economic development of our community. Make sure that if we are growing, that we have the law enforcement, the number of police officers needed in order for us to be able to have the proper numbers for our first responders, for our fire departments, police departments and paramedics. That we can become a better city as a whole, not just as leaders, but as a whole within the community. So, we can have a better feeling and we have that pride of being the citizens that we see in other cities. There’s a lot of work that needs to get done. But my focus will be economic development, infrastructure, embracing the citizens of Brownsville, making sure that they understand a city is only as good as its leaders and their citizens. And the citizens are only as good as their leaders. If a city is productive and doing well and financially stable, and everybody feels good about their salaries and everybody’s excited because we have so many good things around us, there’s a positive energy and we need to bring that into the city.”
Brownsville Public Utilities Board and Tenaska: “I am very disappointed that they have taken advantage of the citizens of Brownsville knowingly. … We live in an area with a lot of poverty where people are literally struggling and no one really bothered to even listen to it when they know that the responsibility and obligation of the mayor is being part of the PUB and notifying the public and fighting for the rights of the public while the mayor is on the PUB board. … The mayor’s the only one that knows what’s going on in the PUB board. It is a shame that PUB, they’re not treating it like they used to back in the ’70s because PUB literally belonged to the citizens of Brownsville. Right now, PUB is dictating to us. They’re taking advantage of the citizens. When PUB says it all, Public Utilities Board, public it belongs to the public. That’s what should go back to what it used to be when I was growing up in the ’70s and the ’80s. They were literally providing service and they could sympathize with the public.”
SpaceX: “SpaceX is creating a lot of jobs. But I think we need to come to an agreement and discussion with the county and the federal about some of the damage that it has done or will do to our city or our surrounding area of the community. SpaceX doesn’t belong to the city. People have that misconception. SpaceX literally belongs to the county. … It’s not ours in the city, although they use our city street to get there. But it’s something that we all as leaders are supposed to step up to the plate and unite and discuss about it. As to the pros and the cons.”
Linda Macias
Hometown: Brownsville
Other political office held: None
Education: Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice, Master’s in Counseling from UTRGV
Occupation: High school counselor
Family: Married, with two daughters
What qualifies you for the position? “I was born, raised and educated in Brownsville, Texas. I received my bachelor’s in criminal justice, where I worked as a dispatcher for the Brownsville Police Department. And then I transferred over to the Cameron County Juvenile Justice Department working with at-risk youth. That position inspired me to receive my master’s in counseling from UTRGV. I’m a licensed professional counselor and I have been servicing the high school population for the last 10 years. Nonetheless, so what do we do as counselors? We listen to the needs of students and families. We work with organizations to be able to bring any needs in our community. Nonetheless, in this campaign, that’s exactly what I’ve done. I listened to the needs of District 2 and that’s the same skill set. I want to be able to offer to listen and to help where it’s needed. In District 2, I have personally block walked to 1,300 houses and the residents have shared some needs in our area that we’re hoping to close the gap. The biggest skillset that I would like to offer is to be able to listen and work for the needs of District 2.”
Goals if elected: “As I’ve gone around listening to the needs in District 2, the first goal and the biggest concern that people have shared with me is better and safer roads. There are many roads that are in dire need of restoration and help. There are also roads that need more police presence to control traffic. So that’s No. 1. It’s better and safer roads and our community, that is what the residents want. The second one would be police presence. Safety is also a concern. And those would be my top two priorities.”
Brownsville Public Utilities Board and Tenaska: “PUB is a concern because of the recent audit that was released due to Tenaska. Tenaska was supposed to help the citizens in Brownsville. It would come out at the expense of the public in hopes of being able to sell the electricity and help us make money and it would lower our bill. However, that was not the result. The result was that they continue to take money without the promise and failure to complete this project. And due to the recent audit, it has shined light to this problem. Many of us spoke out. I was one that was very involved. I spoke before the city commission and I spoke before the PUB … to let them know of the injustice and to let them know that we as citizens will not tolerate projects like this. Anymore that come out on the expense of the citizens. And that’s a major [reason] in … why I’m running. I want to be able to hold others accountable for the things that we say that we’re going to do. Nonetheless, if there was illegalities to the people that were involved in this project, I am in full support of holding anybody accountable and also hoping that justice can be brought forth, to avoid projects like this or dealings like this from happening again in Brownsville.”
SpaceX: “SpaceX is one of the biggest employers in Brownsville, about 1,700 employees. It has brought much economic development within our area. And what I mean by that is, well, now we have 1,700 individuals with medium- to high-quality jobs that pay [at] good rates. This is a livable wage where people can pay for their home, groceries, gas and also have spending money. Every time somebody spends money, a certain percentage of that is a sales tax that contributes back into our economy. So, the economy aspect of it is fantastic. It helps us out a lot. And we’re able because of SpaceX, it has also brought out many things. For example, Avelo Airlines is a new airline from Brownsville where we were able to entice that because the CEO was from Allegiant and he transferred over and now he’s the CEO of Avelo Airlines and he predominantly moved here because of SpaceX. So, we are able to entice an airline that provides cheap airfare. We’ve also been able to entice other contractors to develop homes within our area. Just a side note, Brownsville does build 700 homes a year but nonetheless, there’s also a negative side to SpaceX. And when I talk about that, I talk about environmental. Many residents in District 2 have also shared their concerns when it comes down to the environment. And so I think that SpaceX is great with its advancements, with the economy, with the jobs that it provides. But it also has to be responsible to clean and hold the restrictions and damaging wildlife and the environment. We have to take care of mother earth.”
Downtown renovations: “Brownsville, Texas, is one, if not one of two, consider me biased, but to me, it’s one of the most historical places in the state of Texas. And to be able to see a neglected city, because it was the start of Brownsville, Brownsville relied on the economy and on the people of Matamoros, Tamaulipas and after the Mexican-American War, we had Charles Stillman come to Brownsville solidify it, and they started to develop a lot of trade within the economy. And that was the start of Brownsville. Elizabeth Street was named after Charles’ wife, Elizabeth Stillman. And Elizabeth Street was the shopping district, the Pablo Kisel [Boulevard] of its time, and nonetheless throughout time and throughout Brownsville moving and expanding more, it’s been neglected. And to see the restoration within our historic district makes me very proud, because Brownsville has a lot of great things going for it. We are one of the largest cities in the RGV with the highest population in Cameron County. We have a great historic district. We have SpaceX. We have multiple economic amenities that we capitalize on, such as the Port of Brownsville, the border air and road logistics. And so our historic district is the start of Brownsville, and we should continue to preserve it so we can tell these wonderful stories to the rest of the generation.”
Road capital improvement: “So, when it comes down to roads, you definitely see Boca Chica [Boulevard] being restored, Ruben M. Torres [Senior Boulevard] being restored … but nonetheless, it’s important for us to continue to restore roads. The state has come down, they just finished [FM 802]. We’ve seen Boca Chica, we definitely want to see more of the connecting roads too, the city’s roads to be able to restore our roads. We severely need it. If we go driving down Price Road or [Old Port Isabel Road], we see big potholes that are damaging vehicles. The other day when I talked to one resident in District 2, they mentioned to me that while it was flooded, they couldn’t see one of the potholes. They hit the pothole, the tire popped off and they had the 3-year-old child in the back of their vehicle. So, that car could have easily flipped, thankful to God, nothing happened. But it was a very scary moment, and we want our residents to be able to feel safe while they’re driving on the roads. And so, we definitely need to improve and capitalize on our roads.”
–Compiled by Rider Reporter Teresita Dominguez
