Mission City Councilmember Jessica Ortega is seeking a third term in office but, this time, her path toward reelection is being challenged by two other candidates who are looking to unseat her in the city’s May general election.
Noel Salinas, a healthcare administrator, and Moises “Moy” Iglesias, a retired military veteran who previously ran a construction business are also vying for Ortega’s Place 1 seat on the council.
Ortega, 48, says that with eight years on the city council, she brings experience to the table and adds that she’s learned to listen to the constituents.
“I think that all of us should be life-long learners and, every day, I learn something different,” Ortega said. “These last four years when I got elected, I kind of took it a little differently to where now, I have the voice and I listen to my constituents and really push for things that were needed in the city.”
Ortega is a life skills coach at Juarez-Lincoln High School and also currently serves as the mayor pro-tem for the city.
Her desire to be reelected, she said, stems from the many projects that she would like to see through.
“I have a lot of projects that I hold dear to me and I want to push forward,” she said. “One of them is, most recently, the Mission Police Department came up with a mental health unit and I would like to see that grow with offering training to our law enforcement and city staff and being more accessible with resources to our community.”
She added she’d like to see the completion of the city’s seven drainage projects that are currently underway.
Another project she’d like to see is the establishment of an agency that would serve as a one-stop shop for counseling, assistance with rent, lighting, food, or clothing.
“That is a futuristic, personal goal of mine that I feel that the city of Mission needs because, right now, if we want to refer any community member to any agency, it’s always outside of Mission,” Ortega said. “So I would like to establish a place where our community members can go to right here.”
Salinas, 48, has managed the Valley Cancer Associates in Harlingen for more than 15 years and said he feels the city has remained stagnant over the last few years.
“No growth, I feel our schools are lacking, I feel that they’re not doing anything for the residents of Mission,” Salinas said, explaining why he’s running for city council.
He said he likes to be out in the community, talking to residents and becoming familiar with their concerns.
One of the top concerns he hears about, Salinas said, is the lack of cleanliness of their streets, the lack of lighting, the lack of sidewalks in some areas, and the lack of sufficient exercise areas.
He added that the parks, in addition to being dirty, were also outdated.
“All those things can be fixed if you have good leadership and you hold people accountable,” Salinas said.
Drainage, he added, is another major concern due to flooding that occurs after heavy rain.
Canales also would prioritize providing enough resources to the city’s fire and police departments so that they remain up to date and wants to strengthen small businesses.
“The improvements do not require additional taxes,” Salinas said. “We can go work with federal and we can work with state and county officials to see what type of grants are out there so we can bring in and invest it in our parks, in our streets, on our lighting — but all the other stuff, it can be done by just holding everybody accountable in the city and also have the city council be accountable for where we’re lacking in these areas.”
Iglesias, 68, previously served on the Mission school board for five years and is now hoping to serve on the city council as a way to enact change.
“If you want change, you have to be inside,” Iglesias said. “You can be out here and you can complain and scream and yell and do whatever you want — nobody’s going to listen. But when you’re inside, then you can make changes.”
If elected to the office, his priorities would include drainage improvements as well as implementing enough parks and workout areas for residents.
“We need to make sure that the infrastructure is in there to relieve that flooding and just feels that it’s not there,” he said. “I’m trying to get in to find out what it is that’s causing and what we can do to fix it.”
In speaking to voters about his campaign, Iglesias said he emphasizes integrity, honesty and transparency.
“When I was on the school board, we were as transparent as you could be; I wanted to make sure that people knew that we were doing the right thing,” he said.
“When it comes to contracts, when it comes to doing things like that, you need to be open, you need to be where the people have access to see what happened and why it happened or why you did what you did,” Iglesias added. “That’s what I’m going to do.”
The three candidates will be on the ballot for the upcoming election on May 7. Early voting begins Monday.
