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McALLEN — Maintaining the city’s steady trend of economic prosperity bolstered by healthy commercial and residential growth is the top priority for the three men seeking to keep their seats on the McAllen City Commission this month.
McAllen Commissioners Rodolfo “Rudy” Castillo, Victor “Seby” Haddad and José R. “Pepe” Cabeza de Vaca outlined their priorities as sitting public officials during a panel discussion hosted by the McAllen Chamber of Commerce and the McAllen Economic Development Corporation on Thursday.
Former McAllen Mayor Jim Darling moderated the discussion, walking the candidates through a series of topics, from quips on traffic gridlock, to state-imposed restrictions on municipal annexation and more.
Of the seats the three commissioners hold, neither Haddad’s District 5 nor Cabeza de Vaca’s District 6 drew challengers, leaving them the uncontested winners in their bids for reelection.
Castillo’s District 4 seat, however, drew a familiar challenger in Javier Salazar, who — along with Castillo and Pablo Damian Garcia — ran to fill the unexpired term of former District 4 Commissioner Tania Ramirez last January.
That race resulted in a runoff between Castillo and Garcia, which Castillo won with 56% of the votes.
However, Salazar did not attend Thursday’s candidate forum, leaving the sitting commissioners to speak of their current work on the city commission and where they hope to go from here.
Darling began the discussion by asking the candidates what they felt were the greatest needs in McAllen and how they would address those priorities given McAllen’s current budget surplus.
Cabeza de Vaca responded that he wants to continue prioritizing infrastructure improvements, including drainage and streets.
“Why? Because that is what brings economic development. That is what brings the companies to invest and settle in McAllen,” Cabeza de Vaca said.
Castillo echoed that sentiment, speaking of how recent spring storms have given him his first chance to see drainage improvements in action.
“I went over there and took video and, yes, it was flooded. But maybe about 15 minutes later, I came back and it (had receded). It was gone,” Castillo said before praising the collaborative efforts between McAllen and Hidalgo County to improve drainage systems on the south side of town.
For Haddad, a major factor in McAllen’s success has been in the steadiness of its leadership — of a “continuity of government” that has allowed city staffers the stability necessary to make long term plans.
“City management always forecasts and does a very good outlook of what infrastructure is gonna be more critical in year one, year one through three, year three through five, and then planning … to years 10, 15,” Haddad said.
Even while planning for today, the city commission continues to take into consideration projections for what McAllen’s needs will be in the future, he said.
The candidates next explored what they felt are McAllen’s greatest challenges — other than traffic, Darling quipped.
“Besides the traffic, the economic growth, I think is — we need to keep it where we’re at,” Castillo said before pausing.
Darling clarified his question to ask Castillo — whom he described as “an independent businessman” — how McAllen stacks up from that perspective.
“I think it’s one of the best places to open a business because we’re a border town with Mexico,” Castillo replied, lauding the city’s ability to draw binational commerce.
Haddad also praised the city’s growth in both the commercial and retail sectors, but cautioned that McAllen needs to ensure it also grows the public staff needed to support that growth.
“We want control and aggressive growth, but you always have to balance that out,” Haddad said.
“You’ve gotta always make sure that you look at your operations and how it’s balancing out. … We want to bring down, you know, people that have an economic impact within our area to offset all the costs of growth, because there is a cost to growth,” he said.
For Cabeza de Vaca, city leaders also need to remain cognizant that new industries will need a new workforce to power their operations.
“Companies look into infrastructure, and then they look at the workforce. So, having our kids ready — through McAllen ISD, through STC, through UTRGV — is gonna make us have that workforce that these companies that want to relocate to McAllen need,” Cabeza de Vaca said.
The candidates also tackled the issue of annexation — particularly, the limits which the Texas Legislature has imposed upon municipalities looking to grow their property tax revenue streams by expanding the physical footprints of their city limits.
As Mayor Darling put it, McAllen is 3 miles wide at its widest point, and approximately 27 miles long from the river to its northernmost limits.
Again, Haddad spoke of how a long run of stable government has given McAllen an edge, even under annexation restrictions.
“Previous commissioners (and) mayors have made sure that there’s always been a strategic plan of the city to continue boundaries, even in your ETJ, that sort of allow for the most strategic expansion of the city,” Haddad said, speaking of McAllen’s extra-territorial jurisdiction.
Every municipality has an ETJ — a boundary line extending beyond a city’s limits that allows a city to exert some regulatory control, though properties within a city’s ETJ are not subject to that city’s ad valorem taxation.
But an ETJ does give a city the opportunity to grow to encompass that area.
Castillo responded to the annexation question by saying it’s an issue he’s still working to learn about.
“It’s not fair to give some of the questions to a relatively new commissioner,” Darling said.
For Cabeza de Vaca, whose campaign website touts his relationships with state lawmakers, McAllen must continue to foster conversations with those lawmakers if local leaders want annexation restrictions to ease.
“Communication and this strategic plan is what we have to do,” Cabeza de Vaca said.
