San Juan Commissioner Jesus “Jesse” Ramirez announced Sunday morning that he will be running for mayor of San Juan.
Ramirez, who has served on the city commission for about six and a half years, announced his candidacy via a short statement posted on his personal Facebook account.
“Good morning my family and friends! As we enter into a new year and with an upcoming city election, I contemplated running for Mayor of our beautiful city of San Juan or not running for office this year,” Ramirez wrote. “After receiving numerous calls from family, friends, and city employees, I have decided to seek the office of Mayor in the upcoming city election scheduled for May. I look forward in sharing with you our platform as I work on getting my team together.”
He also spoke of having a “team in place by the end of this week,” referring to candidates for the May election.
In an interview with The Monitor on Sunday, Ramirez said his campaign will be focusing on three issues: city employment, taxes, water rates.
“There’s been a lot of concern that there’s been a lot of political hires recently in the past year,” Ramirez said. “I’ve heard that concern from a lot of employees, so I’m thinking that we need to make some changes in the way that the hiring process is done here in the city.”
Ramirez also said he believes the city tax rate is too high despite efforts to reduce them, and has heard numerous complaints from constituents about the water rates in San Juan.
“I know that we’ve tried to reduce (taxes) a bit, but it’s still one of the highest in the Valley,” Ramirez said. “I get a lot of complaints about water rates here and the fact that they pay more than other cities. Those are the three concerns that I have.”
He said that he hopes to bring positive change to his community, where he’s invested over 27 years of volunteer service, as well as 32 years employment with the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo school district.
He is currently a first grade teacher at Doedyns Elementary School.
“My heart is with the city, and I just want to continue to serve in a different capacity as the mayor of our great city.”
Election Day is slated for May 1.
