Councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havrda hasn’t yet decided whether to give up her City Council seat to run for mayor, but a vibrant race is already shaping up in District 6.
Three candidates with impressive public service resumes all running for the chance to represent the far Westside district made their case Tuesday night to members of the Thunderbird Hills Neighborhood Association gathered at Powell Elementary School.
Among them, Donovon Rodriguez, who has worked in the Texas Legislature advising lawmakers for nearly a decade, told the audience that he filed his campaign treasurer report — the first step of launching a City Council campaign — on Monday.
Rodriguez said his campaign treasurer will be his boss, state House Rep. Ray Lopez (D-San Antonio), who had represented District 6 from 2004 to 2012.
Other candidates include Lawson Alaniz-Picasso, a housing advocate and former staffer for then-Councilman Roberto Treviño (D1), who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination in Bexar County’s Precinct 1 this year.
Northside ISD trustee Homer Guevara is also running for the seat. Guevara is a government professor at Northwest Vista College who previously served on the board of CPS Energy.
Missing from the lineup on Tuesday was Cabello Havrda, who has long floated the idea of running for mayor, but still has two years of eligibility left in her council seat.
Thunderbird Hills Neighborhood Association President Dan Rossiter serves as Cabello Havrda’s appointee to the Brooks Development Authority board of directors, and said Wednesday that she was made aware of the event but declined to attend.
Cabello Havrda recently participated in a different neighborhood association’s candidate forum, for mayoral hopefuls, in District 7.
Given those signals about the mayoral race, Rossiter said it was time for his neighborhood to start meeting candidates to replace her.
“With an open seat, and City Council being a crucial collaborator for all of the initiatives the neighborhood is pushing for, I think it’s critical that our membership understands their options,” he said.
