When you look back over our city’s modern history, what separates the good mayors from the great mayors is their ability to bring our city together to work collaboratively to achieve big, bold goals.
When it was first announced that Mayor Julían Castro was to be nominated to be the next Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, people asked me who should be the next mayor of San Antonio. After all, our city is on the rise and we deserve a great mayor to keep our momentum moving forward. So when asked who would be a great mayor, I responded – Leticia Van de Putte. Unfortunately, she was not in a position to be the next mayor since the city’s charter required that the next mayor be selected from the current City Council.
When both Van de Putte and then-Councilmember Ivy Taylor pledged not to run for mayor, I proudly signed on to serve as co-chair for Mike Villarreal’s campaign. I believed that Mike had the vision, intellectual capacity, and leadership to be a good mayor, and he also had a broad coalition of support to bring our city together.
When Mike failed to make the runoff, I gave the two candidates a fresh look and studied the issues that were most important to the city. I returned to my initial belief that Van de Putte is the best choice to be our next mayor. Let me tell you why and, in doing so, dispel several campaign myths.
Police/Fire Negotiations
I supported Mike’s stance on the contract negotiations with the police because he offered an emphatic commitment to the fiscal future of our city. After talking with Van de Putte and looking at the policies she has put in writing, she has it right on the police union contract negotiations, and she will stand with City Manager Sheryl Sculley on fiscal accountability.
It concerns me that the negotiations have dragged on this long. Allowing the negotiations to take the acrimonious turn has been detrimental to our city. We need a contract that fairly compensates our first responders without jeopardizing our AAA Bond Rating and fiscal integrity. Leticia supports city council’s pre-existing commitment to maintain public safety costs at or below 66% of the general fund budget so the city maintains adequate resources to fund all the other important basic services we depend upon including parks, libraries, senior services, and more. Furthermore, Leticia will not allow an evergreen clause to be excessive like it is today.
Van de Putte’s opponents want to scare you into believing that the endorsement by the unions will compromise her ability to get a fiscally responsible deal done. As one who has stood firmly on the side of the city to negotiate a fiscally responsible contract, let me assure you that is not true. Rather, Van de Putte is the only candidate with the relationships and consensus building skills to bring both sides to the table to get a deal done quickly so we can keep our city safe and move on to other important issues like infrastructure.
Commitment to Infrastructure and Basic City Services
We are likely to have a major bond proposal in 2017. As tri-chair of the 2012 Bond Campaign, I’m keenly aware that we must strategically invest in infrastructure because the needs far outweigh our available resources. Van de Putte has committed to investing 75% of the upcoming bond on critical infrastructure projects. She will also utilize an open process that engages citizens from every council district to give recommendations to guide council’s decision on a bond proposal.
Relationship with City Staff
Van de Putte’s critics say she will fire Sheryl Sculley if elected mayor. Once again, that is just not true.Van de Putte knows that Sheryl is one of the best city managers in America. She has publicly lauded Sheryl for her leadership to strengthen the delivery of basic city services and position San Antonio to be the largest city in America to earn a AAA bond rating.Van de Putte will work with the city council and city staff to ensure we continue on this path and find ways to deliver our services even better, especially to at-risk populations of our City.
Relationships to Get Things Done
Van de Putte’s critics say she is a career politician because of her public service over the past 25 years. The fact is she has worked tirelessly with individuals and groups all across our city, state and nation to get things done for San Antonio and Texas. Everyone who has worked to pass important state legislation for bettering our city knows that Van de Putte has been critical to getting bipartisan support to pass legislation. Van de Putte’s career relationships position her to do more for San Antonio when it comes to public-private partnerships that are necessary to tackle the City’s toughest challenges in areas of education, housing, infrastructure and human services. These issues are too big for the city to do alone, and Leticia has the breadth and scope of relationships to make big things possible for our City.
Bringing Back Uber and Lyft
I was appalled that San Antonio became the first major city in Texas to run off transportation companies like Uber and Lyft because of government regulations. Rideshare programs were central to Mike’s campaign platform and like Villarreal, Van de Putte has been a strong voice for wiping the slate clean and developing an ordinance that brings them back to our city to ensure we have safe, cost effective, and convenient transportation options that also open the doors for economic development.
Non-Partisan Politics
Like Villarreal, Van de Putte has made a “no partisan politics” pledge. This is very important to me because our mayor must work with whoever gets elected at the state and federal level. She has seen partisan politics up close and personal at the state level. She sees how destructive it is. Van de Putte says, “the city is the people’s government.” We can count on her to bring all stakeholders together to solve our city’s challenges, regardless of political party.
The Best Choice to Build a Great American City
I’m confident San Antonio will flourish best if we electVan de Putte as our mayor. She is a woman of conviction with a passion to make her hometown of San Antonio a better place to raise a family, pursue a fulfilling career, start a new business and enjoy a great quality of life. Because her public life has been thoroughly vetted by decades of public scrutiny, we know there will be no surprises to derail our progress.
It’s for these reasons that I believe Leticia Van de Putte is the clear choice to be San Antonio’s next great mayor. When you look at her track record you can be confident that she will be a mayor who will bring us together to tackle tough challenges and seize upon the opportunities that will make us a great American city.
To borrow a great line from Mike’s campaign, Van de Putte only needs one vote…yours! So vote San Antonio. When you do, I hope you join me in voting for Leticia Van de Putte as our next mayor.
*Featured/top image: Leticia Van de Putte smiles at the crowd after voting at Lion’s Field on June 1. Photo by Scott Ball.
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Thank you Carri Baker Wells- we need leadership and hopefully this encourages the Mike supporters to vote for LVP because we need their help to win.
It’s for SA, for police and fire negotiations, for cultural development and protection, for basic human rights and protections in the work place, and overall strong leadership.
Strong points from a local Women leader who has deep knowledge and insight about San Antonio. Thank you for taking the time to write this well written piece Carri!
In regards to police/fire contracts will you please explain to me the role of the mayor? This issue has come up quite a bit that either LVP or Taylor is best for the city negotiations but as I understand it both the city and the police union have head negotiators that are outside attorneys. Other than affirming the city’s position, what can a mayor actually do? San Antonio is not a strong mayor city – our council and city manager, namely the latter, preform most of the duties people associate with the mayor. What can a mayor really do and other than being committed to maintaining costs at 66% – how will LVP be better for negotiations than Taylor?
Onto the bond: that 75% figure is relatively close to what has historically been spent, right? So other than maintaining the status quo what would good would LVP lend to the process? Taylor’s SATomorrow initiative is working to bring citizen involvement into planning much like SA2020 did. Would LVP simply continue this process or would she better it in some way? If so, how?
Firing Sculley: no mayor, LVP or Taylor or even Castro, can “fire” the city manager. The CM is appointed by council and it would take a consensus on the council to remove the CM. What is the point of including this?
Uber and Lyft: With the exception of Medina, every council incumbent won. It is the council that passed the measure Uber & Lyft deemed unacceptable – they mayor only had one vote like the rest of council. How would LVP change this? What more can she do than Taylor can?
I agree on the relationship piece – there is undoubtably a wealth of connections and political power that LVP wields after 25 years in state politics. Beyond this point though this article really lends a poor case as to why to vote for LVP.
I voted for Villarreal and I am still unsure of who to vote for in the runoff. Pieces like this have provided very little actual information and are just bland campaign talking points.
As a Mike Villarreal supporter, are you really considering voting for someone who discriminates against the LGBTQ community?
I’m still uncertain of who I will vote for but I am leaning towards Taylor. Her vote on the NDO is not one that I agree with and I am not a fan of how she has positioned herself as the “conservative” or “Christian” candidate but even with that I am still not sold on LVP. In the end though the NDO passed despite Taylor’s opposition and as mayor there is really nothing she can do to limit the rights of the LGBTQ community. I doubt her opinion on the subject has changed any since her vote but I rest assured in her incapacity to act upon that opinion.
Both candidates, in my opinion, have done a poor job of espousing any particular vision for the city throughout their campaigns. This is what keeps me at an impasse. That said, I am a fan of Taylor’s SATomorrow initiative and have been impressed through my interactions with it. Her education in city and regional planning is a big reason why I am leaning towards voting for her. I see SATX and the larger central Texas region it is located in approaching a crossroads. Good planning can ensure the region’s continued growth and prosperity and shortsightedness in this area will ensure a plateau.
If we continue with the idea that the mayor’s role is largely ceremonial and that the office’s soapbox is one of its largest powers then the ability of Mayor Taylor to direct smart planning is huge. The case can be made that LVP has a strong sense of the region and its needs from her former vantage point at the capitol but she has failed to make so much clear.
LVP, despite her legislative successes, seems to me wholly unadapted to government at the municipal level. This is my major concern with her as a candidate – that 20+ years of legislative experience have prepared her for an entirely different form of governance that not entirely translatable to local government.
I completely agree. I’m a Mike voter and undecided but leaning toward Ivy because of her experience in planning and she seems to have a vision and an interest in pursuing the downtown development started by her predecessors. I can’t figure out what LVP plans on doing while in office. She doesn’t seem to have a vision, she rarely answers debate questions, it’s all platitudes and everything comes down to ‘respect’ and ‘leadership’ and I don’t even know what that means. I don’t think her 24 years in the legislature translates into city government at all and it doesn’t seem like she understands what the mayor does. Then all the endorsements of her just spout off the same talking points but don’t point to specific reasons why she is better. Maybe it’s because she’s not?
it passed. and she’s not going to try to overturn it. it’s a shameful position but it’s also shameful that leticia’s husband sells confederate flags and defends it as ‘they’re historical’ (see TPR debate around 44 min).
To those who criticize Van de Putte for being a “career politician”: Would you let a plumber fix your roof? Would you let a psychiatrist to work on your teeth? Like it or not, a career politician has the experience, skills, and connections to make things happen and is well suited to work in government. I know that is a simplistic statement (because a crooked politician has those same traits and can do awful things while holding office) but I wouldn’t want anyone in the mayor’s office who didn’t have the commitment, skills & connections to benefit San Antonio. VOTE VOTE VOTE!
Clean up the graffiti especially in the forgotten south east and west sides.