At $20 a week, it certainly isn’t the money. Still, a lot of people out there want to be a member of San Antonio’s City Council at least for awhile. A total of 25, in fact, are vying for the temporary assignments to the two open seats.
Faced with simultaneous vacancies in Districts 2 and 7, recently elected Mayor Ivy Taylor and the eight-member Council will listen in B Session Wednesday as candidates for the two seats make their pitch to be appointed, one at a time for a few minutes each. Thursday the Council will consider the top three candidates for each seat and from there select new colleagues for temporary duty in both districts.
The District 2 seat became available when Council elected Taylor last month as interim mayor to fill the unexpired third term of former Mayor Julián Castro, who now serves as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Obama administration. Thirteen candidates applied for the position.
Click here to access the names of the District 2 candidates and to read their brief applications.
The individual who is chosen will only serve three months before a special election is held on the Nov. 4 ballot. The winner of that vote will hold the office until the regular city elections are held in May.
The District 7 seat became available after Councilman Cris Medina announced he was taking a leave of absence to fulfill military training obligation as an Air Force reserve officer at Fort Meade, MD. He is set to return Oct. 10.
Still, 13 candidates filed for the two-month assignment, with one withdrawing after the fact. At least some of them may believe that ethical charges made against Medina in a widely-circulated, anonymous email last month will derail his return. Medina has denied the charges, but his eleventh hour decision not to file as a candidate for interim mayor and his abrupt announcement he was leaving have generated considerable speculation about his political future.
Click here to access the names of the District 7 candidates and to read their brief applications.
Taylor announced before her election as mayor that she would serve for 300 days and not seek election to a full term as mayor, thus giving other Council members interested in running for the position equal footing come May 9, 2015 when the mayor’s seat and all 10 Council seats will be on the ballot.
Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that there are 13 candidate for the vacant District 7 seat. Thirteen candidates did file for the seat, but one of them later withdrew her name.
*Featured/top image: San Antonio City Hall. Photo by Iris Dimmick.
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Conversation: Mayor Ivy Taylor
My Neighbor, Now My Mayor, Ivy Taylor
Ya know, if we want the most honest and hard-working men and women to seek elected office in our city (and state) maybe we should actually pay them?
Giving the mayor and councilmen a six-figure compensation package would be a drop in the city’s collective bucket. Same thing goes for our Texas Legislature.
Leo Torrez and Law & Economics, We deleted your comments from Facebook and the website. Your unsubstantiated allegations of public corruption at City Hall have no basis in fact. They are just rants and contribute nothing to the conversation. Pls refrain from posting such comments in the future. We welcome comments that are relevant to the story and written in a tone of civility. –RR
Plenty of cities pay their city councils and mayors more. The career politicians in those cities are no better.