An incumbent mayor who’s been reelected 10 times in the City of Leon Valley faces two challengers this year who don’t like the city’s approach to homelessness and the city budget.
By most accounts, Mayor Chris Riley has been a popular mayor.
But three years ago in June, the council grappled with complaints from residents and businesses in the small town about a growing number of people who are unhoused, and their encampments.
After much discussion, the council passed an ordinance that made it illegal for anyone to sleep in a public space, stand in a traffic median and sleep in a vehicle.
Now of the 14 smaller municipalities holding city elections on the May 2 ballot in Bexar County, Riley is the only mayor in a contested race.
What’s on the ballot in Bexar County’s May 2 election?
Her two opponents include a fugitive recovery agent, Evan Bohl, who has taken issue with the city’s spending priorities, and a former councilman, Jed Hefner, who criticized the city’s new homeless camping ban as too harsh.
Hefner, now a consultant, opposed the ban three years ago. In an interview this week he said he helped to turn things around at City Hall during his time in office, but is concerned about the direction the council has taken toward “a lot of heavy-handed enforcement.”
Hefner was originally appointed in 2020 following a recall election in which two council members were ousted. He won a full term in 2021, representing Place 3 until 2023, when he decided not to seek reelection.
If he gets to return, his top priorities are ensuring property rights and balancing the budget. “I think that there are places in our city where we spend money when we shouldn’t, and we can allocate those resources more efficiently,” he said.
Bohl, a member of the council’s Capital Facilities Oversight Committee who ran for mayor in the two previous elections, did not respond to an email requesting information about his campaign.
In a Facebook post announcing his candidacy, he wrote: “We face a growing deficit of ability, unable to adequately fund necessary services and projects in Leon Valley. The current policies in place and direction our City is being taken down has wasted millions of dollars while our citizens do not have what they need and pay taxes for.”
Several of Bohl’s social media posts show him in a law enforcement uniform.
Riley, for her part, says she’s kept going because so many residents wanted her to.
“I did ask [other] people if they’d like to run [this year]. They said, ‘No, Mayor, we want you to run,’” Riley said. “[I said,] ‘OK, but I can’t be mayor forever.’”
The 47-year Leon Valley resident is an office manager and legal assistant at Riley & Riley Attorneys at Law, a practice run by her husband and son. First elected as mayor in 2004, Riley has served 11 consecutive terms.
“I really love doing it,” Riley said. “I love my job, and I love talking to my neighbors and getting the temperature of the community and getting their concerns so that we can address it and make Leon Valley a better city.”
Riley sees the outcome of the homeless ordinance as a positive. She said the city formed a partnership with Haven for Hope and became the first suburban city to engage in a pilot program for reaching out to the unsheltered population.
Her priority for the growing city is to maintain emergency services and it’s why she supported a 6-cent tax rate increase that allowed the city to hire three new firefighters. Riley said the 20% homestead exemption the city passed in 2023 could help seniors in the community absorb the increase.
Also on the May 2 ballot in Leon Valley are current council members Betty Heyl, running unopposed for her second term representing Place 2, and Rey Orozco for Place 4, who will be serving his fourth term.
