Before joining the Commissioners Court, Moody, age 44, worked for Valero Energy, USAA, and as a legislative assistant for then-U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo. A U.S. Naval Academy graduate, Moody served as a combat pilot during tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and serves in the Marine Reserves.
He was first elected to the Commissioners Court in 2022 to fill the unexpired term of Trish DeBerry. He’s running for his first full four-year term this November.
Please tell voters about yourself.
I’m a former small business owner and a former executive at USAA. I also previously served as Director of Innovation at Valero Energy before being elected County Commissioner in 2022. As a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Reserves I’ve spent over 20 years as a Marine officer and F-18 pilot with combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.
I have a BS in Economics from the Naval Academy, a MS in Statistics from Texas A&M, and an MBA in Business Economics and Public Policy from the Wharton School of Business. I decided to run for County Commissioner in 2022 to get things done. As a businessman, I don’t just talk about problems, with the help of my team I solve them. We strive to make local government more accountable, efficient, and effective.
I live in the Leon Springs area in northern Bexar County with my wife and three kids.
What three issues do you consider to be most pressing for Precinct 3 and how do you plan to address them?
The biggest issues facing our county are public safety, debt, and budget issues.
Public safety is foundational. It is a core and essential public service and the County owns the criminal justice system. I led efforts last year to add 62 deputy sheriffs and 21 deputy constables to provide additional law enforcement coverage of unincorporated Bexar County. This budget cycle I pushed for additional law enforcement officers again and was able to secure 53 new law enforcement officers. These are historic investments in public safety, and they are investments that we led.
I’ve also highlighted the need for Bexar County to address its long-term debt and reprioritize our budget in order to keep taxes low. I support the 2-year moratorium on new bond issuance from the county manager but I believe we should do more and that should start with scrubbing and updating the county’s 10-year capital plan that is already 3 years old.
As elected leaders, we shouldn’t abdicate responsibility for making the hard decisions about discretionary spending. We should welcome a robust discussion on priorities, not because it will be fun or easy politically, but because it is the right thing to do for our county.
As the county considers tightening its belt on capital projects, which infrastructure needs do you believe are the most pressing, and which ones are you willing to put on the back burner?
During the recent discussions on debt, I presented the court with a roadmap for potentially cutting back 20% on capital projects over the life of the 10-year capital plan. My proposal was designed to break the ice in court and hopefully produce further discussions on county priorities.
My proposal modestly cut flood control projects through scaling, kept road projects level, significantly cut back on creeks and trails, and modestly increased investment in parks. This was a reasonable proposal that I hope the Court will revisit as we go forward into a new fiscal year.
Obviously there are other capital project areas that deal with operations and safety (e.g. jail maintenance) that are critical and must be prioritized, but the big four areas I touched on in my proposal are the bulk of capital spending projects and will have to be adjusted if we want to actually change the trajectory of our county debt and debt per capita.
What role do you believe the county should play in encouraging voting, expanding voting access and registering voters?
The county’s role has always been the fair and transparent administration of our elections. We should prioritize doing that activity well and ensuring all voters have confidence in our elections administration. Part of elections administration should be ensuring awareness of upcoming elections to include the polling sites, polling hours, and how to request an absentee ballot.
However, voter registration has never been a role of county government or our elections administration department. Political parties, candidates, PACs and other political organizations are already spending more and more trying to register voters today. Tax dollars should not be used in this effort.
How do you solicit input and feedback from constituents?
My office aims to be the gold standard in constituent services. My team has worked tirelessly to be responsive and solve problems for constituents in Precinct 3. We try to respond to every email and every phone call within 24 hrs. Depending on call volume that isn’t always possible but it’s a goal we continue to strive for.
Other ways that we solicit input and feedback include via social media and at townhalls and other neighborhood events. I’ve participated in dozens of community events over the last two years where I’ve met and spoke with hundreds of constituents, and I plan to continue to expand those events in the coming years.
Over the last few months I’ve worked with our IT department to build an online transparency tool which will provide comprehensive and easy to read budget information online. I’m confident this will provide more accountability for the county and drive more engagement from constituents in the future. It should go live next month.
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