Rolando Pablos served as Texas Secretary of State under Gov. Greg Abbott. He chairs the international committee of the Texas Association of Business, and started a regional economic development group Borderplex Alliance.
Hear from the candidate
Please tell voters about yourself.
I’ve lived in San Antonio for 40 years.
Education: St. Mary’s University (Bachelor’s – Biology), 1992 — MBA, University of Texas at San Antonio, 1994 — Master’s in Hospitality Management, Hilton College at the University of Houston, 1996 — J.D., St. Mary’s University, 1998 — L.L.M., University of Texas, 2019
- 111th Texas Secretary of State, Border Commerce Coordinator
- Texas Public Utility Commission (chair)
- Texas Racing Commission (chair)
- San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (chair)
- San Antonio Free Trade Alliance (chair)
- City of San Antonio’s Small Business Economic (chair)
- Development Advocacy Committee (SBEDA) under Mayor Ed Garza
- San Antonio Mayor’s Commission on Homelessness (chair)
- Overnight Facilities under Mayor Phil Hardberger
Additionally, I’ve served on least two dozen other positions for San Antonio boards, commissions and nonprofit organizations. I have never run for elected office.
In a field of 27 mayoral candidates, what differentiates you from the others?
My experience in the highest levels of business and government make me the best candidate to create a stronger future for San Antonio. I’ve run three large government organizations, more than anyone in the race, and will use this experience to create greater efficiencies and accountability in our local government, and ensure our public safety agencies have the resources needed to protect our citizens, homes, and businesses.
I want to work to ensure an informed and registered electorate, as I did as Secretary of State, encouraging students to register to vote.
As Texas Secretary of State, my number one job was to bring companies from around the nation and world to Texas, and I am ready to do that for San Antonio and attract more companies with higher paying jobs for our world-class workforce.
If elected, you would be taking over at a time when the city has spent more than a year negotiating a massive downtown redevelopment effort in Project Marvel. How would you approach this project?
We have a very simple question to ask ourselves: Do we want to keep the Spurs, or do we want to lose them to another city? If we want to keep them, then we need to work with them to make sure that we provide them the facilities that they’re looking for, and that starts with prioritizing the arena.
But beyond that, when big companies with high-paying jobs are considering moving here, and when young professionals are considering moving here, they ask about San Antonio’s quality of life. An entertainment district like Project Marvel answers that question.
There are too many unknowns at this point as to how the plan will be financed, and I want to ensure that if taxpayer funds are used, they are used to advance the fundamental goal of this project: improving our city’s quality of life and economic activity.
I do not expect the taxpayers to foot the bill, I envision a public-private partnership. We need to be ambitious in our goals of transforming our downtown and embrace the improvements it would bring to the entire city, but we need to be practical, fiscally responsible, and strategic about those investments.
In the city’s 2024-2025 budget survey, residents ranked homelessness, streets,
housing and animal care services among their top concerns for the city to address. Which issues do you consider a top concern and how would you work to address them in your first 100 days?
I plan to immediately institute a ‘Fund First’ public safety policy at City Hall to ensure we are funding our police, fire, EMS, and other first responders as the very first line item in the city budget. To address rising crime in our neighborhoods — particularly increases in burglaries and property crimes — we need to prioritize funding our law enforcement and all first responders, as well as animal control.
It’s alarming that San Antonio has now been ranked as having the second largest homeless population in Texas. Our city needs a real plan to eliminate systemic, generational poverty by addressing the root causes of homelessness. We also need solutions to increase housing supply by reducing regulatory barriers and ensure that public housing programs operate with full transparency and accountability.
I also want to prioritize attracting more major employers to create good-paying jobs for San Antonians. Right now, our city has developed a reputation as being unfriendly to businesses — I want to change that immediately by reducing onerous regulations that force businesses to look elsewhere. I also want to make sure we strengthen programs to develop an ample pipeline of qualified workers, ensuring companies have the talent pool they need to succeed.
For the past four years San Antonio has worked closely with the Biden Administration on federally funded projects like airport development and Advanced Rapid Transit. How would you approach working with both state leaders in Austin and a new presidential administration in D.C.?
I am the only mayoral candidate that has the personal relationships with our state and federal leadership. Throughout my career, I’ve cultivated close relationships with our Congressional delegation, our Senators, our Governor and leadership in our legislature. The benefit is that, when San Antonio needs support at the state or federal level, I know who to call and how to get it done. Rather than fighting against our leadership, I want to cooperate, communicate, and collaborate with our partners at all levels of government for the benefit of all San Antonians.
I was proud to serve as a founding board member of the Capital Access Alliance and lead the charge in successfully securing a new direct flight between San Antonio (SAT) and Reagan National (DCA), streamlining the ability for our city’s community, business, and civic leaders to access our nation’s capitol through a direct, nonstop flight. This will be a key tool in ensuring San Antonio — particularly our outstanding military community and cybersecurity industry — has access to federal agencies and lawmakers to leverage the strength of Military City U.S.A. in defending our nation while further empowering our businesses, civic leaders, and community organizations to engage with our federal leaders.
Read more about Rolando Pablos
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San Antonio’s mayor race is now between Jones and Pablos
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Inside the expensive, ‘confusing,’ 27-candidate race to be San Antonio’s next mayor
