Four of the five candidates running in the special May 10 election for the District 3 position on the El Paso City Council showed up at Saturday’s Ray Pearson Forum with Joe Oliva.

Early voting in the election to fill the seat that former East-Central Rep Alexandro Lozano left to run for county commissioner starts Monday (April 28, 2008).

With five candidates in the running, a June runoff appears almost certain.

Whoever wins will have to hit the campaign trail again next year if he or she wants to stay in office because the unexpired term expires next spring.

In the running:

• Emma Acosta, 54, consultant and former Solid Waste Department Director

• John Burch, 33, community college student, Army reservist

• Naomi Gonzalez, 29, assistant El Paso County attorney

• Fabiola Ruiz-Arras, 27, Wells Fargo Bank teller

• Joseph Villescas, 30, educational consultant

The election is important because 4-3 votes are frequent on important matters before City Council and the next representative could strengthen the current majority’s hold on policy matters or even the sides, which would force Mayor John Cook to break more tie votes, defining his position with an election coming up.

In the majority on most matters where there is a split vote are Westside Rep. Ann Lilly, West-Central Rep. Susie Bryd, Eastridge/Mid-Valley Rep. Steve Ortega and South-West Rep. Robert “Beto” O’Rourke.

They have supported major policy shifts for the city, including the Downtown Plan, sweeping changes in the organization of city government giving City Manager Joyce Wilson – the city’s first city manager – more powers as chief executive, changes in development standards to make developers build more and bigger parks and to inject so-called smart-growth principles into development rules.

They have also supported major spending measures resulting in the issuance of certificate of obligation bonds for city projects, flood repairs and to bail out the police and fire pension fund that have increased property taxes.

Three representatives often vote against the majority’s initiatives and spending measures: Northeast Rep., Melina Castro, Eastside Rep. Rachel Quintana and East-Valley Rep. Eddie Holguin.

At the Pearson Forum, host Joe Oliva noted the absence of Ruiz-Arras and said she had promised to appear but has missed other candidate forums as well.

She could not be reached for comment later.

Asked to characterize the two factions on City Council, none of the candidates at the forum would do so or say how they might fit in as far as their political outlook is concerned. The all promised to be independent of any group or bloc.

ACOSTA

Acosta said her chief issue for the 11 months or so she would serve before the next election would be the budget for fiscal 2009, which the council will approvelate this summer.

“The city is already facing a $1 million deficit,” she said. “We have to be sure that we hold the line on taxes.”

Retired from city government after nearly 30 years, Acosta began as a clerk, worked her way up through several departments and reached the position of department head for the Solid Waste Department.

She retired under pressure in 2004 with a discrimination claim pending against the city and received a settlement in the form of a $90,000 annual pension that was more than $5,000 higher than the pension she normally would have received. The higher pension was given to her partly in exchange for signing a mutual confidentiality agreement with the city promising not speak critically about the administration of former mayor Joe Wardy or about controversial issues in her department.

She is making her second run for a city representative position and said she decided to become a candidate to “give back to the community and be sure the voice of the people is heard.”

Acosta did not take sides on the city’s legal battle to prevent the Asarco smelter from reopening but noted that the Environmental Protection Agency has questioned the Texas Commissioner for Environmental Quality on whether Asarco’s air discharge permit should have been renewed since the plant had been out of operation for a decade.

“One of the things I do know is when you have anything that’s been dormant for any period of time, you have to apply for a new permit,” she said. “I believe Asarco will have to apply for a new permit. That’s a very lengthy process.”

BURCH

Burch said leadership would be his No. 1 issue, especially when it comes to the economy and Ft. Bliss.

“We need to take care of the soldiers here in El Paso,” he said. “The build-up will bring an economic development and an opportunity for El Paso to grow. I think it’s important to lead in that direction and take care of those soldiers.”

The growth at Fort Bliss will likely lead to an increase in crime, he said, but the military has plans in place to deal with that.

His response to the Asarco situation was difficult to interpret.

“I think the key issue when it comes to Asarco is what you resist persists,” Burch said. “If you keep resisting Asarco and fighting them, it’s going to be millions of dollars to keep them closed.

“I think we’re just fighting a very tiresome and endless battle. I think it’s important that we have new leadership and accountability to keep not only the (Western Refinery) in check but also to keep Asarco in check.

“My vision for Asarco would include a recycling center … over the next 5 to 10 years through a collaboration of investments and make that a Southwest regional recycling center.”

GONZALEZ

Gonzalez said she decided partly out of a sense of obligation to the community and because these are interesting times in El Paso.

“I am running … to see the medical school grow,” she said. “I realized that neighborhood will experience so much growth and change, and if we do not have a leader in District 3 that is going to be prepared to guide that growth in an intelligent and responsible manner then District 3 and the community as a whole are going to suffer greatly.

“In addition, I felt this is an exciting time to be an El Pasoan. For the first time in very long time, El Paso has a vision of what it wants to do. There’s a downtown plan. Whether you agree with it (or not), at least it’s being discussed.”

Economic development is her top priority.

Without acknowledging the Paso del Norte Group-sponsored report unveiled the day before the forum or the city’s existing incentive program for companies considering a move to El Paso, she said the city needs an economic plan that will offer incentives for business investment.

“My goal is to develop an economic plan that will address the city’s needs as well as use the medical school as a tool to make sure that we increase our tax base and the troops we’re getting from Fort Bliss,” she said.

Her strongest words were saved for Asarco.

The smelter, she said, has been allowed to pollute El Paso for the sake of jobs.

“El Paso has been rather short sighted,” she said. “I think we needed to get away from this shortsightedness, and if the (PDGN) study was an indication of keeping brains and talent in El Paso, then we are not going to.”

The city, she said, should continue its legal fight to keep the smelter from reopening.

“I think that since we’re already invested in it, we need to continue it to its logical conclusion and let the legal system work,” she said. “If Asarco does get its permit, I’m not convinced it will reopen.

“I think it may be used as a a bargaining chip in their bankruptcy as some sort of asset to make them marketable to someone else.”

Compared with Western Refining, which Gonzalez described as a good corporate citizen that contributes to the community, she said Asarco has had a “slash and burn attitude toward El Paso.”

Asked by Oliva if she meant to say Asarco has not contributed to El Paso, Gonzalez said, “I don’t think it has contributed in a way that makes it worth having.”

VILLESCAS

Villescas, who holds a doctorate degree, built an academic consulting business in Central Texas and returned to El Paso last year.

He has described his living arrangement as “complicated” because he has maintained a residence downtown where he works, while claiming his parents’ home in District 3 as his official residence.

Asked about his No. 1 issue, he said it is economic development and cited the importance of the study that the Paso del Norte Group unveiled Friday.

“Unfortunately, I was the only candidate there, and there were a number of City Council people who were absent as well,” he said.

He described the report’s recommendations as a way “to transition this city from a low-skilled, low-wage (community) to a high-skilled, high-wage economy.”

Regarding the influx of troops to Fort Bliss, he said it would be dangerous for the city to rely heavily on that growth as an economic driver because the troops could be transferred out after 2015.

The influx of troops means the city will have to face the possibility of losing its status as the natioin's second-safest large city in the nation, he said, and the city needs to find a way to make the troops and their families part of the community.

“If they become part of our community, we’ll grow in a very unique way, but if we keep these two bodies apart, we’re going to exacerbate crime and we’re never to have a working relationship with this segment of the community,” he said.

Asarco, he said, has polluted the city’s air, water and lands and has affected the well-being of the community.

“I am in no way a proponent of that entity or any other entity polluting our community,” he said.

David Crowder can be reached at dcrowder@epmediagroup.com or at 915 351-0605