Candidates withdraw from city race

RED, WHITE AND BLUE DRAWING — Mayor Pro-Tem Al Garcia, who is seeking another term on the Kingsville City Commission, draws an egg from a patriotic Easter basket designed by City Secretary Edna Lopez Thursday in order to determine his placement on the May 8 city election ballot. (Photo by Erika Hernandez) Three candidates who were running for a place on the Kingsville City Council withdrew their applications Wednesday after discrepancies were found that would have prevented them from running.

Jessie Rios and Octavio Xavier “Sonny” Alvarez were notified that they could not run for a place on the council because they owe back taxes to the city, and Ruben G. Soliz was notified he could not run because he also filed an application for a place on the May KISD school board election.

By law candidates cannot run for two local races at the same time.

Article V, Section IV under “Election Qualifications” of the Kingsville City Charter states, “The mayor and each commissioner shall not be in arrears in the payment of any taxes or other liabilities to local taxing entities.”

According to City Secretary Edna Lopez, all taxes due to the city must be paid before the candidate turns in an application packet to city officials.

Rios claims that he was not notified of this previously, and feels that he should have been told prior to turning in his application packet so that he could have taken care of the debt.

“I feel that I was misled,” Rios said.

“I inherited taxes from my deceased mother’s estate and would have had no problem paying them if I had been notified about the debt. When we picked up the application packet we were not told anything.”

Rios said that he has run for city offices before and this issue has never come up previously.

“I don’t know why this is coming up out of the blue now and has never been a problem before,” he said.

“It’s a shame, because a lot of work needs to be done to the city, and I think that I would have done what needs to be done in order to get us back to where we need to be,” Rios said.

Soliz filed an application for place 1 on the KISD school board elections in May before filing for a place as commissioner on the Kingsville City Council and cannot hold or run for another office as stated in the Kingsville City Charter.

Article V, Section IV also states, “The Mayor, Commissioners, and other officers and employees shall not hold any other public office of emolument, except the Office of Notary Public, and shall not be interested in the profits or emoluments or any contract, job, work or service for the municipality, or interested in the sale to or by the City of any property, real or personal. All such qualifications and requirements shall be fully complied with by any prospective candidate for the position of Mayor or Commission at the time of filing for election.”

Lopez said, “Because he filed for the school board election first, we must disqualify him from the city commissioner election and he can continue to run for a place on the school board.”

Tomas Sanchez is the only candidate challenging the incumbents commissioners for a seat on the city commission.

A drawing was held for name placement on the May 8 ballot.

Candidates will appear on the ballot as follows: Mayor: Sam R. Fugate; Commissioners: Al Garcia, Charlie Wilson, Tomas R.