A full slate of seven candidates working to symbolize the prosperous, fast-growing District 9 Metropolis Council seat debated whether or not the town ought to preserve happening insurance policies like water conservation, reasonably priced housing and so-called “fairness lens” budgeting on the San Antonio Report’s discussion board Thursday.
Metropolis Council District 9 encompasses the town’s far North facet, beginning at Loop 410 and working north up U.S. 281.
For eight years it’s been represented by termed-out Councilman John Braveness (D9), a fiscally conservative, socially liberal candidate who managed to stay in style in a number of the metropolis’s reddest territory. This yr Braveness is as a substitute working in San Antonio’s crowded, 27-candidate mayoral race.
Among the many candidates looking for to fill his seat, many mentioned Thursday that they wished to undo a number of the extra progressive insurance policies the Metropolis Council has pursued lately.
Examine the entire candidates working in District 9 in our 2025 Voter Information
In response to a query concerning the metropolis’s budgeting coverage of spending extra money in historically underserved districts, Daniel Mezza, who spent a lot of his profession working for Republicans on the state, native and federal degree, recommended it’s different representatives’ fault that they haven’t been in a position to safe enough funding for his or her districts.
“District 9 has numerous wants. I’m not going to be spreading the cash throughout the board,” mentioned Mezza, a South Texas native who now owns a espresso firm and has been concerned with the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
Mezza labored for U.S. Rep. Will Hurd (R-Helotes) and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), however left the political scene in 2017 as a result of he mentioned partisan gridlock was too irritating.
Misty Spears, a constituent companies director for Republican Bexar County Commissioner Grant Moody in Precinct 3, mentioned the town wouldn’t have to take from one district and provides to a different if its leaders resumed specializing in nuts-and-bolts metropolis points.
“If we’d simply keep in our lane, [get] again to fundamental governmental features and cease getting concerned in social points, then we’d have greater than sufficient cash to spend on serving to different districts,” mentioned Spears, who ran for district clerk as a Republican in 2022 and has the backing of the police and fireplace unions within the District 9 race.
Spears is a fiscal conservative with a level in enterprise administration and accounting from Texas Tech. On Thursday she addressed criticism she’s acquired in the course of the marketing campaign for an previous IRS lien and a few newer private bank card debt.
“I believe expressing to you these hardships that I skilled, that many different folks expertise, simply reveals that I understand how to get again on my toes,” mentioned Spears, who pointed to her household’s success beginning a legislation follow, elevating kids and getting her husband elected to the Fourth Court docket of Appeals. “I’ve all these abilities with my accounting [background] that actually lend to understanding find out how to be fiscally accountable and realizing find out how to get us out of a bind.”
Early voting for the town’s Could 3 municipal election runs April 22 via April 29. If no candidate takes at the very least 50% of the vote on Could 3, the highest two finishers will advance to a June 7 runoff.
‘We’re using on the identical ship’
As a councilman, Braveness introduced a extra conventional view of metropolis authorities to San Antonio’s progressive-leaning council, opposing the latest abortion journey fund and the 2023 “Justice Constitution.”
However he’s been a proponent of fairness budgeting, calling the funds a “ethical doc,” on the San Antonio Report’s mayoral debate, and lately, he’s mentioned it’s a mistake to let neighboring residents preserve reasonably priced housing from being constructed close to them.
Whereas most candidates wished to make sure District 9 was getting its justifiable share of metropolis assets, some expressed concern about ignoring issues in different elements of the town.
“Let’s be trustworthy, District 9 and District 8 are privileged districts,” mentioned Emily Pleasure Garza, a Michigan native who moved her household to her husband’s hometown of San Antonio 5 years in the past, owns a everlasting cosmetics firm and is lively within the animal welfare group.
Garza mentioned it might be “silly” to suppose that if the town discontinued equity-based budgeting, issues like encampments and stray animals — that are way more pronounced in different elements of the town — wouldn’t additionally hit District 9.
“Except we construct a border wall round District 9, are we going to get a few of that overflow,” she mentioned to applause. “On the finish of the day, we’re using on the identical ship right here.”
Celeste Tidwell, the one San Antonio native within the race who beforehand labored for a Democratic lawmaker in Texas Home District 116, declined to choose a facet on the fairness budgeting.
“In our district, now we have different wants as effectively, so it’s a really troublesome query, so I’m gonna go each methods on it,” she mentioned. “I believe that’s a safer strategy to go, and I really feel strongly how I really feel.”
Tidwell labored as a listing help operator for Southwestern Bell and has served as a Democratic precinct chair.
Nontraditional resumes
Two candidates introduced a lot of expertise working with policymakers via their ardour tasks.
Angi Taylor Aramburu has a background in public relations and beforehand managed Broadway and off-Broadway theaters in New York Metropolis, expertise she mentioned taught her about find out how to conduct feasibility research and handle budgets in troublesome monetary occasions.
Since shifting her household again to her husband’s hometown 9 years in the past, she’s began a health firm, served on the mayor’s health council, been lively within the North East ISD parent-teacher affiliation and ran for a Texas Home seat as Democrat in 2022.
“At this degree of presidency, it’s necessary that your representatives have proven the willingness and skill to place within the work to create the kind of group we wish to see and we wish to dwell in,” mentioned Aramburu, who’s backed by Braveness and even employed a few of his employees on her marketing campaign.
April Chang is a North Texas native with a background in medical gross sales, who after a household tragedy in 2018, began a nonprofit in honor of her late son, Mitchell.
By way of that nonprofit, she labored with state and native leaders to push for swim college security requirements and to construct a pirate-themed park named after him.
Chang mentioned she was motivated to run as a result of that have highlighted a niche between the priorities residents need their metropolis to handle and the tasks metropolis departments sort out.
“I’ve been on the group enter conferences the place folks arise there they usually repeatedly say issues like, ‘I need a canine park. I need a splash pad,’” she mentioned. “Seven years later, we open Mitchell’s Touchdown and there’s nonetheless not one other canine park or one other splash pad within the district. I’m like, ‘What occurred?’ As a result of at each single district assembly, that’s all that was introduced up.”
Tristen Hoffman is a senior at Johnson Excessive Faculty who plans to check economics after commencement and mentioned he’s working to carry a contemporary voice from a youthful era.
“I’ve by no means had most of the issues that these folks have had of their skilled careers and even in authorities expertise. Nevertheless, at my college, I’ve performed numerous issues, and I’m very completed,” mentioned Hoffman, who pointed to his tutorial report, a statewide award for data of present occasions and his position within the Nationwide Honors Society as {qualifications} for the position.
Requested about his management expertise, Hoffman mentioned that at college he helped the Latin Membership preserve its dues low by sourcing extra reasonably priced snacks that different college students nonetheless loved.
“It’s undoubtedly not working for Congressman Hurd, however it’s one thing,” he mentioned, to thundering applause.
