Two candidates are running to represent the Far Eastside on the El Paso City Council in next month’s election: Ivan Niño, an incumbent who’s served for two years and is seeking his first full four-year term, and Richard Genera, a political organizer making his second attempt to win the seat.
Both grew up in District 5 in far East El Paso and graduated from El Dorado High School. Both identify traffic, property taxes and affordability as pressing challenges in a district where they both argue homes have been built faster than some of the public infrastructure needed to serve the area, such as streetlights.
The two candidates will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot. Early voting begins Oct. 19.
Niño, 35, who previously served as chief of staff to former city Rep. Isabel Salcido, won a special runoff election in December 2024 after Salcido vacated the seat to run for mayor.
Asked to identify his accomplishments in office, Niño points to the Montwood Drive extension, a long-planned project which was in the design and property-acquisition stages when he took office. Funding for the $20 million, two-mile extension was approved by voters in the 2022 bond election. The city has since acquired properties and awarded a construction contract, with completion expected in 2028.
He also points to the roughly $15 million expansion of the Beast Urban Park, a project planned years before he took office. But, during Niño’s tenure, the city secured a $1.5 million state grant and redirected $4.6 million of investment earnings and other funds to the project. Construction began in March. He also cited his push to reroute $2.3 million from a dissolved tax reinvestment zone toward neighborhood projects such as street lighting and shade structures at parks.
And he has promoted a roughly $1.6 million street-preservation program covering over 15 miles of District 5 roads, intended to extend pavement life and avoid more expensive reconstruction.
“People experience their government on their way to school, at their parks, at their libraries, on their streets,” Niño said.
If reelected, he said he wants to focus on addressing drunken driving. He said he wanted to explore piloting a ride-share voucher program during Thanksgiving week, and advocating to the Texas Legislature to lower legal limits on blood alcohol content.
He also said he wants to pursue establishing an assistance program for first-time home buyers in the city.
Genera, 34, said he decided to run in recent months when he saw Niño was set to run for reelection unopposed.
“I think you have to be doing an incredible job to warrant your community deciding no one should run against you,” Genera said.
“And I just don’t feel that way,” he said, “even though I did vote for Ivan in 2024.”
After working at a local Wells Fargo bank branch, Genera said he began taking college courses to become an English teacher while also working as a DoorDash delivery driver. He launched a podcast following City Council meetings, which convinced him that residents needed more information to understand what elected officials are doing in El Paso.
He challenged Salcido in the District 5 race in 2022, finishing second in a three-candidate race with about 19% of the vote.
He subsequently became active in local Democratic organizations, including the Young Democrats of El Paso, and now works as an organizing manager for Texas Majority PAC.
Budget, taxes, streets and community input
Genera said he supported Niño in 2024 but became dissatisfied with some of his decisions and what Genera considers insufficient communication with residents. Genera argued the district representative should spend more time explaining their rationale behind each vote.
If elected, Genera promised to hold weekly community meetings and regular district office hours, expand the district office’s newsletter and establish advisory groups involving residents.
“There is a real core health issue within our community. And it’s a lack of communication between our elected officials and the people they’re supposed to be representing,” Genera said. “And that’s what I’m running to address.”
Genera said he would begin his term by meeting with city department heads to understand their budgets, operations and potential opportunities for savings.
Niño disputed the suggestion that his office has been inaccessible, pointing to monthly community meetings, an email newsletter and social media as ways he regularly communicates with the public.
“The way that I communicate to District 5 residents, I have many different channels,” Niño said. “When it came to the Meta position, the Meta vote, I provided a whole memo of my position, of what took place.”
In August, the City Council approved a $659 million general fund budget and a property tax rate that’s expected to increase the city’s portion of an average home’s annual property tax bill by about $105.
Niño voted for the final budget in September, joining a 6-2 majority.
He said that vote came after opposing earlier proposals with larger tax increases and pressing city staff to identify savings.
Niño described a difficult balancing act: Residents want lower taxes, but the city also needs money for road maintenance, public facilities and negotiated compensation increases for firefighters.
When it comes to establishing an annual budget, Genera said he would begin every budget cycle by asking city staff to prepare a no-new-revenue budget, which would collect the same amount of property tax revenue from existing properties compared with the previous year.
In Genera’s approach, city staff would identify the spending reductions necessary to meet that target and present the choices to residents. If keeping taxes flat meant reducing library hours or delaying road repairs, Genera argues, voters should see those tradeoffs before council makes a decision.
“I wish I had this magic switch to say, ‘Oh, this is it. Here’s the plan’ to lower taxes,” Genera said. “I don’t think it’s that simple.”
City leaders through the months-long budget process already present spending reduction options needed to meet a no-new-revenue tax rate, including during community and public hearings open to residents. The city this year introduced an online budget simulation tool that allows the public to see how certain funding cuts impact services.
Genera said another priority is increasing funding for road maintenance and repairs, but he didn’t identify a recurring revenue source that would fully close the city’s road maintenance funding gap.
Both candidates said they’re reluctant to impose additional fees on residents.
Niño rejected a proposed transportation user fee floated by city staff last year that would have charged residents to collect funds to repair streets. The proposal included options for residential fees ranging from $4.40 to about $11 monthly, and larger fees on businesses based on traffic on their properties. City staffers estimated the options could raise $29 million to $75 million annually. However, council members voted to delete the item from the agenda before staffers presented it publicly.
Niño argued the city should first complete infrastructure projects voters have already funded before asking for more money.
Data centers, utilities and deck parks
One of the clearest divisions between the candidates emerged in June, when City Council considered whether to begin negotiations to terminate a property tax break agreement for Meta’s planned $10 billion data center in Northeast El Paso.
After hours of public testimony, the City Council voted 5-3 against opening those negotiations. Niño opposed the proposal.
Genera said the vote helped motivate his decision to challenge Niño. He believes the city should have more thoroughly examined the agreement and explored renegotiating.
“I don’t feel like it’s unfair of our community to expect our elected officials to have the stomach to do the job, to stand up and call things out as it happens, stand up to these big corporations,” Genera said.
Niño said he shares concerns about water and electricity usage and environmental impacts of the data center, but emphasized that the June proposal specifically directed city officials to initiate negotiations to terminate the agreement.
City attorneys warned that attempting to unwind the agreement could expose El Paso to billion-dollar litigation and financial claims.
Niño argued that ending the incentive agreement would not have necessarily stopped construction of the privately developed project. Instead, he supports pursuing a community benefit agreement the city is negotiating with Meta.
“When it comes to the Meta data center, specifically, it’s extremely important that we continue to hold them accountable,” Niño said. He also said his time learning about El Paso Water makes him confident in the utility’s long-term water supply plans.
“El Paso, historically, we’ve been able to ensure that we do have access to water and reliable water,” Niño said. “And I think that we’re in a unique opportunity to continue further investing in water resources to ensure that we’re OK in the future.”
When Meta’s data center campus is fully operating within the next two years, it will become the city’s largest property taxpayer. Genera said the city has to balance bringing in more commercial tax revenue with protecting natural resources and local utilities.
“It’s OK for us to say we don’t want to engage in business with people who are going to try and take advantage of us,” Genera said. “But if that means we don’t have all these extra millions, that means we just have to live within our means.”
On rising utility costs in El Paso, Niño said he has voted to block rate increases sought by El Paso Electric and Texas Gas Service.
While the city can vote against a gas or electric rate increase, the Public Utility Commission of Texas ultimately chooses whether to approve an electric rate hike, while the Railroad Commission governs the state’s gas utilities. So, the city’s votes against rate increases are more symbolic protests than actual denials.
On the Downtown deck plaza, both Genera and Niño said they oppose building the facility over Interstate 10 if it required using taxpayer dollars.
Niño believes the project could benefit El Paso if it’s privately funded. Genera said he was skeptical of spending public money on it while residents face immediate affordability and infrastructure problems, but is also open to private sponsorship.
Campaign fundraising
As of early October, Niño had raised significantly more campaign donations than Genera.
Reports filed Oct. 5 show Niño raised $31,750 between July 1 and Sept. 24, compared to Genera’s $1,186.
Niño reported 24 contributors, most giving at least $1,000. His donors include prominent local business owners, as well as the El Paso Electric Employee PAC, which gave Niño $1,500. The police officers PAC contributed $2,000 and the local International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers PAC contributed $2,500.
Genera reported 35 individual contributors, but received much smaller donations, generally ranging from $5 to $100, including from supporters outside El Paso.
Niño spent about $14,250 during the reporting period and had about $42,540 remaining in his campaign account as of Sept. 24. His largest reported expense was just under $10,000 for campaign mail printing.
Genera spent just over $790 and had $888 remaining, along with a $500 outstanding personal loan to his campaign.
City representatives serve four-year terms and are paid $72,800 a year. The positions are nonpartisan. The City Council, comprising the mayor and eight representatives, each year adopts a budget and sets a tax rate, and makes policy and budget decisions for the city. The council hires and oversees the city manager, city attorney and chief internal auditor.
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