Crystal Salcido has lived in District 4, the northernmost part of El Paso, for six years. She said there was a lot right with her community, and she planned to study the four candidates in the Nov. 5 election to decide which is the best person to move her community – and city – forward.
“The Northeast people are one of a kind,” the married mother of four said on a recent evening from her Milagro Hills home. “It’s a tight community. We have each other’s back.”
Salcido, 32, is among almost 54,000 registered voters in the district that is bordered by Hondo Pass Drive, Railroad Drive, the state line and the eastern slopes of the Franklin Mountains.
District 4 candidates are first-term incumbent Joe Molinar, a former Marine and retired police officer; Dorothy “Sissy” Byrd, a community volunteer and retired insurance specialist; Wesley Lawrence, a political consultant and policy volunteer; and Cynthia Boyar Trejo, an entrepreneur whose business and foundation assist women. Byrd and Lawrence ran for this office in 2020.
City representatives, who can serve up to two four-year terms, have legislative powers to include the duty to hire and fire the city manager and adopt a budget and set a tax rate Their annual salaries are $63,038. The seats are nonpartisan.
El Paso Matters spoke to the candidates about their backgrounds, interests, concerns and vision for the community.
Dorothy “Sissy” Byrd
A native of East Orange, New Jersey, Byrd found a second home in Northeast El Paso in 1991. After working as an insurance specialist, she decided to fill her retirement years as a volunteer where she connects with people to include those who are homeless or food insecure.
Politically, Byrd, 67, served as chair of voting Precinct 45 (Bradley Elementary School area) from 2010 to 2023. She left that position to run for this office. In addition to her 2020 City Council race, she ran unsuccessfully in 2022 for Precinct 4 on the El Paso County Commissioners Court. She has been a regular voter since 2016.
“I think I am a better person today than four years ago,” Byrd said. “Every day is a learning experience.”
She said that her work as a board member on the city’s Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority and the county’s Women’s Commission have given her insights into how government works to include leadership and financial planning.
Byrd said her top goal is to maintain the city’s balanced budget, and to spend the money wisely. She said the path to the balanced budget would include regular audits of programs and contracts. Tied to that is the need to design, build and maintain roads that will support the commercial and residential growth in District 4.
She said she understands the effect of a late or canceled Sun Metro LIFT bus on people who needed to see their doctor.
“I think, no matter what, a city rep needs to have that constant rapport with the community because if you don’t know how your community feels, how are you going to vote on an issue? You’re supposed to be their voice,” Byrd said.
Wesley Lawrence
Born and raised in District 4, Lawrence, 27, thinks he can bring hope, integrity and progress to his part of town.
Lawrence, the son of educators, graduated in 2015 from the Sandra Day O’Connor Public Service Academy at Austin High School. He is a multimedia journalism major at El Paso Community College.
He works as a consultant and has shared his policy insights with political groups. He also was elected at state conventions to executive committees that would consider budget appropriations. During his off time, Lawrence, whose two grandfathers served in the Army, volunteers with veterans groups to include VFW Post 812 near McKelligon Canyon.
Among his goals, if elected, is to ensure the completion of the Sean Haggerty Drive extension, a $22.4 million project that covers less than a mile, but will simplify the commute between Dyer and McCombs streets. Lawrence also would like to see continued development of the Cohen Entertainment District and the Metro 31 area, which used to be Northgate Center/NorthPark Mall.
He wants to improve accessibility for people with disabilities, and put a focus on pet protection, public safety and street infrastructure. Lawrence would like the city to make street maintenance part of the contract incentives with developers and new businesses, as well as to ensure that the money already allocated to streets is used correctly. He also would like to make a stronger connection with lawmakers in Austin, and find ways to lessen the tax burdens on seniors. He said a good way to start is to do a better job of promoting homestead exemptions.
“What it comes down to is that I really care about our people,” said Lawrence, who has been a regular voter since 2016. “I have been active in our community fighting for the vulnerable members of our community ensuring their voices are heard.”
Part of Lawrence’s campaign involves his dog, Hope, a dachshund mix. His pitch is to “Send Hope to City Hall.” Hope and Lawrence’s other dog, Jenna, a Chihuahua, were adopted from a shelter.
Joe Molinar
A 1978 graduate of Andress High School, Molinar said that service to his community was ingrained by his parents, a homemaker and a Fort Bliss maintenance worker who was active in veterans affairs.
Molinar served four years with the Marines and then tried college, but decided it was not the right path for him. He joined the El Paso Police Department, where he retired in 2013 as a lieutenant after 28 years.
He lived most of his life in District 4 and during that time was active in PTAs, the Northeast Business Alliance as well as city and community boards, commissions and organizations. His first political run was the 2020 race for District 4.
Molinar, 64, said he is running again because he loves his job and wants to continue to serve the city and his district.
“It’s in my blood,” he said.
He said his most significant accomplishment in office was helping to fire former El Paso city manager Tommy Gonzalez in February 2023. He and city Rep. Brian Kennedy placed the item to consider firing Gonzalez on the agenda.
That same day, City Council issued Molinar a letter of admonition after an investigation into harassment allegations by a city worker. Molinar said he believes he was targeted because of his efforts to oust Gonzalez.
During a recent interview, Molinar deemed the investigation incomplete, saying among other things that witnesses who could have exonerated him were not interviewed. He completed ethics and sexual harassment training mandated by the city as part of the admonishment. When asked how the situation affected him as a city representative, he said he could not answer the question.
Molinar also voted in favor of taking the arena bond revocation proposal to voters this November, saying at the time that he supported the revocation. If the proposal is approved, the city could not issue the remaining bonds for the Downtown arena that was approved by voters in 2012 – but it doesn’t prohibit the city from coming back with another arena bond proposal in the future. Molinar in July told El Paso Matters that he voted in favor of the arena bond at the time but now believes the ballot language was “misleading and disingenuous.”
Molinar’s voting record is no longer public because he opted to make it confidential, which is allowed for public safety workers, including retirees. However, county voting records maintained by El Paso Matters going back to 2010 show that Molinar’s voting record was public while he was an active-duty police officer.
Voting databases maintained by El Paso Matters indicated he made his records confidential sometime in 2022 or 2023. The records show that he was a consistent voter going back to at least 2010.
Molinar has made his recent voting record confidential, which is his right under a law open to people with public safety backgrounds.
His future goals include overseeing the completion of a Meta (formerly Facebook) data center at the corner of U.S. Highway 54 and Stan Roberts Sr. Avenue. The deal for the center, which will be on more than 1,000 acres, will include a multimillion-dollar reconstruction, expansion and beautification of one mile of Stan Roberts Sr. Avenue. Molinar said that Meta will pay for it.
He also wants to continue to work on the completion of the proposed Sunset Amphitheater and the Borderland expressway.
“They’re all important,” said Molinar, who voted in favor of the amphitheater deal for Northeast El Paso at the former site of Cohen Stadium. The 20-year incentive deal gives the amphitheater developer 17 acres of city-owned land and provides $31 million in incentives.
He also would like the council to budget more money for street maintenance. He is not sure where the money would come from, but was confident that it could be found. He reasoned that the city finds money when it needs to, such as the almost $900,000 it paid to Gonzalez after the city fired him.
Cynthia Boyar Trejo
Boyar Trejo, 58, is new to politics, but she believes the financial and soft skills she has honed over 25 years as a businesswoman will translate well to City Council.
She is the founder and CEO of Crowning Point, which offers resources to women who want to advance in their careers and business, and founder and president of In Her Element Foundation, a nonprofit that provides resources and support systems to underrepresented and underserved girls and women.
If elected, she said she will work to bring the district a hospital, a wider variety of sit-down restaurants, additional big box stores and better maintained streets. Her agenda would be based on input from the people who live and work in the district because they are the best authorities, she said.
“I want to focus on community-driven solutions,” Boyar Trejo said during a recent interview. “That’s how I’m wired.”
She was born in Bakersfield, California, but her military family moved to El Paso when she was in elementary school. Her mother was a home health care worker, and her father served in the Army and then as a city maintenance mechanic. She graduated from Andress High School in 1985 and earned her bachelor’s degree in business management with a minor in human resources from the University of Phoenix in 2001.
As an adult, Boyar Trejo moved to other parts of El Paso and the country. She returned to District 4 in March 2023, in part to be closer to family. She estimated that she has spent 27 years overall in the district.
County voting records show that the only vote Trejo has cast in El Paso since at least 2010 came in this year’s May Democratic primary runoff, the last election before she decided to run for office.
Boyar Trejo said that her moving, her business schedule and the negativity of politics were among the reasons that she only voted once in El Paso since 2010. She said she sometimes tried to vote, but her identification did not match her voter registration and poll workers turned her away.
The married mother of three adult children and grandmother of two has served in leadership roles on several community organizations to include the local chapters of the Association of Latino Professionals for America and the National Association of Women Business Owners. She also is a past advisory board member with the El Paso Chamber.
Salcido, the District 4 resident who was born and raised in El Paso, said she has become less involved with local government through the years because little has come from her sharing her wants and concerns – more parks and/or new playground equipment, afterschool programs, street repairs to include fixing potholes and adding streetlights, and more family activities.
“I felt as if the government did not listen, and my friends felt the same way,” said Salcido, who stressed that there is more to like than dislike in District 4. “But there’s always room for improvement.”
Early voting will take place from Oct. 21 through Nov. 1. If no candidate earns the necessary 50% plus one vote, the top two finishers will participate in a Dec. 14 runoff.
The post Incumbent city rep faces 3 opponents to represent Northeast El Paso’s District 4 appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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