By Joyce Wilson
Fellow El Pasoans, early voting begins soon. Your vote will shape our country’s future, but most importantly, our city’s destiny.
This election is about major change. We will be electing a new mayor and six city council representatives. Good political leadership is crucial to undoing the damage caused by the current mayor and council, who’ve left our city in a hot mess.
The last two years have been chaos and conflict, wasted tax dollars, and zero progress. El Paso has been steadily losing ground under the present leadership. And we are suffering as a result.
Josh Acevedo, who’s been on City Council less than a year, is the only incumbent worthy of re-election. And definitely no incumbent City Council member should be promoted to be our mayor.
This group has turned our city into a weed-infested dump. The weeds in the medians and curbs are higher than the plants. Trash is everywhere. Not one road has been successfully fixed. Virtually every street is repaired, then torn up and repaired again.
They’ve paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to the former city manager, and now will pay the city auditor a still undisclosed amount to settle a lawsuit against them. And they pretend to cut taxes, while draining reserves, delaying employee raises, and holding positions vacant – which means no service to the residents. A shell game solely for election purposes.
And now three of them want to be mayor? Seriously?
Good candidates have stepped forward to run for City Council and mayor. Candidates with business experience and community service experience. Candidates who want to serve and move us forward.
Only one candidate running for mayor has a business background and external connections to bring business and resources to invest in El Paso, which we desperately need. And he’s not on the City Council.
That candidate is Renard Johnson.
El Paso is not growing and benefiting from the new investments reshaping our national economy. That must change. Otherwise, we will continue to stagnate and decline.
Your vote will determine what kind of city we will be. Make sure it counts on Nov. 5.
Joyce Wilson, a former El Paso city manager, is now a retired taxpayer.
The post Opinion: Renard Johnson would bring strong leadership as mayor appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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