Six months into one of El Paso’s most high-profile jobs, Renard Johnson says “I love being mayor.”
Johnson, 59, an engineer and business owner, had never sought elected office before running for mayor in 2024. He met Thursday with El Paso Matters to talk about his first half-year in office, which has largely been focused on building a city budget in the midst of reduced federal funding and other revenue challenges.
The conversation also covered property taxes, economic development, the deck plaza and some of his personal feelings about being mayor.
Here are highlights from the conversation, which has been edited for brevity and clarity.
El Paso Matters: What do you like about the job so far?
Renard Johnson: Let me tell you a couple of things here. Number one, I’ll tell you what I underestimated. I underestimated how much work it was. I am so used to being in private industry, and it moves a little bit differently than being in municipal government. But I also think that creates opportunity. What I’ve learned in business, I’m able to apply it here. But having to get different departments to all work together moves a little bit different than I’m used to. But what I really, really love about this job is the people and getting to interact with El Pasolans and seeing and hearing the stories from so many.
And we are making progress. It could move quicker, but that’s probably what has been the biggest challenge for me.
El Paso Matters: What are you working on to make things move quicker here?
Renard Johnson: Number one, I tell the staff here that we’re open for business, that we need to be more customer-focused. For example, in the area of permitting, any delays in you getting a permit from the city is costly to industry. I want to make sure that the city is open for business. We’re moving at the speed of private industry. I think it’s important that they know that we’ve got to move faster than we are used to moving.
El Paso Matters: When you talk about moving faster, does the city have the resources that it needs to move faster? Do you have enough people in permitting and some of those other key functions?
Renard Johnson: Staffing is still a challenge. I would say that we have probably 600 vacancies right now, and we have the funding for about 150 to 160 positions that we can staff. We’ve got to continue to staff our department so we can continue to provide the services for the El Pasoans, the services that they need. I would say that we do need to do more, and we are short. That’s an area that I know our city manager is focused on, is making sure that she can get these positions filled. Because, again, we don’t want to cut services for people in El Paso.
El Paso Matters: When you ran for mayor, you made two key points about property taxes. The first is that you didn’t believe that the no-new-revenue rate from the prior two years was a sustainable way to run an efficient and effective local government. The second is that over the long term, you believe the way to reduce the property tax burden for homeowners is to grow the commercial base. Am I summarizing correctly?
Renard Johnson: You’re summarizing that right. You’ve got to remember that you have a budget where you have declining revenue, your expenses are increasing, and then you have uncertainty, especially from the federal and state levels. If you have that mixture coming against the city, you now have to go out and find additional funds to get your budget balanced. For example, our police and fire make up over 58% of our budget. That’s about $18 million (more in the budget) just in police and fire. We’re going to have an additional three academies this year in our Police Department. We’re opening up two fire stations this year.
We also, just like your home, our water bill goes up here at the city. There’s an additional $2 million in our water bill. We’re going to put some more funding towards parks. We’re putting more funding towards Animal Services and other areas that we can. But there was a shortfall of about $26 million we had to find. When we tapped into what some people call the rainy day fund, we tapped into that for about $3.2 million, which is the lowest it’s been in the last two years. So it’s very difficult.
And to go back to your question, we have to come up with a plan to lower our taxes. Our taxes are still too high. I can tell you I’m excited about the relief we are providing our seniors and our disabled folks for an exemption for $42,500, that’s now going to be $45,000. That’s going to be about $380 a year, plus or minus.
El Paso Matters: But to be clear, only $19 of that is from the extra $2,500 exemption.
Renard Johnson: Yeah, but it still will be some relief for our seniors in the area of taxes.
El Paso Matters: When you visit with local businesses about possible expansion, what do they tell you they need from you and the city government to make that happen?
Renard Johnson: A lot of it is people. A lot of it is making sure that they’re in alignment with our people coming out of our universities. Some of them need incentives that we may or may not be able to offer them currently. Some of them need real estate help. Some of them are looking for additional financing to expand their operations here. A lot of them tell me they want more quality of life. They want more things to do so they can recruit different mid-level managers to El Paso so that their families will relocate here. It covers the gamut on what they’re looking for, but those would be some of the main things.
El Paso Matters: When you’re talking to companies about relocating to El Paso, are you hearing the same things from them on what they need from the city, or do you hear some different things, too?
Renard Johnson: A lot of it is they’re asking about our public school systems. They’re asking about how safe we are as a community, and I reassure them that El Paso is a very safe community because they’re going to be relocating their families here. They ask about our health care systems. How good is your health care system here? They ask about infrastructure.
El Paso Matters: A lot of what businesses are asking is not in your power to grant. You can’t go out and fix the schools tomorrow. You can’t make sure UTEP has the right programs. But one of the powers of your office is that you can be the convener or the orchestra conductor here. Are you forming the partnerships needed to expand business?
Renard Johnson: I think that’s one of the most important elements of what my job is, is to bring people together. Today, I had the opportunity to attend the State of Education at the Paso del Norte hotel, where I had the opportunity to hear Dr. Heather Wilson speak, Dr. William Serrata, Dr. Richard Black and Bob Kuykendall from Western Tech. They were all talking about being able to be nimble and align their students with workforce and how that needs to look. Being a convener as a mayor, I’ve reached out to what Fort Bliss needs on the installation, what private industry needs here in the businesses. I’ve reached out to some of the superintendents.
El Paso Matters: For years, the city staff has included a breakdown in budget presentations that show that the school taxes make up the largest part of the property tax bill. There’s always something that says 42% of your taxes are going to the school district, 28% of the city.
Renard Johnson: Is that the dollar bill?
El Paso Matters: Yeah, it’s a great graphic. But because of the significantly higher school homestead exemptions that voters will have a chance to approve this year, the highest part of the tax bill for most residential property taxpayers in El Paso is going to be the city. Does that put any psychological pressure on the city as you go forward to now be the head of the pack when it comes to taxation?
Renard Johnson: I’ve been watching that from afar, and I don’t know the true impacts of that yet, but I do know that it’s going to be a ripple effect through the way we budget going forward. The 28% we are now, I think that’s going to significantly change because of some of that uncertainty at the state level. That goes back to what I was saying earlier. We look at declining revenue, expense increases and that uncertainty. This is certainly one of them that we’re watching because I don’t know the impact of that one yet, but I do think it’s going to be significant.
El Paso Matters: What other accomplishments are you feeling good about after six months?
Renard Johnson: I’m really proud about the work that I put in in meeting with the various departments here at the city and meeting with so many stakeholders in the community and so many businesses here in the community. I’m really proud about advocating for El Paso and making sure that when I’m talking in Austin or other places where I’ve traveled to, that I’m always telling them about how good and wonderful our community is.
El Paso Matters: There’s a lot of economic uncertainty globally, and El Paso isn’t immune to that. What are the economic indicators that you’ll be paying the most attention to over the next six months to a year?
Renard Johnson: I think for us, we’ve got to look at some of the federal funding that we were receiving as a municipality. For example, our public health department, we lost a grant which translated to a little bit over $3 million.
I think we’re going to have to really sharpen our pencil in other areas because I think we’re going to continue to see headwinds from our federal opportunities that we were once receiving.
I also think there’s going to be some state funding that we’re not going to get that we may be going after. I think those are going to be the headwinds.
One of the things that’s a little disappointing to me is that when I talk about infrastructure, I’ve heard over and over that we need to fix our roads. In this year’s budget, we were only at $10 million, which is the same amount we were last year. That’s not enough to get our roads fixed. We’re going to have to figure out a way to come up with a dedicated funding mechanism to get that done.
But with all that said, I think there’s significant opportunity.
El Paso Matters: City Manager Dionne Mack has said that if El Pasoans don’t believe the city is delivering on the basic stuff, they’ll never trust us with the big stuff. What are you going to be focusing on over the next six months to a year on some of those basic government functions?
Renard Johnson: I agree with the city manager 100%. I know the staff is working extremely hard to make sure that we can deliver on the services. But you’ve got to remember, your revenue is declining, your expenses are going up. That’s a challenge. You’ve got to figure out how to solve for that. That’s what we’re doing. It’s a lot of work, and it’s complicated.
El Paso Matters: One of the things the city manager was referencing when she was talking about the big stuff was the deck plaza. You’ve been a supporter of that plan. Why do you think it’s important, and what do you and other proponents need to do to get more El Pasoans to support the project?
Renard Johnson: I think anytime you have the opportunity to bridge communities together, to get rid of trenches that are running through the middle of your city, I think you should at least give that opportunity a chance to succeed. I want to be on record to say that an opportunity of this magnitude should not be fully on the backs of the taxpayers.
We deserve the opportunity to bring Segundo Barrio with Uptown, bring that together where people can have an area where they can have parks, bike trails, outside entertainment, and the things that any other community has throughout the United States. I know it’s going to be something that will divide our community, but if we can really think about this is not for us, this is a generational decision that we’re going to be making. This is something we’re going to be making for our kids and our grandkids.
When you talk to the youth, they want more open space, they want more things to do in El Paso. I think as city leaders, we’ve got to at least give them the opportunity and hear the message and give it the best chance of succeeding.
El Paso Matters: So, six months in, do you enjoy being mayor?
Renard Johnson: Six months in, I love being mayor. I love being mayor. I mean, it has been one of the most rewarding opportunities for me. At the same time, I’ve had days where it’s been an emotional roller coaster. I’ve reached out to families that have lost loved ones, and that is hard to do. But for the most part, 98% of my days are fun. I enjoy doing it. El Paso has just received me so well that I can go. They give me the energy, and as long as I’m given the energy from the community, I don’t mind doing this.
El Paso Matters: You grew up here. How do your parents feel about their son being the mayor of El Paso?
Renard Johnson: The joy that they have in their hearts for their son being the mayor of El Paso is something they would have never, ever anticipated. You look at my parents, my mother’s from Louisiana, my father’s from Mississippi. They migrated to Chicago, and then they ended up here in El Paso. This type of career path for anyone in our family was never thought of. So once it was accomplished, they are overjoyed. For me, as a young adult, it is the best feeling that you can have to know that your parents are filled with such gratitude.
The post ‘We’ve got to move faster than we are used to moving,’ Renard Johnson says after 6 months as El Paso mayor appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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