District 3 candidates vow to restore trust in City Council

Now that East Central District 3 representative Emma Acosta is running for El Paso mayor, her seat on the council is open.

Five candidates are running.

The candidates are Cassandra Hernandez Brown, Jaime Barceleau, Elias Camacho, Casey Williams and Louis Pellicano.

Three of the candidates are retired. The other two hold full-time jobs. All have been hitting the streets campaigning for months.

Cassandra Hernandez Brown is the deputy director at Dynamic Workforce Solutions. She also served as a legislative aide to previous council representatives: Susie Byrd (District 2), and Steve Ortega (District 7).

“What initially inspired me is the disappointment I had with our current city council. I really felt the bickering and the constant divisiveness really inspire me to be the leader to step up and be the leader that the constituents desperately need,” Hernandez Brown said.

She said transparency will be one of her top goals.

“Well I think first and foremost, is just to be open and honest with yourself. Stay true to your values and always be held accountable, knowing that every single person who has voted for you into office is what they have asked from you. And when I knock on District 3 constituents’ doors they say ‘Please don’t conduct secret meetings. Please be transparent and when I call your office please return a phone call,” Hernandez Brown said.

Casey Williams is a private practice immigration attorney who also serves on the city’s Civil Service Commission.

He believes both positions make him uniquely qualified for the District 3 seat.

“I am the only person with any legal training. And because I have the most direct experience working in a leadership position with the city. And that’s not present with any of the other candidates. If you elect a person whose job it is to fight for other people, you are advocating for and you will be voting for a person who will fight for you. I will fight for District 3. I will fight for the (district’s) best interest. and I will be informed enough to with my legal expertise and training as an attorney to be able to hold the city to task,” Williams said.

The immigration attorney said his platform is progressive.

“I am asking for contract term limits for the city manager, I am asking for us to restore some of the mayor’s power to fire department heads who are not performing well. I am asking for us to have a direct election for the city attorney and for the police chief. And I’m also asking for the city to create an ombudsman office which is a city complaint office which has the power to investigate constituent concerns about work that is not being done or unresponsive government,” Williams said.

Louis Pellicano is retired, but worked as a vocational rehabilitation counselor at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Pellicano disagrees with the current city council’s decision to place the arena downtown.

“It should be placed either in a suitable location or at Cohen Stadium. We have the space there. Not only would you have the space you would allow the northeast to have some industry there. Not just certain parts of El Paso. It’s feasible, it’s easier to get to Cohen Stadium than it is downtown,” Pellicano said.
Similar to other districts, Pellicano said streets are a big concern.

“They are in deplorable condition. Some of these streets should have been done, finished, paved, maintained – they are not. And if they do, they don’t do a good job because they leave it as they are. They don’t re-stripe the streets. They don’t put reflectors, especially for people who have difficulty seeing at night or even in the daytime. Flooding is also another concern,” Pellicano said.

Jamie Barceleau, the former executive director for the Paso del Norte Children’s Development Center, said more than half of the voters he has talked to are concerned about District 3’s streets.

“They are talking about the streets, how fast the traffic is on the streets. The lack of street lights. The lack of beautification on some of the streets. We’ve got the area by Montwood and Viscount where the medians have not been beautified yet. That’s what 55 percent of the people are talking about, the streets. And after that is taxes. And that is a joint conversation with taxes and spending,” Barceleau said.

District 3 is home to a lot of hotels. Many developers are looking for tax incentives to bring in new hotels.

“You have to look at each one individually, case by case. There is one big project on Airway and Montana that has kind of stalled. I understand there is some sort of litigation,” Barceleau said. “Across the country a lot of cities are giving tax incentives and that is kind of the environment we are competing in to bring in new businesses. So we can’t say that they are off the table, but we have to treat each one individually.”

Elias Camacho, a retired El Paso Police Department detective, said voters he talked with want a representative to focus on public safety, utility bills and taxes. Transparency is something the candidate is promising voters.

“It’s one of the things that I think is very important, because I am a strong believer that nothing lasts forever. When you hide something, when you lie about something, eventually it’s going to come up and it’s going to be worse. So, I’ve always been very transparent,” Camacho said.

He is another candidate who would have voted against the arena being located in downtown El Paso.

“I’ve noticed that many of my constituents in District 3 are against the arena. They were under the impression that they voted for an arena, but not necessarily for it being downtown,” Camacho said. “I’ve always like the northeast. Even then, I think (Loop) 375 and Interstate 10 would be an ideal place. there is plenty of vacant property and the congestion could easily be taken care of the way both freeways intersect right there.”

Election day is May 6.