Emotional Leeser holds final news conference as mayor
An emotional Oscar Leeser held his final news conference as mayor Monday.
Leeser, stepping down after four years in office, thanked Borderland residents for their support.
Mayor Leeser, who did not seek re-election, reflected on his career and how El Paso has moved forward economically.
The mayor emphasized that the city’s unemployment rate decreased from when he first took the position to the summer of 2016.
“As a whole, unemployment was 9.1. Employment got to as low, in July of 2016, of 4.1,” Leeser said. “That’s an incredible number, and at this month, unemployment rate show, for the month of May, was 4.6 in the city of El Paso.”
Leeser said he wanted to concentrate on economic development and creating new jobs for the citizens of El Paso when he first ran for office and said he felt like he and his team had achieved just that.
“We created and expanded almost thirteen thousand jobs,” Leeser said. “We had 90 companies stay in El Paso, or either recommit and came to El Paso because of things like Fam Tour. When companies didn’t know anything about our community, we talked to them, and instead of giving them a brochure, we brought them to meet the department heads, the city reps, the citizens of El Paso and really showed them what El Paso was about. And when they left, all of them really became great ambassadors to our community.”
Leeser discussed the importance of his time as mayor and ensured the progress the city has made was achieved through team effort.
“When I was running for office, I always talked about that one person could never achieve anything, but a lot of people working together could achieve a lot,” Leeser said. “Every day was a learning experience…When I leave here today, I will continue to learn.”
Leeser thanked the city of El Paso for “an incredible four years” and for voting him into the position in 2013.
“It’s been an incredible friendship and I will continue to be involved, and I will always love our community and our city,” Leeser said.
