2 city council incumbents head to runoff

Voters in El Paso Tuesday re-elected several incumbent city representatives and ousted an incumbent County Commissioner.

This was the first time voters in El Paso elected City Council representatives in the November general election in an even-numbered year. In 2014, voters approved moving city elections from May of odd-numbered years. Now, representatives for Districts 1, 5, 6 and 8 will be elected during midterm elections, while Districts 2, 3, 4 and 7, as well as the mayor, will be elected in presidential election years.

In City Council District One – which includes the Upper Valley, West El Paso, West-Central El Paso and a portion of downtown – incumbent Peter Svarzbein is heading to a runoff. Svarzbein did not receive more than 50 percent of the vote and will face Veronica “Roni” Frescas in the runoff election.

“The number one issue facing our district is how to make our community and our district more competitive economically and culturally, how to bring in good jobs, how to have a balance between preservation and growth,” Svarzbein told ABC-7. “Right now, people have concerns about taxes and people have concerns about streets and we have to invest in both of those things so we can we make our city more competitive.”

“We have is to get those streets done. People are complaining that they have to spend their savings to get their cars fixed from all the potholes. That should have been taken care of immediately,” Frescas said, “So that’s the first thing, and of course, the high taxes. We have to do something to stop those high taxes, go back and revisit the quality of life bond from 2012 and take it back to the voters.”

Voters in City Council District Five, which includes portions of East and Far East El Paso, elected a new city representative: Isabel Salcido. She will take over the seat held by Michel Noe, who could no longer run for re-election because he was termed out. Salcido told ABC-7 she has spoken with Noe to find out what he was working on and how she can help move those priorities forward.

Salcido said she if focused on traffic issues affecting her district. She also wants to the City to build a police regional command in her district. “We are the only district without a regional command center. Safety is very important to me and to ll the voters I spoke with,” Salcido said.

In District Six, voters re-elected incumbent city representative Claudia Ordaz-Perez.

In District Eight, incumbent Cissy Lizarraga is headed to a runoff. She secured a little over 43 percent of the vote. It is a virtual tie for second place between Rich Wright and Nicholas Vasquez, who each won 15.6 percent of the vote — but Wright has five more votes than Vasquez, with 2,374 casting ballots for him. But it will likely be Wright who faces the incumbent in a runoff election.

“There’s a lot of projects in District 8 that we’re working hard to complete,” Lizarraga told ABC-7. “The 2012 quality of life and projects … I think we really are looking at quality-of-life, quality of place and families. That’s always been one of my passions: making sure that families and communities are strong.”

Voters in the City of El Paso appeared to be in favor of approving a pay increase for El Paso city representatives and the mayor. Late Tuesday, more than 56 percent of voters voted in favor of the pay increase. The mayor’s salary will increase to more than $77,000 and the salary for city representatives will increase to $57,000. The City argues better salaries are needed to attract better candidates for office.

In the lone County election, former El Paso City Representative Carl Robinson defeated incumbent County Commissioner Andrew Haggerty in the precinct 4 election.

Robinson said he will focus on public safety, economic development and infrastructure.

A disappointed Haggerty told ABC-7 he likely lost because of straight ticket voting. “At the end of the day, I think it was party over party instead of candidate versus candidate,” Haggerty said, “I’m proud of the last four years I’ve had the opportunity to serve El Paso. I never sacrificed my morals for votes and I think El Paso is a better community after I was here.”