County judge gives final State of the County Address

County judge Veronica Escobar delivered her last State of the County address on Wednesday.

Her 50-minute speech focused a lot on what has been accomplished since she was first elected into office in 2006 as a county commissioner.

“When I walked in the courthouse rooms in 2007, we were an organization without a road map,” Escobar said.

She announced in August she was running for Congress, which meant she had to resign as county judge. The Texas Holdover Law allows elected officials to remain in office until a replacement is chosen, and that’s why she still gave the speech this year.

“As it became clear that the court was going to take its time, and at least a month, then that’s when members of the court said ‘you’re still the county judge, go ahead and do it,'” Escobar said.

The event is hosted by the Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce. CEO Richard Dayoub said there was some discussion about having Escobar give the speech this year, because he didn’t want it to be misconstrued as an endorsement for her Congressional run.

“This is not an endorsement. The Chamber absolutely never — with a capital N — endorses public officials,” Dayoub said “If this were set up, even the inference of a political endorsement, you wouldn’t have had this crowd.”

About 600 people showed up to the 7th annual State of the County address.

“It’s bitter sweet. I have been so blessed and so fortunate to have the community of El Paso to give me the opportunity to be their county judge,” Escobar said.

Escobar said the thing she’s most proud of is professionalizing the County’s management.

“We weren’t having policy discussions. We weren’t thinking about economic development. We weren’t thinking about dealing with chronic needs because we were managing the day-to-day,” Escobar said. “We have centralized as best we could, and it has been very successful.”

Escobar said she wants the County to focus on affordable housing, and stormwater management moving forward.