Laura Ochoa-Todd, candidate for El Paso City Council District 8
Name: Laura Ochoa-Todd
Occupation: Retired
Relevant Experience
If you are going to represent people, you need to have lived and worked with all kinds of people. I am a business college graduate and have had a series of office, customer service, sales, business, and management jobs e.g., Administrative Services Supervisor, Court Specialist, Office Management, Accounting, Project Coordinator, Credit Counselor, and Realtor. So, in most of my adult life, I have worked with a lot of different types of people. I have never held a political office, but feel what you need for the position is to listen, understand, be proactive, transparent, and accountable to provide good governance.
Personal
I was born and raised here in El Paso. I graduated from El Paso High School and attended EPCC for two years. And, because I was always my grandmother's companion to visit my uncle, her son, in San Francisco, I fell in love with that beautiful city and decided to live and attend school there. I attended City College of San Francisco and then graduated from San Francisco State University with a B.S. in Business Administration and a concentration in Business Information and Computing Systems. After graduation I moved back to Texas and went to Houston where I could live with my sister and start my job search.
What is your position on data centers?
I feel we should not entertain having future data center projects. We need to protect our community resources and my understanding is data centers use massive amounts of water and electricity. And since we live in the desert we can't afford to have projects like that in our backyard. Recently a Data Center Policy Framework was created to oversee and evaluate FUTURE large-scale (hyperscale) data center projects but it would be useless if we stop entertaining such projects anymore.
What would you do differently to reduce property taxes?
Property taxes are raised either because taxing entities cannot balance their budgets and end up with a deficit or Appraisals turn out a lot higher than a year before. For example, in a business office if you hire an accountant to be responsible for the books, and he/she continues to end up in a deficit, you are going to fire this person because he/she cannot do its job. I would do the same in government. About appraisals, I would meet with appraisers to see the comparative market analyses they are using, especially because my own property was compared to properties not similar to mine. So, need to make officials accountable.
What’s your position on the Deck Plaza project?
With the city of El Paso in $3.16 billion in debt and approximately 90 projects pending, I think the Deck Plaza project is another big waste of money. But hey, if they want to build one, go right ahead, just don't use any property taxpayer money in any way, shape or form, the people have spoken.
What are your plans to ensure transparency and make sure you are accessible to constituents?
In order to be transparent, accessible, and accountable to my constituents, I will make sure I understand everything we do in city council in order to pass that information to them in person, by phone, email, or holding community meetings. I am the type of person that when I am doing something, I don't just blow it off and pretend it's going to disappear. I do it from the start and follow it up until it is finished.
What makes you the best candidate?.
Well, I am a regular, simple day-to-day citizen (one of them) who decided to step up to help populate city council with financially conservative people like myself. I am mature, serious, fair, honest, conscientious, sensible, and against wasteful spending who will work for my constituents instead of myself. I am very comfortably retired, so I cannot be bought. I am not afraid or intimidated by officials/leaders/others in speaking my mind to do the right thing because I know we are all the same, just products of different environments.
