(C) El Paso Matters.org
This story was originally published by El Paso Matters.org and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Renard Johnson, Brian Kennedy square off at mayoral candidate forum [1]
['Elida S. Perez', 'More Elida S. Perez', 'El Paso Matters', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width']
Date: 2024-11-21
The two candidates vying to be El Paso’s next mayor talked taxes, quality of life, economic development, immigration and other topics during a spirited forum Thursday that ended with them taking a few jabs at each other.
Renard Johnson, 58, and Brian Kennedy, 68, responded to questions, many submitted by the public, during the forum at the El Paso Community College Administrative Services Center. About 100 people attended the forum, which was organized and live streamed by El Paso Matters and FitFam El Paso ahead of the runoff election next month. Moderated by El Paso Matters CEO Robert Moore, it was the mayoral forum to be held between the two ahead of the runoff election.
One of the topics discussed was the role of quality of life investments from city government as an economic development tool.
“When I’m looking at quality of life, quality of life is fixing roads, making sure people can buy houses because they’re not taxed out of them, and so can their kids and grandkids, and (they) are safe with police and fire,” Kennedy said.
As far as larger projects, Kennedy said the city needs to be direct with the taxpayers about the cost, the timelines and what they will get out of it.
“We have to make sure we don’t lie to the people about the projects – we tell the truth so that they can make the decision knowing all the facts,” Kennedy said, referring to several 2012 quality of life bond projects he says were not properly budgeted.
He said economic incentives need to have results such as jobs and that the companies need to fulfill their part of the bargain.
“If you don’t do what you said you were going to do, you owe us our money back,” Kennedy said of including clawback provisions on incentive agreements.
Mayoral candidate Renard Johnson answers questions at a candidate forum on Nov. 21, 2024. Johnson faces Brian Kennedy in the December 5 runoff. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)
Johnson said public-private partnerships are crucial, like for projects such as La Nube STEAM Center, the children’s museum that was a signature project from the 2012 bond that opened in August under a partnership with the city, the El Paso Community Foundation and private donors.
“That is one of the best children’s museums in the country – so when El Paso wants to get something done, we can do it,” Johnson said.
Johnson said if used correctly, Chapter 380 agreements, which provide incentives to businesses and developers for economic development, are a very effective tool.
“We have to sit down and make sure that it makes economic sense for our community, but it has to come with jobs,” Johnson said.
The candidates also addressed how they plan to bring higher-paying jobs to the region considering the weekly wage in El Paso in the first quarter of 2024 was $907 – less than 60% of the state and national averages, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Kennedy said bringing higher paying jobs starts with the city and how it pays city employees.
Mayoral candidate Brian Kennedy, at right, answers questions from moderator Robert Moore at a candidate forum on Nov. 21, 2024. Kennedy faces Renard Johnson in the Dec. 5 runoff. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)
“I think that the city has to be a leader, we can’t control what the store down the street or what the manufacturer does, because that’s not under our control,” Kennedy said, adding that the city can only require they pay a certain wage through incentive agreements.
When pressed about whether the city is already doing that, Kennedy said the city does require certain wages under incentive agreements but cannot force other private sectors to raise their wages.
Johnson said he wants to raise wages in part by luring aerospace development and health care industries to the city.
He also said that improving staffing levels at the city will not only help increase morale, but help the city better and more quickly respond when development opportunities arise.
“You have to have the staffing levels, you have to be ready to accept business when it comes to town,” he said.
Learn more El Paso Election 2024: Everything you need to know for Dec. 14 runoff On Dec. 14, El Paso voters will cast ballots in the 2024 general runoff election. Here are key dates to remember, who’s on the ballot, candidate information and related stories.
The candidates also addressed budget priorities.
Almost 60% of El Paso’s $599 million general fund budget currently goes to public safety and the majority of general fund spending is allocated to essentials like public safety and roads. In order to allocate more funding and not raise the tax rate any cuts in services to save tax dollars would likely have to come from areas like museums, parks and libraries.
Kennedy said the city has to make sure that public safety is funded correctly and the city needs to find a dedicated funding source for streets, but did not say where the funding would come from.
“We have a great streets department, but they’re only as good as the money we give them,” Kennedy said.
Johnson said he would have to “scrub” the budget to determine how to move forward with the next fiscal year’s budget and adopting a no-new-revenue rate may not be sustainable in the long term.
“You cannot cut your way out of fixing services,” Johnson said, adding that the city needs to find funding within the budget, grow the commercial base, and bring in more sales taxes to fund projects.
The candidates also addressed some immigration-related topics given that a cornerstone of President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign was the promise to oversee the largest mass deportation project in U.S. history. Estimates show that more than 50,000 El Paso residents are undocumented.
“This is a game of chess,” Johnson said. “We’ve got to be prepared for what’s going to happen, so we can’t sit around and say we don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Johnson said the city needs to prepare by meeting with local leaders from the county, state and Ciudad Juarez to develop a plan to respond. He said it will be critical to dispel any negative or false narratives being portrayed about the region.
“We cannot have the national media driving and dictating what happens here in El Paso. We have to tell our own story,” Johnson said.
He also said he wants to visit other border communities to get ideas and strategies to implement in El Paso, but that the city will need to work with the federal government.
“I’ve been working with the federal government for over 30 years (and) I know how the federal government works,” Johnson said. “We gotta be prepared, and we gotta have a good plan where we have to work together.”
Kennedy said the city needs to communicate with the new presidential administration immediately to develop a plan to respond.
“It has to be a two way conversation – instead of saying to them, ‘Here’s what we need,’ we need to say, first of all, ‘What are the rules going to be?’ because we have no idea,” Kennedy said.
He also said that while local law enforcement cannot disobey federal law, the police department does not have the staffing to enforce federal immigration laws.
On how they planned to address urban sprawl and infill development, both candidates said the city needs to incentivize infill developments so that developers don’t only build in the outer edges of the city. Both said they opposed impact fees for extended infrastructure that would be charged to developers because they said it would be passed on to homebuyers, making homes less affordable.
Kennedy mentioned an incentive agreement the city just entered for apartments to be developed in the Downtown Popular department store building. The City Council on Tuesday approved the incentive deal for the building to be converted into a 99-unit apartment building with ground-floor retail spaces.
“This is one of the projects that we’re really excited about,” Kennedy said, adding that for developments farther out, the city needs to ensure that it is a good investment and there will be returns on the infrastructure through tax revenue that will be generated from them.
Johnson said developers are building in the outskirts because the land is cheaper and acquisition costs are lower.
“We need to figure out how to tell them, ‘Hey, we want you back in El Paso,’ and if we don’t know how to do that, we’re going to continue to sprawl outside of El Paso into the county,” Johnson said, adding the city needs to look at ways to work with builders to lower their costs so that they do not pass them onto consumers.
Each candidate gave closing statements as the forum wrapped up, taking a jab at their opponent.
Kennedy said that as a city representative and mayor pro tem, he was ready to continue moving the city forward. He said he was ready to “take care of all of El Paso and not just special interests,” referring to many of Johnson’s supporters.
Johnson responded by saying that he was not working for special interests and that his biggest supporter was his father.
“Let’s talk about special interests,” Johnson said, adding that he has had more than 600 supporters with some donating just $1. “Let’s talk about my biggest donor. Let’s put the elephant of the special interest in the room. ‘You want to know who this special interest is?’ My number one biggest donor is my dad.”
In the money race Johnson has raised at least $890,000 since launching his campaign in January, with about $389,000 of that raised during the last filing period. Kennedy has about $234,000 for his campaign, but the lion’s share of the funding came from about $181,000 in personal loans. The next round of finance reports before the election are due Dec. 6.
Kennedy, an attorney and events and entertainment consultant, was elected to represent District 1 on City Council in December 2022. His term was set to expire in January 2027 but will have to resign his council seat in January even if he’s not elected mayor.
Johnson, who has developed several real estate projects, owns a systems engineering and information technology company and the El Perro Grande tequila brand.
The elected mayor will be sworn into office in early January and serve a four-year term. The position currently pays about $95,000.
Early voting is Dec. 2-10. Find early voting locations here. Election Day is Saturday, Dec. 14.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://elpasomatters.org/2024/11/21/el-paso-mayoral-runoff-election-brian-kennedy-renard-johnson-fitfam-forum/
Published and (C) by El Paso Matters.org
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0 International.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/elpasomatters/
