Mayoral candidates discuss economic development, growth, JB Wells

The three candidates running for mayor of Gonzales spoke to voters about a variety of topics at Monday night’s Gonzales Inquirer candidate forum as they made their last big pushes for support before early voting begins.

S.H. “Steve” Sucher, Isaac Anzaldua and Todd Bright discussed economic development, the JB Wells complex and other issues, including earning citizens’ trust in their local government, in response to questions posed during the event, which was held at the Texian Heritage Conference Center and livestreamed on Facebook.

Gonzales ISD District 1 candidate Elisa Molina also answered questions about her candidacy, although her opponent, incumbent Gloria Torres, was not present for the event.

Early voting begins Monday, April 25, and continues through Tuesday, May 3, at various locations throughout the community, while election day is Saturday, May 7. For more information about polling sites and times as well as sample ballots, go to co.gonzales.tx.us/page/gonzales.Elections.Admin.

Number one priority

Sucher said his top priority as mayor would be start with gaining “the trust and confidence of the people of Gonzales.”

“To gain the trust and confidence of my fellow city council members and the city manager,” Sucher said. “To gain the trust and confidence of all the volunteers serving on our boards and commissions; to gain the trust and confidence of all the city's major partners; to be an accessible, visible and approachable mayor. Not to be a great mayor, just to be a good leader.”

Anzaldua said his priority would be to “set the town on fire and give people something to be excited about.”

“Turn it orange,” Anzaldua said. “I’d love to see the Come and Take It flag lit up orange everytime the Apaches do something great. Put LED lights on City Hall and give the kids something to look forward to.

“Find ways to inspire people to want to do things more in our town and find a way to include the community back in what we do, bring them back to downtown and clean up downtown. We have to lead by example and no longer be the example.”

Bright said his top priority is to “serve the people that elected me.”

“If I’m elected, I’ll work closely with other council members, GEDC members, all of the various boards and bring them all together,” Bright said. “I will have an open door policy in my business or my phone and I’ll be open to ideas and anything at anytime.”

Challenges

Bright said the biggest challenge facing the city in the next three years that the mayor will serve will be dealing with population growth.

“It’s naturally going to come to the city as people continue to move to Texas and how do we address that?” Bright said. “I don't really have an answer for that, but I know that's gonna be one of the biggest challenges, is housing and being able to handle the growth that is coming to Gonzales.”

Sucher agreed growth was a very big challenge — especially “what kind of growth do we want?”

“Do we want uncontrolled growth, or are there ways that we can anticipate what's coming and plan for and control it?” Sucher said. “Infrastructure — we have water and sewer lines and electrical power grid networks that are aging out and need to be replaced. These are expensive items.

“One that I'm going to ask a question about is the availability of underground and surface water supplies in our future and how that will tie into our development.”

Anzaldua said “earning the people’s trust” is a challenge that any new mayor will face when elected.

“For too many years, someone stands here, says things they'll do and they make a promise they can't fulfill,” Anzaldua said. “You can't stand here and make promises that are empty. We have to go back out and earn the people's trust. We have to go to work.

“The greatest challenge we face is convincing everybody in Gonzales that this is the place to be. Because once you get 7,000 people running, 7,000 tell 7,000 tell 7,000 tell 7,000. And it grows very quickly and it spreads very fast.”

JB Wells

Anzaldua said the city needs to consider having a separate person to oversee the JB Wells, with a tourism director being hired to handle tourism issues separately from the multi-million dollar complex, so the city can see more bookings at one of its greatest assets.

“If you can separate those two and you can have someone dedicated just to JB Wells, and tourism dedicated just to Gonzales and let them learn to work together, we can start moving the entire town forward and it's a win win,” Anzaldua said. “Right now, you're asking someone to do that plus do tourism and we’ve got them spread to thin.”

Bright said there are so many great events happening at JB Wells, but “people don't find out about them until a few days before they happen.”

“I think they need to get the word out for the events that are there to start getting people, like the gun shows they have had out there,” Bright said. “A lot of times people are finding out pretty much last minute, you know, and I think they will do a better job promoting themselves with advertising.””

Sucher said he would ask the city manager to engage all local stakeholders who have an interest in JB Wells to take part in breakout sessions to help determine a plan of action.

“The arena itself is not necessarily losing a lot of money,” Sucher said. “I believe it's doing reasonably well. The expo center has been a problem. I think that the bookings there have not lived up to expectations, so we need to sort of dice this question a little bit further and zero in on what the real problem is.”

Economic development

Sucher said economic development in Gonzales appears to be lacking “a detailed, well thought-out, serious plan.”

“What kind of the economic development can we attract here?” Sucher asked. “Are we going to be able to get more traction with traditional economic development or are we going to get more traction with traditional tourism development here? Can we do both at the same time? Understanding that with tourism development, there's some infrastructure issues that need to be addressed and they're expensive.”

Anzaldua said he has already begun visiting with Gonzales Economic Development Corporation (GEDC) and obtained maps “of what they are currently doing to develop the city.” He also suggested reaching out to businesses in larger cities about moving to Gonzales.

“What are they looking to bring to small towns? What do we have to offer?” Anzaldua said. “How can we offer and how we can actually sustain it? That's the biggest question. You can always bring something new, but can you sustain the business in this town? Can it absorb the growth and can we have it here for years to come?”

Bright said he would encourage GEDC to “be a little more open-minded.”

“Particularly when they have properties for sale that they want to sell and people want to buy,” Brightr said. “If they don’t need any GEDC funds, move some of the stipulations and restrictions and make things a little more friendlier and more warm to businesses. That would be one of the main things that people want. If they don't need any GTC forms, remove some stipulations. And restrictions, make things a little bit more friendlier and more warm to everyone. That'd be one of the main things, just really looking at being business friendly to outside business and let the individual investors spend their money and not ours.”