LACY LAKEVIEW, Texas (KXXV) — Lacy Lakeview hosted a city council candidate forum on Tuesday night. The community had the opportunity to meet the candidates, ask questions, share ideas, and listen to their responses.
The panel featured incumbents Victoria Lee, Jonathan Olvera, and Ronnie Hurst along with new candidates Cody Daniel and David Nedbalek.
- The candidates discussed a wide range of topics including spending, budgeting, communication, transparency, and city challenges.
- All positions are elected at-large.
- The three council candidates who receive the most votes will win seats.
- Council member Charles Wilson is running unopposed to become the mayor after Mayor Niecey Payne is not seeking re-election.
- Lacy Lakeview has a total of seven council members, each of which serves a 2-year term.
Hear from the candidates here:
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
In all, five people are vying for three seats on the Lacy Lakeview City Council. On Tuesday, the community got its chance to question the candidates.
Among the hot topics—business growth.
“What incentives is the city willing to do to be a magnet to draw in these places, these businesses?" one neighbor said at the meeting. "I mean, you can't just sit back on your hands and expect some big chain company to come in and say, oh, look at that piece of property.”
And citizen input.
“You all talked about getting citizens' input, but as you pointed out, the citizen gets three minutes in that council meeting and there's no interaction allowed," another neighbor said at the meeting. "I think we need to look at more town halls where interaction is allowed.”
Incumbents Ronnie Hurst, Victoria Lee, and Jonathan Olvera want to return to the council, while Cody Daniel and David Nedbalek want one of the three at-large seats.
Each candidate was asked how will they ensure transparency and accountability in their administration.
“I wanted transparency myself so I started attending meetings because I wanted to know what was going on," Cody Daniel said. "I found out it’s very transparent if you show up to the meetings and show up to things. You can find out what’s going on.”
“I guess the only thing I can add to that is you can always come to the city council meeting," Ronnie Hurst said. "They’re always open to the public. It does have a live stream, but you can always ask any question that you’d like.”
“I am trying to seek a newsletter only so that way we can continue not only to be transparent online and live, but we can be transparent and reach those citizens that may not have the opportunity to access social media,” Victoria Lee said.
“I believe it’s inherent if you tell the truth and you’re open and honest with what you believe and what you say," David Nedbalek said. "I don’t think there is anything more to be hidden. This isn’t magic, it’s business.”
“We do have every single document that we look at online. We actually now have a live stream," Jonathan Olvera said. “The city is trying to be as transparent as possible. There are Facebook posts that go out. We try to keep everybody as informed as possible.”
Lacy Lakeview has a total of seven council members, each of which serves a 2-year term.
