Villarreal wants to be next mayor

It's officially unofficial, State Rep. Mike Villarreal (D) is stepping down from his state legislative post in District 123, and in doing so will run for mayor.

The reason he's doing this is to give residents of District 123 the opportunity to choose his successor in the November elections.

'There are two terms here," Villarreal explained. "This term ends in January and I'm guaranteed the next term because I have no opponent."

He added that this would allow those voters to select his successor.

His priority now is stepping into the position as that of San Antonio's mayor and the decision was one involving his family and his wife, Jeanne Russell. At the same time he reached out a number of civic leaders with whom he's worked with over the years.

Ultimately, Villarreal said the decision centered on what the community needs at this time, strong leadership to continue the momentum to insure that the challenges coming our way, like the increase in the city's rapidly growing population, are met.

"For me that means, No.l that we're investing in infrastructure serves to meet our growing needs, No. 2,1 think we need to continue to keep the focus on improving educational opportunities for our young people...we need to upgrade our workforce and make sure we can compete with any city in the world and finally if we're going to do all these things we have to have the confidence of our citizens," Villarreal explained.

In the infrastructure area, Villarreal was quick to point out that it included the water concerns of the area. With the expected population increases, he feels that while the new residents will be able to drive, they'll also want to be able to drink water. That means having a long-term secured supply of water to meet our needs, needs that he sees as crucial.

He added that as mayor his priority is to improve the culture of service of our system's employees. One of those is making customer service a primary concern in city government.

"I want our neighbors and our citizens to feel like when they call the city that they are getting the highest level of service to solve their concerns," Villarreal said. "It's not just meeting our concerns for our residents, it's a very important ingredient for growing jobs in San Antonio."

At this point, Villarreal is the only announced mayoral candidate.

By Joe Sandoval

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