Municipal elections in Laredo, Texas (2016)

• Related content:
• Texas
  • Laredo, Texas
  • Texas elections, 2016
  • Public policy in Texas
  • Endorsers in Texas
• Local elections in 2016
  • Municipal governments
  • Local courts
  • School boards
  • Local ballot measures
  • Recalls
• State elections in 2016
  • State executives
  • State legislatures
  • State courts
  • State ballot measures
• Federal elections in 2016
  • U.S. President
  • U.S. Senate
  • U.S. House of Representatives

Four of the eight seats on the Laredo City Council were up for election on November 8, 2016. The incumbents in Districts 5, 7, and 8 each faced one challenger in their bids for re-election. Five candidates filed for the open seat in District 4.

Proposals to increase the mayor's authority and change the makeup of the city council also went before voters in November 2016. The measures, which appeared separately on the ballot, faced resistance from some of the city's councilmembers. Propositions 2, 3, and 4 were approved, while Propositions 1 and 5 were defeated. The remaining 19 propositions not connected to city government reforms were approved by Laredo voters. Learn more about the proposed changes to Laredo's city government by clicking here.

Laredo held a special election in February 2016 to fill Councilman Esteban Rangel's District 2 seat. Rangel resigned from the city council in November 2015 to run for the Webb County Commission. Vidal Rodriguez defeated Jose Perez III in the runoff election for Rangel's seat on April 2, 2016. Rangel lost the Webb County Commission race to Jesse Gonzalez in the May 2016 runoff election.

General election

The election for District 4 advanced to a runoff election on December 17, 2016, because no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote in the general election. Alberto Torres Jr. defeated Allen Tijerina in the runoff. Advancement to a runoff election is indicated with the following symbol:

District 4

☑ Alberto Torres Jr.

☐ Allen Tijerina

☐ Armando Cisneros

☐ Eduardo "Lalo" Villa Jr.

☐ Jose "Chema" Guevara

District 5

☐ Roque Vela Jr. (i)

☑ Norma "Nelly" Vielma

District 7

☑ George J. Altgelt (i)

☐ Juan Chavez

District 8

☑ Roberto Balli (i)

☐ James Newland

Special election

District 2 candidates

Runoff

• Jose Perez III
• Vidal Rodriguez

Special

• Juan Medellin Jr.
• Jose Perez III
• Ricardo Jaime
• Annette Ugalde-Bonulgi
• Vidal Rodriguez

Results

Laredo City Council District 2, Special Runoff Election, 2016
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Vidal Rodriguez	53.47%	1,063
Jose Perez III	46.53%	925
Total Votes		1,988
Source: City of Laredo, "Special Run-Off Election Results," April 2, 2016

Laredo City Council District 2, Special Election, 2016
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Vidal Rodriguez	48.56%	858
Jose Perez III	25.30%	447
Annette Ugalde-Bonulgi	11.71%	207
Ricardo Jaime	11.15%	197
Juan Medellin Jr.	3.28%	58
Total Votes		1,767
Source: KGNS.tv, "Local Results," Febraury 13, 2016

Campaign finance

Laredo City Council contributions, 2016
District	Candidate	Contributions
4	Armando Cisneros	$150
4	Jose Guevara	$3,490
4	Allen Tijerina	$42,724
4	Alberto Torres, Jr.	$24,645
4	Eduardo Villa, Jr.	NA
5	Roque Vela, Jr. (i)	$44,305
5	Nelly Vielma	$46,491
7	George Altgelt (i)	$42,978
7	Juan Chavez	$8,800
8	Roberto Balli (i)	$36,223
8	James Newland	NA

Issues

Proposed changes to Laredo city government

Laredo voters approved a new city charter in January 1981. The 1981 charter implemented a council-manager form of government, shifting power over general city affairs from the mayor to the city council and delegating Laredo's day-to-day operations to a professional city manager.

In 2016, political group Moving Laredo Forward and the Laredo Chamber of Commerce pushed for changes to the charter that would shift some power back to the mayor. Under their proposals, the mayor could initiate motions at city council meetings, consult with the city manager about council meeting agendas, and add his own items to the agenda. Overriding a mayoral veto would also require six city council votes rather than five.

The Moving Laredo Forward coalition also proposed a change to the way the city elects its councilmembers. As of the 2016 election, Laredo's mayor was elected "at-large," by the city as a whole, and the eight councilmembers were each elected to represent a specific district. Moving Laredo Forward wanted to increase at-large representation, making four of the city's council seats at-large rather than district seats.

The above proposals appeared on the November 2016 ballot as Propositions 1-5. Moving Laredo Forward and its partners presented the propositions as good government measures, claiming they would increase Laredoans' access to representation, counter the influence of special interests, and reduce vote trading between councilmembers.

Opposition group Laredo Strong challenged some of those claims, arguing that at-large elections are discriminatory, reduce voters' representation in city government, and give special interests and wealthy candidates an edge over candidates from poorer neighborhoods. District 5 Councilman Roque Vela Jr. and District 8 Councilman Roberto Balli, who were both featured on the group's website, led a city council movement to oppose the propositions. In April 2016, the council voted 5 to 2 to officially oppose the measures. District 7 Councilman George Altgelt was one of the two no votes, saying the city council should leave the decision to Laredo voters.

Altgelt, Balli, and Vela were up for re-election in 2016. Click "show" on the box below to see comments from them and other 2016 Laredo City Council candidates about this issue.

Comments by 2016 Laredo City Council candidates about the proposals to change the city charter

At an October 2016 debate, District 4 candidate Armando Cisneros said, "First of all, it was a two-part thing that had to be decided. The first thing was a petition. I was in favor of the petition—I did not get to sign it, though—because I think that, at the very least, the people should have an opportunity to voice their opinion. Now, the matter of whether we should go to at-large districts or remain single-member districts, I still have not made up my mind, to be honest with you. I don't like the system the way it is right now. I believe that there's a hierarchy of needs that needs to be met for every district, and unfortunately, some of the districts in town do not have those minimum needs met yet. So perhaps if we could get to that level, then from there we could move on with a single-member district. But right now, there's some districts that are lagging behind, and perhaps a wider vision of the city is needed to remedy all those problems. Some of the issues that I have with single-member districts include $500,000 discretionary funds for each councilmember, deferring projects to the councilmember where the project is, and as I said, some other basic needs are not being met. I would have preferred a two at-large, six single-member districts but that's not what we have before us. So I am considering that, but I have not made up my mind yet." Armando Cisneros Jose Guevara District 4 candidate Jose Guevara said at an October 2016 debate, "The National League of Cities information on municipal elections says, for large cities of 200,000 and up, at-large is only used 16.4 percent of the time, a mixed system is only used 38.2 percent of the time, and a district system is used 45.5 percent of the time. I think that that speaks volumes. That speaks volumes. District elections, they give legitimate groups, especially those with a geographic base, a better chance of being represented equally in the city... People are [also] more likely to come and vote for a district election than for an at-large election." At an October 2016 debate, District 4 candidate Allen Tijerina said, "I believe it's about the quality of the candidate. A good candidate can represent a district or the entire city. A good candidate develops a great campaign. If you're a bad candidate, you can run for a district or you can run for the entire city, but you are not going to be successful. We need to focus on the quality of the candidate and his education." Allen Tijerina Alberto Torres Jr. District 4 candidate Alberto Torres Jr. said at an October 2016 debate, "I have been the only candidate that has gone publicly against the at-large movement, and I'll tell you why. The at-large movement has a history—we'll take Austin as an example—has a history of not having equal representation for everybody. The city of Austin went from single-member districts to at-large, and from at-large, they reverted back to single-member districts. Why? Because there wasn't that equal representation that the constituents deserve in a municipality." At an October 2016 debate, District 4 candidate Eduardo Villa Jr. said, "Honestly, I don't see any benefit in at-large districts. I feel that, in fact, the districts right now are already getting too big, and we should actually make them smaller. Some people say that at-large would mean that you have four more representatives that could help you out because they're at-large. I happen to disagree with this. I think you will just have four more councilmembers that will just not listen to you because they pretty much can depend on a certain specific area. So I think actually we would benefit if we would actually get smaller districts." Eduardo Villa Jr. Roque Vela Jr. District 5 Councilman Roque Vela Jr. led the city council effort to oppose the proposals. Announcing his bid for re-election, he said, "The first five propositions on our ballot this year—the quote and quote 'moving Laredo forward' propositions—would do the exact opposite. Voting for those propositions would rip city government right from the hands of the people and put it in the hands of the wealthy." District 5 candidate and Moving Laredo Forward member Nelly Vielma defended the proposals in April 2016, saying, "Every person will have at least five people representing them with their vote so that if your representative does not listen to you you can go and knock on four more doors and hopefully somebody will listen to the people." Nelly Vielma George Altgelt District 7 Councilman George Altgelt voted against the city council's resolution to oppose the proposals, saying, "My opposition to this particular agenda item is that it requires us as a council to impose our judgment for that of the citizen. It essentially tells the citizen we, us nine up here, we know better than you, and that's not democratic. What this motion says is let us, your benevolent leadership, let us save you from yourselves and pass this so that you don't have to make the mistake. Now, to be clear, my opinion remains the same. It's let's leave the eight [councilmembers] as is [as district members] and add two at-large and give the mayor a right to vote." In response to a question at an October 2016 debate about whether he supported the proposed city charter amendments, District 7 candidate Juan Chavez said, "As far as Propositions 1-5, definitely not." Juan Chavez Roberto Balli District 8 Councilman Roberto Balli led the city council effort to oppose the proposals. He told Fox News, "These ideas that they're bringing forward are, one is to have a 75 percent veto power, so that the mayor can basically win every vote and wipe out the city council. And this is just an idea to give the mayor absolute power, and power corrupts but absolute power corrupts absolutely. [The second idea] is create these at-large districts where councilmembers would have to run in the entire city. They would have to collect large sums of money, and they would have to go to these power brokers, these wealthy individuals who want to control the city and who are behind Moving Laredo Forward. Then they could control who's on city council and basically control the city's budget and control all the city's contracts. That's what's going on here."

Disqualification and reinstatement of city council candidates

District 7 incumbent Altgelt almost missed the opportunity to run for re-election in 2016. The city of Laredo disqualified Altgelt and two other city council candidates, District 4 challenger Jose Guevara and District 8 challenger James Newland, for failing to complete part of their candidacy applications.

Altgelt filed a lawsuit against the city, claiming elections officials did not notify him of the errors until after the deadline. The city ultimately agreed to put Altgelt and the other two disqualified candidates back on the ballot.

About the city

See also: Laredo, Texas

Laredo is a city in Webb County, Texas. As of 2010, its population was 236,091.

City government

See also: Council-manager government

The city of Laredo uses a council-manager system. In this form of municipal government, an elected city council, which includes the mayor and serves as the city's primary legislative body, appoints an executive called a city manager to oversee day-to-day municipal operations and implement the council's policy and legislative.

Demographics

The following table displays demographic data provided by the United States Census Bureau.

   .placeholder {}
   .census-table-container {
       width: 100%;
       max-width: 500px;
       overflow-x: auto;
   }
   .census-table-widget {
       text-align: center;
       border: 1px solid black !important;
   }
   .census-table-header {
       background-color: #334aab;
       color: white;
       padding: 0.5em 1em;
   }
   .census-table-census-item-header {
       text-align: left !important;
       font-weight: normal !important;
       background-color: #D9D9D9;
       padding-left: 0.25em;
       padding-right: 0.25em;
   }
   .census-table-census-item {
       text-align: center !important;
       font-weight: normal !important;
   }
   .census-table-section-header {
       background-color: #f0a236;
       font-style: italic;
   }
   .census-table-source {
       font-size: 80%;
   }
   .census-table-race-disclaimer {
       font-size: 70%;
       border-top: 1px solid #ccc;
   }

Demographic Data for Laredo, Texas
	Laredo	Texas
Population	236,091	25,145,561
Land area (sq mi)	105	261,266
Race and ethnicity**
White	95.8%	74%
Black/African American	0.5%	12.1%
Asian	0.5%	4.8%
Native American	0.2%	0.5%
Pacific Islander	0%	0.1%
Two or more	0.5%	2.7%
Hispanic/Latino	95.4%	39.3%
Education
High school graduation rate	68.6%	83.7%
College graduation rate	19.4%	29.9%
Income
Median household income	$47,593	$61,874
Persons below poverty level	26.7%	14.7%
Source: population provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "Decennial Census" (2010). Other figures provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2014-2019).
**Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Laredo Texas election. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Municipal elections in Laredo, Texas (2016) - Google News

See also

Laredo, Texas	Texas	Municipal government	Other local coverage
2015 Laredo elections 2014 Laredo elections Laredo, Texas	2016 Texas elections Public policy in Texas Endorsers in Texas Texas	Top counties 100 largest cities Current mayors Current council officials	2016 municipal elections 2016 school board elections 2016 local ballot measure elections 2016 local judicial elections

External links

Suggest a link

• City of Laredo