SAN ANTONIO – The overall theme for many of the democratic candidates running against Bexar County Commissioner Precinct 1 Rebecca Clay Flores is her inaccessibility and disconnect with the community.
Ernest Arrellano Junior is a school board leader at South San Independent School District, his focus is infrastructure and creating a larger economic plan for that part of the county. “If we want to get jobs, if we want to improve the level of the type of jobs that we get and we need to attract that kind of business. Meaning that we have to have not only have the land but at least, plan to present to these companies that we’re going to put some infrastructure there if they come in,” he said.
Lawson Alaniz-Picasso is a communications expert who worked for San Antonio City Council District One. She brings a community-focused approach to the job, she said.
“The drastic makeup of precinct one is beautiful, but it’s also very complex. You go to the northwest side, go to Alamo Ranch. Those issues are a lot different than when you’re go to the south side of it,” she said. “It’s understanding that there’s no one size fits all for this community. It’s understanding that there’s going to have to be differences of approaches.”
Amanda Gonzalez brings nonprofit expertise. She says housing, sidewalks, and flooding concerns are the same across the precinct. “A lot of these issues can be resolved on the county level if we have better and more efficient representation,” she said.
All candidates express concern about the lack of action by the commissioner’s court to provide temporary health care access to the community after the closure of Texas Vista Medical Center.
Incumbent Clay-Flores says she’s proud of the work she’s done in the county and will continue to fight for her constituents. “We will continue to advocate for a mental health facility that doesn’t serve, only precinct one, but all of Bexar County. And, of course, we have a lot of people who come in also from our, rural areas, and we will continue to advocate for better jobs and infrastructure in precinct one,” she said.
Clay-Flores challenges the notion that she has not been accessible to constituents. “Not a single constituent, has complained to me about that because I am accessible, and I am responsive,” she said. “So, you know, because I’ve done such a good job in my first term, I guess it’s the only thing that my opponents could come up with. So it’s a lie.”
KSAT reached out to two other candidates Anna Uriegas Bustamante and Ismael Garcia who did not respond to our emails for this story. The winner of Tuesday’s primary will face the only republican candidate Lida Prado in the November Election.
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