UPDATE: The San Antonio City Council has officially appointed local activist and former city employee Rosie Castro as the interim District 7 councilperson. Castro was selected as a finalist on Wednesday, March 1, and Thursday’s action by the City Council was more of a formality.
Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia asked “Do we really have to ask questions?” in a lighthearted effort to move the process along Thursday, March 2. Castro, who ran for city council in 1971, was sworn in and participated in the rest of the meeting.
Castro says that she wants to focus on finding solutions traffic on streets like Culebra and wants to look at opportunities to make sure San Antonio high school seniors are registered to vote upon graduating and reaching the age of 18.
“I don’t know that you can do that in two-months, but who knows,” Castro said.
Castro will serve in the seat until June when District 7 residents elect a new person to the seat on May 6.
Original story follows below.
The official nod hasn’t been given just yet but it appears the San Antonio City Council has found their new temporary representative for District 7: the Alamo City’s very own Rosie Castro. An announcement was made to the public following a handful of interviews at the Wednesday, March 1, City Council meeting.
One more round of interviews will commence for Castro, the lone remaining candidate, on Thursday, March 2. If selected by the San Antonio City Council, the longtime civil rights activist would immediately take her seat as District 7 councilwoman where she would finish the last three months of former Councilwoman Ana Sandoval’s term. Castro and the other three applicants chose not to run in upcoming May 6 elections.
Sandoval announced in January she would be stepping down from her position immediately to take a job with University Health after a tumultuous two years.
Castro is perhaps best known for being the mother of two of San Antonio’s most recognizable political figures in former San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro and current Congressman Joaquin Castro, who revealed earlier this week a cancer diagnosis. As a lifelong San Antonian, she carries with her over 30 years as a District 7 resident.
Between 1982 to 1988, Castro served as a liaison to San Antonio’s personnel director and was the director of the Mexican American Equal Rights Council back in 1976. Currently, she’s self-employed as a consultant on public and nonprofit issues.