Presidio
The Presidio City Council appointed a new member and declined to fill a second vacant seat, despite four candidates being considered. Letters of interest are again being accepted for the remaining seat, and will be voted on in early June. Candidates must be registered to vote and have lived within Presidio for at least six months.
“A big challenge right now is getting the seats filled,” said Councilmember Silverio Escontria. He filed a motion to elect Matt Stevens, a local surveyor; Angel Campos, a former city employee; and Isela Nunez Carrillo. In an unexplained move, fellow council members Cristian Montoya and Bianca Martinez-Bailon declined to vote.
Instead, Montoya and Martinez-Bailon set another motion to elect Itzmira Bustamante, a clerk at the county tax assessors office. That motion was approved by Montoya and Martinez-Bailon and denied by Escontrias.
Escontrias says that his vote against his new colleague was not personal. He believed the other three candidates were more qualified, and he is unfamiliar with Bustamante’s experience. Montoya and Martinez-Bailon could not be reached for comment by deadline.
Under Texas code, the two vacant seats should have required a special election to be called by the county judge. However, a request for candidates went unheeded by the public at the beginning of the year, causing the city to skip proceedings for an election in May. City Secretary Brenda Ornelas said that the four candidates who were considered on May 11 submitted their letters in April.
Bustamante will be added to the council for a one-year unexpired term to replace Juan Saenz. Fernando Juarez’s seat remains open.