Waco voters elect Jim Holmes to be city’s new mayor

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - Voters in Waco on Saturday elected City Councilmember Jim Holmes to be the city’s new mayor.

Holmes has garnered 2,473 votes, good enough for a 70 percent of the total tally. Aubrey Robertson is in second with 16 percent and Eric Brown has 14 percent.

Holmes said his campaign has “a lot good momentum in the city right now,” and that he’s excited to be able to continue with the council in a new role.

When asked about his goals once he is sworn in as mayor, Holmes said, “My goals have always been strong public safety, we need to have strong police and fire departments.”

Holmes further said, “We need to focus on infrastructure, sidewalks and streets. We need to make sure we keep investing in those parts and we need to keep up the economic development.”

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Waco mayoral candidates explain how they would represent the Hispanic community

According to the U.S. Census bureau, about 30 percent of Waco’s population is Hispanic. All three Waco mayoral candidates were recently asked a handful of questions on how they plan to advocate for the growing community.

KWTX’s Ke’sha Lopez asked the candidates how they would further development in Hispanic neighborhoods, prevent gentrification and increase diversity at city hall. She fielded questions at a candidate forum hosted by KWTX in partnership with the Hispanic Leaders Network.

The three candidates, Jim Holmes, Eric Brown and Aubrey Robertson, started by speaking on their experience with diversity, equity and inclusion work.

”As chief felony prosecutor here in McLennan County for the 19th District Court I had to confront that inequality and injustices that exist systemically in our criminal justice system,” Robertson said.

Holmes has served on Waco City Council since 2006 and in that time helped make diversity, equity and inclusion a top priority.

”When I first got on council we had about 5 goals and we added diversity, equity and inclusion as one of our primary goals,” Holmes said.

Brown said he regularly opens his ears to Waco’s Black and Brown communities to hear the issues that matter to them.

”My experience working with equity and inclusion includes grassroots work,” Brown said. “I’m a public policy guy, that’s what I studied in school.”

Since the city council sets the tax rate, candidates said they want to make sure underrepresented communities aren’t priced out of their homes.

”We have to begin to work with the tax appraisal office as well as the city council to try and come up with a strategy to preserve the homes of those in East Waco,” Brown said.

Although all three candidates acknowledged the issue of gentrification in East and South Waco, only Holmes and Robertson presented potential solutions.

”We’re trying to get more strategic about how we spread out the tax rate and part of economic development is bringing in these big companies and taking some of the burden away from the residents and over to these large businesses,” Holmes said.

Robertson suggested introducing property tax relief for public servants to avoid pushing people out.

”People who work for the city maybe they get a property tax break, maybe teachers who work for Waco ISD, maybe our police officers and firefighters,” Robertson said.

All three candidates agreed that more needs to be done to recruit more Hispanic city employees.

”We need to get more proactive about getting Hispanic representation not only in rank and file, but also in our leadership positions,” Holmes said.

Robertson said the city needs to actively seek out job candidates who are Hispanic and not simply say it doesn’t have enough Hispanic applicants.

“If you’re looking for specific candidates you go out and sell yourself to that pool of candidates,” Robertson said. “You explain why working at the City of Waco is the place to be.”

Brown even suggested the city offer incentives to attract more Hispanic workers.

”The City has to be proactive about going out and actually looking for the right individuals who are willing to work for the city,” Brown said.

The three candidates were also asked which Hispanic leaders they would name city facilities after should the opportunity arise. Suggestions included former city council member Hector Sabido and current city council member Alice Rodriguez.