Questionnaire: Aaron Montes, candidate for City Council, District 7
Questionnaire: Aaron Montes, candidate for City Council, District 7
1. What motivated you to run for this position?
Our city is in need of higher paying jobs, we need better control on our spending policies, our neighborhoods need more attention and there is a need for transparency at City Hall.
For too long, we’ve imported low-paying service jobs to El Paso and our workforce deserves better. We lead El Paso in issuing debt without voter approval, which needs to stop. We focus on providing hundreds of millions of dollars in economic incentives for Downtown development, leaving local businesses and neighborhoods with little to show for what they pay in taxes.
Instead of uplifting our history and capitalizing on our assets, we have decided to destroy them. Our history and culture should be preserved and treasured.
And, the current District 7 city representative, thinks it’s appropriate to call members of the public foul names and have little to no respect for residents and even other elected officials in our city.
November presents an opportunity to change the City Council to work for all El Pasoans.
2. Please describe your personal and professional background.
I am a journalist by training and in experience. I’ve worked for this city’s three newspapers covering City Hall and other topics. I went to school to be a journalist and much of my interaction with public policy has been through a journalism lens.
3. How do you earn a living? Do you plan to continue if elected?
I am a freelance writer and photographer. I intend on dedicating all my time to the office if elected.
4. Please describe your education. Where did you get your high school diploma? What higher education degrees and certificates have you earned from where?
I attended Burges High School and graduated in 2010. I attended the University of Texas at El Paso until 2015 in Multimedia Journalism. I then received training at the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism.
5. What experiences in leadership do you have that qualify you for this position?
As a watchdog reporter for the El Paso Times, I was placed on investigative teams to provide an in-depth look at the migrant situations along the U.S. Southwest Border. I worked on a collaboration with the New York Times and the El Paso Times to provide a report on the conditions of a Clint detention facility where migrant children were being kept after traveling to the U.S. alone.
In these roles, I had to provide context, knowledge and an ability to report what was happening in a fair and honest way so the American public could have an understanding of the Trump administration’s impact on immigrant lives.
6. If elected, what would be your three key priorities while in office? How would you fund these priorities?
From a policy perspective, we need to address the financial impact low-density sprawl on the city’s fringes has on the budget. We’ve allowed developers to continue building units further East, which comes at a cost to homeowners who live in District 7 and older areas of the city. We need to ensure developers pay their fair share for public infrastructure and examine our ‘impact fee’ policy to ensure that developers pay for the impact they have on utility rates.
Our city needs to come to terms with the reality that we will experience different impacts due to the global pandemic for years. Its impact on our tax revenues from sales may not recover for three years and we need to ensure that our spending reflects that. We need to free up money from our Impact Fund so local businesses can continue getting financial relief and keep their businesses funded until we recover on a national, state and local level. We also need to release total aggregated data of outbreaks in the area. A good example is published in the Las Cruces Sun News of addresses and the number of cases certain addresses experience. This will provide El Pasoans with the information they need to take precautions on where they visit. We also need to use the available CARES Act dollars to put the over 400 employees who were furloughed back to work, in a role where they can help address the virus, just as Houston has.
The planning department’s annual report claims our population has stagnated. We need to address this issue quickly because it adds to the risk of hollowing out our city’s commercial and residential tax base. We need to reprioritize our economic development goals. The Great Wolf Lodge deal showed how weak betting on tourism and entertainment is. Instead, we need to use those tools to attract renewable energy industries, technology, research and development, and utilize our position on the border to bring high paying jobs for local graduates. Coupled with a revamped first-time home buyer program, we can help grow the city in a way that will alleviate some of the burdens residential homeowners feel from the tax rate today.
7. Have you previously run for office? If so, please list the positions sought and the outcome.
No.
8. Have you ever been arrested or charged with a crime? Have you ever had a civil judgment against you? Have you ever been in arrears on local, state or federal taxes? If so, please provide an explanation.
I have not been involved in these processes.
9. If elected, would you have any potential conflicts of interest that you are aware of that would impair your ability to serve? Please explain what they are and how you would avoid the conflict.
I’ve had family and friends in law enforcement. But, so do many El Pasoans. I agree to adhere to laws and policies set in place when it comes to voting. However, I will not refrain from being a part of policy setting and discussions when it comes to how we address the concerns members of the community have.
10. What are the qualities of a good public servant? How does your background and experience reflect those qualities?
A good public servant listens and respects the voices and concerns of their community. As a journalist, I practiced those same values when putting a story together and I intend on doing the same as an elected official.
11. What are your values when it comes to a citizen’s access to government and transparency? Would you take calls from the media and agree to interview requests?
The public and press’ access to elected officials is an integral part of Democracy. I intend on waiting for the press to ask questions after meetings to discuss votes. I am sharing my personal cellphone number with constituents so they can call and directly talk to me. And, I am attending all forums and answering surveys to make myself accessible as a candidate.
My opponent chooses not to attend forums or take public questions from the community, which reflects the kind of values he has adopted in office.
12. How would you rate the city/county’s response to COVID-19? Do you feel our restrictions came soon enough, went far enough? What work do you feel needs to be done to continue responding to the pandemic?
The city has lacked a comprehensive plan to address this virus from the beginning and has failed to be transparent in its approach. Cities like Houston have put together task forces using a combination of city services, data scientists, health professionals and technology experts to identify and assist communities hardest hit by COVID-19.
We were slow to incorporate mandatory mask wearing in public. The city failed to inform businesses of potential closures when the pandemic began to reach El Paso. And, they spent so much time discussing giving land away to Paul Foster, rather than rolling out their COVID response back in March. That was very disappointing.
Immediately, we need to ensure that the city’s Public Health Department and partners have the assistance and support they need to continue identifying where the virus is spreading in our community and to slow that spread.
We made a costly mistake putting over 400 employees on furlough without considering the use of CARES Act dollars to reassign them to help address the pandemic. Many of those employees could have been assigned into other roles.
Like Houston, we need to use the federal dollars to put those employees back to work so they can help with the administrative side of addressing the pandemic and possibly monitor temperature taking at public facilities. That will free up time for public health employees who focus on testing and analyzing data.
What we can do is direct city agencies to work with state testing groups at heavily trafficked businesses and in zip codes with troubling rates. In those areas, health officials can provide infrared thermometers to take customers’ temperatures. For customers with a fever, those businesses can work with public health teams to get tests administered quicker.
13. Should El Paso pursue a national memorial and museum honoring the victims and marking the lessons learned in the Aug. 3 Walmart mass shooting?
It’s important that we remember what happened on that day and denounce white supremacy at all levels.
With that being said, because of our budget restraints, we should begin discussing with victims’ families, members of the community, the nonprofit sector and private sector on how to properly setup a national memorial and museum. I suspect we may need to fund such a project in phases.
14. With more calls to improve policing in America, should El Paso make reforms with its police department? If so, what kinds of reforms do you support?
One thing we can do immediately is form an oversight and advisory committee to keep an eye on the Public Safety Bond that was just passed with $413 million for the construction of new police and fire buildings.
The current City Council, including my opponent, voted against forming one and that was a mistake. The city’s track record with rolling out such large bond initiatives is not very good and that’s where we can start talking about providing for financial oversight on spending with the police.
Another financial issue spawns from the department’s overtime policy. In some instances, it’s acceptable to think officers are needed for extra hours during certain scenarios but there is personnel who double their salary through overtime in the department. And, there are costs associated with officers who have damaged equipment or made mistakes during dangerously long shifts. The city’s budget shows police overtime accounts for $8.5 million in this year’s budget, an increase of $420,000 compared to last year. Those figures are $1.2 million more than they were in the 2017 fiscal year.
But there are a number of other issues we need to address. There exists a racial disparity in El Paso when it comes to traffic stop searches for minorities, also known as consent searches. Specifically, data suggests members of the Black community are more likely to experience searches than Anglos and Hispanics by the police department, despite a significant difference in population size.
This reality evidenced in a study authored in Feb. 2005 by several civil rights groups and reports provided by El Paso Matters, show a systemic problem. This issue needs to be examined and thoroughly vetted.
The city needs to implement comprehensive training insensitivity, de-escalation techniques and thoroughly examine applicants looking to become cadets.
Also, an independent review and accountability board is needed to implement an independent watchdog mechanism to the police department. Such a board requires subpoena power and should be made up by members of the community including: civil rights attorneys, former journalists, and community leaders. This board can help identify individuals with a troubled record and help remove them from the force. It can also provide a fair and transparent process when reviewing misconduct within the police department.
Our police department is on a small list of law enforcement agencies in major Texas cities that are still not fully equipped with body cameras. This contributes to a number of problems. The first being a question about transparency when something happens. Police are not capturing scenes unless it comes from their dash cam.
The city, at the moment, is responsible for defending police officers taken to court over excessive force and we’ve lost millions of dollars in the process. Police chief Greg Allen says the police department has not widely invested in body cameras because it’s expensive to save all the footage they capture.
Well, I’d argue having them would help better the department’s relationship with the community and be a better investment over militarized equipment we’ve seen the police use. It’s unacceptable that our department is not using them when neighboring city Las Cruces and The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office have implemented the technology. The funding is available. The police routinely request grants from the state for equipment, and body cameras are a part of the list of equipment they can apply for. The council can ensure the police are equipped with the cameras by ensuring grant-funding goes to that purpose. Requests to send the applications are approved or denied by the council during meetings.
There are also social reforms we need to implement immediately.
I attended the protest at Memorial Park earlier this year. And, I witnessed the police show up to the demonstrations in full-riot gear. I did not feel it was warranted and it escalated the situation because the demonstrators were protesting excessive force only to be met with it. It has been months and we have not seen any real action from the department or from the council to address what happened.
This city needs to demilitarize its police department. And, we can start doing that by banning the use of tear gas, rubber bullets and beanbags during peaceful demonstrations.
There have been calls to push for the termination of the police chief and there have been criticisms of his work from a federal judge. If we are to make that call, we need to reach out to our districts and survey and review their thoughts on changing our Greg Allen.
15. El Paso experienced one of its hottest summers on record in 2020. What, if any steps, should the region take in combatting climate change?
Our city needs to address development that continues eastward. It costs El Pasoans money to support those efforts with public infrastructure and utility costs, but it also puts a strain on our water supply and electric grid.
The city needs to implement adequate impact fees to ensure we can invest saved dollars into public projects and support renewable energy efforts.
I also support funding an independent water study so we can have a better understanding on what our water usage looks like and how long the supply can last us.
Our other approach should be in pressuring the El Paso Electric Company into developing renewable energy methods to reduce our need in natural gas and water to provide electricity to the city.
We must also ensure city landscaping projects include ways to capture rainwater and that are decorated with desert flora. We should also provide incentives to homeowners who incorporate the same measures.
I also support working with our state delegation to ensure we get funding for more projects like the Kay Bailey Hutchison Desalination Plant on the East Side.
16. If the Multipurpose Performing Arts and Entertainment Center came before City Council for a vote in 2021, would you support continuing this project? Why, or why not?
No. We are already anticipating revenue shortfalls for the 2021 fiscal year and I suspect it will be the same for 2022. We cannot support the kind of project that has been envisioned until we get our budget and finances in order.
I do not support a project that destroys neighborhoods and that threatens eminent domain. It sets a bad precedent and it erodes public trust in government.
If we are really serious about executing big ticket projects, we need to show that we can build consensus and support in the community so it does not divide our residents.
17. Do you support tax breaks/incentives for companies looking to invest in El Paso.
I support providing companies with incentives and tax breaks if they will provide our graduates with good paying jobs and that will provide the community with opportunity in advancing in the global market.
I support recruiting companies that will bring renewable energy, technology, research and development, business administration and aeronautics.