While San Antonio voters will mull several candidates running for mayor and City Council in the May 3 local elections, nine small Bexar County cities will have their own contested elections this spring.
A total of 65 candidates had successfully applied by the Feb. 14 state deadline for elected office across the 15 Bexar County municipalities scheduled to hold a May election.
Most candidates are seeking a two-year term in office except where noted. There are no election runoffs in the small cities, so it’s a winner-take-all system, even if a candidate claims a seat by only one vote.
Here’s a glance at who is running for office in municipalities outside San Antonio.
Balcones Heights
Local voters will vote in contested races for three City Council seats and on a proposal to repeal a police collective bargaining initiative.
City Council Place 3 incumbent Juan Lecea Jr., a former city plumbing inspector and member of the city’s planning and zoning commission, was first elected to the council in 2021.
Lecea’s challenger, Jimmy Hernandez, is a certified tax preparer.
Place 4 incumbent and current Mayor Pro Tem Mark Saenz is seeking a second term with the council. A U.S. Marine Corps veteran, Saenz previously served on the town’s planning and zoning commission.
Saenz’s opponent, Tracy Ebersole, is a local business owner and member of the city’s planning and zoning commission.
Place 5 incumbent Miguel Valverde is retiring from City Council. The U.S. Army veteran spent several years serving on various Balcones Heights committees and as a reserve police officer.
Rudy Flores III is a planning and zoning commissioner. He and Molly Weaver are vying to succeed Valverde.
Additionally, Balcones Heights voters will consider a proposal to repeal the city’s police officer association’s ability to have collective bargaining. Local officials have cited a tight budget and finite financial resources as reasons to consider limiting collective bargaining for uniformed police personnel. According to the ballot, a “for” vote supports a repeal.
Fair Oaks Ranch
Voters in this Hill Country town will consider contested races in all three City Council seats that are up for grabs on the ballot. The victors will serve a three-year term.
City Council Place 3 incumbent Ruben Olvera won a December 2023 special election to replace Councilwoman Michelle Bliss, who resigned for personal reasons.
An attorney and Texas A&M University graduate, Olvera served on the Fair Oaks Ranch Municipal Development District board prior to his election to the council.
Olvera will face a challenge from Scott Andrew Rose.
Place 4 incumbent Councilwoman Laura Koerner, the current mayor pro tem, is completing her third and final term in office. Fair Oaks Ranch allows three three-year council terms. Now, two contestants are vying to succeed Koerner.
Dale Pearson is a current city planning and zoning commission member who works for Boerne-based NWSA Realty. Pearson will face James Roff for the Place 4 post.
Place 5 incumbent Scott Parker is seeking a second term with the Fair Oaks Ranch council. He served with the U.S. Air Force and the Air National Guard for nearly 30 years. Kevin Cox is Parker’s challenger.
Hollywood Park
One of three available City Council seats on the ballot will have a contested race.
Place 1 incumbent Jim Rodriguez was appointed by the council to replace Chester Drash, who ascended to the mayor’s office in May 2024. Drash was the lone resident to file for mayor in those elections.
Retired from the U.S. Navy, Rodriguez is a mechanical/electrical/plumbing engineer who owns his own consulting engineering company. He previously served on Hollywood Park’s board of adjustment and board of appeals.
Alan Sale is the president of the town’s economic development corporation. Sale and another resident had applied alongside Rodriguez when they all sought to replace Drash as the Place 1 council member.
Place 3 incumbent Dale Randol, an insurance executive, filed for a second term with the council. He drew no opposition.
Place 5 incumbent Glenna Pearce applied for a third term in office. She drew no opposition.
Hill Country Village
This Northside suburb has seen few contested elections in recent years, but many residents have spent the past year debating the merits of a plan to rebuild and expand the town’s municipal complex, which includes the police station.
Carl Register, who had spent more than 20 years as an elected official with Hill Country Village, died on Sept. 11, 2024 at age 85. The Place 1 council seat has since remained empty.
Heather Chandler is one of two residents vying to claim a full two-year term as the Place 1 representative. She serves with the town’s board of adjustment and business construction review board, and is an alternate zoning commission member. Patrick Schneider is Chandler’s fellow candidate.
Place 3 incumbent Thomas Doyle declined a bid for a second term on the council. Robert Walker and attorney Frank Rivas are vying to replace Doyle.
Place 5 incumbent Allison Greer Francis, an executive at The Center for Health Care Services, has served multiple terms as a Hill Country Village council member. She is challenged by Ian Thompson, a surgeon who specializes in oncology and urology.
Kirby
There will be a full slate with voters mulling a contested mayoral race, and having to consider seven applicants who are seeking three at-large council seats.
The election will follow a controversial move by the council, which voted 4-3 in January to rehire Brian Rowland as city manager. Rowland was fired over a year ago after some city staffers complained about him berating them at work.
Mayor Janeshia Grider, a medical billing technician who is Kirby’s first Black mayor, will face challenger Christopher “Chris” Garza. Garza lost his City Council reelection bid in 2024 and ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2021.
In 2021, Garza pleaded guilty to a reduced misdemeanor charge of sexual assault, the result of an incident that occurred at a Colorado hotel in 2013.
City Council incumbent Sally I. Hitt, whose term would end this May, is active with several community organizations and initiatives, including being a board officer with the Kirby Senior Center Corp.
Incumbent Joe Molina, who ran for a council seat in 2022, was appointed to the council to replace Mike Grant, who resigned not long after winning reelection that same year.
Incumbent Maria Lozano has been active with some community groups, events and programs, such as the senior center corporation.
Four more residents who are seeking a council post are: David Barboza, a past council candidate who is active with local groups such as the senior center corporation; Susan Street, an educator who lost a council reelection bid in 2023; chiropractor Jonathan Todd, and Jeffery Bass.
Leon Valley
This city’s council will gain one uncontested new member at one position this election cycle, but another position is being contested by an incumbent and a political newcomer.
Place 1 incumbent Benny Martinez, a local business owner, was first elected to the council in 2014. He previously served on the town’s zoning commission.
Council voted to remove Martinez from office in 2019. Fellow city leaders said Martinez violated the city charter by undermining the city manager. But Martinez was reelected to council in 2023.
Danielle Bolton, Martinez’s lone challenger, is an assistant principal at East Central High School. She ran for council in 2023.
Place 3 incumbent Philip Campos was the lone applicant. He is a certified public accountant who previously served on the city’s planning and zoning commission.
Place 5 incumbent Will Bradshaw declined to seek a fourth council term. Mary Mursch, a retired clinical laboratory director, was the lone applicant. She is an alternate member of the city’s capital improvements advisory committee and the planning and zoning commission.
Live Oak
The northeast suburb will have one contested City Council race.
Place 1 incumbent Mendell Morgan Jr. is retiring following 11 years as a council member.
Angela Green, the lone resident to file for the Place 1 seat, serves with the city’s economic development corporation board, and is an alternate planning and zoning commission member.
Place 3 incumbent Erin Perez, a nurse practitioner and author, is seeking a third term in office. She drew a challenge from Alexandra McPherson.
Place 5 incumbent Aaron Dahl is unopposed in seeking an eighth straight term.
Olmos Park
Voters will see one contested City Council race in the May elections.
Place 1 incumbent Adam Harden, who previously served with the city’s planning and zoning commission, is a principal at the local law firm of Cantu Harden Montoya.
Chris Pal-Freeman, Harden’s opponent, is founder and head brewer at Breakaway Brewing Co., located in the Government Hill neighborhood.
Place 2 incumbent Juliana Decamps Dusek is an event planner who has experience in information technology and advertising. She is running unopposed.
Place 3 incumbent Sharon Plant, a local business owner, was first elected to the council in 2011.
Universal City
Three incumbent council members and a fourth resident will take part in an election where voters are asked to choose three total at-large council members from the ballot.
Ashton Bulman, Christina Fitzpatrick and Bear Goolsby are the incumbents.
Bulman and her family homeschool their three children; Ashton has volunteered for several community events and organizations over the years.
Fitzpatrick is an executive with Acrisure, a financial technology and insurance firm.
Goolsby is a principal at the firm of Powers Goolsby Architects.
Patrick Day is a property disposal specialist with the Defense Logistics Agency.
