The aftermath of the Killeen city election

KDH News has been on top of every twist and turn in the recent May 2 election. In this episode of Inside Killeen, Managing Editor Jacob Brooks and Opinion Editor Dave Miller sound off on some of the biggest surprises of the night as well as what it means for the city going forward.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

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SPEAKER_01 0:25

Hello, everyone. This is Kevin Limity, and this is the Inside Kaleem Podcast brought to you by KDH News. So today we are joined by managing editor Jacob Brooks. Hey Kevin. And opinion editor David Miller. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_03 0:41

I'm fine, thanks.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

I don't think David Miller. I should say Dave. Dave. Only old ladies call me David. Yes. Well, the reason why we're all gathered here today is because the election just happened on Saturday. We're actually recording this on Wednesday the following week. And it was actually a very interesting election for a variety of different reasons. I'm pretty sure everybody's already aware of this if you follow the newspaper at all, Clean Daily Herald. But Joseph Solomon is the mayor-elect now. And we have three new at-large council members and one district free new district free councilman and one district two one who actually the election was canceled because he had nobody running against him. So we're going to talk about the election a little bit, just kind of going through the results and our coverage and that sort of thing. So let me start with you, Jacob. Did you like was there anything about this particular election that was different from others that you've covered?

SPEAKER_02 1:47

Well Yes. Basically, this election is just ushering in a lot of new changes. Like you said, oh we've got a new mayor, Joseph Solomon. He'll be sworn in next week, Kevin?

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Uh yes, it'll be next week.

SPEAKER_02 2:07

Next week. So he'll swear in along with the new council members. And then kind of a a big facelift, I guess you could say, for the Kaleen City Council, with uh three new new members who were elected, although some of them are uh former council members, and then uh new, as you said, District Three councilman David Bass, who we kind of know from uh in recent years he's been involved in politics. And then the District II councilman who ran unopposed, uh Charles uh Chuck Kimball, very well known because he's the former Kaleen police chief. And so a lot of familiar faces but in new positions. And you know, what was real interesting too was the Kaleen mayoral race. He had three heavyweights, you know, running for that. We've talked about that before, but Solomon, who won, plus uh former mayor and councilman Jose Segara, and then the current Kaleen mayor, although he has not been mayor very long, only about three months, uh Riakos Adams. And all three of them were sitting council members a few months ago, and then they all decided to run for mayor, which, you know, they had to vacate their seats in a way, except for the holdover issue. So just a lot of a lot of moving parts in this election, some surprises, I think. I think we a lot a lot of a lot of the election happened the way we thought it would. We we we thought Nash King would be elected to council, that happened. We thought Melissa Brown would be elected to counsel, that happened. We did not expect Beverly Williams. She kind of came out of nowhere, I think. So but obviously she she was in third place, you know, so she had some support. And then Solomon winning, I think was also surprised. I think most people picked, you know, Sagara to win. Yeah. He's he's Sigara's never lost an election. Neither has Solomon, but Sagara has run a lot more times and never lost. And a lot of people thought he Sagara ran probably the best campaign of the three, but came up about a hundred votes short, you know, on Saturday. So yeah, just a lot of moving parts, uh, you know, very, you know, especially in Killeen where you had three mayoral candidates, 15 people running for Kaleen City Council, plus this other offshoot of the District 3 election where three people were running. So it's really kind of a just an overall leadership change in in Killeen. So it's it's quite interesting.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Yeah, I think it's gonna be very different. And like you said, 15 at-large candidates, two running for separate, well, actually really free running for the district free, and then you had the one running for district two, Chuck Kimball. I mean, it was pretty overwhelming. There was a lot of like people that you had to deal with and stuff. And I tried my best, but you know, like like you said, the Beverly and Williams in particular came out of nowhere. I did not expect that. I know that she was one of the first people that filed for the position because I recall getting like a news release from her like in the beginning. And I mean, that's usually a pretty good sign if like a candidate is willing to give a news release right away instead of just kind of like drifting into like the ballot box. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_02 5:53

It shows organization, at least. You know, you're organized, you're running a real campaign, you're not just putting your name on the paper. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

So, Dave, what do you think about like the results of this election? Do you were you also surprised by a lot of it? I was.

SPEAKER_03 6:09

I'm I'm kind of like a lot of people. There was a lot of whiplash effect to this whole campaign. I mean, from the get-go, we had three sitting council members deciding they were going to step down and run for mayor. Then we had the mayor step down to run for council, and then one of the people who stepped down didn't step down, he ended up holding over because it was a state provision, allowed that because of that. He got made mayor when the mayor stepped down because he was mayor pro tem at the time, he ends up losing. So, I mean, it's all it's all crazy. But I think the thing that struck me the most was uh Jose Zagara, like you, I thought he was a not a shoe-in necessarily because we had three strong candidates and they all acquitted themselves very well at our forum, I thought. But I thought he had the edge just because he had 14 years experience, he'd never lost an election, he'd been a mayor and a council member, so he knew how the city worked real well. But I think one thing that surprised me the most about that is that he staked his reputation pretty much on the fact that he abided by the charter and stepping down. He didn't use the cold over clause, although he was the first to step down, so it really I don't know if it would have come into play at all. But he stepped down, stayed off the council, made it a big deal in his ads, you know, that he abided by the city charter. The other two, Mr. Solomon and Mr. Adams, held over. And, you know, because of that, Mr. Adams eventually became mayor. So, you know, there's a lot of moving parts there. But I think that he expected a little bit of backlash or maybe public support because he did follow the charter so closely. And when that didn't happen, you know, Mr. Solomon came through. And I think what Jacob said is true too. A lot of these are people's their personal alliances that they were able to develop, whether it was door knocking or their their close circle of friends or their church or whoever it was, that came into play, I think, and that may be how Ms. Williams ended up in that third place slot for the council. But we're always surprised, aren't we? I mean, how many elections have we been through together? And that there's never an election that goes exactly according to script. And I think that's what makes it interesting.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

Yeah, I mean, Cigar, like, I guess I just sort of like underestimated again the the power of some of these local churches in Kalean. I mean, you know, it's all it's all sort of like a like unfamiliar territory for me. So maybe, maybe I haven't quite adjusted to that change since I've, because I'm originally from New York and, you know, I moved to Texas. When I lived in New York, I don't think that I mean, I went to Catholic Church. I never saw a Catholic priest like make a recommendation about who to vote for. Like I feel like they consider themselves kind of separate from that politic. Here it's very different. I feel like there's a there's like intermingling with like religion and politics, and you know, that that never ceases to surprise me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

And our uh education reporter, Ethan House, right, he did a story because there was also a school board race. Kleen School Board had an election, two seats were up. The school board president, Brett Williams, he was running for re-election against a Harker Heights resident named Joseph Baez. And then the other seat that was contested was the place for a seat on the school board. It was Marvin Rainwater, and he had three different opponents. Now both the incumbents won, Williams and and Rainwater. But the uh going back to the churches, another uh school board member, his name is Gilcrest, Pastor Gilcrest, he uh did a sermon recently where he told his congregation if uh Brett Williams loses the election to Baez, Gilcrest would resign. And so, in a way, telling his congregation that, you know, if Williams loses, I'm gonna resign, you know, from this school board. I can't, you know, basically saying he can't work with with bias. So he's telling his congregation this, and what's his congregation gonna do? Maybe rally up and and vote for Williams, I guess. I don't I don't know what the purpose of the sermon was, but we did a story on that, and it just c kind of goes to show that yeah, politics does show up at the at the at the pulpit and in the sermons in this area.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

I mean, even stuff like before a like Coleen City Council meeting, everybody like having like the invocation stuff, that stuff was very like out of place for me when I first like like moved here. Because it's always been to me that that religion and politics should be should be separated. I mean, I don't think that's just a personal belief of mine. I feel like that's something that like is generally shared by people who live in the United States, but you know, that's why it always fro that's why it froze me through a lube. And I and I haven't exactly been able to quite get a handle on it. Maybe that's why I wasn't able to see Sagara losing to Solomon in in that way. Because you know, that church, Christian House of Prayer, is is very large, very influential.

SPEAKER_02 11:39

Yeah. And that's where Solomon is uh He's an elder, I think. Yeah, he's an elder, he's the campus pastor of Christian House of Prayer, he's in charge of their their charitable arm. It's called the Refuge Corporation, where they they've done a lot of great things for many, many years. They give out, they have a mobile food pantry, they help people find housing, and and so and a lot of people know Solomon from that, and they have known him for for many, many years. So he's very, very well respected in that regard, knows a lot of people, you know, from that. And you know, in Kaleen, I think it's when you're running for office, it's kind of who you know. Yeah. You know, and and so if you're already a well-known community member, whether it's religion or pol, you know, or or nonprofit or you know, business, you know, that can really, really help you. Sagara was the businessman in this election. You know, he he he uh he has his own business. It's a real estate business. He's well known, you know, in all the real estate circles. And you know, and it was a close election. Solomon 1,857 votes, Sagara 1,739 votes. So really just um what, 120 votes, you know, give or take that decided decided this.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

So when I went to uh Cigar's uh watch party, he as soon as I saw him, he kind of like was like, Oh, uh, we're losing, you know, like the early vote because at that point the early voting numbers had come in. And I kind of said to him something along the lines of like, well, if there's a high turnout in during the the election day votes, you might still like be in the race. But I could tell that he didn't really quite believe that. And you know, I mean it does kind of make sense too, because and you can correct me if I'm wrong, Dave, but in Harker Heights, way more people voted early voting than they did the election day. I think there was only like 500 or or so people. So I mean, I mean, maybe at that point we could have we could have called it, although we we can't just assume that like that it was gonna happen, but I mean, I mean, I everything that was indicated by early voting numbers pretty much came true, I think. Correct me if I'm wrong, guys, but I don't think there was any.

SPEAKER_03 14:11

No, and if I think we're seeing a shift over the last eight to ten years to where most people do their voting early. It's it's obviously easy because now that we have you can vote anywhere in town. Yeah. Uh you know, and that's that the problem, and we can get to this in a minute, of having it change for election day. I think that was the major problem that the city needs to address. You know, we had a lot of people that I met said that they went to vote where they thought they, you know, Lions Club Park, everybody likes to go there. They were turned away, and they were told that, you know, we had to vote where your where your precinct is. And there were six or seven locations or eight locations around town for clean. But in one case, I have a friend of mine who was driving five seniors in her car. There, a lot of them had walkers and that sort of thing. And she drove them to the Pershing Park. I guess there was a a voting site there. I don't know. She said there's one in Pershing Park. But anyway, she wanted to know. She called up first and says, Is there curbside voting there? I said, Well, I can't, I know there's some in Harker Heights because, you know, that's where I live and I've seen it, but I can't tell you there should be. So anyway, she called somebody and they she was told that it there wasn't any. And I said, Well, I would not take their word for it. I'd go down there and check it out. Well, she went down there and she claims that there were no signs for it. You know, if there was corn cribside voting going on, there you know how it works. They have a little sign that says, you know, pull pull up here, and somebody will be with you, and you know, they have it all set up where it's near the front entrance, and you pull up there with your car, and they come to you and give you a ballot and they help you through the process. Well, she said if they don't have five, if they don't have curbside voting when we get there, they've lost five votes because we're not going to go anywhere else, and we're not, you know, this is this is where we're going to vote. So this is a major problem that they need to address. You know, that it's great that they have open voting during the early voting pre process where people can vote anywhere. And that may encourage people to do the early voting. I mean, I voted early, I think everybody in here voted early, but there are some who are traditionalists. You know, they like to vote on election day, and they hear that you can vote anywhere during early voting, and they just assume it's the same on Election Day, and that's not the case. So to to answer your earlier question, yes, in Harker Heights, there were only 540 votes on early vote on Election Day out of the 2,700 cast. So, yeah, that's a real strong turnout for early voting, not so much Election Day. And it was a beautiful day. You know, sunny and and and warm, and you know, no good reason not to.

SPEAKER_02 16:43

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Yeah, and I I think the gap between early voting and election day voting gets wider every year, meaning more and more people are voting on the early days and less and less on election day as we every year. It just the gap kind of widens. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

Yeah, this is like a little bit of like inside baseball. But when we when we were working on the stories about the voting locations and stuff for voting days, we realized that we didn't actually a hundred percent know whether or not it was precinct specific or whether people could just vote at any location. You know. So so I decided to check, and I checked with the city, and they said that that it indeed was precinct-based, and you had to vote at your specific precincts. But if you looked at the Kleene, Texas website where the election information is, there wasn't really anything obvious that said that. And I mean, I looked at it like I think a few times to see if I missed anything, but I didn't see it. All I saw was that the the number of precincts, which could mean a lot of different things, not necessarily that you had to vote there. So I just think that maybe the city could have done a little bit of a better job kind of like explaining that.

SPEAKER_02 18:12

Yeah, they should have put like in big bold letters. You must vote in your precinct location.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

Yeah. You know. I mean, they did have something where you could look up your particular precinct, but I don't think any of that was explained. And you know, if the city of Kleene is wrestling right now and I'm wrong, you could d certainly contact me and tell me. But I just don't recall ever like seeing anything like that.

SPEAKER_02 18:33

Trevor Burrus, Jr. Yeah. And then you you checked on it and they did verify, yes, you must, you know, they told you that. And then we did the story explaining that, like put it in you know clear language. You know, voters must vote in their precinct location this year. It's not citywide voting. Because for whatever reason, Kaleen residents love to vote at the Lions Park Senior Center. We see it at every election. That one has it has the longest lines. It's you know, a lot of, you know, and it's it's open way past the polls closed because the lines are s are so long and they can't, you know, they if you're in line, they're supposed to let you vote, even if it's past, you know, 7 p.m. Yeah. So it was kind of a late story explaining that. But Amita, our our producer here and video journalist, she went out to Lions Park Senior Center on Saturday, May 2nd for election day, and her and Joelani were interviewing some trying to interview some voters who went out there, but most of the people they were talking to were getting turned turned away and they didn't even want to speak because they were angry. Because what was happening, you know, these clean residents were going into the Lions Park Senior Center saying, Hey, I'm here to vote. And then they look up their, you know, their precinct number and they say, Oh, you're in the wrong spot. You have to go to Shoemaker or Pershing Park, or I think there were six voting locations in the city. Yeah. And so people were getting turned away. And, you know, did some of them go to their their correct voting location? Probably. But then others, I'm sure, were like, oh, forget this, you know, I don't have time. You know, so yeah, the city definitely needs to do a better job explaining it. Or even better, having citywide voting locations.

SPEAKER_03 20:28

It doesn't matter where you go, you can vote. Because, you know, when it comes to the primary elections, anything run by the county, it's now any bowling, any any polling place works. You know, you can do it, you can do it in temple. Yeah. You can vote anywhere you want as long as it's in the county. And that is a huge plus. Yes. And people are used to that. People are used to that. So when it comes along and the city says nope, you've got to vote in your precinct location, that was a big roadblock.

SPEAKER_01 20:52

Do either of you do either of you recall when the city of the city council, the Clean City Council voted to change the elections like at the end of December. There was a provision in there about Pell County being responsible for for elections. Do either of you like know what I'm talking about?

SPEAKER_03 21:15

Yeah, I think I think, well, since they're going to a November election, and it'll be on next year, it'll be on uh odd numbered years. The county would have an election that year. It would probably be something like constitutional amendments election, because it'll follow after the legislature meets next year. And so there's usually that going on. And that being the case, it would be the county running it. And so every time there is a city election, the county would be in charge. And so maybe, maybe next year, when this comes around again in 18 months, we will have citywide voting because it'll be the county running it.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

Yeah, and the county has the right equipment and all that to do that.

SPEAKER_01 21:53

So maybe this is the last time we're gonna see this problem. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:57

So us saying the city should fix it, well, it may already already be in the works because they're they're they're because as you say, Kevin, Colleen, the City Council, voted to move elections instead of May, they're going to be doing them in November from now on. This was the last May election. As long as voters approve that on this on the city charter change. So there is a there's still some more steps around.

SPEAKER_01 22:23

I mean I don't I don't think it's just a city charter thing. I think they have already like agreed to do it. But they just want to make it like charter compliant. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:32

So if it so if if they don't approve it, it'll just be in conflict with the charter, but it'll still be the law. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

Yeah. And you know, I mean I still think it's worth pointing out that the irregardless of what happens in the future that the city kind of dropped the ball on like letting people know clearly what was going on. Because you know this this election was actually very important for a number of different reasons. I mean I think that the the makeup the of the council is completely different from what we're used to. Melissa Brown and Nash King sorry that's Debbie Nash King who is the former mayor they have a very heated rivalry and and they there's been multiple like and I'm not sure it's talk about like the dramatic stuff they seem to have like some kind of like just general opposition to each other and something that I've said in the past is that one of the things that I'm not crazy about with how the council is run is how uniform everybody is. I sort of feel like it doesn't if there's no opposition from anybody about stuff the they they've in other words they vote pretty much all the same no matter what without any real disagreements and I just think that if if the council is doing that that means something's wrong. You know they should not all be agreeing every all the time.

SPEAKER_03 23:55

It just doesn't make any sense I don't think you have to worry about that happening anymore. No, I don't think so we've got some I mean if you talk about that for a couple minutes some of the personalities involved we've got the former police chief who's who's very strong strong has strong opinions and he's is very solid you know in his his delivery I think he'll make his his uh feelings known whenever there's an issue with him. Former mayor Debbie Nash King she's also very opinionated and she doesn't have a problem expressing herself and we know Melissa Brown who speaks at basically every council meeting on a very a variety of topics and she does her research and her homework yeah she she does have opinions and they often differ from others who are on the council like you said she's usually the the clanging gong out there trying to you know trying to sound the sound the alarm about something that she thinks is being done wrong or or that's it's not uh following the the uh the comprehensive plan or whatever it might be. But you know we've we we've got some people who are some wild guards. I mean David Bass we know that he spoke a lot before the council we don't know where his ideology is on all other things you know about city government expansion business approach that sort of thing we don't know where he lies on that for that matter we don't know where the chief lies on that you know when when he gets on there and Beverly Ann Williams like you said she's a she's a total wild card on this we don't know you know what her positions are on a variety of issues so you know you look at it that way you've got one you've got two people who served previously on the council in in in uh Ms. Brown and Nash King those are the two and you've got a former police chief who served the city in the largest department that the city has. But other than that you have people who are going to be learning on the fly and they're gonna be dealing with an interim city manager an acting city manager with with one having decided that he's not going to stick around you know after next week the current city manager is moving on. We're in budget season as Kevin pointed out in his story the other day. So there's a lot of learning and discussion that needs to go on here and I think we're gonna learn a lot about this council in the next couple months. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

Yeah completely new council for the most part plus a new city manager is going to be in there eventually like it's kind of it's kind of interesting to see what happens. I think it could actually be a good thing to have fresh faces but like it could also be a really bad thing too like it just depends on what's being done. But I mean there's several like things coming up I think the charter review that's completed and it's gonna go before the council so they're gonna have to I'm pretty sure that's gonna be rolled over in other words like they're gonna be addressing one point at a time in the charter and agree disagree and then eventually it's gonna go to the voters in November and it's that's gonna be interesting. And also the other really important thing which we have discussed at the previous podcast was the data center that is that could potentially be sprouting up in South Kolean in if if it gets like approved in the rezoning quest on June second. So I mean there's a couple of like really big issues that this count this new council is going to have to deal with and it's I'm just kind of I'm just kind of along for the ride.

SPEAKER_02 27:28

I'm curious to see what what's gonna happen I mean yeah a lot of questions like are all these new council members going to get along you know we know Nash King and Brown have not gotten along they've been in my opinion bitter enemies. Nash King has thrown Brown out of meetings multiple times. Brown's been arrested you know for interrupting the meetings or coming back in when she's not supposed to and then you know and and Brown has you know yelled at at Debbie Nash King during meetings you know you know you're you're wrong Debbie you're wrong or you know Nash King has sued uh Melissa Brown before so the there's you know a lot of questions there. And then with the new mayor Solomon is he going to be able to run these meetings efficiently effectively peacefully you know and and you know he he's gonna have to use the gavel use the tools that he he has to a make sure everyone you know has a voice and B make sure no one hijacks the meeting.

SPEAKER_01 28:44

Yeah I mean that's kind of like the elf in in the room a little bit I mean I mean Solomon you know no disrespect to him but he is not always the greatest public orator is that how you say it orator orator like like he he often like is kind of like we seen this that's one of the reasons why like I was so convinced that the that cigar was going to pull through was just simply based on like his pre Solomon's presentation I just didn't think he always like like spoke very very well and I just like even when I see him on the council sometimes he's very like like soft spoken and like he he's softer than what would be what would I consider to be normal. So it it's but then again I could be completely wrong. Maybe like if like somebody starts yelling and screaming in the back he'll hammer that gavel and like and be like you're out of here or whatever. But like I mean I I just and you know that's not just because he speaks that way like as part of his political campaign doesn't mean that's how he's gonna be in in in terms of like being in his administrative role.

SPEAKER_02 30:04

I'm just saying or you know and maybe he'll have a calming presence you know for whatever reason you know people got up and spoke and and and Nash King would get riled up. You know we have a famous video there where she was basically screaming about to purser the developer to get out of here. Aaron Ross Powell Yeah I mean that's the other extreme that we want to avoid so I don't see Solomon as a screamer. So you know maybe his he'll have a calming presence that you know you know you know is show you know that kind of goes through the the the the City Hall council chambers that you know makes everything run smoother.

SPEAKER_03 30:47

You know it's it's you know it's unscripted so we'll see how everything you know I think another thing that's kind of a wild card in all this is with Ked Cagle departing, he has served as a bit of a lightning rod over the last few years for various proposals that he's come up with or just the for whatever reason a couple people have taken exception to the way he's run things or the way he's handled things. And you know that's not to say anything for or against him. That's just the kind of the way it's been and so possibly if we have another city manager in there, somebody who's either got a different take on things or a different approach, maybe a different demeanor, maybe that'll help calm things down too. I mean I think the last thing anybody wants is the period that we had about a year and a half two years ago where we had people screaming from the podium and people getting pushback from the diets and people taken out of the council meetings and people bringing in weapons I mean it got it got to the point where you know people didn't know what to do though I'm sure it cut down on the number of people who showed up at council meetings.

SPEAKER_01 31:52

Well that that's a proven fact I think almost you have more police than you have residents it's kind of tough.

SPEAKER_03 31:59

But hopefully that we're we're past that now and and we'll we'll get to the constructive council meetings.

SPEAKER_01 32:05

To be fair it really hasn't been that bad in a while like the period you're describing like that was really bad and I covered it and it was it I it felt like almost like like I was like it almost felt you were a little difficult. I thought it almost felt dangerous sometimes because like because it just the way people were behaving like like they would come up to me and they would like like harass me like right in front of like a cop and the cop wouldn't do anything and like I would just be like sitting there like trying to do my job and it like you know like Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:41

And the the sad thing was we had people that like to go to the council meetings. Bill Piquet is a great example and you know you know a veteran longtime Kaleen resident but he stopped going because he was getting harassed.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

Yeah that's literally what he told me when I saw him one day and you know that's sad that it's so the just the behavior by m multiple people prevents people you know from wanting to go to the council meetings.

SPEAKER_02 33:14

It should be a very safe place where you know there's discourse but you know it's no one's acting you know harassing other people or being outright very disrespectful or or you know even worse you know to me it's like anti-democratic to allow such stuff to continue with with no consequence.

SPEAKER_01 33:38

You know I mean if people we should be encouraging people like to con we should be encouraging people to participate in local government as much as possible. You know I feel like many of the problems that we have as a city would be not fixed but would be at least easy more easily addressable if more people were involved. And that I think that's just impossible without having a city council meeting that's orderly. And and you know I think that one of the things that people kind of miss about this whole thing is that that even though the mayor has responsibilities the mayor is not like the mayor is basically a figurehead. Other than running the council meetings like they don't vote and unless there's unless in the case of a tie but they don't vote and mainly their job is to be a representative of the city to kind of like be the person that people look towards and be like okay that's that's what the city of Kaleen is you know so I mean because and because of that you need to have a mayor who is like almost above reproach. And I think that for I think that Solomon does sort of fit that bill just based on his work with the Refuge Corporation. On election night I was talking to this woman I was actually sitting with her while we awaited for the results and you know she was talking about how she had just met she had first met Solomon like 25 years ago and remembered him being like very helpful and like like organizing the refuge corporation giving food to people no matter what going to wherever they are I mean I mean that's one of the some of like the I think I think it's great to have that quality as a mayor so you know I guess I guess we'll just have to see how he runs those meetings.

SPEAKER_02 35:44

We should also talk about the Harker Heights election and uh Dave how would you sum up that one?

SPEAKER_03 35:51

Boy I tell you anybody who's been following that through our our paper for the last couple weeks it got kind of testy towards the end you know I really didn't know how it was going to go. I was pretty sure that the mayor's race was going to go to a runoff that happened. We've got somebody a current mayor who's who's finishing his first three-year term Michael Blumquist and he was running against uh Linda Nash the current mayor pro town who's finishing her second term on the council uh she's term limited so you know she's gonna run for counsel which I mean for mayor which she did filed on the last day and uh Scott Airy a local business owner who's been a frequent counsel and city critic especially in the area of taxation the third candidate so you know when you've got three strong candidates like that with good name recognition there's a pretty good chance that nobody's going to top 50 percent and that's exactly what happened with Blumquis getting 42 and Nash getting 38 and a half and and Ari getting about 18 I believe percent percent right but the vote totals again we were talking about this earlier how the voting differed so much between voting on early voting and election day Nash made up a whole bunch of votes on election day we only had 540 votes on election day she got 240 of them and you know he or he got like I think 200. But anyway that's going to uh resolve itself in June uh June 13th is the runoff for that and you know the the big question mark and I talked to the mayor about this after yesterday's meeting is is how Aries supporters are going to break. How are they gonna go? Are they gonna they fall into three categories. They're either people who just don't like the city. Yeah and they're kind of they're kind of like they like his uh outsider approach you know you know the way Ari was always contesting the way the city did the taxes and the the reserves and and how they spent things on capital improvement projects that he was always up there kind of like Melissa Brown he's like kind of like the Melissa Brown of Parker Heights uh I know he probably wouldn't like me saying that but but he did have he did his research too and he did have some some good supporters. So there's people who who voted for him on that level others just for whatever reason didn't like Michael Blumquist and they weren't crazy about Lyndon Ash either so he was kind of the third option kind of the Ross Bureau of of of the election. And then there's there's some who just I think they just they just didn't know and they just they just picked one. Picked the names yeah they just picked one I don't think they really supported anybody in particular. So how they vote in the in the December in June the the the the runoff and then the other question of course is always a drop-off between the uh number of voters on election day and then a runoff election so how many of these are going to come back to the polls and vote for their original choices or change to another choice. So and I think in the the surprise in the in the council race um Jen McCann uh she had been a two-term councilwoman in flights one she stepped down last year because she had terms facing her too took a year off came back didn't run a particularly aggressive campaign she did some advertising uh she did some some signs here and there but she didn't really get out and campaign hard I can honestly say a lot of that was because she has a business she and her husband run and they also have a lot of teenager and they're in sports so she was busy you know doing the mom duty there but every single day that I went to City Hall I would see Roxanne Flores the uh candidate the other candidate in that race in her uh tent talking to people visiting with people waving I mean she was there and and part of the and and you know you know this too Kevin part of the game when it comes to an election is just showing up I mean if you if you're there and you're willing to talk to people and in his first campaign Michael Blumquist went door to door through almost the entire city and uh he got he got some pushback from the person who was running against him he said he obviously doesn't have a job and well he did have a job but he had a a a boss who was very supportive and and let him take off for you know an hour or so here and there and he that he did he blockwalked practically the whole city nobody knew who he was at the start of it and he won without a runoff with the with two other candidates. So I think the runoff is going to be just about as tight as the original race and 64 votes or 67 votes something like that between the two of them I don't see the runoff being much different. And then you know Roxanne she's going into the council she's gonna be sworn in next week on the 12th after they do the canvasing of the vote she'll take the place four seat. And I think she's gonna be a go-getter. I think she's gonna be very active in doing things that especially for the north side of the city which is kind of overlooked and you know I think I think she'll uh she'll find herself busy because Harker Heights has a lot to do and I think you know they've they've got budget constraints but uh I think she'll be an active boys on the council and uh Dave can you briefly explain to our listeners why Colleen which had a three-way mayoral race where no one got 50 percent of the vote does not go to a run runoff but in Arker Heights the may the the mayor's race which also had three candidates and no one got 50 percent does go to a runoff that's a good point yeah uh that's specified in the in the state election law if you have a three-year term for your city council or your mayor's like Harker Heights like Arker Heights does like Toppers Cove does then if you don't achieve a majority then there's a runoff. In Tulene it's a two year term so they aren't subject to that rule they can win with a plurality which is the case here the top vote getter wins that's right and so yeah that's so a lot of people wondered that and I remember one year Raul Villarraga uh the late great Raul Villarraga former municipal judge and mayor was in a runoff or he thought he was going to be in a runoff because he he finished like third or something like or second I can't remember it was it was close but no heights or Klean didn't have a runoff and he was upset about that. So you know it's it's like I I could understand his it was fairly close. I mean we're talking like 50 votes or something like that. But uh no clean doesn't have that in its charter so that's uh that's the way it goes. But you know runoffs are more expensive and uh you know but at the same time people think well you know it's it gives people a second chance to either reassess their vote or gives the candidates longer to introduce themselves to the re the voters. So it's pluses and minuses.

SPEAKER_02 42:45

I want to read this headline too but um is the colleen mayoral election so the main headline was Solomon elected Kaleen mayor and then the secondary headline under that was close but no cigar for former mayor.

SPEAKER_03 43:02

And Dave you thought of that years ago I think yeah that's and that was so so unusual because like I said Jose cigar has run a lot of campaigns. He was in office 14 years. Never lost and he never had until this week and I said well it'd be interesting if we had he got into an election and and came up short but yeah just it was it was a you know really tight vote and then we could have close but no cigar. And everybody thought it was funny but I and I and I don't think that it was you know worth having him lose to have that election come forward because I think he's a he's a good man and all three of those candidates were strong candidates for mayor.

SPEAKER_01 43:40

But yeah it just it worked out that way and like you say the odds of it happening at the Cleveland City Council yesterday the city auditor came up to me and was like Did you write that headline? And I was like I mean he he he thought it was good I think but like he asked me if I wrote it and I was like nah it was probably Jacob or Dave that it because you know it's been sort of like a almost like an inside joke in the newsroom like about that particular headline because it it is funny.

SPEAKER_04 44:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:09

And it and it's spelled close but no Sagara S-E-G-A-R-R-A his last name, but like wordplay, you know.

SPEAKER_03 44:19

Yeah. Well now that it's out there, I'll probably get some uh I'll probably get some notes from him on that. Yeah. Nothing personal now.

SPEAKER_02 44:27

But you know, we've always I think we've always kind of liked Sagara. You know, every he he might be every once in a while there might be something controversial that that we write, you know. But we always go to him, get his side of things. And he's always been very good, you know, right, Kevin, about calling us back. And he's kind of he kind of just gets it. You know, okay, you you gotta you gotta speak, you gotta talk to people, give them your, you know, your side, listen to people. He doesn't hold grudges like like others.

SPEAKER_01 44:57

Trevor Burrus Yeah he's always been consistently the person that will always almost always get back to me when like I have a question about like a agenda item or some kind of vote. And yeah, even and like you said, even when he when in the past like there's been some controversy, I kind of remember there being like a a like donation from like somebody that could have been perceived as a conflict of interest and I asked him about it. But you know, to his credit he did answer it. So I mean some people and you know he didn't like he was wasn't like, well I'm not gonna talk to you anymore because you asked me about it. So you know I mean so he will be missed in that respect.

SPEAKER_02 45:40

Trevor Burrus And that's a big problem we have especially with the Kaleen City Council. A lot of times they just they want to just cut us off and it's not just us. We hear it from other residents too. Like you know you don't hear us you know you don't get back to us you know and it and it's it's just not good for a council member to do that. You gotta you got to reply you got to call people back you got to answer your phone. And we have you know we've had we've struggled with you know asking questions to these elected officials and they just answer with silence. And it it doesn't look good for them if we have an article and we put in there that you know they did not respond. You know it looks better if they do respond and yes we can put what they say in in the article. It's better for everyone better for them, better for us, better for clean residents to know what their elected officials have to say about whatever topic.

SPEAKER_01 46:43

Trevor Burrus Yeah there's a tendency for them to take things very personally and you know I think that the problem there like has a lot to do with like the fact that like the Clean Daily Herald is like an institution of sorts, you know and it's been around for a very long time and its entire mission is to inform its readers about like going on. You know but sometimes those things aren't aren't good. And there seems to be like a like effort by city officials to which you know it's completely understandable to paint a rosy picture of how things work in the city. But the thing is you have to in order for things to get better you have to sort of address the problems and you if the only way you can address the problems is is if you know what the problems are. And that's the entire role of journalism and you know and if it means that like we have to ask uncomfortable questions sometimes then we do it. So I don't really know what else to tell people about that. You know I mean I think it I think Sigar was interesting because he was like very experienced and I think a lot of like the people who come on the city council maybe aren't so experienced. So and that doesn't mean all of them are like that just you know some of them.

SPEAKER_03 48:11

I think it's a good time you know now and as the new council is seated and moves forward. I mean you know we'll we'll throw out the olive branch I mean we would love to hear from the council members the new ones and the existing ones anytime they want to talk to us on an issue and you know Jacob has been very much on the forefront of that saying you know come on in we'll talk to you we'll you know if you want to do an interview we can you know we can we can do it on video whatever you'd like to do you know we've got that forum that platform open for them and and the thing about it is when we answer the we ask these questions and some of them are tough and some of them are just general information things we're giving them the opportunity to express themselves to to let their constituents know where they stand on an issue how important it is to them maybe if they have a different take on it and they're not going to get to do that during a general council meeting but you know people tell us all the time you know they're so glad that we put these council members on video because they didn't know them before. I had Tony Cantorino come up to me yesterday he's a former council member for Harker Heights and now he's the head of the Bell County Republican Party. And he said you had excellent election coverage this time around I enjoyed every bit of it and you did so much to let the readers know what the issues were and who the council members or the who the candidates were for running it so I said I wanted to thank you. And I thought you know that's pretty high praise coming from somebody who's been around the block a little bit with his own campaign and you know and now heads up the the one of the parties in in this in the county and I thanked him for that and I said you know I I really that means a lot because we put a lot into it and you know we we plan to do more but you know that's I think we had a good first step with this election. I think we've gotten some good feedback from readers and any questions anybody has about you know things that they'd like to see us do or or other things that I mean we had with our forum we had people come up afterwards and say that was fantastic. We loved the fact that it was so intimate and it was like we were able to hear the the we you know talk to the candidates afterwards and some of them said they'd like to be able to ask questions. Well in a future forum you know we may have that option we'll have some three by five cards we'll sort through them maybe we'll you know give them the opportunity to have their question asked up there. But you know it was a first time for that and we'll keep getting better as we do this more often. And it's like you say Kevin it's like that's we're foundational institution here in town and that's our job to educate and inform readers and you know the best we can do is is always you know right now but we can keep getting better. Jacob's been you know he's been finding ways and same with our our general manager than finding ways to get the word out get more exposure for these candidates and get get the issues put before the voters better.

SPEAKER_02 51:02

Yeah and and nowadays readers and or listeners you know we do the video interviews but and then this podcast is another avenue that and Kevin you've done a great job of bringing in some elected leaders you know on this podcast. You've had clean council members and others you know so and that's another way they can come in and and talk to us, talk to residents you know with this with this podcast.

SPEAKER_01 51:30

So well I mean I think that we're all very proud of our election coverage. You know we uh we definitely do the best we can and I really especially in such dynamic races that in Harker Heights and then all the candidates that were in Kaleen I think that we did a good job and yes I am proud of it and I'm and we all are. So with that said I wanted to end the podcast now it's been a great pleasure speaking to all of you. This was with Jacob Brooks, managing editor for Clean Daily Herald and Dave Miller, the opinion editor for the Clean Daily Herald. And my name is Kevin Limity. I'm the host of Insight Clean Podcast Hamida Batwa is our producer Dalen Che was off and I shall see you guys next time. Take care