Incumbent Lubbock mayor, his challengers talk about what they want to see in Lubbock over next two years

City finances (taxes and budget) and public safety are the top issues for candidates in the race for Lubbock mayor in the May 2 election. City growth and basic fairness when it comes to economic development also ranked as very important.

Incumbent Mark McBrayer faces challengers G. Todd Winans, Peggy Bohmfalk and Stephen Sanders (names listed in the same order as provided by the city).

Three of the candidates – McBrayer, Winans, and Sanders – represent a faith-based worldview with McBrayer and Sanders having ministry experience.

McBrayer said there’s more work to be done from his first term. Winans is running because, “God told me to run.” Bohmfalk’s running because she loves the city and wants a chance to give back. And Sanders said God laid it on his heart if he wasn’t happy with how things were done; he should step up and run.

Public safety

Getting more police officers on the streets topped McBrayer’s three priorities in his bid for reelection.

“I think that’s crucial to us continuing to keep our crime rates going down and getting control of the kind of crime that you can control, which is gang- and drug-related type of crimes, property crimes and violent crimes in the city,” McBrayer said.

Winans said, “Increasing the number of police officers in our city is obviously a large pull on the finances of our city.”

“More participation from the citizens,” is what Winans called for.

When asked if he meant something like a neighborhood watch, he said, “Not exactly.” What he meant was Lubbock residents just doing a better job of “Love thy neighbor” – just overall people participating more in their own city.

“We’ve got to give the citizens a reason to care about their city,” Winans said.

Bohmfalk said there’s a fairness issue at stake.

“It seems like more violent crime is happening towards the east. I live here in Lake Ridge. I can walk around 6 a.m. and feel pretty safe. So why is that?” Bohmfalk asked.

“It seems like some areas are neglected. Public safety is a huge concern, so we do need to work with our law enforcement with the budget to hire more police officers,” Bohmfalk said.

Sanders said, “Our streets are bad. And I’m not talking about our driving streets. I’m talking about the crime. The crime is bad. It’s not safe anymore,” Sanders said.

But he also brought up an issue recently in the news. Two dogs attacked an elderly woman in early April – sending her to the hospital. Sanders said public safety includes Lubbock Animal Services.

“We have an overpopulation of animals. And we’ve got to take care of that. We got to shut the faucet off. And then we have to put some measures in place. … We’ve got to do something or else these old ladies are going to continue to be attacked,” Sanders said.

Budget and taxes

Affordability is McBrayer’s second issue.

“That means doing everything I can to keep taxes as low as possible. But that also is balanced against my need to hire a significant number of police officers,” McBrayer said.

That will be even harder as police officers and firefighters negotiate for higher salaries in a process called “meet and confer.” McBrayer also wants to keep city fees and “energy costs” low. Since Lubbock Power and Light went to competition in ERCOT, the city only influences one element of your monthly electric bill – the delivery charge.

McBrayer advocated for the no-new-revenue rate the last two years – just as he promised he would. He was outvoted both times and the city adopted rates above the NNR.

Winans said, “The most, I would say, crucial major issue is to get the finances [right] – and when I say finances – the budget for the city – we need to pick it apart.”

“The budget issues reveal we need more employees for traffic control or traffic maintenance or parks and recs or and the list can go on and on and on,” Winans said, mentioning more police officers but reiterated, “All of the burden shouldn’t be put on the police officers of our city.”

“Without, picking apart the budget and finding out where money’s going now, we’ll never know where we need to focus,” Winans said.

The city’s budgets for the last several years are published online.

Bohmfalk said, “How do we pay for all the infrastructure?”

She’s in favor of impact fees. The City Council zeroed them out last summer because developers told the city the fees were too expensive. LubbockLights.com explained impact fees here.

“It’s not because I’m in favor of it. It’s because the overwhelming majority of current residents favor impact fees. … There’s rapid projected growth. We’re not going to fight growth. It’s going to happen. It’s just how do we pay for it?” Bohmfalk said.

She’d prefer none of the funding methods put an additional burden on property taxes.

Sanders said, “I think the most important issue for us right now is our deficit that we’re in.”

The city’s current budget is balanced according to public records. There was a roughly $5 million sales tax shortfall last year resulting in a hiring freeze and spending reductions. Sales tax revenues have since rebounded.

The city could raise revenue by hosting a music festival, food festival and technology festival, Sanders said.

Other issues like economic development and fairness

McBrayer’s third big issue was growth.

“Recently we’ve had the Chick-fil-A distribution plant come here. There are other businesses, lots of other businesses, that are interested in coming to Lubbock,” McBrayer said.

Downtown development, rebuilding Broadway, refurbishing buildings downtown and improving the Civic Center are big issues in his mind. The Texas Legislature gave Lubbock the right to create a Project Financing Zone for revamping the Civic Center. It allows Lubbock to keep tax money that would otherwise go to the state government.

McBrayer also hopes voters will approve an increase in the hotel occupancy tax for the Civic Center.

A proposed A.I. data center made news in Lubbock. A necessary zoning change to locate it in Northeast Lubbock was put on hold.

“We have been very cautious about data centers. We’re not chasing them,” McBrayer said.

While McBrayer’s big issues were crime, affordability and development, Winans was more focused on getting citizens to participate in their community.

Winans said, “If I get elected as mayor, I’m not here to tell the citizens what my ideas are. … The citizens of Lubbock have pulled away from being involved with the city because their ideas are shot down for the ideas of the council and the mayor.”

“I want to put or bring the mayoral position and the council seat positions back to their original purpose. They’re supposed to be positions of public service. … It is not for council members or the mayor to gain, but for the citizens to gain from the council members and the mayor.” Winans said.

Bohmfalk said her biggest issue is taxes and paying for infrastructure, but after that it’s “Just to get people involved.”

“It’s about advocacy and getting people out to vote. People know the problems they have and the solutions. You just have to ask them and actually listen to them,” Bohmfalk said.

“I love listening to people who have dynamically opposed views and then analyze what they have in common,” Bohmfalk said.

In addition to Lubbock hosting festivals, Sanders thinks the city could use an inland port along Interstate 27.

“We want to take control – and really take control – of the transportation sector. So, the big trucks that are coming in, loading in and out, will create that dock. … The trucks will come here, they can dock here, and the small cities can come pick up their things,” Sanders said.

Sanders would like Lubbock to make enough money from his ideas that the city can afford to build a pool, update the skate park and “Do things in our city that we’ve never done before.”

But he’s not excited about every development – for example, the Chick-fil-A distribution center.

“We gave a multi-billion-dollar company free money and free land,” Sanders said.

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