Keeping taxes low and people safe are top issues in race for District 3 Lubbock City Council

Adam Hernandez, David Bruegel and Gil Caley want the residents of Lubbock City Council District 3 to feel safe and receive quality services without necessarily raising taxes to make it happen.

They seek the Council seat in the May 2 election (with early voting beginning Monday, April 20) currently held by David Glasheen who’s not running for reelection.

Hernandez said he’s running because he devoted himself to public service after the death of oldest daughter. That’s not only service in politics but also volunteering in different service organizations.

“I just made a life decision that I was going to use as much of my free time as possible to help make Lubbock better for everybody,” Hernandez said.

Bruegel is the outgoing chair of the Lubbock County Republican Party and a former Shallowater councilman. He has strong relationships with Lubbock’s state lawmakers, he said.

Bruegel explained his desire to run for office, saying, “If I’m successful at the end of my four-year term, people should feel safe taking a walk around one of our central Lubbock parks in the evening.”

Caley decided to run because the city set impact fees at zero last year, and city financial support was cut for the First Friday Art Trail (although it was later restored), he said.

“There’s been kind of a lack of city presence in this District. We don’t really have any kind of community center in the District except the parks,” Caley said, adding he’d like to increase services without increasing property taxes.

Quality of life, public safety and taxes

Hernandez, Bruegel and Caley all focused on every day, neighborhood-level concerns, though they emphasized different aspects of those issues

Hernandez spoke of animal control, code enforcement, and bulk trash (disposal of couches and other big items often left out in Lubbock alleys). He hears often about bulk trash from people, he said.

“[There’s] no way to get rid of those things if you don’t have a truck or something of that nature,” Hernandez said.

“It’s pretty simple – improving the city services that people want and use – using the tax money that they already pay. I’m not proposing to raise taxes to improve the services,” Hernandez.

But he’s not a fan of the no-new-revenue tax rate.

“The no-new-revenue rate sets you up for failure because that’s like saying that you want to either maintain or improve your quality of life at home, but you don’t want any income,” Hernandez said.

Bruegel wanted people to feel safe in public, which included attention to policing and animal services. At the time we talked with Bruegel, there’d been a dog attack in the news. An elderly woman was hospitalized from it.

“I’m concerned about quality-of-life issues that also cross over into public safety issues,” Bruegel said.

“What that looks like is enhanced investment in our police patrol division, as well as enhanced investment in our animal services division to make sure that the stray dog issue is addressed,” he said.

He wants additional police officers in Lubbock.

“We’re short on manpower. Lubbock’s doing pretty good, but we can do better there,” he said.

Bruegel spoke of providing services – police, fire, roads and water – “without increasing taxes when possible.”

“We need to live within our means,” Bruegel said.

Caley said, “My two top priorities are – number one, getting the budget in order. And then number two, what kind of city services can we get going in District 3?”

Those services might include more animal control officers and maybe even another animal shelter, he said.

“Having been chased by dogs in this city that are strays, I know exactly the feeling and the anxiety that’s on people’s mind about the animal situation,” Caley said.

Caley mentioned a $5 million budget shortfall which was an issue last year (LubbockLights.com covered it here), but sales tax revenue has recovered and the Council passed a balanced budget for 2025/26.

When asked about property taxes, Caley said, “I would like to not have to increase anyone’s taxes by any means. … I would like to use other means like impact fees.”

Bruegel is opposed to impact fees (which we explained here). The city zeroed them out last year citing comments from developers that it increased the cost of new growth too much.

Hernandez and Caley, by contrast, believe impact fees should be restored.

Artificial intelligence data centers

Hernandez, Bruegel and Caley have a lot in common when it comes to a proposed AI data center for Northeast Lubbock put on hold earlier this year.

Hernandez said, “I was probably the loudest voice on that issue.”

Hernandez described himself as a certified AI strategist (with professional certifications from Google and Microsoft) and he’s not opposed to the technology. But often these data centers use a lot of water to cool their computer servers.

“We only have so much water, right?” Hernandez said.

Companies are not obligated to disclose certain information to the community, he said.

“Under the current law right now, these companies are not required to disclose to you or me or anybody else how much water they’re using. That’s a problem,” Hernandez said.

Bruegel agreed, saying, “I’ve got substantial concerns about them. I’m not willing to say I’m absolutely opposed to them, but they would have to meet very strict parameters. … So, concern No. 1 is water availability. We want to make sure that the water that is used to cool this facility is truly recycled. … Secondarily is the impact on our electrical grid. We want to make sure these facilities are largely producing their own power.”

Bruegel also wants to make sure any data center has customers lined up before it gets built so the place does not sit empty.

Caley thinks the impact is too high on water usage and air quality (with some data centers doing their own power generation on site). Caley mentioned recent news that a data center would be built in Abernathy.

“Whatever they’re building out there in Abernathy, they can keep it over there. … As fast as our city is growing, I just don’t think that we can take it,” Caley said.

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