District 8 contest draws 3 hopefuls

An incumbent known for his verbal flair, a woman trying to make history and a former presidential hopeful are vying to represent one of San Antonio’s most diverse City Council districts. Freshman Councilman Manny Peláez, who won a runoff for the seat two years ago, is facing two challengers in his re-election bid on the Northwest Side: FrankieGonzales Wolfe, a political consultant trying to become the first transgender person elected in Texas, and Tony Valdivia, a USAA analyst who made a quixotic run for president in 2016.

District 8 starts at Callaghan Road just outside Loop 410 and runs northwest past Loop 1604. It includes the University of Texas at San Antonio’s main campus and the Medical District, and it has an unusually diverse population with thousands of refugees.

Here are the candidates in the order they will appear on the ballot.

• Manny Peláez, the 45-yearold incumbent, is a labor attorney who previously chaired the Brooks City Base Development Authority and was also a trustee for VIA Metropolitan Transit.

The councilman said he tackled a variety of issues in his first term, ranging from taxes to stray dogs.

Peláez has advocated for a study on how the Bexar County Appraisal District’s methods differ from others across the state. The council is set to vote on that effort April 4, and he hopes it will lead to new answers on how to alleviate tax burdens here.

Another program Peláez spearheaded helps stray dogs become service animals for veterans. That ordinance passed in January.

If re-elected, Peláez said, he would continue addressing some of those issues. He’s also working on an ordinance that is aimed at

boosting development of middleclass housing, among others.

Peláez is known for his verbal flourish on the dais. When the city was conducting its search for a city manager, Peláez equated the process to trying to select his favorite hero from Marvel’s “The Avengers.”

And when asked where he currently lives — the councilman faced scrutiny last election about whether he lived in District 8 — Peláez quipped: “In a state of bliss.” He added later that he moved to a new house that is still, he said, within district boundaries.

• Tony Valdivia, 41, is a financial analyst for USAA making his second consecutive run for the District 8 seat. He received 10.69 percent of the vote in 2017 and finished fourth.

But it was his presidential campaign a year before that raised more eyebrows. After hearing complaints from his parents and their friends about the tenor of the race, Valdivia officially registered as a write-in candidate in 19 states and Washington, D.C., gleaning roughly 500 votes.

That experience “really opened my eyes for what I could do in public service,” he said.

Valdivia hopes to leverage his business experience in the city’s budget process if he’s elected. He wants the city to offer a $10,000 homestead exemption for property

taxpayers.

He also wants to ease traffic congestion and the district’s transit issues. He mentioned a railless train system in China, and he said it’s somewhat similar to the city’s preliminary proposal to use rubberwheeled, trackless trams.

“It’s a whole lot more convenient than for me to try to take a bus to get to a lot of areas,” he said.

The financial analyst also took issue with Peláez’s verbal style. He specifically mentioned the councilman’s comments during a hearing on a proposal to demolish the old Beacon Hill Elementary building. Peláez called school officials “tacky” and said they were using students as props. He said the superintendent was “peddling exaggerations and hyperbole.”

“That’s not the type of representation I want,” Valdivia said.

Peláez said he thinks people are hungry for plainspoken politicians.

“I think what I’m known for on the dais is speaking hard truths,” he said. “I’m keenly aware that I’m known for saying uncomfortable things.”

• Frankie Gonzales-Wolfe, 42, is a political consultant and precinct chair for the Bexar County Democratic Party. She ran Monica Alcántara’s campaign for chair of the party and has worked on numerous campaigns since 1996.

But this time, she said, she’s not staying behind the scenes.

“For the past 23 years, (I have) really been devoted to helping candidates who I thought were going to be the right voice for me at the table,” she said. “This time around, I felt like I didn’t need to to help someone else be my voice.”

The consultant brings a historic nature to the campaign: She’s trying to become the first transgender person elected to office in Texas.

“As a very proud trans woman, I just felt that representation was important,” Gonzales-Wolfe said, adding later: “There is a lot of pressure that comes with that. … Somebody has to be first.”

Gonzales previously worked in financial services. She rose to become an assistant vice president in human resources at Wells Fargo before retiring in 2017.

If elected, one of her top priorities would be to offer more incentives to locally owned small businesses. Gonzales-Wolfe said the city offers incentives to large corporations to lure them here, but that help often isn’t afforded to smaller companies eyeing expansion within the city.