IVY TAYLOR and LETICIA VAN DE PUTTE Round 1 PART II

by Sonja Harris on May 21, 2015 at 11:17 AM

KLRN broadcast the first round of the five planned debates between appointed Mayor Ivy Taylor and Leticia Van de Putte which aired last Friday night, May 15. Rick Casey was the moderator of the 18 minute bout on “Texas Week with Rick Casey”.

The debate focused on leadership, Van de Putte, vs city planner, Taylor. Taylor is noticeably soft spoken and measures her words to give precise answers. She has been on the San Antonio City Council since June of 2009, first representing District 2 for almost five years and as the appointed mayor since July 22, 2014. Taylor has also been employed as a city planner with the Housing and Community Development Department and the Neighborhood Action Department. Van de Putte has been a career politician for 24 years serving in the Texas legislature as a Democrat, first in the House of Representatives and most recently in the Senate. After a crushing loss in the Lt Governor’s race in November she decided to seek the office of mayor.

There were two tense moments, one in which Taylor questioned whether the Police Union had endorsed Van de Putte without some ‘promise’ and that it would be ‘hard to believe’ if there wasn’t. Taylor said she would have refused the endorsement. Van de Putte shot back with “they don’t know Leticia and they weren’t in the room.” The second ‘moment’ came after Van de Putte accused Taylor of not being able to ‘negotiate’ the current situation with the Police contract. Van de Putte was noticeably irritated when Taylor remarked about her ‘leadership’ abilities when she referenced ‘Van de Putte’s infamous New Mexico escapade. Van de Putte bristled and came back with, “If you want to ‘sling’ that’s fine but I thought as mature women we could start to discuss the issues because that’s what the voters deserve.” Funny that Van de Putte mentioned the word ‘mature’ since it was very immature when she decided to run to New Mexico to avoid a redistricting vote. This must be a very dark chapter in her political career, something she would like to forget but just can’t shake.

Wolfe endorsed Van de Putte, an inflexible partisan politician, despite the fact that she does not meet any of the criteria that he wrote in his book, ‘An Inside View of San Antonio Politics, 1981-95’. On page 157 he wrote, “That creating a good mayor takes time”, and that, “A mayoral candidate needs at least four years’ experience on council before running.” A more thought-provoking paragraph is on page 51. “Citizens want their council representative to be responsive to life’s irritations, large and small; things like a pothole, or a neighbor violating a code, or a loose cat or dog, or traffic cutting through the neighborhood, or any of a host of other things. They also want their phone calls answered.” This is laughable to the conservative constituent in the present San Antonio environment. Yes, citizens must be heard and Taylor not Van de Putte will be the mayor to listen to all the citizens of San Antonio.