A look at the race in District H, to succeed the term-limited CM Ed Gonzalez.
CM Ed Gonzalez
Roland Chavez views city leadership from a labor management perspective with an eye to curbing overtime and ensuring retirement benefits for city workers. He retired in 2013 after 34 years with the Houston Fire Department, and by his own description has been campaigning for City Council ever since.
Chavez advocated for firefighters as their liaison in City Hall under four Houston mayors. A decade ago, during his term as president of the local chapter of the firefighters’ association, he oversaw the workers’ first collective bargaining agreement with the city that included across the board raises and set up a charitable foundation for firefighters.
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Karla Cisneros, another longtime resident of Woodland Heights, is an elementary teacher and former school board member whose primary aim as a City Council member is improving the quality of life for children and families. She took leave from work to run for office.
Cisneros, 61, grew up in a Navy family, and her parents retired in San Antonio. She moved to Houston for graduate school at Rice University, where she studied architecture. Cisneros became a grass-roots activist for neighborhood schools while raising three children with her husband in Woodland Heights. She said the Heights at the time she put down roots in 1985 was a place families left once their kids reached kindergarten age because they lacked confidence in the schools.
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Jason Cisneroz, the third candidate for the District H seat, is focused on crime prevention. Cisneroz aims to strengthen communication between community members and public safety officials and encourage neighbors to look out for one another.
Cisneroz grew up in a family of community activists, attending meetings with his grandmother at the civic association that his paternal uncle founded, where his mother served as a board member.
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The fourth candidate for District H, Abel Davila, is a trained pharmacist who served as a Houston Community College trustee from 1998 to 2013 and chaired the HCC board in 2003 and 2009. He lost his first bid for City Council in 1999, capturing 14 percent of the votes for the District H seat.
Davila, 43, grew up with his parents and nine siblings in the East End. He is married to Diana Davila, a former Houston Independent School District board member, who is seeking to win back a spot on the board in November. She resigned her seat early citing family issues.
A Chronicle story around the time of her departure documented her attempt to get her husband appointed to the district’s bond oversight committee, which oversaw nearly $1 billion in construction funds. The inspector general determined Diana Davila’s action amounted to a conflict of interest.
The couple have a 14-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter. Abel Davila’s record at HCC was marked by an independent investigation commissioned by the college that found he violated HCC policy by steering a $1.5 million painting contract to an upstart company run by one of his pharmacy students who was a family friend. Davila denied wrongdoing, and the Harris County District Attorney did not pursue criminal charges.
Interview with the first three are on the Election 2015 page. 30 day dampaign finance summaries are as follows:
Candidate Raised Spent Loans On Hand
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Chavez 14,779 14,104 5,100 51,734
Cisneros, K 12,580 21,055 0 4,717
Cisneroz, J 31,368 14,447 0 26,610
Davila 6,500 9,046 20,000 17,453
Karla Cisneros got the Chron endorsement, while Abel Davila is the Hotze candidate. Roland Chavez and Jason Cisneroz got the rest of the endorsements, with Chavez having the edge. I’m a little surprised Karla Cisneros didn’t go better in that department, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. She’s easily winning the yard sign battle in my neighborhood, with Chavez a distant second. She’s also the only candidate to actually door-knock me this cycle, though I’ve seen her and Chavez and Cisneroz at various events throughout the summer. I tell people when they ask me that there are three good candidates running in H, and one they should not vote for. As long as two of those three make the runoff, it’s fine by me.