Two incumbents, commissioners Betty Avery and Scott DeBoer, along with candidates Tommy Balez, Jessica Rivas and Eric Zapata defended their positions on the current state of ESD 9, which contracts with the Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department, manages the department’s annual budget, sets tax rates and holds monthly public meetings. Candidates Martin Martinez and Mike West were not in attendance.
Tax rates
Candidates discussed whether they would lower or raise the district's property tax rate, which is currently set at 5 cents per $100 valuation.
Zapata said CFVFD should transition to primarily paying firefighters rather than hiring volunteers, offering the jobs to current volunteers first, in order to recruit more staff to meet community needs. To do this, taxes should be raised as Cy-Fair continues to grow, he said.
However, Avery said commissioners are not able to raise the tax rate without public approval. DeBoer said the rate should be kept low to manage the district's current budget.
Rivas said the tax rate should be modified based on analysis of community needs and current revenue stream. Balez argued that the original long-term plan for ESD 9 is outdated for the current needs of Cy-Fair.
“Like every taxpayer, I hope we can one day lower [the tax rate], but for now all I can say is [it should stay] the same,” he said. “There is no strategic plan in the district. We first need to figure out where we’re going, what type of businesses are gonna be here and where are the people moving exactly.”
Planning for the future
As far as building CFVFD staff and future fire stations, candidates had varying opinions on how to keep up with district growth. DeBoer said the current board is working to improve planning for the future with the help of ESD Managing Director Tim Gibson, who was hired November.
“I don’t know that there actually is a surplus of money,” DeBoer said. “The west side of the district is really needing to be developed, and as it’s brought up there needs to be a better plan. The void general manager caused us some little issues in proceeding a little faster. I think we’re now set up to where a lot of this stuff can start happening.”
Balez said the district should plan for the next 10 years at the least, and Rivas echoed his concerns, saying the current plan was only revised months ago. Balez and Rivas also said plans for the next several fire stations should already be mapped out, and land should already be acquired.
Each candidate agreed on expanding west and near the Grand Parkway for future development. Zapata said more should be done now rather than later.
“If you consider stations 7, 12 and 13 that are all the three closest stations to [Hwy.] 99,” Zapata said. “None of them are within five minutes [of Hwy. 99]. None of them have a direct route to [Hwy. 99]. We’ve got a huge Cy-Fair school district campus they’ve built. We need to have something that can run up and down [Hwy. 99].”
Early voting for ESD 9 commissioner began April 23 and ends May 1. Election Day is May 5. To read more about each of the candidates, click here.
