CORPUS CHRISTI, Tex. — The people choose a new mayor Tuesday as At-Large City Councilwoman Paulette Guajardo defeated two-term incumbent Mayor Joe McComb.
Mayor-elect Guajardo is hoping to work together with the carry-over and new council members to tackle the goals of each of the city's five districts.
“I want to see us very unified and working towards the goals across the city that are important to everyone.,” said Guajardo.
First on the agenda for Corpus Christi’s new mayor-elect is bringing the old faces and new faces together to move the city forward.
“We do have some new faces on council, and like anything else we’re a team and we’re going to move forward as a team,” said Guajardo.
At least one of those new faces, District 1 Member-elect Billy Lerma, is looking forward to the opportunity.
“We’ve talked here and there at different forums we’ve had, but we’ve never really sat down for lunch and discussed things in detail,” said Lerma. “I look forward to doing that.”
Guajardo is one of six hold-overs from the current city council. Three of them, Ben Molina (Dist. 2), Greg Smith (Dist. 4), and Michael Hunter (At-Large) have served with Guajardo since 2017.
“We’ve worked very closely together on District 4 issues and city-wide issues,” said Smith. “We will be working together closely in the future as we have done in the past.”
“We all started together, and so we continue the journey together,” said Guajardo. “We do have a special bond.”
Streets, water, and public health are among the issues Guajardo hopes to tackle over the next two years. She also wants to beef up the city’s public safety.
“We’ve got to strengthen that, strengthen our public safety so that we take care of all parts of town and we’re a strong department in both police and fire,” said Guajardo.
Once the new council is sworn in, they’ll hold a retreat to better get to know the new members and to learn exactly what each other’s priorities are.
Guajardo says she’s grateful to the voters for electing her and that the people will be her top priority.
