By Brian M. Cuaron
Originally posted on 12/15/2011 at 3:05 a.m.
The Victoria County Democratic Party's primaries are scheduled for March 6. George Matthews, elections administrator, said that the state's Republican and Democratic parties will be in mediation on Thursday as to when the primaries will be held. Filing deadlines were moved from Thursday to Monday after the U.S. Supreme Court put a moratorium on the state's legislative maps drawn up by federal judges.
Soliz, 39, has served on the Victoria City Council for three years. District 2, which Soliz represents, largely lies within the county's Precinct 1.
There are now three current or former Victoria officials in the race: Soliz, Precinct 1 Commissioner Kenny Spann and Chris Rivera, who served 12 years as the Precinct 1 commissioner before getting defeated in 2008.
Kenneth Wells, a sheriff's office deputy, and Daniel Garcia Jr. also have filed for the race.
Soliz ran for Precinct 1 commissioner twice before in 2004 and 2008, before winning a seat on the council in 2009. His victory over then-incumbent Lewis Nietsch was described as an upset by the Victoria Advocate in an article titled, Soliz defeats Nietsch in shocker.
Soliz said his platform was fourfold: Creating a job-friendly environment; Providing county assistance to city residents; Improving drinking water in the unincorporated Bloomington and Placedo communities; Improving drainage in Precinct 1.
Soliz wanted to bring more businesses, such as manufacturers and other industries, along U.S. Highway 59, Business 59, Port Lavaca Highway and Bloomington Highway. To promote those areas to businesses, a good relationship was needed with the Sales Tax Development Corp., Victoria Economic Development Corp. and chamber of commerce. Other organizations that have business contacts also should be used to promote the areas, he said.
A big selling-point for those areas is the roads that connect to various markets, he said. With the land between John Stockbauer Driver and Loop 463 being used for Caterpillar and its suppliers, Soliz said Precinct 1 needed to find other areas to promote to job-creating companies.
Since the roads were already built, the county wouldn't have to spend money on expensive road projects, Soliz said. One such project was the one Victoria planned to do on John Stockbauer for heavily-loaded trucks associated with the coming Caterpillar plant.
He pointed to his experience with economic development as part of the city council as showing that he was up for the job. For example, Soliz called for an economic workshop that occurred in July, where an economic incentive, 380 agreements, was discussed. The city later began using the incentive for perhaps the first time in its history.
"Before that, all we had to offer were (property tax) abatements," said Soliz, noting not all companies qualified for an abatement of property taxes.
In-depth articles about all of the Precinct 1 commissioner candidates, as well as their positions and backgrounds, will be published in the coming weeks.
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