Kingsville city election results are in; there's a fresh face joining the team

With results from Saturday’s City of Kingsville Election, Mayor Sam Fugate and three commissioners were re-elected. Edna Lopez will serve as Commissioner for Place 1, Norma Nelda Alvarez will serve for Place 2, and Hector M. Hinojosa will serve for Place 3.

Joining the body of commissioners is Kingsville native Leo Alarcon. He will serve as commissioner for Place 4.

Alarcon said he had served in politics before when he was elected as county clerk in 2004, where he served for ten years.

“Kingsville is my home. This is where I was born and raised. I’m close to 70 now, and I just love this community. I’m the new kid on the block, and I’m willing to help in any way I can, but we’re going to work together for the betterment of the community and our citizens,” Alarcon said.

Kingsville Mayor Sam Fugate said he’s known Alarcon for some time and is excited to work with him as well as the other commissioners these next four years.

“We always agree to disagree so we don’t have bad meetings. I’m looking forward to working with all four of them,” Fugate said.

Fugate said the focus these next four years will be efforts to beautify the city and improvements to roads and water drainage.

“You’re going to see a lot of concentration on code enforcement the next four years. Kingsville has done a lot to work on its appearance, but we're going to double down,” Fugate said.

Alarcon says he's on board with that.

“I want to make sure why this street never got done or why this historic building never got improved. But I’m willing to investigate what it is. I’m going to have answers for those people that have questions,” Alarcon said.

Alarcon said voter turnout was not good this year. Out of the 15,000 registered voters in the city, only 1,400 went out to vote. Nadine and Buddy Jones were two of those voters. They said they have hope for their city to move in the right direction with a mix of familiar and old faces to city officials.

“Well, you need continuity in government, but you also need new ideas, so I think we have a good blend of those two,” Nadine Jones said.

And Buddy Jones, who said he has never missed an election said he feels optimistic and will make sure to hold their leaders accountable.

“We just hope they continue on with what’s keeping the city growing, and when it time for them to step down, we’ll find somebody new to replace them,” buddy Jones said.

Commissioners and the Mayor will get sworn in for their new four-year terms on Thursday, May 16.

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