Editor's note: John Wright did not return a questionnaire.
Paulette Guajardo
What is your age?
50 years old
What is/was your profession? Are you now retired?
I serve the people of Corpus Christi as your full-time Mayor. After selling my insurance agency, I entered into public service.
What relevant experience can you bring to office?
As the full-time Mayor of Corpus Christi, I am running for re-election because of my experience tackling Corpus Christi's biggest challenges including fixing our streets, strengthening pubic safety, and working to build our economy.
I was born and raised in Corpus Christi, hold a business degree from Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, and and am a former three term elected City Council member at large.
Additionally, I was a successful small business owner for over 15 years. As a result, I believe I have the experience in local government that is required to move our community forward. Having served as Mayor, I also understand the complex budget process of overseeing a $1.4. billion dollar budget.
I am proud to have lowered the city tax rate by 2.6 cents meanwhile maintaining a balanced budget with strong reserves. Through my experience on City Council, I firmly believe that we are in a new era of transformational progress, it is a new day Corpus Christi, and we have only just begun!
How have your life experiences prepared you for this position?
As a proud native of Corpus Christi, a former City Council woman at Large, and the current Mayor, my life experiences and proven accomplishments have enabled me to humbly seek re-election to continue to serve the people of Corpus Christi.
Working directly with our residents, I understand our needs city-wide from fixing our streets to making sure our residents are safe. Through my experience as a small business owner, I know the elements that are necessary to build our economy and the dedicated effort it takes to build our economy.
My experience has enabled me to provide leadership to build our police department and to help realize full staffing for our Corpus Christi Fire Department after decades. Like many of our residents, I understand through my life experience in Corpus Christi, that we must invest in fixing our roads and that is why street repair is a high priority for me. City-wide we are fixing major arteries and working on residential street repair.
The great news is that we have fixed our signature Ocean Drive, Rodd Field Road, Everhart Road, Arline and Ayers Street, just to name a few. We have also rebuilt the Cole Park Pier and Plaza, we reopened the Dimmit Pier, we are renewing our downtown and Bayfront all while welcoming new investment like James Avery to town. We are making progress.
Which problems would you address on your first day in office?
In order to continue our progress, we must continue to fix our streets, strengthen public safety, and we must work to create great jobs.
Building an uninterruptible water source for our future is also critical to our regional progress and this is why I am lazer focussed on building seawater desalination.
Last week, the city was awarded our first desalination permit and while we have more work ahead, we are moving forward. I will continue to work my first day back and every day on building the economy and working to make Corpus Christi a greater place to live, work, raise a family, and retire.
What do you see as long-term issues which need to be addressed throughout your time in office?
Long term issues that need to be continually addressed include tackling the enormous challenge of street repair, city-wide parks maintenance, building seawater desalination, and rebuilding the downtown sector that includes our Marina, T-heads, and Bayfront.
What is local government doing well right now that needs to be expanded further?
Our local government is strong, City Manager Peter Zanoni has ushered in a new era and set higher standards across the board. I believe one area we need to expand is our Emergency Operation's Center.
Our facility is aging and I will look to modernize our equipment, working cooperatively with other local governments. We must continue to be prepared in the event of a hurricane. Corpus Christi has a bright future and together we are moving our city forward.
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Answers to KRIS 6 News questionnaires were written by the candidates in their own words and received little-to-no editing from KRIS 6 News employees.
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