District 9 candidates debate affordable housing, equity budgeting (2025)

A full slate of seven candidates running to represent the affluent, fast-growing District 9 City Council seat debated whether the city should keep going on policies like water conservation, affordable housing and so-called “equity lens” budgeting at the San Antonio Report’s forum Thursday.

City CouncilDistrict 9encompasses the city’s far North side, starting at Loop 410 and running north up U.S. 281.

For eight years it’s been represented by termed-out CouncilmanJohn Courage(D9), a fiscally conservative, socially liberal candidate who managed to remain popular in some of the city’s reddest territory. This year Courage is instead running in San Antonio’s crowded, 27-candidate mayoral race.

Among the candidates seeking to fill his seat, many said Thursday that they wanted to undo some of the more progressive policies the City Council has pursued in recent years.

Read about all of the candidates running in District 9 in our 2025 Voter Guide

In response to a question about the city’s budgeting policy of spending more money in traditionally underserved districts, Daniel Mezza, who spent much of his career working for Republicans at the state, local and federal level, suggested it’s other representatives’ fault that they haven’t been able to secure adequate funding for their districts.

“District 9 has a lot of needs. I am not going to be spreading the money across the board,” said Mezza, a South Texas native who now owns a coffee company and has been involved with the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Mezza worked for U.S. Rep. Will Hurd (R-Helotes) and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), but left the political scene in 2017 because he said partisan gridlock was too frustrating.

Misty Spears, a constituent services director for Republican Bexar County Commissioner Grant Moody in Precinct 3, said the city wouldn’t need to take from one district and give to another if its leaders resumed focusing on nuts-and-bolts city issues.

“If we would just stay in our lane, [get] back to basic governmental functions and stop getting involved in social issues, then we would have more than enough money to spend on helping other districts,” said Spears, who ran for district clerk as a Republican in 2022 and has the backing of the police and fire unions in the District 9 race.

Spears is a fiscal conservative with a degree in business administration and accounting from Texas Tech. On Thursday she addressed criticism she’s received during the campaign for an old IRS lien and some more recent personal credit card debt.

“I think expressing to you these hardships that I experienced, that many other people experience, just shows that I know how to get back on my feet,” said Spears, who pointed to her family’s success starting a law practice, raising children and getting her husband elected to the Fourth Court of Appeals. “I have all these skills with my accounting [background] that really lend to understanding how to be fiscally responsible and knowing how to get us out of a bind.”

Early voting for the city’s May 3 municipal electionruns April 22 through April 29. If no candidate takes at least 50% of the vote on May 3, the top two finishers will advance toa June 7 runoff.

‘We’re riding on the same ship’

As a councilman, Courage brought a more traditional view of city government to San Antonio’s progressive-leaning council, opposing the recent abortion travel fund and the 2023 “Justice Charter.”

But he’s been a proponent of equity budgeting, calling the budget a “moral document,” at the San Antonio Report’s mayoral debate, and in recent years, he’s said it’s a mistake to let neighboring residents keep affordable housing from being built near them.

While most candidates wanted to ensure District 9 was getting its fair share of city resources, some expressed concern about ignoring problems in other parts of the city.

“Let’s be honest, District 9 and District 8 are privileged districts,” said Emily Joy Garza, a Michigan native who moved her family to her husband’s hometown of San Antonio five years ago, owns a permanent cosmetics company and is active in the animal welfare community.

Garza said it would be “foolish” to think that if the city discontinued equity-based budgeting, problems like encampments and stray animals — which are much more pronounced in other parts of the city — wouldn’t also hit District 9.

“Unless we build a border wall around District 9, are we going to get some of that overflow,” she said to applause. “At the end of the day, we’re riding on the same ship here.”

Celeste Tidwell, the only San Antonio native in the race who previously worked for a Democratic lawmaker in Texas House District 116, declined to pick a side on the equity budgeting.

“In our district, we have other needs as well, so it’s a very difficult question, so I’m gonna go both ways on it,” she said. “I think that’s a safer way to go, and I feel strongly how I feel.”

Tidwell worked as a directory assistance operator for Southwestern Bell and has served as a Democratic precinct chair.

Nontraditional resumes

Two candidates brought lots of experience working with policymakers through their passion projects.

Angi Taylor Aramburu has a background in public relations and previously managed Broadway and off-Broadway theaters in New York City, experience she said taught her about how to conduct feasibility studies and manage budgets in difficult financial times.

Since moving her family back to her husband’s hometown nine years ago, she’s started a fitness company, served on the mayor’s fitness council, been active in the North East ISD parent-teacher association and ran for a Texas House seat as Democrat in 2022.

“At this level of government, it’s important that your representatives have shown the willingness and ability to put in the work to create the type of community we want to see and we want to live in,” said Aramburu, who is backed by Courage and even hired some of his staff on her campaign.

April Chang is a North Texas native with a background in medical sales, who after a family tragedy in 2018, started a nonprofit in honor of her late son, Mitchell.

Through that nonprofit, she worked with state and local leaders to push for swim school safety standards and to build a pirate-themed park named after him.

Chang said she was motivated to run because that experience highlighted a gap between the priorities residents want their city to address and the projects city departments tackle.

“I’ve been at the community input meetings where people stand up there and they repeatedly say things like, ‘I want a dog park. I want a splash pad,'” she said. “Seven years later, we open Mitchell’s Landing and there’s still not another dog park or another splash pad in the district. I’m like, ‘What happened?’ Because at every single district meeting, that’s all that was brought up.”

Tristen Hoffman is a senior at Johnson High School who plans to study economics after graduation and said he’s running to bring a fresh voice from a younger generation.

“I’ve never had many of the things that these people have had in their professional careers or even in government experience. However, at my school, I have done a lot of things, and I’m very accomplished,” said Hoffman, who pointed to his academic record, a statewide award for knowledge of current events and his role in the National Honors Society as qualifications for the role.

Asked about his leadership experience, Hoffman said that at school he helped the Latin Club keep its dues low by sourcing more affordable snacks that other students still enjoyed.

“It’s definitely not working for Congressman Hurd, but it’s something,” he said, to thundering applause.