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Downtown is known as the heart of San Antonio, but District 8 is home to many of the city’s happenings. La Cantera, the University of Texas at San Antonio and the Medical Center are all part of the mix.
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For the last eight years, Manny Pelaez has served as the councilman for District 8. But he’s termed out and is now running for mayor.
Six candidates are vying to replace him in City Hall. The election is set for Saturday, May 3. However, if no candidate secures more than 50% of the votes, a runoff will be held on June 7 between the top two contenders.
Whoever wins the District 8 City Council seat will serve four years in office.
Here’s the list of candidates running and their policies, listed in ballot order:
Sakib Shaikh
For the last 25 years, Sakib Shaikh has called San Antonio home. Now, he wants to have a role in shaping the city’s future.
He said he’s lived in and around District 8 for decades. As a UTSA and St. Mary’s University graduate, Shaikh said his career and heart are here in San Antonio.
District 8 is “where my community laid its roots,” Shaikh said. “It originally started because our mosque was here.”
He owns a family-run convenience store and has a real estate license. He previously served as the director of constituent services for District 8 and was a software engineer.
“My background is diverse, and I think that kind of diversity is what you need to be a good council member,” Shaikh said.
Public safety is one of Shaikh’s top priorities this campaign cycle.
“We have about 1,100 (police) officers less than Dallas,” Shaikh said. “While the response time for violent crimes is quite good in San Antonio, the ability to have consistent police presence has been missing.”
Shaikh said that if elected, he would support an increase in funding for the San Antonio Police Department to get “more boots on the ground to make up for attrition, retirement and just the growing population.”
To address the growth District 8 is expected to continue to see, Shaikh said he wants transparency not only with San Antonio city government operations but also with the performance of contractors.
He said in the District 8 office that he would require contractors to put out digital signage for construction projects with three things: the current project phase, the delays expected and an estimated completion date.
As a father of three, Shaikh said community is his priority.
“I know what it feels like to not have a seat at the table and I know what it feels like to not be included in conversations,” Shaikh said. “I will be the candidate that reaches out and makes sure that the Jewish community feels heard. I will make sure that the refugee community feels heard. I will make sure young people feel heard because I know what it feels like to be left out.”
Cesario Garcia
With an estimation that San Antonio’s population will surpass 3 million by 2030, Cesario Garcia said, if elected, he would prioritize safety, transparency and infrastructure as the District 8 councilman.
“I want to make a difference in the city and make a difference in a place I’ve lived in for almost 30 years,” Garcia said.
Garcia’s career history is in film and television production, but right now, he’s focused on expanding his political footing and “bettering San Antonio.”
“I want to see if I can make a difference in a public way,” Garcia said. “It was time for me to consider running for something because I didn’t like the way the city was going.”
He has run for city council before, but this go around, he said he feels stronger with his message and his team.
“We need more core services,” Garcia said. “We need to be stewards not only of the money, but of timing, of having solutions for problems that should not have been created.”
Garcia said he believes in a “small government.” He said San Antonio should be responsible for “safety, security, water and trash.” He advocates for more officers within the SAPD to support the city.
He also wants to be proactive with development and construction projects in District 8.
“District 8 is a sandbox and we have too many things going on in a 5-10-mile radius.”
Part of his platform is also providing more transparency with how the city spends its money.
“I’m here to work for the citizens of this city, to be a steward and to take back our consented authority,” Garcia said.
Cindy Onyekwelu
Cindy Onyekwelu said she’s ready to transition from “behind-the-scenes work to direct involvement in local government.”
“My goal is to give back to the community,” Onyekwelu said.
Onyekwelu has lived in San Antonio for the last six years. She’s a first-generation Nigerian-Mexican American and a software engineer.
If elected, she said she wants to prioritize district-wide ADA compliance. Onyekwelu said she is a regular rider of VIA buses and experiences firsthand the problems in District 8 with traffic and accessibility.
“Since we’re having new construction and development, a lot of it is interfering with the public stops,” Onyekwelu said. “I feel like we can work together to improve that and also find ways that we can encourage more people that use (public transportation) every day, so we can like decrease the amount of traffic.”
Onyekwelu said she’s passionate about economic growth through small business empowerment.
In her career, Onyekwelu said she focuses on finding data-driven solutions.
She’s proposing leveraging the South Texas Medical Center’s resources to create a “collaborative analysis of emergency room reliance by the homeless population” to understand underlying mental health conditions.
Rodney “Rod” Kidd
Transparent and open city management is what Rodney Kidd wants to see out of San Antonio. That’s why he’s running for the District 8 City Council seat.
“The City lacks effective systems for most issues,” Kidd said. “There’s little to no follow-up, no clear solutions, and very little transparency — especially when it comes to property crimes."
Kidd is an entrepreneur with a background in technology and logistics. He’s been living in San Antonio for just more than a decade.
He said he wants to create a “safer” District 8 through “technology-driven solutions.”
“We need to track not only how many crimes are occurring, but what is being solved,” Kidd said.
He wants more funding for police and fire departments, and he’s also looking to implement “strategic policing.”
Kidd said he decided to run for council to improve communication between the city and the community.
“I don’t think constituent services are being handled properly,” Kidd said. “I feel the office is not being run to support the citizens. It’s not getting them their requests or not being met.”
If elected, he wants to take a proactive approach to construction and traffic concerns through zoning management.
“I think we need to be more thoughtful in what zonings are approved where, when and how,” Kidd said. “All with the understanding of development and history to preserve some of these older neighborhoods.”
Addressing mental health is also a priority for Kidd. He’s advocating for a city and county mental health hospital to increase “accessible” and “affordable treatment.”
“I take action,” Kidd said. “I have done it and helped people continuously.”
Ivalis Meza Gonzalez
Born and raised in San Antonio, Ivalis Meza Gonzalez has always called this city home.
“I am deeply rooted in community,” Meza Gonzalez said. “I want to continue the tradition of strong leadership in District 8.”
She graduated from UTSA and St. Mary’s Law School. Now, she’s raising her family in District 8 and wants to help preserve her community as the new councilwoman, if elected.
“It’s really about protecting everything that we have here,” Meza Gonzalez said. “From our large employers to our small businesses to our university, our neighborhoods, our parks and our medical center.”
Meza Gonzalez worked at the San Antonio River Authority and served as the chief of staff to Mayor Ron Nirenberg.
She said public safety, economic development and improving infrastructure are top issues in District 8.
“It’s about knowing that construction is going to happen in (our residential) area, not waking up to it at your front door and then there’s signs all over the place,” Meza Gonzalez said.
She wants to implement more “traffic-calming mechanisms” in District 8, like speed bumps and stop signs.
Having lived in the district for 15 years, Meza Gonzalez said she’s more than familiar with traffic and congestion problems. That’s why she wants to prioritize District 8 in upcoming bond programs to fund more drainage projects and address infrastructure challenges.
“It’s just about making sure that we grow in a way that works for the residents of District 8,” Meza Gonzalez said. “Especially, making sure that our seniors have resources.”
Prioritizing parks and the people of District 8 is also a priority for Meza Gonzalez.
Paula McGee
Paula McGee said she wants to be “intentional” if elected as the District 8 councilwoman.
“It’s all about planning,” McGee said.
McGee has lived in San Antonio for a little more than 39 years, and she said she’s thought about running for council “for a while.”
“This was a time in my life where I had a little bit of margin, but yet a lifetime of experience and leadership to offer in service to the community,” McGee said.
McGee is a practicing attorney and has served on the San Antonio Zoning Commission, the Ethics Review Board, and the Alamo Colleges Foundation board.
Living in District 8, McGee said she knows public safety and infrastructure are what impact residents the most.
“There are a lot of challenges here because it’s growing so fast,” McGee said. “We have to be very intentional about having conversations and engaging stakeholders.”
Explosive growth is something McGee wants to stay on top of if elected. She wants to address long-overlooked construction projects.
“I wanna get in there and ask a lot of questions about how those (construction) contracts are being overseen,” McGee said. “We have to have construction because we need new infrastructure, but we need to manage it a lot better.”
McGee also wants to build stronger neighborhood relationships with SAFFE officers to address crime.
“We need to be very diligent about our policing,” McGee said.
Transparency is a priority to McGee, and so is economic development.
“I think that one of the very exciting things that is going on in District 8 is this merger between UTSA and UT Health Science Center San Antonio,” McGee said. “That is going to bring so much economic development, not just to this district, but to our city and South Texas as well.”
Early voting is April 22-29. Election Day is Saturday, May 3. For a list of important dates for the May 3 election and potential June 7 runoff, click here.
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