Tommy Adkisson vacated the Precinct 4 Bexar County Commissioners Court seat to run for county judge. Adkisson has held the seat since 1998 and it will be filled by one of four contenders in the runoff; two from each party.
On the Republican ticket are a pair of mayors from two of the county’s cities: Alan Baxter, the mayor of Windcrest, and Tim Wilson, the mayor of Kirby.
Baxter is 50 years old and is an associate athletic director at Our Lady of the Lake University; he has been mayor for about five years. Wilson is 32 years old and works for CPS Energy. He has been Kirby mayor for two years and on the Kirby City Council for about 10 years.
When asked why they wanted to run, Baxter said he was disappointed by the lack of fire protection and poor infrastructure throughout the eastern part of the county.
“I want to do what we’ve been doing in Windcrest and do it throughout Precinct 4, which is concentrate on what government does: streets, infrastructure, police protection, sheriff protection, fire protection, and quality of life,” Baxter said. “And that’s what we need to stick with and that’s gone awry.”
Wilson said he is tired of the county using its money only in certain areas and investing in projects like San Pedro Creek, the street car and toll roads.
“It’s frustrating to see the ongoing waste at the county level when most of your money is being spent downtown and there’s projects going on downtown,” Wilson said. “And some of that money needs to be brought out to our neighborhoods and communities and other projects that matter to our citizens.”
Former-Commissioner Adkisson said he hopes whoever succeeds him will include two objectives that were his priorities: health care and the prevention of repeat jail offenders.
Wilson said to combat diabetes and health issues residents would need more parks and walking trials. As for jail offenders, he said decisions on what programs need to be expanded should have input from sheriff’s deputies.
“After they’ve done their time and rehabilitated, those are the people that know what’s working and what’s not working,” Wilson said.
Baxter said health care would not be one of his main priorities and that he would instead focus on fire, police and infrastructure, and quality of life. And on jail offenders he said education and job creation should help county recidivism.
“I believe that’s going to help lower the crime rate,” Baxter said. “Crime rates go down whether it’s nice economic development, true economic development, so I feel like that’s the first thing that needs to be addressed.”
In the March 4 primary election both candidates had about 3,900 votes each, with Wilson edging Baxter by 44 votes.
Early voting will be open until 8 p.m. each night this week through Friday. Election Day is Tuesday, May 27.
