Vince Perez Announces Candidacy for Commissioner's Court Precinct 3

Vince Perez, who started off as an intern in Congressman Reyes' office before working his way up to Communication's Director, made his bid to unseat the current County Commissioner Willie Gandara, Jr.

Perez's announcement was framed within the various issues affecting the precinct and capped-off with a strong critique from Perez about Gandara's attendance record. "The valley needs a seat at the table, not an empty seat."

Perez cited the fact that Gandara has missed several County Commissioner's Court meetings. Perez zeroed in on a recent meeting at University Medical Center that led to an increase in taxes by 20% in which Gandara was not in attendance and called Gandara's absence "inexcusable".

Perez also stated that Gandara, who sits on the MPO board missed the first four consecutive meetings of 2010 and cited a policy of the board that states that after missing 3 consecutive meetings, a member actually loses their voting privileges. "Precinct 3, which includes the far east side and the valley is arguably the fastest-growing part of the County. We have very important transportation and infrastructure needs. The absence of my opponent on such an important committee is unacceptable".

Perez was asked about Commissioner Gandara's most touted accomplishment during his term, the Tornillo Bridge. Perez explained that its hard for Gandara to take credit for the project when there was a lot of work done at the federal level going back nearly a decade.

Commissioner Gandara was not in attendance, but one of his staffers was in attendance and was taking pictures and/or video of Perez's speech with her cell phone. Perez's announcement was made at around 9:20am, which is presumably during the staffers normal shift time on a day that Commissioner's Court meets, but it is possible that the she was using vacation time to attend the announcement.