All council candidates expected to appear at Plum Creek debate

Water, wastewater, taxes, spending and mobility appear to head the list of topics to be discussed during a debate next month expected to attract every candidate seeking a place on the Kyle City Council.

The debate, to be moderated by Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace Beth Smith, is scheduled for 6 p.m., Monday, Oct. 9, at the Plum Creek Community Center. It will begin with the unopposed candidate for District 2, Tracy Scheel, having the opportunity to make a three-minute statement, which will be followed by the two candidates — Dex Ellison and Marco Pizano — seeking to complete an unexpired 2-year term in District 1, and then the pair of candidates — Tim R. McHutchion and Alex Villalobos — who are vying for the District 4 position. The final debate will be among the four candidates — Travis Mitchell, Nicole Romero-Piche, Jaime Sanchez and Bill Sinor — who are running for mayor.

Each candidate in the contested races will have the opportunity to make a three-minute opening statement as well as a three-minute closing statement. In between, Judge Smith will be asking the candidates questions and, she said, "each candidate will have two minutes to respond with the initial candidate then having a 30-second rebuttal. I will alternate the order of candidates in which the questions are asked."

She sent a notification of the debate rules to all the candidates earlier this week in which she told them "Categories most important to the taxpayers in the city, through reading social media and listening, seem to be water/wastewater, taxes/spending/projects and mobility/infrastructure." She advised the candidates that they might want to touch on one or more of those issues in their opening statements.

All the questions will come from audience members who must submit them on index cards with an indication of what race the question is designed for. Judge Smith said they can bring prepared index cards with them and "There will also be some blank cards available for citizens to write questions when they arrive." The index cards, the judge said, "will be put in separate containers for each race."

She said she anticipates asking two or three questions for each set of candidates "and probably one extra for the mayoral candidates."