Surrounded by chips, salsa, and supporters, Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce President Eliza May made her desire to serve the city of Austin known at a Dec. 12 reception at Nuevo León restaurant. Though she can’t make a formal declaration until February, she filed her designation of a treasurer, a first step before the official announcement of her run for the Place 2 City Council seat that Raul Alvarez vacates at the end of his term.
“I’ve had an interest in serving the community for years and I think the best opportunity is now,” May said in a chat after the Nuevo Leon gathering. “I’m a community product from the community, for the community.”
May’s current campaign platform reflects her five-plus years serving the Hispanic Chamber, as well as a variety of civic and nonprofit organizations like the Rape Crisis Center, the Texas State Employees Union, Catholic Charities, the Texas State Democratic Party, and others.
“Small businesses are the backbone of any local economy,” she says. “And right now, those businesses don’t have a voice.” May points to a 1987 ordinance passed by the Austin City Council (amended 1995), establishing procurement goals for the city, targeting minority and women-owned businesses. In 2005, those goals have not been realized, while the number of minority and women-owned businesses has risen “at a higher rate than the national average,” according to a “Community Scorecard on the City of Austin’s MBE/WBE Participation,” from requested data analyzed by the Hispanic Chamber.
But there is another “voiceless” constituency May also hopes to represent: those of newly arrived immigrants and the homeless, a population that often finds itself at odds with Austin’s downtown businesses. Through negotiation, compassion, and an obvious take-charge attitude, she believes solutions for the common good are possible. “The same tenacity and focus I’ve brought to the Hispanic Chamber, I want to bring to the council,” May says.
If May’s name seems familiar to you, she is the former director of the Texas Funeral Service Commission who filed a 1999 lawsuit – against then-Gov. George W. Bush, among others – alleging she was fired for launching an investigation into funeral home operator Service Corporation International, whose CEO was a major Bush backer. The suit was eventually settled out of court.
Austin Association of Professional Firefighters President Mike Martinez has also filed for the Place 2 seat (and at press time, was having his own Nuevo León fundraiser; see “Naked City,” Dec. 2), and former state Sen. Hector Uribe has said he plans to file.
This article appears in December 23 • 2005.