Four major mayoral contenders staked differing positions at a luncheon Wednesday on their transportation priorities and a charter amendment that would require a public vote on rail projects slated for the May 9 ballot.

The event was the first time the four have appeared together event since Mayor Ivy Taylor announced last week that she would run for election, joining former state Rep. Mike Villarreal, former state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte and former Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson in the mayoral race.

From the outset, the event hosted by the Corridor Council and the Lone Star Rail District, was framed as a “forum” rather than a “debate,” but some stark differences arose.

Taylor told the audience in the Plaza Club that it was important for the City Council to “be responsive” to opponents of the failed streetcar project. Soon after she was appointed mayor last summer, Taylor announced that the city would pull funding for the VIA Metropolitan Transit project.

“I don’t think that means that a project like that couldn’t happen at some point in the future, but definitely citizens want to know that their elected representatives will be responsive and accountable to them,” Taylor said. “But in addition to that, the electeds have to take the lead in engaging citizens on important conversations about how growth and development will occur and what our transportation options will look like.”

Taylor said she has no qualms about the wording of the charter amendment that will be proposed to voters in the May election. The amendment would require a public vote preceding any rail projects.

“I think the wording is very specific in responding to the concern that if VIA is bringing forward a project, that they would have to gain public support, and so I think that works within the framework that we’ve set up,” she said. “So I’m not concerned it will restrict us in the future.”

Van de Putte, however, seized on the ballot language.

“Unlike (you,) mayor, I am concerned about the wording. And maybe it’s just that I’ve been bit too many times by the defeat of fluoridation three times in this community, by Applewhite reservoir three times,” Van de Putte said.

“I know that when you word something in there, that it could have possible effects. So I’m hoping that you can work that out. But what I’ve heard is that there are some valid concerns, so I do have some concerns,” Van de Putte said.

Villarreal, meanwhile, said he plans to vote for the amendment because voters need to decide whether their government issues taxpayer-backed debt.

“If one generation of decision makers is going to take on debt, which ultimately takes away options from future generations, then the threshold for making that happen should be something higher than a simple majority,” he said. “And so that’s while I’ll be supporting it.”

At the same time, Villarreal said, the original streetcar proposal could have worked.

Pitched by property owners of the Pearl, it would have been a single line connecting Southtown to the Pearl, he said. The project would have boosted economic activity along the north-south route and leveraged the private sector.

It was a well-defined pilot project that could have been used to convince the larger public of the merits of such a project, Villarreal said.

Adkisson originally supported the streetcar project but then attacked it when he ran for Bexar County judge in the 2014 Democratic primary election. Adkisson had challenged incumbent Count Judge Nelson Wolff, who was a major proponent of the project.

But on Wednesday, Adkisson said he pleaded with the City Council, Commissioners Court and VIA board to delay or kill the project weeks before the city and county jointly announced the project’s death. Adkisson said he wrote officials, saying “pull that sucker down — get it into the next year.”

“First of all, it’s going to hurt Nelson, who I think — not withstanding our little dust-up we had — is a pretty good little leader and my friend for a long time,” Adkisson said. “But the reality was the streetcar was going to take us all off course.”

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