The four major mayoral contenders seeking the corner office at City Hall continued to run the gauntlet of debates this week and turned up the rhetoric as election day nears.

Former state Rep. Mike Villarreal and former state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte continued to hammer on Mayor Ivy Taylor, who they say failed to display leadership in keeping ride-hailing firms Uber and Lyft from shuttering operations here because of overly burdensome regulations.

Taylor and Villarreal, meanwhile, stepped up their assaults on Van de Putte over her endorsement from the San Antonio Police Officers Association. Former Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson, who avoids directly attacking his opponents, continues to disparage the city for myriad reasons.

On Monday at a Trinity University forum moderated by Texas Week’s Rick Casey, Adkisson rejected city plans to aggressively annex land beyond its current boundaries. The city isn’t doing a sufficient job of providing services to its existing residents, he said, and shouldn’t add more people to the mix until it first addresses its current deficiencies.

“We are jumping a little quickly into this. First of all, I can tell you the code compliance in my neighborhood sucks,” he said. “I can tell you that the street repair in my Middle America community leaves much to be desired. Animal Care Services — much to be desired.”

Villarreal and Van de Putte, too, take issue with the city annexation plans, which Taylor continually defends. She’s also been on the defensive lately over a position she took in previous annual budget discussions when she was the District 2 councilwoman. City documents show she supported a proposal to increase the city’s property tax rate because of looming shortfalls that would potentially have cut into core city services, such as street repair and library operations.

Her opponents say they would hold the line on the city’s property tax rate — a commitment Taylor, too, has made. She says her stance on increasing taxes in the past has been “mischaracterized.”

But Taylor isn’t the only candidate playing defense. Van de Putte has faced criticism from Taylor and Villarreal over her endorsement from the San Antonio Police Officers Association.

Villarreal says in exchange for an endorsement, Van de Putte promised to drop the city’s pending lawsuit against the police and fire unions over their “evergreen” clause, which keeps their current contracts intact, absent salary increases, for up to a decade if new contracts aren’t agreed upon.

The city sued the unions, asking a state court to decide whether such a clause violates the Texas Constitution.

“In this race, there are choices to be made. My opponent, Leticia Van de Putte, earned the endorsement of the police union by promising to draw down the city’s lawsuit challenging the evergreen clause in the police union contract,” Villarreal said. “That is not the way to get that side of the negotiating table to the table.”

Van de Putte told audiences this week she’s made no promises and believes a 10-year evergreen is too long. She says as mayor, she would not have allowed negotiations to devolve to the point of needing a lawsuit — a swing at Taylor’s management of the situation. Van de Putte says there’s been severely failed leadership on collective bargaining.

Taylor has pushed back, saying she believes the city was on the precipice of finalizing an agreement with the police union when its officials decided to endorse Van de Putte. Taylor accuses her opponent of politicizing the negotiations and making it impossible to reach an agreement with the cops.

Meanwhile, the firefighters have stayed away from the table and have yet to even begin negotiating for a new contract.

“I don’t think that settling the police contract to the benefit of the taxpayers is something that should be within the political arena, and I have worked very hard to keep it out of the political arena,” Taylor said.

“However, it has been kicked squarely back into that arena, and I want you to know that that is exactly what has happened, and I want you to think about whether you want leadership that is focused on self-interest or leadership that is focused on community interests,” she said.

Van de Putte denied promising anything to the police union.

“ I made no promises,” she said.

Villarreal quipped: “Leticia — respect her, like her, wonderful state senator. On this issue, she’s wrong.”

jbaugh@express-news.net