This article has been updated.
In the first-ever appraisal board elections Saturday across the state, Bexar County voters were asked to choose three candidates to join the Bexar Appraisal District’s board of directors.
With all votes counted, just one of the three at-large positions, Place 1, was decided Saturday.
Naomi Elizabeth Miller, a longtime district director to then-Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, clinched the post with 52.9% of the vote. Business consultant Anna Campos trailed with 47%.
The appraisal district determines property valuations, which are used to decide how much property tax the owner owes. But its board’s role has historically been fairly administrative: Hiring the chief appraiser and approving the department’s budget.
Still, as property valuations have skyrocketed in past years — leading to higher property tax bills — these races drew significant interest from homeowners associations, the real estate industry and political groups.
The races for Place 2 and Place 3 featured three and four candidates, respectively. Because no candidate received more than 50% of the vote, the top two finishers in each race will advance to a June 15 runoff.
For Place 2, Erika Hizel, who runs an advocacy group for small landlords, garnered 34.9% of the vote. Hizel will face off with Stephen Spears, a realtor at Stonepoint Properties Inc., who received 34.2%. Yen Yan, a commercial real estate broker and investor, got 30.9% percent of the vote, missing the runoff.
For Place 3, Robert Bruce, founder of the Boerne Stage Airfield, received 37.4% of the vote. He will face G.L. “Larry” Lamborn, a retired CIA and Army Reserve officer, who came in second with 24.3%, in the June runoff.
Mel Bayne, a retired U.S. Air Force pilot and physician, had 22.6%, and Bradley Frerich, a landscape architect, 15.7%.
An unusual election
The Republican-led Texas Legislature created the new appraisal board positions as part of a major property tax overhaul, which voters approved in the November constitutional amendments.
The new positions will be part of a larger board, made up of remaining members appointed by the various taxing entities.
This year that board also picks up a new responsibility: selecting who serves on the 50-member Appraisal Review Board, which hears challenges to people’s property valuations.
That power alone sparked interest from candidates who said they want to make fighting a valuation less painful for property owners.
At an election night party at The Barn Door — the Straus campaign’s old “war room” — Miller said voters she’d spoken to at the polls were pessimistic about the influence new board members would have.
“A lot of them came up to me and said, ‘Why are you running for this? [The board doesn’t] really have a lot of say in the appraisal review process,'” Miller said. “I’ve always put a positive spin on it. I am a less government person, but expanding the board to include members that are voted on by the public, that’s huge.”
Going forward, the board’s elected positions will be part of general elections held in November. But to select this first batch of officials in time for property tax season, the state triggered an unusual countywide election in a year when typically only pockets of Bexar County would be voting.
Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen said the Bexar Appraisal District had to pay $800,000 for its share of the May 4 election, which was also funded by smaller municipalities that held their city elections at the same time.
The cost of a June 15 runoff would run the appraisal district roughly another $1 million, she said.
Balcones Heights mayor ousted
Longtime Balcones Heights Mayor Suzanne de Leon, who was first elected in 2008 and presided over the municipality’s 2021 partial acquisition of a shopping mall, lost a challenge from former Mayor Johnny Rodriguez, who was in office from 2000 to 2002.
Rodriguez took de Leon’s job back by a single vote in the low-turnout municipal election, 90-89. De Leon, who Rodriguez had been attacking over the mall deal, finished with 49.7% of the vote.
Incumbents also fell in the two contested races for Balcones Heights City Council, with retiree David Sellars also besting Place 2 Councilwoman Gloria Cantu by one vote, 88-87.
For Place 1, retired television director Jack Burton defeated incumbent Stephen Lara, an architect, 54% to 46%. The margin in that race was 14 votes.
Terrell Hills seniors’ property tax cap fails
Voters in Terrell Hills voted down a property tax freeze for people 65 and older.
Proposition A was put on the ballot by petition, pitting older residents against younger ones, who say they would have to absorb the higher taxes if the cost of city services rises.
Supporting the freeze were 37.6% of Terrell Hills voters, while 62.4% opposed it.
Shavano Park voters reauthorize crime prevention effort
Shavano Park voters overwhelmingly extended a crime control and prevention district that’s paid for by a quarter-cent sales tax.
Support for Shavano Park’s Proposition A was at 90.8%, versus 9.2% opposed.
