CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Lindale Senior Center parking lot was full Thursday evening as residents took time to hear from candidates running for various city government spots during a Q&A forum.
Six candidates are currently running for the mayoral seat, but only three showed up Thursday. Heidi Hovda sits on the Lindale Neighbors Candidates Forum Steering Committee and helped organize the event that has been held for 10 years.
She said that candidates were notified of the event the day after they were finalized to run, but because of its structure, there were potential roadblocks.
"The mayoral forum came later in the day, and I think that created some conflicts for a couple of the candidates," Hovda said.
Hovda said the scheduling could have been a factor in why some of the candidates did not show up.
"Mr. Fredrick had to back out for a work commitment and I believe he hurt himself as well recently," she said. "Mayor Guajardo had to back out because she had an event at this time but she did send a representative to speak on her behalf, as well as Mr. Fredrick. And, Anthem Powers backed out, he said it was a little too late for him.
Candidates present were asked questions about serious city issues including, streets, budget constraints and animal control.
Corpus Christi residents John Castanon and Keli Hinojosa said that they want to be as active as possible when it comes to hearing candidates. Hinojosa stating that, "neighborhoods are the core of our community."
Castanon said with all the hot topics voters have brought before city leaders, he just wants to know that someone is making positive change.
"The infrastructure, we're getting so much rain, what are we doing about the flooding, what are we doing about all the excess ponding, there's just a lot of things," he said.
Mayoral candidates Isabel Araiza and John Calkusic were both present for the event.
3NEWS stayed at the event for an hour and a half and as crews were leaving, we were told that candidate Michael Hunter was still en route.