Margie Gonzales wants to be a voice for the average citizen

Among the crowded field to replace Cole Stanley in Place 1 for the Amarillo City Council, Margie Gonzales wants to stand out for her work in the community as a candidate representing the city's average citizen.

Born and raised in Amarillo at the old Saint Anthony Hospital, Gonzales graduated from Baylor with a double major in business management and marketing. After she graduated, she turned down a job offer from a business firm in Dallas to return to Amarillo.

About seven years after returning, Gonzales decided to leave that career and go into the ministry full-time. She said that she had always felt the calling to minister, but something happened within her to want to do it full-time at that point.

She is a chaplain for Baptist Community Services and serves as the chaplain for Heal the City and Wesley Community Center. Gonzales is also the associate pastor at Vida Church.

Heal the City, which she works with, is a nonprofit clinic that offers quality medical care to individuals who kind of fall in the gap and may not be able to qualify for certain types of medical insurance but cannot afford health insurance. She said that more than 600 people in the city receive care from this organization.

“We try to treat everyone with respect with physical, mental and spiritual care,” Gonzales said.

Within the community, Gonzales is involved heavily with Snack Pak 4 Kids, Family Support Services and other groups and serves on the board of Pray the City. She said that her involvement with the community gives her a great perspective on the needs in the city.

Gonzales says that she wanted to run for council because she does not feel like the interests of most of the people of the city are being represented.

“The difference between me and most of the people running for council is that on four out of five days, I am out on the streets with live human beings just trying to live life and make it to the next week," she said.

During one of her invocations for city council last year, Gonzales said that she really started to have an awareness that no one of city council seems to represent what most of the city is.

“I remember sitting there thinking that this council does not look like most of the citizens of Amarillo,” Gonzales said. “Most Amarillo citizens are not business professionals; most Amarillo citizens are not business owners. I did not feel the council represents who we are as a city. Amarillo is over 40% Hispanic, and there is not one councilmember who is Hispanic.”

She said the council did not look balanced and, in fact, it was stacked with people that represent business rather than the people.

“By and in large, my time is spent in the city with the average type of citizen of the city,” Gonzales said. “I look at them and say I do not know how engaged they are on a personal level with the people of the city. To me, you cannot talk about how a city is growing if you have so many pockets of the city struggling. Community involves every part of the city."

Asked why she feels that she is the best person for the council position, Gonzales said that while she is never one to brag about herself, she is the most rounded with a budget background, understanding the importance of allocating funds appropriately within a budget, and that she is the only one that is out there daily working with people in the community with problems.

“The biggest thing I have in my favor is that I actually deal with the average person in the city, not just the businessman,” Gonzales said. “I am dealing with senior citizens, families that are struggling to put groceries on the table and pay bills. I do more than go out there to take photo opportunities.”

Her priority, if elected, is to unite the city, which she feels is very divided now.

“There has to be a healing, a restoration of trust,” Gonzales said. “People must see us be who we say we are. We must show we have integrity and are accountable to the voters with transparency. They must see us as people that they can put their trust in.”

To restore trust, she feels as a council, they must be honest in being able to answer critical questions.

"We all talk about improving communication, but we cannot improve communication if one party is talking and the other side is not listening,” she said. “I am convinced that much of the city does not know what the council actually does.”

She feels that disagreement between council members and the public is healthy but must be done respectfully, so that all sides are listened to, rather than being talked over. Gonzales says councilmembers should set an example for citizens with how they deal with issues and never allow the conversation to digress into shouting matches like were exhibited at the last council meeting.

Improving infrastructure in the city for Gonzales is about looking at neglected areas of the city and ensuring that there are no basic infrastructure needs that are being neglected in certain areas.

“It’s all about equity,” she said. “We need to put some attention on the north side of the city. If it means we must take attention from the south side, I am sorry — it is not like I want other areas to lose out — but we must pay attention to areas forever neglected in this city.”

She said one could see the infrastructure issues just going a few blocks from Hodgetown or Polk Street. She said that it takes about a minute, and you are in a dilapidated neighborhood neglected by the city with development and infrastructure. She said all citizens are entitled to basic service of streets and water, which at this time are not equal.

“We are trying to preach how beautiful the city is and how the downtown has been revitalized, and it's evident just a short distance the neglect for other areas,” Gonzales said. “We cannot say we are growing if all of these communities are neglected. There must be more balance. Everyone is entitled to the same basic service of streets and water."

On crime, Gonzales said that the city needs to have more officers on staff, and the city must be competitive in hiring and retaining officers. She said the size of the city dictates more officers, and that she would like an expansion of the Neighborhood Officer Program.

Gonzales says that while this will have an immediate impact, the city needs to explore the root causes of crime. She says the key is equal opportunity and having education and activities for the youth.

“Poverty drives crime, with people having a lack of opportunities to have the same education as other areas in town. Crime is always about lack of opportunities,” Gonzales said. “We need things for youth to do; we need parenting programs to attack the causes of crimes. When kids have nothing to do, they get idle and do stupid stuff."

To Gonzales, for the new council to best serve the city, candidates need to educate themselves on what council does and what is expected of them to represent the people of the city. She also says that the council must be cognizant that they are leaders, and their actions reflect on the city.

“Everything we do affects the morale of the city in some way, shape or form,” she said. “We need to understand that everything we do impacts a person. Educate yourself so that you can be the best city councilmember that you can be, and remind yourself every day that you are representing the citizens and that everything you do is either tearing down the morale and the unity of the city or building the morale and the unity of the city.”

Gonzales said that she feels the only reason the city may need to look at single-member districts is because it seems like there is a narrow representation of the population.

“The reason I would favor single-member districts is so these areas can have actual representation that knows and cares about these areas,” Gonzales said. “People need to have some representation that they are somehow connected to. The neighborhoods in many areas of the city have no true representation on the council.”

Gonzales says she knows there are issues with some areas not getting out to vote, and she thinks that there needs to be more education within the city about the importance of voting in local elections, especially city council, because these affect all people in the city much more than national elections.

“We are no good if we cannot stand together,” Gonzales said. “If we do not have at least the common goal of improving the entire city, we are failing. If we cannot fix these broken pieces and come together as a city, we cannot succeed. For real growth to happen, it must touch every part of the city.”

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Candidate Margie Gonzales running for Amarillo City Council place 1