The Gazette-Enterprise

SEGUIN — Cibolo businessman Gabriel Castro announced this week he will seek an at-large seat on the Cibolo City Council.

Castro, a resident of Cibolo for about five years, became the first candidate to make his announcement public in the wake of a pending recall election of the entire City Council.

“It is my belief that the citizens of Cibolo rely too much on the politicians to do their thinking for them,” Castro said. “With a City Council built around true leadership, trustworthiness and honor, I believe we will gain the respect of the citizens of Cibolo.”

Castro became interested in the city’s politics when he and his wife bought a house in the area.

He considered serving on the city’s parks and recreation committee, then a watchdog committee knocked on his door one day with a petition and Castro realized where he wanted to serve his community.

“Cibolo needs a clean slate,” he said. “It’s the same old thing going on and the people have lost respect for the City Council. We need a new election, and if some of them get re-elected, that’s great. If I get elected, that’s great too.”

The East Texas native is self-employed in the employee relations industry representing several companies in and around San Antonio.

Castro said his business has taught him the importance of team building and keeping everyone involved, and it is that same concept he wants to incorporate if he is elected to the City Council.

“We need more people involved in out city. The people of Cibolo need to make their thoughts and ideas known to the council,” he said. “I want to get the public more involved.”

Citizens are permitted by law to make public comments during City Council meetings, but Castro believes local politicians who go door knocking during election season also have an obligation to door knock when important issues could affect the community.

Castro talked about the population explosion Cibolo has experienced since 2000, and promised to share his growth vision with a new City Council.

Castro said while it is exciting to see the the city experiencing a boom in housing and construction, more needs to be done to boost civic pride and make downtown Cibolo viable.

“I believe downtown Cibolo can be a mini New Braunfels,” Castro said. “There are a lot of buildings down there that can be restored and there are a lot of homes that can be bought out. We can open up shopping centers, almost like they have in Bracken. I also want to do more of getting students involved in the community. I want to get them involved in pageants, create scholarship programs and get business owners more involved in the schools.”

Castro said with the right ideas and a lot of hard work, Cibolo could be better than its neighbor to the west.

“I want us to overtake Schertz,” he said. “I want there to be more industrial growth, I’d like to see more small business owners come in and I’d like to see small business owners who live in Cibolo get out of their homes, make that sacrifice and put their money in Cibolo instead of going to San Antonio or New Braunfels.”

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