Martin Heines

The choice in the Tyler mayor’s race is clear. Incumbent Mayor Martin Heines has done an outstanding job in providing leadership and accessibility during his tenure. His focus is on maintaining and improving what’s special about Tyler, including its business-friendly climate, its quality of life and its diverse economy.

His opponents in the race are Joel Rando, a local businessman who ran against him in 2014, and political newcomer Michael Williams.

We find that as in 2014, Rando is simply unprepared for the position. He remains uninformed about not only the issues facing Tyler, but how municipal government works.

We extended an invitation to meet with Williams, but ultimately declined to meet the conditions he demanded.

Heines, however, has carried on in the manner of recent Tyler mayors – most recently Barbara Bass – who have been solidly committed to a fiscally conservative, customer-oriented city government.

His commitment to accountability has been demonstrated in recent months, when problems were discovered in the city’s water system. Environmental activist Erin Brockovich’s organization accused the city of downplaying the seriousness of a contaminant violation, and later claimed the city misused chloramine (chlorine + ammonia) in the treatment process.

The mayor’s response wasn’t to get defensive; he instructed City Manager Ed Broussard to bring in an independent, outside firm to evaluate the city’s entire water treatment system.

In response to that firm’s evaluation, the city made some significant changes in its processes.

“This does not mean that we are done,” he said in February. “We have a lot of work to do to ensure we are maintaining our infrastructure in a way that we can be proud of.”

When residents came to the city with concerns about drainage, Heines again responded appropriately. He has called for entering all flooding and drainage data in to the city’s geographic information system (GIS) to better evaluate and remedy problems. He’s willing to delay some other projects, if necessary, to get current drainage under control.

Heines is also thinking about the future of the city. His signature project is the Mayor’s Innovation Pipeline, which will bring a “makerspace” incubator to Tyler to foster entrepreneurship and high-tech innovation.

Heines outlined the project in his state of the city speech in 2015.

“It is a place that provides the electronics and equipment that fosters innovation and ingenuity,” Heines said at the time. “The space is where invention intersects with robotics and computers, engineering, electronics, art and invention.”

He has rallied the business community behind the project, winning sponsorship commitments from companies big and small.

And Heines’ newly announced mentorship program will soon pair Tyler youth with Tyler city employees.

In 2014, we wrote that Heines has a long and distinguished career of community and public service. His record on the City Council was one of stability, problem-solving and attention to detail. Tyler voters can be confident that Heines’ abilities and temperament will ensure he remains a good steward of all that is best in Tyler, a city we like to think of as the “last great place.”

We reiterate those sentiments now.