Tyler voters have three choices on ballot for mayor

Published 11:55 am Friday, April 22, 2016

1. Joel Rando promises to work on roads, safety if elected as Tyler mayor
2. Mayor Martin Heines promises focus on infrastructure, mentoring if elected to second term
3. Tyler mayoral candidate Michael Williams describes himself as a socialist, says he’ll triple taxes on high priced homes

Tyler voters will have three choices to represent the city as their mayor.

Incumbent Mayor Martin Heines, 53, drew two opponents – businessman Joel Rando, 41, and former Houston police officer Michael Williams, 67.

All registered voters in the city are eligible to vote in the election.

Early voting in the May 7 election will run from April 25 to May 3.

Rando ran against Heines in 2014, while Williams is a political newcomer.

In 2014, Heines was elected 91.6 percent, while Rando received 8.4 percent of the vote. Heines is seeking a second term as Mayor. He previously served three terms as the District 4 council seat.

Rando is a small businessman who owns an iPhone repair shop in town. He said at one point he owned as many as 13 businesses but lost them due to poor health and had to rebuild.

He was born and raised in Lubbock and attended Texas Tech University.

Williams lists his profession on his candidate application as disabled veteran.

He filed a lawsuit against the city and 46 other defendants last year, claiming he’d been assaulted, defamed, conspired against and abused. Other documents claim that police detained and kidnapped him.

That lawsuit, which demanded $10 million, was thrown out on March 24 by U.S. District Judge Michael Schneider. Williams has filed an appeal.

Heines, is a small business owner as well as a property manager and investor. He holds a bachelor’s of arts degree in business administration from the University of Texas at Austin.

He has also served on a list of community boards including: the Tyler International Existing Building Code Committee, Tyler 1st Steering Committee, the Mayor’s Tyler Leadership Roundtable and the Midtown Area Development Committee.

He also has served on the boards of a list of nonprofit organizations including: the Tyler Junior College Foundation, the University of Texas at Tyler’s Small Business Institute Program’s advisory committee, Heart of Tyler/Main Street, Literacy Council, Historic Tyler and Tyler Board of Realtors.

Senior Editor Roy Maynard contributed to this report

Twitter: @TMTFaith