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Island Life: Meet the Candidates

Interview with Hector Ramos

Hector Ramos is fired up and ready to be a team member on South Padre Island's City Council as the Place 4 representative.

 

Ramos is currently the healthcare administrator for Dr. R. Joe Ybarra. He is a Harlingen High School graduate. Ramos volunteered as a youth at a local hospital. At 15, he helped out emergency medical services by cleaning and washing out ambulances. When he was 16, Ramos became a dispatcher for EMS before becoming an emergency medical technician. All those steps led him to becoming a paramedic and joining the military.

Hector Ramos, Place 4 Candidate

After serving in the military, and having a natural pull to healthcare and service, Ramos attended nursing school in Seattle. His mother, who became ill, brought him back to the Rio Grande Valley. He eventually made his way to his current administrative position and also became a nursing instructor, totaling 35 years of experience.

 

While living in several cities, from Seattle to Houston, Ramos found himself volunteering wherever he lived. Calling South Padre Island his home is a dream come true for Ramos and sees running for council with his experience as the best way to serve the community.

 

"I kind of always gravitated towards community service," said Ramos looking back at his involvement.

 

Running for office was never too far-fetched for Ramos, and now felt like the best time to pursue the commitment of his mantra to serve.

 

"I've always thought about running for something," he said.

 

Ramos's priority is leadership in the healthcare industry and creating strategies to address issues through communication with the public. If elected, Ramos plans to host weekly public sessions.

 

"It's essential that you want to communicate with your constituents," he said "If the media reaches out, it's our obligation to be able to be there and respond. That's why we get elected."

 

Ramos is committed to working long hours and connecting with local representatives to create meaningful legislation. He encourages residents to vote.

 

"In a city like ours, every vote counts," he said.

Interview with Rees Langston

Retired information and technology project manager Rees Langston plans to bring effective communication to the City Council.

 

She hopes to bring balance to the council through mediation in working with both sides of contentious issues.

 

Langston was born in Corpus Christi, raised in Midland, Texas, and graduated from Texas Tech University. She has a business degree and a computer science minor. Working in information and technology, Langston's profession led her to project management and consulting for accounting firms. 

Rees Langston, Place 4 Candidate

Rees Langston is the third of four generations in her family to travel to South Padre Island.

 

"We started coming down every year. We would come down in August, and eventually, my dad became self-employed," she said. "Then we were able to come and spend the entire month."

 

In 1999, Langston made the Island her home after visiting here for years as a tourist. In her free time, she's heavily involved in the Island Walk for Women for breast cancer awareness. The Walk for Women focuses on donating money to help local women who have breast cancer and are struggling financially.

 

"We basically just give them the check, and they spend it on whatever they need to spend," she said.

 

Langston's priorities, if elected from Place 4, are establishing a middle ground for residents and business owners concerning golf carts and short-term rentals, (STR), and enforcing current city ordinances.

 

"There doesn't need to be these factions of people who seem to be fighting each other as opposed to trying to do what's good for the whole," Langston said.

 

Langston is excited to be a problem solver and plans to change communication by not being afraid to give bad news and own up to mistakes.

 

"We used to say that the bad news gets worse over time in the management industry," she said. "I'm not afraid to face the bad news and come up with solutions to solve that problem."

 

Her hopes for the island's future are to work on the hostility between different schools of thought and agree to disagree or compromise.

 

"I think the entire island needs to understand that just because you disagree with your neighbor doesn't make your neighbor a bad person."

 
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