Meet the candidate: Matthew James Kozik seeks City Council, 1 seat

Meet the candidate: Matthew James Kozik, City Council District 1

Age: 45

Occupation: I am an attorney, owner, and operator of The Matthew James, Attorney at Law.

Please describe your personal and professional background.

I graduated with a degree in political science and African American studies from The Ohio State University, where I also participated in numerous community service projects. I then attended law school in Washington, D.C., at a Historically Black College and University (HBCU), where I provided legal support through the D.C. HIV/AIDS Legal Clinic and the D.C. Special Education and Juvenile Clinic. I also moved to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to attend Tulane Law and work at the New Orleans Legal Assistance Corporation, providing legal services to those affected by the storm. During law school,

I worked on Capitol Hill and a presidential campaign. After graduating from law school in 2008, I worked as an attorney for the federal government, then joined the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps in 2011. As a Judge Advocate, I deployed to Afghanistan, where I advised senior officers regarding kinetic strikes and reviewed operational orders while serving as the Brigade Judge Advocate for 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, advising commanders of over 3,000 Soldiers and thousands of civilians. I was stationed at Fort Bliss, where I served again as the senior legal advisor for 11th Air Defense Artillery, while also serving as a prosecutor handling crimes from sexual assault to aggravated assault, where I achieved numerous convictions. While stationed in the Republic of Korea, advising United States Forces Korea (USFK) and 8th Army, I served as the ethics advisor for the 4-star general officer and his subordinates, while also serving as a contract and fiscal law advisor, reviewing and approving contracts for millions of dollars. When stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado, I served as a defense attorney, representing Soldiers accused of serious criminal offenses. Throughout my time within the Army, I was consistently ranked as a top Judge Advocate and earned awards such as the Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal, Combat Action Badge, and Parachute Badge. After concluding active-duty service, my spouse, Gloria, whom I met while stationed at Fort Bliss, moved back to El Paso to start our family, where we have two boys, Mateo and Thiago. It was at this time, with the goal to serve our community, we opened an immigration and criminal defense law firm called The Matthew James.

Describe your political identity.

I have worked and voted for both sides of the political isle. Good ideas and taking care of the people of El Paso is my political identity.

Questions related to El Paso City Council District 6 race

Do you support the proposed Downtown I-10 Deck Plaza project? Why or why not? If elected, would you support using city funds to help finance the project?

I do not support the deck plaza as in its current state, the residents of El Paso, would be required to pay through property tax increases. Until a time where it is established that no money will go to building or maintenance, I will not support. El Pasoans are paid nearly $500 less a week than the rest of the state, we have much bigger issues on our plate.

Property taxes remain a top concern for many El Paso homeowners. What specific actions would you support to slow the growth of property tax bills or reduce services?

On August 18, 2026, Council voted 6–2 to raise the city rate from 75.9649 to 79.8 cents per $100, about $105 a year on the average home. It left $33.5 million in reserve headroom untouched and $4.2 million a year in reinvestment zones council had not re-examined. My pledge: no rate above 79.8 cents through FY 2028.

Fire and police contracts, debt service and inflation add about $32.1 million in pressure in FY 2028. At 3% growth, a flat rate brings in $18.1 million, leaving a $14 million gap. Five tools close it with no election, no new tax and no service cut:

• Reinvestment zone terminations, up to $4.2M. Ordinances must come in October, before values lock January 1, 2027.
• Contract discipline, $1.0–$4.1M. Cap growth on renewals at 5%.
• Operating growth discipline, $2.0–$3.2M. Decline above-inflation growth in the city manager's office.
• Fee cost recovery, $1.0–$1.5M. Development review fees should cover what the reviews cost.
• Debt refunding, up to $3.0M, under a published affordability policy.

Higher wages from the Good Jobs Plan grow sales tax. Shared law enforcement services and county fire cost recovery ease public safety, which is 57% of the General Fund. At 4% growth, the tools at their midpoint hold the rate. At 3%, they need to run near the top, or a one-time reserve draw bridges the difference. Below 2%, holding the rate means drawing reserves or cutting services, and I will say so.

Texas law requires 60% of council for a rate above the no-new-revenue rate. In August, two members voted no. District 1 will vote to hold the line.

Road conditions continue to be a major concern for voters. What steps would you take to ensure adequate and sustainable funding for street maintenance and repairs across El Paso?

El Paso pays for new streets with debt: certificates of obligation, which need no voter approval, and bonds like the $237 million for streets in 2022. Property taxpayers repay both. When a subdivision goes up on the edge of town, its arterial gets bonded, and existing taxpayers make the payments for twenty years. No outside money is coming.

The city budgets about $10 million a year for street maintenance against roughly $75 million needed to hold pavement steady. About half of the $3.6 billion network is rated fair to very poor. The City's own CFO has said that neither property taxes nor more debt is sustainable.

The plan: adopt a Roadway Impact Fee under Chapter 395. Developers pay once, at building permit, for the new road capacity their projects need. Existing homeowners pay nothing: no monthly charge, no tax increase. No new state law is needed.

Every $10 million of growth road capital paid in cash avoids about $769,000 a year in debt service for twenty years. That's about $3 a year on the median homestead, plus $5.4 million in interest never paid. Shifting $70 million over a five-year plan approaches a full cent. It also frees city dollars for maintenance, which impact fees can't pay for directly.

How we get it done:

• Commission the fee study alongside the Stormwater Impact Fee Study.
• Credit roads developers already build, as §395.023 requires.
• Follow Chapter 395's procedures exactly.
• Adopt the maximum, then phase in collection, as Bastrop did.
• Report fees collected and debt avoided every year.
• Vote within 18 to 24 months.

What is your assessment of the city's Data Center Policy Framework? Does it strike the right balance between economic development and protecting community resources, or would you propose changes?

Meta's Northeast El Paso data center receives an 80% property tax break, worth roughly $110 million in incentives for Phase 1 and up to $550 million across all phases. In return, Meta's binding commitment is 50 full-time jobs at the area median wage, not the 300 it publicizes, and enforcement is a decade out. Meta can walk away; the city cannot. If Meta breaches, the city can only end the affected phase and grants already paid are never repaid. We are not proposing to break the contract. We are proposing to use it.

What we will do:

• Invoke the dispute clause. Section 20 requires good-faith negotiation and mediation. We will raise six disputes, from confidentiality overreach to the Stan Roberts Sr. Avenue cost share.
• Win the transparency fight. A contract cannot override the Public Information Act. Water use, electrical load, jobs, wages and emissions are not trade secrets, and state regulators, EPWater and the appraisal district hold the data too.
• Build leverage Meta can't veto. The contract doesn't waive citywide water and wastewater impact fees, whose meter-based method badly under-recovers for a data center.
• Trade that leverage for an amendment: a job floor raised toward 300, an indexed wage floor, local hiring and apprenticeships, a groundwater cap, Meta paying for power built for its load, and a standing confidentiality waiver.
• Hold the line elsewhere. Press the PUC on the $551.8 million McCloud plant so ratepayers don't inherit its cost, publish an annual compliance scorecard, and put jobs-per-dollar rules and clawbacks on any future land.

Should the city continue offering tax abatements and other incentives to attract profitable corporations or industries? Under what circumstances, if any, should those incentives be approved?

Tax abatements should be a tool for El Paso, not a gift from El Paso. The only deal worth signing is one that pays our families back in good jobs, fair wages and a stronger tax base.

Meta shows what happens when we get it wrong. The public was told 300 jobs, but the contract guarantees just 50, for a tax break valued at $550 million. Its promise to hire local contractors is only a "commercially reasonable effort" that Meta can ignore without default, and the City waived nearly every fee, leaving residents to cover costs growth should pay.

Our workers earn $961 a week against $1,394 nationally. Incentives should close that gap, not widen it. Under my Good Jobs Plan, every abatement must meet five standards.

First, binding job counts, not press-release numbers. Second, wage floors at or above the area median, so the jobs we buy lift families. Third, enforceable local hiring and contracting, with real penalties. Fourth, clawbacks that recover taxpayer money when a company falls short. Fifth, no fee waivers. New projects pay their own impact fees for roads, water and drainage.

Before any vote, the City should publish the cost per job, the payback period, and whether the project would come without the incentive. After it, audit every deal annually. In the City's own 2024 audit, 6 of 7 incentive files lacked required financial records.

If a deal can't prove its value in public, it doesn't get my vote. El Paso has given enough away.

Public safety remains a core city responsibility. What are your top priorities for police, fire and emergency services, and how would you pay for them?

El Paso funds two full-service law enforcement agencies plus the constables, at nearly $400 million a year. Texas law bars a merged metro police department, because the Sheriff and constables are elected. But Chapter 791 lets the city and county share everything that doesn't depend on the badge:

• Back office first: one dispatch center, training academy, crime lab and records system, plus joint purchasing.
• Duplicated units next: joint warrant, SWAT, bomb, aviation and crash teams.
• Patrol boundaries last: one primary agency per zone, so no beat is staffed twice.
• Civilianization: return at least 40 officers per agency to enforcement within 24 months by filling desk jobs with civilians.

No sworn officer loses a job. The city's share of the savings is $4.6 to $9.0 million a year.

EPFD answers calls in unincorporated county territory, where residents pay no city tax, and today that help is free. State law requires interlocal service to be fairly compensated. We will publish the call data within 60 days, then negotiate per-response, availability and EMS transport fees with the county and its emergency services districts. Disaster mutual aid stays free. Estimated recovery is $0.6 to $5.0 million a year. No city station or firefighter position is touched.

Together, that's $5 to $14 million a year, or about 1 to 2.5 cents on the rate, against $32.1 million in FY 2028 pressure. This is how we hold 79.8 cents without cutting services. The police contract expires in August 2027, so these changes must be bargained before renewal.

What do you see as El Paso's biggest economic challenge, and what specific policies would you pursue to address it?

The city must reset its financial foundation and my answers to all prior questions answers this question. Once we solve taxes, roads, tax breaks, and the cost of public safety, we will set ourselves up for a much brighter future. These plans can be implemented quickly which results thereafter.  Let’s get to work. 

Have you read the City Charter? What did you learn is the top City Council priority?

City Charter is talk but no action. That is why this is a change election.

City leaders often face divisive issues. How would you work with colleagues, stakeholders and residents to find common ground and build consensus on major city decisions?

I have lived all over the U.S. and have served diverse communities. If city council works together on behalf of its residents, I do not foresee any divisiveness. However, if proposed goals or legislative priorities are not in the best interests of our residents, I will fight every day to make sure we work for the people who elected us.

What should be the city's next big civic project?

The next big civics project is running an ethical and open city council. We must reset our financial foundations, be it our budget, funding roads, addressing the economic disparities we face in El Paso, and growing our population. We must regain the trust of our residents, rebuild our basic foundation of government, showing our residents that we can be trusted again, living within our means, not giving an 80% tax cut to a billion-dollar company while raising taxes on everyone else; then we can focus on outside projects. Regaining the trust of our people is the next big civics project.

Learn more about Matthew James Kozik

Do you plan to continue in your current employment if elected?

I am an attorney, owner, and operator of The Matthew James, Attorney at Law, and we would transition my responsibilities to other staff so that I may focus full-time on city council responsibilities.

What experiences in leadership do you have that qualify you for this position?

I have owned and operated a legal practice while supporting my staff with far greater pay than what is considered a living wage. I have handled cases of national importance and successfully advised general officers on various legal matters. I have consistently led teams in federal court, state court, and immigration court to achieve successful outcomes, whether as a prosecutor, defense attorney, or in obtaining legal status for an immigrant. I have been tested and tried in the business community, legal community, and combat, and I have always led with distinction.

Have you ever been arrested or charged with a crime? Have you ever had a civil judgment against you? Have you ever been in arrears on local, state or federal taxes? If so, please provide an explanation.

I have had a higher security clearance than the city council, so no legal issues.

If elected, would you have any potential conflicts of interest that you are aware of that would impair your ability to serve? Please explain what they are and how you would avoid the conflict.

None. I will not accept donations from the entities we are required to regulate.

What does transparent government mean to you? Will you be personally accessible to answer questions while in office?

Transparent government is having the city work for its people again. Poll after poll shows citizens losing trust in their public institutions. When the District 1 incumbent continues to accept donations from the CEO of El Paso Electric, or when the District 1 incumbent accepts donations from individuals they vote to sit on the board of El Paso Water, or when our District 1 incumbent votes to raise taxes but votes against giving back her $6,000 travel budget, that is not transparency; rather, it causes our residents to lose trust in our local leadership.

What distinguishes you from the other candidates in this race, and why should voters choose you?

Everything. I am a combat veteran and would be the first Afghanistan/Iraq combat veteran to serve on city council. I have lived all over the world and chose to raise my family in El Paso because of the potential we have here – yet on a daily basis I see city government not taking care of its people. One candidate in this race plans to serve only one term because of his advanced age; another candidate, the incumbent, refused to try to renegotiate the Meta agreement. I have argued before the 5th Circuit and have submitted briefs to the Supreme Court; I know what it takes to fight and win for our people – I have done that, be it in uniform, as a prosecutor, policy advisor, defense attorney, or immigration attorney. I know the importance of small businesses that grew on their own rather than receiving thousands of dollars in family money like the incumbent in District 1, because I have grown my small businesses with nothing but the support of my spouse and our great community. My goal is simply to make our city work for its people again, to do it honestly and ethically, and to make sure our residents see a bright future in El Paso. I am the only candidate in any race that has taken time to develop policy initiates to tackle property taxes, data centers, electricity, utility rates, and the concerns el paso has. My history is public leadership, and I want to lead our residents.

The candidates' responses are being published largely as they were submitted.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Meet the candidate: Matthew James Kozik seeks City Council, 1 seat