Cruz Silva is the final candidate seeking the position of City of Douglas Mayor.

He was born July 4, 1979 in Douglas,  the son of Ofelia Silva, a well recognized educationalist and community activist. From the time of his birth, his mother along with  grandparents Aurora Vasquez and Jose Cruz Silva raised me with strong emphasis in culture and values.

He attended elementary and junior high education at Loretto Catholic School.He  then attended Douglas High School and graduated in 1997.

“My high school years were very active; I was involved in a variety of school and community clubs such as the Spanish club, drama club, band club, yearbook staff, National Honor Society and student council. My leadership experience started early in my life by being band drum major for two years, class treasurer and student body president at DHS. After graduating from high school I went on to Cochise Community College to pursue an AA degree in education.

“During my college education I joined the Arizona National Guard for eight years where I was stationed in the local armory in Douglas and served as a heavy vehicle operator. After the attack of 9/11 my unit was assigned to the both Douglas and Naco Port of Entries where we offered additional security and search procedures to US Customs.

“While juggling college and National Guard duties I was employed full time at Radio Shack where I received extensive training in sales and managing leadership. I was promoted to assistant manager in a short time after showing very successful sales achievements, which were recognized regionally by Tandy Corporation.”

After four years employment at Radio Shack, he decided to open his own business which is now well known throughout Southern Arizona. He opened  Digital Odyssey in June of 2001, a communications retail store, which was located in downtown G Avenue. After that, he moved his corporation to 10th street where he was able to increase my business three fold.

The  business is a member of the Better Business Bureau and of the National Federation of Independent Business.

“Since then I have continued to operate a successful business in which I have been awarded Small Business of the Year of Douglas and Technology Firm of the Year of Arizona. In 2003, I received a personal award for Businessman of the Year from the National Republican Congressional Committee’s Business Advisory Council. In being a small business owner for almost seven years I understand the requirements that are needed by a small business community and have encouraged several small business owners to give it all they can in order to succeed and expand.

“Seeing the needs of the business community in Douglas, I joined the Douglas Chamber of Commerce in 2002 and was nominated to be part of the Board of Directors in 2003. I served as vice-president and president for a total of three years while involved with the Douglas Chamber of Commerce. During the same time period 2002-2005, I also held the position of paraprofessional in band at Douglas High School, where I worked closely with Mitch Lindemann assisting with the operations of the music department. My business has also been strongly involved in sponsoring local youth sports teams such as t-ball, girl’s softball, and AYSO soccer.

“Other community projects that have been sponsored by my business include various Douglas Noon Lions Club events, Border Patrol Golf Tournament, National Guard Family Support Group, Douglas Chamber of Commerce Awards Ceremony Events, China Poblana Activities and various events from City of Douglas.”

Currently, he still oversees the operations of Digital Odyssey although it has become a self-maintained and self-managed operation. Being an ambitious entrepreneur I also established a new business in 2006; Odyssey Properties & Investments LLC, in the field of local property investments. In August of 2007, I was appointed to the Planning and Zoning Commission for Cochise County by Representative Paul Newman and have served in the commission ever since.

His previous political experience started from high school where I was class treasurer and student body president. Silva then ran for Douglas Unified School District School Board.

Why should I vote for you? You should vote for me because being a young and eager individual I know I can bring new ideas to Douglas. With my experience throughout the years and being an entrepreneur I know what the city needs and that is to create more employments and increase the economy of Douglas. I want to hear what people want in the community and go from there. The main goal of being a mayor is to hear what the people want. Everyone that wants Douglas to progress and have a positive future will vote for me.

What is a primary goal you want accomplished during your four-year term, and how will you achieve that goal? My primary goal during my term is to have a larger number of employments opportunities available and one major contribution to this will be moving forward in the establishment of the commercial entry which will generate more traffic and increase the economy. In addition I want to keep seeking outside investors to look at the potential we have in our city and have them invest and in turn help our city in many ways.

What primary goal should the council as a whole have over the next four years? The council as a whole should be able to work together and the primary goal should be able to listen to the community and be able to improve the community. The mayor and council are the representatives of all the citizens and we should do what the people want and need. First step would be to change the council meeting to a time where more people can attend. That is one major concern all the citizens have.

What unique characteristic do you bring to the Council? My unique characteristic that I can bring to the council is that I am young and have the ability to learn new things. I am very familiar with technology and being a business owner I have great business experience and can contribute my ideas to local business owners.

One area facing all communities is the Economy. What are the plans for the Douglas Economy? My plans is to thoroughly look at the current budget in which the city is operating with and try to eliminate any expenses in which are non-beneficial to the community. After that we the mayor and council together with the finance department will need to get creative and find more ways to fund different programs and create a substantial economy for our city.