In an unusually hard-fought race for a seat on the Alamo Colleges board, political newcomer Robert Garcia has been racking up endorsements and running circles around his opponents\u2019 fundraising.<\/p>\n
With that success has also come added scrutiny, as an old arrest record from when he was a teenager<\/a> was circulated this week by an unidentified email user.<\/p>\n Garcia, now 44, said he grew up in a tough environment, dropped out of John Jay High School at age 17, and was caught making illegal returns worth more than $2,000 while working at Garden Ridge \u2014 the home decor store now known as At Home \u2014 in 2000.<\/p>\n \u201cI come from a very broken home, single mom, my dad died when I was 11 \u2026 so I stole, and I had a second-degree felony theft charge,\u201d Garcia told the San Antonio Report. \u201cI paid full restitution, I did all of my court hours and paid the court fees, and I had three years of probation.\u201d<\/p>\n He hasn\u2019t had the records expunged \u2014 a common practice many political candidates use to seal unflattering old records before running for office. He said Monday that the arrest isn\u2019t a secret to those who know him well. <\/p>\n \u201cThis was a huge mistake, one that I\u2019ve always leaned into and shared openly within my community, because it\u2019s shaped who I am,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n Still, he said he was surprised to see the issue come up on the campaign trail, just as early voting was starting for the May 2 election<\/a>.<\/p>\n The anonymous email user who shared the records with the Report said they\u2019re an Alamo Colleges employee who\u2019s concerned about someone with Garcia\u2019s record taking on a role \u201cdefined by the stewardship of public funds.\u201d<\/p>\n The author took steps to conceal their identity because they feared retribution, they said.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t expect any of this to come out like this, I didn\u2019t think it was that kind of race,\u201d Garcia said in an interview. \u201cBut I guess if you can\u2019t beat \u2019em, smear \u2019em.\u201d<\/p>\n An unusual race<\/p>\n This year Garcia is one of three candidates challenging District 9 Trustee\u00a0Leslie Sachanowicz<\/a> for a seat on the Alamo Colleges board.<\/p>\n The board oversees five independently accredited community colleges \u2014 San Antonio College, St. Philip\u2019s College, Palo Alto College, Northwest Vista College and Northeast Lakeview College \u2014 known as the Alamo Colleges District.<\/p>\n At a time when higher education has been rocked by partisan politics<\/a>, the district\u2019s faculty union has rallied around longtime Palo Alto College professor\u00a0Carolyn DeLecour<\/a>, 77, to replace an incumbent with a more business-centric background.<\/p>\n The other challenger, Joe Jesse Sanchez<\/a>, 78, is also a longtime educator who served on the board for six years before Sachanowicz, a 68-year-old attorney, unseated him in 2020.<\/p>\n Garcia, by contrast, is running on his experience as a product of a community college system he said is designed to lift up students just like him. <\/p>\n \u201cThis isn\u2019t about being an educator in the classroom,\u201d Garcia said in a recent interview. \u201cThis is a very complex organization that\u2019s multi-layered, where your relationships and understanding of San Antonio and the county impact everything.\u201d<\/p>\n After his brush with the law in the summer of 2000, Garcia went back to school that fall and completed his degree a year behind schedule at John Jay \u2014 the Westside high school that also produced San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones.<\/p>\n He started taking courses at Northwest Vista College while also working full time and completing his court-ordered community service hours, and eventually completed both a bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degree in accounting at UTSA.<\/p>\n So far, he has\u00a0raised nearly $22,000<\/a>\u00a0for his Alamo Colleges campaign \u2014 far more than Sanchez<\/a>, who raised about $3,500, DeLecour<\/a>, who raised about $2,000, and Sachanowicz, who is self-funding his reelection race.<\/p>\n