Editor’s note: the following is an excerpt from the author’s position paper on the candidacy of Renard Johnson, who is running to be El Paso’s next mayor. This is part two of a two-part series. The position paper is available for free by signing up to the Polinotes Newsletter. Click here to sign up.
When Renard Johnson announced his candidacy for mayor on January 30, 2024, few voters knew about him or his business. Johnson has stated that he is a “local businessman and community leader who deeply cares about” El Paso. Through his campaign’s website, Johnson showcases his experience as the owner of Management and Engineering Technologies International, Inc. (METI) as the reason that, as mayor, he will create “substantial growth” and create “many jobs” for El Paso. Johnson writes on his website that as mayor he “will prioritize” El Paso’s “quality of life,” adding that he “will strive to make El Paso the safest city in Texas once again, promote economic development initiatives to improve infrastructure, support small businesses, and produce jobs.”
Johnson announced early to run for mayor because he lacked the name recognition needed to run for office. Johnson needs to brand himself before the voters. Unfortunately, Johnson’s branding lacks important specificity and worse, it shows him to be aloof about how the municipal government works. Nonetheless his branding and political consultants have been working to bring Renard Johnson to the attention of the voters. But a review of Johnson’s background suggests that he is hoping that the voters won’t look too hard and break through the carefully crafted campaign branding.
If voters were to look past the carefully crafted messaging, they will find a candidate that doesn’t seem to understand the powers of the mayor’s office, seems to want taxes to be the answer to El Paso’s prosperity as tax generated revenues are Johnson’s business experiences to date. As if that wasn’t enough, Johnson says he wants to bring jobs to El Paso but when Johnson needed branding for his iconic tequila brand showcasing El Paso, Renard Johnson didn’t look to El Pasoans to help him with his brand, but instead went to Phoenix for the brand and China for the “perro” bottles.
To understand Renard Johnson as mayor it is important to know his history, one fraught with questions about how he will be as mayor and more important, what possible conflicts of interest he brings to the table.
Three Of Five Priorities Aren’t Possible As Mayor
On his campaign website, Johnson offers five priorities he will tackle as mayor. They are economic development focused on good jobs, excellent quality of life, public safety, education and student retention, and access to affordable care. Three of the five fall within the city’s authority. Education and retention are primarily driven by the city’s school districts. Although as mayor, Johnson will have no authority to work on education, he nonetheless writes on his campaign website that he will work “to bring high-paying jobs to our city to lessen the brain drain with students.” Although Johnson points to his experience as “a former member of the UTEP College of Engineering Advisory Board,” he neglects to explain to the voter how he will address education with the powers of the mayor.
Johnson, likewise, states that he will work to provide “access to affordable health care” by stating that “as Mayor, he will work with local hospitals to help attract more doctors to our community.” What Johnson neglects to explain is how the mayor’s authority will compel the hospitals to make changes to bring more doctors to the community. The two institutions that primarily work to attract medical professionals to El Paso are the University Medical Center of El Paso (UMC) and its teaching facility, the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHC) and its medical school. Texas Tech’s oversight is the State of Texas and UMC is controlled by the county commissioners. The mayor’s office does not have authority over either.
One priority that Johnson offers is public safety. But as we looked at recently, Johnson doesn’t have a clear understanding of city’s part in public safety in that he conflates a federal issue – immigration – against the limits of what the police department can do when it comes to the issue of immigration. Additionally, Johnson further shows a lack of forethought in his priorities when he takes public policy away from the police department towards leveraging federal dollars to address immigration, a federal issue.
It is the leveraging of federal dollars that takes us to Johnson’s priority for economic development.
Revenues From Taxes
Renard Johnson uses his experience running METI to explain to the voters that he has the wherewithal to help with El Paso’s economic development. Absent from Johnson’s explanation is that his business experience going back to 1979, before opening METI is that the substantial business model for both his parent’s business, where Johnson honed his business skills and METI’s revenues are using preferential treatment in set-aside government contracts to avoid playing on equal footing with other federal contractors for government business.
METI was born from Management Assistance Corporation of America (MACA) which was launched by Johnson’s parents, Alvin and Louise Johnson in 1979. Renard Johnson, who was born in Chicago moved to El Paso in 1967 with his parents who worked at White Sands before opening MACA.
In 1985, MACA became eligible for the US Small Business Administration 8(a) Program, a federal program that in 1985 set-aside 10% of federal contracts to small businesses, whose owners were deemed disadvantaged economically or because of race. METI used the same set-aside federal contracts for nine years and continues to accept federal contracts to this day.
A review of federal contracts awarded between 2008 and 2024 show that METI has received about $507.9 million in federal obligations. The federal government awards contracts as an “obligation,” a “binding agreement” where the government agrees to spend that amount with the vendor. Most of the awards, 87.5%, are from the Forest Service, which is METI’s “oldest” client.
Federal government contracts are mostly tax monies spent on federal work.
Because of Johnson’s decades of working with the 8A Program, his experience in generating revenues is based on using preferential treatment for sales that are paid for by taxes. Because of this tax revenue experience and because Johnson does not offer details about how he will bring in economic development opportunities for El Paso, it can only be surmised that his plan is to leverage federal taxpayer funds for El Paso’s economy.
It should be noted that METI’s building rests on city-owned land and is not owned by Johnson, or his company, METI. It is important to understand that Johnson operates his business on city-owned land. This is not the only business that Johnson owns on land belonging to El Paso taxpayers.
Doing Business From City-Owned Land
In 2015, Renard Johnson began building his Frankling Avenue Apartments next to the Chihuahua’s ballpark. Like METI, the apartments rest on land owned by the city. In addition to land being owned by the city, Johnson entered into a 380 Redevelopment Agreement with the city to build the $1 million complex. The city agreed to subsidize the apartment complex though 2030. The city anticipates providing Johnson about $147,000 in taxpayer funds to help his apartments.
As noted, both METI, since at least 1979 when it was his parent’s MACA, and Johnson’s apartments rest on land owned by the city. Renard Johnson leases the land from the city. Although Johnson pays property taxes on the METI building and taxes on the land owned by the city, which is taxed as “possessory interest,” it is the amount of taxes that may raise questions for the voters.
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Renard Johnson’s Property Taxes Have Remain Stagnant For The Last Five Years
Johnson pays property taxes on four properties. Although Johnson pays property taxes on his apartment complex to other taxing entities, the city’s portion has been abated until 2030. The rest of Johnson’s taxable property portfolio included METI, his house and the tangible property of his business, METI. What is likely interesting for voters is that Johnson’s property taxes on his home have decreased since 2019, instead of increasing. According to tax records, Johnson’s house paid $9,716.08 in taxes in 2019. Last year, Johnson paid $8,762.36 in property taxes, a decrease from 2019.
Johnson’s property taxes on METI have largely remained stagnant. In 2019, METI paid $9,681.72 and in 2023 paid $9,862.20, an increase of about $180 from five years ago. The same tax situation is true for the taxes Johnson pays on his business “tangible” property, which is a property tax assessed to business owners for furniture, signage and inventory.
However, the fact that Renard Johnson’s businesses rest on city property could lead to possible conflicts of interest for Johnson, should incentives for future apartment complexes come before city officials or the city embarks on reevaluating its land holdings including generated revenues from them to help offset the tax burden on property owners.
In addition to METI, Johnson owns at least two other businesses, one in California and a tequila brand. In 2020, Johnson purchased Effecture, LLC, a Sand Diego based IT solutions provider. Johnson is the CEO of Effecture.
But it is Johnson’s tequila marketing brand that takes us to Johnson’s priority to bring jobs to El Paso.
Johnson Brands An El Paso Iconic Tequila In Phoenix And Has Its Iconic Bottles Made In China
On August 30, 2017, Renard Johnson incorporated Chihuahua Brewing Company LLC in Delaware to market tequila with an El Paso-inspired brand. Although today the tequila brand is known as El Perro Grande Tequila, the brand was originally intended to be the Angry Chihuahua Tequila.
When Johnson filed to trademark Angry Chihuahua Tequila in 2019, a Newport Beach company, Chihuahua Brewing Company objected to the trademark application forcing Johnson to withdraw his trademark application and rename his tequila El Perro Grande Tequila.
Renard Johnson states that his experience providing jobs to El Pasoans through METI is one reason to elect him. Johnson has also stated that as mayor he will “create many jobs” in El Paso. But Johnson tends to hire talent from outside of El Paso instead of qualified providers in El Paso. Not only did Johnson incorporate his tequila brand in Delaware, instead of in Texas, he hired a Phoenix-based graphic designer to design the bottle he uses for his El Perro Grande tequila, although on his brand’s website, Johnson states that the tequila is “El Paso’s Heart.” The brand, the identity, the company, the bottles and even the tequila are manufactured or created outside of El Paso.
As for the bottles used for El Perro Grande, Johnson uses a Chinese manufacturer to make the bottles for his tequila. “Inspired by the Borderland,” reads a tagline on El Perro Grande’s website but its bottle and its content come from outside of the United States. Tequila can only be manufactured in México when it uses the name tequila.
What Does Johnson Bring To The Table As Mayor?
Renard Johnson’s business activities and the property taxes he pays provides the voter an indication of what Johnson will be as mayor. As mayor, should he be elected, Johnson’s businesses may lead to a possible conflict of interest in that the city owns the land on which he operates his businesses. His 380-incentive agreement with the city provides him with a property-tax free environment for the next six years for Johnson’s apartments. As mayor, Renard Johnson may influence the lease agreements or his 380-Agreement.
In addition, El Paso’s property tax rate is one of the highest in the nation because the city balances its operating budget annually by tax rates based on the rising value of homes and business property. Renard Johnson’s property tax situation does not seem to follow the normal situation that the voters face – rising property taxes. While voters complain about rising property taxes, Renard Johnson’s taxes have steadily decreased over the last five years for his home and his businesses.
Moreover, because Renard Johnson bases his experience to be mayor on his business experience, the voters may consider that Johnson’s primary business, METI, has operated by generating business revenues from government taxes. This has been true since Johnson’s parents first opened MACA in 1979.
Renard Johnson has stated that he wants to create “many jobs” and “substantial growth” for El Paso but his promises lack specificity leaving the voter to look at Johnson’s business experience to ascertain how he will accomplish his goals. Because Johnson’s business experience is generating revenues from taxes, are voters to assume that his plan for job growth will be based on payments from the taxpayers themselves? More important to voters is that Johnson’s business, and that of his parent’s, relied heavily on federal contracts paid from taxpayer funds that were set aside for companies that are deemed “disadvantaged” for various reasons.
Will the Johnson model for economic development for El Paso be El Paso promoting itself as “disadvantaged” for lucrative contracts that bypass the necessity to compete for them by anyone capable of providing the services, possibly at reduced rates?
Again, without offering specificity, Johnson says he wants to “promote economic development initiatives” as mayor, without specifying what type of incentives he wants to promote. Is the voter to assume that they will follow the model of 380 Agreements that provide businesses owners property tax breaks to build businesses from? If so, what does that mean for their property taxes?
What is left unsaid about the incentive agreements is that the taxes not paid by the businesses who receive the incentives are instead transferred to the city’s taxpayers, further burdening them. The 380-Agreement taxes for Renard Johnson’s apartments are not forgiven by the city. Instead, the city offsets the taxes by transferring funds from the General Fund, which is monies collected by the city through property taxes, sales taxes and other fees.
Even when Johnson launches a business venture that does not rely on tax incentives or contract set-asides, he does so outside of El Paso bypassing El Paso-based businesses and service providers. Johnson has said that he wants to give back to the community, but when it comes to his tequila brand – which is branded around El Paso – the creative work and the specialized bottles come not from El Paso, but from China, in the case of the bottles and from Phoenix for the branding and creative work for an El Paso iconic brand.
Renard Johnson wants to be El Paso’s next mayor. He offers his business experience for the voters to judge him by. But his business experience relies on government incentives that allow him access to lucrative government contracts because of his race and on the local government forgiving his taxes for ten years while also providing land for his business ventures.
About Polinotes
Polinotes is an archive of position papers, policy papers, white papers and opposition research covering topics about border issues written by Martín Paredes. Previous and future editions include papers on immigration, border security, The Politics of Beto, Activism & Politics: Verónica Carbajal, The History Of Migration Through El Paso, and México Inclusiveness: Its Afro-American and Indigenous Presidents And The Likelihood Of México’s First Female President. The full reports, including this one, are available at Polinotes, which is a subscriber email newsletter. Sign up today to get the full report, previous and future reports.
