PORT ARTHUR, Texas — 12News sat down with one of the candidates in Port Arthur's mayoral race, Charlotte Moses.
Moses announced her plans to run for the seat against incumbent Thurman Bartie in 2025 last week.
12News previously spoke to Mayor Bartie about his plans to run for a third term.
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Moses says while the race is a year away, she wants to give voters a chance to get to know her. She says she has big plans for the city, if she gets elected.
She served on Port Arthur City Council for seven years, from 2015 to 2023.
"If you have the experience, the knowledge, the expertise why not serve," Moses said.
She tells 12News that she's ready to take on the role of mayor for the City of Port Arthur.
"I can't think of anything bigger than to see a city that was down on it's feet, that was down on it's back, to come up," Moses said.
The 61-year-old mother of four says not only does she have the passion, but also the experience. She worked with former mayor and then developer Lloyd Hayes as a secretary.
"He developed the Central Mall area, the Stonegate area," said Moses.
Moses also spent 18 years in the city's human resource department.
"You had to know insurance and work with safety and risk management. Then I was promoted as Deputy Director of Civil Service so I worked closely with the fire and police department," she said.
Moses then eventually took up a seat on city council in the position seven at large seat, where she served for nine years.
During her time on city council, her energy went towards street improvements.
"We had a bond person come in they showed us how to do a bond. We were able to get a $10 million bond, 10 million for 10 years to repair streets," said Moses.
After her term ended she knew she wanted to do more, this time serving as mayor.
She hopes to bring family fun to Pleasure Island and continue to breathe life into what's already new downtown.
"Now you have market affordable apartments coming up down there. You have the Motiva project downtown on Procter. A dream to me is to see shops, coffee shops and all kinds of things," Moses said.
She's hoping these ideas will peak the interest of voters.
"There's criticism with anything any everything you may do. You just take the good with the bad and just try to make the best of it but my heart is for serving," Moses told 12News.
Current Mayor Bartie previously told 12news he wants to run for re-election, but he would have to change a city charter to extend term limits.
Moses tells 12News it is ultimately up to the voters to decide what they want.