In February, the city of Pharr canceled their general election that was set for May 2025.

The election was cancelled after no one applied to challenge the three incumbents.

The ordinance canceling the election shows all three candidates paid the non-refundable $1,000 filing fee, a steep fee for some who may want to throw their hat in the ring for city council.

“For the average person, $1,000 is quite a bit of money,” STC Political Science Chair Mark Murray said.

Channel 5 News compared the filing fee at the city of Pharr with other cities. 

The filing fee in Mission to run for city council is $500.

McAllen and Brownsville both have $500 filing fees to run for mayor, and $250 to run for spots on the city commission.

Other cities such as Edinburg, Weslaco, Alamo and Harlingen don’t have filing fees.

Murray said high filing fees could possibly discourage people from running for office.

“If filing fees are seen as too expensive for the average person to run, it could discourage low and middle income people from running and wanting to make a change,” Murray said.

Channel 5 News reached out to Pharr City Manager Jonathan Flores, and was provided with a statement saying the set amount for the filing fee was approved back in 2010. 

In an interview over the phone, Flores said he does not know why $1,000 was the set amount because approval predates current administrations.  

When Channel 5 News also asked the city if they thought the $1,000 filing fee would discourage people from running for office, the city said they offer alternatives to paying the fee. 

According to Pharr’s election ordinance, a person can complete 520 hours of community service with a nonprofit located inside city limits to avoid paying the fee. 

“That is 10 hours a week you are volunteering every week for a year, and that's quite a bit,” Murray said.

Pharr says the money from the filing fees are used to cover the cost of running an election. As a result of canceling the election, the city said they saved $80,000 in taxpayer funds. 

The money will be allocated to the reserve account.

Watch the video above for the full story.