 I would like to thank Chris Brian if she is in the room and she's probably outside wrangling folks. She's with Clarity Child Guidance Center. Without her leadership this would be not as seamless as it appears. And I also want to thank Clarity Child Guidance Center for being our partner today as well as our supporting sponsor and an active member of the non-profit council, Documation. So let's give Documation a round of applause please. All right. I'd also like to recognize a few folks in the room, most specifically our executive committee of the non-profit council. If you all would stand and be recognized, I would appreciate it. I know Fred Heinz is here. I saw Denise Barkhurst. There you go. Thank you for attending and we appreciate your support. So our format today is going to be a little different. This is not a debate. This is really a conversation with two of our candidates that we have invited today along with our moderator. We also have pre-selected questions to be asked, so we won't have an open mic for the audience to ask questions, but those questions that we will be asking are actually being asked by our non-profit council members who submitted questions to our committee and we're vetted and we are pleased to have them here. Everyone is in attendance and you all will be able to ask your questions directly to the two candidates. It's right now my pleasure to get this thing going and introduce Gilbert Garcia. Gilbert was named, has served on the Metro columnist for the San Antonio Express News since 2012. He's a native of Brownsville, Texas, with 20 years experience writing for weekly and daily newspapers. A graduate of Harvard, he's won awards for his reporting on music, sports, religions, and politics, and he's the author of a 2012 book, Reagan's Comeback for Weeks in Texas that Changed American Politics Forever, published by Trinity University Press. One of his feature stories also appeared in the National Anthology de Capo Best Writing, 2001. I'd like to introduce Gilbert Garcia. We appreciate you moderating today and thank you for attending. Thank you so much for inviting me and of course this is about all of you and the questions you have and so we're going to get to that as quickly as possible. I just wanted to say that we're not going to have time limits for the answers but because we have a lot of people who have questions and we want to be able to get to all of them, I might, if an answer is getting a little long, I might suggest that the candidate wraps things up and I'll try to do as politely as I can and we're going to start off with three to five minute introductory statement from each candidate. I think both candidates are very familiar to you but to my immediate left, Mayor Ivy Taylor has been Mayor of San Antonio since 2014. She was appointed Mayor in 2014 and won election as Mayor in 2015 and prior to that she served as the representative on City Council for District 2. So please help me welcome Mayor Ivy Taylor and to her left Ron Nuremberg has been the District 8 City Council member since 2013 and he's completing his second term on City Council. Please help me welcome Ron Nuremberg. Once we get to the questions, we'll be trading off as far as who goes first but as far as the opening statement we can begin with Mayor Taylor. Okay well good afternoon everyone. Thank you for taking the time to be part of this event and learn a little bit more about our perspectives and what we bring to this very important leadership role for our city. It's been my privilege and honor to serve as your Mayor for almost three years now though if you had asked me when I was fresh out of graduate school at Carolina go Tar Heels tonight. If you had asked me back in 1998 when I left with that master's degree in city planning in my hot little hand if you'd asked me what my dream job was I would have told you to be executive director of a faith-based nonprofit because at Carolina our focus well my focus was on affordable housing and community development and I really drank the Kool-Aid on the incredible power of the nonprofit community to facilitate community change social change and I came to San Antonio because of a few nonprofits one was called NCCED the National Congress for Community and Economic Development some of you may remember them they're now defunct they had a program where they funded a graduate student to work with grassroots organizations and I was selected by the San Antonio Affordable Housing Association to be their summer intern in the summer of 1997. So when I came here I immediately became familiar with those in the nonprofit community specifically working in affordable housing. A young man that I met at a church here kind of provided some more guidance and direction for what I'd be doing with my life I met my husband when I was here that summer and he's a native so I moved back here and we started a life together I started a career at the city of San Antonio because I didn't find that dream nonprofit job when I first moved here but throughout the positions that I've had I've managed to always work closely with nonprofits I was a grants manager for the home program which I hope doesn't go away during the six years that I was a city employee I was a vice president at Merced Housing Texas focused on affordable housing development in our community and then when I moved on to being the district two council member because we didn't receive council pay I was a professor at UTSA where I taught classes on non-profit management and I'd like to thank those of you who are kind enough to come and talk to my students on a few occasions that includes Scott McIntosh as well as a few others I also served on a few boards had the privilege of being board chair of of healthy futures of Texas so I've been around the block when it comes to nonprofits and I still feel very passionately about what you all bring to the community because I definitely don't believe that we at City Hall alone or working through economic development and business alone can address many of the very challenging issues that our communities face I believe we need to be in partnership with the nonprofit community and that's what I've sought to do throughout my time of public service I can specifically point to my work on the east side when I was a district two council member as a great example of the kind of collaboration that can occur when you bring various parties together from governmental and nonprofit in order to focus on play space community development so what I'm focused on is mayor really is connecting people to opportunity there are a lot of other things that I have to focus on and do during the course of the job but I want you all to know that I come from a real place of passion about connecting people to opportunity and should you give me the chance to continue serving as your mayor I'll continue on that path thank you mayor councilman well good morning and thank you all for having us this morning to have a in-depth conversation about the work that that you all do and it is with great humility that that we're here because we all know the role that you play in a community that's trying to address some of the serious challenges that have vexed us for a long long time so thank you for what you do my name is Ron Nirenberg first and foremost and something you should know about me is that I'm a very proud father of an eight-year-old son who has now grown up from year three to what he is now eight in this life of public service and it's important to me to tell you that because it's through his eyes that I try to look at all of the decisions that we make at city council I think politics these days most of us would agree is far too short-term focused and far too focused on just the basics just the basics and forgetting that real people have experienced the consequences of the decisions that we make for a long long time so he's a very important part of my life as a public servant I'm also the very proud husband of Erica Prosper who herself is a community servant she is a business leader will be the 2018 chair of the Hispanic Chamber but she has spent the most of her passion in the areas of migrant education as well as women's leadership she is a devoted community servant as well and I'm you know indebted to her every day for being able to do this work on city council you may know that for the last four years I've been the city councilman for district eight which is the I-10 corridor you may also know it as one of the fastest growing places in the entire city in the entire state and perhaps even the country it's also the place where we experience the diversity of San Antonio from socioeconomics to demographics to politics to religion you name it if it's in the city it's in district eight and has been an extraordinary opportunity for us to be aggressive with good policy good social policy making sure that we have a balanced city that is taken care of its citizens needs I got to San Antonio in 1995 from Austin to go to Trinity University and when I graduated from Trinity I went to the University of Pennsylvania for graduate school I met my wife there she was the only other Texan in the program and I chose to follow my heart as opposed to my career back to San Antonio because the reason why we wanted to move back here and raise a family and build a career is because San Antonio was a diverse place it was a place where you could build a career you could find an affordable and safe place to live you could feel like the best days of your lives were still in front of you and that's honestly what I think we want our citizens to feel like that's how we want our children to feel and that's how we want the people who come after us to feel all million and a half of them but we face some serious challenges we know we have a serious challenge with regard to a rising violent crime rate we know that we have an affordability gap in San Antonio where the point that the average family in San Antonio can no longer afford the average home that's being built in San Antonio that's an extraordinary challenge and we continue to see our city leading on difficult and important challenges to our community such as domestic violence child abuse and neglect drunk driving substance abuse these are things that if we do not address them as a community they will be left unaddressed and let's be frank everything that happens in our community if it's not addressed falls on to the local constituents and creates challenges throughout our city so I've been aggressive on making sure that we support the nonprofit community and the work that they do and I will continue to do that because we know that we cannot be a healthy community together unless we address these challenges head on my campaign is called the city you deserve and that goes for the people who live in district eight who live in district nine who live in district one two three all around town because my goal is to make sure that we are being as aggressive as aggressive as our children and grandchildren will want us to be to make sure that we leave a city that you can be proud of no matter where you live no matter who you are no matter what you do we want to make sure that our families outcomes are the same in every disc family's outcomes and opportunities are able to be the same no matter what zip code they live in and that's my goal as your next mayor and thank you very much for being part of the conversation all right thank you we're going to get started with the questions the first question is from my gilliam's CEO for lighthouse for the blind okay let's see if this is working it is and we'll start with uh with ron ron you get to be the lucky one to go first okay question i have really deals with the city's current funding process for nonprofits the process and i'm hearing people bone and groan current process has a tendency to be a little complex about being understated and laborious and at the same time we seem to fund the same nonprofits each and every year so if you're elected mayor one what could you do or what would you do to simplify the process number two what would you do to ensure that all nonprofits had a fair shot at that funding that's a great question i think first and foremost it requires a broad community discussion about what a delegate agency actually is a delegate agency is providing services that are so important to the city of san Antonio that the city organization cannot handle it on its own so we have to change the conversation about what nonprofits not for profits and and delegate agencies actually do which is to address some of these serious challenges i think changing that mindset is important because we know the city is about public safety and streets and sidewalks and libraries and parks but we cannot just simply allow the non-for-profit community that is addressing these serious challenges to fight over crumbs every year i think some immediate things that we should do are already underway i've been a strong supporter of consolidating our approach making more comprehensive continue of care so rather than just focusing on homelessness we're focusing on the continuum of causes of homelessness including substance abuse and family violence and so forth but i also think the process itself needs to be simplified if you go on to the delegate application website for instance there's 35 forms that you can download to fill out and it really discourages non-profits from even applying for even vying for that funding we do need to have a conversation at city council in june which i plan to do during our budget goal setting about the fact that this community continues to grow and so do our needs that are taken care of through community safety net programs for instance and that is because even if we fund delegate agencies we are simply creating more problems and we have to address what that is building equitable infrastructure delivering equitable services are an important part of making sure that we're addressing these these these issues that are are being taken care of by delegate agencies we are still creating more problems the more that we continue to sort of kick the can down the road on issues of socioeconomic inequity and that's something that i think we need to be focused on as well thank you dear taylor well thank you for that question it's something that we've been working on for many years we've made some incremental progress though i certainly can understand that it's not where people would like for it to be though i have to admit i kind of reflect back on what the old cdbg applications used to be like and i think we've come a long way but um yes i do believe we could be more strategic in relation to how these funds are dispersed i believe there's an education process for the actually for the city employees for those that are processing the applications in order for them to have a better understanding of what it is that you do and how you do it i would like to be creative and talk with you about how you think we could structure that so that you can get a better result and outcome when you're interfacing with them in relation to the applications i had advocated a few years ago that we would have a line item uh every year set aside for new agencies to get funding because i recognize that the way the system kind of works now if you got in 15 20 years ago uh you know there's kind of like a recurring funding and that makes it really challenging for smaller more grassroots focused organizations to have a bite at the apple at the city and i think that is something that we need to continue and actually expand i would like to have some conversations though um while i've been having a few i've come out and talked with y'all a few times but to continue the dialogue about um the the process and and your role as far as you know how you all lobby the council members to continue funding i understand that everyone is advocating for their agencies but it also it becomes part of a political system as well we can work really really hard to improve the objective criteria part of the process on streamlining applications helping staff understand what you do getting the categories right but then that's always seems to be balanced counterbalance with the political side right the advocacy and and communicating that what my agency offers is so critical it has to be continued indefinitely so i'm not saying i have an answer for you for you on that aspect but i think it's really important to recognize that that's part of the entire dialogue for us to face those tough questions and then work together to figure out how we can resolve there's a follow-up to my mic's question and you all address this uh somewhat but getting a little more specific on the on the funding issue uh for those who are here representing some of the smaller organizations what would you tell them about what as mayor you'd want to do to uh to make sure that they are given they are given ample opportunity for for funding this the smaller uh sure well i think having um some funding set aside for those first time uh organizations definitely is um a key first step we maybe we should also look at budget size the size of the nonprofit budget as far as um how much funding we give because that could provide more entree for organizations that are much smaller to be able to get some funding from the city yeah i agree i agree with that approach that we do have funds uh set aside for new nonprofits i also think something that needs to happen is that we need to extend the terms um we all know the dialogue about why there's its challenges with two-year terms for city council members it's also challenges to have nonprofits who are engaged in some really serious issues plan their programming years out every two years um we should be looking at extending that so particular nonprofits that have been around for a while don't face uh the sunset kind of um uh provisions that are baked within our budget session but they actually have a long-term period of planning for staffing and for uh achieving grants that can be leveraged through local funds as well okay thank you um our next question comes from Robert Salsito with Pride Center San Antonio uh before i ask my question i was actually i just wanted to read a brief statement because i was reading in the paper this morning a commentary from the express news from Elaine Ayala the article is in salt after a spurs game on example of hate in the U.S. and what struck me is that she ended the article by quoting a local Sikh professor seeing limits that San Antonio is behind other communities and doing more to deal with hate and racism or at least in acknowledging it um he specifically stated it's time for us as a city to own our flaws we are not realizing our uh whole potential um he also said because we're not engaging in one with one another as we should um so as an executive director of a resource center that specifically provides services to the lesbian gay bisexual and transgender and queer community um who has many folks that intersect with these other minority populations um as mayor what is your plan to ensure that we're promoting inclusivity in our communities as well as working towards bringing cohesion amongst all these groups in San Antonio we'll start with ron um and thank you for your service uh robert um i think that starting or building a culture of inclusion and compassion uh begins with the with the rhetoric that comes out of city hall i don't think we can sit back and let uh issues like this happen i think we need to make sure that we're focusing and enforcing our non-discrimination ordinance um you had a great column gobert that said that it rhetoric matters even on the campaign trail with regard to things like sp6 we have to stand out and using the mayor's platform to stand up for people who are considered others in our community is very important i think that's one thing um the the other things that need to happen are already baked into our infrastructure i think the mayor did a an important thing in opening the office of diversity inclusion we need to make the next step though and ensure that that office is not just simply an event planner but actually is receiving concerns uh and communicating with the public about where the pressure points are uh within diversity inclusion and discrimination issues i read that column by elaine it was and it was concerning number one because we thought we always think san antonio is different i live in district 8 i serve in district 8 it's one of the most diverse places in the community we have a lot of thanks to give to the people within oblate for hosting organ hosting organizations and fostering interfaith dialogue we have i believe three mosques two temples several synagogues every single denomination you can practice within the state of texas i think is within the two mile radius of babcock and hebrner so there's a lot of diversity in our in our city but diversity is not enough we have to embrace it and i think we do that with uh the way we set up our departments the way we enforce non-discrimination the way we stand up when things go wrong and i'll just have to say um i thought it was an extraordinary thing um senator menendez and i set up a organization or a event series called cultural conversations to address issues of otherness and help people to be educated and overcome their ignorance about other people in our community it continues to go we started that after a rash of anti-semitic uh acts within our community what people don't realize is some some of those things grab attention and they should and i'm glad and we should take advantage of it to show that that kind of activity and that kind of dialogue and rhetoric is not welcome in our community but we still have work to do because i will tell you on almost a weekly basis we hear reports about other kinds of hate crimes whether it's the lbgp lgbtq community whether it's the muslim community whether it's you name your other category we have to stand up and make sure that we have strong statements coming from city hall from council from the mayor to make sure that we we express what the values of san antonio are thank you here well as was mentioned i um when i got into the mayor's office i work with the manager to create the office of diversity and inclusion and i hope the staffer that we have there has has been helpful in some of the dialogues that she has helped to create in training sessions and i believe there's another position there that's either hiring right now or about to be filled so we want to continue providing that resource for those conversations throughout the community i certainly believe that it yes it is important um that all of our elected leaders provide that um that reassurance that we're a welcoming and inclusive community um i do believe that's important and to when you're making when we're making decisions regarding boards and commissions and uh task forces that we try to be representative and inclusive but at the end of the day you know that doesn't change people's hearts and minds and that's the hard work that needs to occur the one to one the man to man woman to woman or whatever um that really is what needs to occur in order to move beyond tolerance i can't say that as mayor i have the answer to how exactly that occurs i believe that there are a lot of forms where that can occur either through organizations like yours robert or some of the other uh nonprofits and faith-based community but i think we all have to be willing to get outside of our comfort zone on every side in order to understand the perspectives that different people bring to the table uh and in order for us to be able to embrace each other and be able to work together more effectively uh to make san antonio a better community and i'd be willing to work with anyone that wants to help make that occur on a more personal level you know the example i point to just because we had a black president doesn't mean that we're post-racial i mean you just gave example of you know racist comments that were made um you know having a commission or a position or whatever isn't going to change that uh what changes that i think is people uh entering into the personal space of someone who uh has different beliefs or different lifestyle from them and that's what we need to figure out how uh we can facilitate throughout our community thank you our next question comes from Henry Rosales ceo of american voc sport association good afternoon mayor tayer council member uh newan bird you know over the years the nonprofit sector has become more and more of a safety net for some of our most vulnerable uh vulnerable people and we serve everyone every regardless of the creed race religion you know so even citizenship so when you're elected mayor would you um offer sanctuary to so to our law abiding immigrants yes why no why not near to well during my time as your mayor um my what my approach has been is to underscore the fact that san antonio is um a welcoming and diverse community uh though we have not adopted a political label of calling ourselves a sanctuary city we have ensured from a practical perspective that our law enforcement officials here know that their um their job is to enforce the laws of our community and not immigration laws and so they are uh their job is not to ask people about their status because we want to make sure that everyone in our community feels safe and feels comfortable approaching law enforcement whether they've been a victim of a crime or witness to a crime and that's the manner in which we will um continue we've also sought to be uh partners with those in the nonprofit community who have been providing aid to people who um our refugees coming from from other countries and will continue to do that under my leadership and tenure as mayor of course there's a lot of angst and uncertainty about what's going to come from the federal level whether there will be comprehensive immigration reform or whether there will be other changes in policy and even we're also concerned about what might come out of the state uh so we've got to be prepared but as far as um those conversations right now you know um well at the state level you know we've been very clear to our our um to the officials uh in Austin that what we have in place in San Antonio works for us and that we want to leave uh immigration decisions to the to the federal government you know leave it to modern american politics to make sanctuary a difficult word you know i mean this is a this is a country where the front doorstep is the statue of liberty um i think we need to focus not on um the uh the debates in austin or in dc but focus on what are we supposed to do as citizens of san antonio as public leaders in san antonio that is to make sure that everyone who is here feels safe and then has a right to belong and to prosper in this community every law abiding person should be able to do that and so we uh we have adopted policies within the city to ensure that that will happen uh the police department as the mayor said uh is not going to enforce federal immigration policy i believe that's extremely important uh we have a job to do with with sapd already but as the law changes and as the you know the great uncertainty is what if everyone expects sp4 in some form or fashion to pass what will san antonio do uh and the answer is not to have a press conference or to issue a statement on letterhead it is to get in front of our immigrant community our refugee community and do everything that we have been doing which is to make sure that they have are safe they have a place here and that federal immigration authorities are not um pulling them out of their homes in their schools and their workplaces to go send them overseas i think that needs to be uh the value of san antonio i think we need to make sure that we again underscore the fact that san antonio uh police cannot enforce federal immigration and also do their jobs at the same time next question from uh norah euler from spina bifida texas hi i want to thank you both for being here today um we really appreciate your insight um our organization serves people with spina bifida but also other physical disabilities and my question is regarding children with disabilities how will you address the fallout from any changes at the state or national level regarding medical coverage to this vulnerable population can you repeat the question i'm sorry turn it is it on no um what i want to know is you know with all of the things with budget cuts and the changes in what's going to who's going to be um covered for medical insurance as well as medicate and things like that this population is medically vulnerable they have issues that they need to deal with on a daily basis and organizations like mine are too small to help them with those issues what is the city going to do about these children that aren't going to have medical care or medical supplies or you know support or and things like that if all of these things that are being talked about come to pass how is the city going to help these children and there's a big population of them yeah and and i think it's important to recognize that even before uh under the affordable care act as of last year or the year before one third of bear county residents were uninsured 10 of children were uninsured we only expect that number to increase fairly dramatically with the with the affordable care affordable care act changes are being made i think first and foremost i think what the city does well it needs to continue to do well programs that we partner with such as central med that offer services to particularly vulnerable populations i think we need to continue to do that i need i i believe we also need to work with our metro health department to ensure that services for a well community are also a better addressing preventative care just this past weekend for instance i went to a community health clinic i think mayor was there as well a body at the moslem children education center there are many different organizations non-for-profit organizations that are filling the gap on these services and we have to make sure that those especially in an era of of lower resources with health care fill the gap in terms of priorities at the city budget table that's what we need to be focused on and then i also think there's a important dialogue for us to be having about all the other things that a city does to make sure that it's community as well the infrastructure that we build the services that we deliver all contribute to positive or negative health outcomes i have been a strong advocate for metro health programs to reduce the rates of teen pregnancy to reduce the the rates of childhood obesity and diabetes the work that we do with the bear county health collaborative the work that's begun with the united way for for broad-based better child outcomes healthy children first all need to continue and i think that that needs to be even more of a focus and a priority under the new administration what we would need to do is to have a strong collaboration in order to be able to address those children who would now be more vulnerable you know health care that's not our specialty at the city not what we do we have a metro health department however bear county they're the ones that provide most of the services for folks here who are uninsured or poor and so we need to work with them as well as the federally qualified health clinics in order to determine how best we could assist with providing services to those children who may now be more at risk as a result of any actions that the federal government might take but what would be most important is for us to be good listeners because again that's not our area of expertise we would need to know from folks like you and other advocacy organizations who are working with those families and know what their situations are in order for us to help facilitate how to route them to an appropriate system that may already be in place or to be able to sit down with those providers who already exist in our community and figure out if they have gaps and if there's anything that the city could do to assist them or determine if there are other methods where we could either pursue assistance from the philanthropic community or others in order to fill in those gaps thank you next question prior to mayor Taylor becoming mayor mayor Castro introduced the SA 2020 plan and mayor Taylor created SA tomorrow and one question that I think it comes up sometimes in the nonprofit community is when it comes to goals for the city that nonprofits can play a role and how do you see those those plans blending and when it comes to the role of nonprofits and Ron if you're elected and you have a plan of your own that you want to introduce how would all these plans sort of work together to in making nonprofits a player sure with me okay well SA 2020 was certainly an extraordinary visioning opportunity for our community and I think engaged many of you around some of those key goals that we have for our community what SA tomorrow does is provide a platform for implementation through a comprehensive plan for our community that addresses and touches on so many different policy areas that's what I love about being a planner you know I worked in affordable housing for a long time and I got frustrated because I saw that the families that we were serving were still moving out and suffering from a lot of the negative impacts of poverty and I knew that there were many other issues that were impacting their lives and that's why I kind of got out of you know working specifically on housing and planning I think allows you to see the connection points between all the various public policy issues and so that's why SA tomorrow is an extraordinary opportunity for us as a city to create those safe stable mixed income neighborhoods in every part of San Antonio that create the platform for healthy families for healthy kids for great educational outcomes and for economic development for our community now the plan is pretty complex is three parts it's a land use plan it's a transportation plan and it's a sustainability plan some of you may be particularly interested in some of the components there especially related to health so it's pretty broad ranging but it has as its underpinnings those goals that we articulated for ourselves as a community through SA 2020 so I think that there are plenty of opportunities for you all to engage in SA tomorrow we're pivoting towards the implementation portion right now if you saw some of last week's council meeting we've actually hired a firm that's going to help us with those plans those sub-plans that address the different parts of the communities the key one of the key focus areas of the plan is for us to have these live work play we call them regional centers so that folks can conduct their activities in a more compact area and have great neighborhoods contained therein and so we need to identify those areas talk with the folks that are there and outline what are the steps that will be necessary for us to bring that vision to life in each of those areas the ways that you all can get involved is first off if your nonprofit is actually located in one of those 13 regional centers or community plan areas or if there's a policy area that needs to be addressed within those geographic areas that you want to advocate on behalf of or you can work with a neighborhood association or community group that's based within one of those areas in order to help us bring the plan to life I'm sure there are many other ways you can engage as well but I'll pause there okay thank you so Mayor Taylor and I disagree on a lot but this is one area that I think we both agree on strongly which is the importance of the SA tomorrow plan where I think it's different for me though is that there there's an emphasis I think on planning on infrastructure when the intent and I was very proud to chair this effort for about a year and a half as the plans were coming together the reason why there's three plans is to ensure that all of the other things that a city does social services mental health resources a date deal things that we use to deal with you name the the issue that you're facing right now and your nonprofit are also supposed to be integrated within this plan I believe that the plan got its proper grounding in SA 2020 it obviously is a community vision we need to now focus on the implementation and the difference I guess in the concern that I have is that we treat this as any other plan that we've had we have hundreds of plans that sit on desks that are on our shelves that have never been cracked before and they're beautiful plans and there's a lot of community input involved what I would do differently is I would ensure that there is an ongoing central policy making force that is making sure that all of these all of these developments and plans are being implemented properly that the challenge with us is that once we create a plan we put it into the city staff and we never get to talk about it as a city council or as a city city body and I think that's one of the challenges here with regard to how nonprofits I think fit into the equation I think there's a extraordinary part of the comprehensive and sustainability plans which is community health we have community health indicators and as we talked about before not for profit community has an important role to play to make sure that we're building equity back into our community we will see the effects of those policies through the indicators there in SA tomorrow I think the non-profit community must be at the table to ensure that those indicators are moving in the right direction particularly as it relates to community health outcomes like availability of green space availability of healthy foods the movement up or down of some of the social indicators that you're you're facing right now and then we also have to use SA tomorrow as a platform to discuss what the city has not done very well over the years which is to build a city that has a conscience build a city that is balanced build a city where there is not inequity as a result of continued sprawl every which way you know CPS has a strong affordability program for lower income residents SA's has the same thing the city as San Antonio has an extraordinary budget every year for delegate agencies but the reason why we continue to have to see these challenges come to us in the form of budget needs is because we continue to add to the problem without addressing some of the root policy challenges for our city thank you now we have two related questions which we'll have both of those questions asked together and and the two of you can can respond to both of those questions the questions are from Melissa Cason the executive vice president with communities and schools San Antonio and Simone Salas CEO for Good Samaritan Services hey good afternoon you talked a little bit about housing you talked a little bit about health but I haven't heard a lot of talk about education so my question to the both of you is what role do you see the city playing in developing or implementing or influencing local education policies and strategies as we try to meet those SA 2020 education goals and Simone thank you and thank you for allowing us to participate in this brainstorming conversation with you our clients have great needs and not for profits are always looking for opportunities to serve them chief among them is raising the funds we need to maintain services would you support taking the steps necessary to dedicate funding to support the work of not for profits that provide and enhance certain preventative health and or after school programs and needs to increase the amount now available to what will be raised by an 8% and 1 8% sales tax which is about $31 million I'm glad you raised the issue of education because I think it would be the natural reaction for any city leader and we've heard this refrain for decades that it is the job of the state to take care of our public education system and I and I while that is true the consequences of the state not adequately doing that are felt locally and so the city does have a role what I think the city needs to do and what I plan to do as mayor is to ensure that the education system particularly the public education school districts and superintendents are at the table of policy making across the board for the city of San Antonio our superintendents our public schools need to be directly involved in the policy making of the city from things like public health but also development policy we know right now one of the things that stretches our infrastructure dollars one of the reasons why we can't best afford better public transportation and services is because our city's infrastructure and service dollars continue to get stretched farther and farther out chasing that development that's occurring because good schools are moving farther and farther away how do we deal with that well we have our communication between policymakers of the city and at the public school districts to make sure that we're all on the same page we're not siloed and that's one of the reasons why I support and will drive an agenda with the business community with neighborhoods with families and with the educators in our community for consolidation of school districts not necessarily to one school district but to reduce the number of boundaries in between school districts so we can ensure that there's more parity in educational outcomes and more parity in resources I think with regard to your question about raising the level of funds available to delegate agencies I think it's a lot of a goal but the challenge is for us that we are continue to exacerbate the problem so the budget will continue to grow I support a non-zero based funding formula for delegate agencies so we're not just asking those delegate agencies to prove their their worth every single year but we extend the terms maybe up to five years for instance for those nonprofits that are doing foundational work to ensure that they can budget out longer periods of time there's more certainty in their budgets and we can work with those nonprofits to achieve some some more consistency and better outcomes as well but we have to do our jobs as policymakers and then the last thing I'll say is that we must we must use our platform as city leaders to better connect private sector corporations with our nonprofit community one thing I did when Doyle Benaby was here was invited him to go have lunch at the batter women's shelter because he asked me you know what CPS wants to do more we want to get involved in an important community issue and you know he used Haven for Hope as an example Newstar does wonderful things for Haven for Hope so I said come down to the batter women's shelter this is a fundamental problem that city has and come and come and talk to the people there and understand why we need the strength of a corporate citizen like you to be there to provide not only a backstop but by provide some life-sustaining resources for the population that they serve he did that they got involved I believe in some substantial funding and that's the kind of thing that we can use our platform as city leaders to do so thank you okay I've been using the time to make a little list who you might have to tell me to be quiet here over because I think there's quite a few things that certainly we can do first I'm going to start off from the planning perspective in that we are top of responsibility I think and working in partnership with the schools is to create great neighborhoods I think for our public schools through investing in infrastructure and sharing we have the proper policing and and all the other city services because I think great neighborhoods do provide a platform for great schools and so I think that the plan that we have in place puts us on the path to try and do that in a much better way than we have here in San Antonio because you all know that quick follow up Ron had mentioned supporting consolidation of school districts is that something that that is not something that I am running on it is it is uh you know I we talked about this at the last at the last debate we had if you'd asked me 10 years ago I would have said oh consolidation is the answer I cannot confidently say that today because I mean I look at huge inner city school districts in other places like Los Angeles or Houston and I don't know that their outcomes are necessarily much better than what we have here in San Antonio so uh what I would what I what my approach has been is been to work with the districts that we have in place though certainly I'd entertain a dialogue about that but um that's not something that I'm going to put my full weight behind right now and Ron I think you 20 yeah and and let me let me talk about consolidation for a minute I think if you go to any neighborhood uh to visit any family or you could talk to any business leader or educator and say that we have 16 school districts within the city limits they would say that that doesn't make a whole lot of sense that means there's 16 different levels of property resources there's different 16 different levels of education outcomes there's 16 different levels of everything and we have sit we have school districts that have great teachers in the south side uh who are now losing those teachers because they get a bigger check if they go somewhere else we have school districts competing for talent within our own city it doesn't make any sense and this is why I think it's it's I know it's politically taboo but this is why it's important for us to talk about this um there is not a seat of authority anywhere anywhere in the city or the county that can make that happen but the city's mayor and and while I don't have I would not have the authority to do it the mayor has the opportunity to set a vision and to align the people convene the people that can make it happen and this is why I believe it's imminently possible in the city and I'm not saying next year and I don't want necessarily one school district but to break down some of these barriers we have three school districts right now under direct state control and while legislators not necessarily listening to city officials on issues of bathrooms and immigration they are listening to businesses they are listening to educators they are listening to people who make an economic case for the city of san Antonio and there is such dramatic inequity within 16 different school districts it is affecting the outcomes of this state's economy and I will drive that point home because I think it's I think it's possible and I think it needs to be done okay thank you next question will come from Jane Fairchild from the board of trustees for the children's shelter oh that's right you do need that don't you there you go is it yes it is okay yes it is the state of texas is working to reform child welfare across the state by implementing community-based care models where lead agency will coordinate the needs and care of children entering the foster care system so often we hear city officials refer to children in foster care system as the state's children or the state's issue when in fact they are our children coming from our neighbor coming from our neighborhoods what role do you see the city playing in a community community-based care model for foster care children um we'll go and start with you Ron so it's funny how uh the legislature picks and chooses local control issues uh for one but I do think you're absolutely right I think it's not the state's children it's our children uh couldn't be said better um I think that the the legislation that has been filed uh championed by um even our speaker our positive moves forward to help can coalesce the resources here locally and to ensure that that students or excuse me that children are getting into stable homes uh sometimes with immediate relatives in a faster and more affordable way um I take I listen very carefully uh to what people like Judge Sakai have to say about this issue and he has driven home the point that the most important outcome for a child in foster care is to find a stable home as close to the immediate family as possible because that we know that when children are shuffled from one house to another their chances of surviving that dramatically decrease uh so we need to focus on that and I think the community-based model is good um the fear that I have though is that just like with roads for instance when the state hands it off to local governments they check it off what I would want to make sure is that our legislature our delegation is very clear on this point just because it becomes a community-based model we have local organizations take care taking better care of the foster system we need to have better resources available to them so I applaud speaker Strauss in making that point that we have to have resources increased not just an emergency basis but on a permanent basis for our rcps system what an intriguing question I would certainly be interested in looking at some best practices if other states have implemented this how those community-based care models have worked at the grassroots level in order for us to draw some lessons ultimately what I'd like to be focused on is how we can help provide tools for those children to be successful and stable when they become adults I do certainly think it could provide more of a platform I'd learned years ago that here in Texas we have that program where if you've been in the foster care system you can go to college uh you you know your tuition can be paid for for college and but the the rates of utilization are very very low for that and that's such a tremendous opportunity for long-term generational stability to be created so focusing at the community level I think can create a much more direct pathway for for some of our young people to utilize that benefit and again I look at it as changing generations because you know many of our young people who have been in the foster care system end up parenting early and just don't have the tools to be able to set up stable households and to be able to succeed in in the workplace so it definitely sounds intriguing I'd like to learn more about what some of the models are out there before I you know before I could say what it is that the city could do I'd certainly be willing for us to take a closer look at the variety of services that we provide and you know how our human services department operates to determine if there's a way for us to support support that model and provide more direct assistance to those children. Our next question comes from Fred Hines the CEO with the clarity child guidance center. Mayor and councilman we really appreciate you all being here Gilbert we appreciate you being here too. Thank you very much. We all know that a large percentage of kids and adults with mental health issues never get serviced two of the key reasons for that are access and a problem that relates directly to access and that's a real shortage of mental health professionals out there the state and the federal governments are looking at this to a great extent. What do you think the role of the city should be in looking at these issues? We'll start with Mayor Taylor. Well actually I just left a meeting where we were talking about this very topic so one of the skills that I've brought to the mayor's office is you know my background with collaborating probably going back to the fact that I worked in nonprofit where you never have enough money to do everything that you need to do and want to do so since I've been in the mayor's office I've worked with the bear county to create something called the criminal justice coordinating council because the the city you know touches these folks in some ways and then the county has many of the resources as well and so we had our meeting we had our quarterly meeting at 1230 today and we actually had a very interesting presentation on the folks who have severe mental health challenges and how they impact kind of the system as far as the services that are available it was really interesting they talked about about 500 people in the community that are you know I guess the McDonald's term heavy users right of the system and the the financial the fiscal impact of that and how we could potentially improve the outcomes for the entire system at the end of the day it's going to come down to additional collaboration the city doesn't have a you know a new line item that's available right now for a funding in fact we're you know we're playing defense on so many fronts from the state and the feds as far as cuts that we're anticipating for existing services that we provide but I do believe that we could be creative and continue that dialogue with the county and I think the fact that we have been collaborating discussing collecting data which that's something that I don't know if there's a data question coming but that is an area where we as a community are in a severe deficit and if we could really improve on the data collection I think it could open a lot of doors for us in the philanthropic community not just here locally but nationally through having that that data and then those proven collaboration models that show kind of best practices would allow us to be able to apply for additional funding but I will just let you know that when I was thinking out loud at the meeting today one of the areas that I suggested we should explore more is how we can work better with the faith-based community and I know some of your organizations come out of a faith model but I believe that there are a lot of churches and and other institutions out here that have tremendous resources that want to help make people's lives better that could possibly provide some of that glue and the wraparound services that can assist some of those these folks that have severe mental health challenges and trying to gain stability that's something that since I've been mayor I've been focused on working in a much more strategic way with the faith community and letting them know what are the things that we need beyond just basic you know food shelter type of services what are the ways that you can strategically work in our community to advance some of our goals and I definitely think that mental health is one of them and I'm looking forward to exploring more ways to do that you know we do have to play defense a lot especially in the current legislative environment but this is actually an area where we can play offense because we do have a speaker who I think it understands the importance of this issue so I think just as we do go complain about things that are happening in the state we also have to go advocate and I think this is one of the areas where we can do that also I think at the city level there is a wide recognition that we lack in mental health resources across the board even the VA and the defense department is lacking mental health resources and we need to work with that one of the ways that I think we do that is through alignment of all of these issues it's not just about homelessness homelessness is correlated with a lot of other issues including mental health so more efficiently allocating the resources that we do have dedicated to delegate agencies in that way to help boost better outcomes through mental health services in the city is one way of doing that and then finally also a closer collaboration with bear county and a mayor's leadership on the bear county health collaborative in particular with the work that's being done to identify through the reports that they generate I think every other year every year on mental health outcomes and then aligning the policy priorities with the county and the city together at the table thank you our next question comes from marine O'nell with san Antonio pets alive thank you for the opportunity how does animal welfare play into your vision for a vibrant san Antonio so with you run so thinking back in 2005 animal care certainly should have been on the minds of everyone because even from an economic development standpoint this was a badge of dishonor for the city so I applaud the work that's being done that has been done in the animal care community we are on a path to no kill which I fully support I think a modern society in a modern society in a city like ours we can achieve our goals with not having strays in the street but also achieve our goals with no kill as well so that would be the vision for how I would incorporate animal care continue to work with that so how do we do that I think a number of the efforts are already underway our good ones we have already increased kennel space for instance to make sure that we have an ability to collect stray animals we are working in better coordination to ensure that there's better pet owner education so we get animals microchip but we also have pet owners taking better care of their animals and we identify those owners that are not and work to enforce the law and then finally in the work that SAPA does and other organizations like it I think we need to support them I think there has been over the last couple of years a little bit of our eye has been taken off the importance of spay and neuter programs I think we need to continue to work towards full execution of spay and neuter programs throughout our non-profit community as administered by ACS education really is key you know the problem that we've had here in San Antonio has been with bad owners of pets and so we really need folks to be educated on what it means to what the responsibilities are pet ownership keeping your your pet confined and to your property I'm sorry to try to hold that excuse me and also to increase the opportunities for low cost and free spay neuter and we've definitely made progress in in that regard during the last few years largely through partnerships with the non-profit community so I want to say thank you to those who work in that space we're grateful for the partnership but we always are balancing that with what I think is our top responsibility which is public safety which to me because I live on the east side and when I go for a walk I have to take a big stick so I don't I want people to feel comfortable walking the streets of their communities and so it really is important for us to keep dangerous animals off the street and so that always is the balancing act along with the the education and the no kill strategy our next question comes from Megan legacy the executive director of essay christian resource center good afternoon what do you see as the deepest systemic causes of generational poverty in San Antonio start with you mayor oh gosh I mean we could be here all afternoon talking about that the deepest say that again the deepest the deepest systemic causes the real root level causes well I mean since you're with the christian coalition I'll go ahead and put it out there that to me the it's broken people you know people not being in relationship with their creator and therefore not being in good relationship with their their families and their communities and you know not being productive members of society so I mean I think that's the ultimate answer that's not something that I work on from my position as mayor of the community though I try to be an example but as far as some of the policy issues that we work on from the political angle or the nonprofit angle you know I see education as the great equalizer and so for a variety of reasons you know want to talk about school districts or economic segregation we just have not provided the same opportunities for people to be have access to high quality education that puts them on the path for careers in every single part of San Antonio so um I see that as being one of the systemic causes another that I've worked on that um I'd like to to point out as well as is teen pregnancy and that kind of goes hand in hand with education because when people are parenting early that usually means that they don't have the opportunity to complete their education so it ends up being a vicious cycle so those are a couple of the things where you know I think there's a lot of things we can do I have tried to bring teen pregnancy forward as an issue we need to focus on our resources from the city platform and you know I've gotten some pushback I've had people say oh that's a moral issue a religious issue you know a family issue I've tried to frame it as an economic development issue because when people are parenting early and not connecting to the educational system completing their education then that means that they're usually going to be underemployed or unemployed and that the cycle will continue and I do believe that there are many things that we can do from whether it be from city council or the nonprofit community in order to stem that time well your question is like the stuff of philosophical conversations across the country and tables of graduate students but I think it's an extremely important one and it makes us think it certainly makes me think if I had to point to one cause philosophically it would be the loss of the public common the sense that we're all in this together and that has resulted in people doing a lot of things or not doing a lot of things such as participating in the local elections such as reading a newspaper such as doing whatever it is to help with neighborhood associations the loss of the sense of a common ground a common purpose for people throughout this city and throughout this community is a plague on us all but I think from a public policy standpoint it manifests itself in several different ways it's one of the reasons why I've been focused during my tenure on issues of transparency and ethics and accessibility of policy making in city hall one of the results or one of the reasons for that is that I talk to constituents all the time that say you know we know what you guys are doing it's just it's all it's all happening to us this community continues to grow and my neighborhood who has a green belt behind it I know it's going to be a shopping mall one day because there's nothing we can do to stop it well that's not true I mean we can do better with growing a more sustainable community in a lot of different ways and one of the the chief policy challenges that I think our city faces that goes back directly to your question is figuring out a way well there is a way the citizens have directed us to a way through essay tomorrow which is why I've been very aggressive with this plan the citizens have directed us a way to manage our growth better in a more sustainable way and that is important for generational poverty because the more that our city grows in every which way without any sense of management and of of uniformity or of even sustainability the more our infrastructure dollars get stretched the more challenge it is for us to even deliver on time bus service on the south and west side so families can get home in time to do homework with their kids the more that we are not able to maintain fixing the potholes on the streets that are in the high growth areas it creates a challenge that results in neighborhoods that have seen disinvestment for generations and what invariably is located within a neighborhood that is sitting disinvestment poorer school districts poorer outcomes within family environments worse community health all of the other social ills that we've talked about whether it's family violence issues or it's simple crime those are invariably correlated to this lack of investment on in terms of the our public resources and all that in my opinion philosophically goes back to a sense that we've lost our the public comment thank you and then we have two questions that are on related topic from Gilbert and on this CEO with Youth for Christ and Jay Birchfield CEO with Life Skills for Living hi we have a long legacy of the faith based community serving in our city both through faith based and faith neutral programming we'd like to know what is your plan in working with faith based organizations like nonprofits and churches to better serve the city as related to his mind is what are your particular spiritual beliefs and how will they affect your decision making if you become the mayor in the next term all right run we'll start with you so I believe that there there is a role for the faith community and in building a better city and it is because despite you know the lack of trust that is in most public institutions people still go to church they still go to synagogue they still go to temple they still find community in places and more often not it's within their faith community and I think there's an extraordinary opportunity for us to work together within our lanes to reset the conversations similar to what the last question was about why we continue to create inequities through simple things like road maintenance or through school district policy or through name your public policy position for the city so I think working with our faith communities knowing that they have the congregants ears and they have the trust of the community we can better deliver those difficult conversations and work towards a better vision and more action for the city of san Antonio your question about how does faith impact my life I grew up in an interfaith household my father's family fled eastern europe before the before the holocaust actually before world war two even started but it was it was getting to a point where they didn't feel safe so they came to the united states jewish immigrants my mother's family fled not fled but came over after my father met her in the peace corps in malaysia and it was a very separated kind of community in malaysia with regard to religion they came over as roman catholics so I was raised in a catholic jewish household and it was an extraordinary experience it was easier for me because my father never practiced but it taught me a respect for the role of faith in religion but it also taught me the the universality of religions and so I have through my I became a student deacon at the tourney university presbyterian tradition at the same time I was in the catholic student group at the same time I was exploring eastern religions through writing and all that um I became or I I have a deep respect for where religions intersect and if I and I try to pass that on as my wife does to our son I try to have that kind of where are we where are we together in all this uh impact sort of my outlook on public policy uh and for me you know ultimately if my if you ask me what's the one um what's the one place uh that that I think they all have it and we all intersect it's at the simple golden rule as we know it which is that we want to make sure that government uh as we do interpersonally government is treating everyone as they would want to be treated that we are having a government that's based on equality that's based on inclusion and diversity and it's you know it's in working with our faith community I think we can do a better job at that together as a as a city well I um I'm very excited about the opportunity to potentially continue the work that I've done with the faith community I've brought I think a different perspective to engaging the faith community and really have worked hard and uh letting folks know what's going on at city hall trying to learn about what's happening in their various communities what the ministries are and be strategic in engaging folks and Gilbert I appreciate the assistance you all have provided us on mentoring which has been one of the key strategies that um we've been employing through my brother's keeper uh in order to try and improve life outcomes for minority uh males here in San Antonio but uh so I've I've convened an interfaith conference on an annual basis in the past two we've done that twice so far where we focused on workforce development and literacy as issues where we specifically wanted to engage the faith community and uh looking forward to the opportunity to potentially have another uh such convening I've reached out again I've been visiting churches and also been in a lot of communication with folks from various faith backgrounds uh just to again have a better understanding of what the ministries are to see how we can better partner through the city and if you didn't know we actually hired a faith based liaison down at the city of San Antonio her name is escaping me she's been on the job about two or three weeks this and something right I don't know how to say her last name Hemke or something like that so she has been on board about two or three weeks and so uh this presents us an opportunity to be really targeted because I think it it's kind of like in little pockets like I might know about a few uh institutions and their ministries and someone who's the staffer knows about a few others but I don't think in a comprehensive way we have the communication vehicle for us to let folks know what we're trying to accomplish at the city and to have a better understanding of you know where they where it might align with their ministry goals so that is very important to me as far as my own spiritual beliefs and how they affect my governing I am a Christian I'm a born again Christian a believer in Jesus Christ and how it affects me on a daily basis as I draw very heavily on that as far as the strength to do this job in fact a little book I have here in my lap today is my little planetus that says a little god time and for this week the scripture is I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength Philippians 4 and 13 and those things really do help me on a daily basis in order to serve San Antonians that's what works for me it doesn't mean that I in any way don't acknowledge that you know we have people of many faiths in San Antonio I think the diversity that we have as a community is a strength and I like to highlight that and want folks from different viewpoints to have the opportunity to know each other but I will not diminish the fact that that is what gives me personally strength to be able to do this job which is quite challenging well we have one more question left and I think this is going to wrap things up really well this is from Don White the executive director of Christian assistance ministry good afternoon thank you all for taking this time to answer so many difficult questions I admire your strength and continuing to be able to talk and be so joyful and councilman Nirenberg what are the reasons that we should consider electing a new mayor over the one that we have and mayor Taylor why should we keep you for another term we'll start with you mayor Taylor I like that question I'm sure you got an answer for that let's get right to it okay I certainly have enjoyed the opportunity to share perspectives and ideas on you know how we can work together and to learn more about what the issues and concerns are that you have the reason why I believe that you should give me the opportunity to continue serving and providing leadership for mayor is because I believe I have been effective in this position and at the end of the day it's not about your ability to sit here and provide great ideas or provide rhetoric it's about the ability to deliver to provide leadership for the city of San Antonio this job is difficult you have people from every corner of the community who all think that their issue is the top priority and even if everybody agrees on what the top priority is they don't all agree on how to address it okay so you have to have someone who is a listener who is a collaborator who has experience and I fit all those categories I shared a little bit with you about my experience in relation to the nonprofit sector I'm also a former city employee former planning commissioner I told you I'm a trading planner spent five years as a city council member and now almost three years as mayor so I have the experience to do the job and in spite of the rhetoric and narrative of this campaign I have delivered for this community as far as results everything from the police contract breaking the stalemate addressing water security for our community which is something that we've been working on for decades we've been able to achieve several very important projects there with vista ridge as well as the desalination plant working on issues like bringing people together to resolve veteran homelessness we achieved HUD's definition of functional zero and I believe that through that collaborative effort we'll be able to learn results so that we can then apply to the general homeless population so we can get more people off the street I'm not saying I'm perfect but I do believe that I've been a passionate advocate for connecting people to opportunity throughout this city that I've been able to bring together people from various sides of our community to work on the really tough the tough issues that face us and part of the reason why I believe I've been able to do that is because for me this is not about political ambition this is about trying to make our community a better place I don't have any particular aspirations as far as another political appointment or position for me I see myself still as a community development planner trying to create opportunity for people in San Antonio and make this a better place for folks and that's what drives me each and every day as I do this job and so I am humbly asking you to give me the opportunity to continue serving because we have had great momentum and I want to work more closely with you in resolving some of the challenges that we face and working with the nonprofit community thank you thank you so we saved that question to the end so everything everybody would behave until now but we'll behave we'll behave well I read in the paper this weekend comments by Mayor Taylor's consultant that said that I'm grabbing a microphone and that I'm overly ambitious well yes I am and that's because as I look at the community here we need the mayor to grab the microphone we need her you need him to speak up for the communities that are not heard we need someone who is going to be ambitious about our city who can inspire our city to think better to overcome the challenges that we've seen have arisen over the last three years we can talk about our crime rate we can talk about the lack of movement on transportation we can talk about the fact that our wage and affordability gap has grown to the point where the average San Antonio can no longer afford the average San Antonio home we can talk about all the ways that we have issued press releases cut ribbons or issued statements about the fact that we've ended veteran homelessness which I was proud to chair that effort when it kicked off or we've done XYZ about finishing water security or achieving balance in our police department but the truth in the matter is there is a lot of work remaining because the successes that we have had over the last few years are fleeting and they're coasting and we are not generating the momentum that the city needs to make sure it's a good city a great city for future generations the mayor is one vote out of 11 people and while it is true that one of the most important roles is six votes to get six votes when it's six votes on the wrong thing on the wrong decision or on the wrong side of an issue I think leadership means standing alone to make sure that we have someone standing up for the right side of the issue the right part of our city to make sure that we're all taken care of and we all achieve a good outcome for our community we need champions in the city I am ambitious I want a great community I want to leave a great city behind not just receive a city and then work and then leave that's not what I envision why I'm running for mayor is that I believe that the mayor is the most important role in the city of San Antonio to articulate a clear vision for the future to ensure that we have an ethical and open and transparent process in government that not only the public can trust but our colleagues can trust and that who will work hard and I will defy anyone who says otherwise that I have not been working hard and achieving some really important things for this community from water security to economic development but that is what you can expect from me as your next mayor that is why I hope you join us in our campaign to reach that that opportunity for all of us to ensure that no matter who you are no matter where you live no matter what you do or where you're from or when you've got here that we have a city that you can be proud of thank you very much for your attention I'm not going to apologize about being passionate for this city and nor should you thank you well that's the end of our forum thanks to all of you thank you your mayor Ivy Taylor councilman Ron yearnberg thank you thank you all very much we appreciate you coming in again I'd like to thank a documentation for supporting this event and there she is chris brian from clarity child guidance center thank you very much y'all have a good afternoon thank you mayor good seeing you take care I've got I look forward to getting