 She's got these little things up. You want to play? No, no. It helps a lot. It's better. I don't know if you're going to be able to read it. Jessica will be reading it. Is there anything else you want to share? Is there anything else you want to share? Yes. No. It was a close. It's not good to put the staple in it. I think I'm going to bury my heart out. And then go to the first page. Yes. His body here has a sequel. I didn't learn how to play this. I don't want to make it sound like me. I'm going to put it in a baseline today. I'm going to put it in the baseline. I'm going to put it in the baseline today. Go, go. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. I am Linda Nairn. I'm Chair of the Naming Committee of the San Antonio Public Library. Is this on? OK. Can you turn it on? OK. OK. OK. Again, good afternoon. I'm Linda Nairn. I am Chair of the Naming Committee of the San Antonio Public Library Board of Trustees. Today's meeting is now called to order. Welcome, everybody. I'm so glad you came. OK. Please call the roll. Jessica? OK. I have an attendant, Linda Nairn. Just be car. Judy Cruz. Gene Brady. And Paul Stahl is absent. I'd also like you to meet some of our people. We have Joanne Harris, who's represented from District 2. We have Laura Eckler, who's not on the board. I don't think officially anymore, but has been for years and years. So she's here. And we have Ramero Salazar, who is our library director. He's the big hefe. So glad to have him here. OK. And this is Dale McNeil, who's one of the assistant directors. And we have Jessica. I don't remember her last name. It's gone away from me all of a sudden. Eurelia. Eurelia. OK. And she's the lady who runs everything. So she's the person. She's the hefecita. OK. We're glad you're here to provide your thoughts about the proposed addition of the name Andres Serapia to the name of the Las Palmas Branch Library. On August 28, 2019, the San Antonio Public Library Board of Trisees received a letter requesting consideration to add his name to the official name of the Las Palmas Branch Library. Today's input meeting is being live streamed also. The video recording of the meeting will be posted on the library's website. And that is mySAPL, so it's mySAPL.org, O-R-G. And you can, I guess, it'll stay on there. OK, so you can go home and watch it again if you want to. The purpose of today's meeting is for the library board's naming committee to receive public input from the community regarding this proposal. No action will be taken today. The committee will receive public comment only, and no deliberation will be conducted by the committee today. After today's public input meeting, the naming committee will consider at a later meeting the public input provided, conduct additional research as needed, and then make a recommendation to the library board of trustees. The library board of trustees will then make the final decision in a public meeting regarding this naming request. So this is just one step in the process. To say this again, at this point, no decisions have been made and no action will be taken today. However, hearing from you is an important part of this process. For your information, the library board of trustees meets monthly, except in November. And the meeting agendas are posted in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act. Agendas are posted at all library locations, and they're also online on the city's website. Next, our library director, Ramero Salazar, will make welcoming remarks. Good afternoon. Buenas tardes a todos ustedes. I do want to recognize we have Councilwoman Terry Castile here with us. Welcome, Councilwoman. Thank you so much. And we also have representatives from Congressman Joaquín Castro. We have Alex Serrabia and Jasmine. OK. So welcome, all of you. I believe there are no other officials that I need to recognize. Buenas tardes de nuevo. Solamente quería darles la bienvenida, saludarlos a todos ustedes. Si tenemos servicio para traducir, si acaso prefieren escuchar en español, aquí se pueden reportar con este joven aquí en mi izquierda, para esas personas que prefieren escuchar los comentarios y la junta en español. De nuevo soy el director de la biblioteca, la red de biblioteca pública de la Ciudad de San Antonio. Me da mucho gusto que estén todos ustedes aquí. Es muy importante esta reunión, esta junta, porque queremos saber, queremos recibir comentarios de ustedes sobre la propuesta de incluir el nombre del señor Andrés Serrabia en la biblioteca. Y como reportó, nuestro presidente, Linda Nairn, no se han hecho ninguna decisión en este momento, ahorita solamente estamos obteniendo comentarios y opiniones. Es de, I'll say it in English very briefly, it's good for me to repeat what our chair of the naming committee reported. Again the purpose of this meeting is to obtain public input to get your feedback on the proposal. It's a proposal to add the name to Las Palmas. It's not to replace the name, I want to emphasize that. It's not to replace the name of the Las Palmas library. It's to add the name. The naming committee of the library board of trustees has the responsibility and the role of, once a request is submitted to the library, they're charged with getting public input, doing research, and making sure that the individual fits the credentials identified in the naming committee. The name, I mean the naming policy, excuse me, the naming policy can be found. Do we get copies here? There's copies here, but it can also be found on the library's website. If you go to the link about, you can find the naming policy and it describes the whole process there. But again, I just want to emphasize, we're going through a process. We want to be delivered about this decision. The naming committee will make a recommendation to the full library board where further deliberation will occur and a decision is made on the request again to consider the name of Andrés Aravia to be added to this library. I'm pleased that we have a nice turnout to get public feedback. I do want to emphasize that there's different ways of continuing to provide feedback. There's the library's website, there's a phone number, and I don't have it in front of me, Jessica. I will provide that. The number that they can call is two. One zero? Okay. All right, got it, thank you. So I just wanted to emphasize that there's plenty of opportunities for those individuals that were not able to be here or were concerned because it's an in-person meeting. By the way, we have masks for those that forgot their mask and you're interested in wearing a mask. We have some in the back, but I can see that practically all of you are wearing masks. That's good, from my perspective. And with that, again, welcome, and I'll turn it back to Dale McNeil. Let me introduce Dale. In fact, this will give me an opportunity to recognize not only Dale McNeil, he's our Assistant Director for Public Services, but also recognize Jessica Zurita, who's our Chief of Staff. She's the one that works behind the scenes and coordinate all the logistics and everything that's coming together, along with the library team, of course. And so I wanted to recognize Jessica, and at this time, Dale will explain the logistics of how the meeting will be conducted and go ahead, Dale. So once again, good afternoon, and we're really glad so many of you are here to provide your input, and we will actually get started soon. So, but these parts, I think, are really important as well so that we are able to hear from everyone. So following the general pattern of the City Council meetings, each speaker today will have up to three minutes to address the committee. If you're self-identified as a group, the group together will have nine minutes, and then that will count as the time for all those members of the group. Library staff member will read the name of each speaker when it is their time to speak, and those will be the people who indicated yes that they wanted to speak on the sign-in. So if you wanna change that, you can go and you can, if you didn't quite understand, you needed to say yes, you wanted to speak, and we'll happily accommodate you. Because we're in this time of pandemic, we'll wipe down the microphone after each speaker, so that'll take a minute or two. Just be aware that that's gonna happen. We do have a timer because I think we all know it's hard to have an internal clock as exactly what is three minutes. So we do have a timer over here with an alarm and really that's just for your convenience. It's really meant to make it flow more easily. So there is a not too obnoxious alarm that will sound when three minutes have concluded. There are many individuals signed up to speak today, so please do keep your comments within the three or nine minutes. Again, please note this is an opportunity for the naming committee of the Library Board of Trustees to receive your public comments, to ensure that each speaker has the full opportunity to speak. There will be no dialogue between the committee and speakers and no dialogue between speakers. So each one of you is just addressing the naming committee. As the mayoral mentioned, there are comments that we've received before the meeting. So what we will do today is, first the committee will receive the in-person comments because you made the effort to be here. So we wanna hear from you first. Then the written comments will be read following the same timeline. So even if the person wrote a very long letter, it will follow the same three minute timeline and then we'll play any voice messages. If you would like to provide public comment and you have not already signed up, please take this opportunity to sign up at the front of the meeting room just as you were when you were coming in. So we will now, I believe, begin and Jessica will be calling individuals one at a time by the order that people signed in this morning. Thank you again. Sister Pearl Cessok followed by Sister Gabriela. Good afternoon. My name is Sister Pearl Caesar. I am the Superior General of the Congregation of Divine Providence. Our offices are at 515 Southwest 24th Street. We sponsor Our Lady of the Lake University, Providence Catholic School, and we minister throughout the United States and Mexico. This is the library we use and this is where we come to vote. Our congregation gives full support to renaming this library, the Andres Sarabia Las Palmas Library. Andy served as the first president of COPS, Communities Organized for Public Service. In that role, he set the foundation for COPS achievements since 1974. Andy saw the inequities perpetuated in San Antonio's inner city neighborhoods, home to Mexican Americans. COPS and Andy set about doing its work. Since then, the COPS organization, just to name a little of its achievements, has directed over $2 billion worth of infrastructure improvements to the South and West Side, passed bond issues and increased city budget to ensure infrastructure, initiated new housing and the demolition of substandard housing, passed bonds for neighborhood libraries and leadership and learning centers. We would not be having this meeting here today if it were not for Andy and COPS. They also created the San Antonio Housing Trust, the San Antonio Education Partnership, Alliance Schools, Afterschool Programs and Project Quest, initiated action for building Palo Alto Community College, worked for the approval of single district city council districts and recently worked to pass SA Ready to Work. Among the organization's most significant achievements have been leadership development of ordinary citizens, just like Andy. Voter education and registration drives and get out the vote campaigns. Andy saw the grave discrepancies in our city he did not work for personal gain. Instead, he acted on behalf of the community and changes that came about benefited the whole community and they are here to stay for future generations. The renaming of this library is a small token of appreciation and recognition to a man who devoted his adult life for the good of the community and it will set an example and a model to the rest of the community of what needs to continue in our city. Thank you very much for your time. Sister Gabriela followed by Beatriz Cortez. Good afternoon. I'm Sister Gabriela, Holy Spirit Sister from the east side of San Antonio. But this neighborhood is very important to me. I went to school over on native of the lake. To members of the board of trustees, the naming committee and to Mr. Salazar, good evening. I am here to state why I believe and my congregation believes this library should honor a very constructive and long to be remembered member of our community. Mr. Andres Sarabia, Andy gave 45 years of his life totally engaged with cops because he knew the value of the organization for San Antonio and following the model of cops and the improvement it did in San Antonio. Cops was replicated in Arizona, New Mexico, California and several other states in the United Kingdom. And of course there are cops organizations all over the state of Texas in all the big cities. Andy Sarabia was the heart of cops, starting in 1974. And after the merger of cops and metro lines in 1988 until he died in 79 at 79 years in 2019. I cannot enumerate or describe all Andy accomplished not alone, not alone, he did not do it alone. He had those whom he inspired and mentored to accompany him in this great work. All together, cops and metro leveraged over $2 billion in funding for the city of San Antonio. Here are some of the initiatives and I don't want to over repeat, Sister Pearl, but they take repeating. Infrastructure streets and drainage, children walking to school in the water and declare that up. And cops align schools where teachers and parents worked together to improve our schools and thereby improve instruction. Cops brought in educators to work with our parents at cops expense. Cops and education partnership for high school students where high school students who had an 85% average attendance and maintained a B average in academics got a partial scholarship to a four year university when they graduated. Andy was for education and the common good. Andy pushed for libraries. Mexicans can't read, he was told. Well, they can Andy said, get them the books, bring in a library. Libraries were built with bond money, seven of them, 11 were built one year and one cycling and Las Palmas was one of them, seven were built in the cops neighborhoods. Is that my time? Give me a second, give me a second. He facilitated founding of Palo Alto and got a doctorate, received a doctorate from Palo Alto for the work he did. He was told they wouldn't go to college so the Mexicans wouldn't, but you know what they did when they got to college. Andy was given, oh, I said that Andy was given, not the diabetic hospital, let's not forget it. Project quested jobs training initiative that pays adequate wages and benefits. Project quest is now very well known all over the country and is very highly regarded. Now, who's next? You know, I'll tell you a fast story, brief question. You know what the kid said from the back of the church when the priest said, where did I stop? He said, you're close to the end. I am here to state why you said that. Oh, excuse me, my God, please forgive me cops Metro. The greatest contribution was made in the development of cops Metro leaders. Power is a misunderstood word. Power is the ability to act. Andy taught us that. He taught us about right relationships. Justice is a right relationship. Justice exists when relationships are right. Everyone is equal and right, I'm through. Everyone is equal and all have a right to education, healthcare and nutrition. Thank you very much everybody. I appreciate it and I appreciate your decision. Beatriz Cortez, followed by Irlinda Sarabia. My name is Beatriz Cortez. I was the fourth president of the cops organization, 81 and 82. I joined cops because the San Antonio School District Board was closing my children's elementary school, Ben Milam. I stayed because of leaders like Andres Sarabia who challenged me to do more, to make dreams come true for people in underserved communities. And we started dreaming. All we had to do was go to a meeting at one of our churches and say, what do you think we could do in this neighborhood? And the answers kept coming. We can do better schools. We can put our conditioning in our schools. We can do sidewalks. We can do drainage. We can do housing. We can do something about better wages. Everybody's dream became a topic of conversation and a way to bring people together. We started even dreaming about parks. We started dreaming about tax abatements when seniors would come in and they'd say, this is the house that my husband left me or my son left me. And now I'm losing it because the taxes are too high and I don't know how to handle it. They want me to fix it because the neighbors are saying that my house is de-dapedated, but I don't have the money. So we begin to look at answers. And that was a challenge that Andres Sarabia gave to me and to many leaders. Dream and then think, focus on a strategy of how to make it happen. I am here today to say that it is a small token, a very small token for a library to be named after a man like Andres Sarabia. None of us, none of the leadership, got paid one red cent for the work that we did. And we worked weekends. We gave up time with our children, with our families, get-togethers. But it was a price, a sacrifice that we were willing to make because the communities were important. And we look back now on our neighborhoods as I was driving over here. And you see all this streets and curbs and sidewalks, parks, schools. I saw JT Brackenridge coming back, coming through on Guadalupe, work that we did that Andres Sarabia was part of. He deserves that honor of having been the school reigning. Thank you very much. Andres Sarabia followed by Ninfa Cantu. Good morning. And thank you so much for having us here today, ministers, Salazar and board members. I am Erlinda Ledesma Sarabia. I am the wife of Andres Delgado Sarabia. I am here with family and friends as well as cop members. All of us here from different sections of town. All of us became a family. And he requested two things at the last days of his life as we were at University Hospital for 17 days. One was to vote in the election. That was pending. And the second one was to have his name added and I emphasize added to the Las Palmas Library. Next to his friend and brother in justice, Albert Benavides. He voted with the help of his grand-nephew, Alex Sarabia. Thank you, Alex. And here we are today to request the second part of his request. Las Palmas was built in 1955. It housed our favorite store, Jockeys, and was the core of this neighborhood. And he knew this. When he turned to me and asked, I want my name added to Las Palmas, he said to me as well, do not delete Las Palmas, it's the neighborhood. He grew up in this neighborhood, worked in this neighborhood, fought many battles for social justice in this neighborhood. Through the organization of cops, now known as Cup Metro. Andy grew up at 3225 Colima Street. That house still stands today. Six children in a small house, hiding the summer, cold in the winter. And when it rained, children played in its flooded streets. It was their swimming pool. They call it Colima River. And here are two of his siblings right here, Beatriz Torres and Olympia, he means. Those are his two siblings, and one is in Dallas. In 1974, Andy grown married and living in Loma Park, stood in his yard in two feet of water. When Ernesto Cortez, the director of IAF, Industrial Areas Foundation, said and agitated him. He says, do you like standing in water every time it rains? Andy grew quietly agitated, angry, when he remembered his early childhoods on Colima Street. And so was born Cops Metro. And Andrés Sarabia found himself in the center of it all, became the face of a people power organization known as Cops. But Andy went about it quietly. Meeting started in parish halls, bringing people together, equally as angry with social injustices. They banded together into a disciplined force, power in numbers. People learned their power was in voting. They demanded structural change, a place at the table. And so the Mayberry drainage became a reality and there was no more flooding. In 74, the banish came, presented to Andy Sarabia by someone here, and they reviewed, he turned, turned, sent it to the Cops membership. They valued, they saw the value in their communities and 11 libraries were designated in the Cops area as indicated here. The example is the libraries throughout our city, as Andy said, for all children to dream and outlet for natural creativity and further their curiosity. These libraries are used by people of all statutes, students, researchers, people that need technology, job seekers, parents, daily, daily. You promote the library and I'll say you, provide economical growth. People are able to read for a literate public, social mobility, and the big plus, the libraries are free. They allow a child or a young person to dream the dream so that the dreams can become realities and they can function here. To read the history and make history. Andy Sarabia worked diligently on behalf of the injustices of the poor neighborhoods. His ideas and actions to educate and empower people was for all parts of San Antonio, not just the west side, east side, north and south side. I'll just finish man with this, that I respectfully ask that when you walk out today, look across the street and look at the mausoleum of our divine mercy. And there you rest, Andy Sarabia in peace, looking back this way at his neighborhood, looking across the street, Elas Palmas, and he still is resting there. He's still in the neighborhood. Bye John, Applefifth. Two to three minutes, and we'll finish your sentence. I think I understand that we're trying to give it time for everybody to talk. Can I start now? We're gonna be reading your letter in case we got it. Okay, my name is Nimfa Cantu. I am a leader of Cops Metro Sacred Heart, and I would like to say that it was a great privilege and honor to know Mr. Sarabia. He taught me not, you know, there's a saying in Cops, don't do for others what you can do for yourselves. He taught me that I should go out and find and work. In our church, we closed three bars. They were making problems for our children and our families. I worked or volunteered at Basan Library. One of the libraries that Mr. Sarabia helped build. Why? Because we needed to educate people, but we also needed to educate the public in getting their citizenship. We had a class there, but it's not there anymore, and that's where libraries come in. Libraries help people, they educate people. A child learns when you see a child get a book, his eyes open up, and he says, this is what Mr. Sarabia wanted. He wanted people or children and adults to educate. We have the summer program, as you all know, in the libraries for children to know. We have a literacy problem in our neighborhoods where children need to learn and read, and that's what Mr. Sarabia wanted. He wanted for children to go to the libraries and learn and read, and it's a whole different world when you're at a library, because I saw it when I was volunteering there. Children, adults, they would come and they would be in awe at the things they could learn, the computers, because many children and many adults don't have computers in their houses. So they go to the libraries. It's very important, and I would ask all of you to please give the honor to Mr. Sarabia of putting his name along with Las Palmas Library. Thank you. I'm also said, followed by Steve De La Monza, I'm not sure if you'd like to, no, okay. John Torres. Good afternoon, my name is John Alcosas, a leader with St. Patrick's Cops. When I first started with the organization, I was 18 years old, a young person, a young person that was afraid of what to do for his future. Mr. Sarabia took me under his wings and taught me that fear was going to hold me back. He said, take on the challenge, take on the challenge that one of our schools was closed down, that we had bridges that needed to be rebuilt, that we had drainage problems in our communities. And so I took on that challenge. Over the many years, my jobs have focused on tackling the jobs of working with parents. Currently, I am a family and community engagement specialist with SAISD. SAISD has a community, a family community engagement specialist in every school. We deal with parents. Right now, the big issue is COVID, but we're keeping the parents calm that that's something that we can succeed and win. Andres Sarabia instilled in me that we were going to succeed in anything that we took on the challenge. The school that I work with right now is Dory Miller. With Dory Miller, the children are proud of the fact that we had an individual that was a leader at the time that America was being attacked during World War II. He took on the machine gun and he shot down the Japanese planes. Well, Andres Sarabia didn't do that. What Andres Sarabia did was he brought in buses of people to take on the leadership of our city, the leadership of our city who would rather look at the north to build in the north direction. We needed our problems solved here on the west side, on the east side, on the south side. And that's why I'm here right now, proud of the fact that Andres Sarabia instilled in me that we can. I want our community to say, we have our Dory Miller here on the west side. We're going to remember Andres Sarabia. He does his ammunition where the buses loads of people that came to the meetings. His ammunition and his guns were the people and we took on Lila Kakro. We took on Henry Cisnero. We took on Charles Becker and we told them it's our tax dollars. We demand it. We demand that these dollars come to our communities because we pay our tax dollars like everybody else. Thank you very much. Don't forget Andres Sarabia Library. Good bye Miguel Valdillo. My name is John M. Torres. I'm Andres Sarabia's brother-in-law. It says a building dedication often begins with a memory of dedicated to or to honor and recognize the dedication of. I first met Andrew in the fall of 1981, a modest man and first president of the cops as it was rumored that I was going to marry his kiss sister B. A man of passion for his community, organizing cops met role, a coalition of congregations, schools and unions coming together so we can effectively act on behalf of families, children, neighborhoods, working with businesses, communities and elected officials by making San Antonio a better place to live and work. My brother-in-law Andrew Sarabia, although has passed on, still had this vision for San Antonio. What a better way to commemorate his legacy than by dedicating a portion of this library with his name and inspiring future generations with his love and vision for San Antonio. Thank you. Heel Balido followed by Leticia Alcocet. Leticia Alcocet, okay. Mike Reyes, the third. Father Mike DiGiorno. Thank you for allowing this to happen. I'll be very brief in my comments. I assure you, no sermons today. Please allow me to say with all of my heart that I support all of the previous speakers who have said very eloquently what Mr. Andres Sarabia has done for these communities. Therefore, I support wholeheartedly and I pray and I pray that this library will be renamed the Andres Sarabia Library at Las Palmas. Thank you. Rachel Delgado followed by Julia Soto. My name's Rachel Delgado. I'm a lifelong resident of this neighborhood. And I'm wondering how you're gonna make this long title of the name because I think that Las Palmas part is very important. We had the shopping center. It was a big boost to the economy here on the West side. They built houses that are the Las Palmas subdivision and then we finally got a library, which was the previous building. And that was wonderful because before that, I would have had to take the bus to the Prospect Hill Library. So I guess that got replaced by Basant. You better go downtown. So it was a big part of the neighborhood. So I'm just wondering how long of a title is this library gonna have? I'm also a member of the Westside Preservation Alliance. So I'm always curious like what the history of the neighborhood is and all of that. But I'm just anxious to see how this is gonna work out with a name change, because I remember there was the big controversy with the old Highway 90. So thank you. Julia Soto followed by Elise Dolan. And they thought we just found young brothers first. Okay. Be Doris. Olympia. Sarabia. Next up, Michael A. Sarabia. A. Sarabia. But okay, followed by Leticia Sanchez. Thank you. All of these board members and family friends. My name is Michael Sarabia, Michael Andrew Sarabia. I'm Andy Sarabia's son. And I just wanted to share a couple of minutes. I'm here today from Monterey, Mexico. My brother here is here from Midlothian. It's just south of Dallas here. So we just came in to be a part of this. And thank you for your time and for your acknowledgement of this. Since the age of seven, I have probably been a library card holder. And I've greatly appreciated the value that the library has brought to you the communities of San Antonio. I checked out my first book at a mobile library park at the Loma Park Plaza in Culebra every Monday. Many times I carry these books well-wrapped in towels and bags when I had to walk through the flooded streets at Culebra to return my books and check out new books. Funny, I still can remember the smell of those little trailers, you know. They had a funny smell. Rooms, I didn't want to go anymore because of that smell my dad told me. You know, son, maybe I was about seven years old. He told me, you know, son, well you're gonna go through life and you're gonna smell a lot of poop worse than that in your life. Well, libraries have spent a lot better now or I've been through a lot of poop. But through my parents' encouragement to have my reading, my love for reading grew and I really enjoyed collecting reading certificates during the summer. All was well worth the experiences of that continued today as I still the patron of the library. Today, thanks to the efforts of so many people in organization including my dad, Andres, Andy, Saravia, libraries have gained so much more value to our communities and added so much more value. Friends, I stand here today only a five minute walk from my dad grew up on Colima Street and a few feet from when he was finally late to rest across the street directly in front of the, here at the Santa Fernando Cemetery. And I'm joined by others to share reasons to why they should add my dad's name to this library but I feel that my dad would rather have me speak more about the importance of this particular library has in his community. Wow, a lot of this happens is May the third of 2019 when he passed. But this library has continued to shine in this community. Even the time of shrinking municipal budgets combined with the craziness of this technological revolution, this library along with the Learning Center continue to focus on building a strong educated community united face to face or should I say face mask to face mask. The staff continues to strive if all they can to inspire, educate about the arts, literature and even music and leadership. More than just books and computers, this library is again a gathering place for the people in this community to explore, interact and imagine. It's a birthplace to many dreams. Libraries today are community builders. Las Palmas Library is much more than an inclusive and diverse community center where barriers of diverse languages can be broken and ideas can become successful projects and even for some it's a university and more importantly it's a champion for the youth of this community. This library is here, this is more than just a building, it's a world of hope, knowledge and wisdom and the cultures and the coraje that can be found in the thousands of books and in the hearts and minds of the people of this community that come to this library. And so I know my time is up so I'm gonna stop there. Thank you. Leticia Sanchez followed by Hedinio Rodriguez. Hi, my name is Leticia Sanchez and I'm a resident of this community. I was born, raised and currently live here and a very proud resident of this community. I'm here to state my opposition to the proposed renaming of the Las Palmas Library for the following reasons. Although Mr. Sarabia contributed to the development of the community, honoring him and specifically singling him out by adding only his name to the current Las Palmas name minimizes and practically erases the hard work put forth by a community of individuals, mostly women who spent so much time and effort to make the Las Palmas Library a reality for a community. We would be slapped in the face to these women, to these individuals who baked and sold cakes to raise money who spoke up publicly and made demands all in an effort to bring the Las Palmas Library to our community. The name Las Palmas holds a special place for a community and those of us who grew up in the community and for those of us who grew up in the community. We've all witnessed so many changes in our body, some good, some bad and some necessary. Unfortunately, a lot of the change taking place is erasing our history. And although some people may think a change in the name or adding a name is not a true change in history, I state that it is. This isn't a necessary change. And we hope that the Board of Trustees will respect our community voices to keep the name of Las Palmas Library as Las Palmas. I think if we want to honor Mr. Sarabia, we need to think the public library on Soledad has no name. It's the San Antonio Public Library. We should honor him by renaming that, the Andres Sarabia Public Library. It would be more of a way to honor him in a more visual way. So we believe that there are many other ways in the community also and the library that can honor Mr. Sarabia by, but and not only Mr. Sarabia, but the other community members who worked hard on the Las Palmas Library Project within the library. We could commemorate a wing or we could create a wall of recognition to include Mr. Sarabia's name and those are the other individuals. A wall with names and a history of the individuals would be more educational and would serve to honor all those who worked hard to bring the Las Palmas Library to our community. Thank you for your time. Mr. Rodriguez, followed by Alex Sarabia. Take off my mask over here. Hello, my name's Eugenia Rodriguez and I got to meet Mr. Sarabia many years ago. And what I learned is that he did do great things, many things. But there was something that really irked me. There was a clash in the way things were done. The way I was brought up is that the end does not justify the means. And the teachings that were done there was that the end did justify the means. And then what is just in right became a footnote. So when you, let's say you want something, it doesn't matter how you get to it as long as you get to it. That's not the way I was brought up. I was brought up that the end does not justify the means. In our case, it dealt with our voting rights. I myself was very ill at the time. I had trouble, I had to use a cane to walk. And I picked up about 1,200 signatures alongside me was another cops person that the lady right here on Lubis, we were sitting there and all of a sudden she says, I don't feel well, so we had to call an ambulance. That was the passion we had so that we could all have the right to vote on an issue. Many others did the same. I approached Mr. Sadavi and I asked him, how are you doing with signatures? And he would just smile and he would just smile. What I was not aware of is that there was another end that was being sought. So here I am going home when getting fevers and stuff, getting signatures. And this culture was there. But I said, no, I'm seeing everything wrong. So I even went, which I had never done in my life to the diocese and I asked, is this proper? So they got me on an advisor for the bishop, which is really like log. And he knew the catechism of the Catholic church, the Vatican laws, he knew the pages, he knew the paragraphs. And I said, aren't we supposed to protect God's water? And he would just go, yep, go to page such and such, go to paragraph such and such. And he was smoking a cigarette because he's going, let's go outside, I like to smoke, okay. So he's smoking a cigarette. So we were all cheap following blindly. Now I hear all these accomplishments, but after seeing that our vote was put to the side for other issues, how many other things happened that we're not aware of? So if you can put on the bottom of it, the end justifies the means so that that way we don't repeat that. Now, what happens is mob mentality because everybody was afraid to speak. I myself spoke in one meeting surrounded by about 200 people. And I told them, this is not right. And somebody was standing speaking and they said, no, but this is right. So I told him, move, and you will see what you all wrote about a week ago. It says there, and it did say, do what is just and right. So he was a wonderful man, he was very nice. I mean, very nice. But the modus operandi for getting things done was not in my nature. So if you could do that and make sure that people don't follow it, that the end does not justify the means, it would be good. Thank you. Like Sarabia followed by Esmeralda Alanis. Good afternoon. Thank you to the naming committee and the library board for convening this public hearing today, I'm Alex Sarabia, the great nephew of Andres Sarabia. My great uncle had a few last wishes before he passed away two years ago. He was a man of faith. And so he wanted to have the holy sacraments and the last rites before he died. He also believed deeply in our democracy and he wanted to vote in the last May municipal election. And so I helped him cast his final ballot. And lastly, he hoped that his name could be added to the Los Palmas Library, which he helped Bill through his work with, as the first president and co-founder of COPS, Communities Organized for Public Services. And that's why we're here today to honor the work of Andy Sarabia who cared tremendously about this community, who worked tirelessly to empower his fellow neighbors to have a voice in their own government. I first learned about my great uncle's work as a young college student. I thought it was remarkable that someone in my own family had been so influential in the development of our city, in the advancement of our people, especially for Mexican American families here on the west side of San Antonio. And as you all might know, COPS was founded in 1974, just a decade after the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act were passed and just a year before the 1975 amendments which covered Texas and language minorities, to Spanish speakers and ultimately led to San Antonio changing the single member districts, giving greater representation to folks. And Andy Sarabia and COPS were integral to the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement here in San Antonio. He helped organize this community block by block, church by church to help folks realize their rights and their power in our democracy and in our city. He rejected the inequality and the injustice that he saw around him, the streets without sidewalks, the roads without drainage, the neighborhoods without libraries. And he understood that in a democracy that the most powerful title we have is not that of president or of governor or mayor, but it's citizen. And he cared deeply about giving the chance for his fellow neighbors to be able to influence their government and ultimately work for investments in their communities. And Las Palmas Library is a powerful example of that. For over 40 years in community service, Andy was a quiet soldier for social justice, working the levers of government to win significant improvements for our community. And it's not often that the contributions of Latino leaders in US history are recognized. And I hope that this committee and the library board will consider and recognize the work of Andy Sarajevo. Thank you. Followed by Linda Aronge. Hello, my name is Emerald Alanis and I am a citizen of the Las Palmas Library. So I grew up in this neighborhood. I've been here since I was a child and I always came to get books or even a library card. I believe the name should not be changed or added at least. I feel like in remembrance, he did so much for the cop areas. And I feel like that area should be respected. There should be maybe a board, like another person said. Sorry. But I do believe he did a lot for this community. Even though this is my first time hearing of him, I feel like many of the people here today are represented by the cops. Even though their action in the community has helped many, they have not really been impactful in my generation. And I feel like if we knew more about him in this generation or in this life, I would have more respect for him or have known better that maybe we should have added it. But he was not the only one in the cops organization, even though he was the first president. I feel like we should have still a remembrance for him or not just the name, re-name the rest. Thank you. Linda Arrange followed by Jose Angel Gallegos. Good afternoon and thank you for having this hearing for us. I'm Linda Arrange and I am currently serving as Vice President of the Friends of Las Palmas Library. Delia Trimble, who is our president. Delia Ramirez Trimble grew up in this area. She and her brother are both on the board. And so we would like to welcome you and we're so excited that you showed such great interest in the library. We've had two meetings and they've been slightly different, but it's nice to know that everyone seems to have a lot of love and pride in having this library in our area. Whatever the decision is made or whenever we make that decision, we're excited to welcome a lot of you, we can hope, because we have been serving since, well, I think it's about 10 years. Now, as officers of the plans, we have been seeking new members because we believe, although Delia and her brother, Robert Ramirez, both grew up in this area, we would like to see more interest come from the local community. And so I'm hoping that because there's been so much interest in renaming this library, that we all will also serve and agree to serve as friends of the scent of the Los Palmas Library. I know that you all are all very busy doing other things, but you have, by showing up today, show that you have a love for the library and we have a love for the library, but we're getting old. And so we would like. A lot of the work that we do, it's like doing functions, we do Dia de los Muertos, we go out to Port Essay for different functions that they have for us. And it's kind of fun. I mean, it's also a lot of work, but I do want to remind you that the library runs only as well as the volunteers that can help us because the kids need a lot of time and sometimes this is where they get that special time. So if you all can agree to come today for this renaming, I hope that you don't forget us and we thank you for using the library and we look forward to reopening so that we can all be together again. However, we are closing. When? I mean, you don't. We will be closing in a couple of weeks. No, not in a couple of weeks. A couple of months. We're gonna finish Memorial Grants Library. After that's finished then we'll start the construction project here. So they'll probably be early 2022. Well, then you have lots of time. Perhaps you can come do Dia de los Muertos with us if we're kind of open. And you know, we always are doing crafts and things with the people. So while you're showing the love and desire to want to rename the library because you realize what an honor and a privilege it is to be part of this library, it would be really great if you all can help us if you have a talent, if you know how to do papeleros, if you know how to make up and you have that. We would love you to come by and have a class one day. So anyway, I know that this is not quite what this is about but I didn't want to thank you all for showing interest in renaming the library. Thank you. Jose Angel Gallegos followed by Jeannie Gonzalez. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, honorable members of the board. Mr. Salazar, thank you and welcome to our barrio. My name is Jose Angel Gallegos Jr., a lifelong member and resident of District 5. I grew up not too far from here on Southwest 19. I've seen many, many changes, most of them positive for our district and our barrio. I remember walking through the field on my way to Western Ottawa that was next to our H-E-B, our neighborhood H-E-B store. Not only did I grow up in District 5, I went to school at our Lady of the Lake University and I've also worked the majority of my life in District 5. I currently have an organization, nonprofit, that is named Adelante, which translates to Forward. And I'm encouraged by the forward progress that we're making in the consideration of adding the name of Andres Saravia, a fellow social worker and colleague of mine who I met when I was studying at our Lady of the Lake University. I shared the vision of Andres for the betterment of our community and for setting examples for our young people, especially our children, in the name of education. But along with that challenge of educating not only our own, we had to educate others about the fact that we existed and that we had needs and that we also wanted to be self-sustaining, given an opportunity to succeed and to compete. I urge you to consider adding the name of Andres Saravia. As director of Adelante, I strongly support along with my organization and as board of directors, I strongly support your consideration. I leave you with a thought, esperanza, which means hope. And I believe that that is what Andres Saravia's dream was all about. Gracias. Jeanie Gonzalez, followed by Manuel Garza. Good afternoon. My name is Jeanie Chapa Gonzalez. I'm in the neighborhood. I lived in this neighborhood for the past 63 years. I attended Sarah King Elementary, Rhodes Middle School, and my near high school. I realized that the name wanted to be changed. However, this is deep roots of the Las Palmas Library. This other, like someone indicated, could be presented other names in other locations. I realized that he's from the cops. However, cops Metro has always been involved with it. I think if anything, maybe include just cops Metro Las Palmas Library, because they've done a lot to our community. So that's all I needed to say. Thank you. Manuel Garza, followed by Graciela Sanchez. Good afternoon. My name is Manuel Garza. I'm a lifelong resident of District 5 and 6, because with seeing one of our districts, we've gotten changed several times, but still the same neighborhood, still in Edgewood. I really like the fact that you're honoring my friend, Andres Saravia. I've known Andres for many years. My family lived right off the creek of Mulberry, Mulberry Creek there, and that's what started the whole organizing of cops. And so it's been a long, long, long struggle. And so it's always been a team effort from the get-go, from the walkout at Edgewood High School, which I was part of when I was a junior in high school, to the organizer of Southwest Voter Registration Project, which I'm still working with right now, and still registering people to vote and getting out to vote. But all of that is part of what we all did. Andres, Ernie Cortez, Wille Velasquez, I can go on and name a lot of names of people that were involved that time. So it's an honor to have Andy's name being considered, but I think we should honor what Andy asked. Have my name added to the list, and because it was a big effort, it was a big, big effort, community effort. And so I have a lot of respect for everybody that was involved, all the organizing that we did, all the, I remember when we, I got fired from my job, we were asking for seeing member districts. And so, but then he stopped us, we continued doing the organizing, having the community meetings to explain once we developed what the 10-1 plan was about, how it could affect the governance of our city, which I think has been good for the city and for the country. So I think that, you know, it's the case here in San Antonio and in Houston where the model would invite cases for the whole country. So a lot can be said about each and every one that was involved. So I thank you for the time and for your consideration. Thank you. Graciela Sanchez, followed by Linda Wilson. Buenas tardes, my name is Graciela Sanchez. I'm also a District 5 proud resident, and I also grew up here and also went to linear go books. I'm here because a lot of people in the community approached me and approached a lot of folks that are connected to different cultural organizations, non-profit organizations, and they weren't actually happy with the change. They said, who is Andres Saravia? And I have to say, I know Andres Saravia. He was a good man. We don't wanna go against Andres, but they just didn't know who he was and they were angry because here's another name of historic space, a public library that didn't come into existence until 1969. I know a few years ago, we were trying to stop the raising of the original Jetson-looking building over there and people wanted to raise it just to build other elements of the Las Palmas Mall. So I think we need to really consider, I don't even know what the title is. Is it the Las Palmas Library Is it Andres Saravia's library? The Las Palmas, you know, like what is the name? I think people are curious about it and I don't think we know enough about it. And as other people have mentioned, and including some people who are from COPS Metro, who aren't here, but they were saying, but we were all, who had is, that we were doing all this work and we were again raising the monies to make this building a reality. So, you know, in general, a lot of buildings are always named after men when a lot of women do a lot of the work. And then finally, like Leticia mentioned, the Central Library is the Central Library. It's not named after anybody. He is a big man. He was an important man, not just for the West Side, but for the entire city. So why don't we name the Central Library, the Andres Saravia Library and go bigger. And the Wilson and Ms. Wilson is the last person signed up to speak. If anybody else has not signed up but would like to speak, please sign up and we will add you to the list. I was late. Would you, can you distribute that to the board? And the reason I, I, this is a poem. Oh, I guess I can take this off, right? Can y'all hear me fine, everybody? I know it's hard for me to hear in the back. But I have a big, I wish this longer voice. When Andy died, I wrote a poem. I was part of the beginning of COPS. And I'm just going to read this poem. I was asked if, if I would like to present it here, it was presented at his funeral because I think it does kind of show what he stood for. Andy Saravia, a standout man. Andy stood up when doing so was risky and unprecedented, telling the stories of flooded streets, burst water mains, schools closed, neighborhoods that lacked parks, libraries and living wage jobs. He stood up and soon he was not alone. As they stood up, a hentai without great power or wealth, calling themselves communities organized for public service and finally just COPS Metro. They stood together, and I'm going to just postscript, I did too, although I was in a little bit different neighborhood. They stood together joining wills in long invincible rows of confrontation, challenging politicians, power brokers, development goblers and those who said, we know what's best for San Antonio. They stood united, a raucous crowd in city halls, school board rooms, bank buildings and corporate headquarters rejecting no impossible, not in the budget and that discussion ending retort already decided until finally, they stood with Andy in victory watching street lights, soft signs, parks and libraries bloom while drainage pipes, bus lines and school buses forged new paths to homes and neighborhoods. They stood and watched satisfied as dollars millions of them moved west and south and east and north into neighborhoods so long neglected. At last Andy could stand down, take a well-deserved rest, survey the changes, yet still he stood strong in forums, rallies, legislative galleries until God called and said, stand with me and look at all we've done. And I'm just going to leave that. I mean, I think that the library should be named for him with Las Palmas considered too. And maybe this poem can be placed somewhere and other people can be encouraged to write poetry about what they feel and what they think. That's all of the in-person to speak. Okay, so now we're going to have the written things that we've received. Now we're going to have the written things that we've received and Jessica's going to read those for us, for y'all for all of us. Excuse me, it's been suggested we have a 10 minute break. If anybody needs to, how many? Two? Oh, a two minute break. I'm sorry. Okay. Okay. Okay. You look good. Thank you. All right, we're ready to restart the meeting. So if you could take, please take your seats, please. We're ready to restart the meeting. Hello everyone. Hello everyone. Would you please read, take your seats so we can continue the meeting. Friends that you can come back, please have them do that. We're going to read the letters and then have voicemail messages that we've gotten. And Jessica's going to start reading those. Yes. It's on, yeah. It's on, it's on, it's on. Okay, okay. I'm sorry we did that. The first is from Laura Solis. Let this letter be on record to all members of the committee board, all districts and patrons that support this cause. I include with each person on this statement that they're grave, that gave their permission to support this letter with their names and address. My name is Laura Solis, Edgewood resident for 70 years. It is very important to conserve, preserve and protect the history of Las Padmas branch library. Las Padmas library is a big part of our heritage. Please take a stand and do not change or add to the name Las Padmas library. I offer my sincere condolences, not just to the Andres Arabia, not just to Andres Arabia, but to every single patron, including my parents, along with hundreds of caring patrons who have passed away. So many supporters gave their time and support to our Las Padmas library. These important patrons who are now lost, but not forgotten, became the original Los Padrinos organization, hops in several neighborhood community donations. These hardworking organizations and patrons raised money to purchase many library books, computers, materials needed for our new Las Padmas library. I am my parents voice. They will never support to give recognition to just Andres D. Arabia, who is just one person. It would be a slap on their face and disrespect to all those caring supporters that are not recognized. My suggestion is to offer anyone the fair chance to purchase personalized bricks to be placed in the entrance of Las Padmas library or a memorial plaque to be placed on the sidewalks or wall and use the funds towards the updated needed materials to keep our Las Padmas library up to date for our future generation. Rememberance of our loyal supporters and everyone who did their part in supporting our Las Padmas library path present and future. No one stands alone. We are all united. We are a generation. We strongly do not support any changes. Leave the name Las Padmas library. Sincerely in closing with the blessing, Laura Solis, Arine Rubio, Gilbert Rubio, Evelyn Rubio, Teresa Rubio, Santos R. Martinez, Gladio Solis, April Sandoval, Jonathan Solis, Matthew Solis, Gloria Comancho, Richard Comancho, Rosa Linda Lugo, Mark Riojas, Janice Cruz, Velasco, Renee Gonzalez, April De Leon. The next is from Delia Trimble, SAPPLE Board. I am not attending the public meeting out of concern for my husband's health, so I appreciate the information on the live streaming link for Saturday. Regarding the name of the Las Padmas library, by adding Mr. Sarabia's name, I've considered several points. The LP library celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2019, and Mr. Sarabia's name never came up in relation to the Las Padmas library in any historical perspective and or presentations. The community's organized Republic Service Cups name did come up in the history on mysaple.org, Las Padmas library website, but there was no mention of Mr. Sarabia. There has been no information about why Mr. Sarabia and no one else was nominated for the naming honor. Significantly, the Hispanic Heroes mural in the Las Padmas library features Al Benavidez, a respected Cups leader, Cesar Chavez, Henry B. Gonzalez, Emma Tenayuca and Flaco Jimenez. It is my understanding that the mural will be moved permanently to the main hallway during the upcoming four month or so renovation starting in late 2021, question mark. There will be more permanent, where it will be more permanent reviewed by more people. The mural center figure is Henry B. Gonzalez. And if any name were to be added to the Las Padmas libraries, it should be reasonably be his because of his documented achievements for the entire city of San Antonio. I haven't heard of a good enough reason for changing the Las Padmas library's name to include Mr. Sarabia's. So I vote to leave the Las Padmas library's name as it is unchanged. She goes on to note, although I am part of the friends of the Las Padmas library, I am not speaking for the group. Our members have been asked to submit their own comments. Delia Ramirez-Chimble. Estrada president of Los Jalinas neighborhood association. Regarding the proposal to consider adding the name of Andres de Sarabia to the official name of the Las Padmas branch library. Dear San Antonio public library board and naming committee, I am an interested community person and a member of Los Jalinas neighborhood association. I wanted to let you know what my opinion on this proposed action is. First, the Las Padmas library should honor the community that made it possible, not just one person. Second, the San Antonio public library board has not followed the city's public participation directives. There has been very little to no information given and the community has not participated in a meaningful way, not one day of comments in the decision making process that is so important for community inclusion and transparency. I do not support the proposed action, leave the name Las Padmas library as it is. Hortense Espinoza. Dear San Antonio library board and naming committee, as a resident of this community for 64 years and a member of the Westwood square neighborhood association, I wanted to let you know what my opinion is on the proposed action on renaming of the Las Padmas library branch. The Las Padmas library branch is named for the community it serves. To rename a building is erasing the history of why the building was originally named to begin with. After 52 years, why do you want to rename a building? During these current times, there seems to be a standard behavior of renaming buildings. For me, this causes confusion and loss of historical value. Therefore, I do not support the proposed action. Please leave the name Las Padmas library branch as it is. Thank you, Hortense, our Espinoza. Maria P. Hernandez. I have been a resident of the Las Padmas area for over 25 years. I have not heard of a connection between Mr. Sarabia and the Las Padmas library. For decades, the Las Padmas name has identified the edge with neighborhood. I believe the name addition will cause confusion and cause much pain to the local residents. The rich history of Las Padmas means a lot to the people. Let us keep our proud history and our dignity. As president of the Las Padmas neighborhood association and part of the West Side neighborhoods of coalition, I do not agree with adding Mr. Sarabia's name or any name to the library from the tier one neighborhood coalition, Dear San Antonio Public Library Board. What we name public spaces who makes that decision and why. And in the case most importantly, how a decision to name a space or a building is made is important particularly when building or when a building or institution such as the Las Padmas library is the center of a community and its history. Much has been made of a systematic detail that the San Antonio Public Library is not renaming the Las Padmas library as the Andres Las Padmas library, but rather just adding to it. Anytime a name is altered in any way, it is a formal renaming. Prior to the pandemic, when the subject of adding a name to Las Padmas library was introduced, community members raised concern on the transparency of the library boards process and access to information. It is important to ensure that public, the public is aware of the information surrounding a request to add a name to the Las Padmas library. How was the request initiated? What information was provided to the library board for consideration? What is the policy criteria the library board considers for the request? Timeline and the public engagement on the matter. The process for adding the name to the Las Padmas library is one in which the community should fully participate and not just give input at two meetings. As community members engage with the library board, they should understand how the feedback they provide on their community library will be used in the library board process and timeline for next steps. Places have meaning and memory. The public participation for the renaming of Las Padmas libraries is a process and not just an event. Please ensure that public engagement to rename the Las Padmas library is transparent, inclusive, and respectful. While the San Antonio Public Library Board does not adhere to the city of San Antonio's process, we hope the library board will consider incorporating the city of San Antonio's public participation administrative directive AD 10.1, public participation and engagement, adopted by the city council as its policy to foster meaningful public engagement. AD 10.1, public participation and engagement directive in the URL is provided. Please consider postponing the decision to add a name to Las Padmas library until opportunity for the community to participate in a process which engenders trust and accountability is completed. Respectfully, Bianca Maldonado, Cynthia Spellman, co-chairs of the Public Participation Committee of the Tier One Neighborhood Association Steering, of the statement from Velma Venya. To San Antonio Public Library Board, Los Padrinos. In the 1970s and the 80s, there was a group of women from our Lady of Good Council that were part of the Guadalupana Society, a religious association organized by Mexican-American Catholic women to provide leadership and social concerns and perform works of charity. Working class and poor women have often made up the bulk of membership in Socieditas, Guadalupanas, alongside a smaller group of men. The women learned and applied new leadership and organizational skills. Many participated in the grassroots communities organized for public service cups. Our Lady of Good Council members of the Guadalupanas joined and became members of Los Padrinos de Las Padmas Library and became very active and were very instrumental in helping the new Las Padmas Library become a reality. Los Padrinos were tireless in their work towards the creation of a new library. There was never a dull moment with these women who cooked in the kitchen and would sell food to parishioners after the noon mass. If they weren't cooking, they would do bingos and would sell food and desserts, always selling something to raise money for their library. They would manage the church boots for church festivals. They did it all. I can speak to these stories because some were my family members and family members to my friends. These feisty, dedicated, smart women would not let you leave their presents unless you bought something that they were selling. And believe me, we would buy whatever they were selling. These mothers and abuelitas were very big believers in education and they knew that reading was something children needed, especially in our West Side community. They were committed to the community, children's access to books. I vividly remember one of the members of Los Padrinos a Les Padmas library came with her husband to visit my daughter, who was very ill in the hospital. After praying and small talk, she pulled out tickets from her person, asked us if she wanted us to buy tickets. We were so used to it that we bought them. Selling tickets was always on their mind. A friend whose mother was also a member of Los Padrinos a Les Padmas told me that her mother was in the hospital and the priest of our lady of the council was called to administer less rights. And the patient was listening to the priest as he was talking to her and two nurses came to the door. The priest paused and the patient asked the nurse to please get her purse. When the nurse got the patient's purse and gave it to her, the patients took tickets out of the purse and wanted to sell them to the nurses. The priest could not believe what he was seeing and hearing. When my friend's mother died, the same priest from our lady of the council said mouse. He told the story to other participants at her funeral and mentioned that even in her deathbed she was trying to sell tickets. These are countless of the other stories. The next is from Irma Solis. As an interested community person and a member of the Historic West Resident Association, I am writing to send my opinion on this proposed action. First, the Les Padmas name should honor the community that worked hard to promote the construction of a library in the Les Padmas area. Second, the Sable Board has not followed the city's public participation directives. Therefore, the community has not been given sufficient information and has not been involved in the decision-making process. I do not support the proposed name change and choose to have the Les Padmas library remain the same. Thank you, Irma Hoffman, Historic West Side Resident Association. Maritza Soravia. My name is Maritza Soravia, Andres Soravia's great-granddaughter. As you know, today this library is named Les Padmas Public Library. Soon it will be named the Andres Soravia Public Library. It is not a matter of will, its name be changed, but simply when it will be changed. The patient persistence of the proletariat will pay off. I'm fairly certain by now you have heard the stories of his patient negotiations that broke down many a councilperson business leader even head of a local bank. He was indeed a social justice maverick. He was David Badling-Goliath, Harry Potter taking on Voldemort, Ezekiel Mediora defeating Muscular, the latter for my favorite anime. Question to all who are listening, would you have done the same or would you have stood by watching and listening as you are now? You see his history is very much the same as those books contained on the shelves in this library. It is the story of the underdog overcoming all odds. He strived to help all especially the youth. A perfect example is this library he helped rebuild in the city's storied west side. Urban youth lifestyle is not often a fairytale with a happy ending. However, being able to escape the harsh reality of life or a bit by delving deep into the pages of a fictional book helps cope. Better yet, imagine picking up a nonfiction book about a hero who said yes to fighting to help children's reality become enjoyable. Yes to growth, growing our knowledge. Yes to helping this community. Yes to inspiring the minds of his peers. This book I speak of, I like, is called Evcolio de Andesorabia. One day you will check it out from the library over on Castroville Road, the Andresorabia Public Library. Maritza Sorabia. From the West Side Neighborhood Association Coalition, Dear San Antonio Public Library Board, changing a historic name is complex and the subject's issue is a responsibility being guided by the San Antonio Public Library Board of Trustees Naming Committee. People who were sure are committed to examining the complexities of the past and how they respectfully relate to the present. The San Antonio Public Library Board is proposing to rename the Las Palmas Library to the Andresorabia Las Palmas Library to honor the first COPS president. The Board claims they're not renaming the library, but any change to the original name is a renaming. While Mr. Sorabia is worthy of honor, it was the work of Las Padrinos of Las Palmas Library COPS members from Our Lady of Good Council Church, mostly women, who were instrumental in raising money and awareness for the library in their tireless work on book sales, raffles, plate sales, in order to donate all the money raised for books and equipment. The West Side has always been about community effort and it is inappropriate to honor one person instead of the community that works so hard to make the Las Palmas Library a reality. So many people were involved and instrumental in the passage of the 1989 library slash literacy center bond issue, which made for the construction of the new Las Palmas Library branch in the literacy center possible. We are requesting that the new, that with the new innovations of the Las Palmas Library, a wing or a section of the library be dedicated and honor all of the members of Los Padrinos of Las Palmas Library, along with Mr. Andresorabia. By honoring one person, the library raises the memory of those who work so diligently and proudly. No one person should be given the credit. Given Mr. Andresorabia's history, it's hard to believe he would approve of one person being singled out and the community left behind. Las Palmas Library is the center of our community and its history. Places and their names are important and how those places are named is critical. We want the name to remain as it is. We need to have a process that includes community and the decision-making process and honoring all of those who work so hard to create our library. Respectfully, the Westside Neighborhood Association Coalition. From Angie Hadamil, Dear San Antonio Public Library Board and Naming Committee, as a constituent of District 5 and a community member and patron of Las Palmas Library, I would like to inform you that I've opposed the name change of the Las Palmas Library. Although you're adding to the existing name, this certainly changes it. The Las Palmas Library was established in 1969 and has served our community since the 1980s. This library's name is historical for our community. I have asked other community members, young and old, about Mr. Andresorabia and no one seems to know who he is or what relation he has to Las Palmas. They have heard of an organization called Padrinos of the Las Palmas Library. They have stated to me that the majority of any accomplishments at the Las Palmas Library was done as a community group effort that put their hard work into it and not just one individual. Another note, what budget does it entail? Funds should be allocated for a community not for recognition. Again, I do not support the proposed action. Please leave the name Las Palmas Library as our historic community name. This is from Rhonda Davila. First, thank you for allowing the public to voice their opinion. Please keep the name, why? People know the name, know the library by that name. Moreover, the whole community is known by Las Palmas. There is a street behind the library called Las Palmas and an elementary school called Las Palmas Elementary and Leadership School. Google Maps also identifies the location and that makes it easier to find the library. Lastly, the library has lovely palm trees in the front and that too tells people that they are at the Las Palmas Branch Library regardless of Rhonda Davila. I'm Manuel Virial, hello. My name is Manuel Virial. After reading and watching the news regarding Andres de Sarabia, I was taken back to the late 70s and early 80s and remembered how as a child I would really enjoy going to the public library where I lived called Cortez. I came from a blue-collar family but a large family that did not have the means for luxuries in life as father worked and mother was a housewife. And in those times, we did not have internet or such things to keep kids open to the world as they as today. The library was the internet of its time and I would love to open a book and learn about life and surroundings and any question any child wondered about and just explore it and let the imagination run. I now know this man did much to fill in that void for many. And if I could think in my wood and also by bringing attention to the libraries again as so many young will not even bother reading a book as they can just Google anything they want to and fill their minds with half truths and other people's opinions and ideas. I would really enjoy this and I would really enjoy this man's name on a building near his upbringing and community as he did not just help his surrounding neighborhood. He helped get the community and the city staff itself to invest in open many libraries around communities in San Antonio and by bringing light to the young minds needing a place to congregate and learn instead of just hanging around. You would be doing a great service by bringing a name change to Les Bobmas Library to remind people of places to learn and services at libraries available to them. Manuel Virial is from Hiram A. Garcia. The Les Bobmas Branch Library has had the name for more than 50 years. Why is it necessary to rename it? Perhaps Mr. Sarabia could be honored by naming a section of the library after him instead. That would be easier, faster and less costly and the building would keep its familiar name of Les Bobmas Library. Respectfully, Hiram A. Garcia from Tony Jean Benia. Dear San Antonio Library Board and Naming Committee, as an interested community person, I wanted to let you know what my opinion on this proposed action is. First, the Les Bobmas Library name should honor the community that made it possible, not just one person. Second, the San Antonio Public Library Board has not followed the city's public participation directive. There has been very little to no information given and the community has not participated in a meaningful way, not just one day of comments to the decision-making process that is so important for the community. Everyone I have spoken to in the Les Bobmas area has had no idea who Andres Sarabia is. It is, this itself speaks volumes. If any individual's name is to be added, it should be someone who has actively supported and taken action to improve the community the library is in. I do not support the proposed action. Leave the name Les Bobmas Library as it is, Tony Jean Benia from Candace Aguilera. Dear San Antonio Public Library Board and Naming Committee, as a member of this community, I wanted to let you know what my opinion on this proposed action. First, the Les Bobmas Library is historical and everyone knows it's the center of our community and it should not add the name Andres Sarabia because it is changing the name. I remember going to Les Bobmas Library with my grandparents when I was little and it is a memory I'll cherish forever. Changing the name of this library that has been and the West Side community of San Antonio for ages would be a mistake. It was a whole community and my great grandmother was a member of Los Padrinos and Les Bobmas Library. They made Les Bobmas Library possible and not just one person. I do not support the proposed action. Leave the name Les Bobmas Library as it is, Candace Aguilera from Diane Easterhoff. Dear San Antonio Public Library Board of Trustees, I write in support of renaming the Les Bobmas Library to the Les Bobmas Slash Andres de Sarabia Library. Andres, Andy, Sarabia grew up near the present-day Les Bobmas Library and I felt a lifelong connection to the area. As the first president of COPS, formerly Communities Organized for Public Service, Andy worked with many leaders to secure the political will and funding to build 11 new public library branches with most on San Antonio's West Side. Historically, the West Side has received far fewer infrastructure resources than any other parts of the city. Andres Sarabia's efforts, along with the work of many COPS leaders, have been pivotal in addressing these inequalities. After moving to San Antonio in the mid-1990s, the first public library reopening ceremony I attended was the reopening of the Les Bobmas Library after a renovation project. Now we call Andy Sarabia speaking at that program. In 2011, Andy spoke at the Memorial Library's 30th anniversary celebration. I attended that program to hear Andy's presentation. It was at that time when I asked to join the Memorial Amigos and subsequently became the Amigos Treasurer and Secretary. Later, I also became the Treasurer of the Friends of the Forest Hills Library. Were it not for Andy's work, I might not have joined any of the library Friends group and taken on these leadership positions. For these reasons, I encourage the Board of Trustees to rename the Les Bobmas Library to the Les Bobmas Library-Andres de Sarabia Library. Sincerely, Diane Easterhoff. This is from Vicky and Cecio. The Les Bobmas French Library has been a landmark in the historic Mexican neighborhoods which surrounded. The local community recognizes it by its traditional name since founded 50 years ago as a center for learning and community activities. The name should not be changed unless a significantly prominent person of historic, artistic, or activist stature can be added to this name as a model for this unique community. Also when a name is changed just for the sake of change, the new name may not longer be recognized by the community as the same historic center and attendance might decline. Keep the Les Bobmas Library that we love. From Jesse Begna. Dear San Antonio Public Library Board and Naming Committee, as a community member and a regular patron of the Les Bobmas Library, I would like for the record to inform you that I strongly oppose the name change of the Les Bobmas Library. With all due respect to Mr. Andres de Sarabia, Les Bobmas Library is a historic landmark in our West Side community, and adding his name is changing the name. The board, the library board needs to hear the voices of community that lives here. Everything now is very political, and I hope your vote is not a political vote because Mr. Sarabia being a political figure that I actually never heard of until now. Also, there are countless of other persons, male and female, in this West Side community that contributed to making this library a reality. To honor only one man does not seem acceptable, Jesse Begna. Just from the Olivares family, Dear San Antonio Public Library Board and Naming Committee, as an interested community person and member of Los Javinas, I wanted to let you know what my opinion on this proposed action is. First, the Les Bobmas Library name should honor the community that made it possible, not just one person. Second, the San Antonio Public Library Board has not followed the city's public participation directives. There has been very little to no information given, and the community has not participated in a meaningful way, not one day of comments, in the decision making process that is so important for community inclusion and transparency. I do not support the proposed action leave the name Les Bobmas Library as it is, Olivares family. From Rachel Delgado. I'm again changing the name of the Les Bobmas Public Library. It is named after the neighborhood and should continue to identify it. I suggest Mr. Sadabi be honored with a plaque or naming in the meeting room for him. Perhaps this should be addressed in future remodeling plans. Rachel Delgado. That is all the public comments received by the start of today's meeting. Good job. We'll do that next. We also have three voicemail messages that we're going to listen to now. Margaret T. And we are leaving her telephone number out. I'm very upset that they are renaming the Les Bobmas Library for Andres Saravia. I was here, I am 75 years old, and I am still upset. This entity, Andres Saravia, molested me twice when I was 12 years old. But back in the old days, they used to sweep it under the floor and the rug, you know, they kept everything private, you know, so the public wouldn't know. And then he abandoned my sister, who was his wife, you know, he abandoned her with the two children to live with a young woman who was my age. And he did not marry her until like the year before he died. So, and when he was dying, I spoke to, you know, somebody, a retired priest, and he told me that that was a request. And when he died, he was dying, he asked that the public library be named after him. I said, asking God to take you to heaven, you wanting the library named after you, when this man had such a dark past, and in my sister with two children, you know, and they're struggling financially and having to go back to work. And he molested me twice. I had called the police, but my parents didn't allow it. He was my father who grabbed the rifle and my mother took the rifle away from him. But nothing was ever done. And I'm very upset he does not deserve to have a library named after him when people don't know about his dark past. Again, you can reach me at the number I just gave you. Thank you, bye. Yes, my name is Richard Garcia. Richard D. Garcia, address is 1-66-TESTA-DRIVE, here in the city, 782 Choi, president of the Memorial Heights Neighborhood Association and members of the West Side Neighborhood Association's Coalition. Anyway, I wanted just to bring something up to the attention of the board members and also to the library director, Mr. Salazar. I am adamantly opposed to changing the name of the Los Palmas Public Library. Let's look at it on Castroville Road. I see there's something going around there. For some time now they want to change the name to Andres D. Salavia. And I'm so, who is Andres D. Salavia? I have no idea, we have no idea who this person is. We're here as a community, community members. We have no idea it is. Why are they trying to change the name of the library? What's the public comment for? Whether it's to avoid your concerns about this name being changed and who brought up this name being changed? Yeah, there's absolutely no reason why would you change the name of the Los Palmas Public Library? If it is, there is no reason. If it's not broken, why fix it? There's absolutely no reason and I am adamantly opposed to it and I support community members that are adamantly against it. So please, as a constituent, as a registered voter, as a concerned citizen, I would urge you to please leave the name by itself. Okay, do not change the Los Palmas Library. There is no reason. Then what's gonna be next? What else are, what else, what other things changes are gonna be shook in that? Anyway, do you have any questions? Please don't hesitate to contact me, my cell number is 2108. Just a vote from Mr. Obey for the library, so he can re-select it. I'm Gloria Perez and I would like to vote for him so he can be re-selected on the library. Thank you. And that's all the public. Okay. Is there anyone else who has not yet spoken but would like to sign up to speak? Thank you to everyone who took time to be part of this public process. Your feedback, opinions and comments are valued. There will be no action taken today, but the next step for this committee will be to deliberate and make a recommendation to the San Antonio Public Library Board of Trustees. We also will accept letters and emails and voicemails until we have that meeting in decisive sight. So there's a little time left for public input. The Library Board of Trustees will make the final decision in a public meeting regarding this naming request. And the agendas for our meetings are posted on the city's website. This meeting has been recorded and the video will be made available on the library's website, mysapl.org, as soon as it's available to be uploaded. The time is now 4.05 p.m. and the meeting of the naming committee is adjourned. Y'all have a good afternoon. Thank you.