 Let me check and see if we should start or something. Okay. I'm ready. How about you? I lost it. Let me know when you're ready to start or when should we start? Not much again. Are we ready to start? Okay. Well, welcome everybody to the District 6 Runoff Candidate Forum. We have Melissa Cabello-Haverda and Andy Green. Thank you to the San Antonio Food Bank for letting us use this wonderful facility. You see the barrels over there if you brought a donation. I'm sure they appreciate it. We want to get started right away, but first there are just a few things like letting that plane fly over. That might be the last time. Okay. There will be some brief pauses then every time that happens. This is all about voter participation. So I want to just remind you that early voting begins this Tuesday, May 28th, runs through June 4th, and Election Day is June 8th. I assume all of you will be voting since you came in, cared enough to come here tonight, but please urge everybody you know to join you. Let's try to do a little bit better than the 11.5% that we had for the general election. You are all given index cards like this and a pen to borrow to write questions. We don't have a lot of them and we have plenty of time tonight, so if you have any questions either now or as we go on, just hold up your hand. One of our good league members here will bring you a card to fill out. And we can do that throughout the time. Hopefully some more people will be coming. Apparently we had a little glitch with communications. Flyers went out to all the leaders of the homeowners and neighborhood associations in the district, but apparently they did not send them out to their membership. So I don't think a lot of people knew about this. So we are fortunate to have Nowcast over here in the back with the cameras and the laptops and everything. They're recording it, they're live streaming it, and people watching will be sending in questions. Also it will be available on NowcastSA.com. There are some cards in the back that have the website on there so you can take it with you and give it to anybody you think should be seeing this. And they can watch it anytime they want. It's also available on the league website, LWVSA.org. So please let people know about that and more people will be able to see what the candidates have to say and make intelligent choices at the polls. When you do ask a question, make sure that it's directed at both candidates. Each candidate will have two minutes for opening remarks, two minutes for closing remarks, and a minute and a half to answer each question. We have a timekeeper. This is Deb Carr sitting up here in the front and she will hold up signs that say 30 seconds when there's 30 seconds left and stop when the time is out. The candidate can finish their sentence or their thought when that stop sign goes up and then cut it off. Please hold your applause and other reactions until the end of the forum. I don't think anybody else has a camera here but no streaming or recording is allowed except by permission of the league and it can only be aired in its entirety except on news broadcasts. I don't think we have any of that here either. So just one more thing. We need to say that the League of Women Voters does not support or oppose any candidate or party. We have a 99 year reputation of being nonpartisan and we plan to keep it that way. So we're going to alternate with questions. The opening statement will start with Mrs. Haverda and Ms. Haverda and then the questions will start with Mr. Green and then at the end the closing statements will start with Mr. Green. So it's your turn. Good evening. Good evening. My name is Melissa Cabeo Haverda. I'm running for District State State Council. Thank you to the League of Women Voters for hosting this evening. It's a wonderful opportunity to reach every voter. Thank you to the Food Bank for hosting us and for continuing your mission of fighting hunger all throughout our county and also on the other counties that you serve. A little bit of background. I actually grew up. I'm born and raised in District 6. I went to Timberwild Elementary, Zachary Middle School and Taft High School. And I'm born and raised here. My heart is in this district. And I went to St. Mary's Law School and undergrad and then I also received an MBA from UTSA. It's a little bit of my background. Whenever I'm asked to why I pursued a life in public service, I'm often reminded of something that happened when I was a little kid with my grandfather. And my grandfather was not formally educated but he was a hard working man and I thought the world of him. So when we were walking on the street one day, he was walking on the street and I was walking in the grass. And I remember even as an eight or nine-year-old girl kicking at the grass and then looking up at him and asking him, why don't you have any sidewalks in your neighborhood? And he looked down at me and said, porque no les importa. They don't care about us. And in that moment, it sparked a fire in me. It led me to become an attorney where I wanted to help people to find access to justice. And it led me to run for city council. I had the great fortune to work under Mayor Edgarza and did a lot of constituent work throughout the city. And also for Mayor Lila Cockrell when she was at the Parks Foundation. So I have a long history of service and really a passion for my city and this beautiful community that raised me. And I think that that does all this itself to become the next city council person. Good evening everyone here in the audience and watching virtually. Thank you to the League of Government Voters for hosting this district's community forum here at the Food Bank. My wife, Linda and I, we've lived in the Great Northwest neighborhood for over 33 years. We are going to be celebrating our 36-year-old marriage here this coming July. All three of our children were reared here in San Antonio and went to Timberwild Elementary just as Melissa had and also to Conley Middle School. And they were all proud graduates of Northside ISD at the Magnet School called Communications Arts High School at the Taft Campus. While we were at Taft, I actually was very involved in the Banbridge program. My wife's a retired middle school band director and all three of my children were band students. For 11 years I was very active there and had many positions whether it be just our committees or being a roadie or I was actually one of the officers a number of times, both treasurer and vice president and such. Really enjoyed my time at Taft Band and it taught me a lot about leadership. I've been actively involved in the Great Northwest neighborhood where we have lived for so many years. I've been a volunteer on many committees there and I was a board member a while back now. And so I'm very happy to have represented the Great Northwest and we are very fortunate to have lived in that neighborhood. For the last decade I've worked as a senior advisor and staff member for both councilman Greg Brockhouse and former councilman Ray Lopez. I advise both council members about budget priorities and infrastructure needs and how to appropriate the funds needed to maintain the infrastructure and that being streets, sidewalks, other needs that we had within the district. I'm also a CPA and I'm a small business owner of a small tax practice and I mainly focus on individuals and small business owners. I've been involved as a community partner with Northside ISD through their bond programs. I was a co-chair a number of times with their bond programs, campaigns and for the last three bond issues, 2010, 2014 and 2018, I actually manage the bond campaigns. I'm running for city council because I'm passionate about the well-being of all the residents of District 6. From the far west side to all the way out to Gilbo and 604 where District 6 runs to. Thank you. Okay, if we could get any more questions I'd really appreciate it. We don't have very many so bring them on. Okay, first question starting with Mr. Green. What groups and organizations have you dedicated your time and energy to in District 6? Oh gosh, I don't know if I can do all that in a minute and a half. I've been involved with, as I said, Northside ISD through the band program at Taft Band. I volunteered at Timberweld Elementary School for many years where my children were all attending there. I've been very involved in the Great Northwest community as I stated. Gosh, just so many, Boy Scout Troop 228. I've been a very active member there since my first son was there. So I've been quite a few groups. Thank you. I'm an advisory board member of Grandparents Raising Grandchildren. It started in District 6 over at Brockley Elementary. We provide resources to a lot of grandparents to find that they're raising their grandchildren for whatever reason. It's from washing machines to childcare. I'm also a member of the community housing resources partners and we have some developments in District 6. I'm also a member of the Magic Children's Theater and we provide access to the arts for children who otherwise don't have access to the arts. And there's areas in District 6 where we have specifically served that they can have tickets to go see a theater show that they might not otherwise see. And I've also been just kind of a little more home-based, but I have been members of the PPA to all three of my children's schools, Everest Elementary, Jordan Middle School, and Warren High School. I'm also a member of the Band Boosters at Jordan and at Warren High School. Okay, now yours first. Recently the current Mayor and City Council turned down the opportunity to place a bid for San Antonio to host the Republican National Convention. Do you agree with this? I do not agree with this. I think that we should have made a bid for it. You know, I think what the council failed to see was that there's an economic incentive. There's an economic boom when any convention comes to our city and we're a big tourist city. We have a lot to offer a convention. So I think if I was on the council I would have voted to at least place a bid for it. Who knows if we would have gotten it, but I think it was important to make the bid so that we could potentially have that economic income coming to our city. There's a high unlike the hood that the RNC would have chosen San Antonio, but we should have made that effort. When groups like the RNC, the Republican National Convention, or the Democratic National Convention come to town, a lot of times they bring infrastructure with them and that's part of the economic development that we get out of that. We get upgraded things for the police officers. We get upgraded fire infrastructure. A lot of times, you know, that's an economic driver and we really missed out the vote by not even attempting to and walking away from it without even actually talking about it on a council level. It just was decided. Okay. What are your thoughts on the need to reduce property taxes, the rising appraisals of property in the area? That is actually one of the questions that gets asked of us most of the time. So when I've been out block walking and I've talked to thousands of people in our district since I began actually in the middle of February and property taxes have been high, especially when appraisals keep going up every single year. What we as a council need to do is offset that by reducing our property tax rates and making the city live within the budget that they had last year, even if it's a small increase or a small decrease, not a major increase because you've got increased property values that bring you increased property. I have a personal experience with protesting my property tax appraisal. It was not a pleasant one. I took the time and energy and expense to go to the county and fight my appraisal and it was a harrowing process. I happened to be an attorney and I went in with all my ducks in a row and it was still a very difficult process. I have a concern for people who don't have the time to take off of work or they don't have access to the internet so that they can appeal online but what concerns me the most is that it seems to be a presumption that our appraisals are exactly correct and then it's incumbent upon us as a property owner to then do the legwork and show that this is not what our properties are worth and the appraiser has actually said that. I don't think that's the right thing. It shouldn't be that way. This is what they're doing and they need to show up. I think there's a lack of transparency. Nobody can show me the formula. Why did you appraise my home, my property at this amount? There's no formula to show so I think there's a lack of transparency. I do agree that the council made a good decision to conduct a study to see what's going on with the appraisal board but we have to see what the end result of that is. I just really would like to see if they, not just homeowners and we're talking about all property tax holders in the city to make sure that there's some transparency and we know what we're getting into. How will you support, communicate with HOAs in your district? I love HOAs in District 6. They're very active. They're very communal which is another thing I love about District 6 in general. We're very close in district I think and attending them is a big deal. Not every council person in the past attends all the HOA meetings and I think it's very important that you attend them yourself so that you're hearing from the HOA what they need in their neighborhoods. Every neighborhood has their own unique culture and identity. If you're not in those neighborhoods talking to the HOAs, knocking on their doors, getting from them what's going on then you're not doing your job right. Also, they're dealing with the problems every day and they come up with the best solutions frankly. Because they're the ones that are dealing with the problems they can tell you, hey, this is what we should be doing here and I think that a lot of that kind of grassroots thought leadership is really important to help to grow District 6. A number of years ago when I was on the board of my neighborhood association, Great Northwest we actually, one of the positions that I held there was I was the government relations committee group leader and so we were always advocating whether it be the city, the county, the state government, sometimes the federal government with our congressmen and such like that and so I knew that end of it and I knew that as a board member and as a member of a community that we want to make sure that we're heard. We want to make sure that our council members, our state reps, our state senators and our county officials and such that they hear us and as a member of the staff for council District 6 for the last 10 years that's one of the main things that I did. I represented the council district to up to 13 neighborhoods at any one point and I want to make sure that that level of service is continued while or when I become fortunate enough to be a council member and I want to make sure that we always have staff that's able and available and makes constant contact with our neighborhoods and our apartment complexes and our other areas including businesses. A council member can't make it to every single meeting every single month because a lot of the meetings are at the same time but you need to make sure that you make it to as many as you can as often as you can. What are your budget priorities for District 6? Oh gosh budget priorities. You know roads and infrastructure that was one of the things I did for both of the last two council members that I worked for. When I actually did all of the analysis work along with other members of the staff and made recommendations to our council members and generally almost all if not all of those recommendations were listened to. We need to make sure that we as District 6 don't get lost in the sauce basically and that we get as much infrastructure monies as we can. We've been on the short end of the budget many times and we've been told different things by whether it be the city manager or whether it be the OMB or the office of management budget. Part of that is due to possibly our current council member and the difficulties that our council office has had with the city manager's office but for the most part is we need to make sure that we get those funds needed to make sure that we make our roads complete and that we put sidewalks where they're needed. Also lowering the tax rate as I stated in another question. We need to lower that tax rate to offset those increase to property evade prazo values so that the city can still function. You know the talk is that the city will lose so much money. Well actually it's increase of money that they're not going to be getting because that increase of appraisal value is afforded them the opportunity to create larger budgets. I want to make sure that the budget is created based on last year's tax rate and last year's funding opportunities with appraisals and then if there's additional funds that we move forward and see how we can utilize those funds best for the city. Another one is to reduce waste and departments. You know we have departments that you know they might not think that they do it but you know there is a lot of waste and we need to make sure that we close out that waste and help stretch our tax dollars as much as possible. The number one thing you're telling me is what they see when they look at their front door it's streets, drainage is a big issue, sidewalks, lighting that's got to be the number one budget priority. I'm not entirely happy with the equity lens budget because District 6 didn't get any of the surplus and you know it's my job, it's my professional job to fight and advocate for my clients and that's what I want to do for District 6 is to go in and fight for more money to get these infrastructure improvements. I would like to see the equity lens budget change a little bit to not be based on the districts with the most needs but technically the actual areas of real need because we have plenty of District 6. There's a lot of old neighborhoods that like the one I grew up in Silver Creek there's some drainage issues there and we really have to get those items taken care of for neighbors that have been there for over 40 years. I do think the city has made progress but I really want to go in and push for that for District 6. Do you support the community climate goals shutting down the coal plants by 2025 no electricity generated by coal by 2030 and net zero by 2040? I do support the Climate Action Plan. I think that it's especially the coal plants shutting down I think that the only real problem I have with the Climate Action Plan was that the council pushed it forward without talking to all the stakeholders. We have two big energy companies in this city and they're really important to our economy and I absolutely believe that climate change is happening. I'm not one of those right but they really should have sat down with some of these stakeholders and said how can we all work together to push this forward. The energy companies are also doing very green initiatives they're not, they know that they have to diversify so I think everybody at the table starting from the very beginning would make a huge difference in moving forward to the Climate Action Plan I do believe that the specifics of the Action Plan need to be pushed forward we just need to make sure we're getting more input from all stakeholders including constituents, the general population of the city. Can you repeat the question? Yeah, it's a long one. Do you support the community climate goals shutting down the coal plants by 2025 no electricity generated by coal by 2030 and net zero by 2040? Okay, so shutting down the coal plants by 2025 and no electricity from coal plants by 2030 doesn't equate but I believe in the Climate Action Plan there's a good guide to work us towards being more friendly for what we put into the air what we put into the atmosphere I don't know that a lot of those are workable and I really am very concerned that the mayor was ready to push this through in April deferred it because he could not get a quorum from the council and so he deferred it to October and I don't believe that in that timeframe that they're going to be actually talking to the community and mostly the business community to make sure that they've got a buy-in by all the business community along with the folks that actually created the plan. Would you support... Oh, it's you. Would you support sending support for a legislative agenda that includes rent control? Would I support sending... Sending support for a legislative agenda that includes rent control? That's a new one to me in terms of those opportunities for legislative agendas I'd really want to look at those opportunities and what that would consist of before we even looked at what rent control was that is one of the things that we really should look at so that we can keep housing affordable for everyone but I think that would take a lot of questions and answers before it got put together as a legislative effort. I think rent control is an important solution to help with people that cannot afford to buy properties. I think that there's a lot more information that needs to be gathered before I would support something like that going forward to the state but I absolutely, as always, would bring everybody to the table and talk about the renters up to the property owners and then of course the state legislators. If we're talking specifically about apartments or home rentals that can also impact a neighborhood so we'd have to bring neighborhoods involved in that conversation as well. Do you support separated bike lanes that include a physical barrier? I do. We've had some recent deaths of bike riders. I'm a bike rider. Of course a lot of our kids ride their bikes and one of my big initiatives for District 6 is to make it more pedestrian friendly and that includes bike riding. We're all tired of waiting, you know, driving 30 minutes to get to District 6, right? But while we're here in District 6 we'd love to make it more pedestrian. A lot of the reason a lot of people moved out here was District 6 is so green and lush and beautiful and so we'd like to make it more pedestrian friendly and if putting a barrier there, although there is some cost to it, is going to make it safer for people to do that then I absolutely would support that. I would think that we need to look at the cost of putting barriers down and every single street would be, whether we were to have the opportunity to direct bike riders to specific streets or expand our linear quickway, which is a good place for people to walk and for people to ride and it can get you from point A to point B and when it is all fully constructed you'll be able to get from out at, say, UTSA all the way downtown. So, you know, that will take riders off of these streets and you may not need those barriers. Do you support ConnectSA that includes Rapid Transit? If so, do you support it running on electricity? ConnectSA actually, ART, Advanced Rapid Transit is a really good goal to work towards. The ConnectSA program itself, there's a lot of great goals in it. I've been reading through it and nothing is concrete in it. They've got 25 points that they want to do by the year 2025. All of them seem reasonable to do and I really think that we need to work towards moving people, not thinking about moving vehicles, number of vehicles. If we work towards moving people, like with the ART or Advanced Rapid Transit, that we have that opportunity to be better for our residents in terms of just, excuse me, in terms of... I'm sorry, I lost my train of thought there. Go ahead, thank you. I mentioned before, a lot of people moved out to District 6 because it's so green and lush and beautiful and we need a better transit system. The bus, if you take the bus from District 6 to downtown, it'll take you a couple hours to get there. So I think we do absolutely need advanced Rapid Transit. I would like to see something more like dedicated lanes for public transportation and not just reducing the amount of cars but really getting more people on this Rapid Transit and giving us more of an incentive to do so. It's not easy for people that live out in District 6 to ride the bus. At the same time, we also have to think about bringing more employers into District 6 so that we're not having to move people all the way downtown. Would you support a moratorium on out-of-District charter schools? A moratorium on out-of-District charter schools. A moratorium for what? It's a question from a YouTube listener. I suppose just not have any more out-of-District charter schools or, you know, after this, after what's already here. Oh, I see. Good. I am very pro-public school. I'm a product of the public schools here in Northside. I went to Taft. My kids are products of the public school. I know that people feel very strongly about charter schools and I'm not anti-charter school, but I don't like taking funding from public schooling to fund charter schools. So a moratorium on charter schools that are out-of-District, I assume that means out-of-public school district. So, you know, charter schools have their place, but the issue that I have with charter schools is that they have a board that is made up of generally charter school parents or owners of the charter school. It's not an elected board. And so one of the issues that I've had with the way that City Council has approved the ability for them to pass bonds is they're paying their own bonds and City Council has approved that because that's a requirement that they need to go through. But there's no public, basically, oversight of these bonds. There's no elected official that works with them in terms of how to implement the bond, how to move forward with the bond. There's nobody that the taxpayer can make accountable about how the bond is utilized and how the bond is funded and how it's expended. Okay. I'm going to try to put this in a way that I can understand. Would you support a resolution for an audit of Vista Ridge? I would want to look into that in terms of Vista Ridge. I know that the Vista Ridge, it's called the League of Independent Voters, has reached out to me and I've had an opportunity to kind of look at what their comments are regarding the Vista Ridge project for SAWS. So I would want to do a lot more in-depth research about it. I always support an audit. I don't think that an audit can... I mean, the Vista Ridge pipeline is done, right? But I think that an audit can't help. I can't hurt, I'm sorry. We always have to be economically sound and looking at something in more detail can't, I think it can only help. Would you support a declaration of a housing crisis, being that we're a fast-growing metro area and the neighborhood has the metrics for the highest gentrification in the U.S.? I don't know what the parameters of declaring a housing crisis are. I think that we are headed towards a housing crisis. I don't know if there's some formal declaration that they're specifically referring to. We're seeing gentrification in our own district. A lot of people are getting priced out of their homes for reasons such as our property appraisals, and they're selling them to flippers. And then the people are flipping the houses, the companies are flipping houses, and then now all the property taxes are going up again. So it's been kind of this cycle. So I think that we're headed towards a housing crisis if we're not already in one, not just in district six, but San Antonio. I would not be in support of an immediate declaration of a housing crisis. I really think that we need to do more research as to all of the trends and such like that before the city ever determines that there's a housing crisis. And asking a candidate who's not been in office before and seen the workings of office to sign off on declaring a housing crisis is... I think it's ill-advised before that individual has an opportunity to really do their research. Okay. Speaking of gentrification, what would you suggest for a solution to having property taxes rise so rapidly in a gentrifying area for people who have lived in that area for a long time? So if the property taxes are rising because the property values are rising, are the property values rising because overall they're rising because there is an investor group or a new group of people who are moving in who are building newer homes that have higher values than the homes that are in the area there. There are some areas where gentrification is occurring. Not as much in district six as in other parts of the city, but I would want to make sure that... We do the research on that and we talk with all the stakeholders. I mean people that own the homes currently, people that want to own the properties that are buying into people that are already investing in whether it be new homes or new structures, if they've gotten zoning changes and things like that. And so we need to make sure that everybody is aware of what's happening and that the gentrification issues are nullified by working with everyone to make sure that either this property or the property is... I don't know how else to say it. Gentrification is an issue, but it's an issue that can be worked with and over time can be offset with the folks that live in the neighborhoods that are basically being gentrified. I think that one of the ways to prevent gentrification is to provide incentives for home improvement for the homeowners. There's got to be some kind of relief for them on their appraisals. That's why I hear a lot in District 6 of people that are losing their homes because of the appraisals and that's where that cycle that I mentioned earlier is happening. And also going back to the kind of culture and identity of these neighborhoods, you're losing that when you have people coming in and flipping their houses and sometimes they're just ranting them out. There's no investment in their own neighborhood. So I think part of it is helping these homeowners who have been in their homes for generations, grandparents, parents, onto their children, helping them to be able to stay in their homes is a big part of preventing that from happening. Okay. Would you commit to doing participatory budgeting for discretionary funding for safety and mobility in the district? Yes, participatory meaning the... I'm understanding you correctly, meaning the constituents being involved in that? Yeah, okay. Then absolutely. I can always... That's one of the main issues that I want to bring forward in District 6 is involving the constituents in everything we do, including funding and budgeting. Now, if it's the right thing to do for the entire district, it's a different story, but we have to get everybody's input, bring everybody to the table to work on that same issue. Although it hasn't been stated as participatory budgeting for both council members that I've worked for, that was a mainstay of what we did in the office. We would make sure that it was reached out to about our budgeting, that we got questions and comments not only to the City of Office of Management and Budget, but to the Council Office so that they would have the opportunity to talk with resident stakeholders, business owners and such like that about what is in the budget, what is proposed to the budget, and what can be either added to or slashed from the budget. Participatory budgeting should be a mainstay of every council district. Just a second. I've just gotten some new questions here. Would you support an electable board for CPS Energy? I guess an elected board. I think that elections bring accountability, so I could see supporting an electable board to CPS. Right now they're appointed, they're recommended by CPS and then appointed by council, but I think, you know, offering an election brings number one competition, and so the best person for the job has to, you know, as we're doing today, we've got a long job interview for an elected position, so I could see supporting that. Can you reread it, please? Would you support an elected board for CPS Energy? I would not currently support an elected board for CPS Energy. CPS Energy is owned by the city. The city is an elected board and the city council members actually appoint the CPS members, so we've already entrusted the appointment of those people who are actually managing the, not the day-to-day operations, of managing CPS as a board of trustees. They've already been appointed by our elected officials, and that is our duty as taxpayers to vote in and out our elected officials on the city council. Would you, before or against Senate Bill 1806, that would allow SAWS to sell Edward Zocco for water to others? I would not be opposed to SAWS being able to sell that off, especially to offset the cost of all the projects that SAWS has. There will be, and I don't know if it's sooner rather than later, but we will have a need for that water, but currently, if the water is available, it should be sellable so that SAWS can offset their costs. Although I think there needs to be a maximum amount that they can either sell or a minimum amount that they cannot sell. We always have to be ready for something happening in our city. Well, we have to have the right amount of water for our very, very much growing city right now. What do you see as the main public safety issues in the district and how would you address them? The main one, there's a couple. Unfortunately, we have still an amount of violent crime in our district that a poor woman who was killed by her son happened in District 6. We also have a lot of property crime and those are the two big public safety issues that we're seeing. I'm very blessed to be endorsed by San Antonio Police Office Association so I sat down with them and they were talking to me about response time and about the number of officers we're losing to attrition every year. So that's a big concern for us. But the main, I think one of the main issues in our district is not only violent crime but property crime. And so a poor woman would require to be able to reduce response time and for EMS as well and make sure that we have more, we have one, sorry, we have four fire stations in our district and one police station in our district, technically in our district. And so I would like to see that increase for our safety. Can you read that? The main public safety issues in the district and how would you address them? The main public safety issues, one of the things I did was working with the safe officers from both the Pru Road substation and the West substation. The West substation is located within District 6. Pru Road is not close to District 6 and response times are definitely an issue that the officers that I've worked with and spoken to about all of our issues have stated. If there happens to be, from Pru Road, if there happens to be no officers that are in the area, say our Northwest Point in District 6, being Gilbo in 1604 or in that area, it could take 30 minutes to respond to something and that's unacceptable. The city passes bond issues generally every five years and at some point we need to add a substation in that Northwest area. It was actually allocated for to be put in at the beginning of the bond process for the 2017 bond but then was reallocated because downtown they did another substation so District 6 lost out one more time. Another issues is to make sure that we have enough officers in place it's been said that by the end of August that we will have enough that all the officers positions will be filled but that's not, you know, that's fluid. It's based on people retiring, people quitting, people being hurt, whether it be on the job or not and so you want to make sure that they're, you always have a full complement of officers. It has been budgeted for within a contract. What do you think is the city's role to ensure that San Antonio residents are receiving the proper education to compete for high-skilled positions coming to the city? Well, I'm a fan of pre-K for SA. That being said, pre-K for SA is coming up for another passage of SA to ensure that it is continued to be funded and I want to make sure that those metrics are in place and there has been improvements in the children that are actually members of the pre-K plan. Also, HB3 and I believe SB Senate Bill 3 are about our budget. It's about funding schools and if pre-K continues to be a part of that budget discussion, then some of the things that we're talking about with pre-K for SA may be a boot point. Also, school districts, Northside ISD being one of them is already switching to, for many of their schools, if not all of them, a full-day pre-K program. And that may, Northside being the fifth-largest school district in the state and the largest one in San Antonio, that may mean that a lot of those students that would normally be eligible for pre-K for SA wouldn't need to be in the program and so you might not need as much funding in the future. Pre-K's been a great boost to our education system here in San Antonio and I'd like to continue to support that. There are, there is some empirical evidence that's been showed by UTSA studies that the first cohort of the pre-K students have scored higher on achievement tests and they've, they didn't, they're doing better in public schools than their counterparts. I also think we need to do our best to ensure that we're supporting the neighborhood. We can only ask so much of our, of our teachers and our students really a lot. Northside is in our, in our, in District 6 and we have to continue to prepare our students for the future not just at school but in our strong neighborhood. That means that ensuring that our, our support services are fully funded so I think that's really important. I want to also mention the Westside Educational Training Center that's been a great jewel out there in Edgewood and they have great resources for people who didn't finish their education and have great training and resource programs and also Northside has a wonderful magnet school program. They have where the high school has a magnet school that is specific to architecture or health careers you know whatever it is and so I think that continuing those programs and assisting those programs is key to continue the educational development of our youth. What are your top priorities as a council member? The top, my top priorities are the things that I'm hearing at the door. So number one is the property tax and freight issue. Two is traffic. There's a, we used to be the best kept secret and now everybody's on to us they're coming out to District 6 and that's a lot of traffic, right? So as far as the, and my third one is really like maintaining our green spaces. Number one the, I think I've talked about that a lot and I really think that we have to hold our appraisals accountable and appraisers accountable and start to look at better ways to, to lift that burden from some of our property owners. Secondly, with traffic there's going to be a lot of the same legislators and so I've developed a good relationship with them to be able to to bring in some of that money and even some federal money to boost what we've already got there. But I want to make sure that even not our actual you know street, resident roads are an infrastructure like I mentioned earlier. The third part is the green system. You know we, I've said it so many times today but it is the truth. I think a lot of people just really enjoy how luscious it is out here. We've still got plenty of space and they want to preserve that. People tell me all the time when I knock on their doors to stop concreting over everything and filling every space. Give us some room to breathe and let us know what your top priorities as a council member. The first priority is going to be reducing our tax burden. As I've said we've had increased appraisal values and we need to look at reducing tax rates to offset that to Joe homeowner and business owners and such. Another one is traffic and infrastructure. I have talked about that since the beginning of my campaign it's not new to me. It's something about traffic congestion is an issue. We've got areas such as Petranco and 151 151 itself. I was at a Text. Sponsored community meeting last night about expansion to 151. They're going to look at making it into three lanes going each way. It's already been funded. It's been funded through the MPO which is a San Antonio area metropolitan planning organization. When I was there they were both for both Councilman Lopez and Councilman Brockhouse they were both appointed to the MPO and Councilman Lopez was actually the chair of the MPO when he left so I got very involved in what our traffic issues are and what our infrastructure needs are in around San Antonio and I want to ensure that I continue to have that opportunity to be a part of that conversation. Another one that we've been budgeted for and we need to make sure that at some point in the future especially in the northwest section of District 6 that we get ourselves a new substation. Okay. It takes six votes to pass a council item. How will you build collaboration? You know one of the things that when I was out on the at early voting sites and such one of his mantras was it takes six people to vote. All you need to do is get five other people. Well yes and no. You need five other people but those five other people aren't always going to be the same. You do need to make sure that you talk with and you interact with and you find out what other council members want and needs so that informs how you interact with them and how you go forward with the things that we haven't enjoyed in the last two years is a council that actually votes you know some people voting five some people voting six. Mostly it's been eight to three or nine to two votes and that doesn't that means that all council members aren't really even heard. I mean they get a chance to speak but that doesn't mean that they vote counts. I know the time from Ed was how to build consensus he was the master at building consensus he could always get the six votes when he needed to not always the same you know five people had that were would agree with him but it's always about collaborating that's really what I learned under him was collaborating and building that consensus making sure everybody was at the table so I feel really strongly about the skills that I learned to build consensus and other than that I have a work together with them on the project outside of city council so I feel strongly that as long as I'm bringing forth an issue that is going to serve the residents of district six first and foremost that I'll be able to convince the five other people to vote for me. I think we're getting very close do we have any more questions okay we have one or two more questions and then we'll be about time to wrap up okay those are good questions do you support paid sick leave? it's an important ordinance it's an important ordinance to the people that sign the petition it's an important ordinance to the cities and our districts so it's an important ordinance to me I think that we've passed the sick leave ordinance and now the state has effectively they're not going to preempt it is what I understand so while it looks like it may be dead there I think we should take the opportunity to fine tune it and make sure that it's workable for all of the employers in our city small business I think are getting hit a little bit harder with paid sick leave than bigger businesses who really already have paid sick leave not ordinances but policies in place but I do support it I think that we need to come together as a group and make it workable paid sick leave is already in place San Antonio will begin August 1st and so I won't have an opportunity currently to make any decisions regarding how paid sick leave is possibly how it's implemented but not whether we have paid sick leave or not the state has chosen not to get in the middle of it for various political reasons at the state level and so it is a city ordinance but it does hurt small businesses I work with a number of small businesses in my firm and it could be a burden for them to be able to pay one hour of sick leave time for every 30 hours of work that somebody has you know a lot of them may have part-time workers and those part-time workers or whether they be students or such and you know over the course you know 80 hours 90 hours something like that which means they have accrued 3 hours of paid sick leave you know generally that doesn't happen with students and such like that who are working part-time or others who are working part-time you know I will support it because it's in place but I do want to look at it in the future do you support site and release site and release or district attorney and sheriff's office are actually working towards that there may be some instances where site release is a good thing but not all and I want to make sure that they talk with the county talk with the city and such like that when they are implementing it and if it is determined that somebody is under a site and release program and becomes a violent offender based on that then what was us? people are staying in jail for 30 days or longer and we're all putting a bill for that so I would much rather then pay their ticket be on their way for a very very small amount of marijuana specifically because it's costing us so much money and it's frankly just more cost effective to site and release so I absolutely support it okay alright I think we better go to the two minute closing arguments you start with it thank you well I want to thank the League of Women voters again for supporting District 6 and sponsoring the runoff candidate forum here at the food bank for hosting their facility located in District 6 been at the food bank many times both volunteering while I was working in District 6 and they do great things for the folks that need food here in San Antonio and Central Texas also a big thank you to all of you who are here tonight along with those who are online virtually and just anybody who interacted with us brought up some more questions during the thing thank you it seems like you had more than enough questions to finish out the hour I want to remind you that I'm the candidate who has experienced the City Hall with budgeting constituent services neighborhoods and working with the District 6 community for the betterment of District 6 I had the proven leadership not only within District 6 my door will always be open I'll always be fair and I'll listen to everyone who has commentary questions or wants us to look at an initiative I'll always keep neighborhood groups and District 6 residents informed about issues so you can help me with the decisions for the city that affect all of us again please remember to vote on June 8 early voting begins on May 28 my birthday and I'll be out at that day thank you thank you again to legal new voters to the food bank and to everybody that participated this evening we're grateful for the opportunity to be able to address your issues when I think about why I decided to run for City Council District 6 it really comes down to this I want to give back to this community that raised me I grew I'm born and raised in this district and they say it takes a village some of you live and I really feel like it's beautiful neighborhood that I grew up in and so we're free I have the right experience temperament the mindset to be a strong advocate that's what I do for a living I advocate and I fight for my clients and I will fight to the District 6 community I will fight to hold the Baird County appraisal I'm sorry District accountable for increased funding for our streets and sidewalk when I knock on your door in District 6 I have the support of a diverse community of organizations I mentioned San Antonio Police Office Association the Sierra Club I'm very grateful for the endorsement of the San Antonio Express News as well and I'll approach every issue with an open mind and with everybody coming to the table to talk to me about what they want to see because it's never going to be about my agenda it will always be about the residents of District 6 as we continue to grow and prosper I think as I mentioned our secrets out and people are flocking to District 6 and Groves I want to ensure that all of the people that have lived there for many years prosper with it that we're also growing and there's so much opportunity ahead for our community with the right leadership I know that we can continue the progress that our former City Council people have started and we can enhance our communities one neighborhood at a time one house at a time one family at a time I respectfully ask for your vote that concludes our forum I want to thank the food bank for hosting our facility it's been wonderful a now cast which will enable many more people to be able to listen to the candidates I want to remind you all again to vote there are now cast cards back there you can take home and give to people we have our materials in the back with information about voting that does anybody think needs it information on everything you need to know about voting and why it's important and voters bill of rights and all kinds of good stuff and also anybody that needs to register or if you've moved recently and haven't changed your address with the Bear County elections anything like that we've got people I think all of us that are with the league or our voter registrars also we can help you with that we've got this wonderful poster about voting that our helper Elizabeth back there made and takes everywhere she goes and gets lots of people to register so help yourself with that the doors close here at 8 o'clock but until then if both candidates can stay for a while you can visit with them thank you thank you very much I appreciate it