 Good morning. It is officially 9 o'clock and you know as you all know this is Military City, USA and I know there are a lot of veterans and we really like to come on in Chief, we have a seat. We like to start on time to respect your time and I want to thank so many of you who got here early. I want to thank you for joining us at this Town Hall that is designed to make sure that we do everything we can to reduce and hopefully eliminate the potential of fraud and abuse of our nation's senior citizens. And this morning we're going to be sharing ideas, answer questions and be available to hear your feedback, your questions, your concerns. Before I get started, I mentioned the Military City, USA. At this time, I would like for anyone who has served in the Armed Forces or who hasn't loved one, who has served because when the veteran serves, the whole family serves. So if you would choose to stand up or just raise your hand, let us recognize you for your service to our country. For service and your dedication, willingness, sacrifice, everything for a cause, greater than yourself, that's what makes this country great. I'd also like to honor those who've made the ultimate sacrifice and aren't here with us today. We owe them our love, our pride, our gratitude for defending our nation and our freedom. And that includes men and women in armed services, but also our first responders. And the men and women that the Chief and the Sheriff lead every day, they sign up to protect and defend. And every night, every day, their loved ones want to come home safe and we appreciate them being out there taking care of us. So if you are a widow or a surviving child, please go and we appreciate your family's sacrifice for our country. Thank you. Today we're holding this town hall meeting so that we can provide you with important information on how to recognize and protect yourself and loved ones from fraud. Our senior citizens, the friends, caregivers and relatives should be aware of many of the fraud schemes and learn what to do when they become targets of this deceitful and dangerous activity. And one of the things I want to I want to start with before I introduce our guest speakers. You are a senior, soon to be a senior because hopefully we're all going to be seniors one day. But whether you are currently or you are here because you take care of a loved one who is. Yesterday I spent the day driving my 79 year old mother-in-law around town so that I could put her CPS, her SAWS, her mortgage, her homeowners. It should all her bills on auto draft. And I wanted to make sure it got done and it was done right. And during the drive at one point, my mother-in-law started to feel bad and started to get down on herself. And I said, why are you upset with her? So she said, I used to handle all of this so easily. I take care of everybody, the whole family, everyone. I said, but you know, you didn't bring this on yourself. This is just something that's happened. So if you are with a loved one who starts to beat themselves up just because they may not be able to remember something because they thought they paid a bill because something happened, just remind them this is not their fault. Remind them that they're not defective. Remind them that they're just as valuable as they've always been and they still have a lot to offer. It frustrates me. And it frustrates me too that I know that there are a lot of seniors who won't call in when they've been taken advantage of because they don't want to be embarrassed. They don't want to feel stupid. They don't want to be judged. So what hopefully we gain from today is not only what are the dangers that are out there, but how do we help hold our loved ones hands and help them through the process? Because this is a process. And I believe very, very seriously that societies are judged by how we treat those who can no longer defend themselves. And so I believe we are an excellent, wonderful city that what makes our city so incredible is the heart that we have and that's what we give to our state and our nation. I'm going to present our guest speakers and give them a few minutes to introduce themselves and the work that they do to address elder fraud. Starting here with the first person seated at my right is our Bear County Sheriff, Javier Salazar. Javier, would you like to say a few things? Yes, good morning. Good morning. I'm Sheriff Javier Salazar. I've been your Bear County Sheriff for almost three years now and prior to that I had the honor of serving at the San Antonio Police Department for about 23, almost 24 years. Can we start over? Do you all hear me? I had the honor of serving at the SAPD for about 23, almost 24 years. And some things changed quite a bit. Some things changed. Steps up! Steps up! Okay, guapo. Three years as your Bear County Sheriff, prior to that, 23, almost 24 years with the San Antonio Police Department. Over those years I've seen the landscape of not only our county but the way criminals attack our county change in many different ways. And one of the things that we've seen, a disturbing trend that we've seen over the years is senior fraud. There's an entire industry out there, whether you believe it or not. There's an entire industry out there designed to target you as our senior community and separate you from the money that you've worked so hard for for your entire life, your entire career. And it's our job to make sure that we're working proactively to prevent that from happening. And so hopefully you'll take some information from here today that you can use, you can put it in the toolbox. And at some point in the future, although we hope and pray that you'll never need it, you'll have this information with you that you'll be able to help protect yourself. So it's my honor to be here today and I appreciate the senator's efforts in inviting us out and continuing to keep this conversation going. Thank you. This right is the South Texas District Director of Texas Adult Protective Services and would you like to introduce yourself? Yes, thank you. Thank you Senator and good morning everyone. I work with Adult Protective Services. I have been doing this for well over 30 years of my life. We are responsible for investigating abuse, neglect and exploitation of our seniors 65 and over. And are physically and mentally incapacitated adults 18 and over. We are charged with ensuring that they're free from abuse, neglect and exploitation in many instances providing services to remedy instances of abuse, neglect and exploitation in our community. I will say that here in Bear County we received over 9000 cases of abuse, neglect and exploitation last fiscal year. Second to only to Harris County. So it is a growing problem. I echo the sheriff's concerns and also the senator's concerns with respect to services and allegations of abuse being under reported as well. For the reasons that the senator mentioned. I am honored to be here and I'm looking forward to working collaboratively with the panel to address the issues of abuse, neglect and exploitation here in this community. I invited some of our Adult Protective Services staff there in purple. So if during this presentation or after the presentation there are specific issues that you'd like to address our staff is here to serve you. Thank you. Thank you. What I think you heard and I want to thank you for this. The folks in purple, would you all stand for just a second? Everyone who's in purple, sure. They work for the state of Texas. That means they work for all of you. And they're here to answer your questions. If you have a private question about something, is this abuse? Is it not abuse? What constitutes abuse? What is fraud? What is it? How do I report it? Ask them right after the meeting. If you have a specific case that you don't want to speak publicly. Is that correct? Thank you very much. Next, a dear friend and many of us. Some of us remember him as Judge Kazan. He's now First Assistant District Attorney. Our District Attorney, Joe Gonzalez, had a family emergency and he sent us his right hand person, someone I've known for many, many years. And I told Phil or Judge Kazan when he was coming up that I was glad he was here because now we have a current judge and a former judge that gave us some insight into what's going on. So would you like to introduce yourself? Well, good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Philip Case and I am honored to serve as your elected District Attorney, Joe Gonzalez's First Assistant. And before I took that position in January of this year, I served for 20 years as a criminal district court judge and saw a number of fraud and abuse cases come through the court. We're very familiar with those types of issues. There are a number of people that we brought from the District Attorney's Office today and I just want to introduce a couple of them. Some of you who may have had cases pending in the District Attorney's Office as complainants may be familiar with the idea that the prosecutors, the individual prosecutors that you typically deal with are very often in court. It's sad to say that San Antonio Bear County is probably one of the busiest criminal jurisdictions in the state. And so often the prosecutor that you're used to dealing with is down in court dealing with your cases and other cases, cases of other folks who have come through the system as complainants and victims. And so more often than not, when you call the District Attorney's Office to talk about your particular case, you will deal with what is, in essence, a liaison between our office, our prosecutors in the office and the victims who we are representing in court. Those liaisons are called victim advocates and our chief victim advocate is here with us today. She is probably, in my opinion, the best in the state. She's been recognized statewide, certainly is treasured by our office and I want to introduce her to you so that you can get to know her and maybe visit with her after the talk back session is over and Cindy Yon is here from our office and she's our, just wait, or you can stand if you want. She is so, she hates, she hates publicity in the media. But anyway, so if you have any questions about our office and what the victim advocates do and how they can help you if you ever, God forbid, have a case in the District Attorney's Office as a complainant, Cindy is the person to talk to. We also have one of our senior or lead prosecutors, he's in what we call the Special Crimes Division of the District Attorney's Office, specializing in elder fraud and abuse cases. And his name is Brandon Jackson and Brandon if you would stand. I will tell you that for the last 20, now 21 years, and really for the last 30 years, I spent about eight and a half years before I took the bench in the District Attorney's Office as a frontline prosecutor trying these types of cases and violent crime cases, then spent 20 years on the bench and now I'm back in the District Attorney's Office as an administrator. And I will tell you that, maybe I shouldn't share this with you but I will, I had a very comfortable life as a senior judge and would not have left that job, would not have left that job except for one person. I would not have gone back to the District Attorney's Office or done anything else with my career except for one person and that is your elected District Attorney, Joe Gonzalez. Joe's been one of my best friends for about 30 years. I could not be prouder of the initiatives that he has created just in the short 10 months that we've been in office. And he is concentrating on violent crime, crimes against children and crimes against the elderly. And I can tell you that we are all in that office committed to making sure that you are safe and that your community is safe, that our community is safe. Because at the end of the day, it is our community. We're not just neighbors. We are family here in Bear County and we are here to protect you and thank you for allowing us to be here. Senator, thank you for allowing us to be here. Next Judge, I want to introduce the Honorable Judge Veronica Vasquez of Pro 8 Court Number 2. She has been in contact with our office and for a long time said, I'd like to do something. Can we work on something? And I want to thank you for constantly be thinking about ways that we can help the community and it's been a pleasure to work with you. Please. Thank you. Thank you everybody. Thank you Senator Menendez for inviting me to this. I just, my name is Veronica Vasquez and if you have gone to the Doris Griffith Senior Senate, you probably have seen me. Because I used to work for Catholic Charities and I used to give presentations there every couple of months about wills, powers of attorneys, guardianships, well now I'm a judge in that particular court. So I'm the probate court judge for probate court number two. And what we deal with and what we see a lot of, of course, is the probating of wills, things like that. But we also see a lot of guardianship cases and a lot of APS removal cases go through my court. So what does that mean? If someone is suspected of being abused or neglected or exploited, the good people of APS, they get that phone call, they will then come to my court. And after they've done it and they said, yes, this person is, needs to be removed from this home or needs to be removed from the situation. They will then come to my court for an emergency removal. And so I see a lot of those cases. Unfortunately, I'm seeing more and more of those cases. Again, because we have a population that is becoming more elderly and we're living a lot longer and so we're seeing a lot of those cases. I also do a lot with guardianship cases. So sometimes we think it could be that nice person that's, you know, befriending someone that has lost all their family members. But unfortunately, sometimes it's also a lot of family members that do this, right? And so we will get a lot of guardianship cases where we have loved ones that come in and say, you know, my mother is being abused or neglected or exploited by another family member and they're there to try to protect their loved one and get guardianship over their loved one. I will say, though, that if you haven't had an opportunity to get a power of attorney, please do that now. Oh, if you're over the age of 65, Catholic Charities does it for free. Or free. Doesn't matter how much money you make. So please get that done because in a time of crisis, if someone's taking advantage of you, someone's, you know, saying that, you know, you can, if you give them a thousand dollars that they could turn into $10,000 or whatever the scam is, if you have that loved one that has, is your agent, they may be able to fix those things for you. Sometimes it becomes a lot harder when you don't have that and then you have to end up in probate court. So that's a lot of what I do on a day-to-day basis and I still get presentations and I still go out and speak to power centers, so if you need that as well, let me know. But I'm here to support, I'm working in conjunction with Senator Menendez. Yes, sir. Judge, real quick, on that power of attorney, that can be anyone, it can be a child, it can be a sister, it can be anyone they trust. Anybody that you trust and the key word is trust because sometimes we see people that are appointed as agents and they abuse that power. So you want to make sure that, and I tell people, don't appoint that son, that our daughter, that lives on the couch, that's never had a job, that's been in and out of jail. No matter how much you love me whole, right? No matter how much you love me whole, you have to, you have to appoint somebody you know and trust. It could be a friend, it could be a neighbor, it could be your pastor, it could be whoever you know and trust that will not exploit you, poor abuse, okay? But I'm working in conjunction with Senator Menendez and tomorrow we're having our first task force meeting to talk about these issues and to have an open line of communications so we can ensure these APS cases get prosecuted. So I just want to thank you for allowing me to be here and our office is a resource that you ever, ever have any questions, please contact my court. And again, I'm probate court number two, are we celebrating? Veronica Vasquez, B-squared, probate court number two. So if you ever need anything, please let us know. Thank you. Thank you Judge. So before the mic, this person has to go ahead. Being told that these mics you have to hold are very close, the ones with the green lights all are on and should work but you have to be like almost, you know, in eating the thing. The next person is from the financial crimes unit, Director Lieutenant Marcus Booth, thank you for being here. Thank you Senator, I appreciate the opportunity. Marcus Booth, I say PD financial crimes, I'll be brief. I just want you to understand that I look forward to and we have great partnerships with the DA's office and Adult Protective and the legal system. So we appreciate the opportunity to work together with everybody. My partner, Sergeant Paul Cassione over here is with me this morning. We'll stick around here. There you go. And we both work on a lot of these complex financial legal matters, criminal matters. We'll participate in the discussion obviously, but if anybody wants to talk after we get done, we'll stick around and appreciate the opportunity. Thank you Senator. We appreciate that very much. And the next person does not need an introduction. San Antonio, he's been a great Chief of Police and he's also there for all of us and a friend and, you know, he and his wife and their kids are just members of the community and a good friend, Chief of Police, William and Max. Thank you Senator. Good morning everybody. So I asked Lieutenant Booth to come with me today because he is down at the trenches with the Sergeant and they can answer the tough questions and the detailed questions that I may not be able to. So they're here for that. And let me use a quick story. So I was in gyms and this was maybe a year ago. I was in gyms for a breakfast meeting. And I don't know how the waiter knew, but the waiter said to me when they handed me the check, do you want your senior discount? I became a senior a couple years ago. And you know what? I'm just waiting for somebody to try and exploit me. I'm just waiting. But you know, several years ago we started an elder crimes unit within the Wett-Coward Division of CID, Criminal Investigation Division. So it's that important to us and it became that important because we saw the crimes on the rise. And whenever there's a say a property crime that's committed against an elderly person, a senior, that case will go to Wett-Coward to be assigned to the elderly crimes unit within Wett-Coward. So we do pay special attention to that. We do understand the complexities of it and the serious nature of it. And that's why we've designated those types of offenses being investigated by a special unit. So we're here for you. As Lieutenant said, we'll be here after the meeting to answer any kind of particular situations that you might need to ask about. So thank you. Thank you, Chief. All right. Let me give you sort of the ground rules of how this is going to work. She's got a question, Senator. We have questions. Is this the right answer? No. Well, man, let me lay out the rules first and then we'll get into it. And that way we can all ask questions. Okay. That way I have... So here's what we have. We have a couple of questions that have already been collected from the seniors at the senior centers. We're going to give the panel an opportunity to respond. Then what we were thinking is we take a very small break to let people go to the restroom, get some refreshments. When we come back, we're going to open the discussion to Q&A from the audience so that you tell them what's going on. At this time, I'd like to thank the executive director for the... Now cast, Charlotte and Lucas for being here. Charlotte with the camera. Thank you for being here. He has some informational flyers. She'd like to share with you about this topic and will be in the research table in the back. Also, I'd like to bring your attention that on the far right, we're doing live streaming of this event on social media on Facebook. So, Julie, if you raise your hand so everybody can see you. So if you have friends who couldn't make it or want to know this, please let them know this is on Facebook Live right now. And so the questions that they have, if they email something to you or they text you, then you can ask that question for them. If you don't want to be on video, let us know and we will make sure that you don't get on video. If you get a chance, put your phones on vibrate or on silence so that everybody can hear what's going on. So now to begin today's discussion, let's start by defining what fraud is. So the definition of fraud. An act or a course of deception, an intentional concealment, omission or perversion of the truth. To gain, one, gain an unlawful or unfair advantage. Two, induce another to part with some valuable item or surrender a legal right or perversion of the truth. Or one, to gain an unlawful or unfair advantage. Or induce another to part with a right, inflict injury in some manner. To give you an idea of how prevalent elder fraud is, here are a few disturbing statistics. There are an estimated 5 million cases of elder fraud that occur in the U.S. annually. Resulting in $27 billion in losses. Texas alone lost $1.6 billion to elder fraud last year. 9.6% of the elderly people in the state fell victim for an estimated 355,000 incidences. We can help decrease these numbers through education information such as with this morning. So we're also working, as the judge mentioned with the Judge Veronica Vasquez, to create a multidisciplinary elder abuse exploitation task force. The purpose of this task force is to form a strong network and communication system between all agencies involved in identifying, investigating and prosecuting elder exploitation. So that is just one step forward that we've done and taken to help protect the most vulnerable in our community and to help bring those alleged perpetrators to justice. On that note, let's start the discussion. So here are the reports that we have received that I want you all to think about and whoever is ready to answer. The reports we receive in ours, harassment and bullying, restricting information such as copies of leases or association meetings. That's been happening to some of our elderly. That report is coming to us that people living in, let's say, housing where it's multifamily, multiple seniors. Number two, a lack of warning about bomb threats or pest infestation in some living and some senior living apartments. They're not told that they have an infestation or they're going to have the pesticides come through. Number three, fraudulent insurance is excessive calling and receipt tampering. So what can seniors do to protect themselves on these issues whoever wants to start? Raise your hand. I'll take it. Well, the first thing that we can all do is initiate that call to whatever non-emergency number to the primary agency in your area. If you live in the city of San Antonio, it's going to be San Antonio Police Department 210-207-7273. If you live in Unincorporated Bear County 210-335-6000, that's your first logical step. Call an officer out, have them dispatch an officer or deputy out to your house to take that initial report and then they'll offer guidance. There's other law enforcement agencies and government agencies that you can make these claims to, but that's your first logical step is make that police report with whatever first responding agency you have. And it makes it easier on you. Those are the only two numbers that you need to know about. And then we'll get you to the rest once you make that first call for the non-emergency. All right, that's good. What can we do to help identify scams when people present themselves as employees of a government agency, whether it's CPS, SAWS, or any other agency? Law enforcement, how do we help protect our seniors? How do they identify? Chief, go ahead. So understand this. Any of the utilities, none of the utilities will ever call you and ask you for money over the phone. They won't do it. When I did my short little stint at CPS as the security director, we were always getting calls about that. People would call in and they would say, we're going to turn your electricity off, we're going to turn your water off at the end of the day if you don't give us this much money and send it to this address. So never, ever, ever, never, ever take those calls as being official. I'm not going to ask you for money over the phone. I'm not going to threaten you over the phone. I mean, threaten you with a letter, but they're not going to do it over the phone. So don't fall for that. Don't give any money over the phone, okay? More personal identification. Exactly. You know, all these password schemes, you know, you need to confirm your password with us, otherwise your account's going to be shut off, all those sorts of things. If they're asking you for information, don't give it. Ask them to write a letter to you or ask them to talk to your supervisor, that sort of thing, okay? Sure. Do you want to say something? Yeah, can I just add something? So, you know, that's the thing is they capitalize on the fact that many of us come from a simpler time when, well, if somebody comes to your door and says they work for the census or for CPS interview, why would anybody pretend to be that? Well, because they know that that helps gain them legitimacy in your eyes. And so there's a very important person here in the back of the room that I would certainly, on the break, or afterwards, go talk to this young lady, she's with the census, census 2020, and they're out and about. Do you already have people going door to door legitimately? Yeah. Okay, they've already got people going out legitimately, door to door. But we've also been told there's also already scams going on. And the scammers are out there asking for people, hey, I'm with the census. I need the names of everybody in the residence and their social security numbers. Is that something we would be asking for at the door? Absolutely. No, they're going to ask you for certain demographic information, but they're never going to ask for your social. But in the fog of war, we all get kind of get caught up, and it's very easy to give them that information. And then they're off and running and stealing the identities of everybody. So your simplest thing that you can do if somebody comes to your door, was that the actual question? Yes, yes. Is the simplest thing you can always do, whether it's somebody reporting to be a police officer, a deputy, a CPS worker, an utility worker, or somebody from the census, always, always, always ask for photo ID. Even if they're wearing a very official looking yellow or orange vest, even if they're showing you some sort of a metal badge, they'll flash it real quick that says police or detective or sergeant or whatever on it, always ask for a photo ID. I carry one, Chief carries one. Every law enforcement officer in the county and city that I know of carries one. The census workers carry one. She'll be able to show you what it looks like. That's always your most surefire bed, is asked to see photo ID. When in doubt, don't give them the information. If you're in doubt as to 100% if this person is there, don't give them the information. Call in to whatever agency they're reporting to be from and then verify that. Don't take the number from them. Hey, what's the number to your office so I can call and verify? They're going to give you a fake number where they're going to answer, right? So you need to make sure that if they say they're from CPS, go look for the number to CPS and then call CPS. If you have people in my area, there's a guy at my door who says his name is Bob Smith and he says he works for you guys. So there's things that you can do proactively. It may come across as rude, okay? And again, they're capitalizing on the fact that we come from a generation that we don't want to be rude to people. If somebody says they're a case worker, I don't want to be rude to the guy. I don't want to ask him for ID. I want to take him at his word. We can't do that anymore. We don't live at that time anymore, unfortunately. And so I always ask for that ID. Thank you. Lieutenant, you had something to add too? No, and that's exactly the point that I wanted to make was independent verification. And that also works on phone calls as well. Phone fraud is a huge issue these days. So if you just, there's absolutely nothing wrong with hanging up and independently researching a number, calling to verify who you're talking to, and that's exactly what needs to be done is whenever you have an interaction with somebody that's kind of worried about it, do that independent verification, it's going to save you a lot of problems. Very good. Anybody else? Yes, please go ahead and start with this. I will speak. Use the mic so that the recorders can get the voice. With regard to a no-protective services, when an a no-protective services case worker comes to your house, they have to ask you permission to enter. You don't have to give them permission to enter. So an APS worker is, we'll be asking you some personal information as part of the investigation, but if you doubt that it is a legitimate case, just as the sheriff mentioned, they can give you a 1-800 number for you to call back and verify that we are investigating a particular case. We do have some options available with a no-protective services for a forcible entry if we need to, but the judge here has to approve that and allow that. And there are certain circumstances by which we would have to do that, but there are emergency situations, high-risk situations where something like that would happen. But if an APS worker is knocking on your door and the people in purple should have an ID hanging on their neck, they should have a picture ID and they should have a business card and they should give you a number by which to call back to verify that we are actively investigating an APS report. Information. You know what I want to do at this time? You had a question, you were first, so why don't you go ahead and stand up and ask a question? I would like to say. Someone, let's get her a mic, please. Thank you. No picture, please. Thank you. I am 80 years old and I live in the private company. We don't have anybody to help us with the management. They do what they want. We aren't a mercy. We put assessment out to cover 44 units. You only cover 40. I'm in the front. In the night at two in the morning, three in the morning, four in the morning, I'm in the front. In the night at two in the morning, three in the morning, four in the morning, they're knocking on my door. Who's knocking on your door? Who knows? People with the hoodies. And I'm not covered. But I paid a $3,700. What is it? You're talking about lights or what? What is an assessment? The assessment was to put the fence around to protect the vehicle, the condos, so you remember that. Yes, yes, yes, but you're in the front so you don't have any protection. You put the fence, those are the four units and the fence is back here. The fence is back. So four units, one, two, and two more. You don't have no coverage at all. We don't have no place to go to. Every assessment that we put out, half away, they stop. The money goes somewhere else. Now they want to do the roofs. The building is D1, D2, D3, and D4. And it looks like he wants $8,000 for each one of us, plus the interest that the Frost, if they give it a lending. I'm 80 years old. I don't want to put $8,000 out. I don't want to. And if I drop it there, he put a lien on my condo. So let me ask a question to the panel. What I'm hearing is you feel that the owner of your condo unit is unfairly assessing everyone where you can't afford it. So I don't know who on the panel can open up this. He's not the owner. He's the management. And we don't have any agency in San Antonio to help us with the private property. Nobody. And I understand this is a city. You can't do nothing, but where can we go to? Let's ask the panel. If you protected the seniors, we have some of them. A lot of seniors live there. I would first suggest... Pull that mic close to you, the one in front of you. I wouldn't suggest talking to an attorney. I've done with that. Yes, so there's... $3,500 upfront. Right. So there are legal services that are less than that. What I would go to, there's two nonprofit organizations that I can name off the top of my head that have attorneys that either do it pro bono, which means for free, or low-cost services, okay? So one of them is going to be Texas Rio Grande and Legal Aid. The deal with Texas Rio Grande and Legal Aid, though, is that they have very strict guidelines. So depending on how much you actually... your income monthly, you may not be able to qualify. The other... Let me finish this. She's ready. Go ahead. Go ahead. If you make $1 or more than what they asked you to... Right. That's right. That's right. Texas Rio Grande and Legal Aid is that way. Yes, ma'am. And then there's the other organization, it's Catholic Charities. Catholic Charities doesn't have as strict of a guideline. When I was there, it was about... you had to be 200% over the federal poverty guideline, which most of Bear County is going to be covered by that. So that's another organization that I would contact. And I don't know if St. Mary's has an actual housing clinic, but you can call the San Antonio Bar Association as well. They do have the Community Justice Program that is a non-profit arm of the San Antonio Bar Association. They also do some work for pro bono or at low cost. I know that. Okay. And ACOG as well. ACOG is another... they have attorneys that they have on retainer that actually help do a lot of legal services that they will pay for, specifically for seniors because they get grants. So those are the organizations that I know of. Okay. Well, those are the only organizations that I know of. That's what I'm saying. I've tried all those things. I tried, but nothing works. And then the only other option would be an attorney actually taking a pro bono, but that's why I would go through the San Antonio Bar Association to see if they have anyone that would be able to help you. Another thing is, when you win a case, you're wrong. You hold hard him or hold him up and attorney again. Well, yeah, usually you have to get an attorney to help you with that. That's correct. Why we go through the small claim court and don't tell you upfront that after that you need an attorney? I know that. They charge you $300 an hour. I understand, but that would be my advice going through an attorney. And then you say something. Let's talk about this a little, your case specifically right afterwards so we get to all more questions, okay? Don't the security mess me up. I only get $3 a month. That's not good. We will talk about your case after. Any other questions? Yes, ma'am. I'm right here in the front. Good morning. How are you? I recently learned that an elderly couple in my neighborhood has been scammed a few times. One of the incidents was with a contractor that was advertised in our homeowner's association newsletter. So I have two questions. Is there a way that the homeowner board can vet the advertisers in our newsletter? And secondly, when it's a he said, she said, when the contractor says he doesn't know anything about what she's saying versus an elderly. By the way, another reason why elderly people don't report these kinds of crimes is they're afraid of retaliation. This couple is very afraid that this one person is going to come back and hurt them. Is it a roofing job? Yard. Yard work. And so the question is, you're saying the contractor put an ad in their newsletter. Obviously, the association didn't vet the person. The person, there's a disagreement whether he or she was paid. And they say, or whatever the issue is, but now they're taking advantage of it. Yes. The homeowner association, I'm on the board. So I want to know how can we vet these contractors in the future. So this doesn't happen again. Good question. Are there any types of, I guess in the old days we'd call the Better Business Bureau or stuff like that. Is there anything, Lieutenant, that you are taking complaints on businesses that are taking advantage of people? And, you know, we've had, these issues will pop up every once in a while unfortunately. You can do a lot of checking, see if they're licensed to work within the city of San Antonio. I would suggest you check with our Construction Licensing Bureau within the city. And I like your suggestion, Senator, about the Better Business Bureau and doing maybe some research online so that you can identify whether these contractors have a history of issues related to the people they're working with. I'm sorry, it's Development Services. Is where you can check on a contractor to see whether they're licensed to work within the city. I would also call your, so a couple of things. One, you could ask the contractor for letters of reference before they're allowed to advertise. I'd ask for letters of reference. And then, you know, we have to do things where they can, before you put them in there, because by putting them in there, the community sees it as an endorsement, even though it's a paid advertisement. But they still feel there's some sort of, you're advocating this as a good person. And so, I see the difficulty. Now, the other point that you made that I think is very important, how do people file a complaint without feeling that they're going to be potential targets? That's another question. How do seniors know that they can make a complaint against someone who did some work on their house and feel safe? What advice do we have for them? And we're certainly always willing to listen to people come in and discuss these issues. Frequently many of them can be civil, but obviously some of them become criminal. Can become criminal at some point. So we have a great process of bringing citizens in, sitting down, listening to them, trying to identify where their problem is with the specific matter that they're having. That's a very low-stress thing for us. It's a low-stress thing for the person that's coming in to talk to us. So we're always, both us in property crime, we're always willing to sit down with you and have a nice, calm, relaxed discussion about what's going on. Please don't be worried about coming in and talking to us. We're going to make you feel good, and we're going to do what's appropriate for the guard to protect these people. First lady who spoke had a very interesting sheet. She talked about how every time she goes to see an attorney, it costs her money, right? So the question that I have is, how can you help the seniors know when it's a criminal versus a civil? What numbers should they call to know, okay, yes, this rises to the level of criminal, no, this is a civil. How do we take the onus off them to decide what's the legal avenue? And really, again, some of these things are very complex matters and it relates to contract law, what contract exists. So it's one of those things where we can discuss these matters over the phone and we do frequently. And we're always willing to take your calls. Our number is 207-7451. If you ever want to give us a call. 207-7451. 7451. We just put it back up here. So that's the number that you can call and discuss anything that you... I mean, but the typical criminal is like, let's say they gave a roofer, a deposit and the guy never came back, or they gave him, paid him half the job and he put a few shingles in left hand. That's criminal obviously, right? It's theft of service. Failure to provide the services. The number's right up there. 207-7451. Anyone else have a question in the audience? If not, I have a Facebook live. I've got questions coming in. All right, the question that I... All right, go ahead. Good morning. I just have a comment and I guess it goes to our chief. About a year ago, a police officer or someone dressed as a police officer came to my door and knocked on the door and I looked out the window and I asked him, yes, officer, and he told me that he needed to check my alarm system because it was going off, which was not true. So I said, well, he said, can you come down please? I need to make sure that everyone is all right. So of course, this isn't supposedly an officer dressing for uniform. So I went downstairs and I opened the door and I became very suspicious at first because of the way he stood with his hand against the door and going through CIT training before I used to work someplace else. I knew that probably there wasn't a police officer and just after I immediately said, well, it's probably the kids that are playing upstairs with the games and probably send me an offer. Let me go upstairs and check on them and make sure that my husband checks on them, which is my husband, but you know, and he said, okay, so there's people upstairs and I said, yeah, all the kids are upstairs. Let me go make sure that they're not playing with the alarm. So immediately I called the police department and of course it was not true and they send an officer right away to check it out. But I was surprised when I checked with my neighbors that they said that this man, young man had been knocking on the doors, asking if they were all right and if anyone was home for just FYI, sir. We appreciate that. If you have someone knocking at your door claiming to be an SAPD officer, it will be very apparent. If they're not in uniform, they will certainly share their credentials. But if they do come in uniform, they'll be in a bar car and again, it will be very, very apparent that it's an SAPD officer. But if you have a doubt about it, police communication can always dial a 911 emergency number and let them know that there's a police officer at your door and if it is an SAPD officer who is dispatched or not, they will still know if that officer was officially sent to your address. But next time, don't open the door unless you're sure, okay? Nobody opened the door. Yes, sir, in the back. My name is Lavo de Leon and I'm an advocate for disabled veterans. What it is, is the state of Texas counts your disability against all services that are provided to disabled veterans. The United States government don't do it. That's tax-free. Now the city is also helping the veterans in the programs that they have. So I wonder if you, Senator Melendez, can help us? Because like the lady says, $1 over the property level disqualifies you, but yet you have people that have never been in the service, never worked on that and they provide a lot of the benefits that the veterans don't do. The VA doesn't provide some of the veterans that the state does. So please give us your hand. Sure, absolutely. Basically, it's been a problem I've had with how the state qualifies or calculates these figures and the VA benefits. So afterwards, let's talk to him and see what he's talking about, which services. I have a question from the audience. It says, how long must the truck, car, or van be parked in the street with out-of-date tags before it can be sited or removed? Sounds like a code compliance issue. Anybody, so I guess my suggestion is here, if you know your code number to code compliance, call them. If you don't, you can call us or 311 will give them that. 311 will give you the information number to turn in the car that's parked and sometimes on blocks or something that hasn't moved in three weeks or so. Senator, it can be sited immediately. And then they'll, if it's here's to be abandoned or needs to be off the street, put a sticker on it. I'm not sure, I think, I think it's 24. 24 hours before it has to be removed before it's towed. Very good. We have a question from Facebook Live. Someone said, is there a department asking, is there anybody asking to verify people's identification to vote? They're getting these knocks on their door. I don't know if anybody asked them for anybody to verify it because I do. Any of you all know of anybody that has, there's no reason to ask people for their ID to vote? No. We all know that unfortunately in Texas you have to have your photo ID to vote. But that's your business. That's your business when you go to vote. You don't need to prove it to anybody. You just, when you go about, don't answer the door, don't respond to a call saying something. Can you verify your identification to vote? Any questions from the audience? Yes, sir. You have, during election time, workers on your campaign that come knocking on the door with a list of names on there and asking you if you're going to vote for this particular candidate, which is a little bit different than what you just said. They don't ask for ID, and they say here you are on the list. You voted many times. How are you going to vote this time? Well, yes. Most candidates for office have hired or have volunteers or themselves. I've locked walk since 1997 and I have the clipboard and I know who on that street has voted and all I know is if they voted which primary they voted and how many elections have they missed or how many elections have they voted in. I'll knock on someone's door and they'll say, hey, how are you? Your last name is Mr. What's your last name, sir? Mr. Palomariz. Good morning. I'm Jose Menendez. I'm running for state senate. I was wondering if you've noticed we've passed this bill on cyberbullying. We passed this bill on the Holocaust. We've done these other things and I wanted to see if you would be able to consider voting for me and then it's up to you to say you know what, that's my business. You know, I don't like you or yes, you know, you're great. Whatever you want to say, that's up to you. Hey, lately what I've heard is fewer and fewer people are even answering the door. I've seen people, you're not going to learn they wave at you, bye. You know, whatever is okay with you, yes, but that is the case. Now most people on their campaigns we make sure that if they're working for us that they'll have a t-shirt that identifies them. They shouldn't ask for any personal information. Their job is to know whether or not the candidate has support in that community. But if you choose to say I'm undecided I don't prefer to say anything. My vote is private. That's your, and it's okay. Their job, they should be trained all enough to say have a great day, thank you very much and keep going. That's it. But yes, most of all, I mean, I think good campaigns are out there talking to people, asking because sometimes what happens, this has happened many times. Well, you know, I need to talk to him about this or that and the other. Okay, and they get back to me and say, Mr. Palomariz wants to talk to you about something. We call or come and visit and we try to, you know, be reactive, responsive to you. Good question. Anybody else have a question? That does happen. Is this a question? Those sensitive people, they come into the door. Word of man? Sensitive people will be coming. They have a photo ID. Yeah, well, I don't open the door, but I open the balcony door and he say, can you come down? I say, for what? He says, the sensors. Well, as long as they have a photo ID, but you know what? A lady in the back, let's talk to her at the break. We're going to have a break in about five minutes. This lady in the back is next. Yes, ma'am? Good morning. I am here since this is an assembly of a group of seniors. I want to say something that's related to the topic that you're discussing today, but which is Social Security? And I just want to ask the seniors to please belong to a senior organization, one like the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, and the other one is the Alliance for Internet to Return Americans. It is very important because seniors are going to have to be the ones to make sure that the grandchildren, the children, the grandchildren, and the great-grandchildren and the great-great-grandchildren have benefits, and that's Social Security, a lifetime benefit. We have to do it because we are the biggest population in the United States. And when seniors support no privatization and we tell congressmen and senators that if you don't want to take care of us and if you don't want to take care of these generations that are coming with benefits for them to have everything that they need when they get old, that's those that are born today and those that are born here. They have a future and they're being told Social Security is not going to be here for you. And not telling the young ones you just added your thought you're the one that's not going to be here because we are going to get together we're going to put you out and we're going to find people who want to take care of us when we get old. Thank you very much. I couldn't agree with you more. You can take care of Social Security for everyone. We have a question here that came in writing and the question has to do with the Attorney General this would be a good one for our judges or our judge and DA's it says here what do you do when the Attorney General oversteps a judge's order like in the case of child support? Is that enough information? Is there a way they can complain about it? Or is the person who wrote this can you explain further of the judge's order? If you don't want to do it now we can do it privately at the break. So I have heard and this I'll give the judges I have recently had a case in my office where there was a child support case the gentleman never got to see the child and the judge stamped and did the order and said well you only make X amount and you're only going to owe it until the child's 18 and then the AG's office came in with some new computer system and said no now you owe all of this back child support and it's costing of his new marriage and he's having all sorts of problems he's a senior citizen now the child's an adult and he doesn't seem to have any worth to get some relief it seems like the Attorney General's office is very adamant about trying to collect on something that really wasn't it wasn't what the judge ordered and so maybe this is what this is but I I don't work with child support however I do have enough family members that have had to deal with child support and unfortunately we see that a lot and even when there was one case with one of my family members who had been paying child support and at some point in time they had changed to where it had to go straight through the Attorney General's office he didn't know that that was a change but he kept sending checks and kept sending checks and he turns 18 and then he finds out well all these he's been paying his child support faithfully for 18 years and then it turns out the past 10 years that Attorney General's office didn't count it because it wasn't going through them and there was no recourse that he could actually see he got an attorney and the attorney negotiated with mother even though mother had knew that he had paid his back to child support there's a waiver that they can basically sign there's something that they can sign saying that yes he indeed paid child support for the past 18 years but she was not wanting to do that and so he then had to make a deal and at that point it was that the AG's kind of went away because they made their own side deal so I don't know what the recourse is but I do know that it happens a lot and even they can put liens on your property they can garnish your wages they can do a lot of things to get that money and I have seen where again the person has turned 18 and all of a sudden the AG goes after them so I don't deal with this area of the law so I don't know what the recourses are but I do know that it happens you know what we need to do at the break is get a list of all the legal services that were available in Bear County so that when people have legal issues and they maybe in a position where they can't afford turning where they can go this will be the last question before the break then we're going to take a quick bathroom break and this question is interesting it has to do with a hospital the question is why don't hospitals check to make sure that the identification matches with the patient who's come in this person was a victim it seems like it was an identity theft when someone used their identity and the patient had the same name and the hospital didn't check to make sure that the patient was actually the person who was using the benefits the doctor's office made a mistake and it's true what he or she writes here every one of us gives our personal information including our social security to our doctor's offices and then someone made a mistake of writing the wrong information and what advice do you have to make sure that they're not losing this when handing out this critical information so that someone doesn't steal their identity is there anything we can do to protect ourselves when we're forced to share because every one of you all said don't share your private, your social security don't share this but when you go to the doctor they ask you for all those things what can we do to protect ourselves this is an excellent question we deal with identity theft issues some of them end up being those medical related sort of thing we've actually had detectives waiting in doctor's offices for people to show up for appointments to put handcuffs on so we deal with them unfortunately it happens you're a little bit at the mercy of some of these doctor's offices and really a lot of the people that you interact with once you hand over that identifying information you're really kind of dependent on some of these business to protect that sometimes they don't do a great job of it what was the big credit agency security analysts equifax for each anybody else a lot of us showed up on that but anyway, we're dependent on these businesses if you get an identity theft issue whether it's a doctor's office or something like that call, make a police report we work on those things all the time do your best to maintain custody of that information try not to carry a lot of things in your wallet when I get on my mom about this is that the same number you said earlier repeat that number 207-7451 7451 right and limit what you carry on your person on a daily basis what do you really need maybe a driver's license, a little bit of cash insurance card, maybe a credit card my mom carries a wallet full of things that you shouldn't be carrying all the time minimize your risk as you're moving around and what you can be willing to lose don't ever leave anything in your vehicle because as soon as somebody breaks into your vehicle they've got it and they're off buying stuff do those things give us a call, make a police report if you need help on an identity theft issue and we will work with you on that thank you, Ms. Cortes, you have something to add to that yes, I'd just like to add that for those of you who have insurance have Medicare or Medicaid those are managed through what is called CMS and you should be getting either monthly or quarterly payment that indicates what services they've paid or reimbursed so that's another indicator to review that stuff that comes in in the mail and ensure that you did in fact receive those services if you are noticing that you're being or your insurance or CMS is paying for services that you did not receive that is a sign that somebody may be using your information for medical services I'll tell you that it's very difficult from a no-protective services standpoint to tease out when identity theft has occurred we've had instances where we're looking for an individual and we think that they are and Cortes and they're using and Cortes's identity and it's not the same individual when you have very similar names you know, Juan Garzas or Paul Smith that is also an easy way of mistaken identity so please review that information that comes to you in the mail and ensure that the services that you are being charged for are actually of the services that you receive Ms. Cortes, one way to do this this is for all of us not just seniors but anybody keep track on your calendar wherever you keep your calendar your phone or on a big calendar and if you need a calendar we will give you a calendar but keep track of your doctor's visits you know you put the date October 9th I went to see the doctor and then at this time they had lab work or whatever so if you get something in the look at that bill you say look at the service date that service date doesn't match with yours then you go hey that's not me and then you can call it in and say look here's my track, I keep track of all my visits and I know what's going on at this time we're going to take a five minute break for this brochure before you leave don't leave without this and I'll tell you on the very front it says victim services but this is more than just victim services so in the back Emily's holding them up see they're right there and Emily you know what would be great do we have enough for everybody do we have enough we don't have enough for everybody so on these we'll get you all more we'll get some to our office and we'll get everybody so the very first at the top it says legal services you have a list of legal services bear county dispute resolution family justice center Catholic Charities financial services meeting law center lawyer's referral then you have financial services government agencies this is a really a great list law enforcement a list of numbers children's services counseling services and domestic violence services this is really great would you tell the DA thank you for putting together this for us we'll make sure that everybody gets its names and numbers if you need if you need us to help you translate it come by our office we'll help you but it's pretty straightforward it's phone numbers it's the names of the agencies the sheriff the sheriff's office has dropped off this right here and the sheriff's office has this list of benefits that they do apparently they're hiring and the citizen engagement guide with emails and where you can find the sheriff's office is throughout the county sheriff thank you did you bring how many copies do we have of these I think we should have enough okay so then we can hand these out if we need to on facebook okay great so our office what we're going to do is take a picture of the DA's the directory of the organizations and the agencies and you'll see it on our facebook page all of them make sure you can see the names and the numbers if you don't get a copy of them so now that you know in addition to having our senate team in addition to having the SAPD, the sheriff himself, the DA's office, the judge Vasquez we also have state rep but not his office councilman Trevino and congressman Castro does anybody have a question for our panel that you'd like to you know what I'd like to hear I'm going to ask not to put you on the spot but since there's so many purple shirts what are the frauds or the abuse that you see some seniors that are seeing coming up that maybe no one here has been exposed to but you want us they need to be aware of this is happening and sorry has anybody seen do you want to handle it in is there something out there in the field that has been reported more than you all that you see is possibly a trend is there anybody seen anything like that well and since I'm not in the field I'm going to defer these questions to my staff who is in the field if there are Lisa she is our community initiatives specialist and she is currently working with various community organizations addressing the issues of financial abuse and fraud she is our liaison to a board a no protective services board that we've established and also the solar sabbath committee and so is there Lisa any information that you have with respect to potential fraud or things that our staff have been encountering out in the field one of the things that we often see in what's challenging is that APS does not handle the fraud per se because in order for our agency to get involved that has to be the ongoing relationship however where we work collaboratively with the other organizations and partner is that when we have an older adult who doesn't have the capacity or doesn't understand their situation and that's when APS can intervene because we would become involved and we would look at that for neglect and so it's very important I know it's not always easy to call adult protective services or pick up the phone and call non-emergency to ask police to go out but it is important to call us because when we go out we'll look at the individuals entire situation and often in adult protective services what we often see is that when there's one form of neglect or abuse that's occurring we often see that there's other forms of abuse that are co-occurring at the same time and so that's why it's urgent to give us a call. You just said something that's important for us to think about there's two separate things, neglect and abuse can be the same but can be separate too right? Yes Tell us what neglect could be examples of neglect Types of neglect that we often see might be self-neglect or it can fall under the caretaker neglect So that means what? Not eating? Not eating, not taking care of yourself somebody who might be living in a home that's not being kept up a person who might have difficulty Not bathing Not taking their medication properly not able to prepare their own meals, not able to bathe themselves. It's those challenges that they have difficulty with. I know that you're in this field every single day and that's why sometimes you just categorize into words, but many of us out in the world we don't realize that when someone's not there to help you out if you need some, that's a little bit of neglect that can be abuse and sometimes I think seniors don't want to understand that maybe they're neglecting themselves and in trouble if they call you, but you can help them provide services, right? Yes, we can help provide protective services but a lot of that will depend on the individual's willingness to accept our help and that is I think some of the biggest challenges that these individuals who all have wearing purple shirts today encounter there are times when we can make a difference in a person's life but that person has this capacity and they do not want to accept our help then we may need to walk away from the situation and not be able to assist the individual. What kind of help can you offer? The services that we offer are wide ranging we can provide assistance with temporary relocation in case they're in an abusive situation and need to leave there are times if somebody's been financially exploited they need assistance with medications or they need assistance to pay utility bills because they don't have that money we can assist with that there's times that sometimes they are without food and they need that emergency assistance What number would they call? The number they would call is 1-800-252-5400 So hold on a second let me let her finish because we're going to have a Q&A the reason I think it's important because sometimes when we're in an okay situation we don't understand what's happening out there maybe we have a friend we just think of it as it's too bad, it's so sad that maybe their kids don't take care of them they don't check on them but maybe they're in a situation that could help, is that what you're saying? Yes, there are a variety of services just like the numbers that the DA's office have but there's also a wide variety of services which I kind of refer to as our aging network here in Bear County and throughout the state of Texas but there's the city of San Antonio the Department of Human Services offers a wide ranging services there are private companies that provide geriatric care management to assist individuals and then we also have our other sister agencies through the Health and Human Services Commission that offer services through the long term service supports through them and then the federal agencies nonprofits our faith-based organization so it's a wide network of services that are here to support our older adults so by calling that number though that's not a number just to say hey my neighbor's getting beat up by someone that's a number that says you can report anything and you can ask for help That number is specifically to our hotline for adult protective services and that's specifically for if somebody suspects that somebody could be in a state of abuse neglect or financially exploited they can call that number neglect could be also not having food in the pantry of the fridge right correct because sometimes I think we sometimes don't want to bother anybody we don't think it's a crime we just think well I just don't have enough to buy groceries and therefore you don't eat and on board I've seen people make a decision say well today I take that medicine that's $10 or I buy a break and what you're telling me is they don't have to be making enough decisions right thank you so much the other thing I'd just like to mention is that if somebody is not in a state of abuse neglect or financially exploited that Alamo service connection has a hotline where they have a lot of services and it's a dedicated number that individuals can call if they're needing assistance and the Alamo service connection is it's 866 231 492 Tuesday Alamo service connection and it's through the area agency on aging and it's also and that they can provide services to older adults and get them linked up and assist them in other situations where individuals need some assistance thank you so much just so that everybody knows not only is this being put on Facebook live right now we're taping it so that it can be rebroadcast so it will be out there so if you want to say hey what did that lady say what was that number what were the things I could call about you'll be able to watch this later when do you think Charlotte will be up in less than a week for those of you who are not familiar with our food bank it's one of the largest in the nation GERD serves 32 counties and it's located right down the street on 151 and they do a tremendous job helping communities and helping organizations and today the food banks represented here by Mario Bledo who just walked in they donated the fruit and then they donated the water sometimes what they can do for you and they've done it for neighborhoods if you organize and you can tell them how many families will come by they can donate like a food drive in your neighborhood many of these happen at schools and so if you know a community that needs some extra food come see Mario afterwards he does a great job he works for the food bank we're very proud of our food bank I'm going to tell a story that happened to my husband about eight years ago this happened in Caruso, Ashenburg I was in California I had gone to stay over there a few months but he stayed behind well this store had just opened they were celebrating their grand opening and he bought a scratch ticket I think for five dollars or ten dollars well he won fifty thousand dollars so even family can use your financially he went to he called me and I told him I'm over here so he has a niece that works in the courthouse with lawyers and everything so I said well take him to Letti Letti will help you he took the ticket to his niece and she said well let's wait a few weeks I'll keep the ticket well a few weeks later they went to get him he said ok we're ready today so we can go cash the ticket so they bought him to San Antonio and they collected the money but they wanted to cash the check and no bank would take it because they wanted to cash it they wanted it to be deposited and they didn't and he said well I'll talk to you a few days later well she never came back and he kept going to the courthouse and talking to her and everything and she would say wait, wait, wait well anyway when I came home I called the adult protective service and it got involved well she kept stalling and stalling and stalling on the money and she said she was ready to give him the money the only amount she returned to him was 14,000 because supposedly he had spent a lot of money on renovating and what and it was not true so you know there's even children sons, daughters relatives can get involved and they will take advantage of the elderly sorry to hear that I have a question here I want to address and I want to give some advice to this person as well this person wrote the city fixed my sidewalks but they left holes on my driveway I can't walk there or get my car and it says here that 711 Delaware and then the recommendations we have if you have a neighborhood association always go to your neighborhood association meetings if you haven't called 911 call 311 to get a case number if you have not called your council district office give them a call and let them know and give them the case number Siddil anything you want to add to that anything that the councilman would do in this case we would be happy to help anybody and we work really closely with all the council offices and we let them know when cases like this come up that was actually perfect so again I'm Siddil Brooks I'm with Councilman Trevino's office spearheaded the sidewalk repair program and that's something that we actually have a sidewalk squad now that actively goes in and works on those issues so if you do have an issue with your sidewalk or anything like that go ahead and report that into 311 get a case number and if you call us with that case number if they're not following up or anything we have contacts with the supervisors and whatnot so we'll reach out to them and get you an answer about where it is when it's scheduled for that type of thing so thank you very good any questions? Mr. Chairman has not asked any questions good morning senator thank you very much I'm a constituent and a register voter thank you very much for this session very very informative hopefully you have another follow up session but anyway I don't mean to be paranoid but I am in this talk about technology because I get so many phone calls emails phone calls and I would ask the panel what can I do to protect myself you know how many times they threaten me the IRS is going to pick me up how many times they're going to pick me up and I didn't respond to this jury summons they're under way to pick me up and blah blah blah and I don't know what else to do I block my numbers I have life lock and so I don't know what else to do in essence it's kind of not if I will be a victim I'm not going to come up again any different thank you mr. Garcia personally I'm going to tell you what I do so those of us who are lucky enough to have one of these ridiculous things get calls from places we've never been I mean sometimes I look down and it'll say somewhere overseas or it says some state and some place and I look at it I don't know anybody there so just if you don't recognize the number don't answer my poor mom she's 83 she answers every call and then she gets upset I'm just like mr. Garcia said they're telling me this or tell me that hang up hang up if you don't recognize the number don't answer okay it's unfortunate but that's happening any other advice that's it don't answer the phone delete the email delete the text whatever it is again they capitalize on the fact that we don't want to be rude they're calling so I have to answer that's what I get with my folks as well and if it's any consolation I've got warrants for my arrest for missing jury duty as well not real ones I guess I'm going to I guess I'm going to arrest myself so that's always a fun conversation when I get a scam call telling me I've got a warrant for my arrest for sure but yeah sometimes you've got to go with your gut and just ignore those phone calls even though it may seem rude to you it's what you need to do a little paranoia is a good thing in the back there's a lady who's had her hand up for quite some time get you the mic hold on just a second it's coming right there I have always I have always thought of myself as a very informed senior you are? I was till yesterday I got a not a phone call I can do with a phone call but on myself I got a text a message so I clicked on and I saw Wells Fargo it's my bank and then it informed me that my debit card had been compromised and that I needed that they needed some information because it had been frozen so I said okay so I clicked on again asked for my name my password well I put my name I wasn't thinking I didn't put my password I put my pin clicked again and then it came up mother's maiden name blah blah blah at the very bottom social security I have been and I said wait a minute my bank knows all this stuff so I turned it off and I went to the bank it was not my bank it was not my bank so the thing is that what I want to tell everybody even if you get a message they call it fishing we have a lady here who works for Jefferson Bank Linda would you like to say anything about that so she's the president of her neighborhood association but she's also here to get information to help because her bank helps with my mother she's a great lady and I just love the time that they take with them thank you so in the banking world we see a lot of scams that are focused on the elderly and sometimes even the young we have romance scams we just an example thought he was in love for seven months and he was being deported so had already turned over about $3,500 in gift cards to this individual things of that sort, we see it in young we see it in older email scams if you get an email from someone telling you that you need to contact them or you need to provide information or you have a job opportunity that you have not sought out yourself do not respond to that we've had individuals who have phone calls that are going on with that if you receive a phone call telling you that a family member has been in an accident and that you need to provide money immediately call your family member do not send anything if anyone asks you for gift cards in order for you to receive a service or an opportunity do not do that because in all instances very likely it is broad so we just ask that you're diligent that you're focused on knowing what it is that you're looking for something if you have not asked for somebody to help you with money with anything of that sort then do not respond to that because we see so many cases in our broad division that our customers are taking advantage of individuals have gone out and done work on their home thousands of dollars later the job is still not done but they said well I hired them but when you really kind of look at that look to somebody that you really trust and say you know I feel a little uneasy about this is this really something that I should be doing responding to or what not so there are just so many so many scams out there we work very closely with law enforcement and other fraud groups and other banks within the city that we kind of talk to one another share information going on but we absolutely recommend do not respond to anything that you have not initiated yourself loans, tax emails, job opportunities quick money if somebody is going to give you something do not buy them gift parts before they give you what they promised you because we see that a lot a lot let me because there's Linda okay after you this is not a question I'm just going to inform you when I get back home today after being out I'm going to have messages I have one all kinds of prizes every day I have one contest here and there and everywhere that I didn't enter and in the mail I get the checks I showed one to the bank and they said they're good you can deposit them and what they do is you take this check to the bank deposit it and then they they want you to send them some money out of that great amount they gave you and you send them money but the check is not going to bounce right so here's one thing folks did y'all remember when we were growing up they said to us Linda had hers right here yellow and then louder they told us that it's too good to be true it usually is remember that one and in Spanish they say it's the same thing I mean come on it's too good to be true yes my name is Linda I work for Wellman and I'm the economic security case worker three of the senior centers and the Lopez and we should I'm sorry but the Cisneros anyway I have because they trust me they bring all kinds of stories to me but there's one and I'll see her again on Friday but this was the first time I've heard this but this lady went online because she wanted to borrow money to help her son who had surgery and so she wanted to borrow $2,500 the company looked perfectly legit to her so she applied for the loan the loan officer or the frauder told her that her credit score was very low and so they couldn't loan her money right then but if she sends them this certain amount of money so she sent like $400 and then over a period of time she sent more than the $2,500 that she was trying to borrow and in the interim her car got repossessed so she was so embarrassed it took her a while and she does trust me it took her a while to come to me so she came to me a few weeks ago and I always pass my cases by Ray when I hear these odd situations he works very closely with us and you know we both determined this was definitely a criminal act and so she said she was very embarrassed well this started last October 2018 and it took her that long to come out and to tell somebody that this was happening to her so when she got to me I immediately called Ray and we determined that it was definitely a fraud so we sent her to the police department I said go to the police department and file a case of a claim against them so at least you can have that on record that they are frauding you well in the interim this guy that was supposedly this loan officer he's blowing her phone up I answered her phone twice the police officer his card and the case number and texted to him and so that stopped the phone calls I don't know what's going on now but my question to probably you Chief McManus is that once she files oh I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm looking at the rovers well my question to you sir is once she files that police report then what so those are difficult I think a lot of us understand that much of that fraud is coming in from outside the country and they're moving money around very quickly and then trying to offshore it so obviously we want to know about that we want you to file that report we're going to do what we can do to see what we can do about we're treating that money I will tell you something a couple of things we're working with secret services quite a bit recently in the last two years to do seizures related to losses like you're talking about and a lot of these are losses in the 10, 20, 40, 100 range we're working jointly on these seizures are seizures for this year relating to fraud kind of similar to that is probably 6 or 7 million already for the year so you really I mean as the senator was saying a lot of people are saying don't answer that phone call don't cash that check and then send off that money to somebody else I think most of us realize that those are scams the second comment I want to make is I'm caring for my mom an 86 year old woman she's very sharp she's technologically sharp but I tell you what I train her every day about all these scams so as she's hearing them as the IRS is calling her to come in she's going to get arrested and all that she's realizing what's going on she's just hanging up on them also you can put your cell phone on do not disturb mode that will block a lot of the calls from people that are not in your contacts list so do what you can and if you're caring for somebody that's getting older like I am train them get in there make sure they have their wills, power of attorneys and all those scams going on and as they get older and they need help step in and monitor monitor these people in that way if there's a problem you can catch it early stop the problem stop the bleeding and maintain that financial security form you've got to start caring for them before there's a problem thank you Mr. President we have a comment because she's about to leave my name is Denise Benavides and I sent it to Melinda but all of this is done these meetings that Jesus had all these different months as an intellectual for me and I've learned a lot and today was more than one of the very interesting meetings thank you very much you and I will you and I will be careful yes Judge go right away just related and you just reminded me of a story actually I worked with peaches at Doris Griffin because what we were seeing was she contacted me when I was working at Catholic Charities because senior citizens they were people that were waiting outside of the lobby and they were getting the non-attorneys getting people to they were drafting their wills they were drafting their powers of attorneys now people sometimes and we see this a lot especially in the probate court people get online information they pull off powers of attorneys online or you get someone that's not an attorney that actually does that for you chances are they're going to do it wrong or the forms are not going to be the same forms that are actually accepted now there's more recent information with these individuals they were actually drafting wills which was the unauthorized practice of law so at that point I reached out to the unauthorized practice of law the bar and they were investigating these individuals so definitely do not get legal services from a non-attorney because we do see that because they give them a deal they only do it for 50 bucks but then they do it wrong if you do a power of attorney wrong, guess what? it's not valid so at the end of the day what winds up happening is your loved one has to get a guardianship over you which will cost them thousands of dollars to do when you try to say 50 bucks so again you want to make sure that if you get legal documents that you actually go to a lawyer to receive them because they're going to have the most up-to-date information and you just put that lawyer on the state bar website to make sure that they're active you don't want an inactive lawyer but if you have any questions you can always contact my office but again do not please do not go to a non-attorney to help draft legal documents so very excellent advice judge if you didn't get this that has all the legal resources we make copies does anybody need a copy of all the numbers that are here? raise your hand we will to get one to you so at every hand that's raised it's coming to you right now in our newsletter that we send by email we posted tips on how you can get yourself on a no-call list so you don't receive illegal or unwanted robocalls so we're reposting these tips on Facebook and Twitter and you can just click on the link and it'll give you the tips on how to get on the no-call list we've only got about a little less than 10 minutes left I want to make sure it's shared did you have something? I do I've got something to add we do a human trafficking class for parents and teens and we give them a bit of advice that also fits here I think it's very appropriate for this for this crowd as well we give the kids an analogy I always call the kids up and have one of them describe to me the devil what's the devil look like? always red he's got horns usually wears a black suit and one of his feet is either a hoof or a chicken for the right but here's the thing and we explain to the kid when the devil appears in your life the devil's not going to show up red with horns and a black suit and a chicken foot the devil's going to show up looking like everything you ever wanted in life that's what human traffickers do also but guess what that's also what scammers do and so they're going to show up at just the right time and be exactly what you need you had a storm last week and you got roof repairs guess what they're going to show up and be a roof repairman you you know somewhere online this is what I'm getting to that you're lonely because your spouse died several years back and you're visiting their grave site that's where the lonely heart scams will come in and all of a sudden you'll get information from people that have young single Russian people that are looking for a spouse they just want to come over and be taken care of they're opportunists and so be careful what you're sharing online as well because like what Marca said you're very very astute when it comes to technology and you know look I'm terrified that my dad one of these days is going to discover social media and I'm going to moody he hasn't discovered it yet but when he does I guarantee he's going to share way too much online and that's when you open it so be careful what you're sharing with people if you're sharing with people that oh finally this vacation that has saved up my entire life for and now I'm going to be gone to Europe for a month on a Carnival cruise line or whatever it is guess what you're leaving yourself wide open for so be careful what you're sharing online as well so I want to make sure I'm going to take your question this came up for those of us who are caretakers or and some of you who maybe are currently a caretaker but hopefully we all have someone take care of us in the future right hope right I don't know we hope the point is this while you can keep your things organized what accounts what you have everything while you're in a good place and that person that you would if you needed a power attorney who you would make the person you trust the most you need to let them know because if something were to happen and you can't let them know then how do they help you what resources you may or may not have so you need to keep your affairs in order when you don't need to have them you know what I'm saying and that's a good thing with these legal resources and the financial services you had your hand up the most and then the gentleman in the long one had you had your hand up someone's coming you handed it off already I saw a lot of his hand up he's already asked a question go ahead folks I have a couple websites to share with y'all we'll let Joseph type them there the first one is O-A-T-S dot over and the second one is seniorplanet.org and seniorplanet is based out of New York City but their second biggest group in the nation is right here in San Antonio and folks this is a free way for you to learn anything from basic computer skills to more advanced skills and it so happens that the main office here in San Antonio is about 200 feet away from the senator's office there for a couple which took care of this and in fact I just completed one of the courses myself and I recommend them they're usually two days a week for about five weeks seniorplanet.org some of them will provide Chromebooks to get you started email contacts and basic computer skills others you'll need to bring your own computer also want to make a couple other comments years ago I was at a post office where I maintained a box but at this point I was just simply right clean through the trash looking for computer magazines and this lady came in she was a little bit distraught and started confiding me that she'd been she was being victimized by one of these Nigerian print schemes and they were trying to get her to send money and I told her straight forward I said this is a scan I said just look me in the eye and realize I've never met you before but I'm telling you the honest to goodness truth and I hope she followed my advice. Thank you for the other point I'll just add real quick is that same day I was getting some of these vendor and wholesale magazines there was some guys medical things there and I opened that one I'm curious and sure enough there's his social security number and everything else so once again be careful for you deposit information they can identify. In this guy's case I ripped out this information and later deposited in the trash so nobody was going to defraud me. Thank you. Thank you. Prime Minister Lauto go right ahead sir. Those of us that are here not representing the Meals on Wheels but I'm an advocate of the Meals on Wheels the federal government the state and the city are trying to keep you at home so there is a benefit if you don't need it somebody else can use it. I'm here we know a lot of people that they were a little bit capitated and one of the best things you can do is start donating to Meals on Wheels a dollar can go very far so yes for those of you that need it they have very good meals they are nutritional meals so I'm saying you know let's look towards servicing somebody and Meals on Wheels do a good job. They have very good posts thank you very much. Yes thank you absolutely right. We're going to have to shut down we're going to stay around and talk to those I've got a few closing remarks I'd like to emphasize that although this is a very serious issue we have received nationwide attention recently and although other types of abuse may get more attention the abuse of the elderly has a significant consequence for the elderly themselves and often the effects last for the rest of their lives and however we are very optimistic that together we can come up with strategies and methods to better safeguard our senior citizens there's some simple steps that are to help seniors and their friends caregivers and relatives to prevent fraudulent activity simply we'd like to have you talk to us about any issues or concerns that you'd like to be clarified or addressed so that we can help work together to build a better future for Texas you know some of you are familiar with our office we're in Wonderland Mall if Wonderland Mall is convenient to you come by walk by we open at 8.30 we close at 5.30 during the week we don't need an appointment to stick your head in say hello someone will meet and talk to you Saturday is 11 to 2 is that correct most Saturdays right those that recognize that these new laws and regulations are possible we're open to new ideas solutions for you and your family during the 2017 session we were successful in passing House Bill 3019 that helps protect those who can't defend themselves and this necessary a piece of legislation prosecutes those that are guilty of causing injury either to a child an elderly or a disabled individual we continue to safeguard our citizens from the community from relentless individuals that continue to prey on them who are defenseless and need laws to protect them we have a sign that you saw in our office when you came in this office belongs to the people of San Antonio it's because we are public servants would everybody in the blue shirt would y'all come up to the front please I want to introduce the team here and so let's see here everybody come on up everyone you see in the blue shirt is members of the of my senate team and I want y'all to Jacob why don't you stand up so they can see that you're on the team too our constituents you're the number one priority for this I want to thank you all for coming out I also want to thank Marta Valdez for the Northside Activity Center for hosting us Marta thank you very much yes let's give her a round of applause I want to thank Northside Independent School District Superintendent Brian Woods and the entire board this is a publicly owned facility this is owned by the school district and I think it's always good to use facilities that our taxpayers have already paid for and they work hard to improve the school district I also want to thank each and every one of our senior centers for taking time to work with our population and caring for everybody special thanks to the Lopez Center St. Luke's District 5 Madonna Center, Bethel we are very committed to solving problems and serving you because you are who are our bosses, everyone up here works for you if you have any questions that's something that didn't come up that you want us to address please call us would you write over our numbers up there 733-6604 remember you never need an appointment to come see us, we're in Wonderland Mall if you want to know where we're under Ross Dress for less so if you know where Lubies is on Fredericksburg Road in the entrance right in front of Lubies Park Underground through the little tunnel first office on the left alright last thing, November 5th there's an election, these 10 things are going to be on the ballot these are the constitutional amendments I want all of you, I'm sure none of us miss elections in this room but these constitutional amendments will either pass or fail and you want to have your voice heard the other thing is this election is going to be the first time we vote with a new system so it's going to be a good time if you're all familiar with the new voting system we have these fliers if you need any more questions we will be happy to make them let's give our panelists the sheriff, the judge the DA's office let's give them a round of applause thank you all and we've got a hard working sheriff I want to thank Adult Protection Services Miss Cortez the boss came out my good friend Phil Cazen former judge Cazen of DA's office Judge Medonica asks thank you for everything on this task force that you're asking us to lead up and Lieutenant Booth thank you for everything you're doing with your team alright, thank you very much what do you say?