 Good morning and welcome to everyone. My name is Tom Hussain, I'm the director of MCCC. So welcome to my candidates, thank you for being here today. Thank you very much. Who is here? I'm going to ask you to go off for the first time. You are, sir. Could you stand up for a second? Yeah. You're here for the first time? Yeah. Look at me. Boom. I just wanted to go off. Okay. Of course, the reason we're here doesn't really matter what our faith is. We're a diverse community. We are here as concerned San Antonioans in general. And so that is why we do a lot of outreach programs. But this is all about the city. So we want to get this mindset out that people are not welcome or people are different or whatever. And so that is why we are hosting this event tonight. Someone passed out now to San Pichet. What's the MCCC doing here? So, for anybody who is not familiar with being a homeowner per game, I serve on Public Relations Committee and Public Advocacy. We started an entity that was much called Essence and Vote. If you have any questions with you, I encourage you to go to my site, Essence and Vote, or look for us on Facebook and sign up with us when you're much more than that. It's just a way for us to be educated about the issue that affect us that particularly there's not much at all for us to handle. So, for the candidates, before we, before I give you guys the opening statement, I'll tell you that it's going to be very difficult. Everybody will have two minutes to answer the question. You don't have to take all two minutes. I will, so this will be something different. I will allow you guys, once everyone has given an answer, to, if you want, ask each other a question. If you want to channel on someone, just raise your hand. According to one of my questions, your response will be one minute, and I will answer the right myself. If an entity that needs some clarification, I'll ask you in that response will be one minute as well. I'm going to pick up an email. If there's just any clarification that I can give to the community, you better come for an answer. I'll allow you to find that information. If you see my little friend here in red shirt, he's going to be our timing. So, I have two minutes. He's going to go up, so at 30 seconds left, he's going to go ahead with this. When you're out of time, he's going to go ahead with this. There we go. He's going to go ahead with this. Last moment. So, and what we're going to do is that, I'm going to start with you, and then as we move to my left, and where we're going to next, he's going to answer the first question, and then we'll keep going in that direction. So, let's start with two instructions. My name is Pat Stout, and I have lived in this district for 14 years. I have had my business for 30 years, and I'm a business attorney. My business is a travel agency. I have had my business for 35 years, and I have been doing business like that for 14 years. I think for some, this is my final question for you guys. I think this is better. Thank you. Should I start with that? Oh, sorry. Can you tell me? My name is Pat Stout. I'm a business attorney here in San Antonio. I have opened my business for 35 years. I have two daughters, two brothers, and I have lived in this district for 14 years, going to 15, and also I have had my business for 12 years while I was working there. I have decided to run for district day because I have the experience, I have the knowledge about business, I have been very successful in my business, and I have been working for community all these times at the same time. Since 1990, I have been involved with Chambers of Covers, being chair of the Hispanic Chamber I have been the president of the National Association of Women Business Owners, Chapter San Antonio. I have been the president and national treasurer for the Mexican Association of Advertisers. So, my past day is not only business but accounting, finance, and this is something that has helped grow my business and become very successful. I was featured in Covers Magazine last summer in June as a woman who started from scratch with no assistance, no help and developed my business through very, very difficult times. So, very proud of that and at the same time I went through all that experience to work. I love district days and we have many problems in district day. One of the most important problems that we are dealing and I have seen it develop and become more difficult is the traffic. So, I think that we all agree that something needs to be done. Simple as that, just not creating the traffic lights in the first day that we need to do so that we have a work through the traffic. We have all their ideas that I have talked about with Maria and I think that there's many possibilities of making the traffic much better. Thank you. That's kind of what we're doing. Can I ask you something? Let's just pick up one thing I want to mention. We have a microphone here for the audience to ask a question. I just asked that. I just let us get into two or three questions and find a way to answer them. Cindy? I saw number 8. My background is in marketing and advertising and I think that for 30 years I traveled around the country for AT&T, selling their internet advertising and also public advertising. I also have a master's degree from St. Mary's University here in San Antonio in public administration and I also have two minors, one in urban planning and development and the other one is in public affairs. I am a military family member. My husband is currently deployed. He is an Afghanistaner and he's been there for five and a half years in some of these 60 years. As for me, I gave my career to serve alongside my husband as he served in the military when the army found out what my background was in they immediately put me to work and one of my core marks in my life is I established The Man of Angels which is a non-profit organization that helped support the members that were staying at the Fisher House and the Fisher House, if you're not familiar with it it is like the Ronald McDonald House for the public and so we did that for good what does this mean? 36 and so they replicated here in San Antonio and it is subject to angels and the reason that I got into politics is because I'm a very strong woman and I believe that we need transparency in our public government and we need the people's voice to be heard and so I put my name out and I want to take all my experience and put it to work for you in district 8 thank you all sorry, I apparently we like to like myself and my staff like to actually respond to the invitation I probably had so I appreciate that we're ready to work on many things again, my name is Paul Martin I have had an interest in serving for a number of years in politics I currently serve on a number of boards in the city and elsewhere and commissions in fact I found out on a file on 16 boards and commissions which part of my plan is that if I would like to I'll have to obviously have to use some of that service to be able to serve the city effectively the reason I'm running is I think that in addition to wanting to serve I do have the capability to help make some good decisions we're a growing city and there are a lot of challenges out there I think that I can help to make some good decisions in the future my background is I have a fair background actually currently I have invested in that from the Martin Capital Visors which I started in 1989 so I'm also a self-made business man and it's been a successful business for all these years in addition to that I have been involved in startups and started technologies and started a fund called Transmolded Technologies Fund for which I'm a general partner and the benefit of these technologies is that I'm currently working on a partner of course I'm also arts and do that instead of playing golf I like to get in my studio and I think that pretty much covers my background I should also mention I just love to bring up how I started in the military I started three years in the army and I totaled 17 in the name between four years I had to be 13 in the Navy Reserve and I retired as a commander so I hope you'll consider voting for me for District 8 and if you have any questions look forward to visiting with you thank you I am a father of a little boy and a little girl I'm a husband of a public school teacher my name is Diana I'm the son of my parents who are here in front of us this evening and I have dedicated myself as a lawyer to this community this community of small business owners this community of homeowners and a lot of homeowners associations and I represent a lot of companies who come to San Antonio to do business in San Antonio but I'm not doing that I've served for many years now as the general counsel for the bad women and children shelter and some of you may know that it's a shelter that works close to the refugee issue and it has a lot of experience working with the city the state and the federal government on issues that are centered around families and making sure that families in San Antonio have the resources they need and they can thrive I'm not doing that I'm also volunteering for the city I've served as a board member for VIA for the Metropolitan Environmental Planning Organization the Advanced Transportation District but we actually didn't really work on traffic solutions and public transit I've also been a general worker at the savings where we did re-work and had a lot of success with infrastructure projects development projects, park projects sidewalks and streets and lastly I've been the general of the Bond Committee for Greenwich under Phil Parker and I also have been a lot of real hands-on experience and so I'm here to ask for your vote tonight thank you all for inviting us out here and I'm looking forward to your questions Thank you Matt Good afternoon Thank you for first for having us out here bringing to do this four-up together and it's really great to see people involved My name is Tony O'Neill I'm a candidate for district A A lot of people ask, Tony, why are you here? and I go back to something other than high school I was a small guy in high school and any easy target that he picked on was holding and yes, I was eating that kid that was throwing it a lot here I know that's embarrassing I don't understand it for myself and in that moment I discovered a few things first, that I had voice and second, that I was much stronger than anybody gave me credit for including myself and it's that strength today that allows me to use my voice to share my story with you even the embarrassing parts about being thrown in the locker as time went on, I saw that same group of boys all they did was move on to the next and that's when I learned my third-year goals value-messing I had to stand up for myself I had to stand up for others that had this go but that strengthened themselves and that's what we should expect out of our city councilors so many people were willing to listen to us to right wrongs and to stand up for us and that's what I wanted to bring to the city councilor and it's also why I'm fortunate enough to work for an organization that serves our military families and our veterans because I mentioned a certain goes who served us speaks to my nation and before I was thrown in I was already serving district day as special projects coordinator helping out our third councilor and our district manager Ray Garza so once again I want to thank you for having me out I look forward to answering all your questions and I congratulate you by taking action on being here I'm going to challenge you to take one more action though please go to my website vote20b.com and on the kind of involved page I have what I call be the change challenge I'm going to ask you to do one in three things one in three things if you like my message please donate $25 so I can get my message out second come out volunteer helps write my message in the third final one go out by the Mount Rocky here in San Antonio and volunteer at time whether that's the San Antonio food bank or have a tap for you guys have a tap so we'll start with that first question for anyone that has to drive a i-tenant from Ralfa Road to Port Ann and anywhere within a 10 mile radius from there you know where the traffic comes and given that the population is expected to grow a lot from Indian people over the next 20 years how will you address the issue of traffic congestion and what specific solutions will you provide to give you the experience of that question aside of the issues before we were introducing myself the first thing we need to do is to meet one of the category the traffic lights and I have made a couple of calls and I know it was black so we have about the same issues and it makes a big difference I didn't just think about that but I had a passion and I called it makes a big difference is they are taking your calls now when you are in a situation like that you can call them and tell them what you are experiencing in traffic and we noticed that it was a big difference I talked to so many others and they mentioned that the lights and they told us that they are taking calls from the traffic lights and they are trying to work that out and that is something that we need to do immediately which is the other issues that we can work together with PISA I was attending a meeting at a bar we had the opportunity to sit and think over the mouth about the streets different traffic lights the citizens sat at the table with the VIP and explained exactly what is happening at each street and what types of things not worth taking we are going to make a transcript of what is happening and then we are going to start communicating together to see what we can do about these problems and about all the different accidents that are happening here thank you what I am going to do is I am going to make a city ordinance for all trucks, traders fifth wheels and buses how many of us have traveled around the country even as far as I am going to go we will see all trucks we need to do that here in the city of San Antonio so that they can get out of the car so we can pass them people are constantly cutting in front of them they are slowing us down they need to be in the right lane what I am going to do is they have been doing this since 1995 in London, England and that is they have been using seven foot black hearts to surround an accident every time someone is changing the tire or if there is an accident people are always stopping and looking and so these black hearts that they use in England surround the scene of an accident and it reduces the driver value there is nothing to see and traffic moves right on so those are two things that I would do as your councilwoman in district A those are two ideas, thank you thank you all let's try to keep the bus going just because it needs to stop there are a lot of things we can do of course to fix some of the short-term issues and if the traffic is bad just imagine how bad it is going to be in the future we don't really start climbing ahead so I agree that there are a lot of things that can be done immediately however, my biggest concern is addressing your question in the future how are we going to manage the growth and the traffic that comes with that and that is a big challenge and it is one that I am very interested in working on, I don't have any solutions to see for that and as we are sitting here I am participating in these events, I have had these ideas going through my head and I look forward to being able to pursue them and see what we can do so that 10, 20 years from now we hopefully traffic will be better than it is today and not worse there is nobody in San Antonio who thinks that our traffic is good and we are getting better in fact, it used to be the joke that my gosh at least we are not in Austin and I recently heard somebody from Austin say well at least we are in San Antonio and our traffic is getting worse and we continue to grow as we grow it is going to continue to get worse our streets are going to continue to get older and it is not going to get cheaper to fix them in fact it is getting more expensive to fix streets one thing that we know just from having been in traffic all of us together is that we sit there wondering why am I here spending my time on my kids and my loved ones and doing something else and I did a number of hours every single year seeing traffic so this is a job interview we are all sitting here asking you for a job and for a job interview what I am going to point out is it is really important to know what you are talking about and have actual experience and expertise doing this so I am actually working with clients the one thing we are seeing is we are left behind in the tech side we are really good at laying ass we are not very good at doing the necessary work as far as getting light to synchronizing and intelligent traffic system I hate contradicting my friend Pat but there is no such thing as traffic light calibration it doesn't make sense if the word is synchronization and intelligent traffic systems in San Antonio all of our lights are set on any type of switch and those are sequence lights we don't do what we do to get it right like other cities where I have been working actually bringing those to the council thank you so thank you for the question I think it is really a two-part answer this is first we have to look at the strategic options and then tackle the strategic cycle we do we really talk about sitting planning one of the issues we have a lot is we have some of these small rooms and then later on we go back in and rezone that so the parking complex can be built out there but we feel not able to get away these streets were not designed or built to accommodate that kind of traffic so we need to start having those conversations ahead of time and start thinking about how we can grow smarter and that is going to be done through the planning on the tactical side that is where we can get into utilizing technology looking at how we can better refine the air, rapid bus systems things along those lines around having smart stop lights so we can manage that down to the tactical so I think there is a number of strategies but we have to include both the long-term planning and then the short-term tactics that we can use to help it be attractive there is a number that can be pursued thank you I didn't make this up that was something that we discussed during the VMI you know we are not creating the loss that is something that I learned there in that I have this experience I just want to make that clear so did you have a question for the mayor? no I just wanted to one of the things that they can do to calibrate me is they can also display the speed limit which you want the traffic to flow so that people are doing 70 miles an hour especially if there is an accident they had maybe the traffic used to be dropped down to 45 so by calibrating the traffic flow you can control the traffic flow so that it doesn't bother them I think that is what she meant let's respond so these follow-up are meant to ask another kind of new question so many of you still have a question so I work all over the country on traffic issues specifically on traffic what you both are talking about is 20 year old technology that already exists in what is Mexico but I am talking about the stuff that we have not implemented yet in other first world class cities putting your lights on any timer is not what the world class city is putting your lights on a real-time machinery that reacts real quick to traffic conditions so that let's say here is a traffic jam and on top of that is Spurgeon letting out and on top of that the rodeo is letting out the exact same time traffic lights on the north side need to react real-time in anticipation that's what everybody knows and we don't do thank you next question as residents of the city growing families clean and safe products are made in private areas what will you do to increase participation and ensure the quality of new products and to ensure further development of other products I think that having products is a critical component of having well-being in our city we have to have a way to get out to exercise and I think that it's important that we provide biplanes I believe that we have highly trails and I think that it's important that we provide biplanes and we have highly trails and walking paths so that people can get out and get the necessary exercise that they need and so I think that also water values are important and it can be cat parking we know that Frederick's Park I was going to give you the street and it's Frederick's Park which is a high-tenant and very strange road that I live they lack the proper for all the residents and also they lack water values and so I would make sure that we have proper funding so that people want to go utilize those because as it is it's difficult when for example I had a doctor who couldn't even gas himself apparently he couldn't even gas to Frederick's Park at all because he was going to have parking and so it's very difficult for someone like that so I would make sure that we got the funding to provide the amenities and make sure that everybody is accommodated because there's so much time can you give me a quick question I think I still remember what it was it's you know ours are very important in the community and I think obviously it's something that we need to work hard to preserve and in time with this very fast growing city I think that means that we have to be more aggressive in preserving the park life in the city and also we have to develop parts to obviously make an easy access into them and out of them and have the facilities of people on the parks I think it's kind of like people agreeing to build the right park people will come so I think that the city has done a pretty good job on that I remember that obviously we've always done a lot better my main concern is making sure that we have a part that I'm available well into the future as well thank you Stan Antonio is one of the most rich cities in Texas with regards to parks they're beautiful they're a jewel if you haven't gone to a park lately I encourage you to go I want to encourage you just to go to the parks in District 8 where there's parks on the south side of the Medina River Park which is an absolutely I mentioned that because I added 600 acres to the Medina Park it's a project that I got to lead and do a survey on walking and actually laying on those lands and leaving a park for generations to come I also did a 3.2 million dollar park on the south side on the city base which is beautiful it's stunning to come next to the Medina River because I'm the only person in the state who's actually done parks but more importantly knows about parks because and who knows where it takes to build one fun to one and actually preserve one so I have a very special place in my heart I take my children to parks all the time all the time and I take my children to parks all over the country and great cities have great parks and so I'll tell you our inventory of parks here in San Antonio is very rich so what we're going to do is make sure we have a few more counties to maintain those parks but more importantly to keep them clean and keep them safe that's what we want the most in our parks so with that I do encourage you to go to the city's website there's all the listing of parks and all the different activities they're free to you and your family and enjoy them thank you Tom so I too have a father I have a 3.5 year old little girl and I love parks I never thought of myself as a long distance worker but a few years back I just got this crazy idea let me try to run a marathon and so I started training and learning and I tell you what nothing will give you greater appreciation for the green spaces we have than when you're going out on 20 mile runs and so one thing I would like to do is continue to protect the parks we have and make sure to try to connect as many of these parks together as we can and it's also safe about building and they're more accessible for people who are cyclists triathlon merry daughters as well as families who enjoy using the green spaces so I think it's important to protect and they also continue to grow the green spaces because they aren't around thank you Pat 14 years ago when I moved to District A the house that I'm living now the son of the park and I was lucky that my home has a door there to go to the partner's park before that I had to drive to the park to my grandchildren to have fun and ride and et cetera and then I was going to have to cap this park was a little right next to my home and we were so lucky that we saw how they kept it natural we have here we have streams of water we have plants and trees all trees and trees you can see people running and some others with a carriage driving around with their kids the dog park, et cetera I have 100% for all parks because not only is it part to make your life and your family's life better it makes you healthier it's a piece of mind and I would like to see more parks that are part of the park that I am so lucky to have this door today that park I've lived in the park so I've lived constantly but now that it's long it's just kept like a jewel this is the example of more parks like that in every place this is for our children this is for our family I would like to see my grandkids enjoy the park thank you when we look at the various characteristics of the city and the differences between the two districts we see that every district has its own distinct design the form of beauty whether it's the stone old area or the downtown or downtown what is your plan for beautification I can't say I've got a plan for beautification and anything else but it is obviously important in these cities that the city may attract into its residents and it has an impact on morale of the city I think the more beautiful the city is the nicer the plan is set up so you know I think that one of the things that plays in this bond if you it's going to be voted on has to do with arts and supporting public art which is something that has been somewhat controversial for some people that they don't need public art I personally think that there is a place for public art the challenge is in how you select and improve it place it appropriately so I would definitely want to spend my time on the council thinking about ways to have the city and beautify it and make it more attractive San Antonio is rich in vegetation but more importantly San Antonio is rich in homeowners and the people in San Antonio so I'll give you an example of something we don't do we do not incentivize homeowners to beautify more than their houses already are I mean wouldn't it be wonderful if Salah's actually gave you a rebate we're not only installing the plans but we're also installing the plans that are beautiful and the other thing we don't do very well is continuity of development standards for entire areas of town development standards exist in small pockets so if you go up and down the let's say the new neighborhood to the left side you'll see that stores have limits on the signs stores are limited to building material surfacing we don't do that city-wide if the city has figured out how to do that it's going to be a unified development code and those cities have a huge success to make sure that their cities are aesthetically beautiful after all people write songs about you they don't write songs about cities like playing them or you don't have any of those things so the most important thing I would do is I would convene you all of you in this room and ask you what you think is beautiful that's the problem with beautification at the city level is that too often we leave it up to just a few select elected officials and an architect who's got a contract with the city to decide if it's beautiful for you and we rarely have ever come into view thank you very much Tom so you mentioned Senate and Tony have had amazing diversity of locations the downtown area is thriving to cover up we have the tourist areas we have the downtown relatives and families come visit you and so there's something here for everybody and one thing I want to make sure that we do is that we don't try to make Senate Tony the next Dallas or the next Houston or the next Austin but what we want to do is make sure Senate Tony is the best version of Senate Tony and we do that by reaching out to people by having those conversations by talking about one of the examples I was getting earlier about zoning and this is to be involved in those conversations there's a lot of barriers that are put up between us and our government personally I don't believe our city should be a group of people who arbitrarily decide how the resolution is we should be a platform that allows us as citizens to come together to create our own solutions so when it comes to the education yes we need to sit down and have those conversations and this is where we can utilize technology to have those conversations look how active people are becoming and how it's going about in our community why hasn't our city government tapped into that same technology to help draft these conversations and get people involved in what we do have pieces that are out there for zoning thank you Tony I would like to see more of their tool for this and I would love to work for the CD and do a lot of hard work this is something I would like to make a certain part in creating that part in my part in that environment so here is where we can exercise for the purpose of the idea here where the families can gather I remember when I came to San Francisco in 1974 people were happy that they had to take that piece tomorrow and they would be here and I thought about that I would like to see more things where families can enjoy more areas that in natural ways and provide a yard for everyone and we need to have that and hopefully in big concerts I think that that would be something that families in these two days would enjoy I love this question let me tell you what I would think I would plant trees trees to provide shade trees to provide color so they could be beautified the area that's another thing you can do to increase the value of your home is to add trees but since we're a tourist destination having these beautiful colors like the Great Murderer the Texas Redbud Plasmag these are the trees that are ground-resistant I would also plant the grass make sure the grass along the freeway is mowed I would make sure that empty lots aren't left to grow tall because when you do that then you have mosquito infestation and then you have rows coming in and so we have to keep that clear I also clean up the rows pick up the degree along the sign the three ways to make it nice and presentable and then do all these things collectively so I don't have any more lighting to reduce the crime those are some of the things that I would do to beautify district A Thank you It's very similar to the previous question District A is almost never associated with any artistic or cultural why is that and would you like to see more cultural events happening in the district as well as in downtown for example in downtown I have a cellar theater I have a I hate to scream on YouTube I'm going to push back a little bit we do have quite a rich offering of cultural events at UTSN and those of you that don't know UTSN offers concerts every weekend and plays they're open to the public so I would encourage you to get beautiful places to take your children we do it quite often but that's where it begins and it's like and you and your community have a festival here that you throw from them and they're just doing the music and again it's where it begins and so one thing I'll tell you is that what we don't do is host community live get-togethers they do that in Frankfurt every single weekend for those of you that haven't been to Frankfurt, Germany every single weekend one entire block gets together and throws a party for their neighborhoods just because we don't do that that's culture being with each other is culture they all go out into the music and they cook for each other we don't have a walk-up in the city so I will start there downtown attracts all those events and downtown attracts those festivals because there's a place to hold those up here it hasn't necessarily been an outcry from the citizens and host them locally so we do have streets there are beautiful streets here that can be used for local festivals and so I don't think it's necessarily on the city but any citizen can apply for a permit to have a festival of their own and even if it's just just because those are fun music is good so one is that I think what we can do is have our city councilman lead by example and when somebody talks about getting together with their neighbors that's actually something I've already done that's where I usually technology next door you know what, this is not a political event we're just going to get together to get to know each other's neighbors we did that a few months ago we encouraged other people you know what let's go out to that walk party so we had a number of people attend that event who said you know what three weeks after that event lots of people on my street and we had a little barbecue in our front yard and I kept the pop house people came down and we got to meet who our neighbors are and it's a chain that we don't utilize we have so many young people here that would love to have these type of events and I think this is where it's a city councilman that I would have the ability to speak up and to advocate for perhaps more events here and to get more involved so yes, you can do more and it's all out being by example and starting with each other and our neighbors because when we look to the person in front of us get to know each other that's how we start tackling the big problems of the city based around traffic, around safety around crime, around poverty I think it's a good question I attended many many festivals all these years and I'm kidding because I've been involved in my children's school in the areas but I'm not telling you what if you just start going to the festivals in the big churches they have spring and summer a lot of amazing things in the theater, etc we have a church that has as soon as the summer begins they have a big theater outside and they have these great people and the babies and the baskets so there's a lot of that and I've been very lucky to be participating in my community all these years, 14 years and I see that it develops more and more it might have really a very good summer feel and I want to quite some like I attended several commoner's associations events, there's one that impressed me so much, it's Shenandoah that attend their breakfast once a month they have incredible rooms and theaters and I know what the neighbors are it's like I walk in and I meet there, they told me you should go to these neighborhoods because there's something happening I know the children so we just need to get closer to our neighborhoods and to all churches because we will make them friends we will be enjoying the images we see and we will have that personal touch to see if we bring the movies thank you I agree with Tommy and Jack as a military member we always say home is where you are you're neighbors and what we would do to the holidays is we would always get together for Christmas whether it's new years or I think it's just the summertime we would just get together and we'd have a big big day in the parking lot and we would fellowship with each other and so that's how we got to know different people from around the world and that's how we got to know our neighbors that are living next door and the other thing I like that past that was the churches we have some really really large churches here in District 8 and a lot of times they have fellowships so why didn't we do one month would be a one church the next month would be another church and just kind of working around having all of us to get together and to know each other and you know become one big family that's what I thank you all I think there have been a lot of good ideas I do think it's important for the city to facilitate activities in all the communities and districts of the city and that's something that I don't think has been happening other than really the downtown area and I certainly would have an interest in working to improve access to events in this area I'm sure you all have a periodic future in the year that you may want to invite people and I would certainly be interested in helping to facilitate and getting the word out to invite your friends and neighbors to come to events here and in addition to that I think that there are a lot of facilities already in place such as some of the shopping areas and won't have you there to be events I started the process of working in a few years ago at an art event in Locomterra and we'll probably still do it one day but it's kind of on the back burner for right now so I am very interested in looking at opportunities to have different events and activities here in addition to facilitating maybe the university is opening up when they have a play for instance relating to community and all that type of thing UTSA also has many art events as well that I think they do a better job of helping so I would certainly want to work with with everyone in the district so far as people have ideas for activities and events that help get the word out Thank you So I'm going to ask a question to my job Is there anyone in the audience that wants to ask a question? Okay So if you have a question come on to the mic My name is I work First of all I have two questions It's wonderful to see all the candidate for city council very friendly very nice I appreciate going for city council The two questions I have is we are recently involved in construction and having all the music things are going on on our campus and currently I am also involved in some of the construction the bureaucracy in this city is so terrible just getting the zoning approved can take more than a year or two years getting this water permits electric department just stay forever So I would like to know what you can do to improve for builders and developers to keep the city growing The second question I have is I live right on my hand where these can grow and there is terrible construction going on for more than three years and you understand I exist so the water can reach more than three years So I would like to know when the construction gets started what can you do to make sure I you know the completion of the project so we won't get affected Let's sum it up These are two minutes So first of all it comes to coming to the red tape I think that's for my job we'll help with that One of the things I do is I work as a project manager and a lot of what I do is come up with documenting systems and procedures and looking for how to identify this we can identify risk and opportunity to streamline and eliminate similar points of failure So I think I can bring that skill set and the city hall to review how is our current zoning process working and work with our city managers and their staff to identify the points and have them report to check what kind of process we're making on the street level I know one of the other issues we have is sometimes construction happens it is a nightmare but we also have to be careful because certain parts of the world like if it's a high-tech construction that's going to be your state and federal that's in charge of that sometimes when there's construction around like flood zones that's going to be in the county that takes care of that So when it comes to city level streets that's where we can practically impact So once again, I think I would bring my skill set to bear what can we do to help streamline and facilitate and in the process hopefully achieve some cost reductions because maybe we won't be spending our meals as much Thank you for that I had the opportunity to talk to a lady that we were sensitive to take to be in the zoning department she explained to me in the process that I really think that needs to be done to be submitted to make it more transparent making it more simple so that you can make your purchase I purchased three buildings and I understand you're paying because I have a great deal of the which is changing the zoning and we only have seven months on line for hearing another one and that's something that I want to be mentioned because I hear complaints that we're ready to start construction to purchase that piece of land on that building and they stop it because we don't know if there are any differences So I came through the process three times and I know what happens and I've been talking to people that presented District Bank that was working there and so I have I think we need to update the process so I'm going to talk about I think for your I just don't see that it's happening everywhere I will immediately if I get it I think I will get to work on not only that but there's many different projects that I don't know if I can say this though but they have been permanent for the structure for several years or months so that's something that we need to update whether it is the things of the Department of Transportation or as I see so I would get to work as possible So one of the instances that I'll call out your answer but one of the things that we need to do for is an answers for you if you experience and tell me how that would provide a solution and what a potential solution would be so I'll just ask you I'll come back to you as the city to change the way the contracts are set up to replicate the construction a third, a third and a third any minute in front after a project is completed then you get a third when you complete two thirds of a project you get two thirds if you complete a project under the designated time and under budget you get funds you go over then you complete a project so that's why I use a third and a third they do a construction so it's pretty good Thank you Paul Anytime you start talking about development and construction projects it definitely can become a challenge sometimes I think the key for me is that I would always have my door open for anyone who's having problems legitimate problems and try to work through them with them and in my position on the council try to use my influence if I can see a situation where they're not getting any property to try to develop a right track I think it's also a case that we may need more staff as well to review projects and figure out how to make them happen so that's something that I'm looking to as well and regarding the issues that I can in particular that is always a challenge working for the state and other the county and so on but again as I'm aware of issues and I would certainly want to and try to come up with solutions I have said that regarding the situation there I think I don't know in particular on that at this point that I would be happy to look into with the specific follow-up that is on day one, thank you Thank you The first question you asked me about how painful and slow it is to a zoning I'm going to give you a sad answer at the beginning but I think there's a solution for that the second one, there is a solution my clients came to help them push the zoning I work for churches and schools and homeowner's associations and then other people who have small businesses who need zoning to change and because I'm just showing up and because I know who to ask I'm able to do it much more quickly than if you went on your own that's sad it shouldn't be that bad I shouldn't be able to feed my children by making the system go faster for you because you're performing so what I would do is I do know that one of the reasons it's so slow is that they are understaffed so they're very understaffed so they have to pick and choose which projects to them are priorities so they do need to increase that as far as the process itself there is this thing we talked about earlier called code-based zoning we put code-based zoning into place on some parcels on the south side on other parcels and when we designed that it worked and it's just a color by numbers way of knowing exactly what you can put and how you're going to take to make those changes it can be done in other situations but we figured it out in small portions of the city as far as traffic goes Cindy is absolutely right that's the way it should be the third, third, third and that's the way it is to do achievement incentives where if you finish it way earlier you get paid even more than the contract price every time you do that, you'll be surprised those projects get finished very very quickly thank you what do you want to know? yes, and I want to mention that I did design for my new buildings I think in by myself because they like to save money and that's how maybe it took me a little bit longer but I have to take a change of process and I have to say that the first one is the physical the second one is better and the third one is the physical and yes, mine is right you know the people there and you know how things are but that should be the reason why they take care of you as a customer but I went through the process and I think it can be done a lot better I heard about the contracts I had 19 different places you know how many years ago during the time of the war you didn't provide the service I can talk about it and I think that's why we need to do it pretty much over a big city outside that's why we need to pursue infrastructure and also important how much people finish their time I also want to make sure that there's some contracts because many times there's some contractor that is large companies that are coming from off-road there's some contract operations here they don't make it go high and then you find yourself that they cannot be paid they stop working they cannot buy material they cannot hire people so I would make it self-contracting especially in San Antonio there's large companies that are the prime contractors they're not the only issue