 I was going to make chicken salad, but did you want some noodles too? This is what I was thinking, you're probably going to say no. What's it like to have your mom be the mayor? Well, sometimes it gets a little bit annoying because I don't get to spend that much time with her anymore because she has to do like a campaign and stuff. But sometimes it's fun because I get to meet new people and then sometimes it's not fun because when I look when it's not fun because when we meet other people they don't want to talk to mommy and I can't talk to her. So it's kind of fun to have her home on Saturday, huh? Who have you liked meeting? Who did you meet that you liked meeting? Dr. Rice, yeah, that's what I was thinking. You met some pretty important people. Oh, you met some of the spurs? I have. When we went to the thing at the... Those are the old spurs. Okay, and some of them are still... I've been to Robinson before. It tastes like something is missing. Tell me if I should put more mayonnaise or more sandwich spread. Sugar. Yeah, why how come it does? Okay, so that means sandwich spread, right? You did your home here and watched you make lunch with your daughter and so forth. What does that say about Ivy Taylor and who you are? Well, certainly at the top of the list of who I am is a wife and mom and so I think that gives me a great perspective on the lives of San Antonians. I think for most of us our families are at the heart and soul of why we do what we do and so me wanting to create a better San Antonio, a stronger San Antonio for my daughter is why I have wanted to serve an elected office and why I'm asking the voters to allow me to continue serving. Is it harping the mayor and being the mother? It is. I think with the campaigning it got a little bit harder. My daughter said, oh, she's missing a little time with me and we've promised her a fabulous summer vacation to make up for some of the things that we've been missing out on in the interim but I have a very supportive husband and so that certainly helps a lot and even though I may feel a little guilty about missing time away from her I also feel very excited that I'm providing for her an example of being engaged and making the community better and being a leader and being a woman. So let me just start out with the really broad question that we always ask and that is why are you running? Because initially you said you didn't want to run for mayor and you changed your mind. What made you change your mind? Well, I had so many people ask me to consider running and I'm sure you probably hear that from politicians all the time but I really did have a lot of people ask me to reconsider and so I thought and prayed about it a long time and there are some things that I started working on that I'd like to see through to completion like for example today we were at the kickoff for our planning effort and that's going to take a while and then we'll have a bond that will go out to the voters for capital improvements probably in 2017 and I want to make sure that we get that right as far as making great investments that will catalyze additional investment for our city so I thought that I should ask the voters if they would allow me to continue so that I could continue that important work. For me personally I feel that the timing was right. I really wanted to be effective during the time that I was serving as mayor and I think that if I had spent the majority of it also worrying about a campaign and worrying about the political ramifications of every decision that I would not have been as effective as I have been for the people of San Antonio so I feel good about the timing. Let me just talk to you a little bit about your priorities. You know you could dig into a million and one things and I guess as mayor you have to but if you look at issues or projects or something like that are there one or two things that stand sort of taller than anything else in terms of what you want to tackle? Well I certainly want to ensure that our city remains economically competitive and there are some investments we need to make in order for that to continue happening. We do have a strong economy but certainly we need to invest in ourselves in two ways. First through our capital infrastructure and I already mentioned the 2017 bond program is coming up and so we've got to be strategic about investing there but also we've got to invest in our people and so during the time I've been mayor I focus quite a bit on workforce development. There are many San Antonians that haven't had the opportunity to benefit from our strong economy because they don't have the skills or education to be equipped for the jobs that are being developed every day by local businesses so I think it's real important that we develop a focus on lifelong learning here in San Antonio so more of our citizens can tap into those job opportunities and also I'd love to continue investing in our businesses that are here figuring out as a city how we can help businesses that are here grow how can we retain businesses that are here and how can we help them to grow and how can we inspire entrepreneurs here in San Antonio? A lot of things take money that you want to do and of course some of it can be done through planning and just inspiration but a lot of it takes money and I think I've heard you say and all of the candidates say they don't want to raise the tax rate Is that still your position? You can take care of business and not raise the tax rate I think that we can definitely be creative and innovative and using the dollars that we have and we've got to have partnerships because certainly the city of San Antonio organization can't do everything we have to do things in partnership with the private sector and some of the other public stakeholders so I think through strong collaborative efforts we can achieve some of those goals In the past, I think you have supported the tax rate increase What's different now than then? That is incorrect It's incorrect? Yes it is I have never advocated for or voted for a property tax rate increase There's been an allegation made by one of the other campaigns but it's incorrect You've never supported a tax increase? No Is there a time you ever would? I can't imagine what that time would be I mean it would have to be something catastrophic At this point we're focused on growing our economy here so that we won't have to raise the property taxes You pulled the plug on street car Can you explain why and then tell me a little bit about what you would like to do to get traffic moving and to improve transportation options in the city When I came into the mayor's office I realized that I had to pull the plug on the street car project because it was so unpopular It was unpopular amongst people who were opposed to the rail concept and it was even unpopular amongst people who wanted to see rail here People felt that the route was something that would just cater to tourists that it wasn't a real transportation solution and that was going to cost too much money I think Via had envisioned it as a starting point for our broader rail system but that got lost in translation and the public didn't see it that way and I knew that if we didn't pull the plug on it that it was going to cast a shadow on the efforts that we would have and also that citizens would feel that their elected officials weren't responsive to them So we did push the pause button there and defunded the project and we've redirected our efforts towards transportation planning Actually we have a series of planning efforts that are ongoing but a key part of that certainly is developing a multimodal transportation plan for our city and so we'll be discussing what that could look like as we grow and what options make the most sense for San Antonians and that we can afford Can you envision in the near future that you would put streetcar or light rail of some type back on the table? If that's what comes out of the public process then we could consider that at that time What I think would be more important to come first would be for us to invest in ensuring that we have real strong viable kind of nodes of activity throughout the city because then it would probably be more cost effective to connect those areas and I mean areas that are employment centers where a lot of people also live, work and play so connecting places like the medical center UTSA, Main Campus Brook City Bay so we want to see more activity in those areas and then maybe at some point then it could make sense to at least have a discussion about rail or other options When we were at the comprehensive planning meeting and you were looking at the diagram or the artwork that was up there and you said you put porches up there Why did you draw porches on the planning diagram today? What does that say about you and your goals and what you want to do? Porches are representative or symbolic of the idea of people getting to know their neighbors and being active involved in having a vibrant local community and being engaged in their community You talk I think a fair amount about having met your husband at church and about your church being very important in your life and I don't want to I don't want to Does it guide you? Yes, yes, my faith guides me and I pray for wisdom daily When I was younger I often tell this story when I was younger when I was in my 20s and I would go through something difficult and I talk to my mom and I say what should I do and she say I pray about it and I would get so mad like why can't she give me a real answer but now that I'm almost 45 and the wisdom behind that advice that she gave me You voted against the LGBT ordinance or the non-discrimination ordinance non-discrimination ordinance and I'm wondering if your faith had anything to do with that if that informed you in any way or if there was some other reason you thought that was not the right thing to vote for Well I appreciate the opportunity to answer that question and sometimes people do flat out so I think it's great to have the chance to share because rather than people speculating So in 2011 I did vote for the domestic partner benefits for city employees but in 2013 when we had a non-discrimination ordinance that was proposed it went beyond the scope of the city of San Antonio organization and it included language that stated that if you were a business that did business with the city that this had to be your standard as well and I felt that that was us getting outside of the scope or reach of where government should go and that it could place in particular small business owners in a gray zone where they may have to make choices between their faith and the law and so I thought that the city should lead by example rather than making that type of statement and that's why I voted against it So you thought it was a little too onerous on businesses Yes That issue has come up again now with respect to going to the legislature on local control Does that have anything to do with why you haven't put that on the agenda? No it has not and so yes that's been a little frustrating the speculation on that as well we have a process for how we handle requests by council members which was actually established by Mayor Hardburger back in 2007 and it says that when a request is made for a city-wide policy item that it goes through the Governance Committee first and so the item was scheduled to go to the next Governance Committee and I understand that people are very concerned and I am as well about the some of the things that are going on at the legislature that may threaten local control however we've already made some very strong statements I've made a statement along with the other big city mayors in Texas we released a statement that we don't want the legislature to erode our ability to control our own destiny and then when we when the council approved and voted for our legislative package that was a key and central tenet and it very specifically outlined the fact that we did not want to not want the legislature to take any action that would erode local control so it has has already been out there I'm glad to reaffirm that and so we'll be doing that Okay but this specific this specific proposal by one of your colleagues you don't think you need to do it I mean do you find it redundant I do but we I understand that folks are very concerned about the tenor and tone of the legislature and so it's fine for us to reaffirm that that is our position So you'll put it on the agenda Yes There are four candidates that you know four of you get more attention than the others because you've all been office holders and I think you've been part of the civic life and making decisions as public leaders here in the city of San Antonio and the experience in public service why are you the best person for this job Great question comes up often Well I think I'm the best person for the job because I am the only person that really has had the municipal level experience within the city of San Antonio organization not just as an elected official but also a city employee I actually worked for the city of San Antonio and started out and then also I'm not a career politician serving as mayor of San Antonio is not a plan B for me nor is it a political stepping stone I'm someone who is genuinely focused on doing what's right for San Antonio and being a public servant that will help guide us into building a better city with a strong economy and so I'm a person who is willing to look you in the eye and tell you what's going wrong or what's going on even if you it's not what you want to hear but then I'm willing to work with you to work across a broad spectrum in order to get things done and I'm not concerned about my political future because frankly this has been an unexpected path for me and I see it as an opportunity for me to get things done for the city and so that gives me a certain freedom I think in an ability to do what's right for San Antonio and I think the other candidates don't have that ability So if Ruth McClendon decided not to run again would you run for her seat? Everyone keeps bringing that up I'm not quite sure why but I don't have any plans to do so What else do you want to tell me about you and anything you've done maybe something you're most proud of that you think would convey to the voters who you are and what you're all about Okay A special project that you've worked on that you're really proud of? Well as far as special projects certainly I'm really proud of the work I did on the east side as a district two council member I was when I came on the council really my passion was about restoring neighborhoods that have been left behind and people providing opportunities for people that have been left behind and so really I led the effort to garner over 50 million dollars in federal funding for a comprehensive revitalization effort here on the east side and it involves a number of partners United Way, the housing authority and the San Antonio independent school district and so it's been a multi-year effort and we're starting to see results of that but it's not just important for the east side it's also important for our city because I think there are so many lessons to be gleaned from the experiment we've been doing over here that I'd like to see applied to other sides of town and really it's reflective of my desire as mayor to see San Antonio as the city of strong neighborhoods everywhere and the idea that people feel why have to move to a certain side of town if I want to experience a certain quality of life I believe we have to have balanced growth and that we have to have a strong quality of life throughout San Antonio and so I'd like to see the same types of efforts that we've been doing on the east side and other parts of town that may be experiencing similar distress Anything else you want to talk about? I've been encouraging San Antonians to read through the mayor's book club as well so literacy is an issue that I think is real important for us in San Antonio and ties to our other goals related to education and economic development so that's something I want to continue promoting as well I have a question Can you explain to people what SA Tomorrow is and what its relationship with SA 2020 is Great question So SA Tomorrow is the brand for our combined planning effort and it includes a comprehensive plan or some folks might call that a master plan a multimodal transportation plan and a sustainability plan and the idea is for us to put all those pieces together to help guide us towards the year 2040 so back in was it 2010 I think when we did the SA 2020 planning effort which actually was a visioning effort and so that allowed San Antonians to get together and talk about what some of their key priorities are as well as what they want a snapshot of San Antonio to look like in the year 2020 and so we've been working on some of those key cause areas that have been articulated so that is kind of a foundational document for the planning effort that we're doing right now what's different about SA Tomorrow is that it will inform the development of policy on land use urban design and transportation and it will also guide funding decisions so we've got to have the vision to start with but then you have to have the policy tools and the regulatory framework in place in order to make those things a reality and so is that to 2040? Yes, it goes out to 2040 but it's more data driven that includes an analysis of where we are right now on our transportation and our land use and then we'll use the vision to help us project out where we should make key capital investments in order for us to achieve the type of vision that we want to have for the year 2040 What I'm interested in is both Mike and Leticia told us that as mayor they can bring back rideshare like Uber and Lyft Do you think that's possible? I think it's possible if they roll over and say there's not going to be any regulation then it's entirely possible We should talk about that why do you think Uber backed out you went back to the table you gave them some of what they wanted What happened? They said that the deal breaker was the 10 print background check and that was the one thing we were not as a council we were not willing to yield on that because fingerprinting as a method of verifying the identity of the person who's the Uber driver now they have a background check system that uses various databases but you could be checking someone's background but if they're not who they say they are then what are you checking? Don't some of the other cities use 10 finger background? Houston uses it and there's another city I think in Ohio but what the Uber folks said to me was that well it was a bad idea for us to agree to do that in those cities and so we're not going to agree to do it in San Antonio and frankly that was not acceptable we felt this is the standard that we have in order to ensure the safety of our citizens so unfortunately what gets lost because I think a lot of times when people read about in the newspaper or see it on the evening news there's not a discussion of the specific criteria that's being discussed and then in these forums the other candidates just say well I'll bring it back but the question is are you going to tell these companies that they no longer have to have fingerprints and I think this week when you go up there lobbying the state officials were asking the same questions about those fingerprints and that is not an onerous requirement city employees have to have them teachers, architects so I think it's a real reasonable request Did the current cab drivers have to have them so taxi cab drivers have to do it? Yes.