 when I thought of this. Thank you very much for allowing the exception. I know that COPS Metro and all of the good work that you do, you have a standardized program. I am very grateful for the opportunity. Our family, we're celebrating, which would have been the second birthday of an infant grandson and we have a special mass at five. So I wanted to come and give just a few thoughts about the power of a living wage. I had an unbelievable opportunity this past year to travel the state. And although we came from different parts of the state, from the Rio Grande Valley to the High Plains, from the Chinati Mountains at El Paso, to the piney woods of East Texas, there was one outcry. Every single place I lived, I went to visit. And it was from the families who said, how can we continue as a state when our minimum wage is only $7.25? So I wanna thank you for pushing on on this agenda. It is not just important for San Antonio and for Bear County, but I heard it firsthand. When a salary of a minimum wage puts a family in poverty, there is no way that they can live a life of dignity. It is so very difficult. Para mí, era un honor visitar a todos partes de Texas. Y cada lugar me pidieron, ¿cómo podemos tener un salario de $7.25, señora? Señora Leti me diciaron. Y yo sé que el trabajo que vamos a hacer ahora es no lo más importante para San Antonio y el Condado de Bear, pero es de todo el estado. Muchísimas gracias. Thank you to all of you in your fight. I will join you in your effort to raise a wage so that it is just for our family. So to get a better understanding of the issues we need to learn more about that. We have asked a team of COPS Metro leaders to prepare short presentations on the issues of wages, a day lending, and the city budget from Holy Redeemer Catholic Church. It mentioned the unemployment rate of 4.7% in San Antonio. This is one of the lowest unemployment rates since the recession began. Economists are very excited because anything less than 5% is considered near full employment. It means that our society is working. But if nearly everyone is working, why are we here today? We're here today because the unemployment rate does not reflect a true picture of this economy in San Antonio. Let me try to paint you a picture. When my kids were young, I used to send them to clean their rooms and they would come back when they were finished and they would be very excited and they'd say, Mommy, come look. And I would go and look. And when I first looked in the room, everything looked neat, everything looked clean, but then I would look under the bed. Or I would look in the closet. I can tell you understand. That's what we have been doing for the past few months. We have been looking under the bed. We have been looking in closets. And what do you think we have found? We have found that 20% of people in San Antonio live below the poverty level. And we have found something else that may surprise you. How many people have children? We have found that one in three children lived below, under age five, lived below the poverty level. Many of them go to bed hungry. Even worse, we have found that in households headed by women, one half of children live below the poverty level. More importantly, we have found that people work hard in San Antonio, but many of them still cannot make ends meet, sometimes working more than one job. I asked you earlier, why are we here? That is why we are here. We are here because many people are working very hard, but they still cannot make ends meet. We're here because wages in San Antonio have not kept up with the cost of living in San Antonio. When we went to our city council near the low wages, I realized that many of our families were going through a difficult situation, like mine. From my personal experience, I can tell you that I have been working for 15 years in my work, where for the last five years, my salary has been increased very minimally, and this is a situation, an economic crisis in our families, because wages have not increased, but the increase in basic prices, such as the light, the phone, the water, the food, especially the food, has increased considerably. This has caused an economic crisis in many of our families. Next, we will see a graph that shows us a family that earns 8.50 per hour, a family integrated by four people. In this graph, we can see that the total income is 1,360. We can see that the costs, which are very basic, rent, water, phone, food, gas, we can see that the total income of this family earns 1,360, but their costs are 2,125. How can we, brothers, the people who earn 8.50 per hour, be able to provide the basic needs for our families? That is why we are here tonight. We imagine that it can be a family that is earning 7.25 per hour. That is why we are here, brothers, to do something. Next, we will see why our families are earning these salaries and what resources they have to resort to. Many of our families have to resort to asking for economic help, such as food, and other needs, such as loans. Next, we will listen to this story. Thank you. This is Celia Hernandez from Sergada Portasón Church, and I'm here to talk about the experience that we had through our church with Sergada Portasón. And a lot of our families are going through a lot, especially through the financial situation that's very hard. I've worked for 15 years, and I've always gained only the minimum. And for these past five years, the basic service and the food has been increased, but our wages are still the same. And this has caused a serious financial crisis, and a lot of our families that they're only at the minimum wage. This is how it shows on the basic of the monthly when we are only having to get paid $8.50 an hour. It's not enough. That is why a lot of families go through all these payday loans, or those financial agencies where they don't money, because it's not enough for a family. And next, they're going to present another story. The budget that you just looked at is based on $8.50 an hour. And you can see that they did not have enough money to pay their bills. Minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. The wage for the lowest paid bear county in San Antonio Public Worker is $11.47. This may seem like a lot if you're making $7.25, or $8.50, but it is still below the poverty level. It is still below full-stamp eligibility. So what is a living wage? The Center for Public Policy Priorities estimates that a non-farm family of four need a wage of $19.96 an hour to be totally self-reliant and not have to depend on food stamps and not have to go to the food bank and not to have to receive any other subsidies just to pay their bills. On the contrary, it is to pay high interest rates. The interest rates come from 600% of the original loan or more, for example, a $500 loan ends up paying $1,500. The loans are secured by a bank account or the title of a car. The reality is that a lot of people with high interest rates usually cannot pay a loan. I was a victim of these argencies. I was able to pay a $500 loan in exchange for the title of my truck. In the course of nine months I had to pay $1,500 to return my title of my truck. Why did I decide to go to this agency? Because it was not complete to make my basic payments much less for a safe doctor. That is why, brothers, I ask you to join us to be able to work in these two types of injustices that are the fair wages and these loans agencies. These agencies, the so-called Pay-D-Lon companies have profits for more than $2.4 billion in loans last year. That is why, brothers, I invite you to join us and all of us together to be victorious in these two great injustices. Thank you. And there are approximately 3,400 agencies of Pay-D-Lon where you can go and get a loan from your car title. And there is more of these businesses in San Antonio than there is McDonald's or Water Burgers altogether. Those agencies called Pay-D-Lons are used so we can pay our rents our utilities and some other basic needs. Now these agencies Pay-D-Lon agencies have a profit of more than $2.4 billion since last year. And I just want to I just want to emphasize that I was one of a victim of these Pay-D-Lons where I had to loan my title and this was a loan of $500 and at the end I had to pay $1,500 back. This was the 600% of the interest rate in my case. So this is why I'm here today. I'm with St. Leo the Great Catholic Church and I'm sure that these two parts of the pie here are the restricted funds and capital programs. Now these are long term decision making projects that are restricted or confined. The general fund that's the one that the city council both on a yearly basis on how to spend the money. Now what are the sources of the general fund? Which tax, sales tax energy and other resources? Last year was $201 million on other resources. Now what are the uses? The main uses are police and fire, public works works and recreation and other. So the question for me in looking at these is how do we pay for some of the needs in our community? Some of the issues that we confront are our community. Where do we get the money from? And I've worked with you all on many occasions. We always have to buy for money for our communities on the projects that are needed there. Every year the budget office tells us there is no money. The city council is also told that there is no money, great fear, it creates an artificial crisis within the city council and also in the community if it's published by the newspaper. I draw your attention to this other graph that projects our deficit. Now this is 2009 in all fairness to the budget office this is when we had our recession and I can see the deficit, it's a downward trend but then it continues it continues it continues on the five year projection. As I looked at the other at 2010 you see a spike because the economy recovers someone what is the big drop in the deficit here and they projected more deficit and more deficit. If we look at 12 this is a balanced line the balanced budget line so again you see the deficit a deficit, a deficit so it's always a downward trend there's no money they tell us there is no money and I agree with the city budget office we need to be cautious and it's good planning in planning a budget but I think they're being over cautious I think they're being over cautious and that process is ingrained in the budget process every year the deficit there's not enough money. Let's look at the chart on sales taxes just to give you an example this is a projection this is actual sales every year look at the gap 40 million above what they from today underestimated but the revenue is up there so where does that money go isn't it in the reserve fund where does it go that tells me that we operate in a budget that's built on fear there's no money there's no money I think city manager spends money on projects that she likes I would like to if you remember the newspaper yesterday's newspaper a final four returning to San Antonio page 12 page 12 of the newspaper they found next to her picture and I circled it they found 43 million dollars to upgrade the Alamo dome to accommodate and there's no money we know that the city is courting a professional football team right and they've committed to upgrading the Alamo dome with executive suites there's no money and I guarantee you that if the professional football team does locate San Antonio and two or three years they're going to want any stadium and they'll get it there's no money every year we hear this every year the budget process is the same cuts need to be made and where are these cuts senior centers adult literacy program housing jobs they tell us there's no money but we know that there is right? who are personally affected by this issue employed with project quest for 21 years and I have seen many applicants that have very hard stories to listen to I have met with thousands of them who are employed but earning very little just a little above the minimum wage it is not unusual for the applicant or the spouse to be working two or three part time jobs I have met single parents applicants who are in a desperate struggle to stay above the wire for example having to borrow money and paying high interest rates to be able to pay their monthly bills others are unemployed have to move in with family members because they're in a long list of waiting for housing I have seen many applicants who pawn their values and worse even sell their plasma to make ends meet that is not the way to make ends meet thank you I am the president of the society of St. Vincent of Paul here in the Archdiocese of San Antonio and a leader at Resurrection of the Lord Perish I want to speak here not for myself but for the 250,000 people we serve in the Archdiocese every year they cry out for help and for hope we estimate that 30% of those people use the predatory lending process to survive secondly we're finding that as we are doubling and tripling the number of people that come to see us that mostly the people who go to these institutions are what we call the middle income folks there ain't no such thing as we see it of middle income and it is strictly survival they are not familiar with all the other governmental assistance so they're desperate and that flashing sign on the next block called Payday Lending just draws them in and then they come to us and literally I have set with people who are so ashamed crying desperate and all I can do is hold them hug them and cry with them that's not San Antonio it should never be San Antonio so let us deal with this issue let us return the human dignity let's get away with the loss of hope the depression the homelessness that this causes and let's make what I consider San Antonio's the greatness of a city is not the glitz and the glory the Alamo Dones football teams but how we treat and care for the least of our society those of poverty and those who are marginalized if you do that San Antonio will be free sir thank you and God bless you Adame and I'm a member of San Alfonso's church I want to tell you about my daughter she's 53 and works two jobs in fact she's not even able to be here today because she's working she works 40 hours a week as a cashier at Palo Alto college where she makes $8.50 an hour she has no benefits no sick leave and no vacation on the weekends she works at Sam's the hours vary there and they pay her $11 an hour no benefits either she needs two jobs to pay all her bills car gas food, rent essential she has struggled for many years to make ends meet and to raise her son to put him through school and job training I retired from 27 years of civil service and I had a good wages benefits and paid vacations so it angers me that my daughter who works for a public community college is stressed and tired all the time from working so hard I want something better for her thank you should pay a living wage traditions we do not want to be responsible for holding people in poverty through low public wages we want to an example and then with the city community college boards school boards, hospital districts and any other jobs our tax dollars touch to lead the strategy which is located on the back of your agenda living wage from 100% of the federal poverty level which is the current $11 and 40 cents per hour to 130% of the federal poverty level or $14.91 an hour to the lowest paid workers in the city and county as well as other public sector employees you can see the step by step increases on the slide here and on your agenda second, we want to set a wage floor for outsourced or subcontracted service jobs at least on par with the current wage floor for direct employees janitorial cafeteria maintenance landscaping and security jobs are just some of the positions that the city and county outsource often turning good public sector jobs into minimum wage jobs with no benefits raise your hand if you know someone who works in one of these jobs yep it looks like most of us know someone with one of these jobs third require that all businesses applying for tax incentives of any kind whether it's called an abatement a grant or any other name abide by the current economic development guidelines regarding wage floors we want the tax incentives loophole closed regarding lending to combat the issue of predatory lending let me share a story of success from one of our sister organizations in El Paso Episo Episo leaders passed ordinances with the city and the county to regulate the interest charge by paying loan companies local churches also pooled resources together to become the guarantor of loans and leaders worked with a local credit union to provide loans at low interest rates imagine if we did something like that here in San Antonio the San Antonio city council has already passed an ordinance to begin regulating payday loan companies we'd like to find allies work with the leaders of our faith communities and elected officials to pass an ordinance to regulate the companies in Bear County as well and to explore alternatives to access low interest loans we'll be holding a strategy meeting this Thursday November 20th at 7pm at the cops metro office to plan research actions and house meetings on this issue good official I'm sister Gabriella Loeb and a Holy Spirit sister faculty has been explained we'd like to give our guests an opportunity to respond and we'll start with our Bear County officials Commissioner Elizondo will you please come up I want to share with everybody some news Commissioner Elizondo along with Judge Wolff and David Smith the county manager was very helpful in getting the cops metro proposal on the county commissioner's court agenda for this Tuesday morning November 18th of living wages thank you Commissioner we believe the county has an important role to play in raising wages in this community through direct employees through contracts with county Bear County should lean the way and set an example for other public entities and private sector employees that living wages make good policy and good business sense now I'm going to ask you three questions and I'll ask you three questions and then you can answer the three together okay do you agree that the county has a role to play in raising wages two do you support the three point strategy laid out there and three what steps will you take to begin to implement this strategy in our county Bear County of course the county wants to lead the way just like we did the establishment of the living wage in San Antonio and Bear County the city followed us we went from $8 an hour $8.50 $8.33 to now the president 1147 and we'll be happy to lead the way moving on from there we'll work with you with the strategy what plans do I have what plans do we have we've got to use these agendas so we're already moving on it so the part of the there's parts of this proposal that are difficult because we don't want to wind up in a situation where we pay employees fairly with one hand and take away have to raise their taxes or something on the other side and this is not fear the county does not have the same resources the city does we don't get the CPS 15% we don't get the sales tax so everything that we pay 85% of what we do is on property taxes so we have to protect the homeowner and so that's where the balance is but we will get to that $11 we are at $11 we'll get to that $13 figure as soon as we can and after that we'll move along because I don't like to make promises that I can't keep I've been elected eight times county commissioner because I never promised an evening that I couldn't keep but I will work for it I will work for it we will work for that and then on the requirements close the loophole, yes the one that's going to be a little tricky is that in contract labor on the privatized thing we will work for it because I did that with the unions I have what is called the prevailing wage that I passed years ago in Bear County and just like we did that we're going to try to do it with our contracts any point strategy yes express the kitchen very much commissioner commissioner Atkinson would you please come on good evening commissioner Atkinson as your term comes to an end we want to thank you for your service as commissioner for 16 years it's only commissioner and you will be there when we come on Tuesday so the same questions apply to you one, do you agree that the county has a role to play in raising wages two, do you support the three point strategy laid out by our leaders and three, what steps we do take to begin to implement this strategy in the county okay I agree with all three first of all, naturally when commissioner Elizondo asked me to come to the court to bring him the third critical vote back in 1997 I brought because if you don't have three votes commissioner's court you're dead in the water and so Paul was out there struggling with just two votes he asked me to come I took a swing seat in precinct 4 away from the republicans and I'm proud to say that we passed the prevailing wage under this majority and a whole lot of other things important things that critically affect or inflict your community all of our community with incarceration mania, the over incarceration of people that ends up with their families struggling where is the daddy where is the wage earner and that's a big part of it but I would support anything that we can to lift up our wages I think it's been research shows that were below where we should be and when I look at the central city areas that I've seen all my life I see great opportunity for improvement and you agree that the county has a role to play in this? we do we're the deep rudder of local government and let me tell you why we have no term limitation everybody is making 110 grand the county judge 125,000 a year not just 40 dollars of business at the city which is disgraceful because nobody can work for free unless you're rich or retired and that's not very many but the fact of the matter is we have the ability to go to Austin and get Austin's attention and some of the things they do to erode our property tax base that's critical to our well-being okay thank you very much thank you all we are also interested in engaging the city of San Antonio in this strategy and we have with us the only declared candidate for mayor state representative Mike Villiere when you please come forward first of all we know that you understand the need for higher wages because you've been a strong ally in the legislature working with cops metro and project quest to fund job training strategies that bring people out of poverty we thank you for that mayor you will have the opportunity to make an even larger impact in the lives of our families by supporting living wages both for city employees and those who work for city contracts so we have the same questions for you do you agree that the city of San Antonio has a role to play in raising wages we have a big role to play and leadership role to play yes thank you if elected will you support the three point strategy laid out by our leaders sister Gabriela when I am elected I will be your partner what steps will you take to begin to implement this strategy in the city I will bring our city manager our finance director to the table with your leadership we will study the details and figure out how to make this happen it will be I am sure not easy but I believe it is doable I believe it is we are going to figure this out this is going to be a challenge there are a lot of pressing demands for our city budget dollars ultimately this is about right versus wrong we want I want I want working for the city to be something that our city employees they come to work feeling proud of their work their public service is a noble role to play in serving their fellow neighbors we need to retreat we need to treat them with their respect and dignity they deserve and that means paying them a living wage and we look at them and making that happen great to a strategy and heard from elected officials let's talk about what we need to do next in order to really make higher wages responsible lending and greater services to our communities a reality we need to build powers that have been teaching and learning about these issues but to make an impact we are going to need to grow we are going to need to keep building a base