 Vamos a probar sonidos, sí, vamos a probar sonido. Siento el amor que me dice, sí, señor, aquí se siente Dios. Aquí se siente la presencia de Dios. Cuando pueblo al lavario sucede en cosas, sucede... ...elected officials for a commitment to our important agenda items. And all they need to say is yes or no. That you do not for any official who does not support our agenda or answers unfavorably to our questions. Or is wishy washy in their answers to our agenda. And to the candidates running for election that are here today, you are here to learn. Do not think of your campaign literature because we, COPS Metro, is a nonpartisan organization. For live streaming the event today and they are not charging it's free. Hospitality items, the restrooms and water fountain are located at the entrance of the building to the right. Si necesita la traducción por favor tome el equipo en la entrada del salón. The action will begin in a few minutes. Please turn to the back of your agenda for the opening song, El Corrido de COPS and join the choir. Thank you. Ha comenzado a temblar. Ya no se burlan como antes, ya reconocen acá. Ellos creían que porque eran gente del pueblo nomás. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Now Sister Gravella Lohan from the Sisters of the Holy Spirit and Miss Jenny Martinez from St. Bonaventure will lead us in prayer. It has changed in San Antonio in 42 years. Credit Cops, communities organized for public service. For changes that made our lives better. Amen. Built libraries. Found at Palo Alto College. Affordable housing was built. Thousands of people. The education partnership is sending thousands of young students to college. Amen. We understand politics. And help us in the next 40 years. Cops and metro will develop new strategies. To engage new allies. Train new leaders. Build up new institutions. Amenagods, people of all faith. People of no faith. People of goodwill. Workers. Workers in all 16 school districts. In public hospitals. In all public institutions. Amen. Organizers. Train them in our Cops and Metro Ethics. Cops Metro. Cops Metro's 40th anniversary. Cops Metro members, let us know who you are. Institution is called. Yo soy Linda Ortega de Sagraco de Cops Metro. Institutos uses. From the Cops Metro. Just want to say before I begin that we have three resolutions that have been shared with us. One from Senator Jose Menendez. One from the state house, Justin Rodriguez. And one from the city, Shirley Gonzalez. So thank you all for those resolutions. I won't read them all. They take a little too long. What a wonderful occasion. 40 years is a long time for any institution to be successful. Now I'm new to San Antonio. I moved here just last summer. But immediately I could tell that Cops Metro was a vibrant and relevant force to be reckoned with in our community. When I first joined an organization much like Cops and one of my previous ministries, the organizer told me something that stuck with me for a long, long time now. He said tradition is the living ideas of the dead. Traditionalism is the dead ideas of the living. Traditionalism is a kind of sentimentalism. It's remembering the past for its own sake. Because we wish for those better days that they were still here. It's kind of an escapism from reality from the here and now. But tradition is remembering the past so that it can be alive for us in the present. A living tradition sees its past as a source of inspiration and ideas. The past inspires us today and leads to action. This is certainly true for the story of the Exodus. The ancient Israelites found themselves the subject of oppression and humiliation at the hands of the Pharaoh. Til finally, Moses comes along. He's a leader. He's got some vision. He's got some imagination. He's a sense of purpose and calling. Born in Israelite, but raised as an Egyptian. So he's got a foot in both these worlds. And because of that, he's got some legitimacy with both groups. And Moses helps the Israelites to understand that God has a larger vision for them than just oppression. God's vision is liberation, always liberation. Now, I won't go into the details of all of Exodus. Hopefully you've read that book. If not, you saw the movie. But this story of following a divine call that leads to liberation and new life has been a story that has inspired countless people. It inspired Jews who were in diaspora. It inspired Christians in the Roman Empire. It's inspired civil rights activists in our own time. All of them having seen a reflection of themselves in that story. All of them feeling connected to it and the energy of it inspires them. That's what good stories do. Good stories are not just stories of the past. They get us excited about today. They get us excited about where we are now and where we could be headed moving forward. And that's what we are about today, because the story of Cops Metro is a living tradition. So what are we here to do today? Well, we're going to tell the story of 40 years of Cops Metro. But we aren't just here for traditionalism. This story is not the dead ideas of the living. We're here to remember this story. And as you hear it, I want you to do three things. I want you to feel something. I want you to think about something. And I want you to do something. So we're going to hear stories from speakers. You're going to share their stories with us. Stories of struggle, of political victory. I want you to let those stories into your heart. And if you feel inspired, great. If you feel angry, great. May those feelings motivate us and keep us keeping on. But passion and emotion by themselves aren't enough. You see, power is passion with a plan. So I want you to think about some things too. I want you to be open to new ideas and new perspectives on the organizing work that Cops Metro has done over these years. Let your mind be open to new learning. And lastly, it isn't tradition. It isn't the living ideas of the dead if we don't go out and do something. Our time together can't just be a nice story to tell or listen to. It has to motivate us and inspire us to action today and tomorrow. So stick around for the end of our time when we'll be able to lay out the next steps and action items. My friends, 40 years is a huge accomplishment. We're grateful for those history makers who've lived through the formative years of Cops Metro and have kept it alive so well ever since. We're blessed to have many of those leaders in our institutions and in our midst today. May the next 40 years be a story worth telling and retelling for generations to come. Amen. Blessed be. As we were preparing for this action over the last year, we heard many stories about our numerous leaders, some that I had never heard about or knew and a lot of them that I knew myself. This names are our history makers. These are our people. We read and we heard stories about their struggles and their amazing achievements. And as we talked about their work and what really stood out was that many leaders have been making histories in our institutions. Just ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Some of those leaders are here today and have been with us from the beginning. We would like to honor and recognize Father Michael DeGeronomy for his work with us for the past 40 years. Father Walter DeEating, who has been developing strong leaders in his parish. That's the noisy, sacred heart, Brown. And where is she? Sister Gabela Lowen. Justly on the east side as an advocate for project quest. We would also like to recognize founding leaders and past co-chairs that are with us today, like Mr. Andy Sarabia, V. Gallego over here in the front, Atriz Cortés, are you here with Virginia Ramírez, Rachel Salazar, Lisa Guilar, Oina Rogers, Mr. Mike Landeros, Peguerra, Joe Murray. Also with us today is Mr. Pascua Segovia Alvarado for being here. Some of our leaders are not able to attend, like Father Edmundo Rodriguez from our Lady of Guadalupe and others have passed away. Just in the last two years we have lost leaders like Miss Marcia Welch from Holy Redeemer, Amelia Coronado from San Alfonso, Miss Cruz Sellars and Mr. Atanasio Garcia from our Lady of Guadalupe and Mr. and Mrs. Sierra of St. Henry's. We would like to honor Father Alberto Benavides who passed away on May 1st, so tomorrow is his 30th anniversary. We were signing up individuals at our parish at our Lady of Guadalupe and I'm pretty sure a lot of the other leaders had the same experience. A lot of folks come up to us and tell us stories about their parents that were involving cops, children remembering how they were taken to different events either at the city hall or one of the stores downtown. I'm only saying that there are just many, in fact too many individuals for us to be able to call out their names at this time. We probably don't have all of them, but they deserve to be honored and named. That it's our collective responsibility to identify those leaders that made a difference in our communities and to remember and tell their stories. Write our history. You are giving cards when you register. Take the time to write down the names of those leaders that you know and remember for they are our history makers. At this time I'd like to introduce the first president of cops, Mr. Andre Sarabia. Will those who attended the first cops convention in 1974 please stand. There's a few. Will all past and present cops and metro alliance leaders, organizers, clergy and religious please stand. Come on, I know that you're in here. Will the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of past and present leaders please stand. You are the history makers we honor today. Look around at our sister organizations. Little did we know when we created cops we would become the inspiration and model for organizations throughout Texas around the country, England, Germany, Australia and Canada. Today we pass on the baton of leadership to all you organizations and you cops children. You are the proud legacy of cops. You are the next generation of leaders. Be true to the philosophy and the fundamentals that brought change to cops communities. Fundamentals that changed the political culture of San Antonio. Dedicate yourselves to your one-on-one conversations, house meetings, listen to the needs of your community, research, develop your agendas of common interests. But it is not enough to just have organized people. To have real power, you have to have organized money. So, pay your dues. Own your organizations. Raise your budgets. Pay your dues. Most importantly, we must get out the vote. Without the vote, we lose everything we have worked for. In San Antonio, we have two great marches commemorating the lives of Cesar Chavez and Dr. Martin Luther King. But we must remember that marches and conventions like this are only symbols of our unity. But getting out the vote in an organized, strategic way is a symbol of our strength and of our power. As you go forth into your interaction working for the future of your families and your communities. Think of cops. Tell yourselves, cops did it, we will too. El pueblo unido nunca se hará vencido. Si se puede. Good luck and good luck. Living wage and economic security portion of our agenda. Mr. Cruz, a member of St. Leo the Great and a leader of cops and metro. Our campaign for economic security and living wages evolved from the stories you heard of struggling families, individuals trying to make ends meet and often working two and three jobs and still having to depend on subsidies. They called us a low wage town but cops and metro said no. We want the city to respect and invest in work development. This has been our battle from the beginning and continuing today. We have organized for higher wages before and spearheaded programs like project quest and Palo Alto College to train and educate our workforce. And over the last two years we have won. Now our public sector employs in county, hospital, college district employs or earning a wage of $13 an hour. Contract or outsourced workers have also seen an increase and the San Antonio Independent School District leads the way in giving a living wage to their lowest paid workers. And we are not finished. We will continue this campaign until our city is no longer marketed a low wages but is known for its trained and educated workforce. We will not present some of our current stories to understand the struggles of our families or facing today. Good afternoon, my name is Azanat de la Fuente. I am a member of our Lady of Mark Carmel Catholic Church and Bocas, which is the newest member of cops metro. I have lived in the Haydanox subdivision for 15 years. It's a community in the far south side of Bear County. Outside city limits that has no paved streets or sidewalks, no lighting or street signs. The roads are so bad that school buses don't go in. We just lost trash collection services due to the vehicles getting stuck in the sand. Two months ago my six year old daughter was making hot cocoa at home. She received second degree burns to her abdomen and right thigh. I quickly realized her injuries were serious so I died with 9-1-1. As I was trying to help my daughter who was screaming and shaking in pain the dispatcher was on the phone with me asking me what my street looked like, what was my cross street, what was near my house and asked me if someone can stand outside my house to flag the emergency vehicle responders who were lost. I'm a nurse for university health system so I know that ambulances are expected to arrive in less than nine minutes after they are dispatched. In my daughter's case it took a little over 25 minutes. And why? Because things have not changed in Highland Oaks in the last 15 years. 15 years is enough. We have had enough. With COPS Metro we have gotten organized. Last month the county approved a plan to invest 4.4 million for two years to pave all of the streets in Highland Oaks. And to fix this public safety threats. We won't let up until this plan is included in the budget and our streets are paved. With COPS Metro we are going to win this. At this moment we have to switch around our schedule a little bit. So I'm having Ms. Patty Radle just make a few comments about the living wage in the San Antonio Independent School District. Thank you very much and thank you to the graciousness of COPS who understands my oldest daughter being a baby and we have a baby shower in just a few minutes. So thank you. But most importantly we are grateful to be with you to celebrate this 40 years and to affirm for you that our district has already in its budget approved for next year a raise in the minimal wage and we are up to $12 and we are grateful for the voice that you joined with us in making this known to the public how important it is to raise the raises the pay of our lowest paid employees and to think that we were able to raise it 20% because of the involvement of ourselves with you. It's tremendous and we thank you for that. We we further want to say that we are not finished this traveling together on the minimum wage. So we will be with you in the future to raise it to 13 we like to get it up to 15 we will travel together together we need your help on this so let's do that together and we thank you thank you for organizing thank you for organizing the love and the passion in the San Antonio community and bringing social justice to the forefront. Thank you so very much from SAISD. We were telling stories we will go back to those stories and then come back to this portion of the agenda. I'm Chris Amandades, a graduate of Brackenridge High School and a parishioner of Sacred Heart Church is a superstar she gets up at 6 in the morning to go to her first job as a cafeteria worker with the school district. Then at 4 o'clock I pick her up from her second for her first job to head to her second job at the sports complex also with SAISD and sometimes she doesn't even get out until 9 or 10 p.m. at night the only time I ever see my mom is the 15 minutes in between transition of jobs and this is all because we have to provide for our family and make it worry free and there's my dad he works a 9 to 10 hour shift job a day so I hardly see him either I finished high school and I got accepted into college but I had to drop out to help support my family in that need. I'm 19 years old and can work and drive and provide for myself in a way but what gets me angry what gets me really angry is to think of other children who are growing up without their mom or dad who don't have support in doing homework, studying and even making a meal that makes me angry doesn't that to y'all SAISD school trustees are you going to work with us to increase those wages and bring those parents home Buenas tardes mi nombre es Pedro Bueno mi nombre es Ricardo Corazon soy líder de MetroCabs tengo 9 años trabajando en la misma compañía trabajo yo y trabajo a mi esposa pero no nos alcanza para nuestros pagos he tenido que recurrir a las agencias financieras para espeñar mi título de mi troca para poder recuperar ese título necesito pagar 2 o 3 veces más de lo que me han prestado por mi título en Cas Metro me han enseñado a que yo tengo poder y ustedes también tienen poder para combatir para combatir estos sueldos injustos y estas financieras pónganse de pie las personas que han estado en una situación igual como la mía o lo están pasando déjenme decirles que no están solos con Cas Metro tenemos el poder de luchar y combatir los sueldos injustos y estas financieras depredadoras quien dice amen pero para recuperar mi título he tenido que pagar 2 o 3 veces más de lo que me han prestado ¿no es cierto? Cas Metro me ha enseñado a que yo tengo poder y cuando organizamos tenemos más poder para combatir estos sueldos injustos y estas financieras y estas financieras y ustedes también están en la misma situación déjenme decirles que no están solos con Cas Metro vamos a ganar, amen y ahora para compartir con nosotros el desafío antes de nosotros el padre Brian Christopher de Our Lady of Guadalupe queremos comenzar a agradecer a nuestros oficiales para escuchar historias como estas y respondiendo con compasión pero vamos a tener algo straight con respeto no nos hacen favoritos están haciendo su trabajo cuando nuestros oficiales garantizan a Dios nuestros derechos no están haciendo algo sobre y sobre sus descripciones están siguiendo sus descripciones y Dios sabe que necesitamos más de nuestros oficiales aquí viviendo su descripción es nuestro trabajo, amen so I need you to do me a favor Sisters and Brothers, if you know anybody if you know any parents who work more than one job and still worry about putting food on the table for their kids, stand up on your feet stay standing, stay standing if you know any young people like Chris here who has had to leave school drop out of school provide for his family, stand up if you're here because you want to support these, your Sisters and Brothers stand up that's why we're here today Sisters and Brothers, stay standing stay standing I hear a lot of people say that we church folk ought to leave economics aside that we ought to stay out of politics that we ought to stick with religion well guess what, this is religion if you want me to believe that I am a child of God if you want these friends of ours to believe that they are children of God then give them work that will pay enough to support their families my friends, a living wage is not something extra a living wage is not an entitlement, a living wage is a right and we don't gather here today to beg our elected officials for that right we are here today to demand that right in the name of God and in the name of justice for 40 years COPSPETRO has been doing an excellent job of demanding this justice but friends, we got a lot more work to do so let's keep the pressure on thank you Father Brian before we go to the business of our public business we have a delegation from Christ the King that we probably failed to recognize we all stand up and cheer Christ the King begin the public business of raising wages in Barrett County Mr. Hernandez Good afternoon I'm Cecilia Hernandez from Sacred Heart Church and leader of COPSPETRO Esa es the superintendent Martinez and trustees we congratulate you for being the first school district to raise the entry level wages in San Antonio from 10 to 12 dollars an hour congratulations Mr. Martinez and trustees we have two questions for you will you make sure the compensation plan approved is adopted in the budget absolutely yes of course yes thank you the second question is will you commit to work with us to raise wages to 13 dollars an hour for the following year yes we will yes we will yes thank you much for working with us City Council City Council and now to discuss with our county commissioners Ms. Esmeral de Rodriguez from St. Timothy yes leader of St. Timothy's COPSPETRO commissioners Calvert and Elizondo with your support Barrett County was the first local government to publicly support and approve a budget for COPSPETRO's living wage campaign this included raising the entry level wage from 11 dollars and 50 cents to 13 dollars an hour for direct county employees on year one setting a minimum for all contracts with the county which means that contract workers wages went from 7 dollars and 25 cents to 9 dollars an hour as a result congratulations commendation by public works to address the public safety risk of unpaved roads prioritizing Highland Oaks in the county we have two questions for you as we look ahead at next year's budget will you continue to support the living wage initiative raising the entry level wages to 14 dollars an hour for next fiscal year and will you ensure that the public works recommendation to prioritize Highland Oaks investing 2.5 million this coming fiscal year to begin paving the roads is fully funded commissioner Calvert will start with you glad ok c yes would you like to make a remark commissioner Calvert well I've been honored to work alongside Elizondo on getting the budget to get this done in my opinion as a member of the MPO metropolitan plans organization we gave some 500 million dollars to help with 281 and the congestion in the north side I don't see why the south side shouldn't get the same wonderful thank you well I always tell cops yes and see if whether you know it was earlier I've been with cops from the beginning Andy Saravia just reminded me that when they had the organizing dance and music for the first cops rally my band played for it and as your commissioner all these years since 1982 I'm honored to work with you I've worked with you on project quest I will continue to work for this and sooner or later it looks like we are going to be competing with California to get to that $15 an hour figure but we're not there yet but please don't get after me if we take a little time we will work this year towards that $14 figure council members you supported cops metro living wage campaign and stood strong all the way through the budget process raising wages for the lowest paid city employees from 1150 to $13 an hour effective January 2016 congratulations councilwoman Gonzales you know we must do better on wages a full time city employees should be able to provide for a family so our campaign calls for reaching a living wage of $15 an hour for 2018 also many people work for the city through contracts as outsourced workers they get paid the minimum wage and have no benefits but they are still public servants in response to our campaign bear county commissioners set a wage requirement for contract workers of no less than $950 an hour two questions will you lead the council in raising wages to $14 an hour in the city budget for the 2017 year and will you support establishing a wage requirement of $950 an hour for future city contracts yes I will with very much pride I'm proud to do so thank you that was a yes councilwoman Viagran your response please yes absolutely thank you councilman Trevino your response yes and yes Mr. Nuremberg your response yes and on that second point it should have been done a long time ago thank you councilwoman Gonzales raising wages is just part of our strategy helping people gain the skills needed for new careers with family wages and opportunities for growth is an important piece and project quest continues to do just that through long term job training the city invests in this strategy is a good one but it is important that this funding is at least as consistent as project quest return on investments will you support project quest as a separate line item on the city budget to stabilize its funding it's a project that's very dear to my heart yes I will thank you councilwoman Viagran yes it's very important and with father Frank Macias there from St. Leo's absolutely Mr. Nuremberg Mr. Nuremberg yes thank you and councilman Trevino yes absolutely and now to speak to our state representatives Mr. Ian Chase from First Unitarian Universities good afternoon representative Rodriguez I'm Ian Chase with COPS Metro and First Unitarian Universalists as I'm sure you're aware cities and locales have been passing laws such as clamping down on payday lending and raising minimum wages and I wanted to know if you would commit to fight bills that would remove the jurisdiction of cities over things such as this first of all great question and absolutely I've not just commit today to fight against those bills y having the past fought against them you all know last session HB40 was a bill to usurp the city of Denton's authority the city council to ban fracking I voted against that and I'm certainly fully committed to continue that will you also commit to help fight to keep the ACE jobs fund funded at the current level or higher that's the adult education program absolutely I'll commit to making sure first of all if we can we increase that funding I know it's going to be hard this session but I know Mike was up there last session and we worked with State Rep Via Real and Senator Vanderpute to get that funding in we'll continue to do that and a quick shout out to my friend former State Rep and Congressman Pete Gallego I say Pete here who's also been a champion and fighter thank you I'm a member of St. Leo the great Catholic Church COPS Metro and I also live in the Harlandale Independent School District I'm a taxpayer resident and our delegation is working along with St. Leo's but other members of the other parishes in our district to ensure that Harlandale follows the lead of SAISD and bringing the living wage to the lowest paid employees my name is Paul Zeiss I'm a leader at MacArthur Park Lutheran Church in the Northeast Independent School District we're going to be working through the San Antonio Sponsoring Committee and others to make sure that Northeast matches what San Antonio did with its lowest wage employees Hello COPS Metro I'm Father Mike DeGirolemy from St. Timothy Church COPS Metro Six months ago Pope Francis told the US Congress you are called to defend and preserve the dignity of your fellow citizens in the timeless and demanding pursuit of the common good for this is the chief aim of all politics that's right he's saying the truth now this world renowned spiritual leader is giving COPS Metro his blessing to continue our work to make our communities a better place to raise our families what do you think now COPS Metro leaders we've heard and seen stories and commitments from our public officials now it's up to us to be real leaders in our communities to make sure that we move forward into our next 40 years are you willing to do that we have a little homework to do remember when you came in a little card a little sheet of paper I hope you have it if you didn't get it you can fill it out as you leave please take this card in hand and hopefully you have a pencil or a pen step one will take place at the next regular leaders meeting on Monday, May 9 at Sacred Heart Parish Hall anyone who has an interest in becoming more involved should place a check mark on that card step two will be organizing 101 how to build relationships back to the basics this will be held on Saturday May 21 at 9am at our Lady of Guadalupe Parish Hall step three to continue collaboration between cops metro and Catholic Charities around the issue of predatory lending and economic security living wages that's what we want we will teach 100 leaders to train others on Thursday, May 26 at 7pm at St. Timothy Parish Hall will you be there now please check off on your card and plan to attend and turn in your commitment card at the sign up table as you leave finally we have given a lot of love and respect to our former leaders and we want to continue to remember them on the reverse side of your page you can write down on the reverse side the leaders who have and are making our community a better place to live in will you please also do that finally remember cops metro we have a question for you are you ready to commit yourselves to continue the timeless and demanding work of social justice for the common good of all our people happy 40th anniversary Kviva cops metro Kelly Allen I'm the pastor at university Presbyterian church and I want to thank cops metro for its long and tireless work for social justice and for teaching our community what that means our congregation is part of the expansion project called the San Antonio sponsoring committee thank you for all the leadership you are giving us que nos acompañan juntos en nuestra parada de abuelos. Dios de la muerte, la compasión y la justicia. Estamos aquí como personas grandiosas, por la fuerza de tu espíritu liberado que le dio un fuego en el corazón y la cabezca de Moses, quien llevó liberación de las políticas de la depresión y de la dehumanización a sus personas. Por la historia de los organizadores que han escuchado el llamado para ayudar a las comunidades a mostrar y a honorar el valor de todos los ciudadanos y los nonciedadanos que vivieron en nuestros lugares de vida, que nos han ayudado a honorar la dignidad de trabajo y que han ayudado a las personas a encontrar su lugar de voz y de contribución a la comunidad en la que vivimos. Muchas gracias a los que han ido antes de nosotros que han persistido en el trabajo para la justicia por atender una más reunión, tener una más conversación, dar una más dólar, venir con una más estrategia, hacer una más preguntada. El Espíritu de la Divina de Dios ahora se ha caído en nosotros, esplendernos en nuestras minds que podríamos saber nuestra dirección para el futuro. Ajuda a nosotros a ser bolsados en nuestra acción. Ajuda a nosotros a escuchar las voces alrededor de nosotros. Ajuda a nosotros a usar nuestras voces para hablar de la verdad, de la injusticia y de la opresión. Ajuda a nosotros a ser open a las realidades y la vida de nuestros negros que podríamos saber que estamos todos juntos en unidad para la bienestar de tu creación. Amén. Me gustaría agradecer a nuestros oficiales por participar en nuestra acción hoy. Y quiero a todos de ustedes, quiero agradecer a todos de ustedes por venir hoy. Father Marty used to say at our parish when you signed up for a COPS Metro event, you show up. All of you showed up today and I thank you. We ask any leaders that are here today, I mean our leaders and anyone that wants to participate in our evaluation to meet us about ten minutes after the event over in the briefing room. This concludes our meeting.