 as president of the San Antonio Bar Association. The San Antonio Bar is the voluntary professional organization for lawyers practicing in Bayer and the surrounding counties. It is my privilege to welcome you today to the elected officials candidate forum. Voting is one of the most important rights and tools that our citizens have to share their views and their opinions. Today's presentation is a community service put on by the San Antonio Bar Association to help engage, educate and inform voters. I'd like to thank now cast SA for serving as our streaming sponsor. All non-judicial candidates on the primary election ballot were invited to participate, but not are able to join us this evening. An invitation to participate is not an endorsement by the San Antonio Bar Association. All views expressed by the candidates are their views alone and should not be construed as views of the San Antonio Bar. Before we start, I'd like to go over the forum rules for the benefit of the candidates as well as the attendees. Registered attendees have been provided with a sample ballot. The speaking order of the candidates is the same order as they appear on the ballot. Each candidate will have two minutes for remarks. We request that the candidates refrain from addressing or disparaging their opponents and the moderator will interrupt if there is a violation of any of these rules. Lastly, the candidates are requested to keep their microphones on mute until it is their turn to address the audience. We are going to start tonight with the candidates running for Bear County Clerk. The county clerk serves as the clerk for the county courts at law, for the probate courts and the commissioners court. The county clerk also issues marriage licenses and is the recorder and custodian of important public documents, including all bonds, deeds, birth and death certificates and more. There are four candidates running in the Republican Democratic primaries. This evening, we will hear from three of the candidates. First, we have a candidate in the Republican primary, Mr. Richard A. Gold. Mr. Gold, please proceed. You're on mute, sir. Mr. Gold, you're on mute. Thank you. I want to appreciate, thank the Bar Association for the opportunity to present myself as a candidate tonight. My name is Richard Gold. I'm running as a conservative Republican for the county clerk position to bring transparency, professional leadership and fiscal accountability to the office. Little bit about myself. I'm a Christian. I'm married. I'm a husband. I'm a father. I've been married 40 years to a supportive wife. I have a son that was in Churchill High School here. Went to Texas A&M and he went to UT Med School and he's a practicing doctor in Dallas. Little bit about myself. I'm from San Antonio, born and raised here. I attended was in Churchill High School. I also graduated from UT Pan-American University with a BBA degree in business. I'm also a veteran. I spent three active years in the Army. I also spent one in the reserve here in San Antonio at the local 90th ARCOM unit. I also participate in the local community here in the academic community as an adjunct, part-time adjunct faculty member at SAC teaching records management over a period of 10 years. Also have a certificate in records management. Now more importantly, I retired from Bear County a year and a half ago with 27 years of administrative experience. And I'm the first bear, my past 20 years, I served as the first Bear County Records Manager approved by commissioner's court to oversee and manage the Bear County Records Center. Now at the Bear County Records Center, I consulted with 36 different county departments on the records management retention and storage needs of Bear County. So I talked with the DA's office County clerk, I consulted with tax officers and various offices. Now my first years, seven years at Bear County, I worked in the district clerk's office as the assistant chief deputy third in command. My responsibilities was on budget team, personnel and records management. We had about 140 employees. Mr. Gull. So I have management and leadership experience. I believe, and I hope you do with my records education, working in Bear County, makes me the best candidate for the position. I'm sorry, but your time has concluded. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Gould. Next, we have a candidate in the Democratic primary, the honorable Lucy Adame Clark. Ms. Clark, Adame Clark. Good afternoon. Thank you for having us. Again, I got elected in 2018. I was with the Bear County Sheriff's office close to 22 years, six days shy of 22 years. I worked with records from central records. We oversaw 1.5 million population. We did a lot of the SID creations for the district clerk, the county clerk, the district attorney's office. We ran the error resolution for corrections that directly work with the DPS, Texas Department of Public Safety and the FBI. I also work with criminal warrants where we did all the warrants for the district clerk, the county clerk and worked hand in hand with civil and criminal. I worked with the criminal investigations and did the forensic latent evidence where I testified in court and worked hand in hand with prosecutors, attorneys and judges. So I came with integrity, transparency and make sure that we transition into a new system. I advocated and executed importance of safety, preservation of our county records after seeing that there was a lot of paper process going on from the actual county clerks to the sheriff's office. I advocated for the real property land records where we innovated the process with a native cloud based system and we are up about 36% even though we face a pandemic. We have implemented Tyler Odyssey that we went live with the civil track last year in May. Now we're about to go live with the criminal track this year as well with Tyler Odyssey. We have done the preservation, the longest ever preservation historically in Bear County as Dallas County followed with the higher percentage of preservation project as well. We built more accessibility, we were effective, make sure I gave my employees a pay raise within the first two years. I restructured my staff with the existing staff who were managers in place and made them chiefs at my leadership table. It is why we're so successful. It is why we were able to be essential and it's why we were able to file about 300% of increase in smaller state affidavits through probing. I worked very well with the judges. We were able to create a better process with mental health and Judge Cazan as well. To make sure- I'm sorry your time has concluded. Thank you. Thank you. And the second Democratic candidate in the Bear County clerk election is Ms. Rachel Garcia-Cavazos. Thank you. Thank you to the San Antonio Bar Association for hosting this important event. My name is Rachel Garcia-Cavazos and for over 30 years, I have managed people, processes and money. As your Bear County clerk, I will bring real executive experience to the position by applying my knowledge and skill set in public administration, lifelong community leadership and advocacy, board service, labor leadership, corporate business, successful business ownership and working with the most marginalized in our community. I believe in taxpayer centered government and what that means is being a good steward of the taxpayer's dollar, making decisions based on cost analysis and a return on investment, investing in the best data security protection systems to safeguard public records, ensuring that the deputy clerks and support staff are all adequately trained and cross trained in their duties, improving the work environment through better communication with the staff and with the community and collaborating with our community partners to make the services of the county clerk's office accessible to more people. I will reduce wasteful spending of your tax dollars and bring again real executive leadership to the office of the Bear County clerk. For that, I hope to get your support and I hope to get your vote. For more information, you can find information about me at RachelCavazos.com or you may contact me at 210-725-3098. Thank you. Thank you. And that concludes the candidates joining us tonight for the Bear County clerk election. Next we'll be hearing from candidates from the Bear County district clerk. The district clerk manages the court filings and related documents of the 27 district courts, 10 ancillary courts and the central magistrates office. There are nine candidates in the Republican and Democratic primary. This evening, we're privileged to hear from all nine candidates. The first candidate we hear from today is from the Republican primary and that is Miss Misty Spears. Hi y'all, my name is Misty Spears and I'm running for Bear County district clerk. The district clerk is the custodian of records for the district court system charged with serving 27 district courts, 10 auxiliary courts and one magistrate court as well as managing the funds and the registry of the court and litigation filing fees. I believe we need a conservative running the business side of the court system to establish transparency and fiscal accountability. We are the fourth largest county in the state of Texas and 19th in the United States yet we lag behind in technology, accessibility to online records and efficiency. I will work to improve functionality, quality of service and fiscal accountability in our court system. With almost 20 years experience in the legal profession and a senior paralegal for the Martinez de Barra law firm, I work with clerks all over the state of Texas in almost every county including the federal and appellate court systems. I know what changes are needed in Bear County. I talk with clerks and other paralegals and attorneys and I know what changes are needed and better yet, I even know how to implement them. When I earned my BBA in accounting from Texas Tech University and went on to work as an accountant at Clear Channel Communications and Pioneer Drilling Company, I learned and practiced the fiscal accountability needed for the business side of the court system. I would love for you to volunteer to help me campaign, post a meet and greet or give a financial contribution. And you can do all these things and learn more about me at my website, Misty Spears for districtclerk.com. I wanna thank you all for listening and I thank you especially because this shows you know the importance of local politics in your day-to-day lives. And I wanna thank Saba for hosting this event and this opportunity to speak to the citizens of Bear County. Remember, vote Misty Spears for Bear County District Clerk. Thank you, Ms. Spears. We'll now hear from the first candidate in the Democratic primary, Gloria A. Martinez. Hi, my name's Gloria A. Martinez. I am running for Bear County District Clerk. I'm a United States Navy veteran. I have 33 years experience with the District's office. During my employment with the Bear County District's office, I was deployed to Kuwait and Iraq between 2009 and 2010. If elected, I will upgrade technology. I implement equal opportunity employment practices and improve customer service. I worked in civil, in criminal, in juvenile, in the drug court, in the Manchester court. I worked with many of the attorneys. I pretty much grew up with them. I have taught them. They have taught me so much as far as the law is concerned and I have taught them as far as procedures are concerned in the courtroom and paperwork that needs to be submitted. I will always go the extra mile to help the public and the attorneys as far as improving the customer service. If I have, if it like that, I would definitely uphold what I need to do because the public is the most important that I can think of than anyone else. Well, of course, the attorneys and whatnot, but the public is so important to us, especially nowadays customer service is important. Anyways, I have served my country and the people of Bear County. Now I humbly ask for your support and your vote to serve my community as your next Bear County district clerk. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Martinez. Now the second candidate in the Democratic primary, Deette Dresch. Hi, and good evening. And thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak with y'all this evening. I am a candidate for the Bear County clerk's office and I am very confident over the 28 years plus that I've spent with Bear County that I have gained the experience and the knowledge needed. I have been the custodian of records for the past 28 years in one aspect, one department or another. I have been fortunate enough to work side by side with my peers this whole time and with the attorneys and the judges and Bear County citizens. And I've enjoyed every minute. I have extensive knowledge of multiple aspects of the district clerk's office. And I am ready to lead that office with transparency, compassion and integrity. Again, I'd like to thank y'all for the opportunity to be here with you tonight. And I humbly ask for your support. Thank you. Thank you. Now we're gonna hear from the third candidate in the Democratic primary, Christine Cris Castillo. Hi, good evening. Thank you to the San Antonio Bar Association for having this. So Christine Castillo running for district clerk. What sets me apart from the other candidates is I have 33 years of hands-on experience and knowledge with the district clerk's office. I basically grew up there, born and raised on the South side, graduated from Wheatley High School in 1985 and immediately began my career with the district clerk's office in 1986, at the age of 19. I worked in the civil department posting I mean, I, you know, hands-on experience. I became a supervisor after about five years. Then I became a division chief in 2010 and I held that position for eight years. And the division chief is about two steps below the district clerk. So I dealt with, you know, judges, other elected officials with the legal community. As a division chief, I took part in many projects which included implementing scanning documents into an imaging system. Also e-filing, we went live on e-filing. I took part in a project to preserve documents from the 1800s. I've had my hands in many projects with the district clerk's office. And that's what sets me apart is that I have the experience. I have the know-how. I have the knowledge, you know. So I'm asking for your support because I have dealt with many attorneys and judges and I still have that relationship with many of them. And I feel that my years of experience make me the perfect candidate for this position. So I ask for your support again for your vote and I'm open to any questions, any concerns that you may have, you can reach me at votefriscasteo.com and I thank you for your time. Thank you. Now hearing from the fourth candidate in the Democratic primary, Erasmo Raz Hernandez. Good afternoon. Thank you for having me this afternoon. Thank you for the San Antonio Bar Association for hosting this wonderful event to get to know your candidates. My name is Erasmo Raz Hernandez and I am running for Berry County District Clerk. I am running because I'm passionate. I have the experience and I'm committed to public service. I have been serving our community for over 31 years, eight with the district clerk's office and currently with the district attorney's office as your litigation support and evidence manager. I bring experience that is above and beyond because in my role in the district attorney's office I deal with over 224 lawyers. I testify in court. I deal with victims of crime. But most importantly, we provide a service to our community. Some of the things that I want to do with the district clerk's office is bring innovation. I feel that there is, we're in 2022 and we need to bring the office up to speed. We're the fourth largest county in the state of Texas but we are lacking when it comes to technology and innovation. For our legal community, we need to put these records online. We need to make the district clerk's office and its files more accessible to you, the attorneys but not just to the attorneys, to the public, to the community as a whole. Transparency, the district clerk's office runs in 9.8 million dollar budget but where is that money going? I've been knocking on doors and I talk to people and it really saddens me when I tell them that I'm running for district clerk and about eight to nine people have never heard of the district clerk's office. The district clerk's office plays a very important role in our court system and it's time that people know who their elected district clerk is. I humbly ask for your vote and your support. It's Osmo Raz Hernandez, thank you. Thank you, sir. Now from the fifth candidate in Democratic primary, Jessica Zapata Bogardis. Yeah. Hello, good evening. I'm Jessica Zapata Bogardis and I'm a candidate for Bear County District Clerk. I'm a United States Marine veteran. I have a bachelor's degree in criminology. I have almost 23 years working with Bear County and almost 20 of those years were spent working with the district clerk's office where I held leadership positions within. I currently serve as administrative assistant to district attorney Joe Gonzalez. Throughout my experiences, I understand that the justice system depends on civil and criminal attorneys and they serve an important role. I will create a service line that only attorneys are provided with to obtain information about their filings cases in an expedited manner to not take time and money away from their businesses. I understand the need for accurate and efficient documents and it will be my mission to build an office that produces such by creating an office-wide quality assurance system. I will work professionally with the district clerk stakeholders, attorneys, judges and the public. I will create a district clerk's office that bridges the gaps between the community and other county offices. The district clerk's office should be a part of a unified court system and I will be certain to make sure that happens. I know that my education, leadership skills and experience are the perfect balance to what is needed to be your next district clerk. So I'm kindly asking you for your vote. Thank you. Thank you. The next candidate in the Democratic primary is the Honorable Mary Angie Garcia. Good afternoon. Can you hear me? Yes, ma'am. Great. Thank you for the opportunity to present our office and we need to know our candidates. We need to know who's running and who's their history. I have been with the district clerk office 20 years, three of those years, three and a half years, almost three and a half years as the current district clerk. I started out in various departments. I spent 10 years in juvenile. I clerked for Judge Kelsey, Carmen Kelsey, Judge Laura Parker and we worked, we worked hard. Then I was transferred back downtown to do criminal. I worked on the criminal side. We have achieved a lot of advanced technology. We, when we came in, we came in to the Odyssey system. In May, we initiated that system. Odyssey system was already bought and paid for when two years prior to us coming into office in 2019. We have no choice but to make it work. Yes, we have ups and we have downs, but we have to adapt. We have no choice. And I believe my clerks are doing an excellent job of adapting. They handle the courts, they take care of the counters and we work hard, we work hard and they deserve every accolade that we can give them. We have the central magistrate, the central magistrate. I would appreciate your vote and your support. Thank you. Thank you. Next from the seventh candidate in Democratic primary, Raul Davila. Thank you for having me. My name is Raul Davila and I am a combat veteran. Now I have to say, we all know I'm running for Bear County District Clerk. Let me just say this, I am the only candidate that actually has worked with every county in the state of Texas with technology driven counties. I'm the only candidate that actually owns a litigation support company that works with large law firms throughout Texas. The Jeff Davis law firm, George Salinas, Fernando Cruz, I can name them all. I'm the only one that actually knows what needs to be changed because I am not the one that has been in there and left a mess. At the end of the day, that district clerk's office needs to be, I would say reorganized. It needs to be brought up like Harris County where you can get your records online, almost all at card or pay monthly fee. We are so far behind, sometimes I walk in and some of these guys are still working on stone tablets. At the end of the day, what I'm saying is this, we need somebody from the outside to fix this. I'm the only guy that's actually worked and had 300 soldiers underneath me. I've worked with budgets. I've worked with 300 personalities. I've worked with promotions, demotions, everything. We need a leader in that position, a real leader. We need someone to lead us to the next entry and to bring us up to work with these officials, to work with these judges, with the DA. At the end of the day, guys, we need someone new in there. They have 150 years plus service combined and we have not seen any change. So I ask, why would we now? So I'll leave you with this. Both for all of Davila, you'll see the change. And I promise you, you have my word, I've been doing it. I raised my hand to serve our country and I raised my hand to serve Bear County. Thank you, your time has ended. Thank you. Thank you, sir. And from the eighth candidate in the Democratic primary, Eduardo Eddie Pichardo. Good evening, everyone. And thank you, San Antonio Bar Association for having me here. My name is Eduardo Eddie Pichardo and I am running for Bear County District Clerk. I have extensive experience and knowledge with this office. I was with the District Clerk's office for 23 years, up until about five months ago now. I'm still with Bear County. I'm a special projects coordinator for Mrs. Lucia Damien-Clarke, the Bear County Clerk. I actually started working at the District Clerk's Office in 1998. Within the first two months or the first two years of being there, I worked in almost every department and every division that that office had at the time. For the following 18 years, I was a deputy district clerk. I was a court clerk for three civil court judges and a lot of sabbath members might know. I was Judge Pat Boone, Joe Frazier-Brown Jr. and Saul Castle III. During that time, I did receive my bachelor's degree from the University of Texas, San Antonio with criminal justice. One of my main goals in becoming District Clerk is to get public documents online for purchase. I don't believe that an attorney, a constituent, a customer, a citizen should have to go all the way down to the courthouse, pay for parking, just for a few sheets of paper. Just recently, Bear County integrated into a county-wide system called Odyssey which makes the ability to possess documents online possible. I would like to get with other departments and offices such as the District Attorney's Office, the County Clerk's Office and many of the other offices to make this goal a reality. In closing, as you can see, I have extensive knowledge with the District Clerk's Office. I have extensive experience. I worked in most of the departments. I worked in the courts. I managed several divisions and I have a degree that coincides with this office. Thank you for your time and I humbly ask for your support. Thank you, sir. And that concludes the candidates for the Bear County District Clerk. Next, we will hear from the candidates running for Bear County Criminal District Attorney. The office of the District Attorney is responsible for criminal prosecutions in Bear County and also serves as legal counsel for Bear County county officials and county employees in all matters related to their governmental functions. There are three candidates running in the Republican and Democratic primary. This evening, we'll be hearing from two candidates in the Democratic primary. The first candidate, Meredith Chacon. I'm actually in the Republican primary, but... I'm sorry, I misread my sheet. Please forgive me. It's okay. Good evening, everyone. And I apologize that I'm sitting in my car in a parking lot, but I'm at another event tonight. So I'm trying to be two places at one time. Again, my name is Meredith Chacon and I am very proud to say I'm running for Bear County District Attorney. For those of you who don't know me, I worked at the District Attorney's office for 18 and a half years. I was there before law school, during law school and after law school. I spent the last 15 years of my career there as a prosecutor, where I prosecuted everything for misdemeanors all the way up to murder cases. I had a couple of capital murders that fled out before trial. I also represented child protective services when I was at the DA's office and I led that unit prior to my leaving. I have conducted investigations in cooperation with law enforcement. I have led multidisciplinary teams. I am proud to say I have the full endorsement of the San Antonio Police Officers Association in this race, not just in my primary. I have a proven record of being tough on crime and knowing what crime to be tough on. I feel very strongly that it is the District Attorney's role to enforce the law as written, not to legislate from the seventh floor of the P building. I think that we must work together with our community partners to better serve victims. And as a former victims advocate, that was how I started my career. Victims are very important to me. I think that we should be communicating with them, wrapping them around with services and working with others in the community to better do our job. I was a line prosecutor. I was in the courts. I was down in it. I know what those assistant DA's need. I know the kind of support they need. There has been tremendous turnover at the DA's office and I intend to address that. I also intend to address the morale of the DA's office and I intend to make them proud to be prosecutors. I believe that they will be proud to work for me. I have a great passion for this job and all the knowledge that you need in a District Attorney and the experience. Again, my name is Meredith Chacon and I'm running for Bear County DA. Thank you. Next from the Democratic candidate, the Honorable Joe Gonzalez. Good evening. I am your Bear County District Attorney. I've been in this office since January of 2019. When I first walked into this office, we had many challenges. Some of those challenges or the prior administration just stopped working after I won the election. So we had to roll up our seats and get busy and get to work. What I quickly realized is that there was no way we were going to tackle all that back walk and handle what is an average of 60,000 cases a year and do an effective job of representing victims of crime. So the logical solution was to bring criminal justice reform to Bear County. I'm proud to say that we've done that. I'm proud to say that one of the reasons we brought criminal justice reform is to focus on the kind of cases that keep me up at night. The murders, capital murders, aggravated sexual assaults and other sexual assaults, aggravated robberies and not so much the minor nonviolent misdemeanor offenses. I'm proud to say that we've been able to focus on violent crime. One of the greatest challenges, obviously, is domestic violence. But we've made some great strides in that respect. We increased the number of prosecutors from the prior administration from 22 to over 40. We now have more of the county court judges that are willing to help us with the docket. We recently had a funding approved with county commissioners for two temporary courts to help reduce the backlog. In the area of criminal justice reform, I'm very proud of our site and release program where because of the huge collaboration with law enforcement, SAPD has decided to, instead of arresting over 5,000 people to sending them over to our reentry center and work with them. So that's been a huge success, but our work is not done. This is a work in progress. I'm asking for your support so that we can continue with this work and I ask for your support. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Now we'll hear from the candidate running for Bear County Commissioner Precinct 4. The commissioners court is the overall managing governing body for the county. The Bear County is comprised of a county judge and four commissioners. Each commissioner represents a geographic precinct that has about 500,000 residents. Commissioners court is responsible for determining and managing the county budget. Tax revenue and property. They also appoint staff and manage personnel for county departments led by non-elected directors. The candidates running for the precinct 4 position are both running unopposed in the primary. The Republican candidate, Larry Ricketts was unable to join us. We will now hear from the Democrat candidate Commissioner Tommy Calvert. Every four years, the people of Bear County's precinct 4 get to pick their best and brightest to represent all of us. I'm proud to have an open door for all of the members of the San Antonio bar and the people around Bear County. When leaders in the bar talked about the backlog in the probate courts, we worked together to fund an additional court to clear up the backlog. I'll continue to push for higher compensation for members of the bar, providing legal services to those who are provided indigent defense. One of my goals, should the people of precinct 4 re-elect me to service the Dean of the commissioners court is to increase communication between the bar and the commissioners court by bringing the bar to the court and giving us regular updates on the data that you see so that members of the commissioners court understand how we stack up to other counties and our compensation can keep track with rising costs. Together, we raise the minimum wage of Bear County employees to $15 an hour and we need to make sure that our legal system keeps track as well. Together, we have ushered huge criminal justice reforms. We opened the very first reentry center in the state of Texas. We implemented the SMART team with our sheriff's department to bring mental health counselors on mental health calls with our sheriff's deputies. I helped start the second chance job fair to hire the formerly incarcerated, all things that help many of your clients. And I'm proud to have saved Bear County's sixth largest employer, Randolph Air Force Base from closure as the chair of the Randolph joint land use study. I voted to cut taxes seven times in seven years while investing in priorities like adult literacy, housing and putting law enforcement on the streets to keep crime down. Addressing the mental health crisis from our schools to our seniors and families is very important. I believe we need to work together to... I'm sorry, your time for remarks has ended. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Lastly, we'll hear from the candidates running for Bear County judge. The county judge is the presiding officer of the commissioner's court and represents the county and many administrative functions. There are six candidates running in the Republican and Democrat primary, the Republican candidate, Nathan Buchanan and the Democratic candidate, Gerald Ponce are unable to join us. I also believe the honorable Trish DeBerry is unable to join us this evening as well. We'll begin with the first Democrat candidate, the honorable Ina Mejadas. Thank you all. Good evening. My name is state representative Ina Mejadas and I am a candidate for Bear County judge. I am a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and St. Mary's School of Law. And I first started my legal career as a prosecuting attorney for the Bear County district attorney's office where I specialized in prosecuting domestic violence cases and crimes against children. Thereafter, I opened up my private practice where I specialized in serving as an ad litem for many of the foster care youth in our children's courts and also represent many small businesses in the area. I currently serve as state representative of House District 124 here in the near west side of San Antonio after winning a special election in April of 2015. I have gained the critical experience that's necessary, the skill set that's necessary to be your next Bear County judge. While in the legislature, I have been appointed to key committees, mainly transportation and infrastructure, health and human services. But most importantly, what I'm proud of is I was appointed to serve as the one Bear County delegation member on the appropriations committee, which handles the funding, the budget, the state budget over $200 billion for the state of Texas. I was responsible for bringing home that necessary funding, that critical funding back to Bear County to fund our higher ed institutions, our courts, San Antonio State Hospital, air quality control, our library services. And that is key. What I hope to do, I wanna come back home. I wanna now take this leadership position because it's very important that the next leader be ready to run the county. Judge Nelson-Wilf did an excellent job but we have so much more work to do after the pandemic. I wanna focus on really bringing meaningful property tax relief to our homeowners. I wanna ensure economic growth. I wanna ensure we deal with our infrastructure needs as well as our community health and safety. This is the time that the experience is needed. And I wanna ensure transparency and I wanna ensure public participation with commissioner support. Now is time, it is critical. And I hope that while I see you on the campaign trail, I earn your support as an expert county judge. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Next from the second candidate in the Democrat primary, Eva-Lise Mesa-Gonzales. Hi everybody, thank you for having me here today. My name is Eva-Lise Mesa-Gonzales, your candidate for Bear County Judge in this Democratic primary. I am born and raised here in San Antonio, Texas, raised by two parents who were committed to public service and taught me to do the same. So I believe everything starts and ends with our community. I had the privilege of serving as Mayor Ron Nuremberg's chief of staff in the heart and center of local government, our city government, balancing a $3.1 billion budget, working 365 days a year, 24 seven, to provide the best services for our residents. During the most pivotal time in our city's history and in the face of political pressure from our state, I spearheaded the mayor's public health response to COVID focusing on public education, community partnership and an aggressive strategy to make vaccines accessible to families in every corner of our city. I helped lead the mayor's city council and mayor's recommitment to the Edwards-Occerford Protection Program, a funding for our Via Transportation Authority and workforce development. I took every opportunity to serve my community. I served on the Healthy Futures of Texas Board, Mayor's commission on the status of women and the Martinez Street Women's Center, excuse me. I have a passion for public service. The county judge is an executive of the county. I have that executive experience as a former chief of staff to be an effective county judge. I think the number one role of the county judge is controlling the budget. It provides a plan of action for the county and a vision statement for the commissioner's court. I think our commissioner's court and our county government should be transparent and accessible to all residents. I want to make sure to work with our judicial branch of government to ensure that they are provided the resources that they need to move cases forward and continue investment in our restorative justice programs that have a proven track record of success. I appreciate your time and respectfully ask for your vote as your next Bear County judge. Thank you. Thank you. And now from the third candidate of the Democratic primary, the Honorable Peter Sakai. Thank you, President Lawrence Morales. Thank you, San Antonio Bar Association for this wonderful opportunity to provide a candidate's form for the San Antonio Bar Association. I too have been a member of the San Antonio Bar for nearly 40 years. For the past 26 years, I have been your district court judge sitting in the 225th district court. And during that period of time, I served as your local administrative judge for the district court as a senior judge, also as administrative judge of the Children's Court that a nationally renowned court that protected children, empowered families and improved the child welfare system. During that period of time, I was in charge of the multimillion dollar budgets of those courts and for the whole district courts, I worked with commissioners court to make sure that the third branch of government was protected. Also created innovative programs, the family drug court, the early childhood court, the college bound docket, innovative programs that were nationally renowned and recognized based on the principles of restorative justice. It was made through the public-private partnerships that I worked with Nelson and Tracy Wolfe. But I think what separates me from the other candidates in this race is basically my long experience as a district court judge who took a oath to enforce the rule of law. And for the entire period that I served as a judge, I had a total commitment to the rule of law. I'm also got a total commitment to our system of justice. And as we know in our post COVID world, our jury system has been disabled. And that is one issue that I will bring to the table is my experience, my depth of knowledge, my wisdom, my outstanding character, my impeccable reputation to get the job done. I'm an innovator, I'm an out of box thinker, I'm a change agent. And that's what it's gonna take for the post COVID world is leadership as your Bear County judge. I ask for your vote, I ask for your support as I prepare to be your next County judge. Thank you, good evening. Thank you. This concludes our 2022 elected officials candidate forum. I would like to give an enormous thanks to all the candidates who took the time to participate tonight. I'd like to thank also the San Antonio Bar Association staff and our media streaming sponsor, NowCastSA for organizing this event. Also a reminder that this forum was recorded and the recording will be available on NowCastSA's website, that's www.NowCastSA.com. We encourage all attendees to stay engaged in the voting process and exercise your right to vote. Early voting is February 14th through February 25th and election day is Tuesday, March 1st. Please join us for a judicial candidate forum tomorrow evening at 5.30. The link on that event is on the screen now. And thanks again for joining us. This forum is adjourned, have a great evening.