 years this morning to introduce someone who's also very special to Saint Antonio and has made a real big impact. A pharmacist since 1980. Senator Van DePute was voted to the legislature in 1990 1991 and has worked tirelessly for our community advocating for a number of issues, whether it be health care, veterans, military affairs, specifically in my role at CPS Synergy. She championed our burn veterans discount two sessions ago. And thank you so much for doing that. In 1999 voted to represent State Senate in District 26 and has continued to work along those paths. It's a very distinct pleasure of mine today to introduce our next Lieutenant Governor, State Senator Leticia Van DePute. Thank you. Thank you, John, for that kind introduction. Buenos dias. It is always good to be here with so many lifelong friends. I'm not going to say old friends, but lifelong friends and new friends that we met today. It is really my honor to be back and see an Antonio. If you haven't noticed, I have been traveling a lot lately and the state of Texas is so immense. But I've got to tell you, they all know that I'm from San Antonio. And almost everyone I meet tells me two things. Oh, I love San Antonio. This is where our family goes for vacation. Or the other thing they tell me is, you know, I love and whatever town that they live in. But if I lived anyplace else in Texas, it would be San Antonio. So that feeling that of pride that I have, I think is validated as you travel the state. And I never really understood that as much because I think we're an exceptional place. But when you travel the state and everybody has the greatest memories and their family has so much fun. Now, we do meet a lot of folks that say, oh, I was in San Antonio. And I said, you weren't he says, yeah, Lackland Air Force Base. That's where I did my basic. Or they say that they were at Fort Sam, or they were in the National Guard and came here to Camp Bullis. And I have to tell you that in my comments this morning, there's so many things that my dear friend Ray Wopis and I agree on. And that is that we work all the time to make sure that the quality of life in this community is as best as the families that live here and that can make those good decisions. But we know that the reason that Ray and his colleagues and the mayor can debate freely and citizens can participate at City Council and that my good friends are house leaders in Justin and Jose and certainly Mike and Trey and Ruth, all of the delegation that we can debate in freedom is because that price has been paid. And it's been paid by the men and women who have served in our military, who served in the Guard or in the reserves. And San Antonio strength comes from that military community. So before I introduce formally Ray, I know he would agree with me in saying thank you to those of you who have served. If you've ever been in the Army, the Navy, the Air Force Marine Coast Guard, regular Armed Forces Guard and Reserve, would you please stand and acknowledge our thanks to you this morning? Well, thank you very, very much. It's great to see so many of our leaders here. Sister, I am so thankful to see you and our Lady of the Lake community. You know, what a treasure on the west side of San Antonio. Now, I have to tell you that I'm a little biased. My mother graduated from the lake. My sister graduated from the lake. Pete Vandepute actually went to get his masters at the lake and all of our children went to St. Martin's Hall, which was the west side Catholic school, but actually run by our Lady of the Lake University. It was part of the education department. And I got to tell you, all six are doing well, even with the likes of sometimes a sister Colette. They're all doing well. And I thank them for it. So thank you very much. It's good to see just so many people from the community here. But the reason we're here this morning and the vibrancy of this chamber, and I think really the rebirth is because on the west side of San Antonio, we have incredible leaders. And as I've known Ray Lopez over the years, I first met him actually when he was at AT&T. Well, I guess before that all the telecom stuff for years, I have been kind of the go to person for telecom legislation, both when I was in the house in the 90s and then in the Senate as well. So worked with everybody on the technology side and certainly on the telecom. And that's really when I first met Ray, his unbelievable career in technology really provided that expertise of working with a major company, but also understanding what drives a community's economics. And then the bedrock of that is actually our public education system, that infrastructure of opportunity that is our public schools and Ray served with distinction first at Northside. And you know, in a really difficult time for all of our school districts, but particularly Northside was just exploding and having to pass bond after bond on facilities because folks, as you know, the state's dwindling commitment to our public schools as funding, but always the facilities are done by local taxpayers. The state doesn't put very much money at all into facilities. So our local school districts really have to have that community confidence and go to the voters time and time again when they need facilities and your leadership at Northside to put them on sound footing. That relationship with the parents with faculty and staff is part of the leadership that Ray brings to everything he does. Now, I've got to tell you and know and Ray that it is not just this love of the community, but it's the love of his family. He I know could not serve without the support, the encouragement of his beautiful wife. Ray, we really, really, really like you a lot and respect you. We absolutely love her. You got to understand. Yeah, I know you do. And they've built not only their lives here, but with their four children. And of course, we all agree that now we're into that age in our lives where our primary job is spoiling our grandchildren. But as Ray tells me that we're really not spoiling them spoiling them would be giving them something that they don't want. We just give them things they do want. So it's really not spoiling. But Ray's commitment to public education, Ray's commitment to this community. And the voters have wisely chosen him to be one of the lead lead voices at our city council. San Antonio is known in the legislature for having its act together before they go to the legislature. And when you think about all of the things that make our city very unique, it's not just the diversity of our economics. It's that we have a city owned utility, both in SAWS and in CPS. And let me tell you, in a framework of an electric market, that is absolutely an energy only market, our goal is to make sure that anything that happens in Austin doesn't unduly hamper the ability of this community to make the right decisions for the ratepayers and for the people in this community. We also know that with the treasures that we have of the port of San Antonio and our university systems and the river authority and the hospital district and so many things that it's the home team that has to make sure that it has its agenda together. It's no surprise that the mayor and our city manager have tapped Ray to be the lead person when it comes to negotiating and coming to Austin. And so it is always with pride that I greet him because if I can get Ray in front of a senator who's maybe a little wavering on what we need back home, they come away absolutely convinced because Ray has that ability not only to talk to people in a manner that they understand but so that they can see the necessity of what this community needs to be successful. I know that we are so blessed because of Ray's leadership and that it is with the most respect and the most love that I bring up my dear friend, a continual leader for San Antonio, the true definition of a public servant Ray Lopez. Wow. Thank you, Lieutenant Governor. I guess everybody said that already, right? It's a little presumptuous on our part, but it's certainly in line with the type of leadership that you bring to the state. And it is a recent arrival of your leadership to the state. You've been doing it for quite some time as was discussed a few minutes ago. You work as a representative in the state Senate, but also the passion that you bring to the topics that you decide to take on. As you know, there's a lot of things that we've done well in this state under your leadership. You also know that there's a lot of things left to do. A lot of things that are going to require significant leadership. And I know that you'll be able to bring that to our state. And looking forward to working with you to make our state even greater. I also want to thank the West Chamber for putting this event on. I think I had the opportunity to speak once or twice before before a group. And typically, I had the opportunity to have notes in front of me. And I typically never follow them. I'm going to do my best to follow them this time, but I'm going to kind of skip through them as quickly as I can because I probably have, I think I timed myself that I had like 14 and a half minutes. That means that most of you would be late for wherever you're going if you're expecting to get out of here on time. But there are some points that I really want to make that are incredibly important. And that certainly is to thank the Chamber and the hard work that they've done. You have come an awful long way. We also recognize on the West side that organizations like the West Chamber are going to be the cornerstone of making the West side of San Antonio even more successful as we bring economic development, continue to bring economic development to that to that corridor. So I absolutely want to thank John, you and your entire team. Gabe, I know that you keep working on this. I know you keep on talking about jokes that you're making up here. We're putting your jokes into two different categories. So far, they've all been on the good and clean side. That's good. I've heard you say some others are probably in a different category. The father Pat is here, and I'm not going to, you know, go into that. But the trajectory that you bring to this organization, the hard work that you've done has really created a new image, a new direction, and nothing but success is going to happen for this organization because under under your leadership. Also know that Grace is in the audience, Grace Rodriguez Elliott, who's the coming chairperson for this for this organization next year. And there's no doubt in my mind that that we will continue to have the level of success. But all of that doesn't happen just by accident or maybe it does. I don't know. But I simply think that it doesn't happen by accident. I think it happens because of planning. And across the board, every organization does some level of planning. Not all of it is good. And I've always told my son, by the way, who's sitting over there, who also stood up whenever all the veterans were standing up. And I thank him for his service. Oh, I did my best to try to talk him out of it. But ultimately, he went anyway. And I was glad that he went because he was able to come back to get some money out of the government to go to school, which means it didn't come out of my pocket. And of course, Evelyn was acknowledged a few minutes ago. But it does take an awful lot of planning, whether it's, you know, formal informal. But you know what, the best laid plans, if they're not implemented correctly, don't work. My son has heard me say that so many, many times. He's a small businessman here in San Antonio doing what he can. You've got to put together a plan. And if that plan isn't working, then it's got to be flexible enough to modify it, adjust it and then, you know, and keep moving forward. So the best of plans oftentimes don't work because they haven't had the level of execution that is that is necessary. Well, here in San Antonio, we're no different, right? The city of San Antonio put together a plan. A couple of years ago, as many of you participated, I know because I saw you there, participated in SA 2020. That was a coming together of a lot of organizations with a lot of vision, a lot of concern and commitment. A lot of folks really on opposite ends of various spectrums on what they wanted to see for the city, agreeing on some things, but maybe not agreeing on how to accomplish them at a return. But we did move forward with a pretty significant plan. And I'm here to tell you that that was not time wasted. The city of San Antonio uses that as the cornerstone for our planning going forward. We use that as the catalyst for all the development that we do, because indeed that is exactly what the community wants. Senator mentioned a few minutes ago, my work at North Side and the ability to pass bonds time and time again, which was great, but you have to make, have a plan, you have to have a commitment, you have to follow through on it. And that's what's happened when people get that kind of response out of their leaders, they will continue to follow them. Oftentimes, that doesn't happen. One thing is said and another thing is done. And oftentimes, the difference between that is the lack of leadership, because you might say something at the time, that it sounds good, hi Sean, that the sounds good at the time, but you don't follow through on it because you didn't have a commitment to it. Well, when you put a plan together, like we did with SA 2020, you clearly realize that the community is behind something, and they expect you to do it. I can't talk and I won't don't have the time to talk about all of the things that came out of the SA 2020 dialogue, but I will hit on two things because they're incredibly important. And they were the two things that were said the most during all of the sessions. We met, I guess, five or six times for several hours at a time. Then we did an assessment of what were really the two top priorities. The two top things that came out of there, although all of them important, were transportation and education. Those were the two things that continuously resonated every single time out of virtually every single table at every single meeting. Now, I can also tell you that while we agreed that education and transportation were two of the most important topics, seldom was there any agreement on what direction we ought to take, right? Whether it was let's get behind charter schools and let's go out and do more this, that, or the other. All of the things that happened around education, but the reality is we had to go out and create a plan because it was obvious that that was important to this community. And I'll talk a little bit more about that in a second. We also talked about transportation. Talk about ends of the spectrum. Everybody agrees transportation is bad. And you really agree to it. Where's Mario? Mario Cortez, here's from Textot. There he is, he's sitting back there in the corner. And you agree that transportation is an issue, especially when you're sitting in one of our parking lots, like on 1604. And you start to realize that we've got some very serious problems around transportation. We've got to address them very aggressively. However, we have folks at different ends of the spectrum. And typically the argument becomes how do you pay for it? Well, I can tell you as someone that's been in the, certainly in working for AT&T for 34 years, but have been in the government sector for two and a half decades, right? Through the school board, through Region 20 and now on the school system. All of those organizations, all those government organizations that I participated in, spent none of their own money, they spent our money, our tax dollars. So anything that we do from an infrastructure investment perspective is tax dollars. So it's not a matter of which, you know, where you're going to get the money, it's a matter of which tax or which pocket are you going to go after. So there's a lot of arguments, should it be told, should it be this or the issue is not creating the financing system ahead of the solution, because we don't know what that solution is yet. Exactly what it's going to be and nor do we know what it's going to cost, but we do know that funding is going to be at the top of that, of that, qualifying the success for that. So I spoke about transportation, I spoke a little bit about education. Let me also tell you, as we go and evolve on the discussion of education, last week just tickled to death, that to finally start to see really the pre-K4SA taking cold. Cheryl was telling me that this morning I think we have maybe 800 kiddos signed up already for this coming school year. Last week we announced the opening of the third and fourth facility. One of them on the west side. One of them sitting right there at the corner of what generally 151 in O Highway 90. And I say O Highway 90, I'm going to talk a little bit about that. I don't like the word O Highway 90. You all know that about that from last year. The other end of O Highway 90, there's a lot of investment going on and again, I'll talk a little bit more about that, but let's stick to education for just a second. We continue to make investments in other areas of education. While we invest in the pre-K4SA, because it was defined through the brain power initiative, that's where we needed to go spend our money. We are not only putting our money there, we're also doing things like Cafe College to make sure that our kids have an opportunity to figure out where they're going to go and how they're going to pay for it and what additional education they're going to get. And with hopes that they come back to San Antonio because we've got good jobs for them, Bruce, because that's why they're going to come back. We also make, on a day-to-day basis, we make investments in the various education foundations. Last week I was at Edgewood ISD presenting them with a check for $19,000 for students, academic scholarships that will be given away this year. For kids that are looking for, not a handout, but a hand up, an opportunity to be able to go out and do it. While those small scholarships are not going to get them through college, it gives them incentives, something that perhaps they haven't ever been able to shoot for and try to get. So these are all classroom scholarships. So we're trying to do it at every spectrum, every step of the way, we're trying to figure out how is it that we're going to execute our plan relative to education. And the reality of it is there was an argument that I think I got into with several people and at one point there was a debate and they brought up a bunch of us in and there were people that were saying what business is it of the city to be an education? That's not your business, that's not your core business. And I can tell you as a former school board member and a president of a school district, the largest school district and the other fourth largest in the state, 57th largest in the country, I can tell you that I would at that time would have said what business is it of the cities to be there? Well I can tell you what the business of the city is. If we don't partner with our educational system, we don't partner with our independent school districts, we will not have the kind of workforce that we need to be able to bring jobs to San Antonio over the course of the last five years I've had the privilege. You're absolutely right, thank you, you're absolutely right. We will, if we don't have that workforce, that is the role of the cities to bring jobs to San Antonio, but we can't get them here. We can't execute on that plan, Marty, unless we are having a workforce that is ready, willing, and able to take those jobs that we bring to San Antonio. That's what we continue to work through. I was fortunate enough this past summer to get appointed to be the chairman for the economic development committee for the city of San Antonio. By virtue of chairing that committee, I also get to sit on economic development, a foundation with Cheryl and others and Mario and a lot of really good folks on that team also get a chance to participate with the free trade alliance and talk about what we're going to do on the international space, how we're going to do outreach into other countries to get them to invest here, how we're going to direct foreign investment to San Antonio. I mean, stuff that I really didn't think about much when I was on the school board level, but certainly now it's part of what I need to go do and it continues to crystallize exactly what the role of the city is when it deals with education. We've got to go out and be able to recruit and we've got to have the asset available here in San Antonio to meet those job demands. I can tell you that many of those businesses that have come to San Antonio have come back and say, guys, you need to help us with this. You need to help us with a more robust workforce, because we put demands on them that if you want to come to San Antonio and you want to send us from the city, you've got to deliver, you've got to deliver good rates, good salaries, good jobs and a quantity. They come back and say, we're having trouble because it's an incredible expensive proposition for us to hire these folks and then have to spend all that money in training. So you've got to do a better job of training and when they get here that they're ready to go to work. We're working hard on getting that accomplished. There are organizations that we continue to partner with, certainly Edgewood, Northside, which are part of the District 6 family. We also work with Port San Antonio with the Westside Development Corporation. We have an organization called the Westside Educational Technical Center, which is WETC, that produces training and job training for individuals that are going to go work at the port, that are going to go fill these jobs that we need to have that brain power, brain trust for. So we're working really hard in a lot of spectrums of education. So let me change the gears now for just a second and kind of shift over to transportation real quick, because that's a real important topic and it has so many variable components and I know that you know I'm up here talking and you guys are going, how much money did I put into the meter? If you get a ticket call Cheryl or call my friends over here at the other table. The reality of it is we have to address the issues around transportation. Our city is continuing to grow depends on which, what measurement you want to use. I've heard all kinds of things said making analogies that just outside of 1604 out there in the Alamo Ranch area that will have a by the by the by the next census it will have a city the size of Corpus Christi there. That's a lot of people. They people talk about at the county level you know I think 1.3, 1.2 million new people that will be here by the end of the by the time the next census is taken. It doesn't matter which standard you use if you're measuring county, you're measuring city, if they're coming to our region they need a place to live they need a place to work they need a place to play and they come here because there's a quality of living so play is a very important part of that right but to be able to keep them here and to be able to have the kind of quality of life that we want is we have to deal with issues like transportation and it is a very tough discussion to have because everybody realizes that transportation to address transportation is an incredibly expensive proposition. It's amazing. Fortunate to get appointed to be chair of the MPO the Metropolitan Planning Organization and when we talk there about funding and road funding and all that kind of stuff we're talking about millions of dollars per mile and we need miles and miles of road work. We also hear that there is no way Mario that we're going to be able to build and pour enough concrete and pour enough asphalt to build our way out of congestion. Can't do it. Not possible. We don't have the money we don't have the resource and we don't have the time. So what we're going to have to do incorporate it into our transportation plan and we started talking about plans and what we have to do that plan has to include a multimodal approach to transportation and it has to be a region wide plan. We've got to get folks riding rail riding high speed trains riding and get our freight on freight rail we've got to that's an incredible expensive proposition. We've also got to improve our interstate system in San Antonio which we're working on diligently because we got to get people around from neighborhood to neighborhood and then we've got to take it one step further and improve and invest in our arterial and our feeder streets and those are the roads that you and I use to get to work. It's got to be an entire process an entire network of design that we have to invest in. All of those are different levels for different layers of government right at the state level at the local level county and all that kind of stuff but the reality of it is you and I are the ones that pay for it because remember I said no level of government reaches in their own pocket and pulls it out they reach into our pocket and pull it out so if we're going to make a plan that is actually going to be supported and funded by the public it's got to be a plan that makes sense that we have had incredible amount of input from from the public and then have a crystallized plan that's financed and moved forward. I can tell you that we're working hard at the city level to be able to do that. The city has taken the responsibility for the next four years of leading the MPO in their in the chairmanship. I am the chairman for that for that organization at this time and that really is the statewide management of streets that come through San Antonio. I know that I've asked Cheryl and she's agreed we're working on a plan to be able to identify and address the congestion within our streets those arterials and feeders that I was talking about and what we want to do is over the course of the next 18 months is to have a plan to implement across the entire city that allows us to be able to say these are the congested areas these are the bottlenecks these are the trouble spots and this is what it's going to take to resolve it and it's going to be money and it's going to be something that you and I are going to have to vote on at some point in the near future with a bond. If the plan is not good you will not support it. Conversely, I hope that the plan is good you will support it because we but we have to craft that plan we can only craft that plan together. A while ago there were I think it was Gabe or John or someone asked for those that here representing HOAs and the like to please stand so I know that you've been recognized but you are the ones that are telling me what needs to happen within our communities it's got to be a grassroots plan that we ultimately crafting you and I are the ones that are driving that as a matter of fact all of you that are involved in your HOAs need to communicate with your neighborhood leadership on where the bottlenecks are and where their problems are so we can start to address them on a global scale. So I'm looking forward to doing that we implemented a small pilot program in the district in district six on the 151 Patranco area where we kind of identified a pretty large area that had a lot of growth that had a lot of congestion I felt partially responsible because I was on the school board when we put all those schools in the neighborhood there and created that congestion so I kind of felt a secondary obligation to go and try to get an address but what we did was relatively new and what we did is we identified a large segment much more than just a street or a corner and did what they call a TIA a traffic impact analysis and said hey this is where all the choke points are and this is what it's going to take and we stacked up all of the things that we needed to be able to improve that community prioritize them by dollars and then lay it out in time and said over the next five years this is our plan it isn't that difficult to do if the community is having the opportunity to give input my commitment to you is to continue to work that whether it's at sitting on the count of the the city's economic development committee or through the MPO to get the input from the community because without that quite honestly none of these plans are going to take shape and then ultimately you aren't going to support them because they're not plans that came from you so I've talked a lot about the two topics I guess that were you know that came out of the SA 2020 transportation and education and I think all of us can agree that we could probably sit here and talk about and ponder and maybe even cry a little bit over some of the situations that we have to deal with in those two areas but there's also a great opportunity for us from an economic development perspective you know to continue to work in a lot to be proud of in district six and certainly on the west side of San Antonio so I'll kind of move on to the to my closing remarks that says although I was talking about education and transportation one of the things that I think is always important senators that we recognize that we always look forward you know in a with a I guess a mind to you know to be innovative and aggressive and but if we look forward only we'll miss miss a very large piece of what we're all about and that's our past and our heritage we've got to also look back and we've got to keep a foot back there we've got to keep an eye on what has happened to get us to where we are as we move forward no doubt we have to move forward but we have to keep an eye on the past and I can tell you that in District 6 we certainly have an eye on our history an eye on our past and those that have committed to making San Antonio what it is making the West Side what it is last year I talked a little bit about you know my intent to rename Ohio A90 to Enrique Barreta Parkway Miss Barreta is here with us this morning and I want to tell you that we can continue to work on that project I mentioned a few minutes ago we actually have the bookings already started on Ohio A90 we at one end of Ohio A90 we've put the the pre- K4SA Center at the other end we've invested a significant amount of money at the intersection of 36th Street and Ohio A90 we're going to continue to build that corridor out because it is one of the key corridors to developing the West Side and in one of the requests that was made when we talked last year was that Miss Barreta insisted the entire family insisted that whatever we did for it not to cost the citizens of San Antonio anything for the renaming I assured her that that was the case and that's the direction that we're taking we've put together a small budget we've also started a with in collaboration with the West Side Development Corporation created if you will a sub 501 seat three to be able to raise money we're going to have a golf tournament that will be announcing soon probably in the late summer early fall that'll start the raising of we believe about an $80,000 budget to change the names on 151 I'm going to work with Maria to see if I can get some really good deals on those signs on 151 but but the reality is that was that was the commitment that we made is that we will not allow that name change to create any kind of a negative connotation around a great individual Enrique Embarera he committed so much of his life and time to our community and for there to be any kind of a negative discussion around that honor needs to be avoided at all cost or at no cost right so what we're doing is making sure that we have the funds in place before we actually start the the name change certainly my colleagues are on support of that we will we won't be moving that one forward and you'll be hearing soon about the the fundraising initiatives that that will pay for the actual renaming and we'll also create a small fund for those businesses that are on as they say on a fixed income right businesses that are thin margins really tough to you know to be able to you know to make any kind of changing your business without it affecting your bottom line so we can have a small fund available to them if they're associated with the renaming if there happens to be incorporated to their business so we we intend to be able to do that as well so uh with after saying all of that I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak with you and um and kind of close up on one last final point that I want to make and it it really is as important as all the other stuff is this one is is critically important and and I want to and I want to say with all the sincerity that I that I possibly can and with making sure that you know that I've pondered how I'm going to say this but in the next few months you're going to hear quite a bit of discussion you're going to hear headlines and all kinds of stuff about what's going on between the city and our police and fire associations you're going to hear things that newspapers like to say especially when they're trying to sell papers I can tell you that nothing is more important than providing a good quality category of first responders to our community that is what the community demands that is what we all demand nobody scripts when they're having that heart attack or when they're they're perhaps their family member has fallen and needs help when their house is on fire when someone's broken into their into the house next door or they see something suspicious nobody haggles over you know how much are we paying and all that kind of stuff best that we possibly can get in that arena and I can tell you that the folks in the union both the police and the fire folks are committed to making sure that whatever comes out of this negotiations will continue to be able to deliver that because they live here too I also know that our city managers committed to delivering the same thing so we will use that kind of prudent judgment to make our deliberations what you hear in the paper it needs to be taken with a grain of salt there's always folks trying to sell newspapers and sometimes the headlines are not exactly what you know what they should be or really defining exactly the level of discussion that's going on but I want to tell you that that you're going to hear a lot of stuff over the course of the next few months about that kind of stuff you probably have heard some things in the past few weeks again take it with a grain of salt know that all sides are committed to delivering the best service that we possibly can to providing a great police and fire uh agreement that allows us to retain and recruit the best that San Antonio deserves so with that being said I want to tell you that I'm very very honored and proud to be able to serve the city of San Antonio currently in my capacity as a city councilman I've been there for five years hope to be there another three next next year around this time you just keep in mind you know you need to tell your friends to get out know but the the future is very bright in San Antonio the future is even brighter I think in District 6 on the west side of San Antonio and it's that way because of the commitment that has been made by the public by the folks that that live there and play there so thank you very much for that opportunity and for actually sitting here well after the time that I was supposed to be sitting down the other thing just really quickly closing Andrew worked for me up until last year and Andrew I just want you to know that I didn't follow your notes and I didn't follow theirs either pal so once again thank you very much and have a great day