 So the instructions for the evening, you're going to have questions that we've already presented and you will have three minutes to answer the question. Robert will be, Luis will be giving the time and I will say time and Mr. Terry will move on to the next candidate. The questions are going to work this way. We'll start with this one. First question, everyone answers the second question with a problem for Noel and that's how it will go. It would be bad if it makes sense to you. I think that's about it. Our moderator would like to introduce Luis Terry. He's with AGD. He also is our chairman of the board. Everybody is ready. We will begin our program. At this point, time permitting, we will have questions from the floor after all the questions are asked. Our first question will go to Ms. Aguillon. What qualifications do you bring to the Texas House District 123 race? Okay, well, Melissa Aguillon. I'm a small business owner. I've had my own business for five years. Aguillon and Associates were a public relations marketing firm. I have 20 years experience career-wise here in San Antonio, both in the public sector and in the private sector. I have my undergraduate degree from UTSA as well as my Masters in Public Administration. And throughout those 20 years, I've developed a very good reputation. I have a lot of friends who people that I've worked with on different levels that I can now actually call friends but that I can call on whenever I need to get something done. And obviously, working towards being a state representative in this district, I look forward to serving the community at a deeper level. I've always been very involved in community service and have served on the UTSA Alumni Board. I've served on the Hispanic Chamber Board of Directors. And I've also served on the San Antonio Association of Hispanic Journalists. So, I work promoting other small businesses such as yourselves, helping non-profits. And I'm very excited about working with the constituents of District 123. All right. My name is Guilla Urinal. First, on the life side, I grew up in this district. I went to school in this district. After I went away from college at the University of Michigan where I got my undergraduate and my Masters in my Law degree and I came back and moved back into my own neighborhood, most of my friends or friends have had all my life. And so, I feel like I'm rooted in the community. I think a lot of people expect me to say that being elected previously, being the District 1 councilperson which is about 65 or 70% of 123 is what qualifies me to do the job, but that's really not the case. I think we all know plenty of elected folks who have been elected. They've had people vote for them, but they haven't done much there. So, that's not my answer. My answer is on the issues of public education, on the issue of predatory lending, on the issue of civil rights, on the issue of health care, I've had experience with those issues. I litigated school finance cases before. In fact, the lawsuit just came out a while back. I worked on the last version of that lawsuit, the school finance lawsuit in 2004 and 2005. I went hard after the payday lending. It was the strongest payday lending regulation to the entire state, but we needed to take that to the state level. I've done work with health care. So, my qualifications are not that I've had people vote for me. I've been on a ballot and won an election. That's not really a qualification. That's an experience. But, I believe that I have experience with the issues we're going to deal with in Austin. That is what makes me uniquely qualified for this position. My name is Paul Englinson, and I run for District 123 State Representative. In terms of qualifications, I have a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Texas of Austin. I've been a resident for District 123 for over 30 years. My background in clinical psychology, some would probably say that something with expertise in mental health would play an important role in the state legislature for various reasons. Beyond that, I think that the analytic skills that I've acquired in my training are going to help me analyze the documents and the data that is necessary to digest complex data sets and translate them into policies that can help people's lives. In my work, as a clinical psychologist and as a sleep medicine expert, I have worked with both the public and the private sector. I have helped people who are well insured. I have helped indigenous and homeless people. I think the breadth of experience that I have in dealing with many sectors of our community and recognizing those unmet needs suits me well to take a position of leadership representing the interests of the people of District 123. Thank you. My name is Walter Martinez, and I too am a native of San Antonio and not only San Antonio, but District 123. I grew up on the west side of San Antonio. This district is diverse. It has a little bit of the west side, a little bit of the east side, the downtown area, and north central. I feel I know the district because this is where I grew up and this is the district that I've been passionate about in serving in public office. I served in the city council for eight years and while there addressed many of the issues that were important and continue to be important today. We initiated the first program to promote small minority women-owned businesses and the passive ordinance to set that up for the future. And to give opportunity to small businesses. I was active in affordable housing, not only in the city council task force, but also in the private sector. The last 20 years I've worked in developing affordable housing over close to 5,000 units from San Antonio down to south Texas in Brownsville. Back in the 70s when it was important to begin to get a voice and address the needs of our community that weren't being addressed. We were active in initiating nonprofit organizations like Avenida Guadalupe, who addressed economic development to create jobs to bring investment. Working with cops and other organizations, for example, community organizations. Areas of San Antonio that had never received benefits, basic benefits, streets and drainage were able to be, we were able to be successful in securing that support. So with that background, both working in the public sector, at the state level, in the state legislature, having worked up there for 10 years and served one term as well as a local level. And then also the business or the perspective that I bring as a businessman, having been involved in business for over 20 years here at San Antonio. That's the qualifications I bring to this office. Thank you. Thank you. I'm Nemzio Privatera and I want to thank all of you for having this and hosting this great setting, others. As all you know, this election is going to be whirlwind. During the holidays, most people are more concerned with having Christmas and New Years. But where am I from? I am a proud Air Force brat. My father served in World War II and Vietnam, his career span in both of them. As I was growing up as an Air Force brat, we learned real quick that you didn't have bullies in your atmosphere or our parents did not allow stuff like that. So I got a work ethic that is beyond compare from my parents and from the military people that were around me. The last 20 years, I've been a small business owner together with my wife, Penny. We own an independent insurance agency. And one of the main focuses on that business is we do not only business insurance for small companies, but we do health insurance for individuals and for small businesses. I'm one of those crazy people that it can't be said in Washington that actually read the 2600 page bill of Obamacare. And there was a lot of stuff in that bill that's not helping America, I can assure you. I think we all know that. The other thing that I bring to this table is the, I mean, Deacon and the Castle Hills Christian Church, which is within the district. My business is within the district. My wife and I lived in the district now for a year, but we lived in San Antonio for the last 30 plus years. We know what it means to write paychecks for individuals and to support families. We know what it means to provide good work atmosphere. We know what it means to train people for jobs. That's what this district needs. This district has a 24% high school dropout rate. So when we talk about education, it's not only what we can do for education in the schools, but what can we do for those students to give them a better life and opportunity on ways to earn deals. We will talk more about that, I think, as we get some of the questions. I'm also the only Republican in a legislature that is going to be manned by the Republicans. So I'm going to have the ability, the best ability of everybody you see up here, to take our district issues to Austin and get them passed. Thank you. Our next question. Our next question starts with Councilman Bernal. If elected at the state level, what will you accomplish for San Antonio and Barrack County? Thank you. Also, this is not a diva moment. I'm a little under the weather and so they probably a sprite, they're not feeling so well. I think we have to look at that question two ways. One, I'm a Democrat and I'm a proud Democrat. That means that I have an agenda to some degree that might be contrary to the Republican agenda. That being said, working across the aisle as a prerequisite, whether you're Republican or Democrat, you have to do that in order to get things done. So I think there are common sense things that we can do. For example, and you mentioned it, we have to prepare people for the next generation of jobs here. And I've done quite a bit on Council to fortify small businesses. I'll give you an example. As we start to reinvest in the inner city, the businesses along those streets are going to suffer as we start to tear up those streets. We've ignored the inner city for a long time. In my district, there were businesses that were suffering because of construction. I created a program that allowed them to focus on payroll and rent. The city took care of their utilities so they could survive. Once the construction was over with, they're able to then stay on their feet and pay the city back. We should have programs like that throughout the state. They help small businesses survive construction and infrastructure projects. At the same time though, and I want to be very honest with you guys, there are some bills coming out of Austin that frighten me. And part of my job is to play good defense. We've seen them over and over again. There are some bills that are bad for people. They're bad for working families. They're bad for immigrants. They're bad for students. They're bad for people from vulnerable communities. And part of our job is going to be to play defense to make sure they don't pass. I think that me in particular have a dual purpose in the legislature. I'm telling the people of District 123, I want to be a champion for developing policies to address the problem of climate change. Climate change is a catastrophe that's unfolding in real time. We need to develop policies to address this. How many people when they read about climate change or they talk about climate change, they think, what does that have to do with me and my problems in our district? Well, I spoke to the woman just before we met today. And she said she's worried about flooding. She's worried about flooding at her house on Barber Street here in District 123. What causes flooding? Well, there are two things that come to mind immediately. One is the increase in impermeable ground cover that's caused by development. And if we approve projects like the Vista GHA, water pipeline, we can have more development. We can have more impermeable ground cover. We're going to have more flooding. What else drives flooding? Climate change drives flooding. As we pump more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, we're going to have more 100-year floods. When we start having 500-year floods in 10 years, we know we have a problem, right? What can San Antonio do to address this? San Antonio is the host to the Southwest Research Institute, one of the largest institutes in the country pioneering new technologies in transportation. San Antonio is also the host to Red City Base, where they are developing new solar technologies. San Antonio can play a leading role in the transformation of the technologies we need to address the problem of climate change. We can put a little green dot in the middle of the sea of red in the state of Texas, if you vote for me. Those are very good issues. You know, the issues that confront us as a community are very good. And I think the representative that's elected needs to make sure that he or she listens to the voters, listens to the citizens. You need to have an open door policy. You can't have an arrogant attitude that says, you know, I know it all, I'm smarter, and I know what you want. You need to be able to say to the people and be genuine about it, that you want to represent them and what their concerns are. There's people, we have citizens in our community, for example, that are concerned about tax relief. And I know that that's probably one of the topics that's going to be addressed in the legislature. In terms of tax relief, who really needs the help? It's the homeowner. It's the residents that are suffering from higher tax bills. And you know, there will be tax bills that are introduced in the legislature that might offer benefits to the big tax payers, the big businesses. And while business needs to be encouraged, here in Texas, to be able to create jobs and have a strong economy, we also have to look at who's carrying the burden of that tax. One of the things that I want to explore, and the previous representative here, Mike Gabriela, tempted this and wasn't able to do it. But we need to set a sunset bill. We need sunset legislation on tax exemptions. Some of these exemptions were passed 10 and 20 years ago. They've never been reviewed by the legislature. Are they still essential? Are they still, you know, necessary? Why is that important? That's $41 billion a year that's lost in money and revenue that could be used to address education. I have two daughters in the audience here, Anna and Isa, and they're probably in Paris that I introduced them. But they are teenagers that attend public school here. I attended public school here. We need to make sure that we support our public schools. And I am concerned about not only the kids that are in public schools that are doing well, but also those that are not doing well. You know, back in the old day, it used to be that we would warehouse the kids that were the bad kids. And what did that produce? It produced kids that are not prepared for jobs and that are dragging our money. We need to make sure that programs for GBE and other programs that rescue those kids are available and that they're important and a funding mechanism exists at the state level for those programs. That's some very good points, Walter. You know, one of the other segments of this district that has gone overlooked completely, 24% of the population in House District 123 are senior citizens. The majority of them own their own homes. We cannot forget our senior citizens. We cannot continue to increase property taxes. Matter of fact, we need to be lowering property taxes for those people. That's going to be a very big pushing point. Most of the working people in House District 123 are employed by small, locally owned businesses. They're not employed by the big businesses. They're not employed by the government. There's no military within this district. It's small businesses. We need to focus on helping small businesses. We need to pass legislation that takes away the mandates and the administrative burdens that we're putting on small businesses. We need to do things like that. We need to form work programs that encourage them. I work real close with masonry contractors. I work real close with electrical contractors and air conditioning contractors. And what I hear from all of those small business owners in this town is they can't find qualified workers. And that's because there's no programs. The schools don't teach them. There's no real programs out there focused. Our magnet schools do a little bit on some of the industries, but we need to expand that. And we need to be working not just with the schools, but with the associations to get very specific on job skills and helping the city of San Antonio. I've been hearing about Vista Ridge, and I think that's important. I think we have a question about that coming up. But one of the real, real important things is, I don't know about you guys, but if you read the paper in the last couple of months, supposedly the flooding issue around Olmos Creek is already taking care of it. And we just heard today that it's not. There's houses being boarded up along there. We need to get involved in that area and work close with them. It's an opportunity to help the people in the district. And my qualifications working with the Republican Party and the Republican leaderships will make sure that those things get heard. The last thing that I'll throw out with regards to that is small business access to healthcare. Group healthcare and individual healthcare, while Obamacare did some good things, the few good things that came out of it could have been done with a five-page bill. Just simply five pages would have taken care of a few things. We need to come back when a lot of people... I'll come back to them. Well, I think communication is going to be key on a lot of different levels. First of all, that's what I do for a living. I'm used to going out and talking with different stakeholders, different people in the community, different people in different organizations, and building consensus. Now, with that in mind, going into the state legislature in this capacity now, there's obviously going to be sometimes for consensus-building, but there's going to be sometimes where we need to just roll up our sleeves and fight for the causes that are important to us. The things that I am bringing to the table have to do with education, quality education, good jobs, and equal opportunities for all Texans. So when it comes to education, I'm going to say for sure one of the most important things is to make sure that all children have access to pre-K, and that's full-time access to pre-K. That's extremely important. We all know that children learn a lot in their early years, and they can succeed more if they have access to that. My parents are graduates of Fox Tech High School here in San Antonio. I was born in this district, and I lived here until we moved away to Corpus, and I have been here ever since, living for almost 20 years in this district now and attended, as I mentioned, UTSA. But they weren't able to put me through college. I had to find my own way, and I had to work all the way through college as well, and so higher education and access to higher education is extremely important to me, and I want to make sure that anybody that would like to go to college has that opportunity. With that being said, there needs to be some education as well on other skills and trades, which goes into my next thing, which is jobs. So we have a lot of 21st century jobs here in San Antonio. We're creating more, obviously, with some of these new big businesses, like Toyota has been here for a while. We're talking about other things in different fields, but we need to make sure that those skills and trades are learned here as well, and that the jobs that are provided marry those skill sets. So that's extremely important as well. As a small business owner, you all probably, or most of you, at least have a small business. Over 90% of businesses here in Texas are small businesses. So you know what it's like to work hard every day to put food on your table, to make payroll, to create jobs, to manage people, which that's not always easy to do, or how many you're managing. Seniors and veterans are extremely important to me. I want to make sure that seniors have access to quality and affordable healthcare. I want to make sure that our veterans are taken care of, and I'd like to mention my two uncles that are here that are both veterans, Carlos and Hector Pacheco, they kill for coming. They're friends with some people here in the Alamo Chamber. All right, third question starts from Mr. Edmondson. As a state representative for District 123, how will you advocate for Bear County to advance our telecommunications? Um... We're shorting it for the un-perdentant neutrality. The un-perdentant neutrality is an important principle. It needs to be an important part of our policy at the state level, as well as the federal level. What we've seen in the telecommunications sector is a proliferation of different information sources for people. We have lots of different channels that are open for people to get information and to learn about their communities and their world and make informed decisions. But with this proliferation of resources for youth, we have seen a concentration in the carriers that provide the pipe that the information is made available in. I think that's a bad thing. We need to be very careful to treat the cable industry and the people that are providing the condos for information by utilities that are subject to public regulation. There are condos for the people to the way they separate and for the services they provide. Those are critical things that need to be considered in the state regulatory process to regulate our communications sector. I think for me, when you think about telecommunications and how to advance it in our communities, I think from the standpoint of the residents and citizens, they want access, they want affordability. I think any regulation or state statute that would inhibit that would be bad. So my focus would be to make sure that whatever is offered as far as legislation, that we continue with telecommunications, that we focus on the fact that it needs to be accessible for all the citizens as broadly as possible. Diversity in our telecommunications, I think, is a good thing because it gives more vehicles, more channels for people to hear, to get information. But it has to be affordable. You can't afford it. Look at your monthly cable bill. That's the issue of telecommunications. It's always affordable. How can we make sure that we make it affordable and maintain it affordable and that it is also readily available and offers diversity and choice for the consumer? Ultimately, I want to be there representing the consumer. Not the telecom giants that are trying to maximize Yeah, business is important and they're in business for a reason. But at the same time, the telecommunication industry and that whole topic is almost like electricity or water. We only access to it and it has to be affordable. That's the main thing. So the consumer concerns and the consumer interests would be foremost in my mind in addressing those issues. My first very short answer is do everything we can to get AT&T to come back to San Antonio. We lost a great business partner when we lost AT&T to Dallas. You can't sit in a restaurant. Matter of fact, I'm looking out the crowd right now and I see at least five cell phones in hands with fingers punching on. Technology is the future. I hear seniors. I'm not going to learn that stuff. And then I see them posting on Facebook pictures of their credit cards. It's here, folks, and it's going to be here. We have got to, from a legislative standpoint, we've got to embrace it. We've got to do everything we can to work with companies like Google, with AT&T, to make sure that they build the infrastructure for the cyber-optic systems that will bring the things that Walter's talking about, the affordability and the access to the web to this city. I feel the same way. I think it's all about accessibility. Now in this day and age, just as you mentioned, we have so many different ways to communicate and it's all about how fast you can do it. I think it almost kind of makes us a little bit ADD because they don't respond right away. You get a little nervous, because everybody's easily accessible these days. But more importantly, I think one of the things that I'll be looking at as well is the jobs that this kind of industry will create and that we have the workforce, which I think is all very important to all of us, so that the jobs and the workforce goes hand in hand when it comes to telecommunications. All right. I'm doing my very best, you guys, to give you specifics because as you can see, a lot of us are going to say that we care about a lot of the same things and we do. I mean, I think that, in all honesty, you've got a good couple of people here who have big hearts. But on this topic, let me just sort of say three things. First, right now, the city of San Antonio in Bear County are finalists for Google Fighter. And that means two things. One, it means that you would be able to get internet speeds that are 10 times faster, 100 times faster than they are now. That means you can download a full, high definition, Dolby surround sound movie in two minutes. But what Google Fiber also offers is that if you pay a one-time fee of $300 and that can be spread out over years, you could get lifetime high speed internet. And what that means for areas like the west side and the east side and the south side and parts of our district is that it bridges the digital divide. We need to make sure there are no legislative barriers to making sure Google Fiber comes here instead. The second thing is that we have, and we started it about a year and a half ago, what's called the San Antonio Area Broadband Network. Underneath San Antonio is what's called dark fiber. It's fiber that's not being used. Because it was put down and it's owned by the city, we can use it like a public utility. We can connect public institutions, libraries, universities, public hospitals, and we can give them high speed internet. When I say high speed, I mean faster than we have now at a very, very low cost. This enhances their ability to do research, it enhances their ability to educate students, and it also enhances their ability to do the work faster. So telecommunications has a lot to do with that. And then finally, remember that it is absolutely our job to bring home the bread and butter for San Antonio, but we are also part of a whole to represent the state. And there are rural areas. So far, just right outside the city limits in Barrick County that don't have the same access to towers and cell service and internet that others do. It's a part of our job is to utilize that and make sure it's not done just by one carrier or several carriers so that they have a diversity of options. These are specifics that I believe that we can do and are part of my agenda. Thank you. Our next question starts with... how will you advocate for Barrick County to receive state funds for transportation? Well, that's a very important issue for our community. We are lagging way behind on investment in our infrastructure and that's an important component ensuring that our community and the state is able to progress and to attract investment and job creation throughout the state. One of the things we need to make sure we do is to make sure that the dollars that are generated through the transportation tax remain part of the funding for transportation. If you look out at the growth areas of San Antonio, out on 1604 in the west, for example, I hate driving out there because it takes an hour and a half to just travel one quarter of a mile of 1604. There's access roads and main highways that should have been built 10 years ago because the communities were already coming. So we need to make sure that we fight for those funding dollars for our local community, but also that we don't rate that transportation tax in such a way that we can continue to invest. Right now, we're not even maintaining the highways that we own right now. All of you drive the roads and there are some that are in terrible conditions because I think we've been lacking and I think negligent in rating those funds and using them for something else. There are some things we need. There are some things we would like to have, but at a time when austerity is required, when we have limited resources for public services, we need to make sure that our priorities are not out of question. We may like the GNC project that we want to put funding to and money is to, but you know what, there's also some needs we have. We have to address that we haven't been addressing. So I would focus on making sure that we first address those needs that we have in our community that are a must before we start thinking about attractive or glitzy projects that we want to put money into. Transportation is a very important issue in Bear County. It is not that important an issue in House District 123. 89% of the working people in House District 123 go to work in private vehicles. Okay? They use their own cars. Thanks to the way San Antonio was built, it's almost impossible to, without spending millions and millions of dollars, create any kind of mass transit that would really help House District 123. Now, House District 123 is going to be my emphasis. So I am going to be looking at transportation issues and remembering how they will affect my district. And I'm going to be voting so that it helps my district on these things. The other thing that I'm very concerned about, the streetcar debacle, not so much the streetcars themselves, but the funding mechanism. We gave the state of Texas 92 million dollars for them to give us back 92 million dollars. What should have been done is we should have asked for a grant from the state for that 92 million dollars because on those transportation grants, when the state issues them, they require that you put up 25% and they fund it by four times. So we shortchanged ourselves by hundreds of millions of dollars by funding the streetcars or planning to fund the streetcars the way we did. That money that has just remained here, if it had been left in the state and done properly, would have brought many, many, many more tax dollars to the city of San Antonio and to our House District. Transportation issues, there's going to be a bill coming up that is going to be asking for transportation board type members to no longer be appointed. They're going to have to be earning your vote and getting on those boards if the law passes this legislation. I'm all for that. A lot of the appointments are terrible. What we're talking about on transportation is toll roads. The state tells you that we can't build without toll roads. That's crazy. We need to quit diverting the money that was supposed to be used for our highways to other projects and we need to build a road we have. The other thing is an existing road, there's no way in the world an existing pathway or road should be turned into a toll road. Those few toll roads that we do fund when that road is paid for that toll should stop. It doesn't need to be used for other things. We have a real problem with truth and taxation in this state. We have tax and then we use it for pet projects. That has to stop. Obviously transportation is going to be a very big issue in the upcoming legislative session. I'm also in the school of thought that we should not toll existing roads and I'm also in the thought that if that is something that the city of San Antonio decides to do it would definitely be done as a vote through the people. And so that is where I stand on that issue but with that being said there's a lot of things that we need to be looking at currently specifically in District 123 that will allow multimodal transportation and looking at how we can get cars off the streets and use our bus system, have more bike lanes, different things like that and it also will hopefully reduce some of the air pollution and help in that capacity as well. And so those are the things that I'll be bringing forward for District 123 regarding transportation. Specifically we have what are called ATD dollars that we can use to improve the roads but I think that I agree that the state has been negligent in the way that it's spent in some of its transportation money. I'll give you an example. You may remember a few months ago that the state tried to unload certain streets that are in our city but are maintained by the state and said these are your problems now. You've got to fund them you've got to take care of them you're responsible for the maintenance of them that's negligence. And so we need to make sure that as other folks have said, that money is being spent correctly and prioritized. I will actually though disagree with one of my panelists on transportation not being a big issue in this district. One of the things that's happening in 123 is that we're seeing a renaissance of the inner city we're seeing a renaissance of our downtown we're seeing an influx not only of young people but of jobs especially jobs based on the tech industry and the cloud in particular. Those people those young people who are looking for a place they're trying to decide to move to Los Angeles and Atlanta and San Antonio and New York and one of the things that they ask for all of the time are other ways to get around aside from using their car. They do want a bus system that gets them around the entire city they do want more bike lanes they do want more walkability In fact, to that end when it comes to seniors they want walkability that allows everyone to participate so if you're in a walker or a wheelchair they want it all. And so part of bringing jobs or bringing industry is making sure that we have an active multimodal transportation system so the fact that it's not an issue I think betrays not only a personal but a financial interest that the district has but I also believe that it's important that we look to transportation as a way to generate money. It's not just about big projects it's about what those projects produce one of the really great things about the conversation that we had a few months ago with regard to rail is that all of a sudden we're having a conversation again about connecting San Antonio to Austin and Dallas and Houston and Corpus and the Valley and I guarantee that downtown the prime part of the central district of the city will be a part of that plan that has to be part of the state's future. So transportation on a local level and transportation on a state level go hand in hand to making sure that this district and the state can evolve properly. Transportation is a critical issue for the citizens of District 2023 if we look at the data on how many people use public transportation to get to work it's much higher in our district than it is statewide and it would be much higher still if we had decent public transportation anybody that's trying to get from one place to another in San Antonio on the bus knows exactly what I'm talking about we need to improve our transportation infrastructure and we need to do that we need to find the funds to do that with. One way one thing that the legislature has to consider very seriously is looking at the way the gas tax is computed we base the gas tax on the number of per gallon but what's happening of course with the pathway standards and the improvements in mileage over the years we have a decreasing pool of money to fund the infrastructure on an increasing number of vehicles this leads to disaster this leads to greatest crumbling and also leads to great losses and productivity because people are taking longer to get to work. This is a recipe for for regress rather than progress we need to develop a funding formula that's based on miles of transportation use rather than gallons of fuel we need to find public transportation aggressive we don't need to go over this but we need to invest in public infrastructure when I buy the Dallas I can take a light rail system from the airport to downtown in 20 minutes try to do that in San Antonio it's the only city in the state not to have like that we need to invest in like that we need to fund it we can do these things we also need to look at moving the freight rail system outside of the city this could greatly improve safety for the rest of 2023 as well as waiting times but we're standing there ready for a freight train to go by there are proposals in the legislature now to look at ways to move the freight and take those existing rail links and use them for public transportation infrastructure we can do these things we can find the money to do it and making those changes is critical to the continued development of this function question starts with what is your stance on renewable energy renewable energy is important to all of us the problem with most renewable energy is that the only way it's coming to fruition is by the government continuing to raise taxes to pay for it we see time and time again the private industries not investing in renewable energy why is that it's too expensive they're not going to spend money on it we worry about climate control we worry about a lot of reasons for renewable energy when we by our scientists and the people in this country that know how to do those kinds of things actually come along and figure out a way to do it cheaply I think we should do it until we get there I do not believe we should continue to fund renewable energy I think renewable energy is extremely important being green is important recycling where we can in different capacities but most importantly the way we do business now there's a lot more need obviously for energy just on a daily basis as a private citizen or as a business owner anytime there's any opportunities to implement renewable energy whether it's private sector or public sector extremely important and I'll be taking a good look at that and how it'll affect District 123 and what we can do to bring more of that to the state legislature nice renewable energy energy is both an opportunity and responsibility it's a responsibility because we can't continue to be reliant on non-reliable energy and it's the only energy producer that does a number of things one, it leads us into the next century in terms of jobs the new way of jobs are going to be jobs focus on renewable energy that also has a connection with education if we can create a pipeline so people can get trained to work on it then renewable energy creates a market and a pipeline for education to fill that need the next thing it does is look, we've heard about well-priced prices dropping and we've heard about while the great boom of the evil court shale is important we're starting to hear rumblings or maybe some anxieties about it not lasting that the bottom is going to fall out soon renewable energy doesn't have that it doesn't have that collateral damage it doesn't have those consequences it's something that's stable and so while it may be we have to figure out how to control the cost of it in the long run it's an investment if you look at it just for the first year or two it might seem like it's a little high but in the long run it pays off and it doesn't have the collateral damage of decimating a city, polluting the environment or leaving people unemployed the way that other energies do so it's certainly worthy of our time and attention I think it's absolutely the responsibility of the state especially because we're a coastal state it is absolutely our responsibility to make sure that we invest in and promote, train and educate people for the new energy economy of which the renewable energy department will grow energy is critical to entering the dilemma posed by climate change if you look at the projection for when we're going to hit a 2% increase in CO2 levels it's on the order between 25 and 30 years that means your children and grandchildren are going to be growing up in an environment that's radically different from the one we live in unless we make changes and we start with the changes now renewable energy is the key to doing that it's not even fun these things I disagree immediately with the Republican position about this is not economic and feasible it's very economic and feasible what we need to do is stop underwriting the cost of fossil fuels how many of you pay a water bill every month raise your hands when you look at your water bill you'll see a bill for water going in and then you'll see what else we're going out wastewater and that wastewater bill that can be higher than the water coming in am I right? when you consume a kaolin of fossil fuels who's paying the bill for the carbon dioxide going out? do you see that on your bill? you don't see that on your bill we need to start sending that bill to the oil and gas companies we need to subsidize in effect they're not paying that's being generated we need to find a way to recover those costs when we do that solar will become extremely economic and viable it already is economic and viable if you go out to Marfa, Texas you're going to see a solar plant that's being developed by private money where's that private money from? it's from France I told this to somebody the other day a good Texas capitalist he said I hate the French where are we investing in solar energy resources like that that are are going to be getting not public capital but private capital when people are investing in it when we stop investing in it what do they invest in? this is an economically viable thing investing in the transfer of technologies to bring renewable energy here is a critical part in the future we can make those changes right here we have a brick city base development and social technology we have a Southwest Research Institute which is one of the largest research institutes in the country where they're doing all sorts of things developing new approaches to transportation that are going to be more energy efficient we can make those changes here we can lead the way in the transfer of technologies in renewable energy here in this country I support efforts to address renewable energy similar to my colleagues up here I think state government has a role one of the roles I think in the areas where state government can help is providing incentives working with the private sector and trying to change attitudes and trying to offer incentives where we can do more in that area as we continue to as we continue to advance with research there's going to be more opportunity for renewable energy in the future an important component of this is conservation there's a lot of areas where if we just bring in conservation in our lives we can save a lot so that we consume less energy I was having a discussion this morning with a couple coffee with a gentleman who offers a lighting system that can work on a building such as this or an apartment building of the energy that is consumed by that building we have to look for those opportunities where we can not only look at how we produce energy that is not dependent on fossil fuel but also where can we conserve what are areas that we can conserve so that we don't have to use as much energy and I think the legislature plays a role in that area by offering incentives as well as this incentives in some areas where it's needed so that we don't waste energy so I would be supportive of that type of legislation and making sure that we can continue to move forward in the area of renewable energy with this idea I'm with the next question how will you ensure that the residents of Bear County continue to protect the average aquifer and maintain low water rates? the water rates I believe are approved by city councils so as far as the state legislature and things that we can do to help with this first of all I know we have a 1.8 sales tax that goes to purchases of land over the aquifer recharge zone and that is passed every five years maybe looking into that build and passing it maybe every eight or ten years that would be important making care of our natural resources we need so much water now in our private lives and in businesses and we need to have access to water and we need to make sure it's affordable for everyone and those would be the priorities for me okay well there's two things first is even with the new water deal we still pay among the lowest rates in the state but that being said right now what no one's talking about is there's a committee that's meeting that's deciding on the rate structure who's going to pay what based on how much water they use and I've advocated for what's called a lifeline if you use up to a certain amount you pay a flat rate and that protects your citizens and protects people on a fixed income and I think that one of the things that was hard on council is that sometimes council and the county and the state government independently of one another and these are opportunities where we should work together and that rate structure committee comes out with something that protects the most vulnerable people with regard to water use the second thing is and Miss Aguillon touched on it I believe that when it's time to renew that eighth of a cent there's actually two parts prop one and prop two that we extend it for twice as long as it's been now but we cut it in half or it could be two thirds and one third but one part of it goes to continue to buy land over the aquifer to make sure that the recharge zone is protected but the other half goes to supply because we're always talking about water supply we just finished a big water supply deal if some of that money can go to supply that's where rate payers will realize and feel benefit in other words if we can use some of that money for supply over the next ten years then your bill would actually be lower than if we didn't use that money that way and that's voter approved so I think that while those might be city or county why things is incumbent upon us as fellow elected people to work together with the local government to help them get that tax when I was on council before even because they're leaving this is one of the things that I was suggesting now there's a lot of research that has to be done we have to get the numbers right but there is an opportunity to continue to do conservation to protect the aquifer to keep our rates low to make sure that the rate structure is done in the right way but at the same time maybe we can use some of that tax to go to supply and that's where rate payers will realize a very real savings and we should work together on that import water from Burleson County to San Antonio this is a multi-billion dollar investment that they're making with rate payers money Councilman Bernard was instrumental in passing that legislation and he's just told you that he still hasn't decided how we're going to pay for that I did not say that I did not say that let me try to maybe I can correct him he has said that the question of how these rates are going to be set is still up for any debate so he's asking he's already appropriated the money for the pipeline and now he's saying let's have a discussion about how rate payers are going to pay for it now I don't think that's a particularly good idea it is important to if we are going to have projects like Mr. Ridge any projects like that have to be paid for by the developers that are going to benefit from it not by the rate payers that is principle number one and that's going to be my number one principle now how are we going to ensure an adequate water supply for the people of San Antonio that are paying the rates right now we need to do things to improve features like biofiltration features that capture storm water up until this point we have created storm water like it's a contaminant problem we need to take storm water and convert that into a resource that's going to reach the opposite we have the technologies to do that we have biofiltration that can capture in small capture areas capture runoff and divert it back into the aquifer this to maintain aquifer levels without boomdoggle pipelines that are applying to developers those are the kinds of projects we do need to invest in to keep rates low and to keep water clean we need to avoid development that's going to increase in curvil ground power that's going to increase problems with storm runoff and we need to develop those features such as biofiltration that are going to recapture storm runoff and by all means we're not going to send the bill to rate payers in order to do that because the moral of the story is that when the water purveyors roll into town hang on to your wallet you know this is an important issue we need to have a sufficient water source and san Antonio has wrestled with and has worked hard to make sure that the aquifer is protected I remember city council back you know years ago 20 years ago when the debate was building over the aquifer and there was restrictions and issues that we were addressing back then it's a continuing issue that we need to be concerned about the legislature has a role in adopting a statewide water plan in looking at opportunities for diversifying our water source sources for a growing community like San Antonio and I would be supportive of those efforts but again with the keeping in mind of the old adage that cops would lay upon us who benefits and who pays for the consumer then you know who's going to pay for it and if the developers have benefited out of it who's going to pay their share so that would be my outlook on that we need to continue to look at diversified opportunities for providing water, protecting the aquifer and also conserving some of the programs that we here mentioned well the aquifer is an important problem to us here water is a more important problem to the whole state of Texas it's not just this area that's been in a drought for the last several years most of Texas has been in a drought I hear a time and time again from economic development folks that have gone even to Europe and they come back and they say they were talking to people in France or in Spain, England and the biggest question they get is I hear you guys are having a drought there you know we have a water problem and everybody knows it if we had solved that problem already we wouldn't have to be talking about the Edwards Aquifer how do we solve that? I can tell you right now that the Republican leadership in the state of Texas is working very very hard on that problem they've got a lot of ideas it's not just San Antonio it's statewide one of the things that none of my panelists here mentioned that's a good idea that's being looked into is desalination plans that seems to be Representative Lyle Larson who is just north of us in this district is very learned on this subject he's one of the leaders in the subject he is doing everything he can to find water and find ways to do the water there's not just that problem it's a big problem we need to address it we need to put our resources to addressing it and the reason it is is San Antonio is growing like crazy San Antonio is going to continue to grow like crazy we have a great city in San Antonio and people are coming from all over the country every month it is going to really take solving the water problem to allow our city to continue to grow to build jobs it's not a simple deal because if it was simple they would have already solved it's going to take everybody in the legislature working together to come up with ideas a portion that questions that are asked by the panel is concluded and I want to thank the candidates for doing a great job on keeping us on track and staying within the line and now we're going to throw it out to the audience and take questions a few questions from the audience and we'll have the first question directed to our council member now so questions from the audience I just want to make a statement that district 1 india linian descendants for the word heritage and district 1 have destroyed one of this is a colonial city this is the difference between Dallas, Houston and Austin this city was built in 1700 by our indian charges and district 1 destroyed one of the oldest history of the mexican-american and the indian history that soliza was in hemisphere park has been destroyed the acequia madre is 300 years old and the pathos in this district 1 are unbelievable they can make pathos in a 300 year old acequia and destroy the cultural resources that no city in the state of texas has because this is going to be the word heritage it's about 5 missions and I have a problem because you have to address this about district 1 that was a most humble dwelling to open the street and to put multi-house in there and destroy the archeological site where we will never have understanding of this history and I want Mr. Diego Bernal to be persecuted I have a federal investigation with the justice department this is unacceptable June 2015 this city will be a war heritage united nations living history of 5 missions that become this city and like the apache way go and dig the water in the texas that we get it I read it destroyed without the public knowledge a 200 year landmark was destroyed after univision because Mr. Bernal said that univision was an ugly building and it was trapped here point of order Mr. Buyer make sure if you say ask a question no question I will now have a question I will take a question so the question is about the chemistry of park that is where it stands sir Yeah, I understand that now. Thank you Yes, okay, so if we're gonna talk about this number one why support what's happening in Mr. Park, yes, I do number two Those issues were raised right when they came to council. We sent all the information that was provided I'm talking about finding the binders off to the federal authority to make sure that what we're being accused of whether it was accurate or not and And the federal authorities including the BIA have come back and said it's all right What you're doing is okay proceed. So, you know, I didn't pretend to be an expert when I got in I was very sensitive to what we're being accused of. I wanted to make sure we weren't do anything that was disruptive or disrespectful or disgraceful. We sent it to as many different experts as we could. They all came back with the same answer. At this point They're not taking the contents of it because they're saying to us now Eight inches, four or five times. So that gave me the confidence to proceed. I wouldn't actively, no one here would actively try to disrespect or disgrace something that belongs to somebody. That's ludicrous. So we took care of it It's a done deal. Any open directive request you want to file or verify that. I'm happy to stand behind it. We're gonna get to a loud voice Okay I hear your concerns and there are a couple of things I would like to consider. One This abuse can be cured. I can't be cured at this point, but it has been prevented by transparency in government. That's important. It's part of my journey. Number two, number two, my colleague to the left, Mr. Kepeterra, said standing in front of you is growing life crazy. You want crazy, right? You're allowed to speak, ma'am. You're allowed to speak. Please allow that to answer. Please allow that to answer. It never happened here. They went and they pushed them back out. Please allow that to answer. Mr. Kepeterra, my colleague to the left, Mr. Kepeterra, said standing in front of you is growing life crazy. If you want crazy, vote Republican. If you want sustainable growth, vote Freedom. Thank you. My only response is that I think those issues are legitimate. They need to be addressed. And I think anytime you make any project, I don't think you should do it in haste. Recently, you saw that the state of Texas was stopped in a major, a million of a major construction highway in gray, over 16 or more. They get there with some issues, grays, not even historical or cultural artifacts, but with the environment. So I think that when we devote ourselves to a project, we've got to make sure we do it in methodology and in a way that the law requires with respect to all of those issues. You know, I lived in Turkey for three years. One of my very main life lessons was to learn there. When I lived in a country that spoke a different language, every single person that we met was from a different culture. A life lesson that I learned was respect others. Treat others the way you want to be respected and you will be treated well. Respect, cordiality and transparency are things that need to be done when you have issues like that. We'll very honestly say that I'm not as familiar as Diego was on this. He was on the council at the time this came up. There are other issues like that. The only way that they can be handled is again with transparency. Now, I must take exception with my esteemed panelists here. For some reason, the Democratic leaders in this city that did this, all of a sudden it's the Republicans that are the cause of it. I'm sorry, the Republicans didn't have anything to do with it. Are there any questions, any additional questions that we want to put to the panel? Yes, ma'am. My name is Luis Hernandez. I'm the Texas Vice-Chairwoman for the Mexican American Democratic Effectives. And I will put this question out to all of you. I've been biting my teeth and I've been biting my hips and I've been crossing my arms and really upset that all these issues you're talking about here. All these issues that you are talking about are important, but the main issue that I would like to hear is whether you have been reading it in the newspaper or not, or just blind yourself to it. There's been domestic violence in the city. And recently I was part of burying a mother of four children for Christmas. I am a grandmother of five. I am very sensitive to any domestic violence. It exists in El Paso. It exists in McCallan. It exists in Laredo. It exists in Garland. All over Texas. I spent three months. Can I have an important question, please? The question I'm trying to ask is, we need a law that is passed. Mr. 1-2-3, it's fine. We need somebody to pass a law that gives grandparents the rights to help those children that are left behind. There is a lot of red tape to try to get control of helping these children, and sometimes the fathers or dead meat dads that are not around to help or won't or don't qualify. So the grandparents are overlooked because they're not biological data mom. I would like to see a law. What would you do to help grandparents' laws to waive all these fees that need to be done to give that grandparent the right to raise their child? Thank you. Wow, that's great. Okay, with regard to grandparents' rights, this is a domestic violence. This is a big problem. I recently had the occasion to assist a woman who was going to the services for domestic violence here in San Antonio. She presented her case to a senator for domestic violence, and they said, if you filed a criminal complaint, she said, no. She said, sorry, we can't assist you. In other words, we have a system designed that isn't going to be there for these women until things really break. We need to change that. We need to have counseling available before the woman gets hit, and we need to have that available readily and accessible to women in these situations. With regard to grandparents' rights, many grandparents are put in a situation where they're going to need to be managing conservatives for children whose parents are no longer able to care for them for reasons of domestic violence, drug abuse, and things like that. We need to improve funding for legal aid, so those grandparents have the resources they need to make the speedy changes in managing conservatives, their grandchild, to provide them with an environment of care so these children don't have to be converted into foster care. We can do those things. Those are changes in the legal system and funding for legal aid that can address the problems that we're talking about. I think the question is very legitimate. We see the problem in our community and really it exists everywhere, no matter where you live. If you look at the state budget, probably next to education, helping human services is probably the biggest part of the state budget that is funded through state funds. A lot of those health and human services programs to help foster children to provide assistance for domestic violence and provide advocacy for programs like that are vital to many people in our community. I would be an advocate for that and I would be an advocate for legislation that would respect the rights of grandparents in the case of your sighting. With the focus that it should, the main focus for all of us should be the kids. What is best for the child to have someone from their own family lineage to take care of them or to put them in foster care? I think those programs are vital. They're an important part of the state budget and every year we need to make sure that those programs are funded adequately and that the right laws are in place to help the kids. My wife and I are grandparents. I'm happy to say that we have six beautiful grandchildren and I'm especially proud of my oldest one who is up at Great Lakes in near Chicago going through Navy Basic Training. As I talked about on the military earlier, the family tradition is continuing. With that said, I had to throw the plug in for my grandson. This is a real hard issue. The whole issue of domestic violence, sex trafficking, as Walter mentioned, there are several areas that are in conjunction. I would definitely be an advocate for grandparents having an easier way to be involved. At the same token, I would want to make sure that there's vetting done because just because it's a grandparent doesn't always mean that's the best place for the child. With respect though to things like fees and all of this other kind of stuff, that's garbage. We need to take care of these kids and we need to get them into homes that are best for them. So I would be an advocate for any kind of legislation that does that. Well as a daughter, as a mother, as a wife, with kids, I have two children. Benjamin is ten and Karina is six. These issues are very important to me. I personally have an aunt that is dealing with issues of grandparents rights and I understand those and how hard it is for her. It has to do with a broken family and so sometimes it's not even, it's circumstances beyond your control and I saw her suffer through some of these things and I know how important that is. I'll definitely be an advocate for that, for all women, for their rights and domestic violence is just unacceptable. There's no reason for that in this day and age and there definitely needs to be more stringent laws and reinforcement as far as things like this are happening. So I will definitely fight for that. And you raised an important point so I want to give you three different answers. The first is that Bear County needs one of the leaders of the state with incidents of domestic violence. It's a much bigger issue than we've talked about today and you're right for calling us out on that. I agree that there should be something that make it easier for grandparents to get access and hold of those kids. The fees should be waived. I've considered a tax break for people who adopt, whether that's grandparents getting their grandchildren or other folks, but it seems like if you have kids, you get a break, if you adopt kids, there's not a special tax for that, especially if you're getting them at 6 or 7 or 8 or 13. So we should do that to encourage it and make it easier. It also reminds me of a program that the city had called the CRTs, the crisis response team. These are folks that deal with victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and rape and they're always on the chopping block and we had to save them over and over again. We had to make sure that we fund programs like that and there's another thing that I've been thinking about. There's an effort to turn our law enforcement into immigration officers and I've always pushed back on that because in my neighborhood, most of which is immigrant, if there's an issue of domestic violence, they're not going to call because they're worried that they're going to get their papers checked instead of getting some help. So I think there's a variety of fronts that we have to go after domestic abuse on, but absolutely, if there's a tremendous amount of red tape keeping a grandparent, a qualified grandparent and a capable grandparent, getting their grandchild, especially getting mad at a bad situation, we need to eliminate that as quickly as possible. You're right, we all need to be told that because we didn't bring it up ourselves. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you from the audience. Each of the candidates will now have three minutes to give closing remarks and we will start on this side with Mr. McRubiter. Thank you. I want to thank the panelists. It's been a good discussion and I think Diego mentioned it one time earlier. I think everybody on this panel have good hearts. I think we all care about our district and most importantly care about our constituents in this district. But why do you need to vote for me? You need to vote for me because I have a relationship with Governor-elect Abbott. I have a relationship with Governor-elect, or Governor-elect Lieutenant Governor Patrick. I have relationships with Senator Donna Campbell, with Lyle Larson. I'm on the State Republican Executive Committee and I work with Republicans all over the state of Texas to work on these issues and work on the values. You know, one of the things that we're finding in San Antonio, the Republican Party has really been given a definition that does not fit. When you talk to Republicans and you talk about core values and family values, you will find that pretty much everybody in this town shares the same values that Republicans do in the Republican Party. The issue is that a lot of times, as was pointed out, we get blank for a lot of stuff. You know, we're the evil money-monitors. That's not a true statement. We spend a lot more time in this community helping others and serving others. And that's what I will do. I don't know if I said it earlier, but the name Nunzio translates to messenger in Italian. I am in Italian descent and very proud of it. When I get to Austin, I will be the messenger of the people in House District 123 and carry their issues, and I have the ability to make it happen, to bring home the bacon to District 123. Thank you. I want to thank the Alamo Chamber, the Agent Chamber and the West Chamber. I think it's been a great opportunity to listen to the candidates and to give the people more information about the candidates. I'm interested in going to Austin to make sure that San Antonio and District 123 is heard in the halls of the State Capitol. I think the background, my background and my experience, my accomplishments not only in the private sector and the public sector, in the non-profit arena, having the experience of working with different enemies, both non-profit and for-profit in private business, I think that gives me a perspective to be able to reach out and work with my colleagues in the House and the Senate. I know it's a Republican-dominated legislature, but that doesn't mean that we can't work on issues that are common to us, whether you're Republican or Democrat. The focus ought to be on what are the needs of the community, what are the needs of the families that we represent. So with that, I just want to ask you for your consideration. This is a quick campaign and the more we can tell our friends and family and associates that there is an election during this Christmas season, the better we'll have as far as an election turnout on January 6th. Thank you very much. The voters in District 123 have a unique opportunity. They have six candidates with six very different points of view. You're going to be able to verify with them up here now with one that's a no-show for the night. There should be six on the ballot. You've heard from one Republican. The Republicans have not participated in the electoral process in District 123 for 10 years. They basically have come up with this district. There are several Democrats that are here that want to represent you and they can go to us and they can be part of the furniture in Austin because they're not going to have a voice. They are at best, as Gabriel Vainal said, they're going to try to pay strong defense. Or you could vote for me. Why should you vote for me? There are a couple reasons. One, if you vote for a green candidate for this office, you will make national and international news. There are 3,300 people that voted for me in November. There are those 3,300 people. I ask you to come out to vote by January 6th and bring a friend. If you do, I will win. But why is this going to be good for District 123? It's going to be good for District 123 because a green vision promotes developing alternative fuel sources of developing clean energy and developing the technologies that come along with it that are going to lead to new jobs and new opportunities for the people of 123. It also involves investing in education and reducing the burden of student debt. These are critical problems that have accumulated over the last 40 years that are putting a huge obstacle to economic and social mobility in our community. If you vote green, you're voting for the future. You're voting for your children's future. This is an opportunity to make a change. We already have climate change. It's time for political change. Vote green. Before I start, you know, I want to make clear that one of us says, I think we all like each other. When you're running against other people, it's easy to look at their materials or their website or their signs and pick one another. But I think we all agree that everyone sitting up here is a good person who cares about the community who doesn't wish the other will will. I expect the last couple of weeks to be clean and fair and stately. And so I appreciate that it's been that way so far. That being said, the reason I'm running is because I have the legislatures of policy-making body. We're not there to articulate how well we know the issues. We're there to make policy, not on the issue of public education, on the issue of small business development, on the issue of job creation and retention, on the issue of dealing with broadband and the internet. I have policy-making experience. I have done it before and I want to do more of it. I have a record to run on. I'm not running on who I am. I'm not running on the fact that I've been elected before. I'm running on my background in doing this work. I have the record and a plan. And if you like that record and you believe in the plan, you should go for it. You've got some great choices here. But all I can tell you, all I can run on is to say, look, here's what I've done. Here's what people will be doing. There's successes that I've had on all fronts. If you want more of that, I respectfully ask for your help. Thank you for your time and thank you guys as well. I'd like to thank the LMSC chamber for having us tonight, for making us a fair process. Thank you very much. And thank you all for your time and energy. Here we are a couple of days before Christmas and it's a room full of people. You wanted to learn more about who would represent you. So thank you very much for coming out and listening to all of us. I would just like to say a little bit more about myself on a personal level. You know, I'm somebody that is obviously the product of a working class family, a very hard working class family. And I didn't know that I was going to be running for state representative. Even last year, if you would have asked me, I would have said this was something that was in my future. But you know what? I didn't know when I started my business five years ago how to do that either. And now I run a very successful business knowing how to do, doing what I knew how to do in the public relations field. And I've always been very involved in public affairs and government relations. And I'm looking forward to this opportunity to represent working families, much like myself to represent mothers, much like myself to represent other small business owners, much like you as well. And I would respectfully ask for your vote. I'm going to work very hard. I'm going to take that same hard work and dedication that I use to finish my degrees, to start my business, and now to run as your next state representative. And I respectfully ask for your vote.