 Again, thank you very much, everyone, for being here. Let me see if I can get the microphone back. Yes, okay, good. I'm just a loud mouth. So, we're going to go ahead and do it. The way the panel will go up here with the candidates and our incumbent, we'll be going from one, two, three, four, five with the question. So, and then we'll go ahead and start again, just to kind of keep that rhythm. In the end, as Terry mentioned, we'll have an opportunity to direct a question to one of the candidates with the incumbent, and that's just because of time constraints. All right, so starting from the beginning, we have Nathan Carizales. Then we have Jessica Guerrero. Jessica, oh Guerrero, thank you very much. Rebecca J. Viagran. I learned quick. Sylvia E. Don. Thank you. So, Sylvia E. Don. Ismael Reyes. Perfect. So, let's go ahead and get started without further ado. And question number one, and you each have a minute. If you start going over your minute, there will be a timekeeper in the back. Three minutes, I'm just sorry. You have three minutes for your opening, for your opening. Can you get begin? Testing, there we go. All right, hi everybody. Thank you for coming out this morning. I am Nathan Carizales, candidate for City Council, District 3. And my message is simple. I want to refresh, refine, repair District 3. And we need to honor and respect the residents that are living here. And I feel like we need to push on public safety especially. And one of my main goals is to establish a connection between myself and the residents. A lot of residents have felt like they've been left out. And I want to be a voice for those who have felt like they're being left out of the system. My main focus, there's three topics that I want to cover that I really want to hit. It's public safety, infrastructure, and small business. Now here in this side of the district where the mission is at, there's so much potential for growth for small business. I envision businesses where they reflect the culture that's down here. And you know, there's generations of people. My grandparents have lived here for over 50 years. And that's the type of community that there is. And we need to respect that. And so I want to be a voice for those, the seniors especially. And we need to look out for our seniors. We need to look out for each other. And so I'm running for city council to represent the people. And that's what it's all about. Thank you very much. Buenos tardes. Buenos días. Todavía, right? My name is Jessica Guerrero. Thank you so much for being here. I'm running for district three city council. I'm born and raised in San Antonio. And very proud to be born and raised in the southeast side. I grew up in the Macri-les area. And I still live there. My parents still live there in the same area. And I'm very proud to be from the southeast side of San Antonio. And I want to be sure that so many of my neighbors that are just as proud as I am that have made the decision either to stay and continue living here or have gone to other places and have returned. I want to make sure that they have that option to return to the southeast side and come back to the same place that they left. To the same heart, to the same soul of this city that they love this area for. In my time as a grassroots organizer, as a community service worker, I've been on this side of the dais and working in community to make sure that our voices are heard and been really frustrated along with many people that we feel our voices are not heard, our perspectives are not only not considered, but not respected. And that has created, I think, a huge gap between our south side communities and what is going on at City Hall. The decisions that have made at City Hall directly impact us and we should be the first and most prioritized stakeholders in any decisions that take place at City Hall. And right now that's not the case. I want to be a city council person para todos for all of District 3. I want District 3 to lead in creating fair housing policy that we very much lack and very much need in this city. I do not want to see what happened at Mission Trails ever happen again in District 3 or anywhere else in San Antonio. And the way we're growing, the way where, you know, we can expect some growing pains, but not that type. We should not see any displacement happen throughout the city for the sake of luxury apartments or developer benefits. I want to be sure that District 3 residents are calling the shots in District 3, not developers. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. My name is Rebecca Villagran and I am honored to serve as City Councilwoman for District 3, the south and the southeast side of San Antonio. As a proud daughter of the south side, born and raised here with roots that go back for over 250 years, it's important to me that we continue to maintain the balance approach here. I believe District 3 has made great strides here and all we need to do is look around us right here, right here in this area. I think this is an example of working together. If you would like to, one thing that I am very proud of is working with the neighborhood associations and with the neighborhoods in the area and the neighbors in the area. Because of your voice and because of your activity and action, we were able to make sure that we have what we see building right here. A YMCA, the first YMCA here in this area in this part of town. One that I know the neighbors have worked years and years on, but were stalled. It was stalled at the city staff level. Coming into office, working with the neighborhoods, taking up the cause and saying we will not be put on pause anymore. We are District 3 and we are worth it and we deserve something like this and so much more. And because of that, we moved forward and now we have this here being built, but it's not stopping there. Because of your perseverance and working together, we have in the bond another two million dollars to put into this YMCA to complete Phase 2 and 3 with the pool that you all wanted, that the neighborhoods wanted to continue the healthy lifestyle of our community. So working together with the neighbors and the neighborhood associations is something that I have done and I'm going to continue to do and that I want to make sure that we walk hand in hand. Because when I was put into the position, the status quo, we're not going to be, I'm not settling for the status quo anymore. We have made these large strides forward. We have been under invested and overlooked and now we are seeing the investment coming into our community. And I want to make sure that we can maintain that momentum with your partnership, with your work, and I will continue to be your voice. And it comes with a balanced approach for our community. You all were also, many of you all, were part of the World Heritage Work Plan. This could not have moved forward without your insight and input. What grew out of that, that organic approach was authentic development in our community. And we are working on that together. And we are continuing to make strides and chains to better enhance that communication between City Hall and with the neighbors and the neighborhoods. We're continuing to work on that with letting you know access to the neighborhood, to what permits are being built and why they're being built. And I continue, I will continue to maintain my open door policy and having these conversations with you. So my name is Rebecca Villagran and I ask for your vote. Thank you. One more. If I could ask when the, just for the time up, I believe the minute went up, but it wasn't the time up. So I wasn't, yes. So when the time is up, you can just give me the time up instead of the minute. Can we make sure? Yes, it was confusing me a little bit. Yes, you showed me the minute up and I apologize. Because we want to be fair to all of the candidates to make sure that they don't feel they're getting too little time or that other candidates don't feel other candidates are getting too much time. So if you could just, when they've reached there three minutes, correct, it's the three minute mark? Show me the time up. Thank you, I appreciate it very much. So our next candidate. Good morning everybody and I want to thank you so much for coming today and for also for being invited here today. I feel that I'm running for city council because I feel that there are so many things that people when in office or running for office say that they will tell you that oh, I'll do this and I'll do that and they promise you the world but when it really gets down to the real thing that you're in office you forget about the people. We gotta remember one thing that you, the people the community are the ones that have the right to say yay or nay not us. Me, I'm not here for the money I'm not here for anything like that I'm here because also I am a resident I grew up in the south side military in 35 my parents bought a house I was educated then as time went by I got married I've lived in my house for 31 years and I've never had anybody come to my street and do anything for 31 years I hear you and I know that if you elect me I will make sure that what I say is going to be what is going to be done for the community the taxpayers dollars is for everybody and it should be given equally to certain entities as it has been the bonds go to every bond election to the same ones over and over and it's time it's time to put a stop to that and spread the good, the wealth everybody deserves a good street, sidewalks drainage lights and I ask for you to think twice about who you're going to vote Sylvia Don, no se vende a ningun lobbyist nor investor Sylvia Don is not for sale to no investor, no lobbyist I am here for the people for the community I am so sad that what happened to the people at the mission trail mobile home park and that's one of the reasons why I chose to run that won't happen I've lived most of my life in the south side my parents bought a house there and I am here I should ask for yours vote on May 6th, thank you good morning everybody thank you for being here for us five candidates they're running for city council at district 3 I'm Ismael Reyes and I grew up in the south part of San Antonio I've been in San Antonio all my life I grew up in the I grew up in the south in the south side of San Antonio south side of San Antonio I grew up in Bud Jones I did the mall shops and all that stuff so just telling you a little bit about myself I have three children beautiful wife I've been married to her for 45 years and that's right to the same lady for 45 years when I was in my 30s I raised a family I gave them a good education I worked all through my young adult life raising a good family now I have two boys and a girl and they're very successful with their education that we gave them or us all of us gave them because of the public schools that were involved with it but let me tell you what I stand for ok gentrification also displacement of the third of the old generation around the missions very very fearful that they will lose their home to prospective developers around the missions also I'm looking for jobs not cashier jobs not janitor jobs like at the wall marks and the stripes that we get in the south side I'm looking for good jobs career jobs for our youth and even for our mid age crisis people that are 40 and 50 years old we need jobs like that in our district giving an example we lost two things maybe three things in the recent past we lost Microsoft they were paying $75,000 a year we lost it to a different district and recently we lost 500 new jobs to Hulu to district 8 and why can't we bring them to district 3 where we have so much land that is a lot less expensive than in district 8 that's what we need we need a good police force in San Antonio to fight against crime yes we believe in our neighborhood associations that we communicate and we go and we tell people that somebody's around the neighborhood but we're not cops we can't stop the people breaking into our houses we can only call them when you call a policeman and it's a 12 midnight around your neighborhood how long does it take them to get there to party or to stop the drug deals maybe an hour maybe 45 minutes so that's a long time all of us have had that opportunity to do something about it so we vote for me number 6 in district 1 thank you you have the opening statements there from the candidates in the incumbent so we're going to go ahead and start with 5 questions now we're going to start again from the beginning you will have exactly one minute and now when you see that time come up over there and if you start going over I'll tell you hey it's time to go ahead and wrap it up sounds good I won't be just like hey wrap it up so I'll be very polite so let's go ahead and start with Mr. Carrizales with question number 1 how committed are you protecting environmental policies for example the aquifer tree ordinances river overlay and green spaces and I will repeat the question for the other candidates I'm very committed when it comes to that I believe we need to protect our green spaces and part of that we need to look at the zoning here around this area especially and so we need to when we get rid of when we start building there's no way how you can get it back and so we need to make sure we need to focus on preserving that especially around the missions and it's very important that we get the community involved and so that's what I'm trying to push community involvement and being one on one with the community and seeing how we can go about to protecting our environment and protecting our green spaces okay I'm very part of the work that I participated in as an activist organizer to make sure that the city follows through on their promises to prioritize green spaces care for our water it's important for us to continue talking about the sacredness of water the sacredness of these there are more than resources they're not just resources they are part of our lives they are part of the cycle of of our lives and of our connection to each other and it's important that we continue to prioritize those things at City Hall what happened with Vista Ridge was unfortunately I think really largely due to City Hall not respecting the perspective of the community there were plenty of community scholars community researchers that offered information that would make it very clear that Vista Ridge was not the way to go that there are other conservation efforts to fulfill and City Hall did not respect our perspective on that thank you I'm very proud of the fact that we're also working in low impact development for the new development and I have also carried the cause especially in and around our creeks and our river but throughout the city of San Antonio to look at not just pervious cover on site on parking lots but impervious cover to make it less flooding but also safer thank you also committed to making sure about our trees I'll give you an example where I live it's a dead end street and there's property where my son has a vacant lot and the neighbor in front of me called Cope Compliance because she wanted that tree knocked down so of course I was getting ready to leave and I went up to talk to him and he told me yes can I help you I said well this property belongs to my son so I told him is there a problem he said that there was a complaint which was the neighbor that wanted to have that knocked down and he said this is not the way it works if we feel that we can save it we'll save it so I'm for saving any tree but if we can't then we will replace it thank you okay with water our is the worst investment San Antonio has ever made alright I have an idea and it's been lurking around everybody's minds in the past you know few years rain water reservoir in the north side of San Antonio instead of doing a pipeline and privatizing our water system so they can hike every month on our green spaces I stand for no development doesn't matter what it is around the missions Concepción Espada San Jose I do not want any development done by special interests around that area we have plenty of spaces everywhere else L&H there's a lot of good good representation to bring good development to District 3 also environment thank you very much for answering that first question now we'll move on to our second question and as always if you need me to repeat the question please ask me I'll be more happy to do so so the next question how will you work with neighborhood associations to provide win-win solutions to the imminent displacement of long-time residents that is a direct impact of gentrification unfortunately that's exactly the lack of effort that I've witnessed that I've experienced which was part of my motivation to enter and participate in this election I do think that it's a very difficult job to really engage neighbors and really create those solutions but I absolutely know that it is possible and that comes from the skills that I've developed as an organizer, as a community to know and respect that there is a way for us together to come to solutions again, first and foremost we need to create those spaces where people will truly come together and gather and exchange information exchange perspectives many of the neighbors that are in most imminent danger of being displaced have the best ideas for what might remedy that what happened at Mission Trails there were many people that said I understand I need to move, I understand I don't own the lot but there are different ways to remove us, to relocate us and to make sure that this doesn't disrupt our legacies I will continue to work with the neighborhood associations and the people in the immediate neighborhoods and streets that live along the areas door to door talking to them as I did with the Mission Trail neighbors going door to door knocking on their door speaking with them I think it was a very difficult and terrible situation that the families were put into but it was not just a zoning case what it was is these families were put into a possible situation by an out of state negligent property owner who was not taking care of the property and had the authority to kick them out within 15 days until stepping in and making sure that we had some sort of financial assistance for those families this is what working with them but working with the neighborhoods and the neighbors in the streets, in the community because we know that we need to have a balanced approach in our community for far too long we've been overlooked and want to continue to give voice to our community thank you how will new associations to provide a win-win solution of long-time residents that has a direct impact of gentrification and you can also ask me to rephrase the question well it seems like it always calls back to the same situation that people that were the 300 people that were displayed I would never, never allow something like that to present you I will make sure that I'm going to say like I said it earlier and I'll say it again Sylvia Dono Sevende I will make sure that all of you are safe because you put me in this position if I'm elected it's not about Sylvia Dono it's not about how much I made it's nothing like that I will use the community coming together and I will do whatever it takes for me to go out and talk to all the people whatever it takes if it's two years I'm there gentrification right that's happened to a lot of us not just in the mission $2.5 billion of our tax money put into the city now we can definitely develop something to help the older generation who picks up their home and let them live in peace until they want to move or sell alright $2.5 billion we can make it we can make that into good use for our older generation now also town hall meetings I will not come around at our election date and ask for your vote I'm going to be out there just once every six months every month develop a town hall meeting in all the neighborhoods in the south side of San Antonio so that way we can get the feedback of people that live in the district not special interest groups that want to invest in our future thank you working with neighborhood associations is very important but not just neighborhood associations going directly to the residents because they are the ones who have their comments and their concerns in a span of three weeks I've already had two town hall meetings and we're going to have another one this coming week and so this is I'm not even counseling yet and this is very important why because we need to go directly to the residents and make sure we're hearing their problems and how are we going to find solutions to those problems I'm all four committed to working with neighborhood associations and any neighborhood because it's very important that we care for our communities and we care especially for our seniors so let's go ahead and question number three explain how you will protect the missions as well as your commitment to area beautification and smart development in the World Heritage Overlay District thank you I'm very proud to have been able to work with you all here in the Mission San Jose neighborhood association but with the surrounding areas as well and actually open it up to everyone in the city to talk about what we want to see in this area because as natives and as those who've been invested for years and decades into this community it's important that our voices get heard and it has been heard in our World Heritage Work Plan with our authentic nature that we want to see small legacy businesses in our community because this area is something special to the entire world but most importantly to the families that told the stories and continue to tell the stories over and over again with our beautification I'm proud to say in this bond we have over $100 million to the District 3 area part of that becomes $2.25 million in there to have money for open space to protect areas around the missions thank you I think that it is very important to preserve our missions this is a story that it says about our south side and I would definitely make sure that whatever it takes I will do to preserve the missions I've taken my grandchildren out there and they're so excited and I hope that we can continue to do that my grandchildren and grandchildren and I feel that we need to if I'm elected that I will also something that nobody has ever talked about is if we ever have a bond I will do and give you a summary of how the money is being spent spent for that bond thank you again how we're going to save the missions in San Antonio in our neighborhoods number one green spaces we need to make sure and I said it earlier I stand for no development around the missions we need to preserve that area and we need to spend our taxpayers' money into district 3 developing our homes that are been in the family for 100 years 150 years and let's not put a tax on people to put them on a system where they have to pay a tax because their house is 100 years old or whatever and that's what's happening now if you want to make your house that you've been there 100 years or 150 years you have to pay a tax on it so that way you can qualify and we need to take that out that's how we can beautify San Antonio about the missions how we're going to preserve the missions explain how you will protect the missions as well as your commitment to area beautification and smart development what's your role heritage over like this so I'm in support of development but development that honors and respects the residents especially around the missions and the missions obviously is something special and for the south side we're proud of that and it's great to have a world heritage site where we live but at the same time we need to remember the indigenous people we need to remember the families and the culture and we need to look for you know ways to look and care for the residents living around the missions now development is great but we need to make sure that those residents can take care of these residents and so I'm more preserving and taking care of the missions because that's something we are proud of and so that's my that's what I'm back to you our history, our stories are so important they ground us we need to also be sure that we learn from this history from these stories we must acknowledge the cycle of displacement that has happened throughout the missions and that unfortunately continues to happen we have to learn from this story, from this history and make sure that the people of the south side of these neighborhoods surrounding the missions do not fall the cracks do not fall through the cracks of the development and the historic designation that is occurring as exciting as it is as necessary as it is we need to be sure that the whole story is told and that due respect is given to the living history of the neighborhoods that surround the missions that is smart development smart development is respectful development of the neighbors that have been here the neighbors that want to continue to be here and that are themselves part of the living story this living history, thank you I appreciate it, thank you so question number four please explain your commitment to supporting affordable housing and safety in our community for example single family homes senior housing and crime watch programs well I feel that all of those that you mentioned are very very important and this is what I propose to do for safety it definitely is important for safety I hear so many people that they're afraid to go out well I will do the best to my ability to make sure that we have enough lighting that our seniors will be able to go out and not be afraid as unfortunately crime is very high right now and we need more police officers if it fits the budget and we'll make sure because this is our community and we need to make sure that everybody is safe where we live the affordable housing of course it is we need it, there's a lot of people that don't make that much money that's why I'm also for $15 an hour thank you yes we do need affordable homes in District 3 we don't have any everybody keeps moving to the north side our children go over there we need more affordable housing in District 3 we do not need anymore subsidized apartments in District 3 we don't need any more trailer parks we don't need any more apartments that constituents can afford to live and we need affordable homes our safety also more speed bumps into the neighborhoods more policemen patrolling our District 3 we need more people creating crime wash programs in our communities and I will help you do that and we are our best wash dogs in our communities and we keep ourselves together and report anything that's going on wrong we will help help each other thank you now that's the way we can come to solutions now we can put as much money as we want into police into different organizations but in the end it's the resident our community, our neighborhood we look out for each other and for protecting our seniors whether it be forming an organization where we put video cameras in these seniors homes in senior homes and protecting their land and their property and so in the end we look out for each other and that's the way it should be and so whether it be through next door app different solutions, different neighborhoods have different ways of communicating about what those means of communication are affordable housing and neighborhood safety I think are two really critical elements of una vida digna a life with dignity it's what we have a very basic right to and I believe that affordable housing has everything to do with being able to afford to age in place or to age in the place where you want to age there are many families many elders that want to stay in the homes that they live in but are not able to keep up with needed repairs we need to make sure that we strengthen neighborhood networks that do exist to assist them with those repairs so that they can age where they want to if they pass on leave these homes to other family members that want to continue to live in the south side they should be able to afford those taxes they shouldn't have to be worried about what other development projects what the impact of other development taxes we need to make sure that people feel that people have the ability to be to live where they want to live and the question is please explain your commitment to supporting affordable housing and safety in our community for example single family homes senior housing and crime watch programs thank you my commitment has been and remain strong to to affordable housing in the city of San Antonio we see the rise in our housing costs throughout the city and we know that there's development and that there's growth coming to the city in general but we want to be sure that where we live that we can one stay here but then if our children and grandchildren want to come back to the south side to the south east side that they have quality that they can come back to and that they can maintain what they are in our neighborhoods one of the things that I'm very proud of right now is that we do have coming forward in the bond neighborhood improvement bond which discusses discusses affordable housing and I know Mission San Jose has been there in support and advocating of it because in this area it's something that we want to make sure that we can have many of our seniors unfortunately if they if they're widowed they have to move out we want to be able to stay here in the area they grew up in thank you we move on to our final question you know this question is actually a two piece question so if you feel comfortable as a candidate to concentrate on one piece that is perfectly fine because it is a multifaceted question just so everybody knows so again it's a rather complex question it's got two facets to it so if you want to just you know concentrate on one you're more than welcome to but if you want to tell us what your whole plan is that's even better just leaving that up to you and what you want to concentrate on so question number five what is your commitment to bringing knowledge worker jobs rather than service and laborer jobs to the south side along with that how will you ensure that our neighborhood residents have the training and education to fill high-paying highly skilled knowledge based careers okay first of all we need to get rid of Scully alright we need to get rid of her so that way they can read when we go into a city council with new blood in there we can develop our own strategies to come into district three that's how we can do that we need to fight every council person for district three we need a strong councilman that will fight to bring in new jobs into district three that's how we need to do that we need to go after developers and to bring them over to district three we got so much vacant land out here that is so less cheaper than the north side and then training we need to let people that don't want to go to college we can develop some training schools in south side of San Antonio where we can develop welders mechanics and so forth and I will do that I will bring those kind of schools to the south side thank you I think education is very important and it starts in the high schools starts in the middle schools I want to train schools into the high schools they are our future mechanics they are our future plumbers and college isn't for everybody and so we need to focus on how will we promote small business and how will we promote and then push them to excel in their future they are our future and so I want to push to promote small business and not only promoting them but educating them and how to start up these entrepreneurs and so that is one of my main focuses is small business and so as well as educating our high schoolers and our incoming entrepreneurs I'm very excited about the newly developed extensions of various universities that are coming into the south side I think that proximity just physical proximity to educational institutions is really important and that's a great first step for us to take towards making education more accessible I really hope and envision that these stations of education become also larger community institutions we need to really broaden what our idea of education is and acknowledge the respect that we should have for the conocimiento that we have as gente, as workers, as belonging to various trades that have built literally built this city and especially the south side I think it's important and I think that one way we do that is also by creating more innovative ways and more continuous ways to connect community resources, community service providers with schools so that that education is improved along the way before we even reach those institutions thank you I believe all types of jobs are important to a thriving community and to a thriving society I do believe that our education is key and I'm proud here in the southern sector and in district 3 we have examples of that with our Harlandale STEM early college high school with robotics teams that are already in the elementary schools with our own corporate companies that are here in district 3 investing in that future with Alamo academies and with the different schools like Toyota investing in the other in our elementary schools in our middle schools and in our high schools I'm proud that we're going to continue to build on that with internships that we see at Holt Cat that we see happening at Stinson airport in aeronautics and aviation we continue to build on that and with the new medical school at UIW the internships are going to go out into the community out into the ISDs and work with the families thank you finally got it right okay well I feel that it is very important education is very important of course and bringing more programs to the south side is so important when my daughter was going to school to McCollum situation happened with her she was working in the evenings and she became unfortunately a victim of a drive-by shooting back in 1991 and unfortunate the people that were there at school the superintendent included did not care to help her get her education so I am for education for bringing up more to our south side I am a sibling we're six time is up you can wrap it up and I stayed in the south side it's very important my sisters went to the north side hey I was raced here and I'm going to stay and I'm going to do whatever it takes to bring whatever we need better not only north side but we deserve in the south side thank you thank you very much to all of the candidates at this point we're going to open it up to directed questions to any one of them we're not going to be able to have enough time to respond to any directed questions just to remind you oh Guerrero Rebecca J Villagran Sylvia E Don and Ismael Reyes if you have any questions please direct it to one of them and I will hand them the microphone does anyone have any questions I think we have time we all understand that there's policies and procedures that you have to work with and go through and that's not on your own my question is how are you going to go before our district while working with 10 other district and mayor who wants to take it first so I think it's very important excuse me it's very important that we you know for example these town halls that I'm having you know this is where I sit down and I speak with the residents and see what exactly is the issue in your neighborhood you know I can sit here and say oh this neighborhood has this problem this neighborhood has this problem yes there are you know hoops and hurdles to get things done but my main focus is you know seeing what needs to be done and how can I work with you know the other council members to bring like hey district 3 my neighborhood needs this if you're not going to help me then I'm going to find ways to make sure that gets done and so it's all it's transparency it's communication with the constituents and that's very important that's what I really want to push communication and can we're giving about a minute thank you for asking that I think that's a really important question and I think that that's something I've been thinking about a lot especially through block walking because really the difference in the districts are just the line on the map it's not really something that we perceive as part of this community right we have you know business family fun in any other area throughout the city and I think especially what is lacking very much lately in city hall is a lack of collaboration and solidarity between the inner city districts one through six seven right I think it's really important that the representatives of each of each of those districts really you know approach things as a collaboration to bring our districts you know back into the running right to catch up with all of those years of neglect that all of us have experienced I have no fear to stand alone on certain issues if it's a matter of principle but I do acknowledge that it's absolutely necessary to collaborate and find common ground with my councilor colleagues to make sure that we move forward together thank you for the question it is it's about building relationships it's about collaboration and it's about building a cooperation with one another yes there are moments where I have to make the case for why district 3 needs certain things I need to make the case and be able to work within the budget that we have understanding the budget and fighting for the money for our part of town for district 3 and identifying and bringing to light to my council colleagues and the mayor why it is that we need this this stuff why it is that we need the infrastructure the development the highlighting and I have been able to do this in particularly with SA tomorrow plan Brooks area was not part of phase 1 there was nowhere from the south side part of phase 1 implementation until what I stood up and I said that we needed to include that if you want to stop economic segregation in the city then you need to make sure that the south side in district 3 is part of our future and part of the development in phase 1 I want to thank you well I feel that first of all we need to get Cheryl Scully out because she is the one that stopping everything and making a lot of money our tax payers dollars who is she is she better than us you got to remember that she is not better than us only one of us I feel that that would be the only way for things to happen here is by working together not being a puppet and listening to Cheryl Scully I am not a puppet I used to be in the union representative where I used to work at Frederick's air conditioning and I was the only woman negotiating table my last year that I was there and I don't care what they said they were the majority men and I got it my way thank you remember district 3 has clout now with our world heritage our special interest group are going to want to come over here we our councilman the way you do that is when you go to the table that you want to bring something over here we can always always talk to the wealth do you want to bring in your special interest group in district 3 we can fight for we can fight for your special interest groups away from the missions but yet at the same time we can bring negotiations to the table as a district 3 representative in the 80s I worked for R.J. Reynolds I negotiated bringing the Winston drag race to San Antonio I was on the other side of the fence and I got the best of the city but that was because they paid me high dollars to bring those kind of races to to the cities and that's the way you negotiate thank you we've got one more question do you want to ask? my name is Isabel Garza and my husband and I are very interested in encouraging students in the south side to get a proper education so my question for you is if you're going to be our representatives I would like to know your educational background and your qualifications who would like to be thank you that's a good question and it's important in district 3 to bring good education to our children the qualifications that I have I have a degree in business management for UTSA I worked for 3 major corporations General Electrical Cola and R.J. Reynolds I put 3 children through college 2 went to Stanford 1 went to SMU and they all pursued their masters and all because of the hard work of the mother and father and of course we had a little bit of help from God to do that the experience in bringing people together as a parent putting our 3 children through rough Stanford, SMU University of Michigan NYU and we made it so that's the experience I bring I know how to do that if I can do that with my children I can do it with the community I'm very much for education like I said earlier about my daughter she was able to I told her that because of the discrimination that I said go ahead and take your GED but that didn't stop her because right now my daughter even though it took her 2 years to get better and get back to school she has a bachelor's degree nobody can stop you from getting an education and I'm for it I'm one of the parents that I am for education I have a high school education and that's why I promoted my daughter that nobody has a right to stop you to get any kind of education especially it wasn't her fault what happened to her and I'm all for it education is so important and I would do whatever it takes thank you thank you I'm very proud with the sacrifice and work of my family I have received my bachelors of science in geography and urban planning from Texas State University in San Marcos Texas at the time my minor was in geology I worked my entire time as I was up working and going to school I had the honor of earning my master's public administration from St. Mary's University here and worked the entire time full time as well I committed to leadership development and growing our students with my district 3 Legacy Leadership Initiative an investment of raising leaders grassroots leaders in district 3 to continue to grow and continue to pursue their education as a daughter as a granddaughter of someone who owned my grandparents only completed the 6th and the 8th grade and my parents weren't able to go to high school I'm proud to continue the legacy and continue the legacy of education thank you I grew up here in the southeast side again I went to St. Mary's Catholic School from 1st through 8th grade and that was a certain grounding and a certain beginning there I went on to Highlands High School so I did gain that experience in private and public school which I really appreciated I attended a couple years and it kind of worked it was still called the college then and a couple years had sat I had not completed a degree I've chosen a life of service to my community and gained experience and knowledge through oral history through just exchange with communities I've been really blessed to be able to surround myself with really incredible mentors that have really beautiful hearts really beautiful minds that share their experience, their education from institutions to streets and everywhere in between so I do consider myself a person with a lot of conocimiento that's gained it in a certain way and I encourage everyone to pursue the education that's right for them I believe education is very important and I've been fortunate enough to speak at high schools already pushing these juniors and seniors to apply for colleges to apply for scholarships and currently I attend the university the important word and I'm happy to say I'm proud to say that I graduate a week after the election I'll begin my degree in communications Bachelor of Arts in communications and you know that goes back the key is communication and that's what we need in District 3 that's what we need in our neighborhoods and so I want to bring that to the table I want to bring my skills and my passion for public service and so yes, education is very important and I'm proud to say I'm about to graduate South Cider and part of that's come I've met great people over there and when they ask me where I'm from they say this outside I say this outside and they give me that certain look and you know that just the lack of respect and so we need to get more high schoolers to apply for colleges to apply for scholarships so that's very important Would you like to take one more question one more or a few more just one more She grew up with the Hardingdale District and she did did strain got the GED afterwards but now she's in college and for two years she's going to be a graduate and for myself well I've been to fiber school and I've been to fiber college I'm a graduate from GED from Hardingdale too because I can't believe that the fact that John had all these backgrounds in the body of education because then you know my daughter I had to be like that is not what the teacher's telling what the principal's telling you yeah that's good but it's going to have our district people be part of that education means that you can soar and you can go as high as God wants you to go I mean to keep on going and going and my question would be I personally gather information from this community I've left people now and I'd like to tell people what kind of things would John be bringing into this community besides the fact that that's going to be a wine scene right there is there anything coming up in the future so I can spread it around because then you're going to have a lot of sadness and then I go to church there and I miss you and the question is does John have any future plans just to rephrase it if you have any future plans or what would be your future plans what do you know of or what would be some things that you would bring into district through you want to take it John? well to me what's more importantly is you the community and I would have meetings in different areas of district through so I could get your input because it's what you all want what you need in the south side of east side of district 3 I would make sure that I would get all that input and start from there that's why I am here for you the community this is very important what you want is what I'll go out and get for you what do we need also of course and this is what I propose to do is try to get your input I'm sure someone wanted this you got it I will do the same, thank you well we'll continue to work together to bring the enhancements that we are looking for in the district the bond has many opportunities here with the upcoming bond election we have the enhancements around south press and mission road we are looking at more and non confusing signage up and down our corridor over here we are looking for enhanced park space here in and around the area and in all of the parks in district 3 you know that we just had our senior center at south side lions park yesterday that has low impact development and that is there and it's high quality we are worth it and we deserve it here in the southern sector of San Antonio one of the things that we're working on with the neighborhood for our world heritage work plan is what kind of local small businesses do we want to see in the area it's going to be authentic but is it restaurants because we want to make sure people are coming that they stay here and they visit with our local community thank you thank you again for that really important question and for sharing your story one of the things that I would like to do is to do monthly block walks and not wait for people to come to a cafe with the council person but to actually go out into the neighborhood hand deliver those letters that include various updates and really continue to build an understanding of what neighborhood networks need to be better supported right I would like my field office to double as a resource center to offer printing so that if people are planning fundraisers planning info sessions they have that ability to not only print make copies of flyers and distribute them but also help in distributing those flyers help in creating those flyers learning a new skill doing some graphic design whatever you know maybe some drawings connecting with high schools and young artists to create those visual welcome signs that we need to engage people more in community community work and my time is up but I do have more plans so three town halls through community engagement we can we can see what the constituents what the residents want you know I consider to say I want this I want that but in the end it's what the community wants and so you know why not have a senior center down here and you know different different plans and different development now one of the things is to make sure that the communication is there with the constituents and so it's very important that that that's what I want to bring to the table and so just open communication one-on-ones with the community and moving looking to move forward and so the development is up to the residents and constituents of district three and the different neighborhoods my vision for district three is around the missions I want to have more community centers that are to be used by our constituents community centers that we can have festivals or we can have meetings we can have get together we can have whatever we need to do for our constituents maybe develop some souvenir shops inside the community centers and that proceeds instead of going to the city going to a homeowners association that can be done city council votes for that especially if I go into it another thing that I can bring to the community is that we need to have outreach programs from universities around the nation to bring staffers to recruit kids, children from our district to go to these Ivy League schools or to the higher education schools that are renowned throughout the United States we can develop that whole town hall meetings and bring our staffers from the universities and come talk to our children that's what I would bring to district three that's my vision, thank you that's it, we have time for one more question yes sir, if you want to just project if not over repeat it I appreciate your time coming out here it's probably a whole lot of opportunity that we can take advantage of but even the best mission is still without focus so just understanding from a candidate's perspective what do you expect in the majority of your time addressing for this district we would like to take that first thank you again, one thing that I feel very strongly about and that has come up today a lot is really building community engagement building that hope resurging that hope that people I think have lost that their voice might be heard at city hall that their perspective might be taken into consideration when big decisions come up that is a huge focus for me I think that's really important and critical to the success of any community another thing that I would like to really focus on is following through on some of the pending projects that have been initiated again, what happened at Mission Trails was so terrible and it didn't end there the impact of that displacement on families, endures and is lasting and aside from that human impact there sits a 22-acre gigantic empty lot three years later where's the follow through the development that was promised at Pecan Valley with the golf course it's a snake pig sitting there we need to follow through on these projects and that doesn't justify some of the means but at least we can move to another place beautiful it was a tough call who am I going to give it to first what was the question again so my primary focus on the district is jobs we need good paying jobs in District 3 we need to viper our jobs to bring them over here to District 3 we need Exxon whoever IBM we need that not to depend on the Scully and all those other people that bring jobs to the other side of the city we need to bring jobs, good paying jobs and that's what I'm going to be focusing on I need to also improve education at our local school district we need to have 100% participation to develop our public schools in District 3 Harlandale, McCollum all everybody I do want to have you know my time is up so everything is important all issues when we talk about health and wellness just yesterday I had an event at Pickle Park I invited the community to come out and play a pickup game with me promoting health and wellness all those kids to come out and be active I'm in support of small business and entrepreneurs I envision culinary boutiques that reflect the culture of District 3 up especially the missions imagine going in somewhere and you learn how to make tortillas and so it's something different that I want to push when we go into infrastructure when we go into public safety my grandmother was just diagnosed with dementia and I'm that is one of my main focuses protecting our seniors making sure that they're safe and not just the seniors the entire neighborhoods and so how can we push to promote public safety and so those are some of the many issues that I'm really trying to touch on one thing that I would focus on is getting trained up here can you repeat it again oh okay thank you well I know that here in the south side as I was a single parent well I got married very young and I chose to get married and I get an education as far as going to college so what I would want to do because I had to work two jobs because I became a single parent and I would try to do something for that situation like that which nowadays unfortunate there's a lot of kids that are getting married very young not finishing school I would want to get a program to help them it's just like when you go and you see the army, navy marines well I would like a program like that for the community my focus will be to continue to maintain the dignity and respect that we deserve here in district 3 to continue to be a voice and not just be seated at the table but to maintain our voice and that it would be heard we have our infrastructure that is still in much need right now to maintain the attention and the importance on that infrastructure development because we have streets that have not been fixed for years for decades and to maintain that we have those streets when we get our streets fixed then we have our sidewalks put in and then we have those investments from the private investors from the small businesses there that they don't have to worry about maintaining the streets in front of their houses they can focus on doing their job and doing their business so making sure that is still at the forefront of my focus of this term and throughout the term thank you very much thank you very much and that was our last question that we were taking but let's go ahead and thank all of our candidates that were here with us today for taking the questions and showing the interest and thank you very much for being flexible with the format we kind of changed things up a little bit but as of course as always fairness is always one of our major concerns thank you so very much also for cooperating with the Rasky microphone thank you, I appreciate it very much and folks I'm not sure about their schedules but by all means for those of the candidates who can stay for a little bit there's some cafecito, hay donitas y más quieres and if you would like to approach any of the candidates and ask some more questions maybe something you wanted clarification you didn't get a chance to do please do so thank you very much