 Thanks. Make the color of its critic. I'll have more tea. Greetings, everybody. We're going to get started. Sit down, working on your imprisonment. All right. Sweet blessings to everyone. It is absolutely a marvelous month day, and we're so glad to see everybody here. And as usual, such warm energy that everybody has is so, I'm glad to be in this happy place with you. So we're gonna open up with prayer. Reconvictual, he's double duty today. He's gonna do the prayer and an introduction for us. So, Reconvictual. Please, follow with us as we invite God's presence to assembly. Heavenly Father, we bow our heads and all of our spirits before you in grateful appreciation for another day. Sometimes we take it for granted, but it's a blessing to be here. We ask now that you would bless the food that has been prepared, they nourish our bodies, but we also ask that you would certainly bless this gathering as we come together as concerned community leaders and members to see what the future of our city will be, particularly in our district and throughout the city. So bless us and bless this day, bless this food, and bless our time together. This we ask in the precious holy name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Our pleasure. Thank you so very much. Well, so some of you are very practiced at hearing our wonderful history for the Lighthouse Luncheon. It was started by a font that came to Lloyd Wilson. He was looking in the community and he was noticing an absence of leadership and succession in the African American community. He noticed that gap and he began to ponder what could we do about this. And so he decided to see a wonderful leader in our community, the late Reverend Claude Black, and they had a discussion and said, well, let's see, what could we do? Reverend Black definitely agreed. He said, you know, with the upward mobility that we have now in our community, we're no longer centralized as we used to be. It used to be that we would all gather together and share information and mentor one another, but now everybody's so spread out. So what can we do? So they had the idea to have this luncheon. And so they brought in the late Ed Miles, who used to work for district attorney Susan Reed, and they began having this luncheon. And I think they had it like if I went one time, it was at Paisanos and a couple of different places and then they finally settled on having it here at the Plaza Club. I think I came in maybe about six months after they started sending out the communications. And so we've been moving strong ever since. So we come together not as an action group, but as an information group. We have wonderful speakers who come in and share great information with us. Let us know what's going on in the community. Sometimes we have our elected officials. Sometimes we have community leaders. Sometimes we have business leaders giving us good information. And so while we are not an action group, each one of us is responsible for action, right? So this information you get here, what are you gonna do with it? So are you gonna go share it with someone else? Are you gonna act on it? What are you gonna do with that information? So we're so glad that you're here and not only do we get good information that hopefully we can use to build our community and build lives, but also what a wonderful networking opportunity, right? We need to meet beautiful people and hopefully find people that we can collaborate with and do great things with. There's nothing else but just to encourage them, right? To give them a smile and tell them you can do it. So glad to know you. What a beautiful person you are. So it's also an absolutely wonderful networking opportunity. So we're so glad that you're here. And speaking of networking, we're gonna go around the room and let everybody introduce themselves. So if you could tell us your name and maybe who you're with and what you do, but not a book, right? So I'll start off maybe because you know what, I'm gonna introduce myself. I'm Joy McGee and I am a small business owner here in San Antonio as well as I hold different community leadership roles and I'm very glad to be able to launch with you today. And I'm gonna start off with you. My name is Deborah Bush and this is my first time and I was invited. So I'm gonna get a little bit more involved. Get a little bit more of what you're spending. Jackie Jackson, UTSA's Minority Business Center and also our Chair of the City of Curtin's Economic Development Committee. Regina Hondes, three young, small business but I also work at an OCS Academic Board now. Yeah, I'm Santa Cruz, I'm from all college of awareness. Charles Houston, Frostbake, Commercial Management. Tony Hardgrove, CEO of Austin Community Center. Harold Foster retired Senior Citizen. Frank Dunn, Frank Dunn, Interns Agency. Milton Harris, Small Business Owner, Executive Director of the Warranty Department. Good afternoon, Cobra and Rector. Senior Citizen and Community Volunteer. Let's run the door now, Harris. I am Government Relations for the Texas Senate and Texas House. LeBron Woodespoon, retired Military and CEO of the Texas Minority Fashion Week. Rose being retired Military, CEO of the E.T. Enterprises and Coffrut and currently a River State Agent for the EXP-02. I'm a second analyst, I come wearing different hats but this month, I'm here again with May O'Rourke and Woodstone. Paula Atman, Native Sanitanian, I'm from America, H.E. I'm with Santa Cruz, I'm from Texas. Maria Williams, owner of the Jessica Vets Bar-Maria as well as M2W Properties, second Vice-Chair for the Alamo City Life Chamber. Sure, Maria is the first Vice-Chair for the Alamo City Life. Woodstone and I are all equal populations. Well, this is Mitchell, pastor of Mount Zion, first Baptist Church, member of the Community of Churches for Socializing and Baptist Churches. Laura Salos, former City Councilman, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas, retired but not really. Keith Tony, City Council Candidate, District Supervisor. And we have this beautiful young lady who just came in. Oh, I'm Lovanna Stewart with EXP-02 as well as San Antonio Association Women's Lakers. Glad to have you. And now, Ms. Banks. Hi! You want to introduce yourself? I'm scared to drop by. I want to say hi there. Hi, everybody. I'm a member of Bethel Amme Church, member of the Drums and Skill of America and Delta Sigma Theta. And then... I'm Louie Nate Taylor, retired educator. And we're so glad to have now cast in our midst today. If you want to introduce yourselves. I'm Charlotte Ann Lucas. I lead now cast essay, which remarkably is going to turn 10 years old this September. We're like local public television on the internet or your local peace band. Give you access. And this is... Hi, I'm Hannah Wolfe. I'm an intern with the Students and Startups Program. I'm currently a student at Trinity University studying English and Geosciences. So now has their information on the table and they do accept donations. They provide a wonderful service to us and the community. If you can't make any bed, it might be some important information you need and so you're able to access that because of what they do. So we appreciate you. Thank you so very much. Thank you so much, Joy. It is with a great deal of pleasure that I have the opportunity to introduce a member of my congregation, but also a leader of our community. He is an honorable Mario Salas and he was a little bit, I think shy, been introducing himself a little bit earlier, but here are the things that I know about him. In addition to what he said, he is also quite a writer and an editor of articles and books and newspapers. He is, as he said, a professor at the corner of the district of Kowsoon, but he is also a historian, he's a Christian, he's a husband, a father, a grandfather, a political scientist, and a community leader. One thing you can always count on from Brother Mario is that he will give you the straight up interpretation of what he sees happening in the community. He's not gonna bite his tongue, he's not gonna hold his back and you have no doubt where he stands and what he believes. That's the man you can trust because you never have to wonder what's going on. So he told me, he said, be careful what you say, he's introducing me. So without further ado, I present to you our moderator, Brother Mario Salas. Thank you for that. I told him that I could let him order and say nothing about what I just said and he didn't say anything about it. Anyway, we're happy to be here and I want to really thank Jordan McGee for putting this stuff together. Give her a big round of applause. Thank you. I wanted to thank you to have two of the finalists with what's been, obviously, with what's been made for a lot of people running in the first round. They call that politics the first round. Now we're in the second round and that means a run-off. So the run-off election is, we have two days of really voting left today and I think it's open till 8 o'clock tonight and tomorrow at the same time, 8 o'clock, and one of my seven votes yet, you want to get that out of the way. A lot of people like to get it out of the way because who knows, it may not be available for a kid because people can't have bad luck on the day of the election. So people want to do that when they get it. And the other people are what I call traditionalists. I'm going to vote on election day and I'm not voting on the other day. And so you do that both ways. So those are the things that people do when they involve themselves in the political process. And we do live in a democracy, in fact that there are some people at the top that don't like that and you don't want to talk about it. But we do live in a democracy and so it's important that we hear from people who are running to represent district two. I would say the council doesn't know they're ready for this to be over. I mean look at their face. Once you've gone through the first round and the second round, it's hard work. You don't ever make everybody happy. That's just the way it is in politics. So you just have to do your best. So what I'm going to do is the way I'm going to organize this is I'm going to have questions and stuff with the audience. So since we've got relatively small groups, I was just going to ask you to raise your hand for questions. But in the beginning, I'm going to allow each community to come up and in about two minutes, open in remarks and I'll just ask the question of why do you think the community are both for you for the district two city council to stop. Sorry about that. Who's got another one? Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. All right. So I'm going to have both of them come up, if you will, and they'll raise the chair. That was for something else. And don't get my chair, it's in the middle. And then I'm going to drag the microphone over there but I'll pull it in. And each one of you two minutes and you know, I'm old school, so I'm going to give, unless she doesn't want to, I'm going to, okay, I'm going to give her her first shot at the opening remarks. Then after they both give their two minutes opening remarks, then we'll open it up to questions up in the audience. I think I'm going to have a couple of questions myself and I'll probably get mine on the way right away. So y'all can have more time. So having said that, I'll let her introduce herself but I will say this city council district two candidate and this one of election, Jada Sullivan, so she can do the honors and tell us all about herself. Well, good afternoon everyone. It is an honor and a pleasure to be in front of you. And I stand in front of you as a lifelong resident of district two. I was born here, raised here, raised my kids here, my mother's still here, my children are still at home and yes, they are my little grown people because I say that because they're grown in number but the things that they're doing makes mom proud. And so as I stand in front of you, I went to Gates Elementary School, went to Martin Luther King Middle School and then I graduated from San Houston High School while I graduated with honors. I became a statistic of what district two normally has. I became a mother at the age of 16. When I graduated from high school, I went to UT at Austin and at that point I did not understand how much debt my mom was racking up, sending two kids to college at the same time. So I decided that what I was gonna do, I was going to the army. It was the best decision of my life. I wanted it to be my career, however I sustained an injury and I got out of the military. And then what did I do? I came back home and I came back home to the same residence that I still reside in today because my grandparents understood the meaning of legacy. District two is truly a legacy. It's what we stand on in the foundation here of the story of the district two is strong, it's rich and it's vibrant. So when I stand in front of you, I stand in front of you because the legacy that was left for me by my late grandfather the Reverend L.H. Mills and by many of his counterparts in the ministry made sure that I understood that my foundation and where it came from. So I stand because I know district two is a pillar of strength. I know district two can have the vibrance that it always had. We just need a person that sits in the seat that will be consistent, that will stay in the seat. It is not a platform to where I will build myself, it's not a platform that I'm looking to do two to three months. It's a platform where I will continue to do the work that district two needs, our respect must be given. And the way that we get that is we get out there and we vote and we speak and we make our voices known. I've been appointed to the Martin Luther King Commission for the last four years. It has been a joy to see what we have done from just having a march that went one day out of the year to having several different things that we consistently do throughout the year. When I work with the NAACP, I work with Mr. David Sherman who does the veteran services and I advocate for us as veterans. I'm a survivor of domestic abuse, sexual abuse and my kids are my strength. So when I stand in front of you, you're looking at a pillar of strength that will lead this district into where we're supposed to be. And I thank you for your time and I thank you for allowing me to be here today. Thank you for your time. Good. We're ready for a district two. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Mario. Thank you, David. I'm Keith Thoney. I'm a former councilman here in district two. All of my literature says experience matters. I was on council for five months. I was an interim, but prior to that, I spent 15 years on the school board of the Fort Sam Houston Independent School District. 10 of those years as president of that board, proudly I was the first African-American in the history of that district to reach that pinnacle of president. So I'm proud of that. Twice I was appointed to boards of commissions by district two council persons. Once by then councilman Joel Williams, some of y'all remember Joel and again by then councilwoman Ivy Taylor. So that's what I mean when I say experience matters. I've dealt with budgets because experience matters and on council you will do that. I'm retired. I'm a retired civil servant. Had a pretty nice grade. So I did higher and higher. So I know how to deal interpersonally on a human resources management level with employees, with counterparts, with peers, professional peers. There's no learning curve. You don't have to worry about me getting down there taking three months, six months to learn policies, processes and procedures at city hall. I know we're ready to go. We're ready to hit the ground running. We don't have time for a learning curve. We need someone who's got big league skills because we have big league issues and big league concerns in district two. I'm not saying that the glasses have empty. It truly isn't. I think the glasses is about three quarters full but we want to fill it up and run it over. How do we do that? Experience matters. That's how we do that. I have a bachelor's degree in government from Chapman University in Orange, California, a master's degree in human resources management from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. And I'm proud of those degrees but I'm even proud of my associate degree in speech. So you might wonder why is he more, why is he more proud of an associate degree than a master's from Pepperdine? Because when I got that associate degree I had just come back from Vietnam and my mind was scrambled. But it was my wife who said, you're not taking any time off. You're gonna get into school and you'll get yourself together. So that associate degree was important to me. And that's why our colleges are important. I know it's a game changer. It'll change things. I'll keep telling you experience matters. I thank you for your time. So I thank you for sticking to the current pretty good. That's great. Okay, right now we can just rush into and don't be back, don't be shy, ask questions. I do ask that you identify who you're asking the question of. If you're asking the question for both to respond, that's fine too. But tell us who you're asking of and if you're asking both or you're asking just one. So having said that, if one of the ladies wants to pick something off, who wants that, well, okay, come on up. I want to put you on the spot, you got to come up. Oh, thank you. Or at least right there, Steve. Thank you. Russell, a day chief financial officer with, say, San Antonio for Growth in Eastside. I'd like for both of you to share with us what do you see the top two priorities for addition to? And I'll give in each two minutes for a couple of these questions. As long as there's not 300 questions. The top two priorities of District 2 are definitely our crime and then our property taxes that are new. And so when you look at crime within District 2, I tell people in 1991, we were at San Houston. A lot of times people don't realize that we were the generation that was tossed to the side because we had all of the game fighters that fell into that one school. We had the shooting that happened and it was glorified, but never recognized. So we never had the community that came into our school to truly say, how can we combat this? What's going on? You had every part of the East Terrace, the Rixie Courts, you had the Wheatley Courts, you had all of these areas feeding into this one school and it became a cesspool and a Yomopi. And out of that, what you're seeing today are the remnants of our children that we had that are continuing to perpetuate the cycle. And it's gotten totally out of hand because every day when we were in school, we had a moment of silence. It seemed like it was going on every week. And that is what our children are experiencing today. So we had to kind of go backwards, catch up and come forward. And then we must do something about our property taxes, especially with our seniors. Thank you. Sherry Gord here. Okay, I see economic development and infrastructure as the two top for me. And you might wonder, why doesn't he say crime? Because I think crime is a symptom. Because people are hurt and hurt people, hurt people. So people need, right now they feel hopeless and helpless. So if I can't get a job, there's nobody in here, we can sit here now, we're all healthy, we're all happy, we're well-fed and guess what? And say, I would never sell drugs. I never say never. But we have to give them an alternative. So that's why we're working with people who can do that in the district. Give us some job training. So, you know, we've been discovered, so they're coming in now, all the developers are here. So here's what we're saying to them. As a condition of doing business here in district two, here's what we want from you, Mr. Developer. We want some job training from folks that look like us. So that's what we want from them. So, we need economic development and infrastructure. Okay. Yeah, that's right. Here's who has the question. Come on, man. All right, Mr. Harris. Thank you gentlemen for your question. And now we'll have Mr. Harris come on. Do I need the microphone? Yeah. Well, I think that this is very important in this election. So this question really talks to the heart of the city of San Antonio being on the list of being one of the most economically segregated cities in the United States, not really at all addressed it. District two is one of those districts that have history of economic segregation. So, please tell me what your plan is to help you get us off to the top of that list. There's someone over here. Well, the good thing is, as council person, we don't have to do it ourselves. We have small business organizations. We have Black, just an energy party. We have these businesses who are really ready to vote. They just need somebody who's going to be there and not use the post as a stepping stone. So you don't have to worry about me leaving and become a judge. I'm not qualified to become a judge. So I'll be there. I'll be there. We both pledge that we'll be there. So that's what we need is the political will to work with you. We have the warriors, we have the army, if you will, in place just to work with you to really make it happen for district two. It's happening everywhere else. It's happening everywhere else in this city. The things that district eight take for granted in nine and 10, we can't take for granted. As council person, one of us is going to have to worry about sidewalks and things for our seniors not to fall in the street. Wow, out there hard for the park. They got $25 million for being stuck across the road. So we need somebody who can fight that crap and say no, no, no. Because they need my vote like I need their vote. And you got to know that going in and we'll do that. So to combat the economic segregation that we have here in district two, definitely we have a strong small business community. And going out to each one of those small businesses because we know our small business owners are in-house. So we need to go to them and get them the certifications they need, show them how to navigate the website to become certified vendors. We have subcontractors and that's great. So we have people in our community that can be prime contractors for the city of San Antonio. It's about putting the right pieces in place and making sure that we touch everyone within our community. Because if we're not touching each and every last one of us, we're still failing our own community. Now the city of San Antonio, we know, has a population of where they don't see us. So we have to become visible for ourselves. And I've spoken to many people in our community that have come back and they are not in that price range they're used to being at what they did other places. We have to change the rhetoric for ourselves and come back to truly working with our community, making sure that everybody has the certifications they need, making sure that they have all of their business plans in place. And then we start making sure that we give ourselves the economic advancement that we need to become a prime contractor. Thank you. Thank you very much. Two lives standing up now. This is the general question about the city as I said. There's been a lot of talk about the police and fire department. And I would like some clarification. Now it's my understanding and correct me if I'm wrong, but their pay is higher than Houston, Dallas, or Fort Worth. So the real issue is health care. And it's my understanding that they want, they're fighting for free health care, for not only themselves, but their families. And I'm wondering how we should pay for that because even the federal government doesn't give free health care. Not even for the employee. And I would like both of you to give me your opinion on that. Yes, ma'am. So if we are to give free health care to all of our service people, we would spend more of our city. And so what I would love to see happen is that we have partnerships. We have university health systems. We have MD Anderson. Those are things that we can partner together to get them some of the things they need health-wise instead of just continuously paying out their health care. We can have a partnership with most of the contracted doctors that we bring in to the city. We can have them contracted as well with Beth here, SAMHSI now, as we know it. And we start doing partnerships and start building into the resources that are coming here. Instead of constantly giving out of the budget, then we start making sure that everyone is covered. But we cannot go into a city budget and pay everybody's health care including their families because then we'll bankrupt our whole city. So we have to start looking at other ways to make sure that our service people are cared for because they do a job that all of us need within our community. So when you tap into university health systems, you tap into MD Anderson. When you have those firefighters that say, I'm having these health issues that are causing me cancer or is cells that are coming into my body from taking in all of these things that we don't know what is in this fire and this atmosphere, then we can start really combating those things. But just continuously paying out even more and more we're gonna bankrupt our city and we can't afford to do that. Thank you. The Green Clause is what you refer to with fire. So I'm a delineate to police and fire. Because police really have been to the table and that's pretty much settled. So that's one of that first thing. So we're talking about fire as we were talking about. The Evergreen Clause is something that is, it's in the state of flux right now, but they're at the table, so that's good. Firefighters across this state have a cancer rate that is about five times the normal cancer rate, which is too high. We all, everybody has been touched by cancer in the past, but their rate is about five times higher. This city in 2014, actually the then city manager had to come kicking and screaming to buy them air cleaners for their firehouses, which we did. I was on council then and we did vote to get them because when they back in, they idle. And in addition to the, as Jay alluded to the fires, you know what's in a fire, who knows what's in it. So that's one of the things. Now the family issue is the rub for them. And they're probably gonna lose that, they're gonna lose that. But for them as first responders, we have to take care of them. Their cancer rate is extremely, extremely high across the board. And so that has to be taken care of. And the city can do it, there's money to do it. But the family is an issue that is going to go on properly for another six months to be taken. One party. We have two guys, one woman, so women are behind. So to get things done, sometimes you have to build consensus. So how will you work with the other city council members to build consensus, while at the same time not selling district to the short? So thank you, Mr. Roy. The way you built that consensus, you truly have to get them to understand the uniqueness of district two. A lot of times when I speak to the council members that are on the Dallas, and I ask them, what do you truly know about district two? And I spoke with councilman Trevino, and I spoke with councilwoman Gonzalez, and I spoke with councilwoman Villagran. And I ask them, what do y'all truly know about district two? What is the history that you know about district two? How do you know, and what do you know about the reason why we're fighting so hard for district two? A lot of times they'll tell me, oh, well, we just agreed to disagree. I'm like, great, that can happen too. However, we must truly get to the root of what you know and why we're fighting so hard for what we deserve. For 20 years, I have seen district two be overlooked, underserved, and we need to change the rhetoric. So now we have to sit on a diet where we need the power of six. And what that means is that when I agree to make my district stronger, I need the rest of you to agree to make my district stronger. Either you come into my district and stay a few days and stay and hear what we hear at night. Come to ride around our areas and see what we see because your area is beautiful, but we've been dilapidated because we've been overlooked. And so when you get them to understand where we are in district two and you get that respect that is due out of the city council member that you elect, then you start seeing a true change with their district two. And that's what we truly do. Thank you. There's truly an interdependence. And most council persons know that each council person that Jada just named, I served with. And I can tell you that they get it. That they need us and we need them to get something done. And a rising tide lifts all boats. So if it helps too, it's gonna help eight as well. It really will. So we need, we know that they need that. And they know what we need. And I do say this, that you can't understand district two but coming to the MLK march and then getting all the e-sports, you can't. That doesn't help. And coming to the MLK march and not even going to a food vendor and spending $10. That doesn't help my district. Because when I go to a child that's marching, I spend money. I don't spend money and not for many times, I'm not gonna spend in that McDonald's or Burger King. I'm not gonna do a small vendor. I'm gonna be poppin', trying to make a living. So help us, help us. So we can work together. I've worked with those folks. And they'll work with us in most cases. And when they don't, when they don't, then we negotiate from a position of strength. There's nothing wrong with doing that. They're not used to district two doing that. But they'll get used to it, we'll get that. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, the score is now tie two to two. The women got two, the men got one. Who's gonna break the tie? Raise your hand. Come on. Put the mic in your hand and admit it. Come on, raise your hand. Who's got another question? You can, I'm sure you can take a word. Reverend, Reverend Beckham, I have one. I have one. The men are down here. The men are never going to be here. Right? Here, here, that's what I'm going for. Actually, I wanna make a statement. The statement, first of all is, I am very, very honored that both of you are our final candidates because I've seen campaigns since I've been in San Antonio. I think you guys have run a great campaign and whichever one of you get elected, I think we're gonna have a great representative in district two. Woo! Thank you. Of course we need it. Given the fact that one of you will become our council person and we have a runoff for the mayoral position, what kind of relationship do you anticipate having with either the current mayor or the other candidate if you can tell? Well, I've always had a positive working relationship with Mayor Aaron Berrick. We worked together, we were on council together. When I came on council, he was the first honest person to invite me too much, as a matter of fact. The very first. And I was joked with Rebecca again around, I said now, I'm in two and you in three and you let this guy beat you. You and he invited me first. So I have a good working relationship with him. I have a great working relationship also with Mr. Broadcast. Because Mr. Broadcast spends a lot of time in district two. And so I've gotten to know him as well. So I don't anticipate any issues at all. And he brought up something about both of us being the finalists. And let me say this, if my count is correct and Jada can correct me, this is our 20th form. Our 20th form, this I heard of. And I couldn't be with a better candidate. And I don't call an opponent. I would say she's a co-candidate. We're just two candidates out here trying to do what we do. And I always want to thank her publicly for being that kind of co-candidate that we can just try to look to the future for our district. So when it comes to working with either our current mayor or Councilman Broadcast, if he becomes mayor, it's all about making sure that we have a cohesive working relationship. That means when I speak for my district, I need them to listen. And when they are available, they need to come to our district. That is one of the things that we have not seen consistently out of one or the other. And so you need to truly make your treadmarts here to understand why district two is coming to you for the things that we were requesting, the things that we're asking for. And so I can truly say Councilman Broadcast is the man of his word. If he says he's coming, he's coming. And that for me speaks louder than anything else. And with Mayor Ron, he truly has been a source to where we can say, where have you been? And when you ask him these things, he'll tell you his answer. So we thank him for that. But working together is a must. And either way, we have to work hand in hand to make sure district two is not overlooked anymore. Both of me, I have 42 of those me and Sean. And by the way, here's Ron for nothing. But the minute now here, I think we got time, Joe, correct me if I'm not on the phone, do you just want to wrap it up? That's the last time for women to tie the game. I have a question here from your tower, I guess. Oh, me? Me and Sean. I don't live in your district. I'm district three. School. And this is a question for both of you. It's very important to have a professional team in place, especially when you're transitioning and you're going to be on a very tight timeline. I'd like to know, are you building that team? Have you built the team? Or are we going to continue with the people that are currently in place in this? And AIDS were 10 years. That's a good one. And so, and I also addressed that question when you're starting looking at your boards, because that's very important to respond to your board. So it's a question that you wanted to answer. Good question. Definitely, when I look at the Northeast Office because they have been closed, re-opened and closed again and re-opened. And so they are a part of an area of district two that feels totally neglected, like they don't even exist within our realm of district two. Having that district two Northeast Office remain open with some of the key players that are in there is a must because they know the issues and they know the issues that have been neglected for so long and we need to start working on those. When it comes to looking at a team and a staff, I do have mindset of one of the things that we want to put in place. There's some additional pieces that our district truly needs to have in that office to make it very functional for our people that live within district two, especially our seniors and our youth. So those are some of the things that we're gonna be looking to bring into the office as well. And then it's just interesting that we've had this question and I've heard some of the concerns of those that are working in the office. Are we gonna have a job? Are we gonna be on? Are we gonna stay on? And my key is to go in there and truly ask them face to face, what do you bring to the table? What have you done? And show me your records because you could have been here 30 years but if you haven't completed anything that we need in district two, we thank you for your service. And then when it comes to your board, we need people that live in district two that understand district two to sit on those boards and represent us for district two. Because if you don't live here, you don't truly understand what it means or what it is that we're fighting for and we truly need to make that change. Thank you. The answer is, we know pretty much who we want in place. We've had those conversations and we know who will be gone and there's some people who will be gone. They don't know it yet, but they'll be gone. Because they have to go. Because we're gonna change things for our district. Even now it's something that seems as simple as answering the phone when it rings in the office. That's right. You know, we're going to be very professional about customer service. These are our customers. I don't care if she has a PhD or a GED or nothing, she hasn't gone to school, we had that opportunity. She's our customer. She's our client. He's our client. We're gonna be professional. You're gonna think you're calling for us bank because I want that for our folks. I want us to get, this is our new norm. Get accustomed to professionalism when you call your district two office. And for someone to timely get back to you and not say, we call you back. First time I hear that, I don't count very well. I don't play baseball, so you only get two strikes. That's it. That's it. And one professionalism, we deserve no less boards and commissions. You gotta live in the district, understand the district, okay? You're not gonna be cut. I don't care if you're my cousin. I'm not hiring you and then pooping them because y'all were raised together. No, it's not happening. It's not happening. We're gonna scrub that application very closely to make sure you really wanna be there. You really, when you're not there for the money, nothing wrong with the money, we all like it. But I want you to really have a sense of commitment to district two. What's the last two questions there? From the looks of things, we've been weird. We've been weird. My name is Rose Bean and I own several properties in district two. So I heard both of you all make a statement and I'm not buying for John from retirement. However, come, I do believe that you can, and that's not my question. I'm going somewhere for the question. But I do believe that you can have a lot in the design of the district two and not live in district two. I don't really believe that. Why? Because I pay a lot of taxes in district two. So that's free and it's no charm. However, my question is, thank you. Woo! My question is, in terms of zoning, if there was just one thing you could change about zoning in district two, what would it be and why? That's so hard. Just quickly before we get to save and answer that, I did contact commissioner Tommy Calvert, appreciate for he told me next year, I believe it'll be starting. You will no longer have to vote in the precinct. You'll be able to vote anybody. Yes! Yes, that's cool. And that's the praising commissioner Calvert. So, but let me ask you here. In case they didn't know that, that's pretty good. What people didn't know. With being one thing we need to have is make sure that we put on these boards and commissions. Really know what they're talking about. So that when someone like you who's a property owner, especially multi property owner, that you are not, that the zoning laws aren't so onerous to you and they are right now and I understand that. In some cases, you end up with something beside you you didn't want. In other cases, you want something there. The neighbors may want something there. You pulled up, you wanna put something there? Zoning says no. Zoning says no. Zoning's not supposed to be a big brother. It's supposed to work with you. And that's what we would do. So zoning is always an issue but we have to have the right people in place. I'm not sure that we have had recently for the district, for business people like yourself and for people who own property in the district. And so that's number one, is that we want somebody who's there who understands it's not about you and what you can potentially get out of it. But it's about folks like me being and the rest of us when you make these zoning decisions that don't have to be onerous and they really don't have to be just common sense. So that's number one, is that we wanna make sure we have the right people in place. Yes ma'am, Ms. Bean, thank you so much. And so when it comes to zoning, it's truly about looking at what we put in a multi-level family unit when it's a residential unit compared to a commercial unit. And so when you start looking at zoning you wanna make sure that you don't have your commercial and your residential that fits into your multi-level because then we start having a cluster of areas that are congested. And we need to make sure that we have that zoning in place to make sure our areas are covered. And because we're so into looking into density within the city of San Antonio making sure that we don't just plot a multi-level family unit in the middle of a residential unit will be wonderful. Thank you. Okay, I put you on a question. I'll put this if you go top it off. Okay, thank you. My question is based on the independent vote of Art Hall on the Chick-fil-A issue ending that conversation. His vote ended that conversation and the legislature has now addressed the issue by saying that religious freedoms when it comes to city contracts or all other constitutional rights. So I wanna know what it is that each of you would do as you have to readdress this issue in council regarding religious freedoms as well as what we're going to do with our airport leadership, our airport use, concessions because of this overturned by the legislature. Sounds good for a question. Okay, cool. With so many issues of district too sometimes I sit in wonder while we having this conversation about chicken sandwiches. However, when you look at Chick-fil-A you have to really start looking at the fact that they are franchises. And so when you have franchises, are we gonna penalize each and every franchise owner? When you look into the contract, the city has specific guidelines that each company must follow in order to get those contracts in the airports and in any other area that they're looking to do business with the city. So we're gonna change the rhetoric for just this one company because the head of this company and not this one particular franchise owner are different from ours. When I look into my family I look at the dynamics of my family and a lot of times coming from a Baptist family where you have those issues of different ideas of what we think about religiously. We are not looking at that in our contract. That is not what we have to say. What our belief is not your belief and your belief is not my belief and so we don't want you here. And we're gonna talk about an all-inclusive city. We need to start looking at exactly how are we looking at our contracts and follow those guidelines to the teeth. Thank you. All right. One last call for questions. Do I have a question? What is it? What does it answer? One last call for questions. Can I add to this just before you answer? Just knowing that the legislature has made a decision that's higher than any contract that you currently have. So address that for what you would do to change. Good, so we're working with our state legislature. We have to get them to understand that they're safe, they're safe. And our city contracts and our legislature need to work hand in hand to make that happen. And so I would love to see how they will come in and help us to develop our contracts to meet the guidelines that they're looking for us to have. Thank you. This is never about taking sandwiches. That's an incidental. This is about religious freedom and municipal overreach. This was municipal overreach, and it's worse. How are you going to tell this business that they have to not close on Sunday? That's their business model, if that's what they want to do. And it's not going to hurt them economically. Check for lay, if you ever try to get in a drive-through. They're doing just fine. And the consumer should have a right for six days a week, at least, to choose. Check for lay, if you have the airport. And what has happened is not only the legislature got involved, but the Supreme Court, Texas, got involved. And now the FAA is involved. So what can happen is this city can be painted with the brush of we are unfriendly to businesses that don't fit within our sphere. That's not good. That's not good. I have a lot of diversity in my family and in my friends. I don't choose my friends by who they live with, who they sleep with, and what they eat or what they wear. I don't care. If you're good to me, I'm good to you. So that's what this is about. It's about overreach by municipality, this city, and religious freedom, or lack thereof. OK. I'm glad there's some wrapping up. There's no more questions, because you're going to have to change. But we've been warned about it. But I do have a question there. I'm wondering if it's OK. We removed the racist statute for Travis Park. It's the traffic statute that needed to go. We got 22,000 signatures to remove that statute. I respect, I retain a lot, but we fell out over that issue. And our group warned. We got the statute removed. We're in the process of looking to see if there's any other. They're currently already removed on various. The city stepped over to our Travis Park, and they made me some others. So I wanted to ask them whether the position for Confederate statues, which in my opinion, represents slavery in the city of San Antonio. All right. If Robert E. Lee just replaced Robert E. Lee with Booker T. Washington. Booker T. Washington just said, during the Civil War, said, I'm hereby declare war on the United States of America. Would there be any statues of the Booker T. Washington? No. Not one. Let's say this now, and we have to understand this. Robert E. Lee wasn't insurgent. He declared war on an established government of this country. That's what he did. And it wasn't economic. Well, it was economic because who was doing the economy? Slaves. So that's why I say that's that you needed to go. The county started taking the plaques down immediately, but the city dragged their feet. So I don't owe anybody that's a descendant of Robert E. Lee anything at all. Anything at all. The best thing Robert E. Lee did for us and gave us all into national security. We took him. We took him because we won. Now, I understand he was the general. And he was an effective general. But it was an effective general for the other side, for the enemy. He turned against the established government of this country. I'm a Vietnam veteran. I brought a wrong start. So I didn't turn against my nation. Robert E. Lee did. The fact that he's white makes no difference to me. If it were a ability to watch it, I'd say the same thing. He turned against it. And why did he do it? To maintain an established rule of law that was illegal and immoral. And we call it enslavement. To protect this country now. Don't put them in the museum. Bury them for all eternity. I'm tired of hearing about Robert E. Lee. Me too. When it comes to our history, which District 2, I remember the times that we were at school. And our children don't even know the history of what we truly had to go through. If you look at it, even when we think about the Hey Street Bridge, and when you sit down with someone, you ask them, you brought this land. But do you know the history of why people are upset with you about the bridge and what you're doing with this land? It was our bridge, literally, to cross from one area and to another. And we had to bridge those roads and those rails that we weren't expected into. My mother told me when she got here from Victoria, Texas, and she went to the Heavens Fair, they still had the water fountains that were red and white. And in her mind, she was like, we are still living in a land where we will not be respected. Because by the color of our skin, we are deemed less than. And when you put up an image in front of a child, and you don't explain to them why people are really fighting to have this removed. Because we want you to understand this little black girl, this little brown girl, this little breeze of our history. And your ancestors said, no more will we have to face what we are in withroom when we become stronger and what we are doing. And if you want to continue to remind us what you did to us, then maybe we should remind you how we built where you are standing. And if we start changing that and start teaching our youth why we are fighting to have these remnants taken down, why we need to have this erased of America, and start truly teaching them why we decided that we needed to stand because our ancestors led then that's when we start taking our power back to help them understand that we don't need to face something that we've already been through when we both come. So thank you. I'm just going to give one more question. That's it. And if you wanted to ask a follow-up I'm going to let her do it because the women won anyway. So this is not going to change the course. Okay. Okay, once again I need clarification because it's my understanding regarding Chick-fil-A that it had nothing to do with gay rights that it had to do with revenants with the city with Chick-fil-A being closed on Sunday the city was losing money. So can you please both be clarifying? That was bombs live. That was bombs live. We all know that the city of San Antonio that the city of San Antonio we've had other businesses that have been in the airport that was closed on Sunday. So that is really not an issue. We've had other businesses that closed on Sunday. So Chick-fil-A being closed on Sunday was the first and it won't be the last. But it was truly about one that stepped up and said because they give money to conversion therapy and because they are not going to be open on that Sunday is how they try to intertwine it. But however, it was truly about looking at our NDO and how it was going to represent the communities that come through our airport more than it was about economics. That's a lie. It's a lie. That's just something that they came up with after the backlash came. They said, oh, oh, oh, it's economics. It's not economics at all. You go to San Francisco. Yes, who owns mostly Chick-fil-A franchise in San Francisco? Gay people. Chick-fil-A, if you're going to make money for them, they don't care. The conversion therapy thing I think is stupid. It's not therapy and it doesn't convert anybody. If I go and kidnap my 38-year-old son to make him believe a certain way, that's kidnap him. That's not any kind of therapy. So I don't agree with that. But this was about an assault on religious freedom. The city's not worried about losing revenue from Chick-fil-A. I mean, if they were worried about that, they could give me some of that money for that 25 million dollar land and raise the hard work apart. That's the revenue. Scully got her $75,000 to go to the parachute, but she left. So that would be money for that. So the money's there. This was all about just trying to punish this company for that reason. And the council person in district one is the guy who led the charge. Then the mayor jumped on board. Then the mayor said, oh, I better retract. I forgot. I'm in the middle of a dog fight. I got to retract. The guy in one, he's okay. He won heavily. So he's mad. So the mayor said, I got to retract. So what do I do? This is about economics. It's not about economics. Not at all. It's not about economics at all. That's just a political lie to cover up the real reason that they made that terrible, terrible decision. Great response. Okay. Renee, how much time we got left? 20 minutes. Time to wrap up. Can I feel your power? Time to wrap up. Time to wrap up. Time to wrap up. Okay. We want to thank two candidates for being here. By the way, we need to thank them for really a pretty shit old campaign. Not only like me, but anyway. No, I think they did do it. You know, anytime you're running in a political office, you always have to bear the burden with that running for that office. But that means criticism, spears everywhere. It also means thanks. So we do want to thank them for what they're doing. And we're looking forward to the election, which is on Saturday at the 8th. You can still vote early tomorrow and Tuesday. So I'm going to give them one minute closing remarks. And so let's do that. Dana? Thank you, Mr. Thomas. And thank you all for allowing me to be here. Thank you, Ms. Jordan, for being by it. As I stand in front of you, we all know that this runoff means a lot for our district. It is the seat that looks like us and speaks for us. It's the one that has the president on city council. And so when I stand in front of you, I stand in front of you because when I leave from that office, I come back home to district and I look at my kids and I say, I did this because your mama was the statistic that wasn't supposed to make it. Your mama was the one that they told you a little black girl from San Houston with a baby at 16, you won't never be nothing. When I stood and I decided to do this, I did this because I want them to know no matter what anybody says, thinks or believes, you believe in yourself. Because where you come from will not determine where you're going. And so when I stand in front of you, I stand in front of you because I don't have to be appointed and wanted to do some things here in district two. So I humbly ask that you get out and vote but I do ask that you vote for me and I ask that you vote for a change for district two. I ask that you vote for something that will be old district two and I thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you all for having us and thank you again Jada. Jada and I spent a lot of time together. Believe me. We spent a lot of time together and nothing but a joy from the very beginning even though sometimes I make jokes that may be a little out of color. And Jada, we usually sit beside each other so she can look at me and go uh-uh and just talk to me. So she's kept me straight. This is very important. We lose this seat, this sign. We may never get it again. Let's just say, can we be up front? We all fail, right? Let's be 100. It's not going to happen again. We'll lose it. It's gone. Demographically, we're shifting. We're breaking up. We're shifting. So we better be really, really conscious about what we do and how we vote because it's going to make a difference for our grandchildren. District two is the shining city on the hill for me. It's not a stepping stone. Not looking to do anything else. I'm 67 years old. I'm comfortable. Social security. My wife doing well. Got her military retirement. My disability. Her disability. So we're good. So this is about commitment for me. I can be comfortable. And when I'm finished this, I'm going home. I'm done. I'll be available to be in the community but for political office I'm better. I just want to help. I said, Lord, if you let me get out of this alive when five people got killed to the left of me that date, one of whom was a good friend of mine from Alliance Ohio, we came up together. I said, I will serve you the rest of my life. Not in the fall pit, like my grandfather but I'll have live a life of service. So please let me continue to live a life of service. I humbly ask for your vote. Thank you so much. 20 seconds over. Would you like 20 seconds? She's gracious. Very gracious. Well, we'll take all the offer being here. Finish some time talking to the candidates one-on-one. And we'll thank Ms. McGee for doing her duty. Thank you. I hope to see you in the next open hour in the future. And I'm glad to have been a moderator between the two of you. Thank you very much.