 So I want to remind the candidates that all viewers and participants must keep microphones muted except for the moderator and the timekeeper and the candidate that's currently speaking. Candidates and their campaign shall not use a chat to answer questions. There'll be no personal attacks please this forum is a debate please stick to policy positions and be respectful of the moderator and timekeeper please. Our timekeeper tonight, john will be letting you know is john on he'll be letting you know by sound when your one minute is up so you have one minute to answer each question. Sorry about that I don't know what happened. Got kicked out somehow. Lisa, I just read the rules but I haven't talked about the timekeeper so if you could continue from there. Perfect. Our timekeeper is john Davis from the Keystone neighborhood association. We're getting candidate one minute to answer each question. And we're going to give them to you on a rotating basis so each person will get to answer question first and also last. When you have 20 seconds left you were you will hear one bell, john do you want to demonstrate that. Okay, we'll come back to that you'll hear one ding when you have 20 seconds left, and then you will hear three bells when you have used all of your time. And after time limit by more than five seconds, we will go ahead and mute you just to keep us on track. Larkin is our zoom host tonight and he is staying in control of them. Sure. We've prepared six questions tonight and at the end of the six questions, Jordan, go away from the beacon hill neighborhood association will select three questions from the community to answer that may have been submitted through chat during the forum. I'd like to get started with a short intro from each of the candidates. Let me demonstrate the bell. This will be the 22nd morning. And this will be the ending morning, following which we will meet you if you continue to speak. Thank you. Thank you. I wanted to let everyone know, we had previously confirmed all six. But Cindy Dominguez did let us know she was not able to attend tonight, due to an unforeseen situation. She did send her apologies. So I would like to allow the candidates to introduce themselves we're going to go in alphabetical order. Please limit it to about two minutes and we'll start with Mario. Hello everybody, my name is Mario Bravo. Thank you very much for having me here this evening. I appreciate the opportunity to hear from you about directly about your issues. I moved to San Antonio in the third grade and grew up here. I've been a community advocate and any energy professional. And I'm running right now because I believe that our current leadership has shut out the voices that we need the most to be able to solve the problems that we have and address our greatest challenges. So I'm really interested in bringing everybody to the table, lifting up all voices, building consensus. I think that makes us stronger together. And I really look forward to being able to work with you all. I'm really interested in bringing everybody to the table. And I think that strong communities depend on leaders who listen and collaborate, listen and collaborate with you, but also collaborate with their colleagues at city hall in order to get to six votes in order to pass policy and in order to implement policy as well. So I'm really looking forward to being able to work with you on all of the issues that are most important to the community. I feel like anytime I sit at the table with with several other members of the community, you know, my ideas are never going to emerge as the best ideas my ideas are just here until a better idea comes along and when I sit down and I listen to you. I know that, you know, you through your experiences, you've seen a lot about what's going on exactly in your neighborhood and you know what best works in your neighborhood. So thank you everybody. And I look forward to our discussion. Thank you. Was Mr. Mr. Monte able to join. Mr. Gauna. Please introduce yourself. Hello, my name is Matthew Jay Gauna am a former student of UTS a running for district one. I would like to accomplish in our upcoming term. A lot of environmental reform within city departments increase and expansion of public transportation and years to come and affordable housing for future residents and more perhaps more importantly our current residents who feel they're getting out of their homes with property taxes and and the such. We hope to accomplish. You know, a ton here tonight get get the word out to people about what our campaign is really about and that's putting the public back into public utilities. You know, rainy and saws and CPS energy. And looking out for the working class in San Antonio. So, you know, I thank you again for letting me join tonight and excited to for this forum. Thank you. Thank you. Next, let's hear from our current Councilman Roberto Trevino. Thank you. And he said thank you tier one neighborhood coalition. I am Roberto Trevino your city Councilman for district one. I've been in this role for six and a half years. Look forward to serving a fourth term as your city Councilman. As you know, we've worked alongside you the whole way. We fought for neighborhoods for for people. We have worked together to to ensure that your voices are being heard. We have worked together on many different plans to make sure that the neighborhood plans are the kinds of things that that are upheld in our city that are that are valued. I know that sometimes city staff needs to be held accountable, and we are there to speak for you. We've written 35 CCRs that's 140 times or 140 signatures that council members assigned off on policy that we have proposed. We're super proud of everything that we've done. Also, as you know, I have an amazing staff, a staff that you all work with the staff that helps to make sure that we're at every meeting possible. There's so many things going on in district one, and we want to make sure that we're always there speaking for you on your behalf. Thank you. All right, thank you candidates. We're going to go get go ahead and get started with our first question. This question addresses the topic of homelessness. Since this fall, the city of San Antonio has spent approximately $189,000 on clearing homeless camps, scattering communities, throwing away belongings and dehumanizing our most vulnerable citizens. If elected, what will you do to ensure the safety and security of all of our citizens? I would like Mario Bravo to answer this question first. Thank you very much. I want to start off by saying that you know I agree with our current council member that we need a housing first policy, and I agree that homelessness is not a crime. I think maybe where we differ is I'm committed to working with you on on working together on on this challenge. I think that we work best when we're not trying to solve this issue all by ourselves, and that we're coordinating all the service providers, all the professionals, whether they work in mental health issues, or drug addiction or direct services to people experiencing homelessness, we need to bring them all together, make sure they're all coordinating, make sure that everybody's communicating to make sure that we're, you know, find out where the gaps are, find out where we're duplicating efforts so everyone's rolling in the in the same direction we're being efficient. You know, our homeless strategic plan informed us that that patchwork of pilot projects is ineffective. And if you look at our annual point in time count, you can see that that's the case are the number of people experiencing homelessness in San Antonio has gone up. And I'm not even talking about during the pandemic we haven't counted during the pandemic it's skyrocketed now. So I don't understand how anybody could ask for a fifth chance to try to get this right. I'm committed to following the strategic plan, but expediting the implementation of it. I think we need to do it faster, and we do that by coordinating with you, and with all of the professionals who work in this space. Thank you very much. So, Mr. Yonah, the same question. Yes. Again, homelessness is an issue that is caused by a myriad of other societal issues. There's a lack of affordable housing, lack of access to mental health care and involvement with, you know, include the criminal justice system that leaves people out on the streets with nowhere to turn. But, you know, our city sidewalk so we want to work with residents to come up with solutions and then implement those solutions, you know, as a resident of San Antonio for 23 years. You know, I first, I've seen the problem firsthand, you know, living in the district from when, you know, there wasn't, you know, a strip mall located next to the, the delview area. There were still, there was still issue with the homeless, you know, problem and again that's not on any city council member for, you know, causing but there is, there is the accountability that needs to be taken into account. And then issue such as this hasn't been solved with accessible housing, you know, affordability and really, you know, bringing the bringing in the urban sprawl of San Antonio, and bringing resources back into district one. Thank you. Thank you. Well, the first step is to, to stop criminalizing homelessness. This is, these are people in crises. And we must do everything that we can to meet them where they are. Let's talk about some things that we've already done that have been tremendous. We, this last year included in the in the last budget, outreach specialist for every district council office that was unanimously adopted. That's 11 outreach specialists to in district one, because we have downtown. The point of that is to make sure that we have the outreach we have the social workers leading the way. This is something that has never been done before, and we led on that we need to improve the, the number of detox facilities, the mental health services that are available. Additionally, along with adopting the 11 outreach specialist that we proposed in the budget this last year. We also expanded our ID recovery program. The program was initially started by two bike patrol bike patrol officers, which we're very proud of. However, it's only one day out of the week, which presented a problem for folks who maybe they showed up an hour late, or didn't know what day it was. And we've expanded it to two five days out of the week by expanded over to the city clerk's office the city clerk does birth certificate does passports, and this is a way to understand how the city works and that we have resources that just haven't connected to those dots to make sure that that we're providing those services and help that that is needed. Ultimately, we need to adopt a housing first policy. Today we, we supported through our TERS inner city TERS a private development over on the east side, which is going to be the first housing first project is I think it's 280 homes, tiny homes that are going to be produced. And that is a great step in the right direction but the city needs to adopt a housing first strategy. We've got to stop criminalizing homelessness, let the social outreach specialist lead the way, and we partner with everyone to make sure that we're meeting people where their needs are. Thank you. Two major events in the last year have shown how much the city is relying on social media and email for communication coven 19 vaccination appointments and during winter storm Yuri increasingly people are turning to the internet to share critical information and updates. Unfortunately, many of our senior citizens in District one have access to these methods of communication and during the storm we're left quite literally in the dark. If elected, what will you do as our council person to ensure that our senior citizens get critical information and services during emergency situations. I would like Mr. Gianna to answer this first. Thank you to ensure that our elderly population has the information during emergencies. Again, when we provide when the city provides information online. When you are talked to, you know, residents in our community who say they, you know, I don't know how to use a computer so, you know, I have, you know, incredible difficulty with using technology so you know, was there a way to, you know, physically provide information when electricity was out land lines or out, you know, maybe perhaps do our city's emergency phone system, you know, we could send out alerts that, you know, our residents receive on their phones information for the to who to contact and the nearest warming center and such. But you know those steps were not taken. You know, and you know, perhaps, you know, we need a city council person who will work proactively to ensure that when disasters do strike San Antonio whether they be natural disasters. There may be a disaster or such that we have the capacity to reach all of San Antonio's, you know, not just our, you know, our most vulnerable but you know other people I'd never received any wanting either so, you know, it would have been reassuring that we would have gotten information during that emergency so we would love to, you know, phone phone capabilities and such. Thank you. Thank you. Next, Councilman trivia. So, again, this is very similar to what we just talked about is we need to meet people where their needs are at and we know the senior resources can range from transportation to wellness support food housing assistance healthcare transportation. And during this storm it only proved that that it was very, very problematic for all of us communication throughout the pandemic has been heavily focused on utilizing social media and digital communication to relay any updates and services, but not all seniors are on social media or have email addresses. Narrow cities will know how to enroll in services online through web applications, meeting every resident where they're at means sharing information in a way that will reach them by phone mail or in person outreach. Now, this is the most important part here what I learned during the, during the emergency was working with the neighborhoods. So this is a partnership that we saw district one and the neighborhoods to, to work together, make sure that we were meeting people where they're at was so so incredible it was very touching. Additionally, we also need to ensure that when communication with our older residents we consider language barriers. I push for all communications to be available in Spanish, as well as English. It is important that we make communication inclusive to everyone and remove barriers like language, especially for seniors. Thank you, Mr Bravo. Thank you so I actually have my parents are senior citizens and so during the pandemic, one of my top priorities has been making sure that I'm protecting my parents, making sure that I'm assisting them in these challenging processes of getting vaccinated. Same thing, you know during the storm when we went without electricity, you know my number one priority was making sure that my parents were okay. So I can appreciate this. And, you know, there's, there's two aspects is, what do we do during an emergency situation what protocols do we have in place. Clearly we don't have good enough protocols in place for how do we do outreach beyond just digital outreach. And the second is what about day to day with seniors, what see the needs of seniors, right. You know right now we're taxing seniors out of their homes, and then we're trying to figure out how do we get how do we get to them so that we can we can deliver meals to them how do we get to them so we can make sure that they're getting the healthcare they need how do we get to them to make sure that they're getting their medication. And for me that's the definition of broken government. You know we've got, you know, we haven't made any progress on where we're at right now in terms of. Our taxes are out of control we haven't made progress on alleviating skyrocketing property taxes and so I think that what we really do is, I would support reaching out to senior citizens and going door to door or using trust trusted providers to approach them and find when they are I guess people are 64 years old just before they turn 65 and helps them appeal the taxes so they can bring them down to a lower level, make sure that they have the homestead exemption make sure that they they they notify be that they're senior citizen, so we can lock in their property taxes at a lower level because that is going to be meaningful for the rest of their lives, while they're on a fixed income. So we can't continue to do this the way we are, and it's going to take personalized outreach and I'm committed to doing that. Thank you. At this time I want to just take a minute I see that we've had several people join the zoom since we began. You've recently joined please make sure you mute your microphone. Whether you are on video or just audio through your phone. I want to remind all the participants that we are collecting questions in the chat so if you have questions for the candidate please go ahead and type them in the chat. And if we have time at the end, we will play get to them. The next question. The next question is about this placement. We're showing that residents owners and renters are being displaced because of property speculation and investment in the market in market rate developments that are leading to exponential jumps in property tax appraisals and home prices. How will you help prevent displacement of homeowners and renters in our neighborhoods if you're elected to be our council person. I believe it is Councilman Truby news turn to begin. Well, you know, I'm very happy to hear this question because for the longest time this is a section that has long been ignored half of our city rents, and there are very little protections for our renters. This past week we adopted a permanent program called right to Council, the rights Council program has protected nine out of 10 people who utilize the program and kept them in their homes. We have an impending or an eviction crisis that they make be upon us here very soon. Once the moratorium is over, unless it's extended, having the rights Council program has proven to be so successful we've also been pushing for things like a renters commission to help talk about some of the issues that are surrounding renters and how, you know, this is a very important subject, especially in the inner city. One of our CCRs was to revamp the building standards board to make sure that we protect existing housing. The most affordable housing is existing housing that we have and the building standards board is is a critical spot to do that. I also sit on the appraisal district board as the chair and have brought many folks to to to many property tax forums to understand how to protest or taxes to understand how the appraisal system works. We will always be working hard hand in hand with Chief Amoskita to help educate folks about their rights, help educate folks about how we have to understand what we can do to to help people with property taxes when it comes to renters or investment properties is very difficult because there's no protections. We know that the state legislature is working on things that potentially can help with with rental properties. We have extended other protections as well and will continue to do so. My office is working hand in hand with many housing advocates to make sure that we are protecting renters which are mostly cost burden when it comes to their income. And so, you know, those are the. It looks like that was the end of your time I did not hear the bells, john. Can we just double check like do a quick sound check on that. They were super. Yeah, that's super super quiet. Is there any way to. Okay. Thank you. Hey, and Anissa, I was just informed that the 210777 7755 number is counsel candidates Laurel boost a month. So he has joined he had some technical issues with joining the zoom via the video. Okay, great. Thank you for joining Mr boost a month. Can you hear our last question. We're having trouble hearing you is have it looks like you're unmuted but we're not hearing any sound. Can you hear me now. Yes. Hello. Can you hear me. Yes, we can hear you. Okay. Mr boost a month. Did you hear the last question we asked the candidates. No, I've been having some technical problems here. Okay. So what I'll go ahead and do is repeat this question. Since only one person has answered it so far. And I will add you to the bottom of the rotation. Okay. So to repeat the question it, I said, studies are showing that district one residents homeowners and renters are being displaced. That are leading to exponential jumps and property tax appraisals and home prices. How will you help prevent displacement of homeowners and renters in our neighborhoods. The next candidate to answer this question will be Mario Bravo. Thank you. You know, our, our council member just mentioned that he's the chair of our property property tax assessment district board, and that's a huge source of our housing affordability crisis. You know, and we haven't seen any progress over there actually it's gotten much worse. I support a change in our charter language to be able to allow our citizens to vote on future bonds that will allow us to fund affordable housing projects. I support the new UDC updates for building codes. I think it's going to be in major corridors in downtown, but at the same time I want to make sure that we preserve the character of our neighborhoods, and you know best how to do that. We have a representative form of government I want to take your input to inform the policies that I that I support at City Hall. I think we can do a better job of listening to you. You know, filing CCRs is has been fortunately fairly ineffective, especially if you can't get to six votes. It's going to be a collaborator listening to you working with our colleagues at City Hall to see how we can improve this situation for everybody and you know you're an important partner, and I really look forward to working with you. Thank you. Mr. Ganna. I guess the main thing here is being our current residents, lifelong residents being displaced due to, you know, incoming developers. We've seen an increase of demolitions under our current City Council. You know, taking people out of homes that are, you know, perfectly fine and putting them, you know, very, very well on to the street, if they don't have other residences to call home. So, you know, with our, you know, if elected as councilman, you know, we would try to, we will put a stop to demolitions. You know, put displacing people out of their homes is not what the City Council or, you know, a city department should be doing. You know, with higher taxes, with higher taxes, we're not seeing any increase in public infrastructure investment. You know, if we are to pay these higher taxes, we should be getting something in return. And we're frankly not seeing that. We've seen the committee approve, you know, these demolitions, you know, on the west side and, you know, in our more near our downtown area. So we would work with developers to go develop in areas that are empty such as parking lots, which there are a lot of downtown, you know, empty space that is ripe for development. You know, instead of going after, you know, people in their homes. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Bustamante. Yes. Am I unmuted? Yes. Okay. Yes, as to the, the displacement, we have laws that protect property owners that protect renters and protect homeowners. So my proposal would be to establish a public defender's office that would represent these people because these involve legal issues and legal laws that protect the individual. So my proposal is to formulate a public defender's office. It would, it would represent these people and explain to them the situation and the rights. And as far as the property tax, the, what seems to be happening with the property tax is an increase without representation. Increase, you know, property taxes are, you know, a bit unconstitutional since basically what they're doing is they're imposing an income tax where where the state doesn't have an income tax or imposing an income tax by using the property tax. So I think there's a basic flaw in that system. And I would probably urge the attorney general to pursue the constitutionality. So, again, there's, there's, there's basic laws and to protect the basic rights of everyone. But what's lacking is legal representation. So again, my proposal would be a public defender's office or a an appointment system where people can be appointed an attorney to to wade through the legal process. Thank you. Thank you. This next question is going to go first to Mr Bravo. In the struggle in, I'm sorry, in the struggle for housing affordability, it is often most affordable housing is the housing we already have. Yet many investors are eager to demolish our housing stock to make room for higher density developments. Historic and landmark designation is one of the few tools that neighborhood residents have to push back against these profit driven demolitions and legacy neighborhoods. The state legislature has been making it more difficult to designate historic properties without the owner's consent. What is your opinion on the rights of private property owners versus the rights of neighborhood residents when it comes to historic and landmark designation and the protection of our legacy, legacy housing stock. Sorry. Um, well, we need to make sure that anybody who's purchasing a property knows what what they're purchasing and knows the rules around that, you know, and recognizes that the community has already agreed on how you can develop in that neighborhood and what you can tear down what you can't. You know, not all neighborhoods are created equal. I want to make decisions with you at the table and Taylor the approach to your needs. I think that, you know, we need to protect the rules that we have. And part of that is going to be when we every every two years when the state legislature meets, we look at, you know, what are our priorities we take your tax dollars, and we hire lobbyists and we send them to to the state and we have them protect the laws that are important to us. And we have them support legislation that would be beneficial to us that our community supports and we need we need to do a better job of listening to you when we develop our legislative agenda. Right now it seems like, well, there are just a select few who get to sit sit to get get together and develop that legislative agenda and take it to city hall. And I think we need a better public participation process and doing that and making sure that we have that we are supporting state laws that protect the things that we cherish most at your neighborhood level. Thank you. Yes. You know, like I said, we've seen an increase in demolitions, you know, by the city, you know, not necessarily developers but we do see developers come in and buy these empty lots and then get a group of empty lots, you know, slap some townhouses, you know, in the middle of a neighborhood and aesthetically that's just you know, so we should be working, you know, with the city towards, you know, a design that we, you know, flows from one community to the next so that there's not, you know, an abrupt change in, you know, design or aesthetic again with with developers, you might hear from them they have no choice but to build residential, you know, in these residential areas because of you know zoning laws so we would if elected councilman we would work to change the zoning laws in our city so we can have mixed use development, you know, underground parking as a priority, you know, to increase the walkability of areas and you know the affordability and accessibility, you know, as of now, you know, our current, you know, plan for the city, you know, doesn't address those in the community with disabilities those who are elderly those who, you know, have young children so, you know, you know, these are the things that need to be addressed when, you know, talking to developers about their property rights versus, you know, you know, people neighborhoods property people in the neighborhoods property rights, you know, because, again, this is working to build a community. And, you know, so we would like to keep, you know, affordable housing and such. Thank you. Thank you. I have a few notes here from Mr. Bustamante. Yes. There's basic human rights, you know, people have a right to, to be safe in their neighborhoods. They have a right to be healthy in their neighbors, neighborhoods and have a right to be happy and live, live serenely in their neighborhood. These basic rights should be protected by the city. And the city does this by codes. They do it by zoning participation in the zoning or rezoning. Again, the, the, we have, we have some basic rights and we have the laws that protect people's, you know, shelter and to protect their, their, their happiness in their home and their health in their home. So that's that and health especially because some of these, some of these buildings are, you know, just they, they look like, you know, fire hazards like match boxes. So I think, you know, we need to have ordinances to have buildings become fireproof. Another problem is energy and these buildings have become solar, solar energy efficient. That's what they should make. They should, they should be an improvement to the community, a healthy improvement to the community and, and, and protect, you know, people's, you know, peaceful living in these communities. So again, we have the laws that, that protect these people and we need to enforce the laws. One of the things that comes up a lot is eminent domain, the right of, you know, municipalities to make way for projects under, under the clothe of eminent domain. So again, these are legal issues. And again, there's, there's laws to protect the property owners and protect the homeowner. So again, the city has a massive legal department and that massive legal department should be expanded to, to a public defense system to represent both sides. You represent the builders and represent the homeowners in a, you know, in a system like, like mediation or It looks like Anissa may have some additional technical difficulties here. Cynthia, do you have the next question? I do. Thank you. May I answer that question too? Apologies, Councilman, with the loss of the moderator, I lost what we were. So the same question posed to you, Councilman Trevino. Thank you, Jordan. Well, you know, we all remember Miguel Garzada, and in the process of that, we are currently working on a demolition moratorium. We filed also CCR adopted in 2017 to increase the burden of proof needed to demolish a home from 2019 to 2021 there were about 20 demolitions per year. We've had a dramatic decrease from prior years, but we know that we can have even fewer demolitions with programs like under one roof that has done over a thousand roofs to date. In many cases historic designation benefits a community encourages better design historic historically designated properties appreciate increases neighborhood pride and awareness. A neighborhood protect owners and residents from incompatible development helps curb urban sprawl reusing of existing resources, another policy that I proposed called the construction by promoting infill development as well. A historic district that is aesthetically cohesive and well promoted to be a community attraction and generate economic activity. At the same time, there are folks who often have reservations would become an historic neighborhood. Usually folks are concerned that every everything from the color of their house to the interior will need approval, or they are concerned that they will need to make costly or higher design professionals in order to be in compliance. These concerns are often go away when the policies explain that's why it's important that all residents are aware and are involved in any historic designation decision. We also have ncds that we've worked hard to make sure that you know people are aware of work alongside many districts or neighborhoods to to help them complete ncds where wherever they would like. Thank you. Thank you sir. Our next question has to do with incompatible infill as housing pressure increases in San Antonio there are few district one neighborhoods that do not have examples of incompatible infill development. I'm going to talk about the condos next to modest bungalows or towering garage apartments. It seems that the UDC has been left open is has been left to open generous interpretation, and that generally prefers the highest profit over the letter or intent of the code. What will you do to address issues of incompatible infill development and ensure the preservation of our legacy neighborhoods. Mario bravo would you like to go first please. We've all seen where somebody comes in and they take a piece of property and they subdivide it and you know build where there was in an area where there was single family homes they they built six units and then the land value increases 12 fold. And, you know, we have to be very careful how we're affecting our neighborhoods. You know, and I will not move forward with zoning decisions without your input every step of the way. I want to make sure that you're at the table, you know what works in your neighborhood best. The challenges we have is, you know that the bear appraisal district is taxing property at the highest and best use, rather than at its current use. And that's a challenge as well. And so, I think that's something that we need to address. We need to be careful for house flippers who are harassing people who are calling code clients on elderly, who aren't able to upkeep their homes. And I think we need to work on up zoning on regional centers and transportation corridors so I look forward to working with you on how we can best do that. Thank you very much. Thank you. I'm sorry for my camera keep dropping out. Mr. Gowna, please take the question. For, you know, incompatible infill development, we see a lot of that, you know, towards the downtown area like right now I'm looking at Bracken Ridge Ave and North Pine Street, some, you know, town, townhouses crammed into, you know, in between, you know, the Beverly in the neighborhood, you know, this is not compatible, you know, infrastructure or development, you know, these neighborhoods are not walkable. They're, you know, not located near any necessities like a grocery store or, you know, a convenience store. So, you know, you know, people can easily access, you know, you know, places like this. Did these sort of developments be here from residents that we don't want to see those in the future, you know, about the same time, we need more housing to address, you know, the influx of people coming in and we can continue building out, you know, increasing our urban scroll. We have to, you know, start centralizing in the downtown area and that would be through, you know, more compatible tower designs located in the downtown area, rather than, you know, townhomes cram next to apartments cram next to, you know, a house. So, we would work with neighborhoods like the tier one neighborhood coalition to find, you know, solutions for affordable housing and accessible neighborhoods. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Bustamante. Hello. Yes, can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you, sir. Okay. Well, basically, as I listened to all these solutions, I just think of the basics and that is the legal issues involved. And again, we're talking about individuals that have issues with the community development. So, I go back to my proposal with having the public defendant that's familiar with this with the property laws and the situated contracts and ordinances to advise the individuals as to what their avenues are. You know, for example, in the property tax situation, an individual can ask for an appeal. He can ask for mediation. After everything fails, they can appeal up to district court and have their case go to court, which many corporations do. So, again, it involves legal issues and I think there's a tremendous need for a city public defender's office to help the individuals wade through these difficult laws. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, Lisa. And again, this is another great example of working with neighborhoods. And of course, my great staff. If you recall, the issues we had with essay tomorrow plan and incorporating neighborhood plans to be listed and to have that verbiage in essay tomorrow and the conference of planning, because that's so critical. That really spells out a lot of what you want. So we were very, very much a part of that we joined you in that supported you and made sure that that language got put in in that. Additionally, I want to say, we always have strong strong folks representing district one for zoning from our zoning commissioners to to my zoning representative on in my in my field office. Additionally, I want to say, we just completed this week we voted on the large area rezoning for Montevista want to thank all the residents that helped make that happen. We're very, very proud of that. And this is started with a CCR. Again, a success story that is going to be expanding throughout the district and I can tell you, my council colleagues are all looking at that because that is an important aspect of what we're talking about. And a lot of this development goes to the incompatibility of what's designated of the land, it's not necessarily what is, what is there now you might have a single family residents that is designated with an MF 33, which then puts pressure on that property because there are speculators that will come in and they look for that that zoning designation to do those kinds of things to to to build it out at its maximum capacity. We know that's incompatible, and we're working to fix that and it's really one of the proudest things we've done together with neighborhoods. Thank you. Thank you. All right. This is the last of our pre prepared questions and it's going to go first Mr Ghana. Another one was formed as citizens struggled with the city to include neighborhood voices and perspectives in the essay 2020 comprehensive plan. These and other development and policy issues directly affected. In 2018, City Council approved the public participation principles as a policy, but this is often disregarded or forgotten and is not an ordinance. If elected, what would you do to ensure that community is represented on issues surrounding development, transportation, housing, environment and other important policy issues. Thank you all for, you know, as you said this this coalition was formed out of the need to, you know, hear our neighborhoods voice so, you know, thank you all for taking that initiative and we need to reward other people in the community who also take initiative and, you know, planning their communities, you know, with the essay 2020 plan we saw a disregard for, you know, individual community, you know, you, you name the marginalized group. Those people were ignored, you know, over, you know, our municipal utilities voice like CPS, you know, business. You know, their voice was, you know, listen to the most, you know, in situations so, you know, we often see community, you know, input disregarded, you know, when planning such issues. So, we would look to working with communities on environmental issues on transportation issues, you know, and affordable housing issues that have been, you know, ignored by, you know, city council and our city department. Again, thank you for, you know, taking that, you know, initiative, you know, to raise, you know, your voices in the community. Thank you. Thank you. Monty. Hello. Yes, we can hear you, sir. Yes. That's a very broad question and it involves many, many, many issues. But I think it all boils down to, you know, people's health, safety and happiness. So, my proposal is to strengthen the legal system at the City Hall and expand it to provide representation for the individuals that have problems. You know, the state and the federal government have many organizations, you know, such as the Rio Grande Legal Aid, they have the Consumer Protection Agency, and they have organizations that help the individuals. And they're funded by the state or the federal government, and the city should have a similar system that's funded by the city, by the taxpayers to represent the individual, in the individual cases. We need a system like that in the municipal court system, public defender in the municipal court system. And also in all these issues that were brought up in this broad question. So, with my legal experience, I intend to have an administration that offers free legal help and representation to those in need in my community. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Anissa. You know, and it was just like I was just saying, this is something that we brought up. This is where District 1 really prides itself in making sure that we are the voice for you. We help to provide that connectivity. We helped tier one, put the brakes on the neighborhood registry we have done so many things to, to represent you again, our actions have spoken louder than words, and we asked that you that you simply look at our record on on how we've done that. That neighborhoods should have a voice and we're not afraid to hold city staff accountable from our planning department to neighborhood and housing services we have seen examples because we've been there right beside you. Sometimes there might be things that are not included or got misplaced or just weren't agreed on and we want to make sure that those the kinds of things that we help to be an incredible voice for for you. We talked about the UDC amendments and how we needed to put a pause on that because of this pandemic. And this, this is exactly what we do in District 1. And we're not afraid to hold people accountable. This is, you know, the work that we do every single day and you know my staff represents you in the same way I just described. Thank you. Anissa frozen. Should I go. I think she'll be right back. I'm back on. Good. I'm sorry. Um, I believe it's Mr Bravo's turn. Thank you very much. And thank you for bringing up the principles of public participation, because I actually help behind the scenes I assisted in the development of that. And I believe that we need more of that absolutely our city is failing in this regard. If you look at, you know, when I've talked to people who sat on the Alamo citizens advisory committee, everybody I've talked to it doesn't matter if they represent American Indians in Texas it doesn't matter if they represent the downtown business district they told me the city did not listen to us. They did not, you know, they ignored us. They didn't even meet with them except for once in the last year. And so they were learning about what how the city was moving forward on the Alamo master plan by reading the newspaper. And that's not how this works. You know, my personal experience working on a working group for the development of the climate plan. They did the city did not listen to us. They went and they made their own decisions behind closed doors. We all we all have experiences in different ways different forms. I used to serve my record serves speaks for itself. I served as a chair of a stakeholder group, meaning with senior staff at CPS energy, and they refuse to be accountable they refuse to be transparent. You know, I pushed for the their board meetings were held at one o'clock on a Monday, and they weren't video stream so there's no way you could watch them. I got them. I led efforts to get them to change that they didn't allow public comment at their board meetings I led efforts to get them to change that their citizens advisory committee was meeting in secret they didn't publish meeting minutes, they didn't publish meeting agendas, I led efforts to get them to change that still CPS energy is not accountable to us. And we need to work on that more we finally got this rate advisory committee, and I will continue to be a champion on these efforts, because I completely disagree with Councilman Trevino I couldn't disagree more. We have failed on this, the city has failed us on this issue, and the citizens deserve a voice in their own government and we, you know we need to make, we need we need to do so much more on meaningful public engagement. Thank you. At this time, we're, I'm going to hand this over to Jordan, golly from the Beacon Hill neighborhood association to speak to some of the community questions that he's collected. The first question should start with Councilman Trevino. All right, this one was sent to me in a direct message from one of our audience members, it pertains to property taxes, if a proposal to freeze property taxes for one year was presented to City Council, how would you vote. Well, you know, it's an important part to to point out that City Council only votes on the city portion of your taxes. So as was mentioned earlier I send the appraisal district that is the appraisal process that designates 100% of your value, which then goes to the taxing entities, 21% of your taxing of your taxes are the city taxes. So if we were to freeze because of this pandemic, I would be in support of that last year we we wrote a letter to the governor asking that they roll property tax values, that's across the board that would have been that that essentially the values would have been frozen for a year across the board because we knew there was a lot of anxiety about property taxes. Because of the pandemic. And so we're working very hard to educate folks about their property tax rights, and hope to have, you know, many more forums around property taxes with chief on mosquito. So the question you're asking just want everybody to know that that's only 21% of your overall tax bill and that is really, really important. But yes, I would vote to to freeze that because of the anxiety over over property tax values over the pandemic. Thank you Councilman Anissa who was after the Councilman. Mr Bravo. I have a question please. Sure. The question was, if a proposal to freeze property taxes for one year was presented to City Council, how would you vote. So, I think that's just one tool that we could possibly have and we need to look at all the tools that we can have to because the deal is we need property tax really. So I think Councilman Trevino, explain how they work but we haven't explained how he's made them better as chair of BCAD. And so I would really support a study looking comprehensively at why is our property tax burden so high. You know, and I think we should look at everything we should look at, you know, where are we. Where are we not spending responsibly, you know, I, I was quite frankly shocked that Council voted, and Councilman Trevino voted to spend $39 million to remodel their own council offices. And so, you know, I'd rather that money go towards services that you know you, where you see a difference in your neighborhood like sidewalks in your neighborhood. So we look at the frost tank, frost bank tower that the city bought and we're remodeling it and I think cost overruns of $47 million now. And the city won't even accept responsibility for that they're saying well this is this it's a we're we're revenue neutral on this so it's not an issue. $47 million could have been spent in another way or could have not been spent. And so there's so many ways in which we that we could possibly reduce the tax burden on the community there's so many ways in which we could spend tax dollars in ways that make a difference in your life at your neighborhood level. And so I would want to look at this I wouldn't want to limit ourselves to one tool, I would want to look at the situation comprehensively and say what where's the best approach where what are all the things that we can do. Where are what are all what are all of our tools that we can leverage right now. Thank you. Next is Mr. Gowna. Thank you. Short answer. Yes, long answer. We should have done this since the beginning of this, you know, property tax freeze would have helped a lot of people, how to happen sooner. And, you know, perhaps going forward we identify individuals, you know, who are having abnormally high property tax increases, and you know analyze why that is happening and, you know, get get those individuals, you know, the tax freeze that they would need to, you know, increase their economic outcome and quality of life. So again, why, why haven't any of these solutions taken place of, you know, or, you know, not just from the current council member but other members of council and the mayor as well. We should all be questioning why, you know, these things are taking longer than in other major cities, you know, so something to, you know, compare to, I guess, thank you. Thank you. Mr. Bustamante. Yes, the property tax situation is should be an individual basis. Each case should be looked at individually, see what effect it's had. Just increasing property taxes on everyone is just a violation of due process. And it's a violation of the constitutional rights and a violation of the property rights. But because they don't have the representation, they end up losing their homes for foreclosure, property tax foreclosures, you know, especially on the south side. Many people have lost their homes because they just can't afford to pay the taxes. Businesses go under because they can't afford to pay the taxes. This is a taxation without representation of violation of due process. Again, we have the system to take care of these problems on an individual basis, but we don't have, the people don't have the tools or the access to the tools. You know, we have the consumer protection agency that helps consumers. We've got real ground legal aid that helps in many situations, but we don't have a tax court. We don't have pro bono tax help. We don't have pro bono representation. We don't have, you know, free representation for these needy people. And I think each case really should be looked at on an individual basis and nobody should be forced out of their home because it's been sold for taxes. So that's a big problem and it's going to become a bigger problem. The taxes not only should be frozen, they should be reduced across the board. I think there's a lot of waste that's been mentioned and there's many solutions that we can provide to the community to lessen their economic burden. Thank you. Thank you. Jordan has the next question and the first person to answer will be Mr. Bustamante. All right, we have pulled our neighborhoods that are members of the tier one NC and asked them to submit questions as well. And here is one submitted by one of the residents. In 2017 and 2018 the top 30% of saws residential users underpaid by about $2.3 million per month, a subsidy paid for by the other 70% of users. The lowest 10% of water using residential households made the largest contribution to that subsidy. What solutions will your office provide to ensure a more equitable system of billing based on actual water usage? Well, I guess the, again, it's going to go, it comes down to an individual basis and the individual should be able to go to CPS and work out a situation, work out a problem. I don't have their meters checked. I know there's a lot of errors are committed in the meter readings. Also, you know, a broken infrastructure and and and high rising costs. Again, the right to water is a basic right and it should be protected and and and people shouldn't shouldn't be allowed to to suffer the economic economic harms. They're involved. So, you know, again, infrastructure, the water infrastructure is is a is a major problem. And I think we need to the city needs to work on that to, you know, have a healthy, safe environment with water. We have we have the water system. We just we don't we just don't have the infrastructure to take care of it really. Maybe better metering would be a solution. But again, it's it's on an individual basis and probably we should expand the water boards of intake procedure where they where people come in and take a number and then they're seen on a on a, you know, sit down and wait basis. And that could that could be better done maybe over the internet to solve these problems. Also, if a water bill is is appears too high, it should be a, you know, an automatic red red flag and and saw should should go out individually and check on, you know, check on any leaks and things like that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Anissa. Well, I would start first by empowering the saws rate advisory committee by increasing representation or most vulnerable ratepayers like seniors and low income families. Additionally, we know that we put additional pressure on saw with with this latest one a sense sales tax vote that I just simply did not support because again there there really isn't much of an answer for how we're we're going to be able to absorb that much cost into saws without a rate increase. I think we're going to see that I caution us I cautioned us from from from doing that because we had already gone from a 2.7% take from from saws to 4% and adding that on top of it, I think just puts pressure on on a potential rate increase. But again, what we would need to do is we need to make sure that we empower our most vulnerable, including our seniors. Thank you, Mr Bravo. So the first thing that we have to understand is that, well, okay, first of all, the, for the person who wrote this question they're absolutely right, our water rates are inequitable and that needs to be addressed. We have just procured the most expensive water source in the nation with Vista Ridge. Right. And with with that have come multiple opportunities with multiple rate increases with saws and that each every time we voted for a rate increase we had the opportunity to adjust the rate structure and Councilman training has more has had multiple opportunities to to address this rate structure and to the rate advisory committees has never taken I sat in and saws rate advisory committee meetings, which the outcome was already predetermined. And so people would want to look at equity issues on the rates and saw staff would say, Well, you know, you don't get to look at that, you know, there's just here this 10% of the rate structure that you get to look at and so what was the point people were frustrated that they were on a rate advisory committee in which they couldn't provide input on the issues that were most important to them and so we have failed miserably on that I will be a champion. Not just myself because I have to recognize that I only one boat when I'm on Council, I have to go and work with my colleagues and build consensus and bring them along and get to six votes so that we can effectively implement what your voice and push through your priorities at City Hall and through our utilities so that we can be empowered here in our government. Great. Thank you. Mr. Gauna. Yes. Before you get started. I just want to remind Mr. Bustamante. Could you please mute your microphone when you're not speaking. It keeps cutting into the other candidates. Thank you. Please go ahead, Mr. Gauna. Thank you. You know, I believe the question is about, you know, pricing on, you know, equitable pricing on water. So, you know, you know, our biggest water users in the summer are places such as like UTSA, USA, you know, big mansion style homes and the such. You know, I encourage everybody here to, you know, go online and research who is using the most water in San Antonio because, you know, once you see that, you know, these people are using, you know, hundreds of times more water than, you know, the average citizen are paying, you know, you know, below average rates if not subsidized rates. So, you know, it should be concerning to everybody here who, you know, pays, you know, a bill to saw. You know, why are we having to not water our lawns in the summer? You know, why are we having to do these things during a drought restriction? Yeah, you know, when the highest water users are not, you know, our citizens, you know, the corporations or university or, you know, wealthy individuals. So, you know, we, if elected, we would bring, you know, a try to rein in the saws, you know, unequiv, unfair pricing. You know, Mr. Bravo brought up the Vista Ridge pipeline, you know, that, you know, is not equitable when we have, when we were pumping our clean Edwards aquifer water out to areas to be sold. We're seeing none of the profits from saws, but yet we're getting this subpar quality drinking water from Vista Ridge pumped into our homes, you know, from near Dallas. You know, it's just something to think about. Thank you. Thank you. We have time for one last question. And Mr. Ghana, you will be the first to answer it. Jordan, go ahead. Mr. Ghana, what does the future of transportation look like in San Antonio? You know, if elected, I believe that the future of San Antonio transportation, you know, includes a subway system, heavy rail or medium rail, you know, transportation that could be done through a sky train or like I said, you know, a subway. We cannot continue this, you know, love affair with highways, you know, sooner or later, you know, spaces going to run out. So we need to look to, you know, tunneling technologies have drastically improved in the past decade. So we can look to, you know, working with via, you know, on this, you know, city council served up a subpar streetcar system, you know, we streetcar system is fine for smaller cities. But, you know, a large city like San Antonio with a population of, you know, 2 million and growing. We need to, you know, help people move quicker. And that would, that would mean placing where their work near where they live. So we would try to cut down transportation times by introducing affordable housing and, you know, you know, a light, sorry, excuse me, heavy rail, high speed transit system. You know, when you are stuck in traffic, you know, on, you know, 5pm on 410 and I 10 or, you know, I 10 near downtown and I 1035 or you know, just something to think about, you know, why don't we have high speed rail. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Bustamante. Sir, you are muted now. Yes, I think the future of transportation lies in electric vehicles and and autonomous vehicles. I think electric vehicles are good for the environment. They're good for the health of the community. They're energy, energy savers and autonomous vehicles are becoming very sophisticated now and they, they can, they can address a lot of our transportation problems. Many cities are already using electric buses. There's also many cities experimenting with autonomous vehicles. I think that's, that's the future. We're also seeing a lot of cities using or starting to use air taxis, high speed, you know, high speed rail tunneling. Those are, those are the solutions. Those are the transportation solutions for the future. Tesla is building a mega factory in Austin. In order to increase the use of electric vehicles, we need to provide incentives, a tax write offs or tax breaks incentives for individuals to to purchase electric vehicles. I think, I think that's, that's the future of our transportation. I think the solutions are there and they're very cost effective. We don't have to rely on the antiquated gas engines and systems that we have. We can, we can provide low, low cost electric vehicles. China has a vehicle for $4,500 electric car. All right, thank you. Councilman Trevino. Thank you, Anissa. Well, the future is multimodal and looks it's, it's about having quality walkable sidewalks, safe access to bus shelters, but most importantly, and it's something that I brought up yesterday. The upcoming bond that we're all going to be talking about towards the end of this year is it's and how important it is for tier one neighborhoods to be involved to talk about how to better connect their citizens to all the resources that and amenities that are out there. This is part of how we can make a better, better place for all of us truly, truly impact the quality of life for all our neighborhoods, connect our regional centers. And most importantly, we also created or brought back a transportation department. We have a transportation director and having those conversations is going to be so critical. We talked about making sure that we create multimodal spots. So one, including our international airport connecting the three different airports that we do have port SA international and Stinson airports. There's so many opportunities that that San Antonio has ahead of it, and it starts with this bond and including tier one neighborhoods. Thank you. Mr Bravo. Thank you. I agree with Councilman convenient that it's going to be multimodal. But I also think it's going to include complete streets and, and to me complete streets means that you have safe by claims and safe by claims. It does not mean you just paint a white line on the road. But, you know, this also reminds me this conversation reminds me of connect essay and I think that's another example of where we didn't get public participation right. So I don't know if anybody else here tried to get involved with connect essay, but trying to get on their advisory committee that was like a black hole. And so at the end of the day, you know, what is what is my transportation plan look like for the future of San Antonio it's not about my transportation plan it's about the communities plan. It's about bringing everybody together because we are not going to have true effective public transportation without buying from the community without getting everybody on board, and, you know, without just getting support from across the community. You know, I think that we can have advanced rapid transit. I think we can look at increasing frequency on existing routes. A lot of this has to do with transportation justice, and just making sure that that everybody has access to be able to get to better jobs to get to educate wherever they want to get an education, where to be able to get to places where I eat my healthy food. And at the end of the day, I don't have all the best answers the community does. And so that's how we're going to move forward. And I need to I captured a total of six other questions in here I'm sorry maybe seven that we will be posing to the candidates via email these are questions that we didn't have time to ask you all today. So send them to your respective email addresses capture your answers and we'll make sure that we post that on our tier one websites so that you guys can get those answers that you deserve. Thank you. Before we are just as we wrap up. I would like to have each of the candidates take one minute each to give any closing remarks that they would like to give. And then we'll turn it over to Cynthia steelman. So, go ahead and the same order. Mr Bravo, you may go first. Thank you so much I really appreciate this opportunity to introduce myself to some of you all, and to listen to the questions that you have that are most important to you. I have a track record of building coalitions I have a track record of working with communities of working on public policy. And, you know, I have a track record of challenging property taxes as a hobby to learn more firsthand at how unfair and inconsistent, the property we have is, and I want to work with you to resolve that. I won't count my successes by the number of CCR as I filed. I won't count my successes by the number of pilot projects I've launched. I'm going to count my successes by the progress that that you are able to see at your neighborhood level. I'm going to count my successes by the services delivered to you. And I'm going to count my successes. And we can see that we're no longer taxing people out of their homes. So I look forward to working with neighborhoods. I look forward to working with my fellow city council members to do what's needed to get to six votes so that I can implement your agenda. I would like you to get more involved to learn more about me, visit Mario Bravo.org, that's M a r i o b r a vo.org, and where you can sign up to volunteer where you can make a contribution we can learn more about me, where you can find my email and write me directly I would love to hear from you and meet with you and your community here you hear more of your ideas one on one. Thank you so much. Thank you. Mr boost amante one minute please. Mr boost amante you're still unmute if you wanted to unmute yourself. We'd like to hear your closing remarks. Hello. We can hear you. I have a doctor and jurisprudence. I've been practicing law for some 35 years. I've represented many, many individuals here in San Antonio, and what's basic to everybody is due process and constitutional law, their health, safety and happiness. The problems that people present usually end up in some type of legal quagmire. So, my proposal is to bring city council up to the level of the state level and the federal level that provides free legal aid on an individual basis, public defenders on an individual basis, consumer protection, pro bono representation, and also provide incentives for the community to increase their, their health, and safety and happiness. Thank you. Thank you. Mr Ghana. Thank you all for having me again. So, San Antonio needs to look to the future, and that candidate is me, Matthew Jay Gowna, for district one, a student of environmental science and biology. We have a architect, a historian and a lawyer, you know, none of those truly represent the people of San Antonio, you know, born and raised in San Antonio for the past 23 years, went to UTSA. And I know the problems that San Antonio faces, and I know what it takes to take this city to a tier one city, like the likes of New York, Tokyo, Vancouver, and such. And I would suggest that the community reach out to our website at almost Creek Park dot com of almost Creek Park dot com of, you know, it's our volunteer service and you can reach us through there. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Trevino. Thank you, Anisa. And I would just say, thank you to all of you. I see a lot of recognizable faces in this forum, and it is because we've worked together. We've done a lot of great things. Anisa, you and I have worked together, and you represent us in the committee. I can see Cynthia, I can see Jordan Gowey, lots of great folks from different neighborhoods that really have helped us to work together to implement policy policy that's enforceable and long term, like the large area rezoning that we just adopted this so so important pilot programs like the Right to Council have prevented nine out of 10 families from evictions. We have saved over 1000 homes. Those are families living in those homes. Our focus is on people and I'm driven by that conviction. Thank you. Thank you so much. At this time, I'm going to going to turn it over to Cynthia Spillman of Beacon Hill. We want to thank the candidates for coming tonight. We want to thank the audience who's joined us. We'd also like to thank the planning team who helped put this on from representatives from the following associations. Tobin Hill, Tobin Hill Community, Almost Park Terrace, Keystone Neighborhood, West End Hope and Action, Montevista Terrace, King William, Lavaca Neighborhood Association and Montevista. This is the kind of cooperation that tier one is all about. If your neighborhood would like to be included on our mailing list, please contact t1nc.sat at gmail.com. Here you'll see it in the chat of our virtual workshop on Saturday, March 27 at 10. Thank you all and I'd like to have the last word to go to Mrs Betty Eckert from Almost Park Terrace. About that I get the last word. Yes, you do. All right, I'm ready. And so mine is all about voting. Please be sure that you not only vote. But you get to vote out in your neighborhood. Get your, get your neighborhood voting. Thank you so much. Thank you for all being here tonight. We appreciate it. Good night everybody. Thank you. Good night. Good night.