 All right everybody. Hello. Hello. Good evening Good evening and welcome to the district one runoff candidate discussion. I'm Cosima Colvin and I live in Beacon Hill in district one I'm a founding member of the tier one neighborhood coalition one of tonight's sponsors Other tier one members that help put this together and are here tonight our Tony Garcia Tony put up your hand of Montevista Christina right from Alta Vista Anisa shell from Tobin Hill and Mary Johnson of the Montevista Terrace neighborhood association Cynthia Spillman from Beacon Hill also helped with the planning and is hopefully watching from the road We would like to thank Charlotte and Lucas From now cast SA for providing the AV services and acting as moderator Along with Ben Olivo at the end of the SA Heron a Big thanks to Lisa as Vestas for hosting us here at the Cove an iconic district one eatery much appreciation For those of you that have taken the time and made the effort to be here tonight Welcome to our candidates incumbent Roberto Trevino and candidate Mario Bravo And we can turn it over to Charlotte and Lucas and get started. Thank you. I am Charlotte and Lucas I lead now cast SA and for the last 11 years We have been doing events like this where we are connecting people and making it Accessible for you to find information about people running for office so that you can get your butts out to vote and vote in an informed way I Also want to thank before we go any further our media partners in this the San Antonio Heron Local community news I see you there and the San Antonio current For helping get out the word and helping people find more information about this. It's obviously really really important and our sponsors Tier one neighborhood coalition. Thank you so very much Killen Griffin and pheromoned. Thank you very much. Tobin Hill Community Association and Lynn Kanapic Thank you very much When we roll to events like this, we roll with about $30,000 worth of equipment and all of our people are paid a living wage and those sponsors made that possible As you know, as I said now cast SA our nonprofit mission is to promote and facilitate an inclusive civic conversation So today's event is absolutely in our sweet spot. That's what we do And I hope you leave this event knowing more and feeling like you can cast an informed vote I'm really glad to have Ben Olivo as Co-moderator of this event Ben. You also run a nonprofit who depends on donations, right? correct correct, so My name is Ben Olivo editor and Co-founder of the San Antonio Heron and like now cast SA. We're a nonprofit local news organization We do rely very very heavily on reader support and and the majority of our of our Of our revenue comes from readers and so we're actually launching our yearly campaign tomorrow So be sure to follow us on social media San Antonio Heron Or visit the website SA heron calm and we'd appreciate any support that y'all could give us Also If you want to submit any questions There's the table right behind the cameras Christina will be collecting questions and there's cards over here on the other side of the cameras and We'll get to those audience questions toward the end Do we want to start with the Charlotte and start with the first question and okay, oh and you're going to explain with where the first questions came from correct, so the first questions were submitted by neighborhood representatives who serve on the tier one steering committee and You know if Shirley Nan and I have our own questions We'll make sure to let y'all know that there are questions and obviously the audience questions at the end We'll identify those as well that way everybody knows Where the questions are coming from? All right, let's get started So question number one and this will go to the councilman first and then Mario if you want to answer after after him Question number one the property tax rate increase is now at an average of seven percent per residence As the state bill continues to increase. I'm sorry as the state tax bill continues to increase So do the market appraisal values? Homeowners are encouraged to protest the inflated appraisal values to reduce the amount of taxes they owe However, the system is set up to pay the bill if values in if values decrease then the tax rate percentage is increased Meanwhile City of San Antonio receives only 55 cents per hundred dollars of the taxable property values So with many significant demands on the budget including aging infrastructure in the glaring economic segregation that still exists between district district areas It is difficult to make sense of the decisions made by city council and appointed boards and commissions to developers To give developers tax break incentives. So the question of both of y'all is What can be done to relieve the burden on residents? Thank you for that question. I think Part of that question is really about educating folks about the difference between property tax assessments evaluations and property tax actual Assessment or payment and so you have the value of a property and then each taxing entity takes that portion At the heart of this is that we have a very imbalanced system a system that Favors more of the commercial property valuation which puts most of the pressure on residential valuations and therefore the the appraisal district They recommend the you protest every single year generally commercial properties pay 60 cents on the dollar compared to residential So every time commercial values drop it simply push pressures Residential values to go up Because the state is is demanding that there's a certain amount of valuation that comes forth There's many other rules but we've we've done because this has come up several times and I think it's a little misleading to assume that the city of San Antonio has everything to do with this tax bill The the real issues were 20% of your tax bill, but but there's a document that was independently Procured by the city of San Antonio. We paid about $80,000 for this document We've posted it on our website and we'll share with everybody This really breaks apart all the different things that cause some of these imbalances like equal and uniform status. So for example a property on the south side is simply Is is is valued at one thing? But let's say like an theta commercial property wants to use the the statute called equal and uniform on the south side To help create that valuation. They will sue Based on that statute that came about by state legislation we also want to make sure that as we're as we're moving forward that the state and Is is focusing a lot more on making sure that we're putting more money Into public schools the state is putting less and less money and putting the pressure on Property taxes to make up that bill okay bottom line is we recommend every single year residential property owners Protest their taxes this year alone 97% of those that protested Made it through the informal process successfully, okay. Thank you See a do you want to I just wanted to say that we didn't do not have in place at this exact moment a timekeeper So you go for about as long as he went until we get that timekeeper set up got that okay got it Thank you very much before I jump into that. Let me just introduce myself. My name is Mario Bravo, and I grew up here in San Antonio Thank you very much. I moved here in 1984 in the third grade and You know as for some of you remember that recent winter storm I remember the winter storm of 1985 when we got 13 inches of snow and that was my first time to be able to make a snowman here in San Antonio and You know, I think back I look now at our property tax Taxes that we pay and our property values the peak the amount that people have to pay in rent the people amount people have to pay in order to buy a home and I think back to 1984 when my family moved to San Antonio, I don't think we would be able to afford to move here if it was today We moved here when I was in the third grade. We moved here from Laredo, Texas We moved here for economic opportunity my mother and father are right here at the in the front row This is my mother sissy Bravo. I'm so so glad to have them my mother worked in education And she retired recently from SAISD. My father had a small construction business and You know, we came here for economic opportunity. I don't think we would be able to afford to move here if it was today and so We need to stop taxing people out of their homes and You know Councilman Trevino is he not only is there our council member who gets to Vote on the city's property tax rate, but he's also on the our property tax appraisal district He's the the chair of the board that decides, you know on our valuations and when we look when when we set a new appraisal and You know just last night we were talking about this in the Lavaca neighborhood association neighbor candidate forum and I brought up well, why did you appraise again during COVID and He said no you we had to but you know Austin didn't They didn't raise their value at the appraisals and just just check the news check the news anywhere in Austin they did not they did not reassess and Appraise everybody's property tax or property their property values again, and so they didn't pay a higher property tax You know during our pandemic when people were struggling and so we need to do more We need to expect more from our local elected officials Wait one second we definitely need you give you a chance to respond Thank you You know what I also said last night is that we don't need misleading statements just like that one The the bear appraisal board of directors By law are not setting values That's completely false and misleading and that's not going to solve any problems We've got to do this by by working within the system and everything I just described is part of it We're gonna we're gonna share this document that was independently done and describe some of the issues that we face as a city As we face as a appraisal district. It's critical that we're upfront and honest about the facts Yeah, look this is a related related question Which which looks at the other side of this of Tack like who's getting tax relief talking about developers. Yes, sir. No, do you support developer incentive tax relief? we support we support projects that are Investing in areas that provide an overall investment in the city that provides for increased sales tax revenue in addition to Of the ability to add to the system to add to the tax revenues that the city sees because the city sees Revenues not just from property taxes, but also from sales taxes and CPS revenues when you develop something There are those things that also come into benefit for the city So it's all calculated to make sure that we're benefiting in a way that the city can grow and Incentivize that growth and continue that momentum. Okay. Thank you more So During the pandemic Property property taxes in Austin did not go up During the pandemic property taxes in San Antonio did go up We had the opportunity to prevent them from going up by not appraising and we did anyway and our property taxes went up bottom line So do I do I support? Properties incentives to develop is for developers. I Don't I don't support a lot of the ones that we've done to date I would support them if they are completely Transparent and if they pencil out and we can show a benefit to the community and what I also don't support is You know if I win this election, I'm elected to a two-year term two years. That's it, right? And Why would I feel that I that I have have the authority to Take a prime piece of real estate off the tax rolls for the next 75 years 75 years I've been elected for two years I'm gonna make a decision on who you know who the tax burden is gonna be shifted to for the next 75 years That's just ludicrous to me and I think I think we need to scale that back Okay, I'm gonna try to do a timer thing in the Until someone from the audience comes up and volunteers to do the timer thing We're happy to stay on our ears Okay, all right the next question and we will start with you Mario San Antonio's homeless population is more than 2,900 people according to the South Alamo Regional Alliance for the homeless and that number That I'm sorry and that number is projected to increase While the work is being done to create policy adjust the budget find resources none of which are an immediate solution the day-to-day challenges are impacting community well-being for everyone and This question first to Mario and then to Roberto how can City Council provide resources for the homeless population? Without burdening the surrounding neighborhood residents and I'm gonna start a three-minute timer Thank you very much. So Just like Councilman Trevino. I believe that homelessness is not a crime Just like Councilman Trevino. I believe that we need a housing first policy I think where we differ is when the Strategic homeless plan was presented to Our City Council. What they told us was that what does not work is a Patchwork like a bunch of disconnected a patchwork of disconnected projects and that is what we have seen over the last six years and that is why we haven't reduced homelessness over the last six years and so if we're gonna be compassionate we need to be more effective and The way we do that is not by being when I if I'm the council member It's not my job to provide the direct services to the homeless It's my job to make sure that we are supporting the experienced professionals in our community So I'm going to make sure that we do a better job of communicating with like bringing all the experienced professionals to the table and make sure that everybody is doing a better job of communicating and a better job of coordinating because when We do that we can find where are the gaps in services we can find where are we duplicating efforts and then we can do a better job of looking at You know what the experienced professionals need and how can we best invest your tax dollars in Supporting them leverage your tax dollars to support them better so they can do a better job at what they do and that is going to be my Goal and it's not going to be by running a Homeless resource center out of the district office because I trust the experienced professionals To be able to do this and it has to be done not just in district one because this this issue exists all across our city and So we need to do this city-wide and that takes Working with your colleagues at city council getting their buy-in getting their support so we can all work together. Thank you Okay, um, can I you want me to repeat the question that but the gist of the question is how can the city council provide resources For the homeless population without burdening the surrounding neighborhood residents That's that's such an important question because I think we have set a framework For how we can make that happen. We have worked with partners like Sam's ministries American GI forum Yana Juan El Barrios the Department of Human Services our own city staff Here's the main the main issue the main issue is that this isn't a problem that happens in any one neighborhood It happens in every neighborhood and district one has 37 different neighborhoods that we have to attend to Let's remember one thing that when somebody comes and asks the city for help. You should help them It's as simple as that. It's a philosophy. I won't stand for anybody who's trying to say, you know what? Let's divide the neighborhoods from the people that are homeless homelessness is not a crime It's not a crime and many people want to call homeless people vagrants The beginning of all wisdom Starts with calling things by their proper name. That was Confucius. I Believe in that because that is at the heart of what we're trying to do here Everybody here deserves to be treated with compassion and with care That's what we're gonna keep doing. We have done that. We have we have created a Coordinated effort. That's what he left out that was in the actual plan that came to city council in December It's calling for a coordinated plan to help people It also calls for outreach outreach that we don't do outreach that is not enough and we've proven that Outreach works Outreach works repeat that outreach works get to know people This is the way it works and it and then proof of that is that our office We've gotten 30 people off the street. We've helped 50 people connected to services We've got some of them jobs and it is because of outreach not by criminalizing homelessness Thank you. Thank you councilman We're gonna move on oh After a brief pause we're going to move on we have a timekeeper everyone a hand for Thelma I've been doing three minutes, but they've been finishing in two so maybe We can give you three minutes and if you finish in two you finish in two if you go over you go over We accept okay, give them a 10 second warning if they hit it okay, all right All right, we're gonna we're gonna move on to the UDC And you're gonna explain what the UDC is well, it's just reading the script here Unified development code. Yes. What one of the most critical? City documents as far as far as impact to residents is a unified development code or UDC Problems with this document include exemptions and loopholes language barriers and ambiguity which forces residents boards and commissions to rely on staff interpretations Often these interpretations are applied inconsistently and the generous use of administrative approvals leaves the public out of the out of the development process One city department the development services department is in charge of this document its interpretation and its enforcement The development services department is funded through the issuance of building permits creating an incentive for city staff to approve more Applications than they might otherwise the question Councilman first is what policy changes would you make and where would you start with those and Councilman trivia, you'll get closer to the mic Think of it as an ice cream cone Maybe not I'm just gonna eat it This is exactly the kind of role that I've demonstrated over the last six and a half years and representing this community How many of these issues did we face when we were talking about the essay tomorrow plan? How many right? We were talking about a lot of these plans With city staff and then city staff would change something and we all wonder what happened Well, it's the same thing with the UDC code The UDC is set up to create a framework But the bottom line is what we know is that we want to be a city of opportunity not Consequences and if that framework isn't set up to be thinking about the community to be compassionate It's it's not gonna serve us well UDC 2911 has is one of the most used UDC codes in the entire city Every city council member has stated this one and it is about your sidewalks It says that you know what you're responsible for your sidewalks But we've got to change that because the bottom line is that really just simply doesn't work Well, we've changed that in district one. We've changed that forever Sidewalks are being built like never before and it turns out that part of the reason that they that some of these things happen has more to do with interpretation of words the the the kind of financial responsibility then the city has to have but what we know is that what you Want and what you need is us to help represent you represent your voice And so the UDC is critical We're we've delayed the UDC Amendments that were supposed to come up last year during the pandemic and one of the first things all the neighborhood leaders came to me about was Listen, we can't be doing this without a meaningful conversation about our UDC So they came to me asking for a delay and we delayed it And we delayed it because we know that there's a lot of things in that UDC code that if we do not address Our current needs and concerns that they become the framework for consequences not opportunities I will be that champion for you So I will first let me rewind I think the councilman implied or stated that the key that I missed On working working with a homeless is that we have to have a coordinated effort and I said coordinated. I believe I said it two times But on the unified development code I'm disappointed that we haven't implemented it already you know we have worked with so many people to get input Throughout Covid but yet we couldn't we'd said no we need more in public input for this we need more public input We need better public input processes, but we could have done that we could have at least begun that process During the pandemic we could have done it net by now um, but the and you mentioned the the development services department, you know One of the big challenges we have is that the development services department always sides with developers And that's because they're structurally incentivized to do that So their budget depends on them approving projects And so they side with the developers over the neighborhoods And that's a challenge and that's something that we're going to have to address and change because Otherwise, you know people in the neighborhoods, they have to go hire their own attorneys They have to go fight their own processes and it's it's a it's a huge challenge And that's something that we have to get better on You know a follow-up question and and maria will start with you What what can be done to ensure that the public process is followed for all variances and and Exceptions and how can the city provide more transparency and oversight and decisions and interpretations? well, um One of the things that I have Proposed is related to police accountability. I first discovered this one looking into police accountability And I saw that in the city of denver, colorado They have an office of an independent monitor. And so it's a citizen's oversight committee Now they have their own independent budget. They have a staff of 13 They have six attorneys and these people will help you if there's an excessive use of force incident They will go and they you know, they will assist the the victim or the family of the victim in um In requesting body cam footage. They'll assist them in the legal process to make sure that you get justice But as I was looking at that I started to think you know what we could expand the scope of of a department like this A citizen's oversight committee with attorneys that work for you the taxpayers and they could do Um, they they could do conflict of interest investigations and look. Where do we have? Um, this where is the structural incentive backwards and working against the community And I think this is something that that could serve us it could serve the community when they're dealing with challenges with development services department Um, because right now we have an ethics review board that is extremely narrow in scope There's hardly anything they can look at if they want to investigate Um, ethics violations in our city And so I think we could do a lot better. And I think this independent oversight committee could do that handle that that work Quien habla español? In 2016 We didn't have spanish translation services at city hall You want access? Can you believe that that this city would say that it's providing equal access to everybody if we didn't provide Equal access to spanish translation and it was a spanish translator who told me you know what what's really important about Translation isn't just words It's meaning You know what I learned about that? I learned that we as a city also have to meet people where they are We need to know that sometimes we could be speaking jargon We could be talking over their heads. Can you imagine that our chief financial officer is speaking about some some very very complex things about how AAA rating is so important and the financing of the city is is is going to be so critical But if people don't understand why or don't understand what he's saying How's that going to help us? We need to connect people and meet them where they are Those are some examples of things I've done This is a city that is primarily hispanic Many people only speak spanish And it wasn't until 2016 That we accomplished that that's a big deal We continue to do programs like this because that is how you connect the city or our community Better to our city and we want to hold our city accountable to make sure that the things that we're doing Are understood by the community they serve Simple as that Okay, and for the next The next issue area Neighborhood associations and residents are forced to act as Representatives or enforcers of their neighborhood or sub area plans and overlay districts Not only against developers and investors, but with the development services department as well When development requests that are counter to legal ordinances are approved and the input of community is ignored Overruled or lost in translation Significant damages can occur to our communities Not only in the built environment, but to its residents as well as they face displacement And again, this came from a group effort from the tier one neighborhood association It does contain some conclusions, I would say How would you enhance neighborhood empowerment or ensure that neighborhoods are at the forefront of discussions? And I think we start with you mario So again, the problem with the development services department is that their funding Depends is relies on them approving the developers projects over the neighborhood's wishes It depends on them granting them variances and so and not having to follow all of our city rules And so we need to change that and I'm committed to doing that. I think You I think you can't expect to get real change there From somebody who's taking a lot of campaign contributions maximum campaign contributions from all the developers My campaign contributions don't come from out of state by the way Um, let me just say something I was there with you with the neighborhoods when they talked about Some of the changes to the essay tomorrow plan Y'all remember that remember how how they kept taking out the word neighborhood plans And if you're a neighborhood leader, this was so important to you I was your champion and absolutely We one of the things that is so critical here is that we know the development services Is trying to do a job trying to to move the city forward a certain way But we cannot We cannot forget the fact that the city council office Is a place that represents the voice of the community and working with each and every neighborhood To understand that they have created plans that they have worked very hard to know things like compatibility They they they talk about the history of their neighborhood They want to talk about how these things should be incorporated In part of our major planning of our city This is teamwork. This is how we did it I don't have to talk about it or promise We did this together already, um Now we're going to talk about uh police accountability um Voter data for the general election shows that district one largely voted in favor of proposition b in fact In fact, more people voted on the proposition than voted for mayor And the majority of district one voters are in favor of at least some level of police reform The question uh councilman to you first is what what will your priorities be to ensure your constituent constituents concerns About police accountability are represented First I was the only council member that came out in favor of prop b I was only the only candidate who came out for prop b And I didn't I didn't change my mind on that um The key here is understanding that there are some key key items that are simply non-negotiable Like transparency and accountability Some of those have been adopted in the plan. We continue to follow that. I have a great team That that is really really focused on making sure that accountability is at the forefront We're not going to negotiate that and so now that that that we've we're we're past this point One of the things we need we need to learn was that the city really showed that hey It's it's it's a it's a pretty even split But I think what you can interpret from that is that everybody wants accountability and we're going to continue to to Monitor that we'll we attend every meeting that that is happening with the negotiations And we will make sure that as the contract moves forward that that is at the forefront The 10 items of fixed sapd came up with are so critical We're going to try to understand how much of that Did get met in the contract? That is the whole point We want to be there for people. We know that they're just way too many stories Way too many families that have been that that have suffered through this You know, this is not as as simple as one simple contract. This is about Understanding how families are affected and we can provide an avenue that provides true Accountability, but most importantly compassion for our community. Thank you And Mario I'm going to address the last situation first and that is When somebody makes a contribution to my campaign, I write them a thank you letter And when I write a thank you letter to people from out of state though these people are people who They're my former coworkers. They're people I went to school with they're people I grew up with That now live they're family members who live out of state and when I write them a thank you letter I say thank you for believing in me And supporting me to improve my hometown And so I'm very grateful for that and it's it's a stark contrast from Taking dollars from developers who expect for us to shift the property tax burden onto you On prop b It's all about police accountability And police accountability is non-negotiable You know, um, I was at the table with many people who worked on prop b in the early days before there was a prop b Brainstorming on how do we get? Put more police accountability and I continue to be committed to that I what I said during the course of the campaign is that I'm going to respect the will of the voters But no matter what when I get into office. I am going to work on I'm committed to police accountability I didn't put, you know, unlike the council member who has done nothing on police accountability for six and a half years And maybe just put his finger in the wind and said who what's going to help me get elected this time You know, I I said I'm going to run on all the issues. I'm going to respect the will of the voters But when I get there, I am going to work on police accountability And I'm going to I'm going to ensure that we have it There are many issues in our current police contract that the councilman voted for that. I will not support so I'll start with um Police disciplinary records are written in disappearing ink under the current contract After two years they go away and the police chief is not allowed to look at them in consideration for disciplinary measures In addition to that we have arbitrary We have an arbitrary time period of 180 days and which if you If the if the police officer who's accused of a crime or is you know, it has violated a policy If they're not prosecuted within 180 days then on a technicality they can get their job back The police officer who put dog feces in between two pieces of bread and tried to feed it to a homeless person Lost his job was fired one his job back on a on a technicality because it took over 180 days so So I will make sure I will not vote for a police contract if it contains many of these provisions that prevent us from firing bad officers That's time. That's time I I think that the councilman deserves a response to there was a A personal shot there. Oh, yeah, there's a lot of personal shots. Um Look, um When when when folks are are donating to my campaign they're donating to my record Not, you know, I'm not beholden to somebody who who gives me Uh a campaign donation and then and then is interpreted by another campaign team to say That's what you're gonna get. No, you're gonna get something because you have a record Where there is no record Simple as that Before we move on can we get some of the audience questions? Um christina Let me um We're trying to figure out the clock situation Maybe the kids have some questions Okay Did you send did you give it to uh, well, she's they're right Okay, yeah, we we got it We were waiting for the questions to come to the stage I trust your judgment on that. Hey, I'm going to take the last question on here and then we'll go to the the reader questions Or do you want the last? Infrastructure in district one is some of the oldest in the city Many neighborhoods are missing sidewalks or never had them streets lack curbs or need repaving At the same time citizens have witnessed the repaving of streets only to have san antonio water systems come through Soon after to do work undoing all the repairs that had just been done or find They cannot use the sidewalks Um That they do have without it being obstructed by a cps poll due to the placement of a cps poll or other obstacle Um, and this is not this is not a new issue. I know it's been brought up several times before How would you prioritize and facilitate infrastructure improvements in the district? And I'm sorry. Are we starting with mario? Did we start with yeah mario first? I've been walking all over district one and what I find is we have so many neglected parts of the district. I find broken sidewalks I find Sidewalks that go halfway down the block and then stop I remember knocking on one woman's door and she said, you know, my mother just passed away But before she did she was in a wheelchair and I had to push her in the street Because the sidewalk didn't go all the way through on my block So I've seen broken sidewalks missing sidewalks all throughout our district And what I tell voters is this They're your tax dollars Right, and so I will prioritize Investing your tax dollars in your neighborhood in ways that improve your quality of life one of the biggest A big a vote that drove me crazy back in 2018 is when roberto trivino Voted to spend 39 million dollars to remodel their own council offices But only six million dollars for sidewalks for the entire city And so that's why I say I won't I won't invest I will prioritize investing your tax dollars on infrastructure in your neighborhoods that improves your quality of life Here. Okay. Thank you Infrastructure is something I take very seriously From sidewalks to streets to maintenance by saws saws has what's called the consent decree and the consent decree Talks about fixing some of the oldest and most decayed sewer lines in the entire city One of the things we created was a data sharing ccr Sharing data between entities is so critical so that we can time things at the same time So that when whenever the saws needs to get in there and repair a sewer line We can time some of the the street repair along with that. We created that data sharing ccr. We also Absolutely We also want i'm going to go back to udc 2011 You know to to to talk about sidewalks as if you knew how it all worked the city simply just didn't want to do sidewalks Until we've changed that and you can look it up Bengorza who our chief financial officer simply said we we as a city cannot fix sidewalks because of debt obligation Does not allow us to use that money for maintenance It was semantics By learning that we said look let's call it the sidewalk reconstruction program and just look around your neighborhood It's happening. We are repairing sidewalks like you've never seen This isn't just happening in district one. It's all city-wide and public works has never seen anything like it And in fact, it really has unlocked millions of dollars. And no, it's not 36 million dollars It's 80 million dollars and the next bond will allow us to tap into those millions of dollars To continue to connect people better Pedestrian mobility is a core value of mine And we want to make sure that we build out the best sidewalk neighborhood neighborhoods in the entire city I i want to take a moment to pause Also to to remind people to thank our sponsors who made this possible And among those those organizations who made this event possible besides is The cove tier one neighborhood coalition Killen griffin and fairmond law firm Tobin hill community association Lynn canapic Thank you. Thank you for making this possible and don't forget to tip your bartenders and servers Do you have a response to that councilman? You get to go first in this next. There's a question from the audience What is your covet recovery plan to help small business owners? That's a great question because it actually starts with something that we we began with Even before we were thinking about the covet recovery We were thinking about people that were going through the issue in the middle of that pandemic Last october we filed a ccr for food and beverage workers including the hospitality industry That said this is an industry that was suffering the most look at us now This could have never happened last october, but here we are And businesses like this one needed help and we allocated 14.25 million dollars to get them that help We need to do more of that as the federal relief dollars come back We need to prioritize the businesses that were hardest hit and make sure that they they they get that relief Additionally, let's not forget. We still must continue to vaccinate our city. We've got to get to 100% vaccinate We we need to continue to to to work on on getting us back to normal But it's going to take a lot of us working together working With with small business stakeholders to make sure that we are providing that relief We are closest to the people we're closest to these small businesses And so we have demonstrated that there's a framework to do just that I want to continue to do similar efforts One of the in fact one of the the issues they came up early on that affected district one in in an In an unfortunate way was the way they applied some of the economic recovery was called the equity Alice The equity out list was not very fair to businesses because it used census data Residential census data Well district one is a central business district. And so a lot of businesses got left out We corrected that and so a lot of businesses Benefited from that and we continue to we will continue to do that same thing Mario I Hopefully he's around and we'll hear us say this I missed somebody Thank you Mitch web for the help on the sound system as I have been known to say If the audio sucks the video sucks, there is no video without audio. Thank you Mitch So yeah, what is your what is your coveted recovery plan to help small business owners? So I know what it's like to be in a Supported by a small business because my father was a small business owner and growing up You know, he had a small construction company But growing up when your family owns a small business everybody in the family works for the small business So I grew up working weekends working summers working holidays A lot of times our work was at the Levi Strauss plant installing the new washing machines that were so big They could wash a palette of jeans at a time and when I was 120 pounds. I only weighed 120 pounds I was running 90 pound jackhammers back then But I know what the good days are like and the bad days and there's you know, and I know how Not getting paid can set your family back. I know those challenges. I remember them So I'm going to lean on The owners of small and micro businesses in our community to help guide us. Yes, we supported Independent and food and beverage with 14 million dollars But we didn't do that until a year into the pandemic You can't make people suffer for a year Before you support them and before that when we gave them support You know when we got federal and state dollars The city went and put all these obstacles in the way We added all these new requirements that people that prevented our small and micro businesses from qualifying My friend Javier Paredes is here right now. He's an owner of Garnitas long have fantastic restaurant over off of Roosevelt. They did not qualify You know because of and it they didn't they didn't qualify because of obstacles that were unnecessary that the city put in place So we need to be in better communication with our small and micro business owners And and make sure that what we're doing works for them. Javier should call our office because we'll help them out We we actually already did help them out. No, he didn't He did not We have a record of everybody that calls. They'll make it up Is it it's my turn now, right? Yeah, okay. Just checking um From from someone in the audience in the last two city bond issues Hemisphere got more than 30 million dollars market square received peanuts How will you help small businesses in your district? Mario you're up first Well, you know Yvette is here right now She's the president of the the business owners for the farmers market at market square And they're all supporting me right now They're upset that our council member has not been willing to work with them. They have so many challenges over there You know their their air conditioning system breaks down every summer You know, there's locks on the doors that don't work And they have so much trouble being able to get a long-term lease They only sometimes the city only wants to give them a one or two year lease and these businesses have been in there Longer than i've been alive And they you know and they want to invest Their dollars back in that building back in that business But when the city gives them only a one or two year lease that doesn't give them any Any stability that doesn't and doesn't give them incentive to invest in that business And so i've been talking to them and they come to me and they say look these are the things that we want And i say well, what's the catch? Because these are all sensible reasonable things. I don't understand why the council member hasn't worked with you on these things They are all so sensible. I said absolutely I'll work with you on those things and I look forward to working with all the small and micro business owners at uh at market square because also because you know, I grew up going to market square And you know, that's part of our culture and our heritage here in san antonio And we need to cherish that we need to appreciate it We need to support that and make sure that that we keep them here Yes, thank you Here's what here's the module is not telling you because he's not in any of those negotiations And we did meet with market square folks dozens of times. In fact, you're right center city development office offered a Center city development office offered a one-year lease. We said no way they need to get a four plus four That's what we fought for they asked for many other things the one thing The one thing that we just can't go for Is lease assignments? lease assignments is is not being told is that being expressed here and what what that means is That market square is meant to be a low-cost place for small businesses to get their startup But you've got few families that are controlling all the leases That's not right You know, that is that is awful and and and again It's misleading and they're trying to talk over me because they don't want to talk about it But ask them ask them about lease assignments. It's wrong. We shouldn't do it That is a city facility and it's so misleading all right you're gonna move on We're gonna move on to the environment. This is a question from the audience um What are your specific plans including actions and timetables for helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? What will you commit to shutting down the the dirt? dirty spruce coal plant before 2030. Yes or no councilman I'm committed to Making actionable plans to help our environment However, I need to also balance the fact that we are just trying to recover from a pandemic We have a very vulnerable community and I won't do that on the backs of our vulnerable community Climate action plan is critical But we have to be thinking about how we get there so that it does not create a rate increase That affects people true working families. I was raised by a single mom I remember the night that it was so hot That we couldn't we couldn't afford to turn on the air conditioner every dollar counted And we want to be a city that is that is efficient We want to be a city that is thinking about ways to cut down on these kinds of issues A lot of the programs that I've started think about those things and create layers of protection and think about the environment in a major way But we can't forget that we're one of the most economically segregated cities In the united states and this is the situation is an issue of privilege You have vulnerable vulnerable communities. I will not do it on the backs of vulnerable communities mario you know The less we do to reduce our greenhouse gases The more we're going to experience these extreme weather events They're going to be more extreme and they're going to be more frequent And so it's not one or the other We have to we have to Have a commitment to sustainability And you know in 2017 the city of san antonio passed a resolution to meet the paris climate agreement goals But we've done very very little since then You know our climate implementation committee d d belmades is here. She's on it. They just started meeting It took almost four years to see the climate implementation committee and there's so much that we can do There's so much more that we can do that. We're not doing now And it's not not it's not all stuff that's going to break the bank a lot of that stuff It's going to save us money and you know, it's going to make our our buildings more energy efficient And that is going to help save Um our cps energy customers money, but it's also going to help you keep your your home More comfortable during extreme weather events and it's going to reduce our reliance on as much energy during those events and You know, I'm sorry. We just lost the chief operating officer of cps energy because before he left he and I sat down And I said chris yugster. I have an idea On how we can effectively shut down the next coal plant and how we can do it And but also be able to keep the lights on And also do it where we can keep rates affordable and I think it's a great compromise I think it's going to be something that's going to make the environmental community happy And it's going to make something that's going to make the business community happy And we sat down at lunch and I penciled it all out on a napkin and he said that's a great idea He said i've never seen anything like that before and so i'm sorry he left But i'm committed to sitting back down with the with the rest of the staff at cps energy and even calling chris yugster even though he's working for a Utility up in the in the pacific northwest now But i'll call him up and I want to work with him to make sure that we can see that through Because we need to reduce our emissions and that's part of protecting our community this summer Cps energy has indicated that it Is going to or is contemplating resuming cutting off people for non-payment of utilities and um Should we Should we eliminate utility disconnections as a policy for those below 200 percent of federal policy guidelines or federal poverty guidelines excuse me Try repeat it Should we eliminate utility disconnections as a policy for those who are below 200 percent of federal poverty guidelines mario you're up first So, um, we need to protect our most vulnerable without a doubt what I would like to do is We need to do more to invest in when people are having trouble being able to pay their utility bill We need to go in and help when we need to put them at the top of the list of people who were going to help To retrofit their homes so that they're more energy efficient so that we can get them to To their bills down to an amount that is affordable for them, right? So if we're just instead instead of just because a lot of these homes these are Leaky homes. These are homes that are not well insulated These are homes that that are using a lot an excessive amount of electricity per square foot And so if we go instead of letting them continue to to Use excessive amounts of electricity and giving them a break on on their bill What we should do is go in and retrofit them so that they're going to use much less electricity And then it'll be a bill that they can afford and because that does that's going to take some subsidy, right? Just like not not making them pay their bill But the other thing that it does is it reduces the amount of emissions it reduces our dependency on as much energy Okay counselor One of my proudest moments Was telling president biden about the under one roof program 1250 homes saved Because the leaky roofs like you mentioned But they're also high reflectance roofs that reflect the heat, you know, they save on average almost $2,000 a year On their utility bill because they don't gain the heat that the science was there And we did it right The hope is that the administration is going to it's going to adopt it make it part of a HUD program So you'll see it nationwide That's that's a real solution but to answer your question point blankly Absolutely We should be doing that and and we have a program that also addresses that and how we did that Is the emergency housing assistance program, you know when we first got into this pandemic I was the one that called for cps and saw us to stop disconnects This was not a time to be doing that But now we also learned a lot about this pandemic We learned that we're a very vulnerable community and that we have Systems and we have things in place that can help people the emergency housing assistance program Which is what it's now called came from the risk mitigation fund Or program and that had to do with a lot of folks who are facing displacement And that displacement really really was costly on a lot of folks who simply didn't have the wherewithal of the money To to move or find a new place to live The emergency housing assistance program now not only does it help you with your with your rent It helps you with your utility bill It helps you with direct cash assistance for food And so we think we have a model that says hey Let's continue that program for those that qualify as you said that have issues paying their bill Let's help them. We've got a program for that and let's keep doing the under one roof program So I wanted to ask you all about about bond bond dollars because in this last election voters approved proposition a which which basically Says that the city can spend Bond dollars on things like affordable housing Economic development type initiatives And I'm going to ask you all what you all think about, you know What the priority should be in the next bond cycle Realizing the fact that the projects are they go through a public process Um, but but how do y'all think some of those dollars should be spent now that there's more options to spend those Yeah, yeah, okay, so well housing we need more housing is as simple as that and that's what prop a was about And and and quite frankly, you know, this is related to so many things It's related to your property taxes. It's related to homelessness. It's related to to the potential eviction crises that we're about to face Right the cdc has saved us from from a lot of issues because they put a moratorium on evictions But we can't ignore that and housing I think is the issue of our time And that's by having prop a pass. I think it gives us another added tool It's not a silver bullet, but it's an added tool to build more housing all over our city We need to add to the housing stock one of the one of the Issues that the reports spoke about when it came to property taxes and why why things are rising Is because people are moving here and when people move here Then then there's a scarcity of housing that scarcity creates market values that go up And it's telling us we need more housing But we need more than just affordable housing. We need attainable housing We need to be thinking about creative ways to do more and I would just simply add Not just housing. I want to create places for our homeless that provide permanent supportive care Simple as that and that's what we could do with our bond 2022 for the bond Mario There's something that I can't let slide and it's councilman Torvino has constantly campaigned on Saying that he called on cps energy To cease disconnects For non paint of electricity for non payment during the pandemic Every single utility in the state of texas Seized disconnects for non payment Every single utility in the state of texas ceased disconnects for non payment But he's taking credit for cps energy doing this and so what's important to note is there's only one person on this stage that has a record Of holding cps energy accountable and that is me and that is because You know city councils one of their jobs is to provide checks and balances over cps energy They're the utility that we own and they need to be accountable to us And so I served as chair of a of the environmental stakeholder group that met with cps energy senior staff And we as a group push through Reforms to make them more accountable to you to make them more transparent for you You know cps energy's board used to meet well. They always meet at one o'clock on a monday They're meeting this monday at one o'clock coming up and You know working class people can't go at one o'clock on a monday But they weren't video streaming their meetings just like we're video streaming right now where you could watch later So there was no way for you to watch and even if you could show up if you could take off work And you could show up once you got there You were not allowed to speak at a board meeting for the utility you own and we worked to change that In contrast to that councilman trivino has voted 140 times in a row to approve every single thing that cps energy has asked for In the last five years, so I didn't want to let that slide So can I can I can respond to that? Absolutely. You know what else gets video stream city council meetings where I did ask for that Moratorium on disconnects. I'm sorry. You got it all wrong mario Just trying to mislead everybody I didn't say you didn't call for it I said that you you can't take credit for it whenever utility in the state did it I I took credit for it. I'm taking credit for it. Okay. We did it. All right. There's one record Look it up. That's why we video stream it One person on this stage who has a track record of holding cps energy accountable You can't take credit somebody up here is going to have to like hit the mute button, right? I'm on board more if you want to just take a few seconds to address the the bond question the bond. Yeah You know Quick quickly We I'm excited about this new opportunity for the tax, you know for the voters to be able to decide on the next bond If we're going to invest more in affordable housing projects. I'm really excited about that opportunity But what I want to do is I want to make sure that if we do if the voters choose to support any of these projects that we do a better job of making sure that your tax dollars are being invested in a way That where they are accountable and making sure that we are truly building affordable housing and workforce housing and that the community is benefiting from it I want to make sure they pencil out. I want to make sure they're transparent projects And I want to hold them accountable to that. Thank you Have you got another one in your stack would go for the last question? Last question and then I think would give you guys a chance to Wrap up. Okay. This is a question from from the audience What is your long-term vision for growth and development in Tobin hill? Councilman will start with you Well, my long-term vision for great neighborhoods like Tobin hill Is is is to work with the neighborhood to work with the neighborhood plans And to be consistent about it and to and to stick to it Stick to to to the plans that we have in place. We want to have safe walkable neighborhoods We want to provide beautiful shade trees pocket parks Compatible growth in that area, you know, we we fought for the first ever Truly truly neighborhood police substation This is going to change everything. In fact, you can go back. I think it was two or three council meetings where we spoke on The the amenities that this substation is going to have it's more of a community space It's not just a police station. It's a space for the community to gather. It's going to have Uh green spaces it's going to have a a place for the neighborhood to gather But we also have to balance some of the the concerns that people have along the same Mary strip Because there are businesses that exist there and how can we balance the the needs and concerns of residents They want to have a high quality of life in their neighborhood while balancing the the commercial aspects of some corridors That's why we created the noise ordinance ccr That's why we meet all the time with with business stakeholders with the neighborhood stakeholders with just about anybody To to make sure that we're addressing the concerns and needs of that neighborhood and meeting them where they are Thank you. Maria my campaign and my service To district one is going to be focused on Listening to you and working with you and treating you as our best partner as In in how we address our challenges going forward And so i'm going to lean on the people of toben hill because the people who let the neighbors Neighbors who live in toben hill. They are the experts on What is on the character of their neighborhood and how we preserve that character of that neighborhood And how we can have sustainable growth there and what you know What solutions work there and what solutions don't work there? And i've already been talking to people in in toben hill and i know that when i spoke with parker He's really concerned and a lot of his neighbors are really concerned about certain bars there There's just three bars there that um don't they don't have a cover charge and they um Uh the the the neighbors are telling me that they're over serving alcohol And they're low-cost drinks and people are coming out of there and causing mayhem when they get out and so We need to do a good job of making sure if those bars won't come the owners won't come and sit at the table With the neighborhood association with the commute with the neighborhood leaders Um or with law enforcement And so we're just going to have to go in there And we're going to have to be creative about pressuring them to come to the table and be better You know better neighbors and better members of the community But i'm going to lean just like i'm going to do in any situation As a public servant Serving in council is i'm going to lean on the neighborhoods because the people who are there are the experts in what works for them And how they want to be able to grow and move forward Okay. All right. We've got we've got five minutes to nine and i i think i promised you guys 90 minutes So nine would be 90 minutes So i'd like you to do your uh wrap up and um i think we can Give you have i lost velma? Um uh give you You seem to be on a two-minute thing So well we're gonna like do the trust system here on two minutes. Okay um You're up first Thank you everybody for coming out tonight and participating in democracy. Um, i'm I'm really excited to be here and appreciate the opportunity to be able to share my ideas With you and i'm gonna stay because i want to hear all of your ideas as well because that is a huge part Of how i'm going to serve in this office um Again, you know, I grew up here in san Antonio I I didn't get to do a full introduction because we kind of skipped over that But uh, you know, I graduated from clark high school. I went to ut austin got a degree in history um and uh Then I went on and I got a master's degree in public affairs from the lindenby johnson school of public affairs at ut austin And I would love to be able to put that education to use in serving you because You know, I my approach is going to be this it's going to be how can what can we do to remove politics? From the decision-making process at city hall as much as possible How can we do more to make data-driven decisions to? Lead with national best practices and how can we improve public participation processes? There are so many instances where you know, I've run into people and they say I was on this citizens advisory committee And we all worked together and we had these facilitated meetings And at the end of the day we came up with a plan and then the city went off in their own direction And that is unacceptable to me. I've experienced it myself in developing the city's climate plan You know, there are a lot of people who've complained to me about that who sat on the citizens advisory committee for the alamo Luckily now we have new leadership in the alamo and that project is taking off again But I'm going to lean on you all. I want more transparency. I want better public participation processes I would appreciate your support. My website is www.mariobravo.org not.com.org You can donate there. You can sign up to volunteer. I would love to have your support. Thank you very much On the alamo start I refuse to spend city dollars on state property. It's as simple as that There's there's there's no other way to put it if if you believe that's okay And everything we talked about all these resources that we lack in our city to do the infrastructure to do all the housing To do the bond projects Why would you say any of that? Why would you spend money on somebody else's property? That's silly to me I'm running again because I think I have a proven track record And you just simply have to go to robertotherinio.org See all the approaches that we've done our our job as council members is to provide access to resources True access people sometimes feel left out And that's the whole point is we need to be a voice for those that simply feel like they don't have a voice We will continue to do that. And that's why I say that we need to be a city of opportunity And not consequences at the heart of this is is is me and my team continuing to work with all of you Like we always have to be that representative To continue to work with you to work with other areas that weren't even district one We know that the city looks to district one to lead the way on so many issues We've done it for six and a half years. I look forward to doing it for two more years Thank Thank you. Thank you both very much. I really appreciate your taking the time and thank you guys When there are many many other things you could be doing for coming out and Giving us your attention tonight Indeed, thank you all district one is is a really really really really important district I I work in district one although I live in district two and vote And everybody out there you're registered to vote right right Okay, and when does early voting start? May 24th and Election day June 5th. All right vote. Thank you