 appreciative for the turnout of that to meet with another meeting and also to meet our new city manager. With the start of the talk, I would like to introduce at least one of the elected officials that is here, Representative Barbara Urban Hawkins, if she can stand, give her a big applause. Representative Urban Hawkins has been a great leader in this community for many years. She's doing a great job at the state level. We have committed to work together along with Commissioner Tommy Coward to make sure that these offices and these positions all work together for the good of the entire area. So, I've committed to continue doing that. I'm hoping that the next District 2 Council Member will also continue to do that, but it's important for leadership purposes and also for achievement purposes to make sure that at least those three representatives for this area work together. So, I continue to look for Representative Urban Hawkins, look forward to continue working with you. It's ma'am. What I would also like to do is at this time introduce the District 2 candidates that are already five. And we just have to come up if they're here and just wave at you. You'll have an opportunity to get to know the defender over the next four or five months. But the deadline for the District 2 candidate seating closes on the 15th. And as many of you all know, I'm here for just the interval, so I don't keep running from that position, but I didn't want to make sure that I introduced at least the candidates who have filed so far to you. So, they can come forward as I call their names. Denise, would you like to come forward? Yeah! Yeah, Denise, come on up. Okay. I mean, I think this would be on him, but... Come on up, give us your name. What's your name? Marcin Diego. Marcin Diego, look at Marcin Diego. You're our candidates for District 2. Again, there may be more, but I want you all to see who they are, and after the meeting, be sure to ask them questions, get to know them and their vision for the District. So, we look forward to a good and fair and open opportunity to meet with these individuals over the next four or five months. All right. Thank you. What I'd also like to do is to have my staff come up. These are individuals that you all have worked with for many years that are the face of my office and the face of District 2, but many ways, they work closely with City staff. Okay. So, Jarvis, Gorsonzoni, and Nanyu, Nanyu Romero is our director of communications, constituent services and senior services, voice employees or staff members, but his work previously on Councilor Orlando Romero is director of constituent services, constituent services, and District 2 intern, Angie Adeyama. So, part of my strategy when I did a District 8, when I came on board, Bonnie Connor was a previous council member, and she had one of the best staffs that was known at City Hall and throughout the city. And so, my strategy was to keep that same consistency of staff members on board when I came on the District 8. District 2 also has the same reputation. So, it's important for me to make sure that we keep that consistency and keep all these individuals on board. So, I'm happy to keep working with every one of them. And as you all interface with my office in the city, these are the people that you've been able to work with. So, thank you all for working with me, and just a quick hello. If all those who are city staff, apart from Eric, if you're a city staff of any form, please raise your hand in a way so that we can all see who you are. All right, give them a big hand. If you all have issues, those are the ones that are taking the ball and dealing with a lot of the issues and the problems that we face in the city and its constituents. The next person I'd like to raise up, and I'm going to ring him up first, is Ryan in my comments. I'm going to let him leave, also before I end my conference. Eric Walsh has been an individual at City Hall that I've respected for many years. While I was on city council, he didn't apply for city manager, but I thought at that point that he would one day be city manager. And I was so proud to be able to cast my vote for him a couple of weeks ago for me or the city manager. He's back then, he would always take on the most complicated issues and come up with solutions. And he has a continues to do that over the years. And so it's with great pleasure that I'm going to introduce Eric Walsh. Let me tell you one thing before he comes on up. Today is his birthday. He's working on the evening shift on his birthday. And so he's going to say a few comments. We may take two questions at once. They better be burning questions. And then we're going to let him, we're going to say happy birthday to him. Have a bit of cake and let him walk out while we continue our meeting, all right? Thank you, councilman. I didn't know you were going to share your birthday with me. Thank you. So I'm really excited to be out here. So the mayor and council have set up a whole series of meetings throughout the community and with the community organizations and the business community to introduce myself. So let me talk a little bit about 1 a.m. where I'm from, I'm from San Antonio. I grew up here once I was a second Catholic with a Sergeant Alonzo back there. He's a little bit younger than me, right? But I graduated from Trinity. We're both a bachelor's degree. And I was fortunate enough to begin working with the city about 10 days after I graduated. I started a budget office in the city. And that probably gave me the best understanding to understand the financial aspects of the city over the next seven or eight years. In 2006, I was promoted to assistant city manager. And in 2011, definitely city manager. And in the areas I've overseen as an assistant city manager and deputy manager, but generally the larger operational departments, the police department, the fire department, emergency management, development services, which would lose good compliance, solid base management, the health department, customer service, I think we're one intergovernmental relationship budget office. I'm humbled by how I've gotten to this point because it's, you blinked 24 and a half years later and I probably never thought I would have stayed in one organization my entire career so far. But I'm extremely fortunate. There is, in my profession, city management profession. There are very few times where you get the opportunity to become a city manager in your own town. Whether it's Marble Falls, or you're in Valdea or St. Martin's, big town or a little town in the state, it just doesn't happen very often. So, while I find myself in a fortunate position to have a career achievement to become a city manager, there's a double balance because we talk a little bit about what the city manager does and this is something that I've talked about with each of the groups. So the city manager's role is a simple role, relatively speaking. The mayor and city council are the board of directors. The mayor is the chairperson and the city council act as a board of directors. The city manager acts as a CEO and chief executive officer. The manager's responsibilities are to overseeing 12,000 over 12,000 employees to oversee all the administrative processes, to oversee the operations of the organization. And we've got a huge organization, over 12,000 employees and over $2.8 billion a year a budget. That's the manager's role. The manager is also responsible for helping the council facilitate those policy-level discussions that they decide. The manager's role of the staff is to walk them through potential fiscal impacts or operational impacts. The decisions they may make is to provide the alternatives and make a recommendation. Once the mayor and council decide what those policy issues are they end up with 12,000 employees behind him or her and execute that. That's the board of directors we have. That's the council manager board of directors. The city manager is not a legal official. The city manager answers to councilman Hall and his colleagues and they point the hill and 12,000 of them is taken. I think that's important. I've found that to be a piece to reiterate as I'm doing with folks at these meetings. I'm excited that the mayor and council approved the ordinance last week. I take over responsibility of March 1st. February is a big transition month for us. I work for Cheryl for 13 years. She is a very results oriented and I've had an opportunity to professionally grow under debt. But this month is going to be a big transition for the organization. We're looking forward to the great team that we have in the city and delivering upon the directions of the mayor and council and hopefully interacting with the community. Although the mayor and council has set up a series of meetings going through this listening tour. This will be the last time you see me. I think it's important. What I've seen is that it's important to have that face time and understand what the issues are. We have a lot of employees and in every neighborhood association meeting you'll see a handful of safe officers or go to officers or maybe an animal care services officer. We're agreeing to the neighborhoods to make sure that I keep a good policy. Looking forward to it. Thank you. Two questions at once. If you have a party question and it can't get back, two questions and let it go. I'm a political in this position. That's my role is not a political position. Our role is to get stuff done. What can these first of all something the city council has adapted in terms of a certain portion of the budget which I love and it's a good idea. I say I think it's time to catch up. Awesome. So I'm wondering in the areas of the motions and what we need to do in the area to ensure that we have department of ads and black folks in positions of responsibility and that's a huge idea. That's a good question. So as one of the major employers of the city with over 12,000 employees as best as we can we should represent and look like the community we observe the city has continuously annually looks at those benchmarks throughout the city not just executives police officers, firefighters field staff and that's an annual thing that we do so that it helps lay out a free department. So every executive knows that this is the profile of the city or this is the profile of your department and here are the areas where you need to improve and getting that information to the departments that they do target improvements as they do outreach or internships as they do potential motions inside the departments that's all good information. And I don't have to stay changing this but one of the things that is a requirement for the annual evaluation of executives is how well they've kept up with that diversity. That's a good tool to measure and stick. I think our executives have done a good job at it but you know, Justin it's one of those things that you always got to keep your eye on because you can have people retire or leave any further comment and we can change. So that's why we look at that annually and make sure that there's more information and I'll keep that simple approach. Representative we'll get asked questions in a minute. First of all thank you for coming and being here in my district and the council's district. One thing you'd like to know and I just look at you and I see your heart and we're interested in leadership that understand the value of investing in human capital. Can we count on you to love big buildings and we want to start investing in the human capital so we can build capacity we can strengthen our children help our elderly before we lose in their homes and the homes around people can we count on you for that? Yes, but you know it's also important that I have to be remiss if I didn't know that I don't think any of the city elected officials, the mayor and council wouldn't disagree with that and I think it's a constant balance at the end of the day the manager's role is to be supportive and execute their vision while I'm entitled to my official opinions I'm in a professional role and of course there's a balance that needs to be struck on whole host issues and existing neighborhoods and new development or human capital versus workforce development public safety versus quality of life issues it's all a balance and that's part of the challenging part of this job but that's also part of the facilitating that conversation with the council and making sure that they've got that information the balance is always there it's probably always there when the council involves on the council previously that's that thought process that the council's body comes to as they do that direction so certainly I want to see this community not just community well but folks that live here too well and I think we've all got the same idea of what we want for future alright so let's get there cut the cake and take a slice from his way out but as he makes his way to the cake and out of the door let's see we also see staff a lot of city staff that are here this evening but they're here because they want to mention that they serve us and so for Eric to be here on his birthday I think that says a lot so I want to just give a little bit of a vision for what I see and what I'll probably come in over the next few months I guess right, representative Gerva Hawkins said he can have whatever ideas but at the end of the day to make sure that we have those sorts of objectives and ideas whether it be human capital whether it be affordable housing whether it be streets and infrastructure whether it be making sure that we continue economic development that drives you out of the capital and I'm hoping that the candidates that are here and that are elected will carry on that vision and drive and push and advocate because at the end of the day it does take a champion on council to champion particular issues and so candidates that are out there make sure that you pick one or two issues that you can champion and carry those ideas and policies all the way through while I'm here let me just also mention that one other candidate just came in keep the money if you could raise his hand I've introduced all the candidates that are here so people have asked me why did I apply and why am I here number one let me just say I've got a vision for district two just like anybody, any individual should but also any elected official should have and my vision is no different from anybody else's I live here just like you all do and I have a business here like you all do and I want a safe productive location to be able to raise my family shop, eat, do business, etc so those that vision is no different from anybody else we want an attractive location for not only our sales but also those people that we are we see out to business once and so beyond that as a person here that's only here for about four or five months it's going to be really difficult for me to implement a vision when I was a district head I had ideas two or three main things that I wanted to drive and push since I chose those things early and I strategized the entire time as to how to make that happen and push that agenda all the way through I'm not going to be able to do that in four or five months so the reason I'm here is to make sure that whatever strategy was already in place when a councilman saw them that we don't discontinue that momentum and so too often district 2 loses momentum number one but then number 2 we're not able to effectively carry out different policies and implantation so when I was appointed I was the fifth council member in this seat in five years and so for me that's a tragedy for district 2 because as representative German Hawkins can tell you you gain a lot simply by being in that seat for a certain amount of time and so your first six months or so are learning and once you get past that learning then you can really start working in equity but if we're constantly in the mode of learning nothing ever really gets done for district 2 so my main objective was to be able to take my same skillset that I had from district 8 and utilize them in district 2 for whatever issues that are here to make sure that we don't stop the business and don't stop the progress that district 2 had already gained at least until the last year when it happened and then the second reason is to make sure that we have a level playing field for all the candidates that are going to be running out there and so we'll have that complete list as I mentioned on the 15th and you'll hear from there when we're over the next four or five months but at that point all of them will have the same opportunity to run and to communicate with the district as to what their vision is and what their issues are and so I'm looking forward to being able to see the next city council member campaign over the next four or five months what I've also committed to is to make sure that I utilize macro to mentor and to show the candidates what city council is and particularly for those that don't know and to make sure that they have some exposure before they can get into the scene and so my staff is working once the 15th deadline comes my staff will look at all the candidates that are there and we're going to have a long one meeting with them and the team for a month and a third of the day so that we can walk through what I look forward and what I try to do as a city council member and so the issues that I face on a daily basis committees, time commitments etc. so that when they come into office and make a decision they just go on alright so the opportunity for me is to make sure that we mentor the next city council member for the district and that they have a leg up as opposed to other council members that are coming with that opportunity so for me it's about a district and making sure that we have good strong representation on day one on that intervention from the office and so that's kind of basically my vision for my service in the business for the next four or five months I do have a bigger business generally but I'll set it that side and make sure that we keep business moving on those two issues so that we can accomplish and the next four or five months but from there we're leaving it open to the next two city council members so those are my comments I'll take the two questions if they're burning I know we got question cards that are out there and we're going to take all those cards and we're going to look through them and respond to those questions individually I'll be around from now until 8 o'clock as well as my staff so if they're individual questions so there are two big questions I'll take those at this time because that's right a couple of announcements if there are announcements can those come forward Liz if there are any other announcements read those four so I'll take the first question I'm like the whole board building and I want to open you and the councilmen and the city manager everybody will join the board to make sure that the whole board building is honor abutment and that will provide I guess non-demolition that there will be a mechanism Yes ma'am Jackie Robinson in March of 1960 was a model of the non-violent integration of change and less power because we, for example, actually did that where people in the community can know it's equal to people because then everybody will have those non-smellers who cannot have that building demolished it has to remain there it has to be a symbol can of constitution and we can use it for that to go by history that also tells the story of how to exist in the Cisgaria you did not know that you survived and died at the Alamo and remind them that we exist in the woods with this Mexican flag and tell those people that they want to get Mexico Mexico had a power slavery and if they wanted to stay in Mexico they were going to have to agree that they were going to get out of this but they didn't get much that they used to if they still want to go to the war with a lot of slavery then you cannot let people be in this history and not tell them what to do Alright, thank you very much I think I pulled up the question that the Alamo Plaza is governed by the Texas Land Office and so some of those buildings there's an Alamo Plaza plan and some of those buildings have been discussed as potential for demolition I think that the old building my understanding that that plan is being amended so that the old building is not going to be as part of that demolition so I'm getting more information as we move forward Thank you We'll do that in a minute Thank you Sherwood Thank you for putting this together and bringing us together as a community I want to make this quick Two months ago a group of citizens in D2 got together more than a hundred few citizens got together and for the first time in a long time the northeast side and the east side and the middle east side there was representation from everybody so we seized an opportunity we had another meeting and we ended up coming up with the battle and anybody could join 30 people that wanted to be part of a steering committee that continues the community conversation we're coming D2 strong we have our first and the councilman who all doesn't know yet when he does find it doesn't notice everything Brian is going to help us out with that on the 23rd I'll pass these flyers out pass them on to anybody you know come if you can this is the first in a series of trying to get our needs and our desires to lead you back and I wish everybody that's running the best of success Thank you Organization What Betty learned many years ago was organization matters very tentatively organization matters and so when you come in groups as opposed to individuals you make much more of an impact one thing that industry A has that a lot of the other districts did have was we had the number one number of neighborhood associations and so those neighborhood associations when they come to council they spoke in volumes and so the same kind of process happens in district 2 when you speak through a neighborhood association it has the voices of a group it matters and so organizations like this and others are establishing that not just neighborhood association organizations but community organizations they matter as well so I encourage you all to as much as you can come and speak to individuals in the city council and even represent a group in groups because you have much more of an impact than that yes sir in the 2017 the money appropriated for a streamer path from eastern street north from San Francisco there was a 7.5 meters and some of the city staff said that all the design had something to do with what was appropriated I understand that from the spirit of being a citizen to being for the 2017 final we have to face it will you be addressing the lack of funds through the infrastructure manage private time the investment mobility because we believe that money will be spent to repair and fix the problems that come from eastern street north to west and they have a plan to put bus islands in place and have one lane traffic and then I'll put it into some type of communication meeting in the middle of it that's how we made a traffic jam it's going to take you a little bit of business and they are going to thrive tell me what your plans might be and what you're looking to do and be able to get that information about your future so one thing that I've been asked and I've had a committee with me we're looking at the entire bond package that was proposed to district 2 and otherwise what I'm asking my staff and city staff is to give me the timeline of what's already been accomplished and what is to be accomplished and if what we have requested and what was notified to the community is not in that package I'm going to be asking questions and so we'll be figuring out where we can get those money to make sure that we fund any gap between what was promised to district 2 what we either actually have already been given or has been planned so yes that's on our agenda that's one of those issues thank you alright so we'll take one more question alright if not representative garrison yes ma'am right so our question was about crime particularly by the crime let me say just a couple things first of all when I was in St. Louis College at Randall Dawson this year I was in St. Louis College there was a building that we were looking at and purchasing and so part of what we and I had to do research for and so part of the research I did was crime and what I would have found is that district 2 does not have the highest crime rates in the city the east side when we compared the east side association to the other associations in the city east side was probably 3rd or 4th and so the number 1 was 4th or 5th and the number 2 was I think 5th and so I think a lot of times there is a misconception that crime as high as here in district 2 and it's not where it is high is in the violent crime zone and those numbers are few but it's still higher than the normal and for me it doesn't look like any sort of crime, particularly if it's violent crime and so of course the police officers as much as we can to address violent crime issues one thing that worked a few years back is we had kind of what they call cat teams or focused teams and so these groups, these are big groups of officers that could go into targeted areas and focus in their resources on those targeted areas this may be an opportunity for us as district 2 to be able to push that sort of solution to the violent crime in the district so as much as I can as much as I can to help to push our police officers our safe officers to protect us from violent crime thank you I'll take one more question I'm going to ask one more question and I can come up and say a couple words and then we'll close that yes sir this overall transparency of the district in the district to make sure that they're safe and large so we know what's actually happening in our district just as these folks just in the streets we're not going to be told what's safe and large if there's a next time the transparency of the district works for a great deal a ton of elevations so how do we know how that's going to look like district 2 to know what information to see what we can find so really early on as a council member in the council members offices and I'll push this to all the candidates that are out there we should be on top of that number one and so we should be on top of whatever we're going to put in the budget whatever we're going to put in our in the bond funding to keep track of those items throughout the year and throughout the five years of the implementation for a bond project so that's what's coming up on the city council member to do that that may not have been happening because we had some turnover but over time we had five council members in five years in a position they lose track of bond funding and projects they lose track of even budget and projects etc so that's why it's coming on unequal to be able to choose good representatives and be happy for us during that time agreement so we've lost a little bit of that momentum so part of that is city council members pushing the agenda part of that is us as a community electing good folks to be able to serve to keep that continuity and keep that advocacy but then the other piece we have some systematic things that people have been in a long time ago such as citizens' advisory boards on bond projects in other areas and those individuals they look at those their job is to look at the bond projects and those bonds to make sure that we accomplish and implement what is set out to be so I think we have systematic opportunities that they can he's advocating to me just like I'll be advocating to make sure that we push so we have a little bit of both opportunities to be able to push on all sides we're going to close out with representative Herbert Hawkins and I'll be around my staff will be around thank you good evening everyone a couple of things I want to quickly address some questions about our violent crime this afternoon we've got to make a commitment to work together to make things different not just with these officers but with this community so when Liz came up and talked about her bid on the 23rd in terms of bringing community together that's your time to come and sit at the table and let's talk about some real solutions related to not only what the elected officials can do and what law enforcement can do but you as citizens when you can do also so we've got to have a wrong approach to our corrections here but we can get it done and we focus and I want to say this this will be a marathon not a sprint so you've got to be able to stick with it and make it happen the other thing I wanted to say is that councilman has reached out to me and I reached out to him and we're committed to work together so that a party's department we can look at each other's smile and say they should accomplish we want to be able to do that together and I have confidence to make that happen and then finally at the state level teachers will be getting an A-free show right up in that race both issues particularly in our schools looking at that as part of a safety measure that's going to be important one of the bills I'm championing this year is a tourniquet bill which will require schools to have a tourniquet kit in the building from what I've learned because I think we all know that the mass shooting is just going to be difficult to stop all together but what we can do is save lives and if we've got people trained on how to do tourniquets that will stop some of the deaths in terms of people bleeding out before they can get any help as well as these kids have a monitor so that as our first responders come they can go directly where the individual is so that's important we're going to learn about reform make criminal justice reform those are difficult things to talk about those are things we need to address I want to make sure that y'all are aware when these things come to the forefront so you can come up and testify and give your position on these things and finally I'd like to say this community you do not run for a public office unless you love the community you plan to serve and now we are on a trip District 2 we are no longer the victims and let's begin to take personal responsibility for what happened to our community let's own our decisions let's own our electricity let's own our boats and let's own District 2 staff District 2 staff District 2 staff alright so if y'all have any issues I'll be here so be sure to raise those questions with them and also District 2 candidates again if you guys can raise your hand I actually want to stand up District 2 candidates and so be sure to ask these individuals questions because in 5 months they're going to be right here in this spot and so we want to make sure that they represent the group we're talking about thank y'all for being here I'll stick around and we'll see you at the next one