 I'd like to welcome everyone to the beautiful campus of Northwest Vista College. My name is Craig Coronails and I'll be moderating today's forum with the candidates for San Antonio mayor. Fortunately the weather cooperated with us and we have a beautiful day to go with this mayor forum although we were a little concerned with icing this morning. Fortunately that did not materialize and come August we'll all be wishing there were ice out on the roads. Northwest Vista College was established in 1995 and this year we're celebrating 20 years of creating opportunities for success. NVC is the third largest higher education institution in San Antonio. When we began offering classes in 1995 our enrollment was just 12 students. Today enrollment exceeds 16,000. During the fall 2014 elections in fact NVC's early voting site surpassed UTSA as well as SAC and Palo Alto College their early voting turnout combined. So I want to give a shout out to all of our students and all the people, Project M and others who worked hard to register students here on campus and get them out to the polls. I'd also like to thank several people who made today's event possible. I want to thank Stacey, Todd and Nathan, the theater staff who put together the venue and all the technical aspects of today's production. I also want to thank the Northwest Vista College Public Relations Department for their help with the publicity and putting together this logo. I'd also like to thank our college president Dr. Rick Bezer as well as the Alamo Colleges Chancellor Dr. Bruce Leslie and the Alamo Colleges Board of Trustees. Our thanks for their ongoing support of our democracy. I am an instructor of humanities here at Northwest Vista. I'm also a co-advisor of the Student Government Association and I'm the Alamo Colleges Democracy Commitment Coordinator and so that is the reason I'm here. A lot of the work that we do again educating students about democracy, voting practices and getting those students registered so that they are able to vote. And I know that we have several government classes in here as well so I want to thank those government instructors who've taken time out of your busy schedule to let students have a firsthand look at politics in San Antonio. I want to briefly go over the rules for today's format. Each candidate will give a two-minute opening statement. Then we will ask a single question of all nine candidates who are in attendance today. That will be the first round of questions that will be followed by a second round of questions. And that second round of questions, each candidate will get a unique question. And those questions were actually developed by our students here at Northwest Vista College and we have several students who actually came up with the questions on hand to ask those questions of the candidates directly. Then we'll end with a two-minute closing statement. And that should take us right up to about 315. If for some reason, for whatever reason, we end to go over a little bit past 315. We'll take a brief time out because I know some folks do have classes that begin at 330. We'll let those folks filter out if they have to and then we'll wind up the debate after that. In terms of how the candidates, the order in which they're going to speak, we use the website random.org to develop a random number sequence and each of the candidates then was ordered according to that sequence. So when I introduce the candidates, the first round of questions will follow the order in which the candidates are introduced. I should say their opening statements will follow the order in which they're introduced. And then for the questions, we'll actually go in reverse order and then we'll go back to the original order for the closing statements. Again, the questions that will be asked today, all of those questions came from Northwest Vista students, primarily government students, our Student Government Association and our Project DEM student organization, then went through all of the questions that were submitted to select the actual questions to be used today. Regarding timekeeping, I do have a couple signs up here. I'll be moderating the debate and when you have 30 seconds left, I'll hold up the yellow sign, sort of like a stoplight warning, getting towards the end. When you're down to about 10 seconds left, I'll pull out the red sign and then when your time's up, I'll call time. At that point, you can finish your sentence and we'll let you go for about another 10 seconds, but please don't exceed that. If a candidate does go significantly past their given time, that time that they go over will be subtracted from their future opportunities to address the audience. This forum will be broadcast on the Internet. We had a little bit of a technical glitch. We were hoping to do a live, real-time broadcast, but instead the broadcast will be available about five minutes after the forum is over. It takes a little bit of time for it to upload to the server, but if you check the college's Facebook page, and I know many of you all have smartphones, you'll find a link that includes that will get you access to that webcast there. So enough of that. Let's get the candidates out here and we'll introduce one at a time. So with the first candidate who's introduced, please sit in the closest chair here in the row and then on so forth and so on till the end. So according to the random website that we use to generate the order, Mr. Tommy Adkinson will be our first speaker. Cynthia Cavazos, Gerard Ponce, Alan Reese, Leticia Vandeput, Cynthia Brem, Paul Martinez, and Mike Villarreal. We did invite Mayor Taylor to today's forum. However, today's forum was scheduled before she publicly announced her candidacy, and I believe that she has a conflict with City Council today. I'd also like you all to give a warm welcome to our Project DEM Student Organization president, and he's also an officer of our Student Government Association, Nogel Castro. I'm sorry, somehow I missed Mr. Raymond Zavala. Okay, so now Mr. Adkinson, if you come up to the podium and give us your two minute opening statement. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, students and faculty, administrators and UTSA, thank you so much for hosting this forum here today. My name is Tommy Adkinson, and I am running because, excuse me, I think it is time to get back to basics, have balanced growth, stay at home mayor and strong neighborhoods. It did not take a home invasion of my mother's home for me to appreciate the strength of neighborhoods and the importance that they play in our lives. I've been an active, involved member of my neighborhood association for many, many years as a founder of that association. I do think the city would profit from stronger neighborhoods both north, south, east and west as the older communities experience their deaths and their movings out and other things. It's important that we that we be able to focus on them. But back to basics means instead of just the legacy projects, so much focus on legacy projects, whether it's closing down Main Street or some of the other projects that we find, even San Pedro Creek, the bigger projects that sap money from things like the core functions like fighting crime, safe and sustainable neighborhoods, flood control, we got about 2.5 billion dollars in unmet flood control needs. A spot of mission experienced a huge flood that put four feet of water into the homes, 30 seconds, put four feet of water into the homes of those living around a spot of mission, because so much development in the other parts of town are overwhelming them. Stray animals support for local businesses. Infrastructure, crime, animal care services and growing our small businesses need to take a front and center role. And then we will be an attractive city, remain an attractive city for all of us. Thank you. Cynthia Kovazos is next. Hi, everybody. My name is Cynthia Kovazos and I'm a candidate for mayor. I really don't know what to talk to, excuse me, what to talk about, but all I know is that when it regards infrastructure, there are many key points that need to be stressed. Now I'm talking about medical reform for the whole city. Child care, child care is something that I know a lot of y'all students need because y'all already have children. A balanced budget, our budget really needs to be balanced and it regards not just child care, medical reform, the whole basic infrastructure, which includes homelessness, raising the tax, education and safety. That's it. Gerard Ponce. Good afternoon. I would like to thank everybody for allowing me to be here today. And I would like to first off by saying that you are the most important people in the city, the voters here in San Antonio. I think that especially you that are young college students that are just beginning to get involved in the political system, begin to help and grow the city by helping to like volunteer a few hours here and there. Lots of times that's a great benefit to help take you into other jobs. I would like to focus as mayor, one of the main issues I would like to focus for people in college would be to try to institute where San Antonio is known, I guess through different countries where we do, I guess like a school year abroad where the person can actually go work in their field and try to I guess to learn the other cultures of other people also so they can come back and spread that information, the growth that they increased with I guess being involved with communities abroad. I myself have been involved in over 40 years of community service. I love giving back to the community. I love volunteering, helping people. One of my other focuses will be of helping people with special needs and children. I do that now. And I am so proud whenever I run into somebody who is helping other children or adults with special needs. So that would be a main focus along with of course reviewing the budget here in the city, making sure that our economy is growing in a positive way and not where we end up in debt. I believe the situation with our first responders, the police and firefighters here, has been a very difficult time for the city, but I'm not sure how they're going to get out of that situation, but I believe that we need to work together with them to make sure that the city keeps moving forward. Thank you. Alan Reese. When I look around me, I see people like me, people who are struggling trying to make ends meet, people going back and forth to school, United San Antonio. My priority will be job for this city for you and your family. Lots of people on this stage have lots of money. Lots of some of them have six kids, but they wouldn't give you a nickel to save your life. I have traveled to Los Angeles. I have traveled to Kansas City, scouring this country, looking for jobs for you because I have retired as a desert storm veteran. I was willing to give my life for every single one in you in this room and I will continue to work as a public sir, scouring this country, looking high and low for job for you. One of the major projects is linking this city to Dallas and to Houston so that you can live here when the cost of living is low and go to Dallas and go to Houston for jobs. I've lived in Dallas. I didn't like the traffic. I've lived in Houston. I didn't like the hurricane, but they have more jobs than these people will give you. So I'm telling you right now, I will scour this country high and low looking for jobs for you because as your public service, I promise you I will need no stone unturned and to every single college student is able to find a job, pay his mortgage, but everybody on this stage has already retired. They don't care nothing about you. I'm a transplant from Louisiana and I'm telling you I'm here to serve the people for the people. USA United San Antonio and we can do it and we can come greater than Dallas, Houston, Chicago and Los Angeles because I saw we have better work ethic than they do. And as your mayor, I have rolled a bicycle 2100 miles and I will ride a thousand miles until every person in here has jobs all across the city. Raymond Zavala. Mr. Zavala. Good afternoon everyone. Thank you for having us here. All of us and I'd like to say this on behalf of my family and I, I appreciate the honor and privilege of being invited to this forum. I for one want to be your mayor because it's time that we have a great steward of our city's resources. We also need to have someone with common sense who is not going to turn our unique city into a place like Dallas, Houston, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Kansas City, Los Angeles or Oakland. Enough has been said about how we need skilled labor here. Well, we're not going to get it until we find someone who is willing to work with the businesses and also hold the job seekers accountable. Currently, I'm retired twice and I'm working on my third one. I work for a millionaire. He's the one that encouraged me to do this. I can tell you this, we need to help four groups. The senior citizens, the youth, the disabled and the veterans. Having said that, our seniors are suffering and sooner or later, everybody on console will be a senior citizen, believe it or not. I never thought I'd see it coming but it's here. So for me, it's about doing the right thing. Do it for me because I would do it for you. I live by that phrase. It's a lifestyle for me. I do a lot of community service and thank you much for having me here. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon. It's really an honor and a privilege to be here along with all the candidates and I first want to thank the organizers. A lot of times, we're going to see forums but what you see here is people who are willing to put their name on the ballot. They all have different stories. All of them love San Antonio and many of them have served in our country's armed forces along with many of you. My name is Leticia Vandepute. Leticia San Miguel Vandepute, a third generation San Antonian, a pharmacist by professor, retired now legislator yesterday since your new state legislator, Senator Jose Menendez, was sworn in. I'm a mother of six and a grandmother of six, nearly perfect grandchildren. I want to be mayor and to come back home to bring that type of experience and proven results back to City Hall. You need a City Hall that works as hard as the people in this community. One that's effective, one that's efficient, and one that's transparent. I'm so proud. I've met people here who are on their second career, although most of our students here at our community colleges are very young. What you look at here in our need for workforce is you see people who are already retired and coming back and we know that by 2020 65% of all jobs are going to require a post high school something, a training program, a certification, an associate's degree. As mayor, our highest priority would be to make sure that we take care of public safety, the infrastructure of roads and sewer and drainage, but it's workforce and jobs. There is nothing that I won't do so that San Antonio can keep moving forward and we can be great American City. Thank you so much. Cynthia Brown. I've been told that I'm soft spoken so if anybody can't hear me let me know. I am running for mayor because I represent each one of you. I want to be a voice of the people. I believe that government should represent each one of us in the way that we ask them to represent us. Our city government is not doing that. It is creating ordinances and then passing them down to us to obey. That's not why we elected them. We elected them to represent our needs and that's what we need. We need leaders that will represent the people, not dictators. This is still a democracy and there's a lot of corruption in our city. You may not believe that but that is very true. There's a lot of oppression going on of the people. We can't have that. This is our city and we need to stand up. We need to fight back and we need transparency within our budget. We need to find out where those tax dollars are going and we need to put them where they were dedicated to go to give an example of corruption. Judge Nelson just received $1.1 billion for our roads here in San Antonio for improvement. Guess what? That's what he told the state but when he got his hands on that money he said I'm putting intel roads from I-35 to Bandera, 1604 and 281 going north to Bolverde from 1604 in La Cantera to Bernie. I live out there. It's going to cost me $5,000 a year. We can't afford that. We need leadership and I'm the one. Paul Martinez. Good afternoon. My name is Paul Martinez and I am running for mayor of San Antonio. I'm a retired combat veteran of the United States Army. We're at the honor of serving with some of our nation's finest paratroopers and Calvary division soldiers. Very excited to be here tonight. I want to thank Northwest Vista College for inviting us. I mean the great thing is to see so many young faces here that are getting involved in politics. I have a daughter who's about to graduate from college and another daughter who's about to begin college. I tell them all the time that the reason I am running for for mayor of San Antonio is because what we do here, what these people do here, whoever you choose to elect, it's going to affect your future. It's going to affect your children's future. I'm glad to see that you all aren't getting involved in it. Don't ever lose that passion. Right now less than eight percent of our city votes for in our in the last election and I know why you don't vote because when I came home I saw it. You tell yourself things like what difference does it make and these politicians are all the same. They're all going to do the exact same thing that they want to do anyway. They don't, we don't have a voice. My vote doesn't count. Well I'm here to change that for you. I'm here to show you what true representation is all about. I'm not a Democrat. I'm not a Republican. What I am is an independent thinker who when I was younger I swore a note to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the people that it governs regardless of their political affiliation. See I don't have to worry about the Democratic Party or the Republican Party or any other party. I'm not afraid to listen to any of you and hear what your ideas are and definitely I'm not afraid to cross a party line because I've got no party line across. I'm here to show you what true representation is about. We may agree and we may disagree but in the end know this that I know how to take an emotional step back and vote based upon what we the people want because I realize that unlike other politicians I'm not afraid I realize it I'm not elected to represent myself or a special interest group or a political party or a political agenda. I'm elected to represent the 1.5 million people called San Antonio and so I do because I ask that you consider me for to be your mayor of San Antonio. If you want more information on me I don't answer all your questions please see me. You can also go to www.mayor of sanantonio.com and ask me any questions. Mike Villarreal and Mr. Villarreal when you complete your opening statement we please remain at the podium because we're going to go in reverse order for the next two rounds of questions. Certainly thank you. Pleasure to be here students faculty organizers of this event this is a wonderful opportunity to listen to the candidates and and hear our answers to pressing issues facing our city. I want to tell you a little bit about myself first. I was the first in my family to graduate from college. I started my college career first at Alamo colleges at San Antonio College. I was a high school student taking classes at night and then taking classes during the summer before I took the long drive to Texas A&M. I studied economics at A&M. Why? Because I felt like the challenges that were facing our city our community back then were economic in nature. I saw a city that was so focused singularly focused on attracting businesses from elsewhere to come here instead of growing our businesses locally. I saw a city and knew many family members who had a hard time making ends meet even though they had more than one job. And so I studied economics because I wanted to acquire the tools to come back one day and serve my community. After A&M I landed my first job working for Allen Greenspan at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors went on to Harvard earned a master's degree work for over a decade as an investment banker serving cities and local governments. Today I am running for mayor because I have a single heartfelt goal and that is to help make San Antonio become a city of opportunity where our young people who earn a college degree or acquire 21st century skills see this city as the place to launch their career and to start small businesses. Every day that I am in office I'll be focused on that goal because I want okay thank you thank you for giving me this opportunity. In your opinion what is the most important thing San Antonio has faced within 2015 and how does your experience qualify you to address this issue as mayor? Well the biggest challenge facing the city of San Antonio is the contract negotiations between our first responders police and fire and our city government. I would use what I've learned in the legislature where I serve 15 years as a member of the Texas House of Representatives trying to get different parties different stakeholders to focus on what our underlying interests are to resolve this conflict. I believe there is a lot of common ground here. Number one it's public safety that is a priority across the city but number two another equally important priority is financial sustainability. We need a new contract that attracts the best talent and keeps him here but is also financially sustainable. It is affordable the money going out for that budget item or any budget item isn't moving out faster from our coffers than the money coming in and so I will focus on restarting conversations of this if this conflict has not been resolved before the election. I will get parties to focus on what our true underlying interests are. If we can agree to a few fundamental parameters like the growth of our public safety budget should grow no faster than the growth of our tax revenue I think we will get that would be a very important starting point to resolve the negotiations. Thank you. Paul Martinez do you want to hear the question again? Sure. Okay okay in your opinion what is the most important issue San Antonio has faced within 2015 and how does your experience qualify you to address this issue as mayor? There is no doubt that public safety is a very important issue and it's it's affecting San Antonio right now but let's get to the root of the problem. The root of the problem is taxpayers wasted dollars being used by city council right now. If we were to have if we were to go and look at all the taxpayers dollars that are being wasted I guarantee you that solves so many of our problems. I guarantee you that would show us that San Antonio is doing a lot better off than what the city manager is currently claiming and so for me that is the biggest issue facing San Antonio right now is the waste of your hard-working tax dollars that is the issue bottom line. I have been a mayor before albeit in Iraq and I know what it means to work with city council even though we weren't city council we were tenant units I had people that outranked me that were telling me I needed to do XYZ but I always looked out for the unit for the entire city that I was in charge of that's what I'm going to bring to the table is Mayor San Antonio is I can make the tough decisions I can look at a program of the lean six sigma green belt change management specialist and I could actually go in there and say this is where our money's being wasted let's divert these funds let's get the people back to us to the table let's get our education business them back on track so that's why that's the big that's what I see as being being the number one issue right now is our wasted money thank you. Cindy Abram okay in your opinion what is the most important issues Antonio has faced within 2015 and and how does your experience qualify you to just address this issue as mayor. I love that question what qualifies me to be mayor is this according to our federal government and our state government city government you have to be an American citizen at least 18 years old live in the city limits and a registered voter anyone can be mayor even you that's what qualifies me now with regard to what you said the biggest issue I have to echo what Paul said it is the misuse of our tax dollars if the monies are going where they're supposed to go why aren't things improving give you example transportation why do we have to live like sardines traveling down the road every day playing bumper cars congestion everywhere you go takes an hour to get somewhere why does that have to be well when I looked in the budget they allocated 12.8 million dollars and then they allocated 65 million dollars for the convention visitors bureau seems a little lopsided to me secondly I looked into Miss Scully's office expenditures for the 17 people she has there she makes two million eight hundred seventy one thousand five hundred seventy four dollars and she has 16 people working for her that's a hundred and fifty four thousand dollars a person nobody makes that kind of money in that office where's the money going that these are going to be in your opinion what is the most important issue San Antonio has is faced with in 2015 and how does your experience qualify you to address this issue as mayor our city is a wonderful city whether you've been here generations like our family or whether you're newly arrived but right now the most pressing issue for 2015 is really that cohesiveness the lack of leadership what Mike mentioned was one aspect the inability to get the police and fire contracts done but if you open the paper if you look on tv that's one aspect the inability to have regulations that both ensure public safety and yet open up the technology of what consumers want in rideshare the uber lift that's another issue the charter amendments the issue with contaminated dirt at the expansion of the convention center so what we see is not one issue what we see is a lack of leadership if i know one thing for the last 24 years i've been really good at looking around the corner and seeing what's coming and working together putting people in the room having all sectors represented to stay focused on the challenge deal with it and then make it into the opportunity i know that as mayor i could do that we don't have just one issue we have the lack of leadership thank you Raymond Zavala in your opinion what is the most important issue San Antonio is faced with within 2015 and how does your experience qualify you to address this issue as mayor thank you well for me it's a double-edged sword because there's a couple of items that are near and dear to my heart i for one have been a federal agent also i'm a graduate of a firefighting school where we were taught no matter how bad the fire is you're going to go in there and do your job what happens afterwards doesn't make difference because you're going to do your job for example the life expectancy of a firefighter is 62 years old i've already outlived most of them and we uh asked them to do for us what we can't do for ourselves and that's to save our lives and our property and then we don't want to pay them no we don't want to compensate them for their health no no amount of money can ever make up for lost health i know because i'm part of that however ineffective leadership is the second problem that we have someone has to step up and do the right thing remember what i said about do it do it for me because i do it for you it is time for negotiations with the city manager to shut down and for her to move on because if you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem and we need somebody else to take over thank you Alan Reese in your opinion what is the most important issue San Antonio is faced with in 2015 and how does how does your experience experience qualify you to address it address this issue as mayor well there's been a shooting on bus 90 i live in an apartment complex where there's been three shootings two murders but as soon as i started running for mayor the police start showing up because it wouldn't be a good for the press that a candidate for mayor is getting shot in his apartment i sleep with the lights out on the floor i took a six month lease out but one thing i can tell you right now is i'm already recruiting one of the toughest police officers as your assistant police chief his name is Ronnie Coleman from Monroe Louisiana he's an eight-time mr olympia and this guy timothy right here when that man tells you to get out the car you are going to get out the car and for the other issue where we're talking about the shooting on the bus i am probably the only one in this audience that ride the city bus even after the shooting i was on the very next i didn't get on bus 90 but i got on the bus now if these people are not willing to ride your public transportation and they're expecting you to pay their salary some of you rock the bus and you should be able to get on the bus like you get in Dallas and amen i'm getting on the bus you're right ponte you know i'm about helping people and the community always have been i believe i mentioned that we um that i help and support persons with special needs i feel that the most important issue this year and has been for years is discrimination and that is discrimination to people with special needs i have this one young person that i know who's 15 years old he has no arms and he can't even use the restroom without his mother or brother's assistant and his his little brother's only like five years old but um people like that you know the city should be aware and being able to try to help persons with special needs to be able to have facilities available to um for them to use and i know that not just you know like in and the young boys like in high school but you know here in college they should have like um ways to help persons with special needs but also throughout the community so i believe the discrimination against people with special needs it should be addressed there should be more of a public awareness um i guess there should be more of a public awareness within the city for persons with special needs thank you the city right now needs a lot of things um we need to really go into major infrastructure to to figure out what it is that we need to get done and medical reform is something that we need to change only because we have insurances that we need to pay premiums and all that other good stuff childcare we need child care child care we need to make sure that every single parent that's working has child care services um homelessness we need to make sure that homelessness is out of the system if we keep that out of the system then we'll have a cleaner san Antonio we won't have to worry about disgusting smells um literally coming up through our nose and stuff the tax educational tax i think is the only thing that should be raised right now um no other tax should be implemented with with anything really so when it comes to education everybody has that right to their own education um which boils down to a balanced budget if we have a balanced budget and we appropriate all those dollars that we receive you know from y'all's tax dollars and from everything else the dollars that the city makes then everything should be balanced and every buddy should be able to have their tax i'm talking about um home tax and i'm talking about um business tax to be leveled to six hundred dollars a year Tommy Atkisson thank you i think that a lot of problems could be solved by the mayor finding a way clear to stay in town when you lose the mayor to a uh a presidential bid or somebody that's seeking to go to washington uh that mayor has got to put some strictures in place that ensure that the voice of the people is heard and instead of the city manager taking over the role of mayor and council as well as city manager the uh the mayor has has has got to leave an agenda that is uh that of the people and that means fire and police can be settled you need to get a federal mediator in here to give some guidelines to where they ought to be you can't negotiate a fire and police contract in the public you need to negotiate it at the negotiating table when it comes to uber lift you can't be uh uh uh for something one day and the next day you're not you've got to be able to keep things in place you got a 20 a week council that cannot be worked to death to the point where they're constantly rehashing regurgitating issues over and over again and uh again back to the basics back to neighborhoods get those streets paved make sure the streets are drained get the curbs installed get the stray dogs off the street get the codes complied with and make sure that people can walk their neighborhoods whether it's rich middle class or poor make it a proud neighborhood thank you all right thank you candidates our next round of questions and we're going to go in the same reverse order uh that we just went in with these questions um uh these questions are going to come from uh our government students and the first question is going to come from Kevin Kevin Effingham each question will be uh directed at a particular candidate so each each candidate for this round will get a unique question and the first question will be for Mike Villarreal and again we'll have one and a half minute one and a half minutes for each response hello thank you for taking our questions today my question for you is do you have any plans to help the homeless and disabled veterans find homes and jobs if so what are they yes I do I think the this our city government can accomplish much in this area by being enough in a partner with organizations local governments agencies that already exist for example I'm very proud of the work that Haven for Hope is doing in helping some of the homeless population it's important to note that the homeless population is very it's as diverse as the population of people who have homes and and so they are accomplishing some of the need and meeting some of the need but we have other institutions that are doing great work as well for example I know Alamo Colleges educates the largest population of veterans they provide wraparound counseling services help not just in the classroom but also in career counseling that is something that we need to learn from and expand through our other institutions of higher education we have other examples of effective services for homelessness I know Texas A&M San Antonio is very proud of their work in helping not just the students but their families transition for the during the period when the soldier comes back and is having adjustments and needs mental health services or other kind of social needs met that organization is finding a way of meeting them ultimately the city of San Antonio needs to be a partner with them and I'm committed to doing just that thank you the next question is for Paul Martinez and Carl Hanover will be asking this question sir how does your leadership experience translate directly to navigating the partisan shoals of San Antonio city politics can you say one more time a little bit closer how does your leadership experience translate directly to navigating the partisan shoals of San Antonio city politics Carl this is a great question you know for me a lot of my experience just as a veteran in the United States Army solves a lot of issues for me we all understand that the role or the position of mayor city council is non-partisan within San Antonio but if you look up here you can pretty much tell by our beliefs who's the Democrats who's the Republicans like I said I am a non-partisan I have I'm an independent I don't care if you're Democrat I don't care if you're Republican the only thing that I care about is the fact that you're a human being when I swore that oath it was to support and defend the Constitution the people that it governs regardless of their political affiliation regardless of their gender regardless of their color regardless of their sexual orientation that's just the way it is I judge a man or a woman not by the color of their skin or anything else but by the content of their character that's what my that's what my military experience brings you it brings you it brings you the ability of a candidate who can take an emotional step back and base things on facts and facts alone that's that's what my military experience brings you that's what I'm going to bring to you as the mayor of San Antonio the voice you've all been waiting for because I will listen to you regardless of who you are thank you the next question is for Cynthia Brim and Cody Schrader or Schroeder we'll be asking this question Hi Cynthia I just wanted to ask how would you improve how would you recommend we improve San Antonio's highways to reduce traffic and make the road safer and what are your thoughts on how we should fund these new improvements would you repeat the last part of the question how would we what what do you what are your thoughts on how we should fund improving our roadways okay I'm letting out my secrets now okay because I didn't put on my website one of the first things that I would do is what they've been doing in London England for 20 years something very simple they take these seven foot black tarps any time there's an accident they surround the entire thing why it gets rid of gawking and traffic goes it's proven to be effective they've been doing this for 20 years why we why haven't we done that here the second thing that I would do is I would put in an ordinance that all trucks trailers fifth wheels right lane only that way we can get through those would be the two big things that would alleviate a lot of the traffic and then I'd also allocate money to go towards improving the roadway to where it widens and heightens people voted out the rail system and they voted out the tow roads so we can't do that because we're doing the will of the people right so that's what I would do to improve transportation did I answer all your questions okay good thank you the next question is for Leticia Vanderpute and Amanda Gomez will be asking the question hi Amanda hi Leticia are we wasting our taxpayer money on pre-k4 San Antonio or are we utilizing all of our resources to increase our children's education opportunities first of all congratulations and thank you for asking that question the ability to have pre-k4 essay now was as a result of a law that I authored now almost 12 years ago it was called Better Jobs Act and what it did was to empower local communities to look at the human infrastructure you know that our cities and our local governments are all about the bricks and the mortar the concrete and that's greatly needed but we knew that cities and local communities wanted to not just invest in capital infrastructure but invest in our students and so the Better Jobs Act which I authored and passed allowed cities to use that money for early childhood education for after-school mentoring for dropout recovery for long-term training for adults who had not gotten to the level of their high school diploma and it lets our community do that we know the science is solid that the learning pathways those neural pathways of three and four year olds are firing and it's wonderful to have that program I probably would have tried to maximize our state's dollars and unfortunately those budgets were cut but we need to make sure that we work in conjunction with our school districts already and with the great private early childhood providers so that they can reach the quality level I'm a supporter of Pre-K for SA you get more bang for the buck thanks Next question is for Raymond Tavala if the open carry if the open carry bill does pass and allow open carry to be legalized what will happen to the safety of this campus will there and will there be any increase or decrease in safety would you please be so kind to repeat it one more time please okay if the open carry bill does pass and allow open carry to be legalized but what will happen to the safety of this campus will there be an increase or decrease in safety open carry of handguards I would like for you all to know that I'm all for open carry because it's going to deter the criminal from harming those most vulnerable now as far as open carry there comes a huge a modern responsibility with that self-restraint self-discipline and more than that the safety of others before your own so I in my opinion a lot of law enforcement would not approve of that in the past we've had that and in other cities there is an open carry but as far as I'm I feel safety would be improved you wouldn't have somebody going off the should we say the deep end and harming anybody because the others would be there to stop him or stop her whichever the individual would be I know some of you may not agree on that but until you've been in a situation where your safety or the safety of your loved ones is concerned better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it thank you okay the next question is for Alan Reese as mayor what would be your views on suburban sprawl as it pertains to nature and trying to conserve natural spaces suburban sprawl I've lived in Houston I've lived in Dallas so I know what that can do one of the first things I would do is because two of these candidates one is from Tacoma, Washington one is from New York and when I was up in Des Moines Iowa when you drive along the roads you would see license plate that says poke or something on it but those cars that are coming in here that's taking your resources I'll let they should be penalized for driving their cars in here taking our resources and going back over to Guadalupe County and with subways like to have in New York or the sounder like to have in Tacoma, Washington let them keep their cars over there and let them make a choice whether they're going to live here pay taxes here or pay very high parking fees for coming here and taking our money and our resources back to where they live and I can promise you that when you start thinking long term like they did in New York those buildings and skyscrapers and Times Square didn't go up overnight you had to put the infrastructure underground so the buildings can go up this way so what I'm telling you right now is we first have to get it is insanity to keep building roads wider and wider and wider if you plant orange trees along the outside we have a choice if we have a hurricane you cut down all of our orange trees we don't have nothing to eat next question next question is for Gerard Bonte with housing costs going up and hourly wages and salaries for the most part staying the same what would be your take on modifying local policies to help San Antonio families be able to afford the rising cost of housing with housing costs going up and hourly wages and salaries from the most part staying the same what would be be your take on modifying local policies to make San Antonio families be able to afford the rising cost of housing I believe that the people here in San Antonio should be allowed to if they like people on food stamps you know I believe that people on food stamps should actually be given community service hours I'm a big believer in community service like helping for people to empower their lives but I believe that maybe if we would have a program where people could actually be like doing community services like helping to you know teach the assistant teachers in schools are helping like at the VA hospital to like assist veterans that are like in special needs so I believe that we might be able to if possible give a credit to those people to have to help pay for their homes by doing community service in the city so they are not just like being given like a donation to pay for their homes but to be able to like help sustain themselves by giving back to the community thank you the next question is for Cynthia Kavazos is our reputation as a green city worth conserving water and keeping water from people who need it to survive our San Antonio water system they of course you know they deal they deal with clean water or we're trying to get the water or they're trying to get the water a lot cleaner there's a lot of different things that they can do to keep that water clean but if they can go and I'm going to use a medical word oh it's where you boil the water I forgot that word but they would go and sanitize the water more and have it towards where it would be more edible for us so we don't get all them bleach smells coming out of the water it would benefit everybody right now they have what's called kins I think it's a new thing that they came up with it filters the water and it takes out all that toilet paper stuff out so they're really doing all that other stuff in there what was the rest of the question towards the end I'm sorry should we be keeping water from people who need it to survive keeping the water from people I don't think we should do that but then we all we only take care of the San Antonio area anyway don't we do you know I don't know okay well um I know that they went out to other countries I mean to other cities or other little towns around San Antonio to find water and that's a good idea but they still need to be able to come up with cleaning the water better yeah next question is for Tammy Atkinson and Ms. Atkinson when you're done if you would remain at the podium for the closing statement okay okay what kinds of things do you plan to do to encourage students to stay in school encourage what college students to stay in school well I think for one thing our cost of living is is important to the college students and I think staying in school requires the ability to afford staying in school and from what I have seen and and and understood the state of Texas has allowed college cost to rise and I think that we ought to be in Austin trying to make sure that we keep cost at a reasonable level and still fund our schools our county actually stepped up to the plate several instances to help the state finance our roadways which are extremely crowded as all of you know and I think that what we can do is make sure the economics works for these college students and that they don't have a two or three hundred thousand dollar debt owing when they walk across the stage to grab their diploma and go out and hit the workforce so I would I would recommend that we be an advocate and that we do whatever we can to get the state to properly finance our colleges and be an a liaison in that regard we're just 87 miles from the state capital so it's just it's just you know a pretty easy deal for us all right thank you very much Mr. Adkinson okay that concludes our round of student questions I want to go ahead and take a brief time out folks we're at three ten right now and I know that some classes are here until three fifteen some folks have to go to three thirty classes we're just about to begin our round of closing statements this will only take 18 minutes so if you can stick around please do stick around but I want to avoid any interruptions of people who have to walk out because they've got to go to their next class so this next round we'll go in the original order starting with Mr. Adkinson and then each candidate will give a two-minute closing statement oh also students I know some of you were offered extra credit to come here today you should find sign-up sheets with the student volunteers out in the four-year area here's a sign-up sheet down here in the front as well so make sure that you get your name on there if you want that extra credit and we'll begin the final closing statements here in about 30 seconds as these folks filter out Hello All right folks we're about to begin our closing round so if you do intend to leave the auditorium please go ahead and exit quickly so we can begin this final round of closing statements maybe perhaps take the sign-up out sheet out into the four-year and that way it won't be an interruption but please take the sign-up sheet sign-up sheet out in the four thank you okay we'll now begin our final round of two-minute closing statements thank you very much uh first of all I want to thank Greg Craig Coronas for your excellent work and all of your help to make sure that we have a forum like this the the department of humanities that is involved in this UTSA and all of the students who are here this is where I got my start at the at the college level with then state senator then instructor Frank Maddler who became state senator finding out what we could do to change the world for the better that we were born into that's what excited me having a chance to have a role in the destiny of my community not just being a passive bystander bystander I'm running for mayor because I think we need to get back to basics I think that we have some fundamental issues that could be solved with a stay at home mayor one of which would be the fire and police contract a second of which would be the uber lift contract and the back and forthness that we see going on the inability to resolve an issue once and for all and move on to the other things and those other things are the basics infrastructure streets drainage animal care services code compliance curbs just fundamental basic things making sure that we can grow our small businesses making sure that we have opportunity waiting for these students when they get out my wife Karen and I were born and raised here in San Antonio I went to Saint Gerard high schools as did she many years after me we then went to Sacs St. Phillips I went to St. Mary's for a while and then on to UT Austin and then finally to South Texas College of Law I came back and worked for Ted Butler in the district attorney's office where I saw all the elements all the aspects of crime I think we need a safe community back to basics let's get the work done here and work with everybody else who's doing other things in our lives thank you so much again my name is Cynthia Galasos and the reason why I'm running from air is because the city needs a balanced budget without that balanced budget the city would still be the same changing the infrastructure medical reform child care homelessness that additional tax for education only education and safety is what I plan to do do I have fancy thank y'all again for being here I mean for letting us be here with y'all again today I'm running for mayor because I believe there needs to be a change here in the city there needs to be a team and I'm a team player I believe that we need to have the citizens here in the city and of course y'all be involved as a team like with the citizens people with money and our city government I don't believe that we've had a team here in San Antonio for years and it's time that that happens I because of my experience I think I would be very good as a mayor I was one of two people who created the juvenile justice system here in San Antonio which is that was about 30 years ago which has now become a huge system in itself with about four judges and probably about 100 probation officers helping children to help change their lives around later I was one of three people who created the who helped to put together the domestic violence courts here in San Antonio again helping to put helping people to change their lives empower themselves that court system became a model for Texas and has been used throughout the nation also so I'm very proud of that being one of the people that were responsible for putting that together I was on the committee to create the DWI task force here which about 30 years ago so I've actually have done things that have been proven have been have been implemented and have lasted over 30 years and all about helping people with to change and empower their lives so I believe that me as a mayor would I would try to encourage people to get involved with the city with their government to make sure that the decision is not made by just the council but by the voices of the people also thank you Allen Rees I would like to first apologize because when I went to Louisiana Tech I used to be a student officer one day I was out there and somebody didn't have a tag on the back of their car so I went around to the front and started writing her then number down and all of a sudden this lady runs over my foot so it's so 50 what's going on someone just ran over my foot so from that day forward I started writing 50 tickets a day because I was mad and everybody on their campus so I promise you I ride the bus now but some of these rich people and Mercedes and BMW they want to drive they're going to get a whole lot of parking tickets Raymond Savala thank all of you for your time and your patience I believe that I am the best qualified person I'm a retired non-commissioned officer I've served in the army Navy and Air Force so I know how to interact with different groups different departments and how to get things done unfortunately I was on my way to OCS when the government ran out of money and I never made it to OCS or I would have been the commission officer but that being said my heart is here in San Antonio currently we have leadership problems right now I keep asking city council do the wants of the few outweigh the needs of the many and they've remained silent why? because they're doing that I will change that and I will hold everyone accountable furthermore this wasteful distribution of money will cease where we have more money for other groups to receive not just the chosen for example Havenford Hope I'm very compassionate but you know what? Rabbit City, South Dakota has the same thing they have no funding or received no funding from the city and yet they have a five acre three building successful shelter why can't we have it here? they received 2.5 million that's matched by the state and the federal government where's that money going? why do we have to pay a cleaning staff? why can't the residents do it? Rabbit City leads by example San Antonio should follow that guide thank you Litties of Anapute thank you so much for this opportunity to be here with you this afternoon as I look out at the audience and many of the students have had to return I am in amazement and am awe I started as well at Alamo Colleges and four of our six children have used the Alamo Colleges for their education but what I see here today are people who are in San Antonio and you're not just concerned about a job you want a career so you need leadership at City Hall that understands that when you have a city that works to the benefit of all of its citizens of all of its proud neighborhoods to make sure that we're not just that tagline of military city USA but we are indeed veteran city USA we've got to be more than just a pretty skyline and I know as a mother of six ages from 25 to 34 those of you that aren't you define success very differently your definition of success maybe is different from my generation which came here with a slide rule by the way you want to live a life of significance of value making sure that your choices and where you live and what you do is valued by the greater community that's the city that we can be that's the mayor that I know I can work with council to make sure we're on that path forward stay fiscally sound take care of our infrastructure make sure we've got the workforce of the future to attract the type of businesses so that our students our folks find the opportunity and their dreams right here in San Antonio my name is Leticia Vandeput please go on our website Leticia for mayor I'd be honored to have your support gracias Cynthia Brand I didn't tell you what my background was but I do want you to know this I'm a 10th generation San Antonio my grandfather in 1731 was actually the first mayor of San Antonio his home was on Dolorosa where the Bear County Courthouse is at I've always been active in politics all my life but behind the scenes I'm a military family member my husband it's currently in Afghanistan as a military family member guess what you're going to get a quick education on what it takes to be an administrator they put you in key positions I've had several different positions from president vice president special events coordinator chairman I'm a mover and a shaker I get things done I've established charities on a federal installation that are still in existence today that the San Antonio Angels modeled after my program that I did at Fort Hood I'm not here to toot my horn I'm here to tell you I represent each one of you I have seven different ethnicities in me so I represent you I am your voice I want to be your voice and it's going to take someone like me to step into city hall and straighten out the entire mess create transparency and create that foundation of trust that we need in our city government to be accountable to you to answer to you that is exactly what you have entrusted us for is that kind of leadership that's what I offer you it is in your hands you decide you decide who you want for your next mayor you make the choice but on May 9th vote for Cynthia Brim thank you Paul Martinez again I do want to thank you for inviting me to the Northwest District College campus and to the forum I'm again like I said I'm very pleased to see so many of our young you know generation getting into politics and actually coming out to listen to the candidates speak you know running for mayor it's not an easy thing trust me I'm running for mayor but the bottom line is I tell people all the time I'm not a career politician what I am is a career leader I'm running for mayor because I am sick and tired of career politicians always saying the exact same thing vote for me and I'm going to be your voice and the minute they get into office they forget about we the people and they become the voice of we a special interest group we a political party we a political agenda when I retired in 2013 I came home to find that in our city we were being used our education system was being used to push a political agenda our infrastructure was not growing as fast as our city was our taxpayers dollars were being wasted and abused contracts weren't going out fairly they were going to friends at the council to friends at the chamber and so I said not anymore it's time that we the people have a voice somebody who's going to listen to what everybody has to say regardless of political affiliation from the highest ranking person to the lowest ranking private as we used to say in the army you all have a voice and it's time that your voice is heard but in order for you to do that you have to stop electing career politicians and you have to start electing career leaders but more importantly than that you have to get out and vote I guarantee you that your vote is going to count the choice is yours make it the right one thank you Mike Villarreal thank you for giving me this opportunity to join you today it is refreshing to look out in the audience and see the young faces of San Antonio you do represent the future of San Antonio that we are trying to realize for the larger city you represent the next generation of leaders that I want launching your careers here in San Antonio starting small businesses let me tell you for the last nine months I've been sitting with fellow San Antonians listening to their dreams and their hopes I've been pursuing one single office with one single goal and that is to make our city a city of opportunity so that you can launch your careers and start your businesses and raise your families here to make that happen we need a mayor who is forward-looking who embraces innovation and technology in public policy we need a mayor who is going to completely govern in a non-partisan way we can't divide our city along party lines or parts of town if we expect to realize the prosperity we hope for our city and our families here's what you can expect from me number one I'm going to be focused on building our economy strengthening it diversifying it we have emerging sectors in cybersecurity information technology healthcare biosciences and automotive and aerospace manufacturing these sectors need to be strengthened how? by strengthening our workforce for me economic development is going to be about workforce development helping build a talent pipeline from the earliest grades into these sectors thank you very much for your time all right and that concludes our forum please let's give the candidates a big round of applause and I also thank all the students for coming out here today again you can go to the college Facebook page and find a link in about five minutes and you can share a webcast of this forum with your friends thank you all and have a wonderful afternoon