 Alex was born in San Antonio. He graduated from Robert E. Lee High School. His career in media began in 1999 as a radio and television voice personality. After graduating from UTSA with a major in general business, he became a full-time on-air personality for a Spanish radio media outlet. And after a few years, he was named Operations Manager for Radio Formula, a news talk format stationed targeting Mexican nationals in the San Antonio area. His experience in TV includes Univision as a sports anchor where he covered the World Cup in 2010. In 2013 he moved to Telemundo where he is currently the news anchor for the 430, 5 o'clock and 10 p.m. shows. Please welcome Alex Hernandez. I'll also mention that our other partner with these events is the University of Texas, San Antonio, who graciously have donated the time of their team and these facilities so that we can conduct these forums. The only other thing that I will mention before I hand this over to Alex is, we do have a timer and we do have our chamber staff assisting a letter to Juan is our timekeeper for today and she will be holding up science indicating the time for today as you are answering your questions. With that, I'm going to hand it over to Alex and good luck. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you very much. Good morning. David Delman, morning candidates. Thank you for being here this morning. As you heard, well, District 6 was supposed to be here today. Well, this is an opportunity for our candidates to elaborate a little bit more on your ideas. We will start with a one-minute introduction about yourselves. This is where we can learn a little bit more about your ideas and why you are running for District 7. We will start with ladies first. My name is Monty. I am a mom, a wife, now a candidate for District 7. I'm also an entrepreneur. I started my small business in the last year. It's focused on creating a workforce of talented moms who come together and do fantastic projects all throughout San Antonio and actually have been growing our business all throughout Texas. I'm a greater chamber fan and supporter. I actually was the second woman to chair the IT committee, a space you don't see women very commonly within, but I proudly chaired that committee for the CEO at the time and was thrilled to do so and have been a big supporter because of my corporate background at Rackspace hosting. I ran the governmental affairs and community affairs department for Rackspace. Prior to that, I worked for Mayor Phil Hartberger, leading his education in workforce initiatives and also worked on development issues. Learned a lot was actually part of the vested rights conversation, so learned a lot about the tree ordinance and other issues related to impact fees. So it was a great experience and I consider myself a great fan and supporter of the business community. We'll continue. My name is Fred. Thank you. Welcome each one from the chamber. Those that are visiting and obviously those that have braved the 7 o'clock meeting. Thank you for being here. I am 60 years old and I am married to Debbie Rantel, very proudly, my high school sweetheart. I have a lovely daughter Amy and she has now completed her coursework, Texas State going on to CBS in Los Angeles. My background is from here from the Edgewood Independent School District and I say that proudly. It is the second poorest district in the country and that afforded me some opportunity with academic scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania where I studied urban studies, also some architectural design, some business coursework that are the important school business. We, and I say we, my wife and I, was with me when we attended and we both attended and came back in 79, worked hard, paid my dues and in 1991 started my own business. It's been almost 20 years now and we're ready. We're retired, but before we retired, we owe. We'll go back to the community as my purpose for running. Thank you. Thank you very much. Good morning, my name is Indike Valdivia. I'm currently an elected official. I've been serving on the Edgewood Dock for the last eight years. I'm also on the executive committee of the authority and the chair of the permits and enforcement committee. I'm a legal aid lawyer and legal aid lawyer for 30 years. Texas Rural Grounded Legal Aid. My practice currently is focused on environmental law. I have lived in the district for 20 years over by Jefferson High School. That's in the Monticello Park neighborhood just north of Woodlawn Lake. I have been very active in the community and in nonprofit boards and particularly in water policy. I feel that that's my primary qualification for district seven as well as my passion for community work and outreach to people who care about their neighborhoods and want to build a great neighborhood and a great city. I have many friends in the community. I have some friends in the business community as well. I look forward to working with all of you for better district seven. Thank you. Thank you very much. Candidates for your introduction. We'll start now with the questions regarding RC, important topics. Obviously. And we will end with a district seven related question. After that, we will conclude with a two minute closing statements from each of you. I remind you we have a bit more or less one minute and 30 seconds to answer. And obviously you will have a timer reminding you when 30 seconds are left. We will start with Enrique Valdivia with the first question. Mr. Valdivia, San Antonio has an established console manager formed by the government. Would you support Cheryl Scully as a currency manager? I think Cheryl Scully has done a good job. I have some criticisms of some of the things that have happened under her watch, but her record is overall very positive. She's left the city doing a triple A bond rating. One concern I have about her performance, an example I can give is this whole controversy over moving the dirt from the construction site downtown over to the food bank. Apparently that there was some concerns about whether that dirt was contaminated. And there really wasn't very good or any communication with a lot of officials in the city before that decision was made. Fortunately, it looks like there was no harm done. I'm concerned about the culture she's promoted at the staff level and would like to see going forward more better communication with the elected officials who are really supposed to be in charge in front of the city. Thank you very much. We'll continue with Maria Valdivia. How would you approach the relationship with Cheryl Scully? Well, I was the interim councilwoman during the city budget process in August to October. And I have a very good relationship with Cheryl. I worked hard on building that. I think it's really important to have healthy, collaborative conversations with city staff. I think it's actually the most important job a council member can do is to promote a healthy relationship with staff. It helps the district, frankly. So I really want to focus on continuing to build that. I think that there's no doubt that Cheryl has been an outstanding city manager. She's evenly talked about nationally as one of the best city managers in the nation. So we're lucky to have a talent like that. And talent isn't always perfect. But I believe that metrics that we can all agree to, including with Cheryl's feedback about her performance ongoing, I think are important conversations. I look forward to having a positive, healthy relationship with her on council. I just think that that benefits the entire city. In particular, I think it benefits our district as we head into things like the next budget cycle and into the next bond. Thank you very much. Is that okay? How does your approach, your relationship with Cheryl Scott? Cheryl has done an outstanding job, particularly with the arenas of AAA credit rating. Obviously, AAA credit rating for us means reduced interest rates. It does not mean that AAA credit rating does anything else for us, especially when it gets us into debt. But we'll talk about that later. When we address the issues of the performance of the city manager, she's done a good job. Yes, there's some issues on the timing of the negotiations of the police and fire. Obviously, that's been a question that's been made of a political tool. However, you do not establish a performance or an evaluation on a person on one issue. Since she's done well, I believe that we can work together. I think that we have business minds and it can easily work together for a good time. Okay, same with the topic. Is the council manager for government, is that best for San Antonio? Well, the people think so. I think when it was, we had the other option, but the people of San Antonio decided that we needed separate and independent representation. I like our system. Our system allows our district to be able to voice their specific concerns to the council. And of course, the issue becomes whether the council addresses those issues. And we've been lacking leadership. I present the type of leadership that will exercise the performance and the documentation and the implementation by IT for all the particular issues that we may have in the district and be able to account for each one and answer to each one. We do have several other key elements, I think, that will strengthen the district by making those changes. I bring a change to the district. Maria Gayley, same question. Do you believe the council will manage the form of government? That's the best for San Antonio. This is a fun, wonky kind of question, because you're starting to talk about political theory, which I think is always interesting. And we don't get a chance to talk about political theory too much. So anytime the door opens a little bit, I get a little excited. That's the geek in me. But I think that these are pieces where you start to think about what do other big cities do? How long has this worked for us? Why does it work? Why doesn't it work? I would argue that I think it works really well. I love the idea that there's a council district and it represented of your area of your life. For me in particular, I pretty much lived in districts that had my entire San Antonio life. So I'm very familiar with it. I've been eating at the same restaurant for a million years, my dad says. And so when you think about that, it feels like home and you can represent your home so well. The other thing that I think is really elegant about this is that it allows you to think about the city holistically. And so I think that that is something that's so beautiful about our city government is that not only do we get to go deep into the issues into our district, but we get to also talk about the issues that face our entire city. Things like impact fees, things that matter to the business community. That allows us to be the voice of reason for really everyone. I mean that really, what an honor and what a special way to govern and lead our city. I think that's what's so unique about San Antonio is that it brings us all together as one big body from diverse pieces of your background. Thank you very much. It's about you. I think the recent history of kind of tension between city manager and council shows that we have some growing gains going on with the current government. And that's for the two. I mean we used to have shorter term limits for city council. They were limited to two year terms. That's been changed before, two year terms. So hopefully going forward there'll be more stability on council. I think the friction has been due to the fact that city manager is there for some time and council can come and go and they're on a sort of a two year cycle considering, well gee, I just got elected and before long I had to worry about getting re-elected in all this. So they're in different mindsets while doing the city's business. And I think that's been a problem. I think that it's not insoluble, but it's something that has made our local government less efficient and given perhaps more power to the city manager than was originally intended. I think going forward we'll see what happens with the proposal for council pay. I think that may help and expand the pool of candidates of people who actually try to run for city office. And we'll see. I think it's a work in progress. I think it's a good model. But I think we have room for improvement as well. Okay. Well, going on that subject on city pay, one city charter proposal for San Antonio actually to decide in May for the voters, whether it's city council members should be paid for the service. Do you support city council members? Yes, I do. And I'll point out we do get paid very little currently, but it's not totally volunteer work. But I do think, I'll just point out I announced my candidacy before the city pay issue was put to the ballot. So it wasn't a factor in my decision to run. But I do think it's a good move because for a city the size of San Antonio we really do need to have the best people running for office that we can. And I think one way to do that would be to increase the compensation to council because a lot is expected of us, of the council people, not just in terms of being there, day-to-day running of the government and the committee meetings and so forth. But constituent services just can be overwhelming and you really do a good job. I think it helps to be paid, helps to motivate people. But I think also maybe more importantly it'll expand the pool of talent I think that the city will be able to draw on and I think we'll have a better government hopefully as a result. Thank you. Would you support the pay structure? My plan to vote for it myself as a voter not really factoring my own candidacy into that but really just saying that I think going forth it makes sense to reward talent. I mean I've been part of organizations that think about their talent in ways where you enrich them and support them. We have to think about our council members in the exact same way. I mean their talent who decided to do something pretty great step forward to represent our city. I think I've been reading a lot about the campaign that's going on and one of the things that's astonishing to me is when you think about the actual dollar amount that it's going to take to pay council members for one year in a budget cycle I read something astonishing that David McGee actually said at the former chair of the chamber that it was equal to the cost of replacing trash cans for a year. I mean when you really think about that, that's almost insane that we can actually afford this. It's so affordable for us. And thinking about it in such a tangible way makes sense. We can do this and I think our city should do this. I think it's been a long time coming. I'm glad that we've worked on terminal events. I was there when Mayor Hartberger worked on that and now I'm glad that we have a group of concerned citizens who are coming together to work for this charter. And when you think about the charter, it is a single but some important document, legal document our city has. I mean it really, it's a revered piece of information almost like the constitution. It's our city's constitution. I think it relates to this are very sacred but this is the time to make the change. I really believe the city is in the moment to make drastic changes for leadership and one of them is the way we invest in our city leaders. Thank you very much. I personally, I particularly, I have worked for about 20 years to be able to establish my own estate and with my wife to be able to accept the $20 and have food on the table. But particularly for the exercise of leadership, is it a good idea? Hypothetically, yes, it's a good idea. You will draw a more qualified pool of candidates to perform and also it might fan out the situation of part-time provision which is an issue. If you have a 60-hour requirement for city council and you only perform 20 hours a week because you have other obligations it's just going to create a problem for our district. When city manager was asked concerning this would there be sufficient funds? That's my question. Is it going to create additional debt for our city? And basically what the answer was there's sufficient funds within each district fund and accounts of what's going to happen is particularly the funds that have been allocated towards the district are going to shrink and therefore is that going to affect the constituents and therefore it's something that we really need to consider. So would you say each council person for each district should be paid differently or all kinds of councils should be paid the same? Well truly I don't favor debt. I like to see us get out of debt as a city. When we continue to hear and continue to speak about additional funds I don't want to really encroach on additional debt. We need to become a class A city by being able to represent a debtless city and then go forward from there. There has to be a stopping point at some point and then be able to regress and then we can move forward. We'll move on to a somewhat controversial topic and we would like to hear what your thoughts are on San Antonio is committed to investing as you know a significant amount of money to funding the 142 mile based outreach pipeline with the intention of expanding our water supply and securing additional water supply to the city. A city council member would you support this project and other projects to increase our water capacity? Well I was on council when we began the public process for listening about this project and I met personally with the CEO of SAWS I had a list of 24 questions that I had been advised by a group of water activists in my district to ask and to gather information about and so I was in the process of getting those when I departed the city council on October 10th so I wasn't able to get the closed loop on everything that I needed which was really troubling to me personally because I just wanted to get those answers and I just as a constituent I wanted to learn about the funders, about lots of different things on how this was going to work I really wanted to understand the back end of this bridge and so it's hard for me because I didn't get the background information that I thought was no so necessary for me to make an informed decision the council members were able to make those deep briefings I was troubled by the fact that only one council member really articulated some serious concern on the actual dice and asked some thorough questions particularly about the effect to rate payers and that to me is the most troubling is the idea that we have a 17% increase what is the impact to rate payers on a daily basis and that was really concerning as I'm walking and meeting people out in the community who are concerned with paying their bills every single day so anytime that we have implications to people's rates I think there's a big challenge here with that said I think we also have to think about the future though of our water and the importance that is to our business community and to others so water is a single important we can't grow without it I mean there's no way we can grow without this so with all that said I mean I do think I would have supported it but I did need more information to make a better and more informed decision Mr. Rodriguez in question would you have to support this project? To be honest I opposed Mr. Ridge or council voted on it I thought and I still think it is too expensive too much to pay or water we don't need right now but as you know given that it's past and it was unanimous and to exit the contract would cost the city millions of dollars I think as councilmen I would have to work to make the project work and benefit the city and the community would be getting the water from so I would be emphasizing as councilmen a good stewardship of that resource I want to be sure that we manage it well and that the community in Burlinson County that their wells don't flow dry that they don't feel that their surface water or their streams are being dried up as a result of our demand on their resource promote goodwill with them and also to be sure that we don't use this resource to lead us into the temptation of not conserving water anymore we have a tremendous record in conservation I think we need to stick to that we also have to be careful about spurring development where we don't need it on the recharge zone so I think we need to be very mindful that we do not allow this pipeline project to lead us into decisions we later regret thank you very much I have followed the Burlinson County pipeline project for quite a while water to me is more important than oil why do we produce oil in the city of San Antonio so water is important obviously when first looking at the issues I was already aware of the fact that SAWS had a plan for the first five years and this was about two years ago that they had a plan to increase our water rates 5% to 7% all the way up to 29% in a five year period so I was looking at the Burlinson County Valley Bridge pipeline as what is that going to do to us so I was very hesitant about just looking at the details but what became very important to me was the fact that there was conversation that was developed that there would be a surplus created of water now that became interesting because the surplus of water can then be sold and therefore it becomes something very important to me concerning our issue in water because if we can settle it to the point they're reducing our customers our constituents save on their water bill yes I'm interested there is one concern however the SAWS program to let them know about the Mr. Ridge pipeline I don't think was handled very well with 80 meetings passing out flyers was not dialogue so we have issues and questions that people still have on that issue needs to be resolved so would you propose selling the surplus of water absolutely if it creates a situation to reduce our costs to reduce our water bills yes absolutely and that's my hope it is my almost my dream that if that were to happen there will be other cities around us which will demand water and specifically speaking I have some property on spring branch that dried up three times in the last two years so I know that that problem is coming we need to plan for it and be ready for it but not at the coattails of our constituents and driving the price up on that water bill they will let you hear your thoughts on being a water reseller I think being a water reseller is and I've shared this with the CEO of SAWS I think it's an interesting proposition I think anytime you can resell a product for profit it becomes very interesting being a businesswoman myself I always get interested in what I think about propositions like that I do think though that we're not in the business of doing that that's going to require infrastructure needs that I'm not sure we really understand the implications of yet I definitely do not and I'd like to understand it a little bit more about what are the implications the cost implications to SAWS and to our repairs immediately to become a reseller and then what would be the long term on that would we be able to cut down the cost to repairs because we're making a profit from this water reselling I mean I want to make sure that that also is a public process and Fred brought up the public process because that was one point I feel like I didn't make well earlier today is to say I was really concerned by how fast the process went I mean it really moved so quickly I didn't feel as though people had a proper opportunity to ask the questions including myself of everyone and I think that that's actually a big underlying issue that I have a lot of frustration with myself as a constituent is a lot of the things that go on today happen really quickly there's not an opportunity for community dialogue there's not an opportunity for feedback loop it just happens and it's done and I think that that's a lack of leadership I really that is very troubling to me and I want to make sure that that to me that would be one of the most important things I would bring is an immediate dialogue and conversation back and forth thank you very much I just want to make sure that they can listen to me enough now with the mic so they're better okay well the same with the surplus of water I want to ask you the same thing would you think it would be a better idea to resell the surplus just keep it for future planning pretend to well given the cost of this to reach project is going to be tremendous pressure to resell I think that's part of the plan it's kind of bridged from where we are now to the point where we're at San Antonio actually needing and using the water and that leads to the concern I expressed earlier is that if we're in the business of reselling water obviously that water is going to be sold to somebody and my concern is that we'll be spurring development in sensitive areas that may affect our long term water supply issues and right now there's Proposition 1 and 2 on the ballot may night offer protection program and we know that it's important to preserve and protect the recharge zone we don't and what that means is that we don't allow runaway development in certain areas because we know that that affects our water supply similarly if we're engaged in reselling water and spurring development over recharge zone areas that's actually a self-defeating proposition we are endangering the very supply that's secured and I just point out that groundwater, the Edwards groundwater is going to be the cornerstone of San Antonio's water supply far into the future but far the cheapest, most accessible water we have this reg pipeline is a very long term plan and it's much more expensive and it will never be a long time for it's really competitive with Edwards water okay thank you very much we've gone through a different subject also controversial fire and police the city's public safety functions are supported as you know by the city's general fund this fund also supports other key functions such as libraries, parks street repairs and code enforcement alone the public safety departments constitute the largest general fund expenditures in the city's budget which has resulted in fewer funds being available for other city needs do you support the city's negotiations to reduce police and fire department benefits that will limit those expenditures to no more than 66% of our city's budget my dear I do support that I visited with a voter yesterday who wanted to know my opinion about holding the law that 66% and I probably told him that that was something I deeply believed in and thought was important for the growing needs of our city you know I'm married to Marine reservists so I understand the challenges implied of first responders and I believe we should give them everything we can afford everything we can but not more than we can afford I think that that is something that's significant I think that I think even they understand that I think that our first responders understand that and I think that there's going to be incredible movement on this in the next 30 to 45 days I think we're going to get back to the table and make some changes happen that will help our city because the other thing that citizens are challenged by every day is losing their homes because of poor drainage the lack of sidewalks for kids to walk to elementary schools and really streets that are almost uninhabitable things that are just challenged the lack of code compliance animal control the list goes on and on we can afford everything and we have to make tough decisions and that's where I think leadership comes in is you have to be able to have a very strong stomach and the light of these really difficult conversations is to say we're going to do the right thing for the future of our city because I don't know about you but I've got two kids under the age of two years old and I worry about what the city looks like in 20 years for them so it makes making tough decisions today so that we can think about the future for our kids Thank you. Do you support the city's negotiation? Yes I do Obviously holding a line on debt is very important to me I think that the way the negotiations have been handled could have been done a little bit better there have been situations there that have compromised the city's city's position where in some cases there and how things have happened and developed has caused issues more than solved the issues of the police and fire I interview particularly with the police and the fire and the city manager on this subject I wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to be saying something or hearing something that wasn't going to be true because these are our neighbors these are our police and fire we live with them we go to church with them these are our friends they're also our employees so we have to handle it delicately however and in the midst of these negotiations obviously the constituents of district 7 all feel that holding the line is important that the particulars on the pension is going well the labor or wages is also going well but the health care isn't and on the health care there are a huge number of constituents that are really favoring 100% of the health care for the police and fire but holding the line on a percentage towards their spouses or family thank you very much Mr. Wathige, same topic and if I'm fortunate enough to become councilman I would certainly support the city's position and the negotiations but I think that it's important to remember what we're talking about the collective bargaining process and I think that if I'm not on the team if I'm not at the table I need to back up the folks that are at the table on my behalf so I think it would be very important to support the negotiating team's position and allow them free hand and getting to a deal which is what ultimately we hope to accomplish here to have a collective bargaining agreement which would be a compromise position and be supported both by council and the union membership that's the goal here unfortunately I think the process has been politicized it's been played out in the media instead of the negotiating table and really the whole community suffered as a result I think that public safety and well no public safety is the number one priority for local government and we should be able to keep that under our budget threshold the problem is that other factories have come into play and we've taken our eye out of the ball which was really to engage in constructive collective bargaining negotiations and I personally think that that's the best vehicle to resolve this dispute and I'm confident that once we get back to the table that that's what we'll have a good deal for the city and for the police and file thank you very much I'm from the San Antonio's vehicle sports, we're one professional team, being the San Antonio's first today actually the Alamedon sold out for a friendly match between the United States and Mexico on that regard would you support spending taxpayer dollars to promote the recruitment and relocation of a professional football or soccer team promote the expense of constituents money I had a constituent and I knocked on the door and he said, you know what, I'm tired of other people spending our money right off the bat. And even if I favor the sports and favor that issue, I will favor, firstly, the concerns of the district and the people in this city. Is it a good thing to have as a sports complex and sports team? Absolutely. Will it revenue generate? That just depends on who's in charge. Will it generate revenue for the city of San Antonio? That's to be seen. So will I support it? There's a lot of questions that I would have first before I would favor any additional expense and debt. If anything is going to increase our taxes, obviously I'm going to have a difficult time with it. Well, I got a couple of briefings when I was in our council woman on the Raiders deal. I tried not to get swept up into the hysteria of people, but I think it's interesting. You know, I don't know to be honest what the best decision is on bringing a sports team to San Antonio. I'll tell you today, I don't find that as compelling as recruiting and retaining growing businesses, bringing new entrepreneurs to San Antonio, attracting technology leaders from Austin to relocate to San. Those are the kinds of things I'm passionate about. I'm passionate about growing the economic base in San Antonio in ways that's innovative and transformative for all of us. That to me sounds exciting. Well, at least it sounds as exciting as a football game for me. But that's just what you know me talking. You know, there's no doubt the spurs are an economic impact. There's no doubt that they're powerful. There's no doubt they bring our city together. I don't know that we need another spurs. I'm just not sure. I think that it's a worthy conversation. It's a worthy debate that all of us should be at the table having a conversation about, including citizens of District 7 and every district should have that conversation too. And I wouldn't make that kind of a decision without getting some feedback from my constituents. But as of today, you know, I'm just not sure. I think it's worth a good debate. But I'm far more interested in growing and retaining the businesses that we have in San Antonio and seeing, you know, what we can do to make sure they're even more successful and more supportive of our economies. Okay. The debate we're having today, so let's continue on the topic. So, Lativia, would you think another sports team, wouldn't that put San Antonio on the map even more? Well, something you said earlier fascinated me. I, you know, I'm a huge soccer fan. And I think the possibility, you know, if you brought something with an international aspect to it, you know, would be very appealing to me personally. But I guess I'd need to know more about the details about how much money we're proposing to spend. Is there a realistic possibility of bringing a team? I know this is something that's been, we've been aspiring to for a long time over since the Almondome has been built, you know, and what we have to show for it. The team's going to, we build it and the team will show up and that hasn't happened. So I think clearly we need to think about that and see if we can make it happen, and have it be an appealing home to some franchise. Me personally, I would love to see international soccer in San Antonio. I think that would be wonderful. I think it would really expand. It would be the kind of thing that would bring, make San Antonio an international city, which would be, I don't know, just very appealing to me and very exciting. But having said that, it needs, you know, there's one, there's the dream and there's the reality. I'd like to take a hard look at what the reality is and how likely it is we'd be able to fill that dream. Thank you very much. We'll continue with economic impact to San Antonio. It's a city, obviously that continues to grow at a high pace, record pace actually, as a result of business and job creation. Do you believe that tax incentives provided by the city should be used to attract prospective companies? I think we need to be careful about how we structure incentives for businesses, because my feeling is that oftentimes we're paying people to make decisions that they would do otherwise, that they would do anyway. And so, you know, and I've also been involved in issues, you know, where people are suspicious of their tax dollars going to business and a corporate welfare idea and have been bandied about and have drawn a lot of criticism. With that said, I think that it would depend on the circumstances of the business coming in and do they really need the incentives and if we look at what the consequences of providing them with those incentives would be. I'm also concerned about, for example, tax increment financing, that kind of vehicle, which is really intended to benefit economically distressed areas. We've seen that used, I think, in ways that it wasn't originally intended. So I think that when we do come up with an incentive structure, I want to be sure that it's being used in a way that was originally intended and that the benefits are being shared equally across the board and not just benefiting one particular sector of our community. Thanks very much. Now we're talking about the fun stuff. These were the briefings that I actually got very excited and was very engaged in when we would have these behind the door briefings, the executive session briefings. Tax incentives, I'm not sure, I don't want to speak for the group, but I might be the only one in this group who's actually been part of a tax incentive discussion. I was part of the Rackspace team when we relocated from the Medical Center to Wincrest. And so we had negotiations with both the city of Wincrest, the city of San Antonio, the county and the state of Texas. And I'll tell you firsthand, those incentives made the difference in Rackspace staying in San Antonio. I don't know that anybody really understands that we were very much being wooed by other states. We had fantastic campuses all throughout the nation that we went and looked at. We lieutenant governors flying as to places to look at sites to validate them to make sure that they were fit. I mean, it was really serious. And I'll tell you, the incentives that we got from the state of Texas and from the entire city made an incredible change for our decision-making skills as it pertained to staying in San Antonio. And I think there's no doubt you could argue that a company the size of Rackspace has absolutely changed the landscape of San Antonio, not just the business community, but the IT community forever. Thinking about the things that they produced like Geekdom, other things like Techstars, all kind of the entrepreneurial base of San Antonio has changed forever. Because of one incentive that we made that, you know, you could argue, what's the impact of that? Is it adding to our debt? The ROI on it, there was no doubt to me that that's transformative. And I think you could make that argument for lots of other organizations in town that have been transformed by incentives in a positive way. Thank you. Can you sit right here? I am a small businessman, and you learn that if you don't invest, there's no return. So obviously, there has to be a form of investment where their tax incentives is the only way. I served on the South Texas Business Fund as one of the council appointments for about two and a half years as a trustee public official, if you will. And during that time, we were able to work with several small businesses that had difficulty creating new locations. And one of the things that was the requirement was that if you failed at having created a capital loan, then the South Texas Business Fund, which was initially funded by the city of San Antonio, later repaid and is now performing without any city help. And we were able to help companies like Los Barrios and Maldonal Nursery and now have expanded to their even other locations, which is fantastic. I do favor incentives, not necessarily just tax incentives as we continue to bring them at every election, but there are other ways that we can also perform. My biggest concern is what we can do for our district. Can we create jobs in our district? Can we create a form of chamber even in our district? Because I'm after also business development, specifically in the district, and then yes, consider others throughout the city. Speaking of keeping businesses in San Antonio and promoting new businesses to San Antonio, Overnive decided not to continue operations in San Antonio because of regulations established by the city. Do you think the city council managed that well? I'm sorry, ask the question again? Overnive companies decided not to continue operations in San Antonio because of regulations established by the city. Do you believe the city managed that well? Absolutely not. There was a rashness about the process again. As it was in the Valley Ridge pipeline project, there was a rashness, there was a quickness to respond without, and you know what, the city did not respond very well there. The way they reacted even after a few weeks, and then of course when it became politicized, Mayor decided to run and it seemed to be a whole different story. When those things happened, the people of our city grow less and less fond of the leadership because obviously the concern has to be the constituents. The Uber and Lyft proposals, in my opinion, as long as the conditions of the insurance and the liability requirements were being met equally and standardly across all other areas such as what we have existing, then yes, absolutely we should support it. When and if it wasn't something that they expected, I just think that the security, the safety of the constituents has to be prime. We must know that if there are any liability issues concerning any accidents or something that would have to them, that they are well taken care of. I hear you. Well, now you're really getting me going, Alex. So Uber and Lyft is actually the way that that was handled publicly was what motivated me to jump into this race. It was handled from a public perspective so poorly, it's really not even laughable. I just feel like there was a complete lack of leadership on the entire issue from the very get go. Uber and Lyft, though, are symbols of micro entrepreneurs. This is a changing economy and I don't even think that we understand that regulation in this space is very, it could be very catastrophic, it could be ending for these micro entrepreneurs, it's a way for people to build our economies but also build their own. And anything that we do that regulates this, we have to be very careful. And what I really mean by that is that companies like Uber and Lyft, those are just the tip of the iceberg. There are many others. There's Washio, there's Fetch, I mean the list goes on in New York City, you can get ranging from about 75 to 100 companies who will do micro-entrepreneurism type tasks for you. That's the kind of city that I want San Antonio to grow into and when you think about the fact that we couldn't even handle a basic transportation regulation, it's really troubling and I was very personally involved actually in this process. I was asked to appoint the TNCs to that committee that worked on all of these ordinances and so I was really disappointed that in many ways they felt like they weren't listened to. Now there's no doubt that safety has to be the number one issue and in particular I think the sticking point is the background checks. We're really fighting about who's got the most thorough process. I think that little fights like that don't do our city any justice. This is the opportunity for us to position our city on the rise and anything we do that's disruptive in that sense just doesn't help us at all. Thank you very much. So Lativia, do you think we're sending the wrong signal to any businesses that want to come to San Antonio? I don't know, but it certainly didn't look good and I don't think... No one here is defending what the city did. I think it's hard to do that because it really made us look chaotic and we don't know what we're doing and I think that's unfortunate and for business seeking to relocate here particularly as providing transportation services and you really got to wonder I would imagine they would think twice before moving here. That said, I think that what I would propose would be that you need to have uniform rules mainly the struggles between the taxi companies and the UberLib so-called rideshare companies and the question was should there be a different set of rules between the two? I think there shouldn't be. I think it would probably hopefully satisfy the taxi lobby to have the uniforms that are ruled perhaps deregulate them down to the level that UberLib will find satisfactory and that way we would have a win-win situation. I don't know if politically we're there yet but that's what I would propose if I were on council. Personally, I think it would be great to have them come back to town and I hope that they do that. I think that there's a lesson here that I've learned that there's an amazingly complex that regulations out there regulating commercial carriers and maybe we need to revisit that and modernize that. Thank you very much. We will change topic here. Speaking about the animal, as you know, historical trying for San Antonio State and also our nation. As a member of the city council, would you support the funding and actions necessary to restore the current site and more accurately reflect its original configuration? The Alamo is a nice reference. I think anything that we can do to restore its original historical footprint is a very important next step. I think the Alamo advisory committee is doing some really good work. They're listening. That's the first important step. They're moving slow, which is encouraging me. Usually I like to move really fast but this is one situation where I actually think we need to take our time. We've had lots of changes as it comes to the Alamo. I'm really glad that one of our own chamber leaders, Becky Bridges-Dedin, is now serving as the leader of the Alamo and I'm really encouraged by that. That says a lot that one of San Antonio's own leaders is playing such a pivotal role. I'm really interested to see what the master plan looks like going forth and I'm also interested to see the professional management contract and process looks like. What kind of RFP process that looks like? What kind of folks respond to that request? I want to make sure it's someone who understands the reverence and the historical implications of the Alamo into our city. I'm really curious. I think it's in a really fact-finding moment of its life. I think we'll look back and say this was the turning point for the Alamo. The artifacts, the management, the planning, we took the time to do it right. It deserves that. I think that at this point we'll be out of that we took the time to do it the way it should be done. Thank you very much. There are seasons. As seasons change, you need to address obviously different issues. We have one of responsibility to take care of a national not just the city of San Antonio. It is important to take care of it. It is important to... There's two questions that you had in one. It is important that we that we do monitor its progress, its protection, its maintenance, its growth pattern. But to... Your question was to restore to original. The restoration of the outer wall would mean that the Jasky program would have to be erased. And obviously there's other buildings and main hotels and things with the outer wall because the archives as shown to me by Leticia Vasek showed us the wall and where that wall is it's a fairly large perimeter wall. So to original standing would be difficult if you meant the entire time. But I do favor taking responsibility over. I do also favor to inform a committee to be able to receive grants from a federal government where it does take care of national parks, historic landmarks, and locations. Thank you very much. And Mr. Bavivia, more specifically would you support the necessary property and business acquisition to complete such construction? I would have some concern. I mean, I think so, but it's a beautiful idea. But I have some concerns about how much public support there really would be for a project like that once it's known what it means in terms of what would have to be removed and how much it would cost and so on. So I think it's a beautiful idea that should be proposed and move forward. But I think we really need to do a lot of engagement with the public to be sure that the public's with us on this because there are going to be some very difficult decisions that have to be made if we're really going to do this in the manner that's proposed. Costs will be a huge issue. What's going to have to go and what's going to have to come in and the traffic patterns and all these things are the things that any one of which can touch off a huge controversy. And I'm really concerned that we get ahead of ourselves and excitement about the idea because it is such a fascinating concept that we get ahead of ourselves and ahead of public opinion. I think all too often in San Antonio that happens and then what we've been a good idea, a good project bangles for lack of public support. So that would be my first priority is get the public support for something like this started now and have it informed the public of what this would mean. Let's talk about traffic major issues in San Antonio obviously a critical one for our economy there are multiple solutions needed to address it. Do you support the use of managed toll links as one of these transportation solutions for traffic congestion? I would only support a toll program if the cost of those projects were not from the constituents if a private industry wants to pay for a creation of a brand new toll absolutely before however to consider any existing roads to be used for toll conditions absolutely not we're not going to be double taxed to pay for something that's already been paid so there have been proponents on that particular issue on toll roads absolutely there are some plans to unfold I would not favor taking existing roads and conditions to be able to turn them into toll roads I would favor however that if private industry would create new roads then at that point it would become very simple and simple Maria your major cities, big cities Houston, Dallas and other cities would this be an option for Samsung? even Waco by the way Stunning, I tell you Waco is even now having toll I use the toll in Austin actually a good amount it helps me circumvent the tier of Austin traffic and I think it's an interesting concept tolls is a space that frankly I'm going to give you another answer I need to learn a little bit more about that before I give what would the congestion be like while we're building a toll road this is a lot to consider I arguably think that the transportation conversation is one of the largest conversations that we're not having well today frankly we're just really not having in my district in particular if you go Bandira Road we did it just the other day we went on a Saturday at 5 o'clock it took us 42 minutes to get from 410 from my house all the way to 16 or 4 I mean so when you talk about the challenges of Bandira Road I think for me it's not just about toll roads it's about what are the transformative and innovative ways people across America are addressing all of their transportation loads there's backwards forward streets there's all kinds of innovative ideas that the TCI department for the city has been looking at and I think it's time to try some of those innovative ways to fix some of our problems maybe we can fix some of our problems maybe it's reusing the roads we have but using them in new and innovative approaches I'm not sure yet, I think that those are things that we have to research and learn a little bit more about No, I don't support toll roads and my record my background is pretty clear for those who follow this I've been involved in litigation with opt for guardians to prevent the tolling of highway 281 from an environmental standpoint we were against it because basically of tolling 281 we doubled the footprint of that project we were concerned with the environmental impacts of the project through the recharge zone and the effects that that would have on our water supply long term so there's that kind of particular circumstance but tolling generally too I think the jury is still out as to whether that's an effective financing mechanism in the long term we've seen around the country tolling authorities going bankrupt it's not the panacea that it's made out to be and I think we need to be very careful when we think oh, this is the solution to our problems to our transportation problems because I don't think there's that out I recognize that it's important to have the infrastructure in place for transportation if people are very frustrated getting around town but tolling is not the answer to that that's the answer for those who are wanting to pay the toll but not for the rest of us thank you very much it's time now for our history related question actually we're going to stay on the topic of traffic and congestion in the area of 151 and 410 right now there's infrastructure occurring in that community I live in district 7 as well so I would like to know how would you control the highway congestion in this area these are things so I went to college in DC I went to George Washington the transportation solutions were so elegant the use of roundabouts the use of the metro the use of backwards, forwards, lanes it was so it changed me going to a city where transportation is thought about so differently and bravely I think really taught me to come back and think about the way we use our public transportation system even things like Uber and Lyft factor into congestion via factors into congestion all of this this is a larger transportation issue it's not sexy people don't like to have the transportation conversation I actually think that this is the two issues I'm going to get really passionate about is transportation and technology I think in many ways they're tied together and I think the transportation could be it might raise a morale in our city tremendously to just attack that issue with lots of passion and fever but also lots of commitment to do really great things and I think that this is the issue where we're going to have to engage business leaders we're going to have to engage residents we're going to have to engage transportation advocates and experts this is the kind of conversation I would personally like to spend some time some money on and really do the things that we haven't done when you think about the master plan of this city and what we're going to grow in size in the next 20 years we're going to grow in size in the next 5 years if we don't get ahead of this we will be challenged for the next 20 years and I'll be talking about Bandera Road when I'm 65 the thought of doing that makes me want to cry so we've got to do this now this is the moment Bandera Road, major issue I know the intersection of Bandera 410 was declared as one of the busiest intersections in the city of San Antonio and what's happening is obviously the 151 now 410 is beginning to accept some of that because of the growth in the Alamo Ranch area the Alamo Ranch area has grown for well over 200,000 homes as I understand and if you multiply that by a factor of even 1.3 you'll know that the population right outside of 151 Alamo Ranch is obviously the next target of the city of San Antonio for annexation obviously there needs to be addressing issues and we do have I believe where you can't handle it through the text on programming that obviously there's other things that you can do such as for instance expanding our bus transportation system the primo program for instance right now happens to work in one of the areas of District 7 the Deco District leading up into the medical center we can develop other plans that have been affected within our budget continuing to also match the line but be able to free up some of the traffic congestion that has been happening and growing in that area Thank you very much There's a real question whether you can build your way out of a traffic problem and I think the answer to that is you probably can't the reason is that it's not just expanding the traffic infrastructure that needs to happen that also needs to happen that you have to have a sense of what the growth is what growth is happening as well and as Fred pointed out we could increase the capacity of our roads Bandera or 151 but there's already been development happening that's increased the load to whatever traffic corridors we build so once we finish construction we'll be facing congestion all from the get-go I think that we need to rethink our philosophy towards growth and be smarter about how we grow as a city that's really going to be the only way that we can address organically the the stress on our natural resources and all the things that affect our quality like our air quality they're all integrated and they're all interact with each other and they really relate to the way the city grows and if we're growing in a way that's causing problems for us I think we really need to rethink how we do that, how we grow thank you very much well candidates thank you so much it's time for relax we'll continue with our closing statements I'll remind you we have two minutes for closing statements we previously chose the board in which we will go about the closing statements and we'll start with mine thank you thanks Alex for moderating a good conversation between candidates these are the reasons why I wanted to run for office is to have community conversations like this it really I hope in the process that it's a fair one that it's a transparent one that it's a hopeful one it makes me feel hopeful for the future of our city I think we'll look back just like I said about the Alamo movement but I actually feel like that about the city I think we'll look back and see this election as one of the most transformative elections in San Antonio's history I worry the turnout will be very low which makes me sad but it also encourages me that the people who do vote who do the power of the vote and what change the Senate to me expressly has endorsed me I'm the only challenger they've endorsed so far they've endorsed every other incumbent and I think that says a lot and the headline was it's time for change in District 7 I couldn't agree more this is the moment to make the kinds of changes that we must make to have the kind of leadership that we need at City Hall it looks like we'll have some sort of a change in the mayor we're not sure what that's going to look like but I think there'll be changes and I think the change is positive if it's managed well, if it's led well and I hope to bring that kind of positive change to City Hall I'm really hopeful I said earlier how the Uber and Lyft conversation really made me jump into the fray but people don't realize that I had a 2 month old child at that time and I also had 19 month old child at that time so I was very busy and I'm still very busy running my business being a mom, being a wife and I'm willing to put every single thing I have on the line to make this work because our city is worth it, our district is worth it I think this is the moment to make the kind of change in the investments that we have to make for the growth of our city and if you value our city like I do you're going to make that change this is the moment to do it Thank you very much Thank you Alice and I want to thank the Chamber for their support I've been on the UberDot for authority that came out and supported us in our Habitat Conservation Plan and that was critical to us moving forward I think we've had a tremendous success in managing that resource in the time of extreme drought and it just goes to show what we can accomplish when we come together and work together I also want to emphasize that I've thought many times I've been at odds with the Chamber that we have found common ground with the efforts to pass Proposition 6 establishing the State Water Implementation Fund the SWIFT Fund and joining with the Chamber in that effort the Chamber is also supporting Proposition 1 and 2 for renewing the Office Protection Program and funding for linear parks I support that as well I am running to provide new leadership that's accessible and responsible to the constituents and voters of District 7 I am an active listener I will seek out your input everyone that voters the Chamber as well I'm a consistent filter and I will work with you regardless of our differences I come from a very different background from the typical business person but I respect what business has brought to this city and what they can do to fulfill our dreams for this city to make this a truly prosperous place I want to be a good steward of our natural resources and our financial resources I want to work with you to make San Antonio prosperous and that that prosperity will be shared by all everyone in San Antonio thank you very much the exercise of leadership is one of the main reasons that I entered this race you have people in leadership that either have the experience and the determination to get things done we've not had that for a few years what I present is obviously a 60 years adversity tested experience when and when I say that I have attempted at goals that have been large and some of them have been very small however that's adversity tested and obviously our district needs and wants stronger leadership that being said what I present to the table is precisely that in a leadership that I have no particular connections to any politicals or any strings attached to me when we see that the needs of the district are being taken care of that will be my priority when the constituents are constantly telling me that over and over we have consistent problems the calls of being returned I intend to change that I will be the change-changing and obviously it is because I have a heart for those who have been struggling and suffering over this time I bring a new wind and obviously in this new wind I will work with the constituents of the district I will find the ideas that fit the majority and find those ideas and tools to be able to inject into our city good programs, initiatives to be able to make the change not just for our district but for the entire city of San Antonio I'm number four on the slate but I will make the district constituents number one thank you for your time my name is David and have a great day thank you very much candidates, thank you very much for being here this morning it's very important for our community to hear from you, your vision for your district district 7 which is also my business so it's particularly important for me as well and your vision for the city of San Antonio now we will hear it back from the chamber to adjourns again thank you everybody for being here let's give our candidates a big hand