 But really, truly, while we're here today is to acknowledge that we have something we're moving into the future with, and it is the groundbreaking for the Judy Sousa Operations Building. And I have to say that I, obviously, being here for the last six years, I didn't get to start the history of back in the day, back in the 80s, when it was like, how do you put all this together and move us forward? It's taken us decades, honestly. I think of us as the little engine that could a little bit, because it's like, we just keep moving forward and we don't let anything get us down. Yes, it might take five years. Yes, it might take 10 years. I want to hand over the reins and have some other people talk about just their role in helping us move forward. United States Congressman, Sam Farr. Thank you very much, Lynn. I love being here, because this district has been a big pain in the ass for, but for all the right reasons. But this is the district with a personality. This is one that has its own appeal. It had so much appeal that it was able to go out and get a half-cent sales tax dedicated just to the transit. Most counties in California have gone out and done this sales tax for all kinds of transportation, but dedicated just to transit, Santa Cruz is unique. This district was loved. It was the first one that went out and developed and negotiated with the university saying, hey, we can get the students up and down that hill a lot better than a bunch of cars and we'll just incorporate in the student body card a transit pass. But you know what? What I remember so much about this district is the personalities. And Judy, Susie, was her person is so outgoing, so friendly, so charming, not only was she the first female bus driver, but she ended up being in charge of operations and having lost my mother to cancer, I am at a even younger age than Judy. I just know that Tony and the sons, Tony and Todd and the daughter, Tony, how difficult it is to lose your wife and your mom before her time. But I'm also so proud of this district that you're going to name the operations building on behalf of her. She's a pioneer woman and she deserves this dedication. This community deserves this district. You are the greatest small little bus district in the United States. And when we went into Congress and trying to get money, all we had to show was the ridership. We had to show we're better than Chicago, we're better than New York. So give us, we don't have the resources that those big cities do. We warrant some special attention. This is someone that we sit down with him, he listens and boy, does he really help us out. I mean, I can't tell you how many times in my role being on the transit district that we've had to sit down with our representative, Bill Monning, and he listens and if he's not able to do it in one form, he turns around and finds another way to help. So I would like to just offer my gratitude right now and introduce our assemblyman, Bill Monning. Everybody who's here today. This has been a collective effort, moving things forward. I particularly want to acknowledge Les White and his leadership of turning this vision into reality. Let's thank Les as the director who's led this effort so effectively. Public transit is front and center. The path we need to pursue, we need to rely upon, we need to build and popularize. And there's no other transit district in the state or the country, as Sam indicated, that has had that vision and success rate as the Santa Cruz transit projects here. But we're here today to recognize the establishment of the new operations center and doing so in the memory and the name of Judy Sosa. And it's so wonderful that so many of your family can be here today to participate in this recognition of Judy's leadership. Sam referred to her as a pioneer woman, starting as a driver and looking at her role as a driver and being a pioneer, leading the way for other women to see careers and recognizing the role of the drivers and the staff of this district and the union that represents them and the partnership that's been built among the workforce in being part of the vision of developing the future of the transit district and of the metro. So I would like to ask Tony to come forward and on behalf of the family accept this California state assembly resolution in recognition of Judy K. Sosa for her leadership and in recognition of the tribute to her legacy. Her legacy will live strong. It lives among everybody who knew her, who loved her, certainly her family. But now it will live strong in everyone in Santa Cruz County who takes advantage of the metro and has occasion to be served by the metro. So indeed, it's my great honor on behalf of the people of the state of California to present this resolution commemorating this tremendous achievement and most importantly, the legacy of Judy K. Sosa. Thank you. Yeah, she was very big on having potlucks here at work quarterly. So she was definitely a cement bun extraordinaire baker. It's not very often these days that I'm glad the mayor is not available but this is one of those few rare occasions that I was really glad the mayor was busy today and he sends his regrets and regards to the family. But there's three reasons for that. The first is as a director for the metro, one of the first things I did when I got on the board was try to familiarize myself with the transit district and lesson Mary took me through the operations building and from the perspective of the district, we really need a new operations building from the perspective of the drivers, we really need a new operations building. So this is very timely. The second from wearing my city hat and as a council member, this is going to bring at least 300 new jobs to our community, jobs that we really need. And those jobs are not just jobs that are going to be local jobs, but also anybody that comes to work here, my hope is that they're going to go to Rebecca's at the tannery and they're going to go over to Dave's Albuquerque and have some lunch and they're going to go eat at the Bachi cellar. So it's not just the jobs that it's bringing in but all the things that come with those jobs and it's so important to our community at this time. And then the third reason is as a woman who may not have ever met Judy, I didn't have the opportunity to do that but I'm wearing her bracelet today. And anybody who's a first in their field in an area where women are not typically expected to be in is of inspiration to everyone in this community. And let me tell the family that this morning, before I go to anything I tell my kids what I'm going to do during the day and what's going to happen. And I have a seven-year-old daughter and I said, I'm going to the groundbreaking and it's going to be named after Judy K. Sousa and she was the first female bus driver and my daughter looked at me and said, wow, we can do that? And I said, yeah, you can do that. You can do anything you want, honey. And if you want to be a bus driver, that's a great job and you can go and do that. And that's where your mom and your wife and Judy's still inspiring little girls in this community today. So although I didn't know or anyone that can make cinnamon rolls and loves Hawaii is a woman of my taste. So I just really want to thank everyone for being here today. Thank the family for sharing Judy with us, sharing her memory with us and to any of the potential neighbors that might be out in the audience. We appreciate your patience with this project. It really is important to our community and thank you to everyone and thank you for letting me say a few words. Good morning. It seems appropriate that we'd be holding this celebration and groundbreaking after the weekend in which we had the Metro picnic, the family reunion picnic. Although I didn't personally know Judy, I've lived in Santa Cruz for over 25 years and I knew of Judy. And everything I've heard since being involved with the Metro is that she considered the Metro part of her family and took care of so many people. And I've heard all the folks who've come forward had said that Judy helped advance them and help improve their careers by her work. So it seems appropriate that we had the family reunion picnic where we had so many people, both current employees and past employees come together and celebrate and enjoy each other's company. And to have that followed by the recognition and the groundbreaking of this facility seems in keeping with what Metro is which is a family of people who are committed to Santa Cruz County and providing good transportation options for everyone. But I knew her as a coworker and sometimes you get closer with people when you work with them than you do when you're just out visiting with them. And I've seen her almost every day because we were down at operations here doing something all the time, fixing the buildings, doing something. And you had to interact with her because she was the manager here. So you didn't come into her house without checking. This is a monument occasion. First of all, knowing Judy personally, I could tell you an anecdote. We used to take a lot of buses to the school so people could, kids could ride it and see how they get on. We'd have drivers do that. And I wanted to do that for my kids' school but I was terrified of going in there. I was, because she was a monumental person. I work with her, she was a great person but I was 23 years old when I started here. She was a very young bus driver that was, because she just had such a presence to her. She fostered leadership. She did everything that you could do here in the district and she was also a family. When I came here, everyone was family. We're bringing that back. We're bringing that back. We're gonna go moving forward the community with fostering our family because that's the only way we're gonna be able to move forward. Because everybody's really passionate about our job and we're gonna have struggles but you know what? Family is what's gonna take us forward and we're gonna be able to move the community. We're gonna be able to foster the leadership here. We're gonna be able to be the best that we can for our community. Because this is a celebration for a building but the community is gonna see the end result when we move all these buses and we move the community from point A to their doctor's appointment, to their dental appointment, to the school, to their job. We're gonna mean and green, believe me. We're gonna get there. Wanted to say wearing another hat union. We're gonna stick this together because that's the only way we're gonna be moving. Creating this building as a project labor agreement is gonna foster a lot of our relationships here and it's not only gonna bring jobs, it's gonna bring good people here. It's gonna foster great relationship. It's gonna give us economic development that we're gonna be able to get people working back again. So on all such levels, we're bringing the community forward. We are striving to do better. We are striving to make this community work on transit. Like I said, wearing another hat as the city of Watsonville. My God, we just put more service in our community. I think we doubled or two thirds our route to our community that is getting people more around. And now we're, I keep saying, we're back. We're back, our community is back. We're back where the vengeance, we're back where we should have been. We're back where we need to be. We need to foster this relationship moving forward and the only way that we're gonna be able to move forward coming back to the family, bringing the Metro family back. So thank you very much. How you doing everybody? Excellent, beautiful day out here. I'll make this quick. I know there's a lot going on and it's a busy day ahead of you guys. So I'm here to present a certificate on behalf of the state assembly member, Luisa Leho, who is out real busy these days and always busy just like my friends here. So I'll do that on behalf of the state assembly member, Luisa, I'd like to present the certificate to the grand opening of the Metro here, this great facility. So if you could come up. A certificate is in memory of Judy K. So it's of course, good to have you here on this day. We appreciate everything that has been done here. Thank you very much. One of the first bus operators, she used to drive tractors and she loved vehicles in general. So she knew that she could do it. She applied for the job and was an inspiration. She used to drive between Santa Cruz and Watsonville on the 71 line. She was such an inspiration that some people who rode the bus, women who rode the bus who had been field workers would say, I guess I could do it and she could encourage them all along. Everyone came, myself included. We had never driven a bus before, but they said, you can do it, jump on in. And so for many of us along the way came from different walks of life but were able to have that inspiration for us. So she was a mentor to many of us all the way up through the ranks in the organization including supervision and management. Good afternoon. I was one of Judy Sousa's transit supervisor. Not a female, but share the same passion that all the female supervisors and staff felt for her. She was that type of person. We worked in the building at the time where we had limited resources. We did not have excelling equipment to work with but it really made no difference because Judy's commitment to providing excelling service to this community was second to none. We did not dwell on what we did not have. We saw passionate, passionate embrace what we did have and got the job done. No matter what the challenge was whether it was the Loma Prieta earthquake or the day to day, the minute those issues came to the operations building it was time to execute. We rolled up our sleeves, Judy led the way and nothing less was expected from us. And we gave it, we felt proud and this is the commitment that we made to her because she was such a leader to us, such inspiration. So I want you all to know the family. Thank you very much. She was your family, but she was also our family. We loved her dearly. We miss her dearly. So I want you to know that you have our sincere love for your family members. She was that instrumental to us. I wanna thank Mr. White and Peg Gallagher all of those who were instrumental in making sure that this building is named after Judy. There is no one else more fitting than Judy Sousa to name that building afterwards. She was operations to us. Thank you. Thank you, Annie. And next I would, it's my honor to represent to you the SEI A president, Carolyn Durring. She's SEIU 521 representative, Santa Cruz Metro staff. And again, another just incredible person of passion and just go for it. Thank you, Carolyn. Hi, so I am the SEA president. I messed that up earlier today. So let's get that right. I had the pleasure of working with Judy for the last years that she worked here at Metro and it really was a pleasure. I happened to be one of the three SEA staff members who currently work full time in that building. And as you can probably guess, we are looking forward to having a new and updated facility. It's been a long time in coming. It is appropriate that this ceremony is called the groundbreaking ceremony because Judy was certainly a ground breaker in her own right. As you, you know, as other people have stated and as you can see in the program, you know, she was a ground breaker in local transit. She was the first female bus driver here at Metro, first female superintendent of operations. She was not only a great role, not only a great role model for women, but she was a strong advocate for women in transit as well. And there are many women who work here who owe where they are because of her advocacy. They're, she really, we are simply following the trail that she blazed so well for us. I started to as a bus driver 15 years ago and now I'm a schedule analyst as well as a president of SEA. I know everyone at Santa Cruz Metro who knew Judy is just thrilled that they're naming this building after her. I'm just, you know, echoing so many sentiments that other people have said, but we're thrilled. And we all miss her and I'm sure she's smiling down on us right now, really enjoying this moment. So thank you very much. You know, one of the most memorable lines I have from Judy is in the midst of all the turmoil and the tumult here that we've had, her one line was, suck it up. Cool. It's VMU president, Will Regan, who's also SEIU 521 representative with Santa Cruz Metro staff and welcome, Will. Thank you, Lynn. Thank you, Representative or Congressman Sam Farr for being here and Assembly members Bill Monning and Louis Lail for his message to us. I really appreciate your efforts and all. I want to acknowledge your staff. I'd like to acknowledge current board members, past board members, current staff members, past staff members. This has gone on for so many years. There are so many people that have involved in this for so long that I'm happy to say the clouds over Metro base have finally cleared. But through all those years and all those efforts, there's one person that has, with his dogged determination and his sight for the future, I have to acknowledge and thank Les White for all his efforts and for being a pain to certain Congress members. Without your efforts, Les, we wouldn't be here today. And I appreciate it. I say thank you for myself, for my fellow employees, for the employees that will work in the new building and the citizens of Santa Cruz County who have come to depend and hopefully will continue to depend on public transit, on Santa Cruz Metro and the ability for us to continue to support the citizens of this community with this facility in place. Thank you. Really needs no words other than to say we're just so grateful that you're here and the whole family is here. And I would just like to introduce Tony Sousa, husband of Judy K. Sousa. Pay it forward. Thank you. It's for Judy Sousa. Judy is super lady. Her family was my family and the bus company also. That was her family. She treated everybody super, treating them fair. Everybody was equal. And it shows with the respect that she has from everybody, all her employees, high and low, family, it's amazing. And it's a godsend. So, I myself, I appreciate everybody, everybody's efforts couldn't happen to a nicer, beautiful lady. And it's a great honor. She'll be looking down over everybody. With her name on the buildings also. And she'll always be there for you. Thank you very much. These are the folks that will all be getting one of the golden shovels. And I believe we have hard hats as well. So, give us a moment and we will begin our groundbreaking ceremony. Troy, Judy's oldest son has a few words he would like to say and we would be honored. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Lynn. I just wanted to say on behalf of our family, we'd like to extend our thanks for the people that came here today to witness this event. We really appreciate it. Congressman Farr and assembly member Monning, as well as Louise Alejo. This is a wonderful project and I'm happy to be here today to see this finally happen and get off the ground. Finally seeing that Judy K. Sue's operations facility happen. This is really amazing. Our family would also like to thank the board of directors for dedicating and naming the facility after my mother, Judy. We are so honored. This beautiful building will provide the metro as state of the art operations center so badly needed with its green construction standards and its commitment to hiring local union contractors. It's amazing. It's a win-win for all of us. I want to thank you for having us here today. We are truly proud. Thank you. Just pushing right out there. Give us a count. One, two, three, one, two, three. We're all going to draw a sandwich. Okay, so the way it goes is one, two, three and it goes this way, okay? So you guys have to make it. So not a creation to many of us here or everyone, I should say. She had a down home feeling about her. She had grown up in the Midwest and she was a homemaker extraordinaire and she brought that type of weekend do it attitude to Metro. She helped create a school outreach program. She was positive about helping out in the community Christmas time, helping out the woman's shelter. She always made sure everyone had a gift when we adopted the Walnut Woman's Center Shelter in Santa Cruz. She was very involved in the Santa Cruz County Fair and did a lot of the home good departments there. She was an incredible pie baker and a blue prize winner at the Santa Cruz County Fair. So she participated in all aspects of the county, whether it was transit or in the greater community in the fair, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts. So she was instrumental in always leading the way. Was here after the earthquake in 1989 when the buses were on the street that day and continued to roll as best we could through the infrastructure that still existed. And she was here as well when we began our commuter service over to Highway 17, which was a result, direct result of the earthquake when we had to transport people to San Jose. So in many, many ways when any activity came up, whether it was small or large, she was there to inspire us and keep us working to the good of the greater community. Judy was the chairperson at the fair for the home arts division. And we were talking about it. I told her how I used to have to, you know, get the mason jars prepared for canning. And we started sharing recipes. She would come in and we'd talk about, you know, making a pie. And then she asked why I never had my kids in the fair in any of the competitions. And I said, well, you know, we did my kids do Legos and my kids do baking and knitting. And she said, well, gosh, Tony, get off your butt. You're doing half the work. Get them over to the fair. So it's been six years now and my kids have won over 20 ribbons at the fair. And every time someone asks, how'd you get into this, I always say, Judy Casey.