 Good evening everybody My name is Francine Romero. I am the associate dean of the College of Public Policy We are one of your hosts for this evening. We are very happy to be partnering tonight with the League of Women Voters We have some very special guests from the League with us tonight But I'm going to let Phyllis Ingram who is our local president introduce those. We love working with Phyllis in fact, we just did the County judge primary debates several months ago and we are so glad to have all four candidates here with us tonight Part of the College of Public Policy's mission is to help facilitate this kind of dialogue Among the community So we're so glad you're all here and that this is the space where we can have a great Debate perhaps the only one with all four candidates. I don't know but I'll claim credit for that We are also partnering with some of our student organizations tonight. So We have Jason Whitney and Isaiah's from Alpha Phi Sigma That is our criminal justice. It's our national criminal justice honor society We have Carlos and Liz from PASL, which is our public administration student organization We actually have a bachelor's of public administration here at UTSA And Connor is here as a representative from our overall UTSA student government association and they are always a great partner with us And finally our other great partner now cast SA as Charlotte and Lucas is back there They are live streaming this event and you can also watch this event later There's some little orange cards at the back that tell you how to get to now cast SA now cast SA is a Non-profit organization and they do great things for our community. So if you don't know about their work I hope you get to know their work. So again, thank you all very much and it's now my honor to introduce Phyllis Ingram Thank you Francine. I Would also like to thank the student organizations for partnering with us It's great to see so many intelligent engaged young people So thank you again I'd like to welcome Excuse me welcome you all here The League of Women Voters is a non-partisan political organization that encourages informed and active participation in government We never support or oppose any candidate or party Excuse me Candidate forums are one of the ways that we help citizens stay informed on The issues in any election and I would really like to thank the candidates for being here this evening To to share with you their positions on the topics of interest to you There are three by five cards on the table outside and some pens. I would appreciate and Carlos do you have some cards? You already took gave them out. Okay. If you have a card or if you would like a card Just raise your hand and we'll make sure you get some Election I'm sorry early voting starts on November 20th Monday and ends on Friday. I'm sorry October 20th It ends on Friday October 31st Election Day is November 4th Out of courtesy to the candidates and the audience members I'm going to ask you all a gassed young people to please silence all personal communications Devices for the duration of the debate I'd like to thank Dr. Romero and the UTSA College of Public Policy We have had some some great partnerships and have been able to host several different candidate forums They're wonderful partners to work with I'd like to at this time introduce the National president of the League of Women Voters who would like to just say a few words to you before we start Please welcome Elizabeth McNamara President LWV us. I just want to thank y'all so much I'm very very pleased to be here in Texas. It is wonderful to see such a one such a great audience here tonight for this For this candidate forum as Phyllis said the League of Women Voters Is a direct outgrowth of the fight to get women the right to vote and for the last 94 years the league has been Large part of the League mission has been making sure that every eligible voter has got the information that they need in Order to be able to cast an informed vote and that's what we're doing here tonight is Having an opportunity to talk to candidates who want an office that is very very close To to our to our daily lives It probably is one of the most these are probably some of the most important elections that we will participate in This November because we are electing the folks that make decisions that affect our daily lives And the league is very very proud to be able to bring you this opportunity to interact with your club with your Candidates to be able to ask your questions and the league is doing this kind of forum probably Tonight all over in communities all over the country. So I am very very thrilled to be here I'm always excited to be able to participate in these in these events, and I'm very very glad But you all are here and that we're going to be able to really engage in something that is this central in this court of our Democracy so thank you all for being here and thank you for having me Also with us this evening This is like a big deal for us tonight is our state president the president of the LWV, Texas Elaine Wyatt candidates with us this evening and I'll start Closest to me and work my way down our Paul Pipkin with the Green Party Rhett Smith sorry Rhett Smith with the Libertarian Party Carlton souls with the Republican Party and Nelson Wolf with the Democratic Party as this is an informational forum and not a debate The candidates have agreed not to refrain from directing questions to each other or Questions or remarks to each other and all questions will come from the moderator The candidates will have a two-minute opening statement and then will rotate questions So that each candidate will have an opportunity to answer first and last at the conclusion of the questioning Each candidate will have two minutes for a closing station statement Jason Chamness of Alpha Phi Sigma will be the timer for the forum. He'll hold up a yellow card When the candidates have 20 seconds remaining and a red card when their time is up and We would like to be able to ask as many questions as we can so we're asking all candidates to please Pay attention to the the signs that come up The county judge well first of all I'd like to say to you that this is a very important election Every election is an important election, but we will be electing a lot of local representatives the people who Effect and impact your daily lives much more so than the president of the United States Although that is a very important office, but your local representatives are the people that you can reach out to They affect what affects you on a daily basis So the county judge Serves as head of commissioners court the administrative body for Bear County Commissioners court sets the tax rate and adopts the county budget enters into contracts for maintaining county roads and bridges and Administering such services as county hospitals welfare programs parks and playgrounds We do have some questions prepared by the students and the League of Women Voters So with that we will begin with the opening statements Paul Pip tipkin will have two minutes for his opening statement Government has to be able to plan Because investment cannot All you can see projects 50 60 million dollars But then once you see it venture capital chases short-term profit down the mission reach And I presume over there at Brooks as well Bigger capital ramps up production at Calumet With more or less with indifferences to How much toxicity is spewed out unmonitored into your air and Does anybody Care about what happens when those two meet You know Mission reach is so far as has been most notorious for scattering the local residents like cockroaches Okay Well I'm wondering about the The the real people that the developers tend to place in and take a place in condos down there Do we expect that they will be choking on toxic emissions from Calumet when They're jogging to their health clubs Government should be planning and taking a role In In what is otherwise what we used to call the anarchy of production Money is just going to chase the short-term profits you know if your idea of of Being a public official is to facilitate Speculation Then there's no problem and Perhaps your watch will be over when the consequences are right Thank you. Thank you Rhett Smith will give his two-minute opening statement Thank you and thanks to the League of Women Voters I'm so thrilled to be participating in this and talking about the important role that women play In guiding our world and we would like to see more of that My name is Rhett Rosen quest Smith and I am reminded that I should Acknowledge my mother's side of the family my mother's maiden name my grandfather was judge Rosen quest who was an immigrant and Became a judge here in Texas the libertarian party America's third largest political party our vision is a world in which all individuals can freely exercise the natural right of soul dominion over their own lives their own property and their own liberty and freedom and We bleed very strongly. I believe very strongly in public transparency and accountability and I would like to challenge my Other candidates up here If they would more fully disclose Where their funding is coming from so that you could know that I know that that is on file That's required to some extent by the state of Texas ethics laws But I would like for that to be available so that you all can know that information today as we're speaking and Also where their personal wealth has come from how they've amassed their own, you know at least make their income taxes available to the public because Certainly these are issues that affect us all one of the most important issues is the accountability and making sure that public servants are elected and not politicians And I am running Because over many years some of the last decade. I've been very concerned about the direction of not only local politics, but also our global politics our national politics and I think the libertarian party Is a new party? some somewhat like the Green Party that we haven't been around that many decades, but I Believe very strongly that if we offer the voters citizens taxpayers like yourselves a better chance a better alternative That you can get involved and you can change the world Basically we want to make sure that you know that we can Deal with the needs of society, but I will immediately put together a coalition devoting half of my salary I'm not sure exactly what just wolf gets from the taxpayers as far as his salary It's over a hundred thousand dollars and I will devote exactly half of my salary To reaching out to the community and making sure that more people are involved on a daily weekly and monthly basis So that you know we have a more homogeneous and more Really more voices Involved in our government. I think that thank you. Mr. Smith Carlton souls will now give his two-minute opening statement Can you hear me? my name is Carlton souls and Just a little bit about myself. I was born and raised in San Antonio was a successful businessman It's been about 20 years working in various boards commissions Charities before I got involved in city government. I was elected in 2011 to San Antonio City Council and Step down in January of this year is required by the Charter to run for our Bear County judge I'm running really because I see the county going in a direction. I don't believe is good for our future I see the county becoming focused on Essentially a small area of the center city, which I love and we're in right now And I've supported but the role of the county judge in commissioners court is bigger than Central City, San Antonio give you an example Bear County is 1200 square miles compared to 500 square miles in San Antonio Bear County has almost 2 million people in it 24 different cities There's 24 city councilmen or 24 mayors 24 different city councils that the county judge has to interface with Additionally, we've got unbelievable growth in the counties to our north Comal, Guadalupe, Kindle County all growing more than 30 percent. We're gonna be the size. This is scary of DFW In 25 years and that's what we were faced with we've got tremendous challenges, but we've got opportunities One of the things I know two minutes is coming up soon Since we're talking to students one of my concerns is that we are we have in Bear County the seventh largest city in the United States of America and I see way too many of our breast and brightest and some of you in this room when you graduate thinking about having to leave now It's you may go to Dallas. You may go to Houston. You may go to Austin or somewhere out of state But I want to make sure that we have the environment that each and every student that graduates and wants to be in San Antonio has the opportunity To stay here. I want my kids and future grandkids to have that same opportunity So I hope you'll see there's a lot of differences between the candidates up here And you'll have a clear decision at the end of the night and thank you so much for spending your evening with us Well, let me thank the League of Women Voters. We were just talking a little while ago We got the heck beat out of us 40 years ago and we tried to bring a new constitution to the state I was a member of the Texas legislature and it sponsored that and I just want to thank you for working so hard to make that happen One of these days that will come about I want to thank you for allowing me to serve as county judge serve as your as your mayor in the 90s and then serve in the legislature back in the 1970s what we've done in County government is pretty much what we did when I had Sun Harvest Farms a natural food grocery store We continued to invest in major projects can best in ourself that would that will show a return We've built 13 regional amateur sports parks all across the the county We built Bibliotech and Chris Maloney is here today That we've been criticized on this grass. She's a chair of our of our of our Advisory Board and and and led us the way into doing this and the great job that she's done down here Also, we just built the Tobin Center. It was primarily a County funded the mission reach of the river. I'm sorry he said that but it's the largest ecological Restoration of a major river anywhere in the urban United States. It links all our four missions. It's absolutely beautiful ecological restoration going down there and we invested a great deal of money in our hospital system You see it very close to you the six-story building Then if you go out to the medical center You'll see the one that's 10 stories a trauma tower and we made a huge investment in that We're also investing a great deal of money in 281 and 1604 But we do believe that we need to be a player and try to encourage people to live in the center city It's a vibrant place to live It's one that we've now got going and anybody that lives downtown or in the central city You thank them because it's a heck of a lot less cost to use a taxpayer if they happen to live in the central city Where we have services and where we can hold our costs down. Thank you Okay, we will now have each of the candidates will have one minute to answer the same question And the first question is kind of a big picture question Please tell us about one thing you plan to accomplish in your first six months in office And we'll start. I'm sorry. We'll start with Brett Smith Okay, I did enumerate that I intend to immediately Devote half my salary to including more of the community the other thing that I didn't get to address is Trent is the public Availability of the meetings of Bear County Commissioners Court and I've gone to Bear County Commissioners Court and asked to get You know the public file or some way the city of San Antonio at least videotapes The proceedings and that's broadcast live and it isn't in Bear County actually Bear County He's part of that system, but you can get an archive of those proceedings in San Antonio Bear County has no archive. The only archive they have is an audio archive How is that going to help you? You know, I mean it'd be very hard to go back and listen to an old Bear County Commissioners Court meeting and understand You know who's talking and what's going on without a you know Why not have the video record? It doesn't cost that much and why not have that available on the internet? So when you're sitting at home, you don't have to drive down to Bear County Commissioners Court or have you know this TV hookup and everything get on your computer and You can see Bear County Commissioners Court even one day. Hopefully we'll have the availability so that you can actually participate Thank you, mr. Souls Thank you three things actually First as head of the county I'll convene a Immediate review of all of our departments as well as personnel and make sure that we are operating in the most efficient way possible with your tax dollars Second I will begin discussions, which I've already met with have been to 20 different city council meetings in the last 120 days talking to outlying areas and to Leaders throughout the community. We need to convene meetings with our adjacent counties and with all the municipalities within Bear County Begin to formulate plans going forward. There is no communication today And so it's very hard to come up with a plan and people aren't talking And third I want to get immediately on transportation We have we're talking long-range plans and we're probably going to get into rail or streetcar versus non We have people today who it takes them a half hour to get out of their neighborhood to get onto a congested arterial So they can get to a backed up freeway and we need to begin addressing the the immediate transportation needs of the taxpayers of Bear County Working on a number of issues, but the the hottest issues going to be the one Starting right after we're sworn in and that'll be in January when the legislature goes into session We just had a health care conference I mentioned to you a few minutes ago the investment that we've made locally in our bear county hospital system The Texas legislature has a right to do some has the opportunity to do some things that are going to be good for all of us It doesn't matter whether you're sick or I'm sick if you're sick. I'm going to get sick We got 24% of the people here in the county that do not have insurance They're hard-working people but do not have it we want to convince the legislature to expand health care in In Texas, it's a red state. It's a Republican state. We understand that do what nine other states have done Expand the coverage by doing commercial insurance having a copay payment But it would help us hear a great deal here in Bear County would certainly help our hospital district We're also going to be working on a number of their health care issues in the Texas legislature Many of them doing with mental health illness with workforce development that UTSA is playing a very important part in The workforce for the health care industry So while I'll be working on all these different issues But that one there is going to be the most controversial and the one that I will spend a great deal of time on Thank You mr. Pipkin In that vein something is going to have to be done very quickly to get a hospital branch clinic Whatever is appropriate out to service the new West development you know out to Patronko big beyond 1604 a Lot of count Bear County employees are buying homes out there They cannot remain without Effective county services. Thank you I understand that the that the hospital district has done some planning on this but This is something that the the commissioners court should be making a personal Priority up I've also heard Mr.. Anas Keeta the chief tax appraiser address commissioners court about the problems of the appeal system Bottom line as you might expect the corporations who can afford perpetual litigation are getting the lion's share of appeal benefits and more and more Of the low get shifted off in the residential tax pay. Thank you, mr. Pipkin Okay Next question Sorry, I keep standing on the applause is here How about if we hold the applause until the end and that way we can get more questions in and then I don't look so mean So the next question and we will start with mr. Souls City and county lines of responsibility overlap in many areas How do you propose to blend those lines to make government run smoothly? Well, I think that that touches on city county consolidation, which is going to be difficult to achieve because there's so many Areas that don't overlap and you have 24 different municipalities Not all of them want to be in the same group, but we do have lots of areas that we can we can gain efficiencies There's two areas in particular though where we have partnerships or we've had partnerships that offer efficiencies in government that The county judge has moved away from the first is in the library system where we have an existing library system that Serves the entire county Santana Public Library if you're anywhere in the county you can access the services both digitally and in person But we've begun bibliotech, which is now a duplication of those services and at the end of the day We're going to be we're going two minutes goes by fast It's with that we also have animal care services Where again the county is going off and they're creating another department So instead of looking for consolidation what's happened recently is we're moving away from consolidation We're moving into duplicate services that needs to be rained in Thank you, and just to clarify for these questions. It's a one-minute response Bibliotech is one of a kind it's the first in the nation where it's an all-digital public library We have all our technical people Explain people how to run a computer how to access information on internet And then we break down the walls by taking the library to you and we do it at a fraction a fraction of the cost We've gone into the courthouse where we've taken the library We've gone into the Center for Families and Wounded Warriors We've gone into the jail where we provided books for mothers that read to their children We've gone into the school library systems. We started the first one my wife raised over a Million dollars for bibliotech and we're buying a thousand e-book readers for the schools We've just implemented the first school district. We're in the second one today So it's in a very much an expansion 67,000 e-books have been checked out since we started and a hundred thousand visitors have come to our center on the south side of town So it's expansion. We're going to continue to help the public library, but we are focusing on a lower cost New technology a different way of doing business and when you do that it causes problems We do have problems out in the Outlying County areas with the animal control Quite frankly the city walked away from the responsibility the contract we had we took it over We are doing a much much better job than the city of San Antonio ever thought about doing we saved over a hundred pups Just in one case alone where a breeder was mistreating them. Thank you, Mr. Wolf Mr. Pipkin there's a pernicious stable that City government in a major metropolitan area has more power than the county government This is absolutely untrue an Area where like you mentioned where there is overlap Many people in Social and environmental justice believe this myth too, you know we go in you know Exercise of futility before citizens to be ignored over and over again When maybe we should be talking to the county On like on a Calumet you know on emissions It's it's claimed that that well all the regulatory powers with the city not entirely I Will have more on that in closing Thank You mr. Smith, okay Complicated issue for one minute basically I am in agreement with Paul Pipkin in that we should not be having a battle between city and county. That's ridiculous Obviously the county and the state over right and over rule and the idea that the city is somehow got you know extra sovereign power that You know we're that's a crazy idea. I just want to talk quickly about domestic violence it's been an issue for so many decades and Really violence throughout our society? 94% of female murder victims are killed by men that they knew women experience two main injuries from intimate partner violence each year 85% of incarcerated women are domestic violence survivors u.s. troops in afghanistan Iraq 6,000 killed But u.s. Women killed in the same period was by their partners was over 11,000. This is an issue in this state We need right here right now to stand up and say we're going to take Responsibility in the future and right now for what happens throughout our community whether it's in the city or the county Thank you Hey, the next question is Along the same lines as the last since the city represents such a large portion of the county revenue How would you balance the needs of the outlying areas with those of the city and I'm sorry We start with judge wolf 85% of our citizens live within the city of San Antonio So we have a great deal of responsibility to them also But in the outlying areas, we're doing a number of things to do better We created a $500 million flood control program That was done with all of the small cities in the in Bear County some 24 of them along with the city of San Antonio And those projects are all over the county and making a big difference in flood control all of our major road Projects service out in the county area whether it's Calabra whether it's Blanco whether it's Bendera whether it's All the major roads that are going that are going west as well as the money that we're putting into 1604 and 28 and 281 So those are all very important components that we serve out in there and then we're starting this year We added about twenty six million dollars of our budget Going to the sheriff's department to create some 20 new officer positions And then also build a substation the sheriff's substation in northwest northeast and then at the corner of 1604 and IH 10 a major communication center and a And an office there also, so we're reaching out Providing those services out in the rural areas also Thank you Mr. Pipkin Well in general you have a lot more to work with If you refrain from handing out tax abatements to every major corporation that demands one If indeed we see that there that there are new refineries built Just outside the city limits and the word is that there are two or three in the works Those operations should not receive one cent of tax abatement. Thank you. Mr. Smith. Yes Basically we need better communication. I'm certainly appreciative of What they're talking about spending but on transportation We need everyone to get involved in the issue of you know, whether we're having transportation in the city or in the county We have almost two million people in Bear County Why don't we have the full comprehensive survey of every person that's citizen voter and taxpayer? So that we can know what their transportation needs are right now today What is their transportation on a weekly basis and every year and what they think that they will need in the future? also, I think Just having that open communication where we're getting everybody involved in these county commissioner core meetings or the city hall meetings So that people actually feel like they're part of the government and this government is working for them It's to the other way around that's what you know, public servants should be serving you and you don't serve the public I mean you don't serve the public officials Thank you. Mr. Soles Thank you in terms of some of the basic things the county does we're Regardless of you're in San Antonio or in the outlying areas and incorporate areas The jail serves all of Bear County and all of the cities the court system the same as well as the Sheriff's Department and the county hospital So I think that it's really only in the area that of infrastructure that you begin to see the question of Is the outlying area being served or the other municipalities one of my key issues with with the current administration? Is the concentration of countywide dollars into downtown Central City, San San Antonio? You've got a hundred and seventy five million dollars of county flood tax going into a beautification project with really no Redeeming flood control value that's San Pedro Creek You have the the via streetcar project that we were engaged in where you had $92 million of countywide's road funds diverted to so I think that yes We do have issues throughout the county. I think that we've seen too much concentration Again on want to have projects versus need to have projects We need to get focused on the need to have and begin I see a duplication of services economic development libraries animal care that we have opportunities to save money not Not duplicate next question One selected and we'll begin with mr. Pippkin Once elected, how do you plan to keep the student population informed and involved? Well, we could stop repeatedly trying to eliminate polling places on the campus You know that's good that came up last time I think was a really voting site, but Like UTSA You know you want you want the students to vote Well in those dorms, you've got a captive audience out there if they're gonna vote they have to me I'm gonna have to vote right there There should never even have been a idea floated about eliminating the voting site out of that campus And I think possibly the A more intangible thing would be for government to listen to Listen to students when they when they do speak up There are a lot of protest Small but a lot of them in the city that Are mainly Are very largely student constituencies Yeah, government should be listening to the students when they speak out on issues Listening seriously instead of just trying to do the the mandate of your party. Thank you, mr. Smith Thank you, I'm Haven't heard that question too many times and I run for public office a lot, but One thing we try to do is is reach out to the students And I certainly am active in trying to get To communicate with as many students that many of our colleges around here as possible I would I would certainly like to see more of Student involvement. I don't know, you know what laws we would have to address to do that, but Basically, I would certainly want to invite students to participate in the government Whether, you know, it's our certainly our community colleges and our would be one of the most important ways We could do that, but I'm certainly thrilled that UTSA has an interest in this and I'm really happy that We're here UTSA today, and I want to encourage this so I'm going to try to partner with more of the colleges. Thank you Thank you, mr. Souls Thank you One of the things we hear a lot about is the need for an educated workforce in Bear County in San Antonio And with one of the largest and we have a tremendous student population between all the community colleges UTS system the A&M system the private colleges Well, we don't have is a great educated workforce that stays here because they find all the opportunities they need And I think that's as we we talk about engagement everyone talks about engaging the students But the real world is after the election that tends to fall off We need to really begin the discussion with students with educators about how do we how do we make the opportunities? Possible so that they do stay here, and I that's an area. I mean I really truly I Have kids that are college-aged and hopefully one day we'll have grandkids and I want my children your children and y'all They have those opportunities so you know, I think that as I get into office We'll want to convene some groups and again discussing what are ways that we can We can keep you here if you want to be here Thank you, mr. Wolf First of all on the communication piece and the outreach by county government If you're you can get an app called your government And you can go to it and it'll list every service that we provide and you can click on the thing that you're most interested in doing We also have a website. That's a comprehensive website about elections about everything that we do and This year we took a step and we put four of the early voting precincts own Campuses we have one out at UTSA on the main campus We have one I think at the San Antonio junior college one at Palo Alto, and then I believe one at annem I might have one of those wrong, but we've gone on to four campuses. I hope young people will go vote We're making that opportunity and And I hope they'll take advantage of it and and do go vote in those sites that we're providing the early vote sites Okay, the next question. We'll start with mr. Smith and I have two questions here that are very very similar and they're from couples who have been away from San Antonio for 15 and 24 years and have come back to find the rogue conditions appalling and So I'm going to combine the questions to say Where did the tax dollar dollars go that would have been invested in street maintenance, especially in poor communities? When will the county begin spending money on roads rather than concentrating on the inner city? so, mr Mr. Smith, okay Well Where the dollars went what's happened here is I'm sure y'all are where there's a tremendous influx of population from all over United States and the world into Texas, so You know, this is something kind of an emergency situation where we're trying to Deal with a large increase in population and you know the old saw about well Wasn't born in Texas, but I got here as quick as I could It seems like a lot of people find this as a good part of the world to live in and and so basically I'm not sure I've lived in Texas all my life born and raised in a small town And went to UT and you know served in the United States Navy and came back here I don't know what they're talking about where all the dollars went. There weren't any dollars You know we we're trying to fund that we're trying to refine the dollars right now And when are we going to begin spending? I've run for mayor more than anybody in the city. I think They always say that is the number one issue that it okay Thank you I'm gonna put on my city councilman hat for a minute and say yes the roads are Getting worse and you have to look at we've got about five billion dollars of identified road repair needs That's not new roads That's roads being repaired and we're spending a city budget about forty five million dollars a year So we're covering less than one percent of the identified need and that doesn't bode well for the long-term aspect of our roads You know from a county perspective I believe county government spent too much of the last 13 years looking at light rail and looking at street cars And didn't get focused on the needs of County roads where the bulk of the population is now growing go out 281 35 high 10 highway 90 anywhere and you're gonna see tens of thousands of rooftops Built out to the county line already so the growth's already happened and it's coming south from other counties as fast as it's going north we've really been derelict in our duties in in Figuring out how to build not only the highways, but the arterial so that people can get around so you know I think that's our most critical infrastructure issue and it's one of the most the things I'll focus on immediately Thank You mr. Wolf Well, we invest a great deal of money in County roads if we didn't have to pay for the state's Highways we would be able to buy bill a lot more County roads We had to put in two hundred and sixty six million on highway systems Which is a tragedy and a terrible mistake of the state not taking care of it But we do build a lot of County roads Bernie stage road I think I mentioned Calabra and Blanco all those were state roads But we had to put up the money to build them to get them going We do get a pass-through financing on some of them from the state But had we not put up the money those roads would have never never been completed We have a whole list of different road projects that we're doing we'd be glad to furnish those to you We've built over four hundred and some odd million dollars Worth the roads in the last in the years that I've been there So we put a great deal of money into it But the fact of the matter is we are growing so fast That there's no way we can keep up with it unless we build a good Public transit system and that has to go along with it a parking right is going to be built out on 281 at Jones Malzburger a parking ride at IH 10 at Fair Oaks Road a another parking right at out at Brooks Base Transfer stations east and west of downtown So you're gonna have to have a combination of both of those bus rapid a rapid for us to be able to handle our transportation issues Thank you Mr. Pipkin, I agree about but with a judge about public transportation I Take that further You'll take a lot of weight off of These roads that are being built built beat up If you would bring in a light rail, I'm not talking about trolleys You know if indeed San Antonio is going to expand the proportions of DFW Then why don't we have something like dark? You know what why don't we have a genuine light rail transit system? That would that would be something I would be looking at Thank you Okay, this will be our final question and actually I have two very good ones here, so it's a toss-up but I think This one probably bears some attention Is there a I'm sorry, and we're going to start with mr. Souls Is there a fire station on the south side near Southside school district? Would you put that as a priority once elected? I Think that the one of the things when I was on Santana City Council I was the head of the Public Safety Committee and we commissioned a study to look at response times Across San Antonio what we found is the farther you got away from the center of the city the the worst the response times God especially looking at EMS emergency response So you know I hear a lot as I traverse the county about issues relating to response times and Having equal service across the different fire districts I don't have an absolute answer on that other than I will tell you that Making sure that every citizen of Barrie County has adequate fire and EMS And public safety protection will be a top priority of that means we need to look at a station on that side of town Wherever the need is is where we need to put resources and that'll be the focus. Thank you. Mr. Wolf The legislature finally gave us a little breathe-in room Everybody understands we work on 31 cents on the tax roll the city works on 56 point five They also have a sales tax They also have a CPS tax that goes into their coffers paid by the way by Citizens that live out in the rural area, but it all goes to the city of San Antonio Finally the legislature did give us an authority to create Emergency fire districts and we've created about four or five of those where people do pay a little bit more on Their property tax based on their vote to do so So we've had a complete volunteer system of fire departments out in the county We're now slowly but surely beginning to get some professional fire help out in the county through the emergency fire districts Thank you, mr. Pippkin To your question. Yes And and it would not be It would not be close in Southside either it would be like South Harlandale And I in region be a Coronado even Okay, thank you. Mr. Smith I'm certainly interested in improving our fire protection out to the south side and I I don't see a problem with that. I agree with mr. Wolf that You know, we only get 31 cents So, you know the state Can play a much bigger part in In doing this in Bear County has a legislative Outreach so that we can try to ask the state legislature to meet more responsibilities And I believe that I will work even more closely with this outreach and try to get our state representatives involved and even our You know national leaders Congressman Thank you Before we have the two-minute closing statements from the candidates I just want to make you aware that we had also planned to have a forum for district attorney candidates this evening However, one of the candidates declined to participate The other candidate is here and according to our guidelines. He will be allowed to give a two-minute Opening Slash closing statement So but some of the candidates here need to leave and be other places So I just wanted to make you aware of that before we finish up with the closing statements So we will begin with a two-minute closing statement by mr. Wolf Again, thank you very very much for doing this in the great work that the league has done over the years I'm so impressed with UTSA I was mayor when we built this campus downtown I pushed very very hard for that to be done here and I'm pleased to see that it is here in the central city and And that you that you guys are attending at least some of your some of your classes here in the downtown in the downtown campus We will continue to work on creating jobs Since I've been in office We've worked with the city with the private sector. We contribute to EDF. We do it all in a partnership and some 167,000 jobs have been created net new jobs in the last last 13 years We're going to continue to to work hard so that we're given an opportunity for young people to stay here in San Antonio I have six children. I have seven grandchildren, and I'm not sure how many more I'm going to have But I want them all to stay right here in San Antonio So we want to try try to provide that opportunity where you can do well here make a good living here and raise a family I don't think there's a better place in that in the United States in which to do that a number of these economic Projects are occurring out in the county the growth and economic development projects is out in the county rather than in the city of San Antonio We've been able to bring have Toyota Petco Metronic we've had all the big companies here. Halliburton Baker Hughes weatherford slumber J Several the production companies up here north of San Antonio So we're going to continue to work on building that opportunity for young people. I know that those of us that are in my age category 74 maybe not too many in that age category, but we want our kids to stay here with us So it's an our advantage even though we may Not be out looking for a new job to have to have a place where our grandchildren can stay here in San Antonio I want to thank you very much again. I want to thank you for allowing me to serve as your County Judge And I hope you'll give me four more years Thank You mr. Souls Thank you, and I also want to thank you for sharing again your evening with us There's so many more questions. We could have gotten to I wish we'd had a little bit more time You know we hadn't talked about things like the debt that we're going to be burdening you with When my predecessor when my opponent came into office, there was 250 million dollars worth debt now There's 1.7 billion dollars worth of debt sitting on the books that we're gonna have to pay for My opponent was an advocate for streetcars and toll roads and we disagree on that I don't believe we should toll existing roadways, and I don't believe we should build streetcars downtown One of the things I think that I heard this evening that perhaps you'll you'll recollect is There was issues with the county in the city on Libraries, so we built our own library system fact and in previous debate Nelson called San Antonio library system a monopoly that needed competition We alluded to issues with animal care services and the inability to work together and with the state on highway systems and you know that begins to see a partnership where there are a Situation where we're not building partnerships where we're walking away from partnerships. I think that that's the wrong approach I think we need to build partnerships for the future again. We're gonna be a big place. We've got You know two million people now and another million coming soon and that's gonna offer us a lot of challenges that we need to prepare for So I look forward to as county judge building those partnerships Planning for the future and getting ready for us to be successful. So thank you so much and Hope you got something out of this evening Mr. Smith. Yes Thanks. Thank you You did a good job I Want to address everyone here in the audience and thank each of you for coming and particularly the League of Women Voters for Allowing us Paul Pipkin and I were not included in the Primaries for good reason. We have a convention not a primary But the League of Women Voters said that they wanted to have something for all the candidates and thank you again Basically, I want to close tonight and remind remind you that freedom isn't free and I having served in the United States military I want to Ask you to really think about your role and my role and the role that we we play in world leadership and basically talked a little bit about indigenous people the great You know society and indigenous community that was here long before Christopher Columbus came to the New World the so-called New World came to the Western Hemisphere and the indigenous people and the civilization that was here and I think that as We build for the future and look to that we should also remember our past and so we Have met over the years with over the years. I'll say years, but certainly the last few months with the Alamo Commission because they're planning to make recommendations about the Alamo Plaza and the Hemisphere Plaza and We feel very strongly that the history and culture that was here, you know At the time of the Spanish colonization should all should also be recognized And there's a ways to do that because that indigenous history is right here. It's buried I don't know if any of you have been to Rome, Italy But I when I went over there, you know What we learned was that the city of ancient Rome from thousand years ago was buried right beneath the city of modern modern Rome and that's some ways the way it is here in in In Texas and certainly we want to find ways to reach out and understand the great rich richness of culture and society That we can learn from and in a world that is so in so much conflict around the world in the Middle East and Throughout the world I'm a person that you know reaches out to to all religions and I want to Recognize the indigenous people and Native American people. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Pipkin Following on something I didn't have time for earlier When when it's maintained the county doesn't have regulatory authority depends on what you mean by regulation County government is powerful Anytime a road a pipeline either eagle-forward sludge or the current debate over the water pipeline Anytime a project like that traverses the county of the commissioners court is in the business of overseeing Technical condemnation procedures for easements In other words any of those arteries could be stopped as if that the commissioners or the county judge believed Was a nemicle to the interest of Texas citizens at either end of the of the say the pipeline They could stop it in its tracks Down the line you may be happy that the that the county does have this kind of power If you I don't know if any of you have had occasion to see what to notice what's been going on in Michigan and Like Detroit with their water problem like Benton Harbor where civil government has virtually been abolished You know it's interesting that in Texas If a municipality fell in no matter how large fell into financial straits Texas doesn't even need a so-called emergency manager a lot they could take over and Abolish the government of the city The same as they've done done already with some school districts But that can't happen to a county a county is a subset of the state itself You know and its powers are very clearly laid out in the state constitution You know, but you you're going to have to have county In the future with the crises that are coming on us. You're going to have to have county officials That will exercise that power You know and not just hand everything off to the corporations Thank you, Mr. Pipkin In the lead we like to start on time and end on time So I would also like to thank now cast and Charlotte and Lucas for coming out and live streaming Livestreaming tonight's candidate forum It will be on their website So if you know somebody who was interested but unable to be here Please let them know that they will be able to find it at now cast essay dot or And please join me in thanking the four candidates for County judge, I hope you learned something I know judge wolf needs to be someplace else So at this time, I would like to invite Nicholas LaHood Candidate for district attorney to come and make a two-minute statement. I am very disappointed that Susan Reed chose not to be here There comes a time in the mirror and ask if it's time for new vision Susan Reed's performance for the last 16 years is in question and I'll start with the child abuse crisis Bear County has led the state in a number of child abuse cases the whole state We also have only a 38% Conviction rate for indecency with the child and sexual assault of a child We have the distinction of having a 75% repeat of repeat offender rate These are real children with real futures if we protect them and provide structure and opportunity they need But as my papa's taught me talk is cheap action speak louder than words This is why it will take true leadership to find an answer for these plaguing problems Judson has been a true leader going above and beyond to foster a conversation and put forward ideas and reforms to help us better protect kids But these have been conversations Susan Reed chooses not to engage in I stand before your man That has not been perfect But I have perfect intentions for our community a community that includes my precious three children and God willing someday my grandchildren My opponent only wants to talk about my troubles with the law over 20 years ago My faith and our justice system believe in redemption and I am very proud of the man that is before you today She also makes issues believe it or not of my tattoos My tattoos are composed of the Archangel Michael the Archangel Gabriel the Sacred Heart of Jesus and my children's names For me they reflect my faith and the honor my brother who was taken from us in a violent crime in my parents home drawing attention to these things is her attempt to distract voters For her unacceptable performance as our district attorney in my professional career I've been a magistrate judge appointed by every district court judge both Democrat and Republican I've been a special prosecutor in four counties I have instructed at two law enforcement academies police academies, and I've been an adjunct professor at st. Mary's University I put together a plan to reform our justice system based off co-laboring with law enforcement and you the community I will lead our district attorneys by example in the courtroom and not just by words. I Humbly and respectfully ask for your vote as your district attorney. Thank you, and I wish we could talk more The League of Women Voters non-partisan voter guide actual guide to assist voters to cast the November 4 election is available on the league website LWV San Antonio San Antonio org Printed copies will be available in public libraries the week of October 20th again