 All right. Hi there y'all. Welcome to the Down to the Wire Candidate Forum. My name is Aaron Arguello. I'm a part of Move Texas. We are a move as a nonpartisan, nonprofit grassroots organization working to build power in underrepresented youth communities through civic education, leadership development, and issue advocacy. And I'm here with Faro of the Reliable Revolutionaries. Good evening. I'm Faro Clark, community activist and leader of Reliable Revolutionaries, a community-driven action-based civil rights organization that stands against racial and economic injustices within San Antonio and surrounding areas. Our mission is to encourage young voters to turn protests into policy by being civically engaged in local and national politics and using their voices to ensure sustainable change for our futures. All right. And we are doing this in partnership with our friends at Nowcast. Nowcast is a trustworthy, nonpartisan news organization whose mission it is to promote an inclusive civic conversation, and we're very excited to be here with them. And then I will pass it off to Faro to go ahead and talk a little bit about why we're here tonight. Thank you for joining us for this Down to the Wire debate. With only a few days left until the election, we decided to invite candidates to join us and express why they are the best choice for this job. Without further ado, it is my pleasure to present to you Alamo Community Colleges District 2 trustee incumbent Mr. Jose Macias and his challenger Ms. Gloria Ray. Good evening. Nice to be here with you all today. We're going to start off by giving each of you two minutes to explain to us why you would make the best choice for ACCD District 2. Ms. Ray, we would like to start with you. Okay. Can you hear me? Yes, ma'am. All right. Okay. Well, number one, I want to thank Nowcast, Move Texas, and Reliable Revolutionaries for putting this forum together. I think it's very important, even though it is Down to the Wire. I wanted to start off by giving you a little bit of my background, my professional background, my community background, which lead up to tell you why I believe that I am the best qualified to serve in this position. In my professional life, I worked for 28 years at Kelly Air Force Base. I was chief of the resources management division in the propulsion directorate. And in that position, I had the budgetary and human resource and regulatory responsibility for a 2,500 person workforce, which was the largest workforce at Kelly Air Force Base. I also managed a budget of over a billion dollars, which at that time was the largest budget at Kelly Air Force Base before Kelly Air Force Base closed down. It was a wonderful career. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I spent 28 years building up my budgetary and fiduciary and leadership qualifications. From there, when I retired, I got very busy with my community volunteerism. I have served my community at the state, the county, and the city level. At the state level, I was appointed by Governor Rick Perry to serve on the very powerful Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, where we had oversight and budgetary responsibility for affordable housing all over the state of Texas from the Mexico, from the border of Mexico, Louisiana, and Oklahoma, and of course, New Mexico to the west. At the county level, I served the Alamo Area Council of Governments on both the Housing Roundtable and the Housing Steering Committee. For the city of San Antonio, I served as president of Fiesta San Antonio, the largest volunteer organization that we have at San Antonio. And I also served as chair of the Commission, the MLK Commission, both March Chair and the Commission Chair. Those are two of the largest events that we have going on in San Antonio. For the Community College District, I served for 13 years and chaired every Citizens Advisory Committee for every capital campaign all the way from 2007. I was led the leadership for ushering in over a billion dollars' worth of capital improvements across the district, every campus on the district. And I also chaired the Citizens Advisory Committee that built the brand-new headquarters that we so proudly occupy with the old Playland Park served. Thank you very much. Mr. Macias, you have two minutes to explain to us why you think you would be the best choice for the ACCD2 District Board. Well, thank you, Farrow. And again, a much appreciation for the organizers of this event. And I appreciate the opportunity to talk about my vision. But really quickly, the reason why I feel I'm the best qualified is because I've walked in the steps of students who've had to struggle to make it. And as a first-time and college student myself, I started my career in college by failing every class I took for the first 20 semester hours. So the issue of student success has been innately inborn at that time, where I know how important it is that we support our students to ensure they succeed, especially now with the advent of Alamo Promise offering tuition-free college. We cannot afford to fail our children of color and not provide them the resources to succeed. I've been there. And it definitely was something that stayed with me to this day. I've actually served as an activist in my community for over 25 years. I was chairperson for the Affirmative Action Advisorate Committee, working with Oliver Hill and with Henry Munoz, basically in NAACP and LULAC. I have been in the fight for diversity and inclusion for two decades. I've also had the pleasure of serving as a trustee for Judson ISD, where I've won three elections serving my community over 10 years. I've been in the educational arena. I understand FreeK through 12. There's no, I mean, mistaking how important it is to have that perspective when you're in higher education. Because education doesn't begin in college. It begins in FreeK all the way through. So to have that understanding of the Independent School District or FreeK through 12 is going to be critical to ensure that we are helping our students achieve. So that experience, I feel, would make me uniquely qualified. As a matter of fact, if I am selected by my community to represent them in District 2, I will be the only board member with school board governance experience on that board. So I can actually talk to talk and help my board realize we can't sit on this side of the doorway having students come in if we're not doing anything on the other side to partner with our ISDs. So it makes me uniquely qualified. Ten seconds to make a difference. So thank you. It's a good thing that you bring up the Alamo Community College Promise Program. As you know, it was recently launched and it promises to provide Bear County students with not only the chance to go to college but also a stipend that helped them to complete and make sure that they successfully graduate. If re-elected, what would you do to ensure that a success of this program? Well, there's a couple of things. One thing, the Alamo Promise is a wonderful initiative, but it's only five years long. So if we're going to truly end generational poverty through education, we cannot fail these next five years. So Tuition Free College is not an infinite opportunity. So what needs to happen is to ensure that our students succeed. So basically what that means is provide the additional resources like tutoring and support when they enroll and help with our ISP partners to ensure that we're able to assist in their junior and senior year of high school for students that are going to be eligible Promise scholars. So that's step one. Step two is to ensure that we are meeting the need. Alamo College has made a very bold goal of raising the educational attainment goal from 47%. And actually on the east side, it's closer to 40%. And raising that bar to 75% in five years. So the whole objective is to ensure that we are accountable and that we get that accomplished. So the other step to ensure that that can happen is we have to look at our middle school kids, sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. And my proposal, if elected, I will establish a summer program for middle school children within district two to go to our Alamo College campuses to understand the importance of being college and career ready. And I will open it up to parents. The whole objective is we're a family and we have to work together to ensure the success of our children. I've seen too much while I was a trustee at Judson that that disconnect did not give students the belief nor the skills to succeed in college. We cannot sit in the sideline and not provide that support. So I would be focused on both of those initiatives to ensure the promise program reaches its objective. Miss Ray, I asked the same question to you. If you were elected, what would you do different than your opponent to ensure the success of the students? Well, I'm not sure that I would do a whole lot differently. My strong suit is collaboration. I agree that we must have strong collaboration from junior high school through high school with the colleges, with the students, and with the families. We are families. We're all about building up our entire community. But I also would like to take a little bit different step in that not just to focus purely on the academics of education, but also to be able to fold in workforce education as well. Not every student that goes to high school is going to be a four year college graduate. We must not lose sight of the necessity to improve the programs that we have for workforce education and workforce certification. This pandemic has caused a big disruption in employment across the city. We have many underemployed and now unemployed citizens in the city of San Antonio. So all the promise needs to have a broader focus, not just academics, but also workforce education. A very strong component of workforce education so that we reach all of our children so that they have an affordable family life, that they can raise their families, raise their children, and that was successful life. Great. So speaking of workforce development, with Proposition B, which is a workforce development related proposition on the ballot, how would its passing or failure affect the analog colleges or how would you like to see workforce development integrated? Jose, they will go back to you first. Thank you. Yeah. The whole emphasis is obviously on workforce development because we do have a responsibility to help our community in that capacity. Alamo Colleges offers more workforce certification programs than any other entity in Bear County. So what we're able to do to help our community is profound. I didn't want to allude to one comment that I hear a lot and that not all our kids are going to a college or to a four-year. I understand that sentiment, but I do believe the more that we say that, the more we make that a reality for students. We have to be a shining light to let students know they have a choice. If they want to go to four years, they can. If they want to pursue a workforce certification program in plumbing, electrician, welding, they certainly can do that. But guess what? They're going to have to have core competencies to ensure that they can pass those examinations and that they can succeed. And so that's why when I talk about emphasis on workforce and college readiness, it's twofold. It's not just one over the other. It's systematically one thing. So to get back to the question about the proposition of workforce development, we certainly support it. I know that the impact of that program and that initiative could do to impact Alamo Colleges and its collaboration is profound. Right now, we have an initiative for workforce development for those that have been impacted by COVID-19, where we're paying a stipend per week. And we have over 5,000 slots that we can offer to the community to put them in workforce fields, healthcare and production. So we have to succeed. And as mentioned earlier, we can't do it alone. We may have the arsenal, but it takes a community. And one thing that I will tell you often, we have to come together, work together in order to move this community forward. Time. Great, thank you. And Ms. Ray, I'll ask the same question to you. How do you see proposition B, its passing or failure, affecting the Alamo Colleges? Number one, I believe the city of San Antonio is in a lot of pain right now because there are so many unemployed and underemployed people in the city as a result of COVID-19. I believe that we're going to have the strong support that we need from within the community to pass that resolution. I believe it is going to pass. And even if it doesn't pass, Alamo Colleges already has programs in place to succeed with workforce education. Alamo Colleges is better equipped than any other educational entity in the city, maybe even the state, in terms of workforce education. So if it succeeds, the programs will grow. If it does not succeed, the programs that we have in place will continue. As Mr. Macias mentioned, we already have slots of 5,000 people in workforce education. Alamo Colleges is already working with the city of San Antonio to improve the lot of people, the workforce that's impacted by COVID. So I believe it's going to pass. But whether it passes or not, we will join together. We will be united and we are poised to build a stronger community both academically as well as workforce education. Farrell, I think you're still muted. Sorry. My next question that goes to Mr. Macias. Being that district two has been a historically black or minority district. I would like to know, do you feel that black students are currently served equally and fairly in the Alamo Community College systems? And what changes would you propose to make the difference? Well, I certainly would ensure that they would be. If there is ever any indication that they are not being treated in any way, shape or form equally, or have the resources that they need, I would like to know, because I'll definitely take care of it. The whole premise by Alamo Colleges is to bring a community together. Wayne Phillips is probably a microcosm of what's working. It's a duly credited Hispanic serving institution as well as HBCU. And that's already sort of what San Antonio is like. There is already togetherness. So if it's a lack of resources or if there are issues in addressing support for students of color, I certainly would be on top of it. One of the things that I will tell you is that the African-American community at Judson ISD is approximately 30% African-American. I've won three elections. The reason why I get the support from the African-American community is because I get the job done. I'm not about sitting there and trying to look like I'm doing something. I like to get the job done. And one of the initiatives that I really helped spare head that impacted all students was free SAT testing for all Judson seniors. And that was across the district. And I was able to do prep coursework. So any student within Judson could take prep courses for SAT. And by final year on the board, they made prep an elective course. So any student, they didn't have to stay after, go in the morning, they could pick an elective on SAT so they can be more successful to earn more scholarships and more opportunity if they decide to pursue college. So the thing is I've served my community with immense pride and would continue to do that. And the reason that works is because I advocate accessibility. Everyone that I meet can have my cell number, my personal cell, not what I bought at the store. I've had it for 20 years. If I'm not talking to the community, I can't represent them effectively. So I want anyone in the community to be able to reach to them. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Macias. Ms. Ray, I ask you the same question. Be at that district too historically black district. Do you feel that the students that are currently in the Alamo College system are being fairly treated? And if not, what would you do to change that system? Thank you for that question. I'd like to start off by saying number one, I was born, I was raised and I have lived in district two all of my natural life. My family represents five generations of service to Alamo Community College District. I know my community and my community knows me. I will not say that I believe and I do not believe that the students, the African American students or the students of color are being treated unfairly within the Alamo Community College District. I think the Alamo Community College District has a very strong history of diversity, equity and inclusion and their continued work in that direction and their programs should address that. One of the things that we have done in Alamo College that has been very, very successful and I'm very proud that I served on the Citizens Advising Committee that built the very first high school to college campus in Alamo College and that was in Dutton Independent School District. I was the one that led the committee, that led the Board of Trustees to build that campus. I have students in my community that have successfully completed that high school to college. They went to a four-year college for two additional years. They went straight into the workforce. They've been very, very successful. That particular program has grown all over the city and nobody has a program better than the program that's offered here at the San Antonio and the Alamo Community College District. So I believe with high school to college, diversity, inclusion, Alamo Community Colleges will continue to do an even greater job. Another thing that I would like to see that we will see implemented is African-American studies as a course of studies within Alamo Colleges at any campus, not just at St. Philip's College, but at any campus. Thank you, Ms. Ray. Well, speaking of diversity and going right into it, in a city like San Antonio with such a rich culture and so much diversity, what will you do to advocate for that same diversity within the curriculum? So for example, things like black and indigenous history and culture in curriculum. Mr. Macias, we'll start with you. Yes, I will tell you the first thing that I noticed when I arrived in my role in August of 2019 was that there was not an African-American studies program. And I stated that at HBCU, that's just not appropriate. The Mexican-American studies program that started at Palo Alto College just started three years ago. So even though we've been in the arena, we really haven't formalized the programs until recently. So I have made a commitment if re-elected or kept in my seat, I will ensure we have an African-American studies program. That's been essential to my agenda since the first 90 days in office. So I'm proud to see that Gloria Ray has adopted that because I think obviously it's extremely critical. But studies of that nature are important because I'm going to tell you when I was a student and I mentioned early on that I failed the first 20 semesters I ever took, 20 semester hours. So three straight semesters. Where I helped find myself was being engaged in student organizations. My first student organization I ever joined was the United Mexican-American Students Organization. And so for me, it started to give me an understanding of what needs to happen. And so I know studies programs like African-American studies or women's studies program, they will have the same power to bring students out of the dark. And that's really where I was. I was just going to school failing everything. So that's important. And I also wanted, well, I don't know how much more time I have so I'm going to shoot for this. But I want to just make sure it's clear that the JECA program is very valuable to Judson, but it was almost eliminated. And I worked with Denver McClendon and Alamo Colleges while I was with Judson ISD to save the program. We were looking to potentially scrap the program because of cost. So I just want to make sure I got that in there because it's something that, you know, is important to the district, but it also serves students of color. Many of them share in my district and have benefited from this wonderful program. Thank you. Thank you. And Ms. Ray, I could ask you the same question. You know, will you, what will you do rather to advocate for diversity in curriculum? Thank you so much. As I was going across the district, preparing for my candidacy for the board position, I visited several of the campuses and I was very pleased to see that at some of the campuses, they do already have Mexican American studies as a curriculum. It's interesting that in the city of San Antonio, now the state of Texas has approved African American studies also in high schools here in San Antonio, across the state of Texas. I worked with Dr. Mark Scott and Maria Pettis, who serves on the Texas board and as they were implementing the approval of the African American studies. African American studies should be offered not just at, say, Phillips College. It should be offered where it is, can be used at every campus where the students have a need or have a desire to have African American studies as a course of studies, just like Mexican American studies is also being offered on the campuses today. So I am committed to working with the state of Texas, the four-year colleges here in San Antonio that already teach African American studies, Texas A&M, University of Texas. I have collaborations with professors at those schools and African American studies as a course of study into the curriculum at every campus in the Alamo Community College District, not just at, say, Phillips College. Thank you for that. One of my next questions to Mr. Macias, we know that transportation is a problem that sometimes prohibits some of our lower income students from being successful in the college arena. My question to you is what are your plans to improve transportation, specifically regarding the lack of bus lines to Lakeview College? You know, that's always been a problem, even when I was with Judson, because there are some municipalities like Live Oak who may not permit bus routes through the city. So working with our municipalities and our government to ensure that we provide those resources is something I would definitely continue to advocate. I believe that accessibility is top notch. We need to get students to those campuses. But I'm going to tell you something, you know, through COVID-19 in this horrible year of 2020, there have been some reason for hope and what I mean by that is we've had a serious deficiency in the digital divide at Alamo College we estimated there were around 6,000 students that could not have, did not have the resources to learn from home. Well, guess what happened? As a result of COVID, we made sure that every student had a laptop and the resources to learn remotely. So in some cases where we may not be able to address in a quick time, accessibility through bus routes, we may be able to offer the ability for students to take classes online as we go forward. So, and every student will have the resources to do it. So not only did we take this problem, we actually brought the digital divide together because now we're also creating hotspots that are Alamo College owned. They're not, you know, go to a parking lot and have what we own the hotspots so that we could offer services to our students outside of the campus if necessary. So, you know, accessibility is important. If we can't get students involved or engaged, then they're not going to succeed. And especially now because Alamo Promise is bringing in a majority of first-time and college students who may not understand some of these issues. And so in order to help, we also have advocacy centers that provide closing and food. So we are all about the social emotional well-being of students in order to succeed. Thank you. Miss Ray, same question to you. What would you do to specifically improve transportation to the college campuses? Well, of course, transportation today is, may not be as detrimental as it was as a result of co-writing and them equipping the students with the right equipment to be able to get their education online. We had more students graduate this year because we did so much online education. However, my life has been about collaboration. The city of Live Oak is not fond of bus lines in the city of Live Oak, but I believe in collaborations. I believe that VM and the city of Live Oak can collaborate in order to provide certain bus lines and certain presentations. If not bus, they can provide rideshare. They're already expanding the rideshare program all over the city because of the popularity of rideshare. I believe that rideshare is an opportunity to get students from within that community to the campus. I'm willing to work with Via and work with the city of Live Oak to come up with a collaboration that will be mutually successful and mutually appreciated so that students can get to school. Thank you, Ms. Ray. So COVID-19 has changed what college looks like with classes now taking place online. Many students and professors alike have experienced new difficulties that have arisen during this time. So if elected, how will you help students overcome academic gaps and other challenges that may exist as a result of the pandemic? Mr. Macias, we'll start with you. Certainly. COVID-19 has definitely been a wrinkle, if anything, in our collective society. But I can tell you with confidence at Alamo Colleges, we have not stopped moving forward. We cannot afford to allow COVID-19 to stop the progress that we plan to make. And if we have that lofty goal to increase the educational attainment in Bear County by 100%, up to 70%, 75%, we don't have time to take a pause. So what's happened, essentially, is that we have doubled up on our efforts to ensure students have they're contacted, they're emailed, our advisors have been in touch with them more often than you would see during a semester to ensure they're getting the resources and support. But in addition to that, we offer flexible hours through online learning. And I talk to students often, I try to stay plugged in, their coaching and their professors allow them flexibility to meet the class demands. So as we go forward, we want to continue to offer flexibility so that students can get the job done and learn in the classroom. But there are other factors of COVID-19 that have really kind of other issues to bear, which obviously means keeping our faculty and staff employed. So if we're going to continue to offer services to students to the level that we plan to, we can't lose our personnel. So I've been working with our administration to ensure that we retain talent and that we're still able to move forward with what services we're providing. And I will say this, I had the luxury of being a panelist seminar with librarians. I learned from some of our librarians that some of our personnel cuts for part-time employees were actually hurting some of the initiatives to help students with research projects and with other areas of learning. So guess what, I'm now able to respond to make sure that we address that potential because we may have overlooked the significance of part-time employees helping our students. Thank you so much. Ms. Ray, if elected, how will you help students overcome those academic gaps and other challenges resulting from the pandemic? I believe because Alamo Colleges has done such an extraordinary job of meeting the challenge of COVID-19, we have not experienced the educational gaps that one would have expected under such dire conditions. Alamo Colleges has done yeoman's duty in reaching out to the students, assisting the students, providing counseling, providing the resources that the students need in order to overcome the problems of COVID-19. So, I don't see COVID as big a curse as one would think. It was a blessing. The blessing of COVID, it made us think outside the box. It made us think more broadly of what the face of education should be within our community. And I believe that Alamo Colleges has met that challenge, and they're working very hard to improve the outreach that they have to the students. As I mentioned before, they have actually more students graduate in May than have in previous years. So, that is a testament of itself in that short timeframe how fast they get up the online education that nobody was left behind and more students matriculated and stepped out the door and went through graduation. So, I believe that we're going to grow and get better because of COVID because we've had to look outside the box. And it was not business as usual. Thank you. I'd like to thank you for answering those questions. And before I end with my questions, I'd like to ask both of you one question. Mr. Macias, I'll start with you. Why do you feel more qualified to be elected to this seat than your opponent? Well, and I don't want any disrespect for Miss Ray. She's had a long record of civic engagement in this community and all respect to that record. People who are involved are very hard to find at this. So, we have to make civic involvement important. But I will say if there was a clear distinction and one that I'll continue to derive on, it's my understanding of the educational processes between pre-K through 12 and then also higher education and being that I was a student of Alamo Colleges and a graduate of Alamo Colleges, I've walked in the steps of students and so that insight provides me with clarity that I feel can help my community District 2 specifically to a degree that I think is well suited than my opponent. And so I want to be very clear about that and so that's why I'm running because it's a miracle that I made it as far as I have and there are other students that need the support and I want to ensure that the work I do is providing that support especially now more than ever because as I mentioned once and twice we cannot fail our students now. Alamo Promise is at one time and if we can't get that program extended this five years is it and so we have one chance to really change the economic condition and the level of education in this community and I do not plan on failing. Thank you. Ms. Ray, if elected please tell us why do you think you would make a better District 2 representative for this? Well as I mentioned earlier I'm a product of District 2 I've been here all my life I know my community my community knows me I have served my community in numerous leadership positions leadership is on the ballot fiduciary responsibility is on the ballot experience and governance is on the ballot I've had governance experience not just locally not just even at the state level which I have but I also work for the federal government and I've worked in governance all the way from the federal level I believe that I have what it takes to be able to interact with my community and serve my community as I mentioned earlier and it may have gotten lost in some of the things that I said I have already served Alamo Colleges as a volunteer for 13 years I was originally appointed to the citizens advisory committee from there I was elected in every one of those capital campaigns by the citizens from all quadrants of the city because of my leadership ability my ability to work effectively with people my ability to collaborate successfully with people and I like to close by saying that what Alamo Colleges will accomplish in the years to come is up to every individual in the organization and every stakeholder working for this educational entity I will assist in continuing to serve Alamo Colleges as I have for the last 13 years as one of the nation's premier community college systems I will hope to improve the value it provides to the students the faculty the staff and the San Antonio community as San Antonio continues to grow and position itself as one of the nation's premier cities Alamo Colleges will continue to lead an education serve as an engine to power our community's workforce and to fuel our capacity for innovation and I believe I am well equipped to be able to serve in that capacity to lead as I have led this community in the past Thank you very much on behalf of Nowcast on behalf of Reliable Revolutions and on behalf of Move Texas we would like to wish both of you the best of luck on election day and thank you for your time shared with us this evening Thank you for the opportunity to be here Thank you for all the hard work that you put into it to invite us to this forum It was very important I'd like to echo that I really appreciate it and right now 50% of the district two voters have probably already cast their ballot so there's 50,000 more or 50% more I should say that need to so hopefully this helps in their decision making Thank you guys We thank all of you for being here with us All right and with that we'd like to welcome our second set of candidates for the sheriff race if we can see are they both on here will they get their cameras turned on and everything and I'd again like to thank Nowcast San Antonio for helping us put this whole thing together I know Move Texas has worked with them over the years though I believe this is the first time virtually so thanks again to them First time virtually although we have helped you absolutely amazing candidate forums in the past you can check our YouTube channel for proof of that I've been I've been watching the crowdcast and we've gotten some upvotes on a bunch of the questions for the sheriff's candidates so I don't know if you're able to see that in your document Erin I've entered that in the document where it says the number of upvotes in red if you're able to see that cool if not I can make those oh it looks like we have the sheriff's candidates here you good with that Erin yes looks good do we still have Farrell or let me do some texting here and figure out what's going on with that yes I am here okay great I have to refresh my screen though because my screen looks frozen there it goes all right we're back on well done thank you all for joining us we'd like to continue with the second part of our of tonight's forum and please allow me the pleasure of introducing both of tonight's guest candidate Sheriff's Javier Salazar Bear County Sheriff and his challenger Mr. Gerard Jerry Rickoff thank you both for joining us this evening thank you Farrell thank you for the forum all right well we'd like to start off by giving both of you two minutes to explain tell us a little bit about yourself and tell us why you're the choice for this seat Sheriff's Salazar we're going to start with you followed by the contender Mr. Rickoff sure thank you so much it's been my honor to protect and serve this community for 28 years for the first 24 years of my career I was with the San Antonio Police Department the last four years I've been blessed to be the Bear County Sheriff I started out with the San Antonio Police Department at the age of 21 started out as a patrolman and worked my way up through the ranks as a matter of fact while working to get my education I served in various roles there as a community policing officer undercover I worked in community policing as an internal affairs investigator the public integrity supervisor also director of media services now what those jobs did was they all prepared me for now I acquired skills over those 28 years that I use on an everyday basis and it gave me a certain expertise in the field of policing it also gave me first-hand knowledge of every aspect of policing so that I am able to give input and guidance to every one of my deputies on a daily basis on an as-need basis some of the things that I've been blessed to be able to do here at the Sheriff's Office of course I've increased accountability and transparency through every one of our processes I've also increased dramatically, drastically training and education for our deputies I've also been given the ability to evolve this agency into the future the things that are being asked of us right now in policing I'm pleased to say that we're going to be on the right side of history at the Sheriff's Office because of the things that I've implemented and hope to continue to implement along with our relationship with the community Thank you Mr. Rickoff could you spend two minutes telling us a little bit about yourself and why you believe that you would make the best choice for the Office of Sheriff First I'd like to say thank you again for putting this forum on and also inventing the technique to allow people to vote a little quicker that was a unique use of technology that I'm going to use later in the interview First I'd like to say I come from a large family I have four brothers and two sisters my father was a judge and a long time public servant I have many family members that were public servants as matter of fact one of my brothers retired as a captain from the Sheriff's Office another was a police officer in the Washington DC area I was county clerk for 24 years I'm a professional administrator but I'm also a professional educator I taught the children from Sky Harbor and then I was an American hidden Cove on the deep south side of San Antonio for a little over seven years and so I think my unique capability is as an educator to bring a message of change to the community as well as my professional administration because I believe this is not a political office these aren't political decisions these aren't Republican decisions they're not independent or Democrat decisions they're simply administrative wisdom and we know that group knowledge is better than that group knowledge that's why I want to use real-time government I want to use 150 years of experience to give the officers in the street back up with real-time advice by people that we surround ourselves with to complete government I call it collaborated government it's real-time government it's using the body cameras in new way it's bringing technology in that is underutilized sensors we could help with the technology in the jail by using the new device that is made here in San Antonio that hospitals use that hotels use airlines use them it's a robotic device that can sanitize a room we need that type of technology at the jail but we also need to collect data we need to use technology in unique beneficial ways to reduce the incident of crime and also use a limited amount of time in the proper aspect technology can put us where the problems are thank you both thank you all so for the audience just in case anyone needs a refresher elected sheriffs in Texas are among the most powerful actors in the legal system they represent the county and they are interested with substantial power and discretion to perform a variety of functions from operating local jails like we just heard to policing to shaping public policy so with that I'd like to hand it off to Faro to begin the questions thank you very much Erin I'd like to start with you Sherif Salazar and I'd like to ask the question in a year where the relationship between law enforcement and communities of colors are being reexamined and reimagined what steps will you take to build trust between Bayer County Sheriff's Office and the communities of color well first and foremost Faro what we're going to do is continue to build on an agency that is reflective of the community that we serve we need to look like the community that we serve culturally and with the same ethical background that our community demands us and so we're going to continue to do that we're also going to continue to hold our folks accountable my opponent has stated that he wants to keep the disciplinary process out of the eyes of the public I disagree with that vehemently I think that when you work in the public sector when you work in public safety privacy goes out the window and I think that we have to maintain transparency in all of our practices and so I'm going to continue to do what I've been doing is building that reflective agency I'm sure that we're training people correctly being selected on who actually gets in and involving people accountably transparently with the public thank you Mr. Rickhoff your answer to the question I'll ask again in a year where relationship between law enforcement and communities of colors are being reexamined and reimagined what steps will you take to build trust between the Bayer County Sheriff's Office and communities of color well first I think the staff needs to represent the community in which they police and so we'll work very hard to make sure there's a equality in the employment process but I also think what we have to do is we have to understand that the officers that are policing these areas need to know so many of the people in the community by name I would challenge training to have these officers take meals with people and invite the community in as far as transparency it's the suspensions and the revocation and determinations that are kept from the public's eye I am very much a promoter of transparency I know sunlight is the sanitizer I know what runs from sunlight and so transparency has always been a hard mark of my administration at the courthouse for the past 24 years I'm well known as being a person that can bring technology in to also assist in the training so we don't see color and we recognize the body language as the primary indicator of where the intervention is going to take place and how the interaction is going to take place and so I think there's a lot of training that we can do and I think some of it we need to go to the legislature to really deep look at best practices around the country and when we do that we ought to do it on an incremental level in a continuous improvement manner continuous improvement is you move the ship of state one or two percent and that's what we're attempting to do when we modulate government government doesn't shift 30 or 20 percent it shifts one or two percent at a time and you do that by working with individuals and giving your personal time to the training sessions I don't have the law enforcement experience that the sheriff has but that allows me to be a patient type thinker I spent the early part of my career traveling the world I've been to many Muslim countries I've been to the Khyber Pass I've been to Afghanistan I've been to Mount Everest I am multi-culturally aware because of my educational experience and also my life work I am a frequent world traveler and I've benefitted and so I I think what a lot of we need to do is look at the training and have incremental improvement in that on a constant basis. Thank you. Thank you both so with the shootings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor amongst many others in the national news and Damien Daniels and Derels Malt Senior here locally if elected will you put in place a written policy that all officers use de-escalation when possible before using force if so how will you ensure that deputies and other personnel are held accountable for excessive or unnecessary uses of force Sheriff Salazar Yes, we in fact already have a policy in place for that but we've also got several other other tools that we bring to bear on those issues. First and foremost as I mentioned we're very selective on who gets into our agency. Over 90% of the people that apply do not get in because we are stricter than what has been seen in years past that who gets in. We've also dramatically increased training so we've doubled the number of in-service training hours that our deputies are spending in in-service. We've also got the longest detention academy of state of Texas that's by design. We want to make sure that our people are trained to the fullest extent possible. We also it's no secret you can google my record that comes to holding people accountable through the process. We ultimately are responsible for policing our own. If not when you do get into things like consent decrees and having the FBI come in and take over we're proud that we've got a working partnership with the FBI because absolutely we've owned people accountable. We've also got a policy a new policy that states that our deputies have a duty to intervene. We used to have a duty to report which was not enough for me. I don't want you to report things out of the fact. I want you to intervene before it becomes a problem or else you yourself will find yourself held accountable next to the person that's kneeling down on the suspect. Thank you so much Sheriff. Mr. Rickoff how will you ensure that deputies and other personnel are held accountable for excessive or unnecessary uses of force? Well I think we need to spend more training on ethics and the basic virtues that we're all vaccinated at at our kitchen table from our parents and other mechanisms in society whether it's your church or your family that would advise you. So I think the dignity and respect that we show each person is indication of how the outcome is going to be. I think there's a number of things we can do to change no-knock warrants. This is a recent event that we suspended those here. We should have looked at that years ago when you're on a foot chase for a suspect there should be some regulation that the person that's being chased is not touched by the person chasing them. We should have backup do that. We know that people's anxieties are at a high level we know their emotions are running and the adrenaline is running and sometimes those outcomes work out poorly for the suspect and for the officer that's trying to ascertain what the problem is and try to put them into custody. So I think common sense approaches and don't put the officers in situations where there's going to have to be aggressive behavior. Sometimes the best thing is to do nothing or just make observation. If you know who somebody is you can go arrest them the day after. They're going to go to work they're going to go to HEB they're going to go to the store you don't have to high speed chase them down the street. This is a sheriff who brought the cops TV show and used the citizens here as Hollywood entertainment. I don't know how he could have done that. I would have rejected that on the first read of the email and that episode ended up having an SAPD officer injured. That's why chief Salazar was in trouble with chief McManus because they were using that camera inappropriately. They don't belong in police cars for entertainment. Our citizens are not entertainment. We stopped doing that in 1800s with mental health hospitals. Why we continue to use policing as entertainment in America mystifies me. 10 seconds. I also want to ask the sheriff not to belittle me or name call me as he's done in these other forums. If he can resist doing that he'll show professionalism would appreciate it. I will remind the candidates that we do control the mute button. Thank you both gentlemen my next question to you a sheriff Salazar and it was a upvote from the public so they're very interested in this question. They would like to know will you support policies that decline to arrest or charge individual for low level offenses including possession of drugs and paraphernalia as well as expand sight and release and diversion programs. Yes, absolutely yes. We actually started working on sight and release on a limited basis with Nikola Hood when he was in office and we expanded it under Joe Gonzalez. Joe's plan I believe works a whole lot better than Nikola Hood's is. Look, jails are for people the society is afraid of because they're too dangerous to walk amongst us. Jails are not for people that were pissed off at for committing some minor infraction of the law. They're not for people that are mentally ill and they're not for people that are there simply because they can't afford to not be. So anything that helps us better utilize the jail system or space that's very expensive to maintain and to mend and also prevent somebody from getting caught up into that vicious cycle of incarceration. I'm an absolute fan of and I will continue just like I have been for the past four years. I will continue to work to make sure that we're expanding programs such as sight and release and non custodial intervention. Thank you. Mr. Rickoff, if given the chance will you support policies that declined to arrest or charge individual for low level offenses including possession of drugs and paraphernalia as well as expand the sight and release and diversion programs. I would absolutely embrace that. I think treatment in the European model is something we ought to model here in San Antonio for our citizens. I also believe that real time government which dictate that we magistrate the people at the book encounter. We have a DA we have a defense attorney and we have a judge if they're going to be no billed by the DA we turn them loose immediately. We don't incarcerate them and hold them for three days. I also want to bring up that bail bond reform is critical to our community if we don't get that citizen back to his job in three days. That family disintegrates because there's no milk money for him because he's terminated. This sheriff has never been to a bail bond board meeting. I have a reputation of going through it very hard including bail bond licenses when they were in approach to the community. Anybody can go back to history as well. It was very aggressive and I was chairman of the bail bond board. This gentleman has never been to a bail bond board even though he's a voting member. Can we interrupt for a second to just double check your mic? Jerry? Yes. Is there something going on with your mic? Is that our better now? Yes, it is improved. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Pass you to Aaron. Okay, so according to a study conducted by the Vera Institute of Justice, Texas has experienced a 328 percent increase in the total number of people locked up over the last decades. Are you committed to decreasing incarceration in the community? If so, how will you reduce the number of people in the Bear County jail and ensure that the jail will be a place that decreases recidivism? And if not, why not? And I'd like to start with Mr. Rickoff if we can. Okay. I'd like to address that by saying, and I agree with the sheriff, of course, that the jail is really a prison center. And so what we want to do is not incarcerate people when treatment is the best avenue for interdicting the problem. And so this is the European model. We often see it used in places like Portugal has a very strong model of sending people to counseling. So many of the problems that we have societal are health related. And the stress of those health related things spells out into drugs or self-medication with alcohol and causing the DWIs and some of the family violence. So I think once we get into a region of understanding that this is a medically complicated, it's a counseling issue. It's a psychological assistance that we need to do for people. I think that's what will help with, you know, going back and forth to jail. We also have to look at very closely at how we can help incarcerate young people. 18, 19, 20-year-olds assist to prove over and over again once they're incarcerated, they're coming back. The stress of that first incarceration puts a horrible brand on them for the rest of their lives. Both in occupational, educational opportunities and their own personal life story. Thank you, Mr. Well, I'm a part of the incarceration community, and how will you reduce the number of people in the Bayer County Jail and ensure that the jail decreases the recidivism. Absolutely. I'm proud to say we've already done so. Nationally, the recidivism rate is over 70%. Here, locally, it's up to 30%. That's in large part of the hard work help them change their behavior within the jail and use their time wisely to learn something else or learn something that they may have been doing before and propel themselves out into the outside world, hopefully coming into the jail as a tax consumer and emerging as a taxpayer. We work with Move Texas and Texas Organizing Project on doing jail programs within the jail on helping empower people to knowledge, to giving the knowledge of how government works. I'm proud to have partnered with Move Texas on, so those jail programs are our key to it. Now, the sheriff can only do simple lunch as far as reducing the jail population, but I'm proud to say that at the beginning of COVID, we knew we were going to have to reduce our footprint in order to avoid amplifying or incubating and amplifying this illness throughout the community. Our COVID numbers are very, very low by the way, but I'll give you that information later. We were successfully able to, with the help of the judges and the DA's office and all the other stakeholders' pretrial services, to successfully bring down our jail population by about 800 people on a daily basis with regard to COVID. Now, thanks to TDC doing some things and the governor doing some things, that brought our jail population back up. And while we were able to successfully bring down our jail population by about 800 people, that's 800 people that were put out onto the streets, allowed to continue with their lives and allowed to be gainfully employed, but also reduce our footprint with regard to COVID. And by the way, save Fair Country taxpayers over $15,000 a day. So, absolutely. I'm going to continue to work at every opportunity to reduce that jail population the right way. And I might add, try and came down during that time. Thank you, Sheriff. So, speaking about the jail population and the numbers going up or down brings me into a next question. That's one of the concerns, not only of ours, but also of the citizens. Individuals with mental health. Now we know that individuals with mental health illnesses and drug abuse disorders are disproportionately represented in jails and prisons in Texas. Our sheriffs are powerfully positioned to push for reform. How will you prepare your deputies to and coordinate with outside agencies to best help people experiencing mental health crisis? Who's that for, Farrell? I'm sorry, that's for you, Mr. Salazar. Okay. Well, look, I've said it before, that jails are not for the mentally ill. And unfortunately in this country and absolutely in the state of Texas, we've got a great job turning our jails into nothing more than glorified mental health hospitals. And that's not what they're there for. That's not fair to the taxpayers. That's not fair to the employees that work there. And it's certainly not fair to the poor people that are incarcerated when they should be out getting treatment somewhere. Here in the last couple of days, we've had, and I did a press conference on it earlier today where we've actually successfully prevented four suicide attempts over the last two days. That's an enormous high number. Our numbers are very, very high right now. I attribute that to the fact that typically we have about 30-some-odd people that are awaiting mental health beds somewhere in the state. Right now, again, because of the state of Texas and the governor doing things the way they're doing, we have about over 90 people that are currently awaiting a mental health bed. So yeah, we're a hotbed for mental health issues and suicide attempts in the jail. I'm pushing forward every day. I'm shouting it from the rooftops. Absolutely. I'll partner with Move Texas or the Reliable Revolutionaries or Texas Organizing Project as I have in the past on anything you guys would like to partner with. Now, it looks like we're going to have to make some noise going into the legislative session. Matter of fact, I'm just talking to the Texas Commission on Jail Standard to compliment me on my press event this afternoon and urge me to get involved with our state legislators to push for legislation to make sure that we're making better use with these people out of a jail, get them to a treatment bed where they deserve to be, and that can truly help them with what they need. Thank you. Mr. Rickoff, hearing that we had four attempted suicides within the last two days in the Barrett County Sheriff's Office, I think that, in the jail, I'm sorry, I think that sheds a huge light on the fact that there's definitely issues there that deal with mental health. The question then goes to you. If elected, how would you deal with individuals that have these mental health and drug abuse disorders? And how would you kind of push to help rid the gel of those problems? I think the first thing you want to look at is the triaging at booking. It's a very sophisticated person that can ascertain the illness of mental health. We have professionals at the booking counter so we could trigger appropriate treatment, appropriate setting within the jail, or very possibly release to a hospital. Right at booking, you have to watch the front door, not just the back door. You can't lay off blame to the state, the governor, or any other agency. We have to deal with the problem ourselves. Even if we have limited scope of capabilities, limited resources, we must do the best we can. We cannot use the finger pointing or blame on someone else. I understand that about 25% of the population is affected by either mental illness or substance abuse issues. And so knowing those figures, we have to be forewarned to have the programs available immediately. Police officers aren't only there to warn people to not violate the law, they should also be there to offer citizens services that they can go to to self-help themselves. A lot of this is metabolic. And so we have to look at the food that we're giving the prisoners. And I think people have to be aware how diabetes affects their mental acuity and their actions. And so I think this is a very complex problem. But to quote Einstein, the most complex problems have very simple solutions. We just need to get the whiteboard out and look at the best practices. Every state has best practices that are published every year. We need to glean through those for look for that incremental improvement. Again, I'll go back to the booking. It's critical that the booking is done in a very careful, deliberate, scientific way with psychological analysis done immediately when they're coming into custody. That's part of the solution is identifying the problems early. And so we could trigger the right response to get immediate relief to that troubled person. Thank you. So sheriffs play a critical role in the immigration system and increasingly sheriffs throughout the nation are making clear that they will maintain a line of separation between local law enforcement action and federal immigration policy and prioritize providing public safety for all county residents regardless of immigration status. Mr. Rickoff, will you commit to explore every avenue allowed by law to reduce the deportation of immigrants who go through Texas jails? And will your office refrain from sharing information with ICE beyond what is required by federal or state law? Well, let me first state. I believe in the rule law. I believe in maintaining whatever is passed by the legislature. That's our obligation as law enforcement officials or whatever public service that you do. But I think that I'm extremely empathetic. I am second generation myself. And so I am empathetic to the situation. I've been in other countries. I've been to third world countries. I've seen the struggles, not just for food equality, but economic equality outside this country. People suffer horribly. That's why they so thirst to come to enjoy our great democracy and our freedoms and our economic benefits here. So how can we say to a man or a woman that just wants to improve their lot in life that they're to be punished or somehow degraded? No, I'm very empathetic to that issue. I think, though, that we do need to maintain the rule of law. And so I don't make those laws. I follow them. I'm sworn to protect and defend. And that's what I would intend to do. But I would be very moderate on sharing information if it was inappropriate or illegal or in any way shaped in a way that would be against humanity. Thank you. Sheriff Salazar, will you commit to explore every avenue allowed by law to reduce the deportation of immigrants who go through Texas jails? And will your office refrain from sharing the information with ICE beyond what is required by federal or state law? Absolutely. Although I'm always going to follow the law, obviously, as a peace officer for most of my life, there has to absolutely be a separation between federal immigration enforcement and local law enforcement. We have different missions. Our mission is to protect 2 million Bear County residents documented, undocumented, or otherwise. It's our job to protect and serve. And we can't do that if the immigrant community is afraid that we're going to deport them. We can't have people just tolerating being victims of domestic violence. We can't have people allowing their children to be abused or molested in any way simply because they're more afraid of me as a law enforcement officer than they are the person that's doing these horrible things to their child. So absolutely there has to be a separation. You will never see things here like 287G, not while I'm Bear County Sheriff. And look, we're going to abide by the law, but there absolutely has to be a separation. And I'm going to do everything that I can to make sure that that separation is made very clear. Thank you. Not sure if we lost Farrell again. Never mind. Sorry. There we go. So I have a final question for each of you. And I want to start with Mr. Rickoff. If elected to the position of sheriff, what makes you feel more qualified than your opponent for that office? Well, I believe the litany of lawsuits that have been filed against the president office holder are just a testimony of bad policing, whether it was the death of Damien, an Afghan vet in his front yard, or the death of a child at a modular home that was shot by a deputy, or the kidnapping, alleged kidnapping, a couple that I noticed on TV that are suing the sheriff's office. The lawsuits are piling up, and these are all costs to the taxpayers, but it also degrades the integrity of law enforcement. I truly believe that we need to bring back old fashioned values. The things we learned in kindergarten, we all know what they are. They're pre-written, they're pre-ordained, they're in literature, they're in our hearts, they're in our soul. We need to implement those on a real-time basis and be reflective. I believe that we must learn to know that we control our thoughts. Our thoughts don't control us. And once you come to that wisdom, you can self-modulate yourself and take a better path in life. And those are the life lessons that we need to instill in the deputies that we hire. We also have to relieve the stresses on these deputies. The labor agreement with the sheriff's office is up right now, and so we need to look at an adequate pay package and also incentives to retain the good officers that are within the ranks. I believe that this community has lost faith in this office, and I think the men and women that work in the sheriff's office have lost faith in the command of this gentleman, and we need to use that word loosely, sir. Sheriff Salazar, if you're re-elected, what do you believe makes you a better choice for the sheriff's office than Mr. Rickoff? Well, speaking of lawsuits, I think the 11,000 American detectives whose data was just breached by some of his technologies when he was our mediocre county clerk, I think they're definitely lining up to sue the county based upon his ineptitude at his previous job. If anybody wants to hold the highest-ranking law enforcement job in the county, I don't think so, not while I'm here, and have something to say about it. I've been serving this community, as I mentioned, for 28 years, over half my life, and I don't intend to go anywhere. I bring a well-rounded and very, very experienced resume to the table. I bring the solid mentality that needs to be possessed by somebody in law enforcement, especially in the highest-ranking office. Donut has talked about how he's already gotten to go hat shopping and gun shopping. Well, you know what? It takes a whole lot more than a gun and a hat to make a sheriff. It takes somebody that needs that's got the heart of a guardian that is able to protect and serve this community as I have done for 28 years, 24 of which were with the San Antonio Police Department, and the last four of which have been blessed to be the Bear County Sheriff. And with very much respect, I'm respectfully asking for your vote once again to allow me to continue to protect and serve this community. I love so dearly. Thank you very much. I'll pass you off to Aaron. All right, thank you all. Well, that is all that we have tonight, I believe. Thank you both for joining on behalf of Nowcast, Move Texas, and the Reliable Revolutionaries. Thank you for joining us for our Down to the Wire debates. You know, in the words of the late great John Lewis, freedom is not a state. It is an act. It is not some enchanted garden perched high on a distant plateau, where we can finally sit down and rest. Freedom is the continuous action we must all take, and each generation must do its part to create an even more fair, more just society. So please follow us all. Follow Move Texas on social media at Move Texas on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Nowcast.se as well, and just Reliable Revolutionaries have a specific handle. Just Reliable Revolutionaries, or you can also find us at reliablerevolutionaries.com. All right, thank you all, and join us for another debate with some County Commissioner candidates and others this coming Thursday night. Gentlemen, best of luck in this election. Thank you, gentlemen. I appreciate it very much. Thank you very much. Thank you again for the forum.