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Candidates for council places, elections, please come take a seat at the Dias.

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Good evening and welcome everybody. Everybody in the audience to the candidates and people at home.

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Thank you for joining us to the fourth meeting. My name is Robert Yao and I'll be hosting this evening.

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We'll be doing this in two rounds. We have the candidates for city council up first and then after a very quick break.

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we will get to meet the candidates for mayor.

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And I want to start off with a question and allow each candidate

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to introduce him or herself.

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Take about two to three minutes on this,

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and it's your chance to explain who you are.

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So here's the question for each of you.

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Please introduce yourselves to our live and streaming audiences.

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Share with us how long you've lived in Congress

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and what brought you to the city.

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And also, please share with us the qualifications

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you bring to serve on the Congress City Council.

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And we'll start with Renée Pichol first.

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Thank you.

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Good evening, everyone.

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My name is Renée Pichol.

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I've lived in Converse for 25 years.

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I am a Judson graduate.

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I graduated from high school in this district.

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And so Converse is home.

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I am a retired teacher.

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I taught for 36 years in Judson, ISD.

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I served on this city council in 2009 as the first African American female to serve on this council.

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Before I was on the council, I was appointed to the EDC and I've also served on other commissions planning and zoning, building and standards and parks and recreation.

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Let's see. As I was at Judson ISD, I served as trustee in the district for eight years.

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Five of those is President of the Judson School Board. And I've served currently, I'm serving.

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The tourism if I'm elected, I guess I won't be doing that very much longer.

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but I'm serving on the Congress for Terrors of Knox Ridge subdivision.

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And I'm currently a member of the East Side Economic Development Advisory Council

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with being led by Judge Peter Sakai and Representative Barbara Garvin Hawkins

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and the purpose of that commission is to find out what is going to happen with Frost

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Banks in a after the spares contract is up.

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So I've got a lot of experience and that's a little bit about me.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Stephanie Gonzales, same question please.

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Hello, my name is Stephanie Gonzales.

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I've been a resident of Congress for the past eight years.

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I moved here from Ohio and I chose here because I love the city and I love its people.

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I'm a liaison for our bus liaison for Parks and Recs.

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I'm also on the Canyon Region Motor Board of Trustees.

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I've been a paralegal and I've also been a state trooper.

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So I bring with me quite a bit of experience from how

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you've received and I've been on Council the past two years.

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Thank you.

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Cassandra Leon.

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Good evening, everybody.

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I'm Cassandra Leon.

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I am one of the newer residents on the city council right now.

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I have been here for almost four years after being here a little over

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year and a half.

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I decided to run for city council, which would be my first

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time doing anything with any of the cities that I've been in. We've moved here from Southern California.

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Set on the, that was the liaison for the Building in Standards Commission for the first year

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and I've been on Council for two years. So those are my qualifications. I'm a little bit newer

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into the city politics, but I've learned a lot in the last two years being here.

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Thank you. Terry Borland, what brings you to a conversation what qualifications do you bring to the

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I've been on the

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Parks and Recreation Commission for three years before that I was

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on the Historic Preservation Commission for two years and as far as my residency here, my

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mom and dad moved to this little community in the mid-50s.

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I was in 1st grade, we went to a little school house without no restrooms.

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There was no school buses, so the mama stuck us and you better not complain to the driver.

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Anyway,

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I've got time to work on some issues here in our town and I'd like to opportunity

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to do that. Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Stacey Adams.

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Same opportunity.

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Nice to see you again, Robert.

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And thank you for doing this tonight.

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Hello, everyone.

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My name is Stacey Adams.

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Senior.

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I am a dedicated leader in Entrepreneur and Community Advocate for the City of

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Commerce.

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I'm a graduate of the University of New Mexico.

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I'm a faithful member of my church,

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Northside Church of Christ. I'm the foul proud father of three handsome, good-looking son who

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looked just like their dad once here. Now in the middle next to the mayor, Rachel Hanson, that's

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Austin and Shelby, my oldest who lives and works in Japan and in my baby son who's a senior

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in college and he's done his internship for San Antonio ISD and is going to be a future employee

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for Justin ISD coaching for one of the schools. Very proud of him with that. I'm currently

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your city councilman here in place five. My first term. Very proud of that job. I've been very proud

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of the things that I've learned while I've been here.

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My family not been here since 2005,

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where I have led many things for Jackson, ISD, and in the community.

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I'm a business owner of a couple of businesses,

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the limitless, where we do motivational workshops.

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That organization has been around since 2003.

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I am the owner, our past owner, my baby boy just took over my dream team, the dream team

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is organization that take young men and we put them through basketball sports and tournaments

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and then get them scholarships into college. So we're very proud to say that we have many

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young men that are college graduates because of that organization. I am a board member of the

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Texas Association of Black City Councilments

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for the State of Texas.

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I am the president of the president of community

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and relations for the Bryce Strong Foundation,

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where I led the Bryce Wisdom Way

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that sits on Judson School Campus

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and then those of you that don't know

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in universally hospital,

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he has a waiting room on a night's floor

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that I'm very proud to have led

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with the University Health leaders there.

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I believe I'm your guy for this seat

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because I believe in the seat of Congress.

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I believe in it before I became a city council

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and a councilman and now that I am a city councilman,

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I know the work that it takes to be a successful city councilman.

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I am here to serve, I'm here to work and that is not a promise

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that is something that you can look up

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and see that I will do the job.

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Thank you.

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Thank you. I would like to pose a couple questions at least to each of the candidates and to avoid too much repetition

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I will pose a different question to each place position and the interest of fairness will work in opposite directions

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But I'm going to start with place five and ask you to stay see Adam senior

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What makes Congress an attractive place to live for people with school aged children?

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Perfect, and I'm perfect. I got to answer their question. I had school-aged boys when I moved here

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What I loved about this city. It allowed me to father my sons and

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give them the

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Structure that I demanded at home. The city I believe has that same foundation

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It's a

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Family city where you find

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mothers and fathers that care about education.

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They care about safety.

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They care about parks.

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They care about the neighbors and what's going on in our city.

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And so for me, this is a great place to start a family and raise a family.

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And hopefully it is a place where your child can graduate from our education system

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and decide they want to work in our city.

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Thank you.

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Thank you. Terry Borland, same question, attractive to families with school aged children.

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But we've got a pretty well balanced little town here. It's close to a major city.

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I like to brag on our parks, our city parks. And since I've been driving around doing a little bit

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I'll start to notice more of the little parks that some of the neighborhoods have also

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besides our city parks, but there's, I wish we had more employment that where you could stay here

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we're working in Converse, suppose that's something we can work on.

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But I think it was a quiet little town when mom and daddy moved to your year to go.

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And it still mostly is a quiet little town and I

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like it here.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Question for a place three, Cassandra Leon.

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What do you see as the most pressing needs for infrastructure or capital projects in the

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city?

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I think we need to update more of our roads.

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That's one of our biggest complaints

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when we're out on the streets and with our citizens,

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we constantly hear our roads need more improvement.

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Capital projects, I for sure would love to see things

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like a civic plaza park, place to put our Christmas trees

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have recitals and stuff like that, a congregating area.

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And of course, more kind of shopping centers and stuff like that

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that would draw people into converse rather than having to go to San Antonio?

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Thank you.

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Question for the a place one candidate, we'll start with Stephanie Gonzalez.

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How will you measure your success as a council member two years from when you get elected in November?

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I think that is very hard to put into a song that at the same time.

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I think he measured that in the relationships that you are with from the position.

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the respect and the people that you get to know. That's also how you bring people to the

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polls. Yes, you keep that relationship going. You meet them and you try to keep that

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interaction throughout the time that you're on the desk.

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Same question, Renee. I'd have to concur. I'd have to concur with Ms. Gonzalez.

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This is not

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Um...

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I think that type of success would probably be measured through relationships, some of the people that you deal with, citizens and residents could probably answer that question, but I would hope that the impact that I would make when I get elected, that that would prove that the success comes in the collaboration.

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with the entire council and the residents of the city.

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Thank you.

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We'll start this round and reverse and we'll start with you, Renee, and for the place one question.

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Do you think the quality of life in Congress has gotten better or worse in the last five years?

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Can you give examples in what you would do to make sure that Congress residents enjoy living here?

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better, absolutely better.

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Our streets and roads have, we're on a schedule where, we have, the budget has been put aside an earmark for the streets to be repaired and maintained. And I believe that that's happening and we can see that. Quality of life is better because of the growth in the city.

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I think what would even be more attractive is if we can push our boundaries and if we're

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able to push our boundaries, at least to ITN, that would bring more growth, then other

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things will be attractive to the city like businesses.

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Thank you.

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Stephanie, same question.

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I

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would like to say that they've improved over time, but I think there's always a flux for every city that, you know, you're going to see good and bad at different times, but I really think we've improved.

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A lot of that is due to the fact that our crime rates are very low, and that's due to a really good treatment, right, police department and well-trained fire department, our safety is beyond approach.

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And I think the growth that you see coming in around us is going to do nothing but make

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us stronger.

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Thank you.

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A question for a place three, Cassandra Leon, what would you tell someone moving to the

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area from out of state, for instance, Southern California, of why Congress is the better

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place to settle than some nearby cities?

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Well, I can tell you from my standpoint moving out here we allowed our children to choose the state of the city that we were going to move closest to.

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They chose San Antonio out of our top three and we decided on a smaller community next to it and we liked.

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We just liked how they had a lot of things here, the lakes.

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The parks were one of the major things when you have small kids or teenagers.

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They need things to do places to play, soccer, you know, tennis and stuff like that.

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And they were right in the middle of housing tracks.

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And we do have the Walmart and we have cities.

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Yes, very close to us that have other stores.

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But it was just the fact that it was more of a small, like, tight knit community that had access to the bigger city.

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but you didn't have to be in the bigger city

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and far away from it to have the amenities.

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Thank you.

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A question for place five, starting with Terry.

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Where in Congress do you most like to take out of town visitors?

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The answer is that I would like to take them to our city parks.

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And specifically, I like to take them to Anton Schuman Park.

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And I would like to show them the natural steps, and anybody who doesn't know what I'm talking about,

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you should go to Anton, Juman Park, and see the natural steps.

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And that's my answer.

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Thank you.

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Stacey, same question.

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Yes, so I have guests coming in from out of town.

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It's one of the first places we go,

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because we are sports family.

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So we definitely go to Judson Stadium.

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So we're going to go and hit a track.

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We're going to support the football team

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and join the football game.

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And our community is so great.

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And it's small enough where you can connect

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with the individuals who has the power to take you

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and your family onto the field.

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and so your guest feel very special when they're out on the field because they're your guest.

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And that's very meaningful to my family and my guest to come in.

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I do agree with Terry that she went park.

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I discovered that park this year with Councilwoman Leon.

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We walked the trails and that is a beautiful, beautiful park.

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And so I've taken my family back and so we've walked the park.

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But also our mom and pop restaurants are very specific and very special.

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you can't find those anywhere else in the state of Texas and so we want to go by. One of the most

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recent one is the brunch bot and it is a great little place to go and take your family to. But then

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lastly we have beautiful events when we have the city put on the Christmas programs where the

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houses are being judged and so you can drive through a community and look at Christmas lights

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or for Halloween, you have our specific neighborhood

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that everyone knows to go to for the great

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came to the great gathering of our community.

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So I think Converse has something very special

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that you can't find in Wales in the state of Texas.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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We'll start again with a place five.

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Stacy, what sorts of businesses would you most like

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to see come to the city of Converse?

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I'm loving my questions tonight.

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So you know, it would be nice.

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If I had a magic wand, well, I would have a bookies,

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I would have this ATB, which we'll see here a little bit.

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We'll have grand hotels that will be here

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so that when your family comes in,

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they could stay in the city of Congress.

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Something that's very special to me,

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my son that is here in our, we have to travel

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to go to the dry cleaners.

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And it's like, we need to dry cleaners in Congress.

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Those are some of the things I think

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that will be great, little shopping centers,

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where families can go out together.

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There's a splash pad in the middle of the shopping center.

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And mothers and fathers can go out and shop

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and have a good time here in a little community for that.

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That would be my wish if we had it.

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And I would love to work with the EDC

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to start to get some of these things here in Ossie.

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Thank you.

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Thank you, sir.

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And question Terry, businesses to come.

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I'd love to see a new business going to the old steel fabricating facility trying to think

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of the name of the company that moved out of there.

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The place I'm talking about is if you cross the tracks and turn left on 1976 and you

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go about a mile, it's on the left.

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What's the name of it?

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Starts over there, L. I'm sorry, I can't think.

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I would love to see a new business move into there.

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And I would also like to see some new mom and pops,

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or I was really glad to see the drawing

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on blank.

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but they move in and they move out,

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but we'd like to see them stay.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Question for Cassandra Leon?

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Think about the other cities in the Metrocom area.

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Can you think of anything that's going on in an nearby city

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that you'd like to either emulate or avoid emulating?

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I believe it's live oak.

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They have different kind of functions on every holiday.

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They do scarecrow, judging, contests off of their main roads and stuff like that.

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So I would like to emulate more things like that, getting more of our citizens involved with fun activities,

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definitely would be probably a huge thing that I would like to emulate.

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What I would not want to is probably just not.

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I won't point out any cities, but not to be able to grow any further than we already have.

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We still have room and much more like things that we can do, so I just would not want to be completely landlocked and unable to do anything.

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So I wouldn't want to emulate that. Thank you.

295
00:24:52,050 --> 00:24:55,470
Thank you. A question for place one will start with Stephanie Gonzalez.

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What sort of budgetary priorities do you have that would differ from what the city is currently doing?

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I think I would like to put more money into our parks than what we currently have budgeted.

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If I could wave a wand and had a new one as budget, I would like to see that as a star.

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But I'd also like to add an entertainment area.

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I'd love to see EDC's dream of the entertainment district come to fruition as well as my own dream

301
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be to put our trade facility in of the place department, fire department, says that they had

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to have updated facilities,

303
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but that wouldn't be fine.

304
00:25:42,270 --> 00:25:44,290
Thank you. Renee Pashals, same question.

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My budgetary priorities would also be in the parks. That's what I am advocating to bring

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the attraction to the city. I think if we start with recreation, something that all families

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can consume, recreation, that would be where we could start putting the money,

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beautifying the parks, and also enhancing the lakes. As I was on the

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council before, the lakes became one of our priorities. And so now that

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North Park has families that go and fish, I was able to, with the collaboration of the council

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to have a schedule to have the city put on a schedule from the Department of Texas Parks

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Wildlife.

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So that we would always have our lakes stocked, I'd like to see that in our other lakes.

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And I think that if we do that, the other things, the other attractions, business, and other things will come.

315
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Thank you.

316
00:26:59,910 --> 00:27:05,870
I'd like to get each of you about two minutes for closing statements, and I want to work in reverse order from how we started.

317
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So, stay see Adam Sr.

318
00:27:07,270 --> 00:27:08,490
I'd like you to start, please.

319
00:27:10,150 --> 00:27:11,350
I'm sorry to repeat the question.

320
00:27:12,330 --> 00:27:12,570
Sorry.

321
00:27:12,750 --> 00:27:13,450
Close things.

322
00:27:14,310 --> 00:27:15,290
Any closing remarks?

323
00:27:15,290 --> 00:27:19,510
things you'd like to to leave the audience and the people at home with before your election.

324
00:27:19,810 --> 00:27:26,030
Thank you. As I said in my opening remarks, I am born to serve. I remember my dad, he was a

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preacher and a elder in church. And we would be the first family wise. We'd be the first ones in

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and the last ones to leave. But I say, when I grew up, I'm not doing that. And he was very involved in

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the community. And I said, when I grew up, I'm not doing that. And I left home to go away to college on

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Wednesday landed in New Mexico and went to Bible class where I was announced the director

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of youth ministry at a church in New Mexico. And from that day I was 18 years old from that

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day to this day I have served in the communities that I lived in. You know me because you've

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00:28:05,030 --> 00:28:11,990
seen me, you know me because you see my sons who's very proud to be working in their community.

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00:28:11,990 --> 00:28:13,170
My son is in Japan.

333
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He went there with no permit.

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He went there with the language barrier.

335
00:28:18,910 --> 00:28:20,130
He didn't have a driver's license.

336
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He didn't have a car.

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He had a baby stroller and luggage.

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And now my son, when I walk into the arena,

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and they are yelling his name and calling his name

340
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and how he's giving back and training.

341
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My son is here now with me.

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He works with me and he helps care.

343
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And he is so good and so passionate with seniors.

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Why is that because that's what they saw my baby son who wants to take on my legacy and continue to give scholarship to young men

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So that they can go to school and further their education. They're doing that because they saw that's what they are dad has done

346
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I believe that I will continue to be visible

347
00:28:58,870 --> 00:29:05,190
I will continue to have transparency for this city and what's going on with the city if I don't know it

348
00:29:05,190 --> 00:29:16,210
But we have a very powerful city staff that I can go to and a mayor that I can go to and I can get those answers for it.

349
00:29:16,450 --> 00:29:19,110
Tonight I want to thank my son who's here tonight.

350
00:29:19,230 --> 00:29:21,390
I want to thank my campaign manager who's here with me.

351
00:29:21,570 --> 00:29:22,990
Maybe I shouldn't have said that, but that's who he is.

352
00:29:23,170 --> 00:29:24,770
And he's here and I want to thank you for being here.

353
00:29:25,090 --> 00:29:27,530
And thank you all for listening to me.

354
00:29:27,810 --> 00:29:28,590
Thank you. Terrible.

355
00:29:41,950 --> 00:29:56,690
And I was also glad to see Sherman Williams has moved into the community, but but I really I really got started in all this because of

356
00:29:57,170 --> 00:29:59,310
Uh, no man named Harry Marbach.

357
00:29:59,530 --> 00:29:59,910
Oh, yeah.

358
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And he's no longer with us, and I sort of started getting involved in things.

359
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And what he started was to create a museum for the city.

360
00:30:15,360 --> 00:30:24,440
And we've had since the family donated some some acreage and the old home.

361
00:30:24,440 --> 00:30:36,200
We had a promise of something to be pretty nice, but it's proved to be too complicated for the city.

362
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And one thing I would do if I got in, I would try to lead discussions where we could maybe uncomplicate things.

363
00:30:48,940 --> 00:30:58,060
and have the the the shutters removed from that old home and open it to the public.

364
00:30:59,320 --> 00:31:06,880
That's my idea and that's why that's one of the reasons that I decide to run.

365
00:31:09,300 --> 00:31:11,200
Thank you, Cassandra Leon, closing remarks.

366
00:31:14,420 --> 00:31:18,200
I appreciate being a city council member for the past two years.

367
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I know I jumped into the city of political ring very quickly as we moved here from California.

368
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I wanted to make sure that I became part of my community.

369
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So, I did a lot of work, educated myself, and I promised on my next term if I am

370
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relected, I will continue to be present and seen and supportive of our staff and our citizens

371
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open for communication.

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And this term I want to go much further out of my comfort zone

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than just being a normal city council member. And I want to dedicate my time bringing

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our community more together so that we can move forward together. So I'm just asking for a

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I appreciate every one of you for helping me along this journey and communicating and just being

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citizens of commerce and this amazing city.

377
00:32:18,740 --> 00:32:19,860
Thank you.

378
00:32:19,960 --> 00:32:22,160
Thank you, per place one, Stephanie Gonzalez.

379
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I'm Stephanie Gonzalez.

380
00:32:26,420 --> 00:32:30,260
I have been your city council representative for the past two years.

381
00:32:30,380 --> 00:32:34,300
I'm a mother, a grandmother, a foster to a job parent.

382
00:32:35,460 --> 00:32:43,120
I enjoy it every bit of this city and love being part of the community and being out with citizens,

383
00:32:44,280 --> 00:32:48,100
which you will find me and just about any of the functions, all of the meetings.

384
00:32:49,140 --> 00:32:50,520
I try to make every one of them.

385
00:32:51,760 --> 00:32:55,520
I totally enjoy what I do and I do it not for myself.

386
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I do it because I enjoy people and with.

387
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And that's where it brings me back.

388
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I'd like to be re-elected for hybrid reasons.

389
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Thank you.

390
00:33:06,380 --> 00:33:08,220
And finally, for Place One, Renee Pashow.

391
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Thank you.

392
00:33:10,060 --> 00:33:15,540
I'm an advocate for cultivating converse to become a destination city.

393
00:33:16,700 --> 00:33:20,860
One where visitors will want to come spend their money and their time.

394
00:33:21,980 --> 00:33:26,040
I would like to create the attraction of elevating our parks.

395
00:33:26,960 --> 00:33:28,940
And North Park is an example of that.

396
00:33:28,940 --> 00:33:35,040
I'm not running against my opponent, I think she's done a wonderful job for two years.

397
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What I am running is toward the potential that Converse can be.

398
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I am running for the citizens of Converse in building relationships and helping the mayor

399
00:33:50,900 --> 00:33:57,260
in the city and the staff to bring converse to the point of destination.

400
00:33:58,760 --> 00:34:06,720
I'm hoping that building the grounds around the lakes in the park and even an amphitheater

401
00:34:06,720 --> 00:34:14,960
I heard Mr. Borland talk about at Schumann Park that they have, I don't know what type of

402
00:34:14,960 --> 00:34:23,540
it is, but I was even thinking about if I'm elected, getting with EDC and having natural

403
00:34:23,540 --> 00:34:31,600
type of seating arrangement, like railroad ties at an amphitheater. I think those type of attractions

404
00:34:32,240 --> 00:34:39,880
will attract other businesses to the city. And so that is why I'm running. So, hey, hey vote for Renee.

405
00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:45,540
Thank you very much. I'd like to thank all of the Council candidates for their participation.

406
00:34:45,540 --> 00:34:50,880
and would like to invite the mayoral candidates to come take their places for our second round.

407
00:34:51,180 --> 00:34:51,800
Thank you.

408
00:34:55,020 --> 00:34:55,840
Thank you, sir.

409
00:34:56,020 --> 00:34:56,540
For being here.

410
00:34:56,720 --> 00:34:57,300
Thank you again.

411
00:36:52,500 --> 00:36:53,300
Thank you very much.

412
00:36:53,380 --> 00:36:55,600
I'd like to welcome the mayoral candidates.

413
00:36:56,300 --> 00:36:59,280
The format for this, I'd like to be very similar to the last.

414
00:36:59,360 --> 00:37:02,380
When I do post questions, I'll post the same one to all four of you.

415
00:37:02,440 --> 00:37:06,440
I will switch order, reverse order, so that in the issue of equality.

416
00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:08,560
And start off with a brief introduction.

417
00:37:08,560 --> 00:37:16,440
So tell us how long you've lived in Congress, what brought you to the city, and tell us what you think makes for a good mayor.

418
00:37:16,480 --> 00:37:17,980
I'll start with you, John Shadron.

419
00:37:33,760 --> 00:37:34,040
Oh, no.

420
00:37:34,860 --> 00:37:35,500
No, it's not.

421
00:37:36,560 --> 00:37:37,740
I'll start over again.

422
00:37:37,740 --> 00:37:39,060
My name is John Shadron.

423
00:37:39,300 --> 00:37:41,600
I've lived in Congress for 40 years.

424
00:37:42,340 --> 00:37:43,660
The Air Force brought me here.

425
00:37:43,740 --> 00:37:46,440
I served in the Air Force for 10 and a half years.

426
00:37:47,200 --> 00:37:49,620
I was in a unit called Social Actions.

427
00:37:49,620 --> 00:37:55,340
and what we did is we taught race relations, equal opportunity, and then substance abuse.

428
00:37:56,540 --> 00:38:03,300
My main objective in that was substance abuse, although I did do some race relations training also.

429
00:38:06,010 --> 00:38:11,590
And here's part of the question. I'm sorry. What do you think makes for a good man?

430
00:38:12,110 --> 00:38:17,970
Gotcha. And I'd also like to mention I've been married to my wife for 29 years now.

431
00:38:17,970 --> 00:38:24,550
I have a son, Joshua, who just turned 19, he is attending Texas A&M in college station.

432
00:38:25,590 --> 00:38:26,530
What makes a good mayor?

433
00:38:26,910 --> 00:38:30,630
A good mayor is someone that can work with all individuals.

434
00:38:31,730 --> 00:38:34,890
They're open to suggestions, they're transparent.

435
00:38:36,410 --> 00:38:44,790
They don't try to belittle people, they don't try to bully people, and I think that this

436
00:38:44,790 --> 00:38:50,880
one of the things that in this election that people should be looking at closely and when they make their choice.

437
00:38:53,130 --> 00:38:57,610
Thank you. Mayor Swara, same question. Well, good evening, everyone. Thank you for stopping by and

438
00:38:57,610 --> 00:39:03,990
joining us this evening. I was stationed here at Randolph in mid-80s. I was in a traffic controller.

439
00:39:04,330 --> 00:39:09,010
This was one of my bases here. I was stationed here for six years, so I was very familiar with the area.

440
00:39:09,010 --> 00:39:15,710
And then when I retired in 96, I decided to move the family here to converse.

441
00:39:15,730 --> 00:39:21,450
That's what, because I was so familiar with the area, I met a traffic controller by trade,

442
00:39:21,550 --> 00:39:25,890
moved here in November 96, served for the Air Force for 21 years.

443
00:39:26,110 --> 00:39:30,430
I was in the law enforcement specialist for four years, and they're traffic controller

444
00:39:30,430 --> 00:39:32,310
for 17 years.

445
00:39:32,670 --> 00:39:35,010
I met a dead as shield, dead as storm veteran.

446
00:39:35,010 --> 00:39:39,910
I worked with also had opportunity to work with the Berg County Criminal District and County

447
00:39:39,910 --> 00:39:46,630
Courts for 23 years and I have earned an associate degree in airway science, a associate

448
00:39:46,630 --> 00:39:52,350
degree in security administration, a bachelor of arts degree in criminal justice and corrections,

449
00:39:52,770 --> 00:39:58,490
a bachelor of science degree in psychology, behavioral management, a master of arts degree

450
00:39:58,490 --> 00:40:00,950
in criminal justice management and administration.

451
00:40:00,950 --> 00:40:06,810
I'm also a graduate of the United States Air Force Security Police Academy at Lackland Air Force Base.

452
00:40:07,050 --> 00:40:11,470
I'm also an undergraduate at the United States Air Force Air Traffic Control Academy.

453
00:40:11,850 --> 00:40:17,030
I'm the former chairman and vice chairman of the Northeast Partnership for Economic Development.

454
00:40:17,790 --> 00:40:21,950
I'm also the former president of the Jefferson Education Foundation for 12 years.

455
00:40:23,130 --> 00:40:27,790
I'm a former Joint Base San Antonio Randolph Air Force Base honorary commander.

456
00:40:27,790 --> 00:40:38,710
I am the former Vice Chair of the San Antonio Orthopedic Group Foundation, and I'm the current chairman of the Greater Breck County Council of Cities, a 28 city mayors organization.

457
00:40:39,050 --> 00:40:42,650
We meet every month with all the mayors in Breck County, 28 cities.

458
00:40:43,410 --> 00:40:51,870
I'm also currently on the Animal Area Council of Governments Board of Directors, A-Cog, a 13 county government organization working with 13 counties.

459
00:40:51,870 --> 00:40:57,730
I have established close partnerships with leaders, leaderships of CPS Energy, Solst, Jeffs

460
00:40:57,730 --> 00:40:58,530
and ISD.

461
00:40:58,690 --> 00:40:59,290
My apologies.

462
00:41:00,370 --> 00:41:06,550
Barrett, Santonio, MPO, ACOG, to include all the federal state, county and all municipalities

463
00:41:06,550 --> 00:41:07,930
elected officials.

464
00:41:08,670 --> 00:41:14,530
Also served as the emergency management director during COVID-19, in all recent weather storms

465
00:41:14,530 --> 00:41:15,270
that we had.

466
00:41:15,650 --> 00:41:16,510
What makes a good mayor?

467
00:41:16,610 --> 00:41:17,490
Citizen contact.

468
00:41:17,830 --> 00:41:18,290
Number one.

469
00:41:18,390 --> 00:41:19,730
Citizen's a customer service.

470
00:41:19,730 --> 00:41:27,190
You have to make sure that the people engage, that the government engage with their people.

471
00:41:27,290 --> 00:41:36,170
Otherwise, all these facilities, all the fire stations is nice, there's only anything if the people do not engage and do not feel comfortable engaging with your government.

472
00:41:36,470 --> 00:41:40,750
And so for me, that is the biggest thing that makes a good mayor, it's to ensure that that happens.

473
00:41:42,110 --> 00:41:43,970
Thank you. Mark Hilbert's in my opportunity.

474
00:41:47,470 --> 00:41:50,570
Good evening, Tom, and thank you for hosting us once again.

475
00:41:50,570 --> 00:41:58,710
appreciate that. It's good to see so many of the residents here in person to see, to see

476
00:41:58,710 --> 00:42:04,630
this firsthand, and I'd also like to say, welcome to all of those who are live streaming

477
00:42:04,630 --> 00:42:11,470
as well. Thank you, the residents are the backbone of the city. I'm Mark Gilbert. I've lived

478
00:42:11,470 --> 00:42:21,490
In Congress for 25 years, I was in the Air Force for 24 years moved here on the second

479
00:42:21,490 --> 00:42:25,970
time that the government, that the Air Force stationed here at Randolph Air Force

480
00:42:25,970 --> 00:42:26,650
space.

481
00:42:27,970 --> 00:42:34,190
I retired out of Lackland, and immediately joined the EDC Economic Development Corporation

482
00:42:34,190 --> 00:42:38,030
here in Congress, where I served on that board for six years.

483
00:42:38,030 --> 00:42:47,280
the last four of which I was the President of the Board of Directors there. In 2018, I was

484
00:42:48,170 --> 00:42:56,990
appointed to the City Council to fill an empty spot, and I served on the Council for the next six years.

485
00:42:57,710 --> 00:43:00,570
Two of those years I was the Mayor of Pro Tem.

486
00:43:02,590 --> 00:43:05,510
I currently am the City's representative

487
00:43:05,510 --> 00:43:09,230
for the Canyon Region of Water Authority, where we get our water.

488
00:43:10,390 --> 00:43:20,470
While on Council, I was the liaison for nearly every commission that we have, Charter Review,

489
00:43:20,830 --> 00:43:28,590
Parks and Environmental Planning and Zoning, the old historic and preservation commission

490
00:43:28,590 --> 00:43:32,650
that was eventually joined up with the Parks and Rec.

491
00:43:32,650 --> 00:43:43,170
I was on the Charter Review Commission as a member back in 2017, and I was the council liaison for that same commission in 2022.

492
00:43:45,410 --> 00:43:52,450
My educational background of an associate's degree in personal management from the community college of the Air Force.

493
00:43:52,710 --> 00:43:56,790
I have a bachelor's degree in business administration from Whalen Baptist University.

494
00:43:56,790 --> 00:44:12,830
I have a master's degree in leadership and management from Webster University and I'm currently trying to finish my dissertation for my PhD in organizational leadership from the University of the Incarnate Board.

495
00:44:16,890 --> 00:44:21,190
The position of mayor is an interesting one.

496
00:44:21,190 --> 00:44:29,050
it is it starts with being a leader to be a leader you must connect with the

497
00:44:29,050 --> 00:44:34,770
residents of the city because the goal the ultimate goal is moving the city

498
00:44:34,770 --> 00:44:43,430
forward towards a better future as that goes my personal belief is that my best

499
00:44:43,430 --> 00:44:50,150
style of leadership is servant leader where I work directly with those in the

500
00:44:50,150 --> 00:44:52,910
not just the staff, but the residents themselves.

501
00:44:54,430 --> 00:44:59,910
It's a great feeling to get out there and meet the residents themselves in here there.

502
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:28,780
So I'm not hearing the second hand. I'm getting it directly from them. All of this gives me a rather unique perspective on being a mayor. I've witnessed firsthand so many different issues. I believe that a mayor should demand leadership from self-first and foremost and lead from the front with transparency and integrity. Thank you.

503
00:45:29,580 --> 00:45:32,280
Thank you. Emilio, see you all see you in my opportunity please.

504
00:45:32,800 --> 00:45:34,680
Sure, so you asked a couple of questions.

505
00:45:35,140 --> 00:45:38,380
My problem in the conference, the answer is my wife, sitting in the audience.

506
00:45:39,200 --> 00:45:42,740
She was the EDC director for many years.

507
00:45:43,080 --> 00:45:46,040
And so we can move here from San Antonio for that opportunity.

508
00:45:46,840 --> 00:45:50,880
And we remain. And you also asked what makes for our good mayor.

509
00:45:51,720 --> 00:45:55,280
And I would have to agree with many of my opponents up here,

510
00:45:55,280 --> 00:46:02,240
it, essentially it is an opportunity to connect with the community through your leadership.

511
00:46:02,840 --> 00:46:09,260
So a citizens need to feel comfortable reaching out to a mayor who will then hear them

512
00:46:09,260 --> 00:46:15,540
and then bring their desires, complaints, needs, whatever it might be, forward.

513
00:46:16,040 --> 00:46:20,720
And then, of course, to work with the rest of the council and staff to be able to make

514
00:46:20,720 --> 00:46:23,080
those things happen or explain why it's not possible.

515
00:46:23,080 --> 00:46:28,580
Ultimately, the citizens have to feel empowered by their leadership, and that makes them

516
00:46:28,580 --> 00:46:31,120
feel that their government is working on their behalf.

517
00:46:31,980 --> 00:46:32,820
Thank you.

518
00:46:33,140 --> 00:46:33,680
Thank you.

519
00:46:33,840 --> 00:46:40,440
We solicited questions from city residents, and I'm going to give those priority over

520
00:46:40,440 --> 00:46:44,820
ones that I dreamed up in an academic office, and I'll start with you Emilio Silvas.

521
00:46:45,540 --> 00:46:50,820
What is your strategy to improve our law enforcement to effectively protect and serve our

522
00:46:50,820 --> 00:46:54,460
given the rapid housing developments and population increase.

523
00:46:55,740 --> 00:47:01,840
So we do have a large increase of housing, especially along 1516.

524
00:47:02,980 --> 00:47:07,140
So in terms of being able to increase our policing,

525
00:47:07,540 --> 00:47:09,940
I would say one of the chief concerns I've heard voice

526
00:47:09,940 --> 00:47:13,700
is being able to retain existing staff as opposed to leaving.

527
00:47:14,320 --> 00:47:16,950
There is no greater champion that you're going to have for someone

528
00:47:17,460 --> 00:47:19,300
than someone that's already doing the job.

529
00:47:19,300 --> 00:47:24,620
All right, so I ran for the school board several years ago and it was the same voice

530
00:47:24,620 --> 00:47:32,340
same question I made the same commentary. You have people to go to the school and their

531
00:47:32,340 --> 00:47:37,080
teachers and they leave. Same thing happens here. We have staff that come here that are police

532
00:47:37,080 --> 00:47:41,300
officers and after a while they leave. What if you can find a way to retain them, keep them

533
00:47:41,300 --> 00:47:46,380
here, they will be your strongest advocates for new police officers to want to come here.

534
00:47:46,380 --> 00:47:54,280
Essentially, you want to be able to recruit the best fit staff and police officers are the

535
00:47:54,280 --> 00:47:55,580
quite frankly, they're the most important.

536
00:47:56,040 --> 00:48:02,480
They not only provide public safety, but obviously they're the ones that are in touch with the community the most more than anyone else.

537
00:48:02,860 --> 00:48:11,900
So I would strengthen the ability for us to be able to keep police officers and then ultimately they will work with new recruits and those recruits will want to stay.

538
00:48:11,900 --> 00:48:16,000
and eventually a reputation will be that this is a police department where police officers

539
00:48:16,000 --> 00:48:17,320
wants to go.

540
00:48:19,060 --> 00:48:21,000
Aren't Gilbert saying question about public safety?

541
00:48:26,940 --> 00:48:31,460
My answer to that question falls under three topics.

542
00:48:31,900 --> 00:48:32,900
The first is numbers.

543
00:48:34,680 --> 00:48:42,720
The city of Converse has grown so significantly since, astronomically actually since I've

544
00:48:42,720 --> 00:48:45,200
moved here 25 years ago.

545
00:48:46,220 --> 00:48:53,140
We're well over 30,000 at this point, and some estimates coming from the state, say that by

546
00:48:53,140 --> 00:48:56,760
the year 2040 will be up close to 50,000 residents.

547
00:48:58,480 --> 00:49:07,280
We must be able to keep up the number of police officers to accommodate that many residents.

548
00:49:07,280 --> 00:49:15,760
police officers, we have currently doing an excellent job. They are top-notch, and

549
00:49:15,760 --> 00:49:24,100
we just need to make sure that we find avenues to pay for additional officers.

550
00:49:25,520 --> 00:49:32,280
In addition to the sheer number, education, and training is going to be paramount

551
00:49:32,280 --> 00:49:39,000
to the success of not only the police department, but the entire city staff.

552
00:49:41,780 --> 00:49:50,960
Case in point, one of the officers a few years ago was selected to attend a specialized training

553
00:49:50,960 --> 00:50:02,100
with the FBI at the FBI Academy in Quantico. Very prestigious events. And when he came back,

554
00:50:02,100 --> 00:50:18,300
He thanked the mayor and the council for helping to make this happen, and he turned around and spread his knowledge to the majority of the officers that were there to give them an idea of what exactly he went through.

555
00:50:19,920 --> 00:50:28,660
And that one educational outreach turned out to be a force multiplier within our own police department.

556
00:50:28,660 --> 00:50:33,320
We need to search for more opportunities such as that.

557
00:50:35,200 --> 00:50:39,900
And the third point is something that I just mentioned there,

558
00:50:40,080 --> 00:50:40,440
outreach.

559
00:50:42,120 --> 00:50:46,000
I believe Mr. Sylvain also mentioned the contact

560
00:50:46,000 --> 00:50:52,040
with the residents is extremely important to the success

561
00:50:52,560 --> 00:50:57,480
overall of the police department and therefore the city itself.

562
00:50:57,480 --> 00:51:11,660
Many times the first and possibly only contact that some will have with the city staff is through the police department, whether for good or for bad.

563
00:51:12,820 --> 00:51:18,400
Right now our police department does an excellent job of outreach.

564
00:51:18,400 --> 00:51:22,000
I would like to see that extended further.

565
00:51:22,420 --> 00:51:27,320
Let's grow that along with the police department itself.

566
00:51:28,360 --> 00:51:31,840
As the department grows, that outreach needs to grow along with it.

567
00:51:32,260 --> 00:51:32,620
Thank you.

568
00:51:34,740 --> 00:51:35,180
Thank you.

569
00:51:35,300 --> 00:51:38,560
Mayor Suara, same question about improving law enforcement and public safety?

570
00:51:39,340 --> 00:51:42,200
Okay, first of all, all is safety for me.

571
00:51:43,360 --> 00:51:44,320
It has to be number one.

572
00:51:44,360 --> 00:51:45,360
Number one priority.

573
00:51:45,540 --> 00:51:47,560
It's one of the reasons I did moving here in Congress.

574
00:51:47,560 --> 00:51:52,120
I did my research and wanted to bring my family and raised my family in a safe state.

575
00:51:52,240 --> 00:51:58,160
I did talk to Khalid Sita at the time and he said that the city council gives high priority

576
00:51:58,840 --> 00:52:03,340
to the public safety, the fire police, and that's what we do here in Congress.

577
00:52:03,560 --> 00:52:06,000
I work very closely with Chief Lane.

578
00:52:06,060 --> 00:52:09,680
I do understand this job, one of my specialties.

579
00:52:09,840 --> 00:52:11,000
I do understand what he's doing.

580
00:52:11,140 --> 00:52:16,260
I do understand his needs as a matter of fact throughout my tenure here.

581
00:52:16,260 --> 00:52:19,360
I was able to secure the first body cameras

582
00:52:19,360 --> 00:52:22,200
for the police department that would protect police officer

583
00:52:22,200 --> 00:52:23,580
and it would protect the citizen.

584
00:52:24,380 --> 00:52:26,780
First time, so Congress had the first body cameras.

585
00:52:27,160 --> 00:52:31,780
When it first became available, back in 2009, 2010,

586
00:52:32,260 --> 00:52:34,780
when it first talked about it, we were able to secure

587
00:52:34,780 --> 00:52:37,260
the first body cameras in the in-Berry County.

588
00:52:38,240 --> 00:52:42,660
So, and then also, too, when the column blind attack

589
00:52:42,660 --> 00:52:45,900
of North happened, we made sure that our officers

590
00:52:45,900 --> 00:52:50,540
We change it thinking in the officers that we have to be ready to respond so we may

591
00:52:50,540 --> 00:52:57,120
ensure that that every officer had the appropriate firepower to be able to deal

592
00:52:57,120 --> 00:52:57,880
with the situation.

593
00:52:57,900 --> 00:53:01,300
I have to wait for SWAT teams and I have to wait for backup.

594
00:53:02,240 --> 00:53:08,060
And recently we have a speeding problem in Congress and that is a good knowledge.

595
00:53:08,260 --> 00:53:10,080
We have a lot of growth in the areas.

596
00:53:10,320 --> 00:53:12,660
We have a lot of growth being worked on.

597
00:53:12,660 --> 00:53:19,560
35, 1604, so a lot of traffic flows to Congress just to get through to a way I 35.

598
00:53:20,420 --> 00:53:27,220
So I talked to police chief Lane, we were able to secure two motorcycles to deal with the traffic

599
00:53:27,220 --> 00:53:29,160
and now we have to for it.

600
00:53:29,400 --> 00:53:34,720
And we recognize there is a problem, a speeding problem in Congress and that's where it goes

601
00:53:34,720 --> 00:53:35,380
working together.

602
00:53:36,020 --> 00:53:41,560
Now we're looking at situations of a lot of residents are using the parks.

603
00:53:41,560 --> 00:53:43,200
So now we have to think big.

604
00:53:43,400 --> 00:53:49,280
We have to figure out a way to work with the police department, to secure our parks, because the citizens

605
00:53:49,280 --> 00:53:54,080
have to feel safe in our parks and they don't have to, should have the colony, but they

606
00:53:54,080 --> 00:53:55,060
should already be there.

607
00:53:55,260 --> 00:54:01,180
So we're working with Chief Lane to come with some ideas, whether it be park rangers or local

608
00:54:01,180 --> 00:54:07,460
resources, something to make the citizens safe, because people will hear for a reason,

609
00:54:07,460 --> 00:54:17,520
You know, and when you're population triples from the $11,500 or $35,000, you're, they're moving here for a reason.

610
00:54:17,580 --> 00:54:34,100
This is a state city and a couple of them at the PD, they do work hard, and I agree with some of the comments that we need to do whatever we can to make sure that the PD and the fire department receives the highest competitive pay that they're due.

611
00:54:34,100 --> 00:54:40,840
And I emphasize that they're due because they risked their lives every day every time they respond and also that they get

612
00:54:40,840 --> 00:54:47,940
provide the best resources possible. The best vehicles, the best equipment, we're able to get new police cars, we're able to get new

613
00:54:47,940 --> 00:54:53,060
ambulances for the fire department, the fire department carries a whole blood now.

614
00:54:53,680 --> 00:55:01,480
So we're blessed to have the two best chiefs in the state, if not the country, the police chief and the fire chief and they work together with the community.

615
00:55:01,480 --> 00:55:06,560
It works together with the city council and they're very prugal with their spending too

616
00:55:06,560 --> 00:55:14,420
They only don't even request what they need and that's commendable to them and my hats off to them

617
00:55:14,420 --> 00:55:22,370
But public safety should always be the number one priority for any for any city because without that

618
00:55:23,400 --> 00:55:28,120
Nothing matters if the citizens don't feel safe nothing else matters to the city

619
00:55:29,700 --> 00:55:34,400
Thank you. John Shadron's same question about the public safety and law enforcement.

620
00:55:34,660 --> 00:55:38,940
Well, I've been sort of a unique situation that I was a police officer for five years

621
00:55:38,940 --> 00:55:44,000
before I decided it wasn't the career for me.

622
00:55:45,740 --> 00:55:52,100
I remember when I first moved to Converse, I would see a police officer every hour past my house.

623
00:55:52,100 --> 00:56:01,240
Every hour. Today, I'm lucky to see one past mighty house maybe once a day. The city has gotten so big.

624
00:56:02,020 --> 00:56:07,940
We have so few officers. My understanding is we're supposed to have a one per 5,000 population.

625
00:56:08,860 --> 00:56:17,060
We don't, we don't have that. We're short of police officers. They do the best they can, but the man power they have.

626
00:56:17,060 --> 00:56:20,660
They have a program called the Neighborhood Watch Program.

627
00:56:21,420 --> 00:56:24,620
It's a program where neighborhoods get together.

628
00:56:25,680 --> 00:56:29,120
They do sort of security checks in their neighborhood.

629
00:56:29,280 --> 00:56:30,980
They log it in.

630
00:56:31,060 --> 00:56:35,000
And after three months they get a sign placed on their streets saying that

631
00:56:35,000 --> 00:56:36,580
during the neighborhood watch program.

632
00:56:37,420 --> 00:56:42,840
My understanding is we have none in this community, not one.

633
00:56:43,840 --> 00:56:46,060
I believe I'm going to be the first one to start one.

634
00:56:46,060 --> 00:56:52,360
I have my neighbor in it interested in it, and I understand talking to the police department

635
00:56:52,360 --> 00:56:59,220
the main reason we don't get any attention to pushing the neighborhood watch program is

636
00:56:59,220 --> 00:57:05,200
because of lack of leadership, lack of the mayor, and council supporting such a program.

637
00:57:05,880 --> 00:57:11,120
It's a shame because it gets people involved, it gets people looking out for each other.

638
00:57:13,020 --> 00:57:19,680
We need to do more in the city of Converse, we need more police officers, we need better security.

639
00:57:21,840 --> 00:57:30,920
And in the past we've been short of police officers and the excuse I've heard is they left because of our mayor.

640
00:57:31,680 --> 00:57:38,480
And at one time we were short 10 police officers not too long ago, but we do have a police chief that's getting him out of the academy now.

641
00:57:38,480 --> 00:57:43,960
So we're not having to wait to do the interview process to go out and look for police officers.

642
00:57:44,620 --> 00:57:48,140
So we've been able to fill those voids a lot quicker than we have in the past.

643
00:57:50,240 --> 00:57:50,720
Thank you.

644
00:57:50,840 --> 00:57:56,960
The other question that came from residents is similar, but notably different.

645
00:57:57,040 --> 00:57:59,620
I want to start with you, John, and work in the opposite direction.

646
00:58:00,100 --> 00:58:04,360
Please explain your plan to improve streets, sidewalks, and street lighting.

647
00:58:05,180 --> 00:58:07,840
How much progress have we made in these recently?

648
00:58:08,940 --> 00:58:12,880
That's kind of interesting because that's the reason I got in the mayor's race.

649
00:58:13,400 --> 00:58:17,280
I live in a subdivision in several subdivisions around me.

650
00:58:18,540 --> 00:58:19,520
The streets are horrible.

651
00:58:19,920 --> 00:58:22,160
We have two inch gaps in the street.

652
00:58:22,920 --> 00:58:25,460
We have a factory trees growing out of the street.

653
00:58:25,860 --> 00:58:29,260
We have greener grass growing out of the street that's in my yard.

654
00:58:29,840 --> 00:58:33,100
Sidewalks have little trees coming out of it.

655
00:58:33,140 --> 00:58:36,340
Nothing's been done in several years in my subdivision.

656
00:58:36,340 --> 00:58:38,660
And that's also going into other subdivisions.

657
00:58:40,200 --> 00:58:42,320
Again, when I first moved into Converse,

658
00:58:42,500 --> 00:58:44,620
they had a street maintenance program.

659
00:58:45,100 --> 00:58:48,540
They had street crews go around and kill the grass in the street,

660
00:58:49,260 --> 00:58:51,420
take the tar and fill in the cracks.

661
00:58:55,570 --> 00:58:57,810
And when the roads go, so does the neighborhood.

662
00:58:58,410 --> 00:59:01,910
People, when the city quits caring about the infrastructure,

663
00:59:02,890 --> 00:59:05,150
it seems that people quit caring about their homes.

664
00:59:06,470 --> 00:59:14,930
The city seems to take a, when a neighborhood goes down, deteriorates, they leave it, they abandon it, they don't come back.

665
00:59:15,570 --> 00:59:23,150
As I said, in my neighborhood streets have been horrible for years, and that's one of the major complaints of the citizens of my neighborhood.

666
00:59:23,590 --> 00:59:28,510
It's also complaints of citizens in other neighborhoods are dealing with the same problem.

667
00:59:28,510 --> 00:59:36,710
Yeah, they have a road planned to fix roads at a certain time a year, but the only problem is they can't keep up with it

668
00:59:36,710 --> 00:59:47,790
They had this bond issue that passed a few years ago. They went and repaved all the streets and now what's happening today is all the streets are failing and there's not the money to fix them

669
00:59:50,260 --> 00:59:54,240
Thank you, Mayor Suarez, in question. Yeah, I'd have to disagree with Mr. Shadron

670
00:59:54,240 --> 00:59:59,780
We just spent $10.1 million during the bond to repay.

671
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:08,760
All this to pay the majority of the streets in Congress. We do have a public works director that evaluates all the streets on a yearly basis.

672
01:00:09,940 --> 01:00:21,320
And at that time, after we did the bond, I remember having a conversation with a city manager that these streets are going to go bad at the same time because we did so much work and it came out very well.

673
01:00:21,320 --> 01:00:25,280
So, we created the street maintenance tax, which she might not be aware of.

674
01:00:25,480 --> 01:00:31,420
The street maintenance tax was created where we split EDC tax, they were getting half a cent,

675
01:00:31,580 --> 01:00:39,260
not to get a quarter, and the street maintenance tax is, of course, specifically to maintain the existing streets.

676
01:00:39,460 --> 01:00:41,620
So, right now it equates to over a million dollars.

677
01:00:42,280 --> 01:00:49,960
So, the over a million dollars is given to the public works director, and he runs the program to repair existing streets.

678
01:00:49,960 --> 01:00:53,120
He runs a list, you know, unfortunately, streets,

679
01:00:53,840 --> 01:00:56,180
there's very expensive, very expensive.

680
01:00:57,480 --> 01:00:59,260
It's a street, you'll never be saw.

681
01:00:59,440 --> 01:01:00,880
It's a continuous process.

682
01:01:01,760 --> 01:01:04,740
You know, it's one of those things where you put a meeting

683
01:01:04,740 --> 01:01:07,720
and we put 10.5 million, 20.1 million.

684
01:01:07,880 --> 01:01:10,940
And now we have a three maintenance tax

685
01:01:10,940 --> 01:01:13,780
where everybody spends in Congress

686
01:01:13,780 --> 01:01:17,780
pays some streets, basically, through a quarter-sense tax.

687
01:01:17,780 --> 01:01:23,700
And we get it every annually and the public works director has his evaluation of all the

688
01:01:23,700 --> 01:01:29,540
Congress streets and repairs the sidewalks and the streets with that $1 million plus that he

689
01:01:29,540 --> 01:01:29,980
receives.

690
01:01:31,400 --> 01:01:35,960
So, you know, he works very hard, but unfortunately, it isn't tough, and if you look around,

691
01:01:36,040 --> 01:01:42,160
you see a lot of driving around, and it's very unfortunate, and it hurts me to see where

692
01:01:42,160 --> 01:01:46,620
a resident has to have a foundation trucks off front, you know, and they're pounding away

693
01:01:46,620 --> 01:01:53,080
trying to fix the foundations to the same as the streets, you know, the red clay in this area

694
01:01:53,080 --> 01:01:59,180
continues to move, and you know, you repair street, and then a year later it's cracked, you know,

695
01:01:59,260 --> 01:02:03,980
so we have the additional problem of having to deal with the drought right now too as well,

696
01:02:04,420 --> 01:02:08,540
and it's causing a lot of damage to our water lines, it's causing a lot of damage to our streets,

697
01:02:09,420 --> 01:02:15,180
and it's part of what the director is doing, it should be humanity doing his best he can with the

698
01:02:15,180 --> 01:02:19,600
resources he has and I believe that when you have a million dollars, that's a lot of resources

699
01:02:19,600 --> 01:02:27,720
to be able to spend and address, but unfortunately, like I said, it's a very hard process to

700
01:02:27,720 --> 01:02:32,480
maintain the role to you. And you can draw, I can draw you to any city and find a same problems

701
01:02:32,480 --> 01:02:37,180
and they're having the same problems we are. It's just usually the most expensive process

702
01:02:37,180 --> 01:02:41,380
of very city to deal with, but we have a solution to remain his tax.

703
01:02:41,380 --> 01:02:43,320
The solution is not working.

704
01:02:43,560 --> 01:02:45,340
Mayor, I invite you to visit my neighborhood.

705
01:02:46,220 --> 01:02:47,960
I don't run the public works department.

706
01:02:48,480 --> 01:02:48,820
Thank you.

707
01:02:48,980 --> 01:02:52,540
Mark Gilbert, same question about streets sidewalks and street lighting.

708
01:02:55,460 --> 01:03:01,980
Those two, the previous two have pretty much said a lot about the streets and sidewalks.

709
01:03:01,980 --> 01:03:03,920
I'd like to attack the lighting issue.

710
01:03:05,500 --> 01:03:08,680
I've heard from multiple residents,

711
01:03:08,680 --> 01:03:15,400
over my years as a council member and while getting out and meeting residents over the past

712
01:03:15,400 --> 01:03:23,060
year or so. And the question of lighting continues to come up. And we do need to ensure that

713
01:03:23,060 --> 01:03:38,660
we stay on the radar with City Public Service that provides the lighting for us and with a

714
01:03:38,660 --> 01:03:47,560
to lighting to ensure that we do not cause an inordinate amount of light pollution for the

715
01:03:47,560 --> 01:03:56,760
night flying for the mission on Randolph. So that is a very important issue that we have looked

716
01:03:56,760 --> 01:04:04,600
at in the past and that if I am here I will continue to do so. The last thing I want to talk

717
01:04:04,600 --> 01:04:14,260
about on the streets issue is not so much the overall street issue, but a particular street

718
01:04:14,260 --> 01:04:22,480
issues, specific one in particular that encapsulates the frustrations of many residents

719
01:04:22,480 --> 01:04:27,260
of the city of Converse, and that would be a top-of-one road.

720
01:04:29,280 --> 01:04:30,940
The issue of top-of-one

721
01:04:30,940 --> 01:04:39,660
has been a long-standing issue far earlier than from when I got here, come, I come to find

722
01:04:39,660 --> 01:04:47,340
out. I sat down and talked with a couple of residents recently who expressed not only

723
01:04:47,340 --> 01:04:57,780
dismay and disappointment, but a genuine hurting over the fact that they moved into the neighborhood

724
01:04:57,780 --> 01:05:05,580
near Kitty Hawk and Tupper wine back in 1984 I believe. And as a young couple they went

725
01:05:05,580 --> 01:05:13,820
to city council meetings and they heard the council at that point talking about the expansion

726
01:05:13,820 --> 01:05:23,940
of Tupper wine road. Here it is 41 years later and there still have no relief on that issue.

727
01:05:24,880 --> 01:05:32,620
One of the first things I plan to do is mayor is to make if it's not done prior, we have

728
01:05:32,620 --> 01:05:33,900
to get that done.

729
01:05:34,520 --> 01:05:39,880
Tupper line has been, like I said, has been on the books for over 40 years now.

730
01:05:41,000 --> 01:05:47,700
When I was on the EDC, I met with several developers, business owners, those types of individuals,

731
01:05:47,700 --> 01:05:56,540
And one issue that they kept harping on was the lack of infrastructure as in roads leading

732
01:05:56,540 --> 01:05:57,740
into and out of the city.

733
01:05:59,120 --> 01:06:02,260
We've completed just an excuse me, Rocket Lane.

734
01:06:03,480 --> 01:06:05,020
Congratulations from us.

735
01:06:05,620 --> 01:06:11,500
We need to look at the lessons learned from all the issues that went with Rocket Lane and

736
01:06:11,500 --> 01:06:20,020
a constructive plan to finish top of wine in a speedy manner.

737
01:06:21,300 --> 01:06:22,060
Thank you.

738
01:06:24,560 --> 01:06:25,020
Thank you.

739
01:06:25,140 --> 01:06:29,560
Emilio Silva's same question about streets, sidewalks, street lighting.

740
01:06:30,160 --> 01:06:30,180
Sure.

741
01:06:30,620 --> 01:06:31,540
I'll start with streets.

742
01:06:33,040 --> 01:06:37,100
Many of the topics that have been many of the answers that we've heard to you are many

743
01:06:37,100 --> 01:06:41,860
of the same ones that I would offer, top of wine, I live right, top of wine, I live in

744
01:06:41,860 --> 01:06:46,640
see it every day I avoid it whenever I can, not because I don't like this treat but because

745
01:06:46,640 --> 01:06:55,760
it has its challenges. Primarily it is a very clear sign to the citizens that while we

746
01:06:55,760 --> 01:07:03,260
may talk about taking these things seriously, we don't actually do them. Decades long waiting

747
01:07:03,260 --> 01:07:08,060
for it's upper line, I also have spoken with residents who've lived for 40 years and they

748
01:07:08,060 --> 01:07:13,740
We also have remote how long it takes for it's upper line to be completed, same thing for rocket length.

749
01:07:14,420 --> 01:07:21,120
If you go further down 1516, there's a road between 1516 and 1604, that's not even finished.

750
01:07:21,900 --> 01:07:28,180
And the residents in that area were expecting that auxiliary road to be able to cross over from 1516 on to 1604.

751
01:07:28,520 --> 01:07:29,700
Really been traffic there.

752
01:07:29,700 --> 01:07:39,460
So what they see in what I see myself is we have infrastructure challenges, and we don't really work hard to achieve them.

753
01:07:39,740 --> 01:07:42,160
We talk about them, but we don't actually make them happen.

754
01:07:43,040 --> 01:07:44,380
You want to know what I would do.

755
01:07:44,620 --> 01:07:49,200
I would find a way to address our roads locally.

756
01:07:49,720 --> 01:07:53,900
I have seen that some cities have adopted programs where they have purchased equipment.

757
01:07:53,900 --> 01:07:59,360
they have taught their staff how to maintain the roads instead of a hiring third-party

758
01:07:59,360 --> 01:08:05,280
construction people. Lowering the overall cost of maintaining roads to a small fraction

759
01:08:05,280 --> 01:08:09,720
of what it would normally cost. That is absolutely something that we could do. I've spoken

760
01:08:09,720 --> 01:08:15,120
with contractors for lighting that work with cities and they have told me that Congress

761
01:08:15,120 --> 01:08:20,780
has quite frankly said we don't want to talk to you. It's very hard when I talk to a resident

762
01:08:20,780 --> 01:08:23,600
and I tell them, well, we don't have lights on your street

763
01:08:24,520 --> 01:08:26,700
because the city's not gonna put one here.

764
01:08:27,320 --> 01:08:31,600
Lifelong residents who are literally half a block away

765
01:08:31,600 --> 01:08:33,460
from FM78 in the street is dark.

766
01:08:34,640 --> 01:08:36,540
That means that neighborhood has been dark

767
01:08:36,540 --> 01:08:37,740
for a very long time.

768
01:08:38,460 --> 01:08:40,360
The infrastructure improvements are necessary,

769
01:08:40,380 --> 01:08:43,900
not just for residents, but also for businesses.

770
01:08:44,340 --> 01:08:46,240
Business owners I've spoken to are not happy

771
01:08:46,240 --> 01:08:47,120
about the roads either.

772
01:08:47,120 --> 01:08:52,480
These are so at the way I put it as they're non-sexty things, right?

773
01:08:52,640 --> 01:08:55,520
These are just the most boring things you could talk about asphalt.

774
01:08:56,340 --> 01:09:00,800
But the reality is, without that kind of life plug within a community, you can't get anywhere.

775
01:09:01,440 --> 01:09:02,800
It takes you forever to get out of your neighborhoods.

776
01:09:02,960 --> 01:09:07,460
I spoken with a resident who waits 30 minutes in the morning to get out of his neighborhood

777
01:09:07,460 --> 01:09:10,760
to get on the afternoon 15, 16, and he does not like it.

778
01:09:10,760 --> 01:09:14,660
And he certainly wasn't happy when I told him that there's a neighborhood just five minutes

779
01:09:14,660 --> 01:09:20,220
north of him with more residents coming in because there's entire blocks of houses being built.

780
01:09:22,180 --> 01:09:25,940
We've grown really fast and we clearly didn't plan for it.

781
01:09:26,680 --> 01:09:32,160
As mayor, I promised the cities that I will within the first hundred days deliver an infrastructure

782
01:09:32,160 --> 01:09:32,700
plan.

783
01:09:33,180 --> 01:09:34,480
Both for roads and lighting.

784
01:09:34,860 --> 01:09:35,340
Is that aggressive?

785
01:09:36,060 --> 01:09:36,160
Yes.

786
01:09:36,160 --> 01:09:37,040
The residents expected.

787
01:09:37,720 --> 01:09:37,760
Yes.

788
01:09:37,940 --> 01:09:38,820
Because they're tired of waiting.

789
01:09:39,580 --> 01:09:44,100
The reality is, I walk up to people's houses and I say, hi, my name is.

790
01:09:44,100 --> 01:09:48,200
The first thing to do is point it to the road and say, look at that crack in front of my

791
01:09:48,200 --> 01:09:48,480
road.

792
01:09:48,800 --> 01:09:50,100
It's an accident waiting to happen.

793
01:09:51,280 --> 01:09:54,840
So I don't think that we can afford to ignore the infrastructure problem.

794
01:09:55,360 --> 01:09:59,900
It is absolutely not incumbent upon staff to do that.

795
01:10:00,140 --> 01:10:03,020
That's why the citizens elect a mayor in City Council.

796
01:10:04,140 --> 01:10:08,740
And they expect those individuals to act on their behalf, and I certainly would as well.

797
01:10:09,460 --> 01:10:09,780
Thank you.

798
01:10:13,230 --> 01:10:13,630
Thank you.

799
01:10:13,750 --> 01:10:15,770
This question I'd like to start with you, Emilio.

800
01:10:16,390 --> 01:10:21,550
What should the city of Congress government do more of in a rare question in government?

801
01:10:21,750 --> 01:10:23,450
What should it do less of?

802
01:10:26,470 --> 01:10:33,030
I would say the city of Congress government's work really hard at being as transparent as possible.

803
01:10:33,810 --> 01:10:38,030
It's a very easy thing to say, but in practice it's much more difficult.

804
01:10:38,470 --> 01:10:42,190
And I am not saying that members of council are not transparent.

805
01:10:42,470 --> 01:10:47,090
I think they do what they can when they can and they engage the public.

806
01:10:47,690 --> 01:10:52,030
That's incredibly important. Without that level of transparency,

807
01:10:52,530 --> 01:10:54,990
an opportunity to be able to talk to your elected leaders,

808
01:10:56,150 --> 01:10:58,750
citizens don't know the issues that are in front of them.

809
01:10:58,910 --> 01:11:01,430
Why are we doing something? Why is something not happened?

810
01:11:01,590 --> 01:11:03,370
That's the hardest thing to explain to someone.

811
01:11:04,070 --> 01:11:06,450
I want something and you're trying to tell me I can't have it.

812
01:11:06,470 --> 01:11:07,530
I need to understand why.

813
01:11:08,290 --> 01:11:13,710
So that's something that the city through its council needs to do more of.

814
01:11:14,570 --> 01:11:16,610
What does it have to do less of?

815
01:11:18,090 --> 01:11:19,730
It's kind of an inverse answer for you.

816
01:11:19,770 --> 01:11:24,910
I would say stop telling people what the answer is and start really asking.

817
01:11:25,110 --> 01:11:26,670
What are the issues in the front of you?

818
01:11:27,510 --> 01:11:32,570
And it's important because citizens live in their neighborhoods every single day.

819
01:11:33,290 --> 01:11:36,690
And the city has adopted several plans.

820
01:11:38,290 --> 01:11:41,690
I don't know why several of them are necessarily in front of us.

821
01:11:41,690 --> 01:11:50,230
I'm certain there are conversations, I'm certain there are well-intentioned, but they don't necessarily serve citizens, so

822
01:11:50,230 --> 01:11:58,490
Not necessarily come with a solution, but try to find what is the problem. I'm working with residents to craft the solution after you've identified the problem

823
01:11:59,530 --> 01:12:01,190
So that's how it ends right

824
01:12:01,190 --> 01:12:03,810
Thank you Mark Gilbert, same question.

825
01:12:11,570 --> 01:12:13,670
I believe the city needs to

826
01:12:16,070 --> 01:12:19,350
In the case of what the city should do more of a

827
01:12:19,350 --> 01:12:30,470
with things first is education. The Council, for example, is required to obtain 10 hours of

828
01:12:31,430 --> 01:12:41,850
education during their, during the calendar year. The last two charter review commissions,

829
01:12:41,850 --> 01:12:50,310
the issue has come up where the commissions discuss extending that those number of

830
01:12:50,310 --> 01:13:00,100
dollars from 10 to the 15 or 20. The reason for that is education is the

831
01:13:00,100 --> 01:13:05,880
foundation of doing the actual job as far as the council goes.

832
01:13:05,880 --> 01:13:13,720
Case in point two years ago, we had three brand new council members elected to the seats.

833
01:13:14,380 --> 01:13:22,120
Two other council members at that time had either one year or six months in their particular seats.

834
01:13:22,980 --> 01:13:26,000
The education curve for them was very steep.

835
01:13:26,000 --> 01:13:41,500
And I commend them for going out and obtaining more than the required amount of hours necessary that is provided by the charter.

836
01:13:42,700 --> 01:13:51,000
Each of them to a person went out and took extra hours until they felt more comfortable in their particular seats.

837
01:13:51,000 --> 01:13:59,260
I believe that can be extended from just the council to the city staff as well.

838
01:14:00,060 --> 01:14:05,920
With their, under their auspices, however, they would like to do it within their departments.

839
01:14:06,640 --> 01:14:13,800
Not every department is going to need the same amount of education that another might need.

840
01:14:13,800 --> 01:14:25,620
But if we can provide a path to further education within the staff, that's only going to help the city as a whole.

841
01:14:27,080 --> 01:14:30,840
Another thing is I touched on before was outreach.

842
01:14:32,980 --> 01:14:38,480
The city needs to do a better job of meeting the citizens where they're at.

843
01:14:38,480 --> 01:14:46,520
We provide several avenues to get information out to the residents.

844
01:14:47,940 --> 01:14:52,120
Not all of those avenues work for everybody.

845
01:14:52,880 --> 01:14:57,800
Each individual has a different way of trying to learn, trying to gather information.

846
01:14:58,340 --> 01:14:59,360
We need to continue.

847
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:05,160
We need to expand the way we reach out and get information to our residents.

848
01:15:07,280 --> 01:15:08,800
As far as less of,

849
01:15:14,440 --> 01:15:20,300
I believe the city needs to do less of is what ends up being stagnation.

850
01:15:21,200 --> 01:15:26,000
We need to move forward as a group, as a city, as team converse.

851
01:15:26,000 --> 01:15:37,160
We tend to stagnate as a city with what ends up being a lack of teamwork within the city itself.

852
01:15:38,100 --> 01:15:45,880
I don't want to get into personal attacks or anything, or he said she said.

853
01:15:46,600 --> 01:15:47,600
But suffice it to save.

854
01:15:47,600 --> 01:15:58,580
we as a team, team Congress need to come together to do a better job of moving our city forward

855
01:15:58,580 --> 01:16:00,160
and out of stagnation.

856
01:16:00,320 --> 01:16:00,840
Thank you.

857
01:16:02,040 --> 01:16:03,520
Thank you, Mayor Swarrow, same thing.

858
01:16:03,760 --> 01:16:06,720
What should this Congress do more of and what should it do less of?

859
01:16:06,940 --> 01:16:12,700
Well, I can tell you that as far as transparency we're doing our part, we're doing better

860
01:16:12,700 --> 01:16:14,660
than a lot of the cities in comparison.

861
01:16:14,660 --> 01:16:21,000
And we post our agendas for the meetings, the losses three days, we do it four days.

862
01:16:21,280 --> 01:16:25,540
And that way the citizens can see it online, we post it on the website, the citizens can

863
01:16:25,540 --> 01:16:28,700
see what kind of business that we're going to be completing that day.

864
01:16:29,140 --> 01:16:32,940
And then if they want to show and have some input systems to be heard and provide what they can

865
01:16:32,940 --> 01:16:37,020
call their council member call us and we'll get their given their input.

866
01:16:37,240 --> 01:16:38,060
They'll give us their input.

867
01:16:38,320 --> 01:16:38,920
We can do that.

868
01:16:39,100 --> 01:16:40,340
We do mail newsletter.

869
01:16:40,340 --> 01:16:46,480
We created a newsletter many years ago, we met a newsletter on a 40 basis to all the

870
01:16:46,480 --> 01:16:47,320
statuses in Congress.

871
01:16:47,480 --> 01:16:52,200
We don't put it on the stands, we mail it to them directly and we keep them posted of all

872
01:16:52,200 --> 01:16:56,060
the new changes, all the events and all the phone numbers and how to get a hold of the

873
01:16:56,060 --> 01:17:01,480
staff and basically give me a good picture straight to their home.

874
01:17:01,720 --> 01:17:06,360
So they're aware of what we're doing here as a government facility.

875
01:17:06,360 --> 01:17:13,160
We do stream our city council meetings live that's something new that we did several years ago as well

876
01:17:13,160 --> 01:17:15,440
We stream live just like we stream in this live

877
01:17:15,440 --> 01:17:18,280
Citizens are able to sit home and watch the meetings

878
01:17:18,280 --> 01:17:22,400
They will to watch this program and we also

879
01:17:23,080 --> 01:17:27,600
Video tape them to where once we're done here, they can watch the video

880
01:17:27,600 --> 01:17:31,780
You know, they watch the video anywhere they watch on their cell phone and watch from home

881
01:17:31,780 --> 01:17:45,800
So, that's a big transparency there to be able to reach out to the citizens, let them know that this is a business we're doing and they don't have time, they still have opportunities to see what we're doing because these are made for their convenience.

882
01:17:45,800 --> 01:17:53,380
Those that have spectrum, channel 21, we secure channel 21 spectrum to play the videos and see

883
01:17:53,380 --> 01:17:56,020
council meetings over and over or need events that we record.

884
01:17:56,540 --> 01:17:59,000
So that's another way that we reach out to the citizens.

885
01:17:59,600 --> 01:18:01,660
We're always thinking of ways to reach out to the citizens.

886
01:18:01,780 --> 01:18:06,900
I have Mayor's call twice a month, I've always had that citizen come see me on the second

887
01:18:06,900 --> 01:18:12,240
and fourth Saturday, very month between 80-10 and no appointments ever needed and they can

888
01:18:12,240 --> 01:18:16,060
get updates on any project and give us our

889
01:18:16,060 --> 01:18:18,160
plans to tell us how we're doing, tell us how we're

890
01:18:18,160 --> 01:18:22,220
not doing, and maintain the transparency through

891
01:18:22,220 --> 01:18:22,840
that as well.

892
01:18:23,420 --> 01:18:26,940
We do encourage all the departments,

893
01:18:27,120 --> 01:18:29,580
Department, and Police Department library to

894
01:18:29,580 --> 01:18:33,560
stream their Facebook live, give the people the

895
01:18:33,560 --> 01:18:36,220
information, let them know and go out there and

896
01:18:36,220 --> 01:18:38,160
make contact with the department.

897
01:18:38,380 --> 01:18:40,800
That's happening a lot with the Department, and

898
01:18:40,800 --> 01:18:44,680
especially our community officer, police officer,

899
01:18:44,860 --> 01:18:47,540
that does that a lot, that's a great job doing that with the public.

900
01:18:48,440 --> 01:18:50,540
And so we're doing everything we can.

901
01:18:51,480 --> 01:18:54,860
And we need to do less of, we need to be less restrictive.

902
01:18:55,340 --> 01:18:58,080
You know, people, people know that we're hard and

903
01:18:58,080 --> 01:19:00,080
cold compliance and it needs to be a time,

904
01:19:00,240 --> 01:19:06,360
but we just need to be, do the human approach and work towards

905
01:19:07,240 --> 01:19:10,420
compliance as opposed to giving people citations,

906
01:19:10,420 --> 01:19:17,600
doing things like that. We need to help those that can't help themselves and do less of trying

907
01:19:17,600 --> 01:19:22,420
to bully them, if you will, you know, just try to help them out. There's a lot of residents

908
01:19:22,420 --> 01:19:27,420
that are seniors that can't enable to fix their fences, things like that. We need to do

909
01:19:27,420 --> 01:19:32,750
reach out more to them. Thank you. John Shadron, same question, please.

910
01:19:33,570 --> 01:19:38,610
You know, this is funny. You had mentioned recently that we don't have any code compliance

911
01:19:38,610 --> 01:19:44,990
problems in the city. I assure you, Mayor, if you drive around, we do. One of the things

912
01:19:44,990 --> 01:19:53,690
that we need to do more of is communicate. This room should be packed tonight. It a lot of people

913
01:19:53,690 --> 01:20:00,690
didn't have a clue that you could write a question in submitted tonight. People walked in there

914
01:20:00,690 --> 01:20:06,350
and said, and you only received two questions out of a population of 30,000 people,

915
01:20:06,350 --> 01:20:11,350
got to be more than two two people wanting to ask questions but I wasn't publicized right

916
01:20:11,350 --> 01:20:19,730
if the information wasn't put out there we need to be transparent we when we have events we

917
01:20:19,730 --> 01:20:25,470
need to let the people know moving the park had only a handful of people in it and it should have

918
01:20:25,470 --> 01:20:33,310
been packed with kids and and other events they firemen and the police officers I had a baseball game

919
01:20:34,170 --> 01:20:40,170
Nobody was there, but a few handful of Congress citizens, and most of them are probably in this room right here.

920
01:20:40,410 --> 01:20:49,550
And that's a shame, because this was a chance to watch the two groups of employees really have a good time and really rise at each other.

921
01:20:49,770 --> 01:20:51,170
Yeah, I mean it was really entertaining.

922
01:20:56,320 --> 01:21:01,540
And what we need to do less of is making promises and not keeping them.

923
01:21:01,540 --> 01:21:06,980
I mean, all sorts of promises were made on Rocket Lane when it was going to be done. People were

924
01:21:06,980 --> 01:21:13,200
citizens were misled. Same thing with Tupperwine Road. People are being misled. They're not

925
01:21:13,200 --> 01:21:20,380
keeping in the loop. And that road was supposed to be done years and years and years ago,

926
01:21:20,500 --> 01:21:25,820
but it just kept getting laid off, laid off and laid off. And so what we have today is the same

927
01:21:25,820 --> 01:21:32,420
situation. I believe the converse magazine said it was going to be starting this fall.

928
01:21:32,620 --> 01:21:39,180
We'd start construction. Well, the year is almost over. And I haven't seen an inch of dirt

929
01:21:39,180 --> 01:21:47,140
turned over. So we need to be more transparent. We need to do make promises that we can't

930
01:21:47,140 --> 01:21:48,760
keep when we talk to the public.

931
01:21:52,900 --> 01:21:58,820
Thank you. I'd like to give each of you a chance for a closing comments. Please

932
01:21:58,820 --> 01:22:01,800
I'll limit it to two minutes each, and we'll start with you, Emilio.

933
01:22:03,400 --> 01:22:11,280
Yeah, sure, obviously I appreciate the public coming out and listening to this very important discussion about the future of our community.

934
01:22:12,840 --> 01:22:16,880
I don't think that anyone would want to hear that there are problems in their community.

935
01:22:17,420 --> 01:22:19,220
Certainly, that's one of the hardest things to hear.

936
01:22:19,720 --> 01:22:25,820
You want to hear a very positive upbeat, emotionally exciting things.

937
01:22:25,820 --> 01:22:31,100
things. When you hear that there are problems, you should feel the same way. That means

938
01:22:31,100 --> 01:22:35,300
that someone is also listening. And I certainly have heard the public when I'm smoking

939
01:22:35,300 --> 01:22:41,880
with them. I look forward to continuing to work with them in the future as mayor. And certainly

940
01:22:41,880 --> 01:22:47,440
that's not an easy challenge to make. You have to stand in front of someone and make yourself

941
01:22:47,440 --> 01:22:53,200
available constantly. You have to tell them to go to the bad. And at the end of the day,

942
01:22:53,200 --> 01:23:00,660
It has to be a labor of love on your behalf to be able to care about your community more than you care about yourself.

943
01:23:01,080 --> 01:23:05,940
And I certainly do. I've been a lifelong volunteer public servants in another community.

944
01:23:06,420 --> 01:23:08,840
And I look forward to doing the same thing here in Congress.

945
01:23:09,200 --> 01:23:10,540
Thank you all for coming out this evening.

946
01:23:15,840 --> 01:23:16,620
Thank you, Mark Gilbert.

947
01:23:20,200 --> 01:23:24,440
Once again, I want to thank all of the residents who showed up here tonight.

948
01:23:24,440 --> 01:23:32,720
This is one of the best audiences we've had for meet the candidates that we've had in

949
01:23:32,720 --> 01:23:39,660
years. This is very exciting to see. It shows that some word is getting out to the people.

950
01:23:40,240 --> 01:23:48,720
The residents are getting more involved and we appreciate that because that helps us do our job.

951
01:23:49,920 --> 01:23:57,980
The main question I have as a mayor to myself is asking residents what matters to you.

952
01:23:59,280 --> 01:24:05,860
That's what drives me to do what I do from the time I started volunteering with the city 13 years ago,

953
01:24:06,180 --> 01:24:10,020
to now where I'm asking for your vote as mayor to be mayor.

954
01:24:10,800 --> 01:24:13,600
We have a wonderful city. I love the city.

955
01:24:13,600 --> 01:24:20,980
We have so many things that bring quality of life to all of the residents, to all the potential residents.

956
01:24:21,560 --> 01:24:27,980
Our library is one of the best in the state. We have wonderful parks. The shoe and

957
01:24:27,980 --> 01:24:32,000
shale, as was mentioned earlier, the shoe and shale park is a diamond in the roof. We have to find

958
01:24:32,000 --> 01:24:38,120
a way to continue to grow that, to make that destination for here in the city. We have our seniors

959
01:24:38,120 --> 01:24:44,420
and we have our community center. We're growing. We need to continue that. We cannot stop. We cannot

960
01:24:44,420 --> 01:24:53,060
stagnate. As mayor, that is my charge to move forward the city to the best possible future that

961
01:24:53,060 --> 01:24:59,580
we can have. Thank you all again for showing up here tonight. And thank you all online for watching.

962
01:25:00,100 --> 01:25:01,780
I truly appreciate you all.

963
01:25:06,950 --> 01:25:10,530
Mayor Suarez? Okay. This is a relationship about proving leadership.

964
01:25:10,530 --> 01:25:13,810
It's about what has been done so far, okay?

965
01:25:13,890 --> 01:25:18,030
Let me remind you, when I started Katie Harp was two lanes.

966
01:25:18,710 --> 01:25:20,590
South Seguero was two lanes.

967
01:25:21,070 --> 01:25:22,250
Rocky lane was two lanes.

968
01:25:22,430 --> 01:25:23,890
16 or four was two lanes.

969
01:25:24,490 --> 01:25:27,430
That was done by the teams that I had in place.

970
01:25:27,430 --> 01:25:28,770
I got it done.

971
01:25:29,330 --> 01:25:33,050
And we had the original city hall across the street.

972
01:25:33,210 --> 01:25:35,030
We had the old fire station.

973
01:25:35,230 --> 01:25:37,950
We had the new one, the new central station now.

974
01:25:37,950 --> 01:25:43,730
We improved the streets 10.1 million dollars, we improved the parks invested a million dollars.

975
01:25:44,250 --> 01:25:49,370
All that was done under our tenure, did I do it? No, we have a good team. I work on their team concept.

976
01:25:50,310 --> 01:25:53,730
You know, that's how I always worked here and that's how I will continue to work.

977
01:25:54,170 --> 01:25:59,130
We mentioned Tupper Wine Road. I don't know why I was mentioned. We do have existing project for Tupper Wine Road.

978
01:25:59,130 --> 01:26:05,750
MPO projects have been approved by the state with the city pays 20% and the state pays 80%

979
01:26:05,750 --> 01:26:10,950
we do have a project. Unfortunately we have to wait till they fund it and that's what we're doing.

980
01:26:11,410 --> 01:26:18,070
So it is funded already. We do have money to fix top of wine. We just have to decide how we're going to go.

981
01:26:18,970 --> 01:26:26,290
And then Ben Dingleman, which is now Walsham, three quarters of the way done. That is a developer project that's

982
01:26:26,290 --> 01:26:31,150
that was built in conjunction with the TERS out there.

983
01:26:31,190 --> 01:26:32,830
Taxi-primant reinvestment zone,

984
01:26:32,970 --> 01:26:35,310
it was put out there by solar panels.

985
01:26:35,930 --> 01:26:37,970
And the road's gonna come on on 15, 16,

986
01:26:38,310 --> 01:26:39,570
gonna be awesome.

987
01:26:40,550 --> 01:26:42,450
And it built, being built by the developer.

988
01:26:44,390 --> 01:26:46,710
And we had some challenges, landowners,

989
01:26:46,930 --> 01:26:50,130
we had to go to court and purchase the land,

990
01:26:50,290 --> 01:26:51,830
and that's what the Lays were,

991
01:26:51,970 --> 01:26:52,990
but we're gonna get it done.

992
01:26:53,810 --> 01:26:56,210
Now, for me, I wanna continue

993
01:26:56,210 --> 01:26:58,390
We started, you know, you know,

994
01:26:58,470 --> 01:26:59,910
Tupperware, I just started Tupperware wine.

995
01:27:00,250 --> 01:27:01,930
And I got, I helped get it funded.

996
01:27:02,570 --> 01:27:04,390
And then I want to finish it, you know,

997
01:27:04,490 --> 01:27:06,190
I got the other ones finished.

998
01:27:06,570 --> 01:27:07,790
We got the other ones finished.

999
01:27:07,910 --> 01:27:10,050
And I want to be able to do this one.

1000
01:27:10,110 --> 01:27:13,510
You know, my, the population that's tripled in size

1001
01:27:13,510 --> 01:27:17,790
has been here from 11,000 to 35,000 estimated.

1002
01:27:18,670 --> 01:27:21,190
It doesn't happen for, that happens for a reason.

1003
01:27:21,550 --> 01:27:23,470
It happens for being a lot of working a lot

1004
01:27:23,470 --> 01:27:25,210
where I have planned responsible growth.

1005
01:27:25,210 --> 01:27:29,990
And we did, we're doing all this with a reasonable, low property tax rate.

1006
01:27:30,230 --> 01:27:33,770
We're lower tax rate than some of the other cities surrounding us.

1007
01:27:34,030 --> 01:27:39,830
We're able to do that because we have a great staff that only spends what needs to be spent.

1008
01:27:40,390 --> 01:27:42,350
We have, we have enough police officers.

1009
01:27:42,550 --> 01:27:43,310
I was meant to undo.

1010
01:27:43,730 --> 01:27:49,810
I don't dictate, as Mayor to tell you, you need to hire more police officers.

1011
01:27:50,130 --> 01:27:51,310
We need to hear from the chief.

1012
01:27:51,310 --> 01:27:56,630
And when the chief's not asking for police officers, you know, he's not going to get a police officer.

1013
01:27:56,850 --> 01:28:00,370
We can't force him to take police officer the same thing in part of part of the week.

1014
01:28:00,890 --> 01:28:18,830
We basically approve the budget based on the request by the police department and the police department is not requested in the officers and they wanted vehicles, they wanted motorcycles and that's what we gave them.

1015
01:28:18,830 --> 01:28:29,830
So in closing, and continue to support the staff and continue to be whole people accountable

1016
01:28:29,830 --> 01:28:35,050
because that's what I do and we have a lot of a commitment to the city here, all our employees

1017
01:28:35,050 --> 01:28:47,250
we're going to continue that and I will say, I get a lot of calls from citizens, a lot of

1018
01:28:47,250 --> 01:28:51,290
Michelle, Robert Radey, and Stacey Adams, and I don't dislike the others, I just

1019
01:28:51,290 --> 01:28:52,230
those are my preferences.

1020
01:28:53,010 --> 01:28:56,310
I'd be glad to work with anybody as elected, but these are my preferences.

1021
01:28:56,930 --> 01:28:58,470
Thank you.

1022
01:28:58,610 --> 01:28:59,250
Thank you.

1023
01:28:59,450 --> 01:28:59,990
John Shadron?

1024
01:29:01,370 --> 01:29:06,970
We've come the long way in this campaign, and I appreciate you all coming out tonight to

1025
01:29:06,970 --> 01:29:09,250
listen to the different candidates.

1026
01:29:11,130 --> 01:29:15,810
I myself have served as Mayor Protem, I've served on almost every commission.

1027
01:29:16,750 --> 01:29:23,310
And the heart of all this, the simple truth is it's time for new leadership and

1028
01:29:23,310 --> 01:29:23,970
converse,

1029
01:29:27,800 --> 01:29:32,060
leadership that listens, leadership that respects, leadership that brings

1030
01:29:32,060 --> 01:29:34,920
people together, not divide them.

1031
01:29:35,580 --> 01:29:39,820
We are growing city with growing needs, and the challenge we face today to demand a leader

1032
01:29:39,820 --> 01:29:46,000
who understands the importance of collaboration, not just with you, the citizens, but with

1033
01:29:46,000 --> 01:29:51,880
our city council and many dedicated individuals who serve this community every day.

1034
01:29:52,360 --> 01:29:56,040
Let's be honest, as you deserve honesty, not politics.

1035
01:29:58,520 --> 01:29:59,580
There's four of us running.

1036
01:30:00,240 --> 01:30:16,660
Shadron Suarez, Gilbert and Silvest. One of those candidates has lost the trust and respect of the majority of city council. That's not rumor, that's reality. And you can't lead effectively if those around you can no longer follow.

1037
01:30:17,580 --> 01:30:25,560
Another candidate has never served on any converse commission, not a single one, yet he's running his for mayor.

1038
01:30:26,860 --> 01:30:30,320
Public Services, a commitment not a campaign slogan.

1039
01:30:33,600 --> 01:30:37,900
If elected, I will lead with transparency, humility and accountability.

1040
01:30:38,680 --> 01:30:43,460
I will listen not just to those who agree with me, but to every voice in our community.

1041
01:30:44,140 --> 01:30:49,880
I will work side-by-side with City Council, staff members, business leaders, neighborhood

1042
01:30:49,880 --> 01:30:55,660
advocates, and you to make converse safer, smarter, and stronger.

1043
01:30:56,380 --> 01:31:07,900
The past may have been the past may have brought us here, but the future, our future, demands new energy, fresh ideas, and honest leadership.

1044
01:31:09,140 --> 01:31:19,820
So as you head to the polls, I ask for your vote not just for me, but for a better converse, a united converse, a future we can all believe in.

1045
01:31:20,180 --> 01:31:20,680
Thank you.

1046
01:31:24,720 --> 01:31:29,420
I'd like to thank all the candidates for their participation, the audience for their participation,

1047
01:31:30,080 --> 01:31:36,820
and reminder now, it's up to you, the voters, early voting begins on Monday, the 20th, runs through the 31st.

1048
01:31:36,920 --> 01:31:41,420
Election Day is November the 4th, 1st Tuesday after the first Monday.

1049
01:31:41,820 --> 01:31:46,560
Reminder, you may choose one or the other to vote in, and I wish you all luck.

1050
01:31:47,200 --> 01:31:48,340
Thank you, Dr. Yao.