[0:46] Candidates for council places, elections, please come take a seat at the Dias.

[1:59] Good evening and welcome everybody. Everybody in the audience to the candidates and people at home.

[2:04] Thank you for joining us to the fourth meeting. My name is Robert Yao and I'll be hosting this evening.

[2:12] We'll be doing this in two rounds. We have the candidates for city council up first and then after a very quick break.

[2:18] we will get to meet the candidates for mayor.

[2:21] And I want to start off with a question and allow each candidate

[2:25] to introduce him or herself.

[2:27] Take about two to three minutes on this,

[2:29] and it's your chance to explain who you are.

[2:31] So here's the question for each of you.

[2:33] Please introduce yourselves to our live and streaming audiences.

[2:37] Share with us how long you've lived in Congress

[2:39] and what brought you to the city.

[2:41] And also, please share with us the qualifications

[2:43] you bring to serve on the Congress City Council.

[2:46] And we'll start with Renée Pichol first.

[2:56] Thank you.

[2:57] Good evening, everyone.

[2:58] My name is Renée Pichol.

[3:01] I've lived in Converse for 25 years.

[3:05] I am a Judson graduate.

[3:06] I graduated from high school in this district.

[3:10] And so Converse is home.

[3:14] I am a retired teacher.

[3:19] I taught for 36 years in Judson, ISD.

[3:21] I served on this city council in 2009 as the first African American female to serve on this council.

[3:34] 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.

[3:51] Let's see. As I was at Judson ISD, I served as trustee in the district for eight years.

[4:03] Five of those is President of the Judson School Board. And I've served currently, I'm serving.

[4:12] The tourism if I'm elected, I guess I won't be doing that very much longer.

[4:17] but I'm serving on the Congress for Terrors of Knox Ridge subdivision.

[4:25] And I'm currently a member of the East Side Economic Development Advisory Council

[4:33] with being led by Judge Peter Sakai and Representative Barbara Garvin Hawkins

[4:41] and the purpose of that commission is to find out what is going to happen with Frost

[4:48] Banks in a after the spares contract is up.

[4:53] So I've got a lot of experience and that's a little bit about me.

[4:57] Thank you.

[4:59] Thank you.

[5:00] Stephanie Gonzales, same question please.

[5:04] Hello, my name is Stephanie Gonzales.

[5:06] I've been a resident of Congress for the past eight years.

[5:10] I moved here from Ohio and I chose here because I love the city and I love its people.

[5:20] I'm a liaison for our bus liaison for Parks and Recs.

[5:25] I'm also on the Canyon Region Motor Board of Trustees.

[5:30] I've been a paralegal and I've also been a state trooper.

[5:33] So I bring with me quite a bit of experience from how

[5:37] you've received and I've been on Council the past two years.

[5:43] Thank you.

[5:45] Cassandra Leon.

[5:46] Good evening, everybody.

[5:47] I'm Cassandra Leon.

[5:49] I am one of the newer residents on the city council right now.

[5:55] I have been here for almost four years after being here a little over

[6:00] year and a half.

[6:01] I decided to run for city council, which would be my first

[6:05] time doing anything with any of the cities that I've been in. We've moved here from Southern California.

[6:13] Set on the, that was the liaison for the Building in Standards Commission for the first year

[6:18] and I've been on Council for two years. So those are my qualifications. I'm a little bit newer

[6:22] into the city politics, but I've learned a lot in the last two years being here.

[6:28] Thank you. Terry Borland, what brings you to a conversation what qualifications do you bring to the

[6:38] I've been on the

[6:43] Parks and Recreation Commission for three years before that I was

[6:48] on the Historic Preservation Commission for two years and as far as my residency here, my

[7:00] mom and dad moved to this little community in the mid-50s.

[7:08] I was in 1st grade, we went to a little school house without no restrooms.

[7:17] There was no school buses, so the mama stuck us and you better not complain to the driver.

[7:26] Anyway,

[7:29] I've got time to work on some issues here in our town and I'd like to opportunity

[7:41] to do that. Thank you.

[7:45] Thank you.

[7:46] Stacey Adams.

[7:47] Same opportunity.

[7:48] Nice to see you again, Robert.

[7:50] And thank you for doing this tonight.

[7:52] Hello, everyone.

[7:54] My name is Stacey Adams.

[7:55] Senior.

[7:57] I am a dedicated leader in Entrepreneur and Community Advocate for the City of

[8:03] Commerce.

[8:04] I'm a graduate of the University of New Mexico.

[8:08] I'm a faithful member of my church,

[8:10] Northside Church of Christ. I'm the foul proud father of three handsome, good-looking son who

[8:18] looked just like their dad once here. Now in the middle next to the mayor, Rachel Hanson, that's

[8:24] Austin and Shelby, my oldest who lives and works in Japan and in my baby son who's a senior

[8:34] in college and he's done his internship for San Antonio ISD and is going to be a future employee

[8:44] for Justin ISD coaching for one of the schools. Very proud of him with that. I'm currently

[8:50] your city councilman here in place five. My first term. Very proud of that job. I've been very proud

[8:58] of the things that I've learned while I've been here.

[9:01] My family not been here since 2005,

[9:06] where I have led many things for Jackson, ISD, and in the community.

[9:13] I'm a business owner of a couple of businesses,

[9:15] the limitless, where we do motivational workshops.

[9:19] That organization has been around since 2003.

[9:22] I am the owner, our past owner, my baby boy just took over my dream team, the dream team

[9:29] is organization that take young men and we put them through basketball sports and tournaments

[9:38] and then get them scholarships into college. So we're very proud to say that we have many

[9:44] young men that are college graduates because of that organization. I am a board member of the

[9:51] Texas Association of Black City Councilments

[9:54] for the State of Texas.

[9:58] I am the president of the president of community

[10:03] and relations for the Bryce Strong Foundation,

[10:06] where I led the Bryce Wisdom Way

[10:09] that sits on Judson School Campus

[10:11] and then those of you that don't know

[10:13] in universally hospital,

[10:15] he has a waiting room on a night's floor

[10:17] that I'm very proud to have led

[10:19] with the University Health leaders there.

[10:24] I believe I'm your guy for this seat

[10:27] because I believe in the seat of Congress.

[10:30] I believe in it before I became a city council

[10:32] and a councilman and now that I am a city councilman,

[10:35] I know the work that it takes to be a successful city councilman.

[10:40] I am here to serve, I'm here to work and that is not a promise

[10:44] that is something that you can look up

[10:46] and see that I will do the job.

[10:48] Thank you.

[10:52] Thank you. I would like to pose a couple questions at least to each of the candidates and to avoid too much repetition

[10:58] I will pose a different question to each place position and the interest of fairness will work in opposite directions

[11:06] But I'm going to start with place five and ask you to stay see Adam senior

[11:09] What makes Congress an attractive place to live for people with school aged children?

[11:15] Perfect, and I'm perfect. I got to answer their question. I had school-aged boys when I moved here

[11:21] What I loved about this city. It allowed me to father my sons and

[11:27] give them the

[11:29] Structure that I demanded at home. The city I believe has that same foundation

[11:35] It's a

[11:37] Family city where you find

[11:39] mothers and fathers that care about education.

[11:43] They care about safety.

[11:45] They care about parks.

[11:46] They care about the neighbors and what's going on in our city.

[11:50] And so for me, this is a great place to start a family and raise a family.

[11:57] And hopefully it is a place where your child can graduate from our education system

[12:03] and decide they want to work in our city.

[12:07] Thank you.

[12:07] Thank you. Terry Borland, same question, attractive to families with school aged children.

[12:17] But we've got a pretty well balanced little town here. It's close to a major city.

[12:26] I like to brag on our parks, our city parks. And since I've been driving around doing a little bit

[12:38] I'll start to notice more of the little parks that some of the neighborhoods have also

[12:46] besides our city parks, but there's, I wish we had more employment that where you could stay here

[12:58] we're working in Converse, suppose that's something we can work on.

[13:04] But I think it was a quiet little town when mom and daddy moved to your year to go.

[13:11] And it still mostly is a quiet little town and I

[13:18] like it here.

[13:19] Thank you.

[13:20] Thank you.

[13:21] Question for a place three, Cassandra Leon.

[13:24] What do you see as the most pressing needs for infrastructure or capital projects in the

[13:29] city?

[13:31] I think we need to update more of our roads.

[13:34] That's one of our biggest complaints

[13:36] when we're out on the streets and with our citizens,

[13:38] we constantly hear our roads need more improvement.

[13:42] Capital projects, I for sure would love to see things

[13:45] like a civic plaza park, place to put our Christmas trees

[13:48] have recitals and stuff like that, a congregating area.

[13:52] And of course, more kind of shopping centers and stuff like that

[13:57] that would draw people into converse rather than having to go to San Antonio?

[14:05] Thank you.

[14:06] Question for the a place one candidate, we'll start with Stephanie Gonzalez.

[14:09] How will you measure your success as a council member two years from when you get elected in November?

[14:16] I think that is very hard to put into a song that at the same time.

[14:21] I think he measured that in the relationships that you are with from the position.

[14:26] the respect and the people that you get to know. That's also how you bring people to the

[14:32] polls. Yes, you keep that relationship going. You meet them and you try to keep that

[14:39] interaction throughout the time that you're on the desk.

[14:44] Same question, Renee. I'd have to concur. I'd have to concur with Ms. Gonzalez.

[14:56] This is not

[14:57] Um...

[15:00] 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.

[15:33] with the entire council and the residents of the city.

[15:40] Thank you.

[15:40] We'll start this round and reverse and we'll start with you, Renee, and for the place one question.

[15:45] Do you think the quality of life in Congress has gotten better or worse in the last five years?

[15:50] Can you give examples in what you would do to make sure that Congress residents enjoy living here?

[15:56] better, absolutely better.

[16:01] 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.

[16:23] I think what would even be more attractive is if we can push our boundaries and if we're

[16:32] able to push our boundaries, at least to ITN, that would bring more growth, then other

[16:41] things will be attractive to the city like businesses.

[16:48] Thank you.

[16:48] Stephanie, same question.

[16:49] I

[16:52] 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.

[17:06] 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.

[17:22] And I think the growth that you see coming in around us is going to do nothing but make

[17:27] us stronger.

[17:31] Thank you.

[17:32] A question for a place three, Cassandra Leon, what would you tell someone moving to the

[17:37] area from out of state, for instance, Southern California, of why Congress is the better

[17:42] place to settle than some nearby cities?

[17:46] 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.

[17:57] They chose San Antonio out of our top three and we decided on a smaller community next to it and we liked.

[18:06] We just liked how they had a lot of things here, the lakes.

[18:10] The parks were one of the major things when you have small kids or teenagers.

[18:14] They need things to do places to play, soccer, you know, tennis and stuff like that.

[18:20] And they were right in the middle of housing tracks.

[18:23] And we do have the Walmart and we have cities.

[18:26] Yes, very close to us that have other stores.

[18:28] But it was just the fact that it was more of a small, like, tight knit community that had access to the bigger city.

[18:36] but you didn't have to be in the bigger city

[18:38] and far away from it to have the amenities.

[18:42] Thank you.

[18:43] A question for place five, starting with Terry.

[18:46] Where in Congress do you most like to take out of town visitors?

[18:56] The answer is that I would like to take them to our city parks.

[19:03] And specifically, I like to take them to Anton Schuman Park.

[19:10] And I would like to show them the natural steps, and anybody who doesn't know what I'm talking about,

[19:22] you should go to Anton, Juman Park, and see the natural steps.

[19:33] And that's my answer.

[19:34] Thank you.

[19:35] Stacey, same question.

[19:38] Yes, so I have guests coming in from out of town.

[19:41] It's one of the first places we go,

[19:44] because we are sports family.

[19:45] So we definitely go to Judson Stadium.

[19:49] So we're going to go and hit a track.

[19:51] We're going to support the football team

[19:56] and join the football game.

[19:59] And our community is so great.

[20:01] And it's small enough where you can connect

[20:03] with the individuals who has the power to take you

[20:07] and your family onto the field.

[20:09] and so your guest feel very special when they're out on the field because they're your guest.

[20:15] And that's very meaningful to my family and my guest to come in.

[20:20] I do agree with Terry that she went park.

[20:23] I discovered that park this year with Councilwoman Leon.

[20:26] We walked the trails and that is a beautiful, beautiful park.

[20:30] And so I've taken my family back and so we've walked the park.

[20:34] But also our mom and pop restaurants are very specific and very special.

[20:39] you can't find those anywhere else in the state of Texas and so we want to go by. One of the most

[20:45] recent one is the brunch bot and it is a great little place to go and take your family to. But then

[20:52] lastly we have beautiful events when we have the city put on the Christmas programs where the

[20:59] houses are being judged and so you can drive through a community and look at Christmas lights

[21:04] or for Halloween, you have our specific neighborhood

[21:08] that everyone knows to go to for the great

[21:10] came to the great gathering of our community.

[21:13] So I think Converse has something very special

[21:16] that you can't find in Wales in the state of Texas.

[21:19] Thank you.

[21:20] Thank you.

[21:21] We'll start again with a place five.

[21:23] Stacy, what sorts of businesses would you most like

[21:26] to see come to the city of Converse?

[21:29] I'm loving my questions tonight.

[21:31] So you know, it would be nice.

[21:34] If I had a magic wand, well, I would have a bookies,

[21:37] I would have this ATB, which we'll see here a little bit.

[21:41] We'll have grand hotels that will be here

[21:44] so that when your family comes in,

[21:46] they could stay in the city of Congress.

[21:48] Something that's very special to me,

[21:50] my son that is here in our, we have to travel

[21:52] to go to the dry cleaners.

[21:54] And it's like, we need to dry cleaners in Congress.

[21:58] Those are some of the things I think

[21:59] that will be great, little shopping centers,

[22:03] where families can go out together.

[22:06] There's a splash pad in the middle of the shopping center.

[22:10] And mothers and fathers can go out and shop

[22:13] and have a good time here in a little community for that.

[22:19] That would be my wish if we had it.

[22:22] And I would love to work with the EDC

[22:24] to start to get some of these things here in Ossie.

[22:27] Thank you.

[22:28] Thank you, sir.

[22:29] And question Terry, businesses to come.

[22:34] I'd love to see a new business going to the old steel fabricating facility trying to think

[22:46] of the name of the company that moved out of there.

[22:51] The place I'm talking about is if you cross the tracks and turn left on 1976 and you

[23:00] go about a mile, it's on the left.

[23:03] What's the name of it?

[23:05] Starts over there, L. I'm sorry, I can't think.

[23:07] I would love to see a new business move into there.

[23:12] And I would also like to see some new mom and pops,

[23:19] or I was really glad to see the drawing

[23:33] on blank.

[23:34] but they move in and they move out,

[23:38] but we'd like to see them stay.

[23:40] Thank you.

[23:42] Thank you.

[23:42] Question for Cassandra Leon?

[23:45] Think about the other cities in the Metrocom area.

[23:48] Can you think of anything that's going on in an nearby city

[23:51] that you'd like to either emulate or avoid emulating?

[24:04] I believe it's live oak.

[24:07] They have different kind of functions on every holiday.

[24:10] They do scarecrow, judging, contests off of their main roads and stuff like that.

[24:16] So I would like to emulate more things like that, getting more of our citizens involved with fun activities,

[24:24] definitely would be probably a huge thing that I would like to emulate.

[24:29] What I would not want to is probably just not.

[24:32] I won't point out any cities, but not to be able to grow any further than we already have.

[24:39] 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.

[24:48] So I wouldn't want to emulate that. Thank you.

[24:52] Thank you. A question for place one will start with Stephanie Gonzalez.

[24:56] What sort of budgetary priorities do you have that would differ from what the city is currently doing?

[25:02] I think I would like to put more money into our parks than what we currently have budgeted.

[25:11] If I could wave a wand and had a new one as budget, I would like to see that as a star.

[25:17] But I'd also like to add an entertainment area.

[25:20] I'd love to see EDC's dream of the entertainment district come to fruition as well as my own dream

[25:29] be to put our trade facility in of the place department, fire department, says that they had

[25:36] to have updated facilities,

[25:39] but that wouldn't be fine.

[25:42] Thank you. Renee Pashals, same question.

[25:44] My budgetary priorities would also be in the parks. That's what I am advocating to bring

[25:52] the attraction to the city. I think if we start with recreation, something that all families

[25:59] can consume, recreation, that would be where we could start putting the money,

[26:08] beautifying the parks, and also enhancing the lakes. As I was on the

[26:16] council before, the lakes became one of our priorities. And so now that

[26:24] North Park has families that go and fish, I was able to, with the collaboration of the council

[26:36] to have a schedule to have the city put on a schedule from the Department of Texas Parks

[26:43] Wildlife.

[26:44] So that we would always have our lakes stocked, I'd like to see that in our other lakes.

[26:49] And I think that if we do that, the other things, the other attractions, business, and other things will come.

[26:59] Thank you.

[26:59] 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.

[27:06] So, stay see Adam Sr.

[27:07] I'd like you to start, please.

[27:10] I'm sorry to repeat the question.

[27:12] Sorry.

[27:12] Close things.

[27:14] Any closing remarks?

[27:15] things you'd like to to leave the audience and the people at home with before your election.

[27:19] Thank you. As I said in my opening remarks, I am born to serve. I remember my dad, he was a

[27:26] preacher and a elder in church. And we would be the first family wise. We'd be the first ones in

[27:31] and the last ones to leave. But I say, when I grew up, I'm not doing that. And he was very involved in

[27:36] the community. And I said, when I grew up, I'm not doing that. And I left home to go away to college on

[27:42] Wednesday landed in New Mexico and went to Bible class where I was announced the director

[27:51] of youth ministry at a church in New Mexico. And from that day I was 18 years old from that

[27:58] day to this day I have served in the communities that I lived in. You know me because you've

[28:05] seen me, you know me because you see my sons who's very proud to be working in their community.

[28:11] My son is in Japan.

[28:13] He went there with no permit.

[28:15] He went there with the language barrier.

[28:18] He didn't have a driver's license.

[28:20] He didn't have a car.

[28:21] He had a baby stroller and luggage.

[28:24] And now my son, when I walk into the arena,

[28:27] and they are yelling his name and calling his name

[28:29] and how he's giving back and training.

[28:32] My son is here now with me.

[28:34] He works with me and he helps care.

[28:36] And he is so good and so passionate with seniors.

[28:39] 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

[28:48] 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

[28:54] I believe that I will continue to be visible

[28:58] I will continue to have transparency for this city and what's going on with the city if I don't know it

[29:05] 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.

[29:16] Tonight I want to thank my son who's here tonight.

[29:19] I want to thank my campaign manager who's here with me.

[29:21] Maybe I shouldn't have said that, but that's who he is.

[29:23] And he's here and I want to thank you for being here.

[29:25] And thank you all for listening to me.

[29:27] Thank you. Terrible.

[29:41] 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

[29:57] Uh, no man named Harry Marbach.

[29:59] Oh, yeah.

[30:00] And he's no longer with us, and I sort of started getting involved in things.

[30:07] And what he started was to create a museum for the city.

[30:15] And we've had since the family donated some some acreage and the old home.

[30:24] We had a promise of something to be pretty nice, but it's proved to be too complicated for the city.

[30:37] And one thing I would do if I got in, I would try to lead discussions where we could maybe uncomplicate things.

[30:48] and have the the the shutters removed from that old home and open it to the public.

[30:59] That's my idea and that's why that's one of the reasons that I decide to run.

[31:09] Thank you, Cassandra Leon, closing remarks.

[31:14] I appreciate being a city council member for the past two years.

[31:18] I know I jumped into the city of political ring very quickly as we moved here from California.

[31:25] I wanted to make sure that I became part of my community.

[31:31] So, I did a lot of work, educated myself, and I promised on my next term if I am

[31:37] relected, I will continue to be present and seen and supportive of our staff and our citizens

[31:43] open for communication.

[31:47] And this term I want to go much further out of my comfort zone

[31:52] than just being a normal city council member. And I want to dedicate my time bringing

[31:58] our community more together so that we can move forward together. So I'm just asking for a

[32:07] I appreciate every one of you for helping me along this journey and communicating and just being

[32:15] citizens of commerce and this amazing city.

[32:18] Thank you.

[32:19] Thank you, per place one, Stephanie Gonzalez.

[32:24] I'm Stephanie Gonzalez.

[32:26] I have been your city council representative for the past two years.

[32:30] I'm a mother, a grandmother, a foster to a job parent.

[32:35] I enjoy it every bit of this city and love being part of the community and being out with citizens,

[32:44] which you will find me and just about any of the functions, all of the meetings.

[32:49] I try to make every one of them.

[32:51] I totally enjoy what I do and I do it not for myself.

[32:56] I do it because I enjoy people and with.

[32:59] And that's where it brings me back.

[33:02] I'd like to be re-elected for hybrid reasons.

[33:05] Thank you.

[33:06] And finally, for Place One, Renee Pashow.

[33:08] Thank you.

[33:10] I'm an advocate for cultivating converse to become a destination city.

[33:16] One where visitors will want to come spend their money and their time.

[33:21] I would like to create the attraction of elevating our parks.

[33:26] And North Park is an example of that.

[33:28] I'm not running against my opponent, I think she's done a wonderful job for two years.

[33:35] What I am running is toward the potential that Converse can be.

[33:41] I am running for the citizens of Converse in building relationships and helping the mayor

[33:50] in the city and the staff to bring converse to the point of destination.

[33:58] I'm hoping that building the grounds around the lakes in the park and even an amphitheater

[34:06] I heard Mr. Borland talk about at Schumann Park that they have, I don't know what type of

[34:14] it is, but I was even thinking about if I'm elected, getting with EDC and having natural

[34:23] type of seating arrangement, like railroad ties at an amphitheater. I think those type of attractions

[34:32] will attract other businesses to the city. And so that is why I'm running. So, hey, hey vote for Renee.

[34:42] Thank you very much. I'd like to thank all of the Council candidates for their participation.

[34:45] and would like to invite the mayoral candidates to come take their places for our second round.

[34:51] Thank you.

[34:55] Thank you, sir.

[34:56] For being here.

[34:56] Thank you again.

[36:52] Thank you very much.

[36:53] I'd like to welcome the mayoral candidates.

[36:56] The format for this, I'd like to be very similar to the last.

[36:59] When I do post questions, I'll post the same one to all four of you.

[37:02] I will switch order, reverse order, so that in the issue of equality.

[37:07] And start off with a brief introduction.

[37:08] 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.

[37:16] I'll start with you, John Shadron.

[37:33] Oh, no.

[37:34] No, it's not.

[37:36] I'll start over again.

[37:37] My name is John Shadron.

[37:39] I've lived in Congress for 40 years.

[37:42] The Air Force brought me here.

[37:43] I served in the Air Force for 10 and a half years.

[37:47] I was in a unit called Social Actions.

[37:49] and what we did is we taught race relations, equal opportunity, and then substance abuse.

[37:56] My main objective in that was substance abuse, although I did do some race relations training also.

[38:06] And here's part of the question. I'm sorry. What do you think makes for a good man?

[38:12] Gotcha. And I'd also like to mention I've been married to my wife for 29 years now.

[38:17] I have a son, Joshua, who just turned 19, he is attending Texas A&M in college station.

[38:25] What makes a good mayor?

[38:26] A good mayor is someone that can work with all individuals.

[38:31] They're open to suggestions, they're transparent.

[38:36] They don't try to belittle people, they don't try to bully people, and I think that this

[38:44] one of the things that in this election that people should be looking at closely and when they make their choice.

[38:53] Thank you. Mayor Swara, same question. Well, good evening, everyone. Thank you for stopping by and

[38:57] joining us this evening. I was stationed here at Randolph in mid-80s. I was in a traffic controller.

[39:04] This was one of my bases here. I was stationed here for six years, so I was very familiar with the area.

[39:09] And then when I retired in 96, I decided to move the family here to converse.

[39:15] That's what, because I was so familiar with the area, I met a traffic controller by trade,

[39:21] moved here in November 96, served for the Air Force for 21 years.

[39:26] I was in the law enforcement specialist for four years, and they're traffic controller

[39:30] for 17 years.

[39:32] I met a dead as shield, dead as storm veteran.

[39:35] I worked with also had opportunity to work with the Berg County Criminal District and County

[39:39] Courts for 23 years and I have earned an associate degree in airway science, a associate

[39:46] degree in security administration, a bachelor of arts degree in criminal justice and corrections,

[39:52] a bachelor of science degree in psychology, behavioral management, a master of arts degree

[39:58] in criminal justice management and administration.

[40:00] I'm also a graduate of the United States Air Force Security Police Academy at Lackland Air Force Base.

[40:07] I'm also an undergraduate at the United States Air Force Air Traffic Control Academy.

[40:11] I'm the former chairman and vice chairman of the Northeast Partnership for Economic Development.

[40:17] I'm also the former president of the Jefferson Education Foundation for 12 years.

[40:23] I'm a former Joint Base San Antonio Randolph Air Force Base honorary commander.

[40:27] 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.

[40:39] We meet every month with all the mayors in Breck County, 28 cities.

[40:43] 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.

[40:51] I have established close partnerships with leaders, leaderships of CPS Energy, Solst, Jeffs

[40:57] and ISD.

[40:58] My apologies.

[41:00] Barrett, Santonio, MPO, ACOG, to include all the federal state, county and all municipalities

[41:06] elected officials.

[41:08] Also served as the emergency management director during COVID-19, in all recent weather storms

[41:14] that we had.

[41:15] What makes a good mayor?

[41:16] Citizen contact.

[41:17] Number one.

[41:18] Citizen's a customer service.

[41:19] You have to make sure that the people engage, that the government engage with their people.

[41:27] 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.

[41:36] And so for me, that is the biggest thing that makes a good mayor, it's to ensure that that happens.

[41:42] Thank you. Mark Hilbert's in my opportunity.

[41:47] Good evening, Tom, and thank you for hosting us once again.

[41:50] appreciate that. It's good to see so many of the residents here in person to see, to see

[41:58] this firsthand, and I'd also like to say, welcome to all of those who are live streaming

[42:04] as well. Thank you, the residents are the backbone of the city. I'm Mark Gilbert. I've lived

[42:11] In Congress for 25 years, I was in the Air Force for 24 years moved here on the second

[42:21] time that the government, that the Air Force stationed here at Randolph Air Force

[42:25] space.

[42:27] I retired out of Lackland, and immediately joined the EDC Economic Development Corporation

[42:34] here in Congress, where I served on that board for six years.

[42:38] the last four of which I was the President of the Board of Directors there. In 2018, I was

[42:48] appointed to the City Council to fill an empty spot, and I served on the Council for the next six years.

[42:57] Two of those years I was the Mayor of Pro Tem.

[43:02] I currently am the City's representative

[43:05] for the Canyon Region of Water Authority, where we get our water.

[43:10] While on Council, I was the liaison for nearly every commission that we have, Charter Review,

[43:20] Parks and Environmental Planning and Zoning, the old historic and preservation commission

[43:28] that was eventually joined up with the Parks and Rec.

[43:32] 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.

[43:45] My educational background of an associate's degree in personal management from the community college of the Air Force.

[43:52] I have a bachelor's degree in business administration from Whalen Baptist University.

[43:56] 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.

[44:16] The position of mayor is an interesting one.

[44:21] it is it starts with being a leader to be a leader you must connect with the

[44:29] residents of the city because the goal the ultimate goal is moving the city

[44:34] forward towards a better future as that goes my personal belief is that my best

[44:43] style of leadership is servant leader where I work directly with those in the

[44:50] not just the staff, but the residents themselves.

[44:54] It's a great feeling to get out there and meet the residents themselves in here there.

[45:00] 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.

[45:29] Thank you. Emilio, see you all see you in my opportunity please.

[45:32] Sure, so you asked a couple of questions.

[45:35] My problem in the conference, the answer is my wife, sitting in the audience.

[45:39] She was the EDC director for many years.

[45:43] And so we can move here from San Antonio for that opportunity.

[45:46] And we remain. And you also asked what makes for our good mayor.

[45:51] And I would have to agree with many of my opponents up here,

[45:55] it, essentially it is an opportunity to connect with the community through your leadership.

[46:02] So a citizens need to feel comfortable reaching out to a mayor who will then hear them

[46:09] and then bring their desires, complaints, needs, whatever it might be, forward.

[46:16] And then, of course, to work with the rest of the council and staff to be able to make

[46:20] those things happen or explain why it's not possible.

[46:23] Ultimately, the citizens have to feel empowered by their leadership, and that makes them

[46:28] feel that their government is working on their behalf.

[46:31] Thank you.

[46:33] Thank you.

[46:33] We solicited questions from city residents, and I'm going to give those priority over

[46:40] ones that I dreamed up in an academic office, and I'll start with you Emilio Silvas.

[46:45] What is your strategy to improve our law enforcement to effectively protect and serve our

[46:50] given the rapid housing developments and population increase.

[46:55] So we do have a large increase of housing, especially along 1516.

[47:02] So in terms of being able to increase our policing,

[47:07] I would say one of the chief concerns I've heard voice

[47:09] is being able to retain existing staff as opposed to leaving.

[47:14] There is no greater champion that you're going to have for someone

[47:17] than someone that's already doing the job.

[47:19] All right, so I ran for the school board several years ago and it was the same voice

[47:24] same question I made the same commentary. You have people to go to the school and their

[47:32] teachers and they leave. Same thing happens here. We have staff that come here that are police

[47:37] officers and after a while they leave. What if you can find a way to retain them, keep them

[47:41] here, they will be your strongest advocates for new police officers to want to come here.

[47:46] Essentially, you want to be able to recruit the best fit staff and police officers are the

[47:54] quite frankly, they're the most important.

[47:56] 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.

[48:02] 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.

[48:11] and eventually a reputation will be that this is a police department where police officers

[48:16] wants to go.

[48:19] Aren't Gilbert saying question about public safety?

[48:26] My answer to that question falls under three topics.

[48:31] The first is numbers.

[48:34] The city of Converse has grown so significantly since, astronomically actually since I've

[48:42] moved here 25 years ago.

[48:46] We're well over 30,000 at this point, and some estimates coming from the state, say that by

[48:53] the year 2040 will be up close to 50,000 residents.

[48:58] We must be able to keep up the number of police officers to accommodate that many residents.

[49:07] police officers, we have currently doing an excellent job. They are top-notch, and

[49:15] we just need to make sure that we find avenues to pay for additional officers.

[49:25] In addition to the sheer number, education, and training is going to be paramount

[49:32] to the success of not only the police department, but the entire city staff.

[49:41] Case in point, one of the officers a few years ago was selected to attend a specialized training

[49:50] with the FBI at the FBI Academy in Quantico. Very prestigious events. And when he came back,

[50:02] 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.

[50:19] And that one educational outreach turned out to be a force multiplier within our own police department.

[50:28] We need to search for more opportunities such as that.

[50:35] And the third point is something that I just mentioned there,

[50:40] outreach.

[50:42] I believe Mr. Sylvain also mentioned the contact

[50:46] with the residents is extremely important to the success

[50:52] overall of the police department and therefore the city itself.

[50:57] 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.

[51:12] Right now our police department does an excellent job of outreach.

[51:18] I would like to see that extended further.

[51:22] Let's grow that along with the police department itself.

[51:28] As the department grows, that outreach needs to grow along with it.

[51:32] Thank you.

[51:34] Thank you.

[51:35] Mayor Suara, same question about improving law enforcement and public safety?

[51:39] Okay, first of all, all is safety for me.

[51:43] It has to be number one.

[51:44] Number one priority.

[51:45] It's one of the reasons I did moving here in Congress.

[51:47] I did my research and wanted to bring my family and raised my family in a safe state.

[51:52] I did talk to Khalid Sita at the time and he said that the city council gives high priority

[51:58] to the public safety, the fire police, and that's what we do here in Congress.

[52:03] I work very closely with Chief Lane.

[52:06] I do understand this job, one of my specialties.

[52:09] I do understand what he's doing.

[52:11] I do understand his needs as a matter of fact throughout my tenure here.

[52:16] I was able to secure the first body cameras

[52:19] for the police department that would protect police officer

[52:22] and it would protect the citizen.

[52:24] First time, so Congress had the first body cameras.

[52:27] When it first became available, back in 2009, 2010,

[52:32] when it first talked about it, we were able to secure

[52:34] the first body cameras in the in-Berry County.

[52:38] So, and then also, too, when the column blind attack

[52:42] of North happened, we made sure that our officers

[52:45] We change it thinking in the officers that we have to be ready to respond so we may

[52:50] ensure that that every officer had the appropriate firepower to be able to deal

[52:57] with the situation.

[52:57] I have to wait for SWAT teams and I have to wait for backup.

[53:02] And recently we have a speeding problem in Congress and that is a good knowledge.

[53:08] We have a lot of growth in the areas.

[53:10] We have a lot of growth being worked on.

[53:12] 35, 1604, so a lot of traffic flows to Congress just to get through to a way I 35.

[53:20] So I talked to police chief Lane, we were able to secure two motorcycles to deal with the traffic

[53:27] and now we have to for it.

[53:29] And we recognize there is a problem, a speeding problem in Congress and that's where it goes

[53:34] working together.

[53:36] Now we're looking at situations of a lot of residents are using the parks.

[53:41] So now we have to think big.

[53:43] We have to figure out a way to work with the police department, to secure our parks, because the citizens

[53:49] have to feel safe in our parks and they don't have to, should have the colony, but they

[53:54] should already be there.

[53:55] So we're working with Chief Lane to come with some ideas, whether it be park rangers or local

[54:01] resources, something to make the citizens safe, because people will hear for a reason,

[54:07] You know, and when you're population triples from the $11,500 or $35,000, you're, they're moving here for a reason.

[54:17] 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.

[54:34] And I emphasize that they're due because they risked their lives every day every time they respond and also that they get

[54:40] 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

[54:47] ambulances for the fire department, the fire department carries a whole blood now.

[54:53] 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.

[55:01] It works together with the city council and they're very prugal with their spending too

[55:06] They only don't even request what they need and that's commendable to them and my hats off to them

[55:14] But public safety should always be the number one priority for any for any city because without that

[55:23] Nothing matters if the citizens don't feel safe nothing else matters to the city

[55:29] Thank you. John Shadron's same question about the public safety and law enforcement.

[55:34] Well, I've been sort of a unique situation that I was a police officer for five years

[55:38] before I decided it wasn't the career for me.

[55:45] I remember when I first moved to Converse, I would see a police officer every hour past my house.

[55:52] Every hour. Today, I'm lucky to see one past mighty house maybe once a day. The city has gotten so big.

[56:02] We have so few officers. My understanding is we're supposed to have a one per 5,000 population.

[56:08] 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.

[56:17] They have a program called the Neighborhood Watch Program.

[56:21] It's a program where neighborhoods get together.

[56:25] They do sort of security checks in their neighborhood.

[56:29] They log it in.

[56:31] And after three months they get a sign placed on their streets saying that

[56:35] during the neighborhood watch program.

[56:37] My understanding is we have none in this community, not one.

[56:43] I believe I'm going to be the first one to start one.

[56:46] I have my neighbor in it interested in it, and I understand talking to the police department

[56:52] the main reason we don't get any attention to pushing the neighborhood watch program is

[56:59] because of lack of leadership, lack of the mayor, and council supporting such a program.

[57:05] It's a shame because it gets people involved, it gets people looking out for each other.

[57:13] We need to do more in the city of Converse, we need more police officers, we need better security.

[57:21] And in the past we've been short of police officers and the excuse I've heard is they left because of our mayor.

[57:31] 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.

[57:38] So we're not having to wait to do the interview process to go out and look for police officers.

[57:44] So we've been able to fill those voids a lot quicker than we have in the past.

[57:50] Thank you.

[57:50] The other question that came from residents is similar, but notably different.

[57:57] I want to start with you, John, and work in the opposite direction.

[58:00] Please explain your plan to improve streets, sidewalks, and street lighting.

[58:05] How much progress have we made in these recently?

[58:08] That's kind of interesting because that's the reason I got in the mayor's race.

[58:13] I live in a subdivision in several subdivisions around me.

[58:18] The streets are horrible.

[58:19] We have two inch gaps in the street.

[58:22] We have a factory trees growing out of the street.

[58:25] We have greener grass growing out of the street that's in my yard.

[58:29] Sidewalks have little trees coming out of it.

[58:33] Nothing's been done in several years in my subdivision.

[58:36] And that's also going into other subdivisions.

[58:40] Again, when I first moved into Converse,

[58:42] they had a street maintenance program.

[58:45] They had street crews go around and kill the grass in the street,

[58:49] take the tar and fill in the cracks.

[58:55] And when the roads go, so does the neighborhood.

[58:58] People, when the city quits caring about the infrastructure,

[59:02] it seems that people quit caring about their homes.

[59:06] The city seems to take a, when a neighborhood goes down, deteriorates, they leave it, they abandon it, they don't come back.

[59:15] 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.

[59:23] It's also complaints of citizens in other neighborhoods are dealing with the same problem.

[59:28] 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

[59:36] 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

[59:50] Thank you, Mayor Suarez, in question. Yeah, I'd have to disagree with Mr. Shadron

[59:54] We just spent $10.1 million during the bond to repay.

[1:00:00] 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.

[1:00:09] 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.

[1:00:21] So, we created the street maintenance tax, which she might not be aware of.

[1:00:25] The street maintenance tax was created where we split EDC tax, they were getting half a cent,

[1:00:31] not to get a quarter, and the street maintenance tax is, of course, specifically to maintain the existing streets.

[1:00:39] So, right now it equates to over a million dollars.

[1:00:42] So, the over a million dollars is given to the public works director, and he runs the program to repair existing streets.

[1:00:49] He runs a list, you know, unfortunately, streets,

[1:00:53] there's very expensive, very expensive.

[1:00:57] It's a street, you'll never be saw.

[1:00:59] It's a continuous process.

[1:01:01] You know, it's one of those things where you put a meeting

[1:01:04] and we put 10.5 million, 20.1 million.

[1:01:07] And now we have a three maintenance tax

[1:01:10] where everybody spends in Congress

[1:01:13] pays some streets, basically, through a quarter-sense tax.

[1:01:17] And we get it every annually and the public works director has his evaluation of all the

[1:01:23] Congress streets and repairs the sidewalks and the streets with that $1 million plus that he

[1:01:29] receives.

[1:01:31] So, you know, he works very hard, but unfortunately, it isn't tough, and if you look around,

[1:01:36] you see a lot of driving around, and it's very unfortunate, and it hurts me to see where

[1:01:42] a resident has to have a foundation trucks off front, you know, and they're pounding away

[1:01:46] trying to fix the foundations to the same as the streets, you know, the red clay in this area

[1:01:53] continues to move, and you know, you repair street, and then a year later it's cracked, you know,

[1:01:59] so we have the additional problem of having to deal with the drought right now too as well,

[1:02:04] and it's causing a lot of damage to our water lines, it's causing a lot of damage to our streets,

[1:02:09] and it's part of what the director is doing, it should be humanity doing his best he can with the

[1:02:15] resources he has and I believe that when you have a million dollars, that's a lot of resources

[1:02:19] to be able to spend and address, but unfortunately, like I said, it's a very hard process to

[1:02:27] maintain the role to you. And you can draw, I can draw you to any city and find a same problems

[1:02:32] and they're having the same problems we are. It's just usually the most expensive process

[1:02:37] of very city to deal with, but we have a solution to remain his tax.

[1:02:41] The solution is not working.

[1:02:43] Mayor, I invite you to visit my neighborhood.

[1:02:46] I don't run the public works department.

[1:02:48] Thank you.

[1:02:48] Mark Gilbert, same question about streets sidewalks and street lighting.

[1:02:55] Those two, the previous two have pretty much said a lot about the streets and sidewalks.

[1:03:01] I'd like to attack the lighting issue.

[1:03:05] I've heard from multiple residents,

[1:03:08] over my years as a council member and while getting out and meeting residents over the past

[1:03:15] year or so. And the question of lighting continues to come up. And we do need to ensure that

[1:03:23] we stay on the radar with City Public Service that provides the lighting for us and with a

[1:03:38] to lighting to ensure that we do not cause an inordinate amount of light pollution for the

[1:03:47] night flying for the mission on Randolph. So that is a very important issue that we have looked

[1:03:56] at in the past and that if I am here I will continue to do so. The last thing I want to talk

[1:04:04] about on the streets issue is not so much the overall street issue, but a particular street

[1:04:14] issues, specific one in particular that encapsulates the frustrations of many residents

[1:04:22] of the city of Converse, and that would be a top-of-one road.

[1:04:29] The issue of top-of-one

[1:04:30] has been a long-standing issue far earlier than from when I got here, come, I come to find

[1:04:39] out. I sat down and talked with a couple of residents recently who expressed not only

[1:04:47] dismay and disappointment, but a genuine hurting over the fact that they moved into the neighborhood

[1:04:57] near Kitty Hawk and Tupper wine back in 1984 I believe. And as a young couple they went

[1:05:05] to city council meetings and they heard the council at that point talking about the expansion

[1:05:13] of Tupper wine road. Here it is 41 years later and there still have no relief on that issue.

[1:05:24] One of the first things I plan to do is mayor is to make if it's not done prior, we have

[1:05:32] to get that done.

[1:05:34] Tupper line has been, like I said, has been on the books for over 40 years now.

[1:05:41] When I was on the EDC, I met with several developers, business owners, those types of individuals,

[1:05:47] And one issue that they kept harping on was the lack of infrastructure as in roads leading

[1:05:56] into and out of the city.

[1:05:59] We've completed just an excuse me, Rocket Lane.

[1:06:03] Congratulations from us.

[1:06:05] We need to look at the lessons learned from all the issues that went with Rocket Lane and

[1:06:11] a constructive plan to finish top of wine in a speedy manner.

[1:06:21] Thank you.

[1:06:24] Thank you.

[1:06:25] Emilio Silva's same question about streets, sidewalks, street lighting.

[1:06:30] Sure.

[1:06:30] I'll start with streets.

[1:06:33] Many of the topics that have been many of the answers that we've heard to you are many

[1:06:37] of the same ones that I would offer, top of wine, I live right, top of wine, I live in

[1:06:41] see it every day I avoid it whenever I can, not because I don't like this treat but because

[1:06:46] it has its challenges. Primarily it is a very clear sign to the citizens that while we

[1:06:55] may talk about taking these things seriously, we don't actually do them. Decades long waiting

[1:07:03] for it's upper line, I also have spoken with residents who've lived for 40 years and they

[1:07:08] We also have remote how long it takes for it's upper line to be completed, same thing for rocket length.

[1:07:14] If you go further down 1516, there's a road between 1516 and 1604, that's not even finished.

[1:07:21] And the residents in that area were expecting that auxiliary road to be able to cross over from 1516 on to 1604.

[1:07:28] Really been traffic there.

[1:07:29] So what they see in what I see myself is we have infrastructure challenges, and we don't really work hard to achieve them.

[1:07:39] We talk about them, but we don't actually make them happen.

[1:07:43] You want to know what I would do.

[1:07:44] I would find a way to address our roads locally.

[1:07:49] I have seen that some cities have adopted programs where they have purchased equipment.

[1:07:53] they have taught their staff how to maintain the roads instead of a hiring third-party

[1:07:59] construction people. Lowering the overall cost of maintaining roads to a small fraction

[1:08:05] of what it would normally cost. That is absolutely something that we could do. I've spoken

[1:08:09] with contractors for lighting that work with cities and they have told me that Congress

[1:08:15] has quite frankly said we don't want to talk to you. It's very hard when I talk to a resident

[1:08:20] and I tell them, well, we don't have lights on your street

[1:08:24] because the city's not gonna put one here.

[1:08:27] Lifelong residents who are literally half a block away

[1:08:31] from FM78 in the street is dark.

[1:08:34] That means that neighborhood has been dark

[1:08:36] for a very long time.

[1:08:38] The infrastructure improvements are necessary,

[1:08:40] not just for residents, but also for businesses.

[1:08:44] Business owners I've spoken to are not happy

[1:08:46] about the roads either.

[1:08:47] These are so at the way I put it as they're non-sexty things, right?

[1:08:52] These are just the most boring things you could talk about asphalt.

[1:08:56] But the reality is, without that kind of life plug within a community, you can't get anywhere.

[1:09:01] It takes you forever to get out of your neighborhoods.

[1:09:02] I spoken with a resident who waits 30 minutes in the morning to get out of his neighborhood

[1:09:07] to get on the afternoon 15, 16, and he does not like it.

[1:09:10] And he certainly wasn't happy when I told him that there's a neighborhood just five minutes

[1:09:14] north of him with more residents coming in because there's entire blocks of houses being built.

[1:09:22] We've grown really fast and we clearly didn't plan for it.

[1:09:26] As mayor, I promised the cities that I will within the first hundred days deliver an infrastructure

[1:09:32] plan.

[1:09:33] Both for roads and lighting.

[1:09:34] Is that aggressive?

[1:09:36] Yes.

[1:09:36] The residents expected.

[1:09:37] Yes.

[1:09:37] Because they're tired of waiting.

[1:09:39] The reality is, I walk up to people's houses and I say, hi, my name is.

[1:09:44] The first thing to do is point it to the road and say, look at that crack in front of my

[1:09:48] road.

[1:09:48] It's an accident waiting to happen.

[1:09:51] So I don't think that we can afford to ignore the infrastructure problem.

[1:09:55] It is absolutely not incumbent upon staff to do that.

[1:10:00] That's why the citizens elect a mayor in City Council.

[1:10:04] And they expect those individuals to act on their behalf, and I certainly would as well.

[1:10:09] Thank you.

[1:10:13] Thank you.

[1:10:13] This question I'd like to start with you, Emilio.

[1:10:16] What should the city of Congress government do more of in a rare question in government?

[1:10:21] What should it do less of?

[1:10:26] I would say the city of Congress government's work really hard at being as transparent as possible.

[1:10:33] It's a very easy thing to say, but in practice it's much more difficult.

[1:10:38] And I am not saying that members of council are not transparent.

[1:10:42] I think they do what they can when they can and they engage the public.

[1:10:47] That's incredibly important. Without that level of transparency,

[1:10:52] an opportunity to be able to talk to your elected leaders,

[1:10:56] citizens don't know the issues that are in front of them.

[1:10:58] Why are we doing something? Why is something not happened?

[1:11:01] That's the hardest thing to explain to someone.

[1:11:04] I want something and you're trying to tell me I can't have it.

[1:11:06] I need to understand why.

[1:11:08] So that's something that the city through its council needs to do more of.

[1:11:14] What does it have to do less of?

[1:11:18] It's kind of an inverse answer for you.

[1:11:19] I would say stop telling people what the answer is and start really asking.

[1:11:25] What are the issues in the front of you?

[1:11:27] And it's important because citizens live in their neighborhoods every single day.

[1:11:33] And the city has adopted several plans.

[1:11:38] I don't know why several of them are necessarily in front of us.

[1:11:41] I'm certain there are conversations, I'm certain there are well-intentioned, but they don't necessarily serve citizens, so

[1:11:50] 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

[1:11:59] So that's how it ends right

[1:12:01] Thank you Mark Gilbert, same question.

[1:12:11] I believe the city needs to

[1:12:16] In the case of what the city should do more of a

[1:12:19] with things first is education. The Council, for example, is required to obtain 10 hours of

[1:12:31] education during their, during the calendar year. The last two charter review commissions,

[1:12:41] the issue has come up where the commissions discuss extending that those number of

[1:12:50] dollars from 10 to the 15 or 20. The reason for that is education is the

[1:13:00] foundation of doing the actual job as far as the council goes.

[1:13:05] Case in point two years ago, we had three brand new council members elected to the seats.

[1:13:14] Two other council members at that time had either one year or six months in their particular seats.

[1:13:22] The education curve for them was very steep.

[1:13:26] And I commend them for going out and obtaining more than the required amount of hours necessary that is provided by the charter.

[1:13:42] Each of them to a person went out and took extra hours until they felt more comfortable in their particular seats.

[1:13:51] I believe that can be extended from just the council to the city staff as well.

[1:14:00] With their, under their auspices, however, they would like to do it within their departments.

[1:14:06] Not every department is going to need the same amount of education that another might need.

[1:14:13] But if we can provide a path to further education within the staff, that's only going to help the city as a whole.

[1:14:27] Another thing is I touched on before was outreach.

[1:14:32] The city needs to do a better job of meeting the citizens where they're at.

[1:14:38] We provide several avenues to get information out to the residents.

[1:14:47] Not all of those avenues work for everybody.

[1:14:52] Each individual has a different way of trying to learn, trying to gather information.

[1:14:58] We need to continue.

[1:15:00] We need to expand the way we reach out and get information to our residents.

[1:15:07] As far as less of,

[1:15:14] I believe the city needs to do less of is what ends up being stagnation.

[1:15:21] We need to move forward as a group, as a city, as team converse.

[1:15:26] We tend to stagnate as a city with what ends up being a lack of teamwork within the city itself.

[1:15:38] I don't want to get into personal attacks or anything, or he said she said.

[1:15:46] But suffice it to save.

[1:15:47] we as a team, team Congress need to come together to do a better job of moving our city forward

[1:15:58] and out of stagnation.

[1:16:00] Thank you.

[1:16:02] Thank you, Mayor Swarrow, same thing.

[1:16:03] What should this Congress do more of and what should it do less of?

[1:16:06] Well, I can tell you that as far as transparency we're doing our part, we're doing better

[1:16:12] than a lot of the cities in comparison.

[1:16:14] And we post our agendas for the meetings, the losses three days, we do it four days.

[1:16:21] And that way the citizens can see it online, we post it on the website, the citizens can

[1:16:25] see what kind of business that we're going to be completing that day.

[1:16:29] And then if they want to show and have some input systems to be heard and provide what they can

[1:16:32] call their council member call us and we'll get their given their input.

[1:16:37] They'll give us their input.

[1:16:38] We can do that.

[1:16:39] We do mail newsletter.

[1:16:40] We created a newsletter many years ago, we met a newsletter on a 40 basis to all the

[1:16:46] statuses in Congress.

[1:16:47] We don't put it on the stands, we mail it to them directly and we keep them posted of all

[1:16:52] the new changes, all the events and all the phone numbers and how to get a hold of the

[1:16:56] staff and basically give me a good picture straight to their home.

[1:17:01] So they're aware of what we're doing here as a government facility.

[1:17:06] We do stream our city council meetings live that's something new that we did several years ago as well

[1:17:13] We stream live just like we stream in this live

[1:17:15] Citizens are able to sit home and watch the meetings

[1:17:18] They will to watch this program and we also

[1:17:23] Video tape them to where once we're done here, they can watch the video

[1:17:27] You know, they watch the video anywhere they watch on their cell phone and watch from home

[1:17:31] 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.

[1:17:45] Those that have spectrum, channel 21, we secure channel 21 spectrum to play the videos and see

[1:17:53] council meetings over and over or need events that we record.

[1:17:56] So that's another way that we reach out to the citizens.

[1:17:59] We're always thinking of ways to reach out to the citizens.

[1:18:01] I have Mayor's call twice a month, I've always had that citizen come see me on the second

[1:18:06] and fourth Saturday, very month between 80-10 and no appointments ever needed and they can

[1:18:12] get updates on any project and give us our

[1:18:16] plans to tell us how we're doing, tell us how we're

[1:18:18] not doing, and maintain the transparency through

[1:18:22] that as well.

[1:18:23] We do encourage all the departments,

[1:18:27] Department, and Police Department library to

[1:18:29] stream their Facebook live, give the people the

[1:18:33] information, let them know and go out there and

[1:18:36] make contact with the department.

[1:18:38] That's happening a lot with the Department, and

[1:18:40] especially our community officer, police officer,

[1:18:44] that does that a lot, that's a great job doing that with the public.

[1:18:48] And so we're doing everything we can.

[1:18:51] And we need to do less of, we need to be less restrictive.

[1:18:55] You know, people, people know that we're hard and

[1:18:58] cold compliance and it needs to be a time,

[1:19:00] but we just need to be, do the human approach and work towards

[1:19:07] compliance as opposed to giving people citations,

[1:19:10] doing things like that. We need to help those that can't help themselves and do less of trying

[1:19:17] to bully them, if you will, you know, just try to help them out. There's a lot of residents

[1:19:22] that are seniors that can't enable to fix their fences, things like that. We need to do

[1:19:27] reach out more to them. Thank you. John Shadron, same question, please.

[1:19:33] You know, this is funny. You had mentioned recently that we don't have any code compliance

[1:19:38] problems in the city. I assure you, Mayor, if you drive around, we do. One of the things

[1:19:44] that we need to do more of is communicate. This room should be packed tonight. It a lot of people

[1:19:53] didn't have a clue that you could write a question in submitted tonight. People walked in there

[1:20:00] and said, and you only received two questions out of a population of 30,000 people,

[1:20:06] got to be more than two two people wanting to ask questions but I wasn't publicized right

[1:20:11] if the information wasn't put out there we need to be transparent we when we have events we

[1:20:19] need to let the people know moving the park had only a handful of people in it and it should have

[1:20:25] been packed with kids and and other events they firemen and the police officers I had a baseball game

[1:20:34] Nobody was there, but a few handful of Congress citizens, and most of them are probably in this room right here.

[1:20:40] 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.

[1:20:49] Yeah, I mean it was really entertaining.

[1:20:56] And what we need to do less of is making promises and not keeping them.

[1:21:01] I mean, all sorts of promises were made on Rocket Lane when it was going to be done. People were

[1:21:06] citizens were misled. Same thing with Tupperwine Road. People are being misled. They're not

[1:21:13] keeping in the loop. And that road was supposed to be done years and years and years ago,

[1:21:20] but it just kept getting laid off, laid off and laid off. And so what we have today is the same

[1:21:25] situation. I believe the converse magazine said it was going to be starting this fall.

[1:21:32] We'd start construction. Well, the year is almost over. And I haven't seen an inch of dirt

[1:21:39] turned over. So we need to be more transparent. We need to do make promises that we can't

[1:21:47] keep when we talk to the public.

[1:21:52] Thank you. I'd like to give each of you a chance for a closing comments. Please

[1:21:58] I'll limit it to two minutes each, and we'll start with you, Emilio.

[1:22:03] Yeah, sure, obviously I appreciate the public coming out and listening to this very important discussion about the future of our community.

[1:22:12] I don't think that anyone would want to hear that there are problems in their community.

[1:22:17] Certainly, that's one of the hardest things to hear.

[1:22:19] You want to hear a very positive upbeat, emotionally exciting things.

[1:22:25] things. When you hear that there are problems, you should feel the same way. That means

[1:22:31] that someone is also listening. And I certainly have heard the public when I'm smoking

[1:22:35] with them. I look forward to continuing to work with them in the future as mayor. And certainly

[1:22:41] that's not an easy challenge to make. You have to stand in front of someone and make yourself

[1:22:47] available constantly. You have to tell them to go to the bad. And at the end of the day,

[1:22:53] 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.

[1:23:01] And I certainly do. I've been a lifelong volunteer public servants in another community.

[1:23:06] And I look forward to doing the same thing here in Congress.

[1:23:09] Thank you all for coming out this evening.

[1:23:15] Thank you, Mark Gilbert.

[1:23:20] Once again, I want to thank all of the residents who showed up here tonight.

[1:23:24] This is one of the best audiences we've had for meet the candidates that we've had in

[1:23:32] years. This is very exciting to see. It shows that some word is getting out to the people.

[1:23:40] The residents are getting more involved and we appreciate that because that helps us do our job.

[1:23:49] The main question I have as a mayor to myself is asking residents what matters to you.

[1:23:59] That's what drives me to do what I do from the time I started volunteering with the city 13 years ago,

[1:24:06] to now where I'm asking for your vote as mayor to be mayor.

[1:24:10] We have a wonderful city. I love the city.

[1:24:13] We have so many things that bring quality of life to all of the residents, to all the potential residents.

[1:24:21] Our library is one of the best in the state. We have wonderful parks. The shoe and

[1:24:27] shale, as was mentioned earlier, the shoe and shale park is a diamond in the roof. We have to find

[1:24:32] a way to continue to grow that, to make that destination for here in the city. We have our seniors

[1:24:38] and we have our community center. We're growing. We need to continue that. We cannot stop. We cannot

[1:24:44] stagnate. As mayor, that is my charge to move forward the city to the best possible future that

[1:24:53] we can have. Thank you all again for showing up here tonight. And thank you all online for watching.

[1:25:00] I truly appreciate you all.

[1:25:06] Mayor Suarez? Okay. This is a relationship about proving leadership.

[1:25:10] It's about what has been done so far, okay?

[1:25:13] Let me remind you, when I started Katie Harp was two lanes.

[1:25:18] South Seguero was two lanes.

[1:25:21] Rocky lane was two lanes.

[1:25:22] 16 or four was two lanes.

[1:25:24] That was done by the teams that I had in place.

[1:25:27] I got it done.

[1:25:29] And we had the original city hall across the street.

[1:25:33] We had the old fire station.

[1:25:35] We had the new one, the new central station now.

[1:25:37] We improved the streets 10.1 million dollars, we improved the parks invested a million dollars.

[1:25:44] All that was done under our tenure, did I do it? No, we have a good team. I work on their team concept.

[1:25:50] You know, that's how I always worked here and that's how I will continue to work.

[1:25:54] We mentioned Tupper Wine Road. I don't know why I was mentioned. We do have existing project for Tupper Wine Road.

[1:25:59] MPO projects have been approved by the state with the city pays 20% and the state pays 80%

[1:26:05] we do have a project. Unfortunately we have to wait till they fund it and that's what we're doing.

[1:26:11] 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.

[1:26:18] And then Ben Dingleman, which is now Walsham, three quarters of the way done. That is a developer project that's

[1:26:26] that was built in conjunction with the TERS out there.

[1:26:31] Taxi-primant reinvestment zone,

[1:26:32] it was put out there by solar panels.

[1:26:35] And the road's gonna come on on 15, 16,

[1:26:38] gonna be awesome.

[1:26:40] And it built, being built by the developer.

[1:26:44] And we had some challenges, landowners,

[1:26:46] we had to go to court and purchase the land,

[1:26:50] and that's what the Lays were,

[1:26:51] but we're gonna get it done.

[1:26:53] Now, for me, I wanna continue

[1:26:56] We started, you know, you know,

[1:26:58] Tupperware, I just started Tupperware wine.

[1:27:00] And I got, I helped get it funded.

[1:27:02] And then I want to finish it, you know,

[1:27:04] I got the other ones finished.

[1:27:06] We got the other ones finished.

[1:27:07] And I want to be able to do this one.

[1:27:10] You know, my, the population that's tripled in size

[1:27:13] has been here from 11,000 to 35,000 estimated.

[1:27:18] It doesn't happen for, that happens for a reason.

[1:27:21] It happens for being a lot of working a lot

[1:27:23] where I have planned responsible growth.

[1:27:25] And we did, we're doing all this with a reasonable, low property tax rate.

[1:27:30] We're lower tax rate than some of the other cities surrounding us.

[1:27:34] We're able to do that because we have a great staff that only spends what needs to be spent.

[1:27:40] We have, we have enough police officers.

[1:27:42] I was meant to undo.

[1:27:43] I don't dictate, as Mayor to tell you, you need to hire more police officers.

[1:27:50] We need to hear from the chief.

[1:27:51] And when the chief's not asking for police officers, you know, he's not going to get a police officer.

[1:27:56] We can't force him to take police officer the same thing in part of part of the week.

[1:28:00] 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.

[1:28:18] So in closing, and continue to support the staff and continue to be whole people accountable

[1:28:29] because that's what I do and we have a lot of a commitment to the city here, all our employees

[1:28:35] we're going to continue that and I will say, I get a lot of calls from citizens, a lot of

[1:28:47] Michelle, Robert Radey, and Stacey Adams, and I don't dislike the others, I just

[1:28:51] those are my preferences.

[1:28:53] I'd be glad to work with anybody as elected, but these are my preferences.

[1:28:56] Thank you.

[1:28:58] Thank you.

[1:28:59] John Shadron?

[1:29:01] We've come the long way in this campaign, and I appreciate you all coming out tonight to

[1:29:06] listen to the different candidates.

[1:29:11] I myself have served as Mayor Protem, I've served on almost every commission.

[1:29:16] And the heart of all this, the simple truth is it's time for new leadership and

[1:29:23] converse,

[1:29:27] leadership that listens, leadership that respects, leadership that brings

[1:29:32] people together, not divide them.

[1:29:35] We are growing city with growing needs, and the challenge we face today to demand a leader

[1:29:39] who understands the importance of collaboration, not just with you, the citizens, but with

[1:29:46] our city council and many dedicated individuals who serve this community every day.

[1:29:52] Let's be honest, as you deserve honesty, not politics.

[1:29:58] There's four of us running.

[1:30:00] 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.

[1:30:17] Another candidate has never served on any converse commission, not a single one, yet he's running his for mayor.

[1:30:26] Public Services, a commitment not a campaign slogan.

[1:30:33] If elected, I will lead with transparency, humility and accountability.

[1:30:38] I will listen not just to those who agree with me, but to every voice in our community.

[1:30:44] I will work side-by-side with City Council, staff members, business leaders, neighborhood

[1:30:49] advocates, and you to make converse safer, smarter, and stronger.

[1:30:56] 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.

[1:31:09] 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.

[1:31:20] Thank you.

[1:31:24] I'd like to thank all the candidates for their participation, the audience for their participation,

[1:31:30] and reminder now, it's up to you, the voters, early voting begins on Monday, the 20th, runs through the 31st.

[1:31:36] Election Day is November the 4th, 1st Tuesday after the first Monday.

[1:31:41] Reminder, you may choose one or the other to vote in, and I wish you all luck.

[1:31:47] Thank you, Dr. Yao.

Meet the Candidates

Agenda

Transcript