124. Runoff Edition: Rolando Pablos Makes His Case

WEBVTT

00:00:02.720 --> 00:00:17.164
Welcome to Big City Small Town, the weekly podcast all about San Antonio and the people who make it go and grow. I'm your host, Bob Rivard. This week's guest is mayoral candidate Rolando Pavlos, who has been on the podcast once already.

00:00:17.545 --> 00:00:57.463
But now that we are in the runoff, we invited the two runoff candidates, Gina Ortiz Jones and Rolando Pavlos, back on. Rolando Pavlos said yes. Gina Ortiz Jones campaign said no. So here we go. This will be the last, podcast on the mayoral race. And for those of you that are not yet Monday Musing newsletter subscribers, I wanna make a pitch that you sign up today. Just go to bigcitysmalltown.com on our home page and put your email in. No cost. No spam. And you'll get on my newsletter, in time to read my Monday one coming up where I will share my final thoughts about this mayoral contest.

00:00:58.570 --> 00:01:09.310
Regular, listeners and and, watchers of the podcast know that we endorsed Beto in the first round, but, Beto is no longer a candidate, and, it's time to make a decision.

00:01:09.689 --> 00:01:31.640
Early voting starts Tuesday, so my Monday newsletter will have my last thoughts on the mayor's race. Thanks for joining us. And Rolando Pavlos, thanks for being with us. Thanks for having me. I will always come on. That's a deal. I should probably say that, you know, you were born in Mexico. Your parents immigrated to Texas. You're rooted in San Antonio.

00:01:31.700 --> 00:02:09.219
You went to Saint Mary's Law School. You're you're an attorney. I think people most associate you with some of your high profile political appointments, notably being secretary of state, and, your interest in economic development, which has been a key part of your your campaign to date. But, the fact is, long before that, you were a practicing attorney here in San Antonio. So anything else about your biography that you wanna share with people who may not have tuned in until now? Yes. I've I've actually run three state agencies. You mentioned secretary of state. I was always I was also on the public utility commission regulating electricity. What years were that?

00:02:09.219 --> 00:02:24.060
The medication? 11/12. Oh, right there. And I was also on the Texas Racing Commission. That's a law enforcement regulatory body, that regulates dog and horse racing, pari mutuel, betting here in Texas. Who knew?

00:02:24.139 --> 00:02:31.598
Who knew, right? We have a we have a a summer out here. I know the summer track. Sure. Remind people when you serve as secretary of state.

00:02:31.900 --> 00:02:35.580
I served for the entirety of '17 and '18. Okay.

00:02:35.580 --> 00:03:38.604
Yeah. Two years. That's that's normal. That's standard. Right. That's what I committed to doing. Well, let's talk about the campaign, and it's been a long one. I'm sure you're feeling it more than we are. Particularly Stronger than ever. Particularly with the runoff, but we're in the home stretch. Yeah. What, what feels different to you about yourself, your campaign, the city compared to, the day you announced? What have you I guess, what have you learned on the campaign trail? Or Well, I'll tell you. So whenever I first, you know, started talking to folks, friends about the idea of running, you know, I got mixed reactions from folks. But I knew that I really wanted to do this. And so as I progressed through this almost last year, year and a half, that's what it's been, You know, the the support that's been growing, the momentum that's been growing, I think has been the most surprising, especially, obviously, after the runoff. After the runoff, the outpouring of support has been incredible from all folks from the community. I mean, we are truly building a broad based coalition.

00:03:38.664 --> 00:03:53.120
It feels it feels special, and I'm honored because, for people to approach you who you don't know, who have never met, who want to come on board, and and participate in this movement. I mean, it's it's an honor.

00:03:53.818 --> 00:04:01.360
Your your public service has been aligned, with the Republican Party, Gina Ortiz Jones with the Democratic Party.

00:04:02.194 --> 00:04:58.735
My producer, Corey Aames and I were, hypothesizing after the first round that maybe, the nature of that would somehow attract more voters. We've had such a dismal level of participation in local elections compared to how people vote in the state and national elections. I just wonder how you feel about, the likelihood of a more robust turnout in the runoff than in the first round. It's we don't really have the kind of independent polling in our city that would give us a a real measure. And, at this stage, I don't feel like I have any idea what's gonna happen. Welcome to the club. No. I'm just kidding. Well, let me let me go back to your initial comment about, my public service. It hasn't all been partisan. I served under Phil Hartberger and Ed Garza here in town. Okay. You know, if if you go on to my website, publisformayor.com, you'll see all of my public service, particularly here in San Antonio.

00:04:59.595 --> 00:05:46.279
I have volunteered half my time my entire career. So you look at all the boards and commissions, nonprofits that have been a part of here, I think that that that also needs to be accounted for when we're talking about my public service. So it's broader than just those three agencies, those three appointments that the governor's put me on. I've done a lot of work here locally. Well, let me stop you right there because, people do associate you more with some high level state appointments you've had. So talk about some of the things you've done locally. I I should say that I think you've been on the greater SATX economic development board. I've been on the executive committee of greater SATX. I I served as chairman of the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber. That's right. What year was that? 09/00/2010. Actually, it was two years. It was kinda combined with Fernando Reyes, so observed two years. I brought Ramiro Cavazos on board.

00:05:46.279 --> 00:06:09.654
Okay. And that's when we moved the chamber to the Pearl. We got a five star accreditation during my tenure. We work with Charlie, with Saint Mary's University to try to bring a President Cottrell. Cottrell. Sorry. I've tried to droop. It's alright. Charlie Cottrell, and we created the Saved Institute. So we did all that through there. I've been a professor at UTSA, professor of tourism.

00:06:10.035 --> 00:06:38.365
I brought the Conrad Hilton College of Hotel Restaurant Management and I was a professor there, hospitality law. I've served, you know, from Phil Hartberger. I was on the homelessness task force. I served on the SPADA committee. I was I was actually chairman when we implemented the SPADA ordinance for small business here in town. And the list is long. I just rolled off at Morgan's Wonderland five years. I serve on the board of Special Olympics Texas. I still do that right now.

00:06:39.199 --> 00:07:23.584
You know, my my community service is long, extensive, and it's beyond reproach. You know, remember the the Free Trade Alliance. I chair the Free Trade Alliance. You know, Tom Frost, Mr. Frost asked me to serve there. So all that, you know, has nothing to do with partisan. It has to do with my love for this community and and me giving back to this community just like I wanna give back now. I just wanna do it in a different way where now after all these years my entire career of developing a skill set that will benefit the community, I believe in economic development, in business, international trade. I'll be able to bring all that to the table. And so this is where we are now. As to where we believe we are, I think we're in a great position.

00:07:24.605 --> 00:07:38.750
You know, no one can really predict right now. There'll probably be some some, you know, polls out there that are coming out, but we believe that we're in a great position to take this. Alright. And we're gonna talk a lot about economic development.

00:07:40.329 --> 00:07:47.529
And do I recall that you somehow studied hospitality before you became a lawyer? Is that I did. I that's in the back of my mind. I did.

00:07:47.529 --> 00:08:10.300
And so I'll tell you, I I worked at restaurants practically all through school. Okay. You know, my parents, you know, they they weren't able to to pay our entire way. You know, I I I paid myself I I went through school with grants and loans, but I also had to, you know, work, to pay for my room and board. So I did some work study at Saint Mary's at the beginning.

00:08:11.800 --> 00:09:34.529
And then I found really good work in restaurants, especially because I was bilingual. I was able to work with the kitchen guys, and and then eventually, you know, I washed dishes and and and and and did cooking. And then eventually, I moved to the dining room side and I cleaned tables, but then I I got promoted to waiter. And so I I waited tables for a long time. That's how Laura and I met, my wife and I met. But then when she she was a dental student, she got, admitted to the Houston, orthodontic program, at at the UT Health Science Center in Houston. We moved to Houston and that's when I discovered that the University of Houston, that the Conrad Hilton College offered a master's in hospitality. And I just I fell in love with it because I didn't realize that you could actually study what I've been working, all these years. Well, I've been working on all these years. So I got a master's in hospitality management with a specialty in gaming, and hence, that's how my first job came to be. And also that's why I did the racing commission. That's where does that fit? And is your wife a a practicing orthodontist? So Laura had a thriving, practice, orthodontic practice. But when Mia, our third born, came to this world, she, she was born with Down syndrome. So at that moment, we decided that Laura should stay home. Early childhood intervention is very important. And she sold her practice and it broke her heart because she just loved her patients.

00:09:35.309 --> 00:09:39.070
And so she'd been staying home since, but now Laura's a public school teacher.

00:09:39.070 --> 00:09:59.705
She's teaching dentistry at Health Careers High School. Oh, that's terrific. Yeah. Well, it sounds like her priorities were right anyway and I can now understand why you were on the board of Morgan's Wonderland. Yes. Absolutely. And and we have a lot of respect for Gordon Hartman and what he's accomplished out there and continues to expand. Yes. Yesterday, he celebrated Morgan's celebrating fifteen years. That's hard to believe. Yesterday.

00:10:01.799 --> 00:11:06.080
That's remarkable. Let's talk a little bit about hospital, not just hospitality, but about economic development, and whether you think a mayor in the mayor's role is essential to the work that basically we're looking at greater SATX to do. And by the way, they they, absorb the free trade alliance some years ago. Right? So Mexico is in their portfolio, and I wanna talk to you about that because you were born there. You're bilingual. You're bicultural. And I'm one, and I've said this frequently on the podcast over the years that I don't think the city has tended the personal relationships in Mexico that we originally established about the time when the North American Free Trade Agreement was negotiated and initialed here right here in San Antonio, and that that there's a lot more opportunity south of our border down 35 than than we've realized and that more work needs to be done in that area. And I'd like to hear your thoughts on that. But, do you think the mayor plays more than just a handshake role in economic development? Do you do you see yourself somehow playing a key role?

00:11:06.080 --> 00:11:20.865
And there's been a lot of conversation about, we made tremendous progress under Jenna Salcedo Herrera from the era of Mario Hernandez and the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation. We have JCB coming online here. That's huge.

00:11:20.865 --> 00:12:01.320
We've seen a lot of advanced manufacturing centered in and around Port San Antonio, but we've also seen way more corporate relocations or expansions from the West Coast hitting Austin and Dallas and and Houston. So I wonder what your thoughts are about the the big picture going forward. Yeah. I will be fully hands on on economic development. You know, that is my area of expertise. I've done it at the state level, you know, as secretary of state. I traveled the world promoting Texas, bringing billions of dollars and and thousands of jobs to to Texas. I did it in El Paso at the Borderplex Alliance. That was a binational economic development organization, kinda like Greater SATX, but it was binational. It was regional.

00:12:02.179 --> 00:15:43.879
So, yes, absolutely. I will get fully involved and immersed in economic development because it's really the mayor. You know, given our form of government, you know, the city manager, you know, runs the city, but the mayor is really the salesperson for the community. I plan to be traveling, with the business community, with with whomever wants to come with us to promote San Antonio to bring investment. And, particularly Mexico. Mexico needs to be our top priority. We we really shouldn't focus on trying to sell ourselves elsewhere other than Mexico and Canada, at least from a priorities perspective. Obviously, if someone from Japan wants to come here, they're welcome. But our efforts, our our capital needs to be spent in promoting trade relationships with Canada and Mexico, primarily with Mexico because Mexico is our number one trade partner. I've been doing business in Mexico for twenty five years. We have offices in Monterrey. I think the relationship between San Antonio and Monterrey needs to be amped up. We have a lot of those executives with homes here and, and we have the relationships. I have the relationships in Mexico, not only in the private sector, but also in government at all levels. And I believe that, there are many Mexican companies that are looking to come to Texas, but just don't have that platform. And they really don't don't see themselves going to Houston or Dallas. And so San Antonio is a perfect place. So, yeah, I mean, I'm gonna go all in with Greater SATX and and whoever else, the county, we need to cooperate with the county. But the objective here, my one of my top objectives is to focus on bringing in investment, high paying jobs to this great community. Do you think the next mayor is handcuffed by tariffs and that we're gonna see, you know, the the let's just talk about the cost of producing a Toyota Sequoia or Tundra here where we we see those trains coming up from Mexico with the assembled chassis and other parts in our supplier community are coming up from Northern Mexico, and they're all gonna get at least 10% on them, I think, maybe more. Well, we are very adaptable as a community. We can adapt. But look, the USMCA is gonna be renegotiated in '26, and and I will be mayor when that happens. And so I plan to be part of those negotiations. I was part of the original USMCA negotiations. And so I know how to get in there and and really fight for what we believe is rightly ours. And, you know, we need our state relies on international trade with Mexico, so we have to make sure that whatever provisions we adjust favor us. And look, I think that at the end of the day, working with the president, we can make sure that our USMCA provisions wash out those, those tariffs. So, you know, we can get there. I have no no problem, believing that that is possible. So how about our education outcomes and how that affects economic development and the perceptions versus the reality if there is a difference in how people regard our workforce as either a strong workforce that's continually getting better, or does that remain our Achilles heel? You have a wife who's at a very high performing magnet school or in district charter, but, the outcomes in our school districts across the board are not anywhere near what we want. And the numbers post pandemic are pretty disturbing. We're really still struggling to recover to pre pandemic levels. And I wonder what you think about all of our Yeah. Look, there's perception and then there's reality. And right now, if you go outside San Antonio, we're perceived as a low wage, low skill community. And that's that's a harsh truth to swallow.

00:15:43.879 --> 00:16:13.309
Right? But, we also have a lot of well educated individuals. We have more college students here than in Austin. So we're It's hard to believe. It's hard to believe, but it's true. We have great students graduating from our colleges. The problem is that they're leaving. Mhmm. We have brain drain. So, you know, we can't we can't be so harsh on ourselves into thinking that our students are are getting educated, our children are getting educated.

00:16:13.769 --> 00:17:14.974
So, obviously, some are are are having a tough time graduating from high school. We have to help them. We have to work with those school districts to make sure that they have the funding needed to be able to turn their, fortunes around. But we have tremendous talent coming out of San Antonio. The only problem is is that we don't have those companies coming here that they could then work for. They have to go elsewhere to find those great paying jobs. And it happens to happens in my family, my children, you know, you know, Christina lives in in in Houston. David actually found a job in San Antonio, so he's moving back. He's gonna be working with Turner Construction. So he is starting his career. Did you see that article the other day that this was the worst place to start a career? Those are the perceptions that I wanna fend off. Because when I see those articles, well, as mayor, I will call a press conference and push back. Because, see, if we keep pushing back on all that negativity, then we'll fight the perception and and and talk about the reality of this wonderful place. Do we have an education outcomes problem?

00:17:15.035 --> 00:17:26.174
Absolutely. Can we fix it? Yes. We have 17 school districts or so. We're balkanized as a community. 10 city districts, 17 school districts.

00:17:26.630 --> 00:18:00.250
My goal would be, well, how can we, how can we come together and obviously take advantage of efficiencies, especially like in things like purchasing and those things, but also in, in setting goals for outcomes, you know, the city can get involved in many different ways. We can't be scapegoating our teachers or our school districts. We have to bring parents in and we have to work in Austin in making sure that we get the right funding. So I will leverage my relationships in Austin to be able to get those outcomes that we want for our school districts here.

00:18:01.269 --> 00:18:27.490
But a lot of it has to do with culture, making sure that our people understand the value of an education. Here's the problem. We're in such a we're we're in a poverty cycle right now where many people are living paycheck to paycheck. A lot of them are, in desperation mode, you know. And when you're in desperation mode, when you're in survival mode, you don't think about tomorrow. You think about today.

00:18:27.950 --> 00:19:06.714
And so we have to make sure that our families get out of desperation mode, and the way to do that is by bringing quality jobs that pay more. And once they're stabilized and we move them, you know, into the middle class, then I think we can get there. And so the objective is to take that 18% that is living in poverty and move them into the middle class. And the only way you're going to do that is with education and with bringing in high paying jobs. And that's really how I plan to do that. So let's talk about a couple of existing programs at the city level that the next mayor will have the opportunity to continue, to discontinue, or to modify.

00:19:07.734 --> 00:19:44.079
One would be the first, housing bond that voters ever approved, in the 2022 bond. I believe that was$150,000,000 and that is mostly the city, partnering with private sector developers and letting them build the housing. And the city is not getting into the business of building housing. People, I think, by and large, consider that quite a successful program, but in the scheme of things, not anywhere near enough. And I assume the conversation about the 2027 bond is gonna include people for and against a more robust, sum of money in that regard.

00:19:44.460 --> 00:20:59.804
And the other one I would ask you about, which looked very promising on the outside, but has been very disappointing in the actual results in my personal view, is ready to work, where the mayor Nirenberg anticipated 40,000 people going through a pipeline being up, you know, get given new new job skills that would allow them to move into jobs with participating employers here at much higher wages. And what we've seen, I think, are, very low numbers of people that have actually participated and graduated from the program and gotten into jobs. And the average salary, I think, remains under $20 an hour, so that's not very impressive. But there are people that believe that the program could produce results, but it would have to be changed. I'm kind of wondering whether or not it'll be continued. Look, I was very supportive of the idea when I spoke to Ron about it, I don't know, six, seven years ago, whenever it was. I did a video supporting it, and I think it's a great idea. It's a great concept. We need to invest in in not only in educating, you know, our workforce, but also in, getting them jobs.

00:21:00.025 --> 00:22:05.305
So the that's one of the missing pieces in this formula is that we're upscaling them, but to what? You know? So, okay, fine. They get out, and then is there a job waiting for them? So we have to balance that two those two things. So, you know, I'm good with spending taxpayer money on upscaling, like ready to work, but we also have to spend taxpayer money in attracting jobs here. Now with respect to the actual project itself or the program itself, you know, it was mismanaged. Let's just let's just put that behind us. Okay. Fine. It was mismanaged. Let's take it and run with it, but now under a different, type of management. Let's let's try to make it work because we're already this far, to scrap it just for sake of scrapping it. I don't think it's a good idea. I think we should take a look at it, and we need to come in and implement just like, you know, almost like a turnaround that you would have in the corporate world. Let's let's let's bring a turnaround specialist to turn that program around because I think that if it works at peak efficiency, it'll be extremely effective. So I'm committed to looking at that.

00:22:05.605 --> 00:22:31.654
And and, we don't need to go over all the numbers and data on the housing crisis that we've seen accelerate during the pandemic. But, obviously, a lot of people suddenly can't afford to buy a house anymore with interest rates, and and that's driven rents way up and created, an environment where a lot of these working poor people that you talk about who are paycheck to paycheck are suddenly, facing, the risk of, you know, losing their home, being evicted.

00:22:31.714 --> 00:23:52.950
Evictions are up. That's a that's a, a a matter of fact. Yeah. So do you A closure. Yeah. Do you support continuing with the housing bond and increasing it? Look. I'm of the belief that government isn't always the only answer. And, let me just propose an idea to you. Why not, when we talk about affordability, home housing affordability, why don't we also work on improving people's income so they can afford a home? So I'm all for working in dual tracks. So let's work on getting them higher paying jobs so they can afford a home. And then with respect to the actual house itself and and and and how to go about getting it, Look, there are many factors that play in. You you mentioned one is interest rates, you know, inflation for construction costs. All those things play in. But what is government doing and what can it, also do to get rid of some of these issues that are preventing, housing from going up, like land use, you know, zoning. Let's look at those those those barriers that are already in place that if we just remove them, then maybe we can make housing more affordable as well. You know, we have restriction, we have zoning restrictions, we have like, you know, these additional dwellings that we could put in people's homes. A lot of these HOA's don't allow it.

00:23:53.009 --> 00:24:25.640
You know, so let's get creative, in looking at the impediments, first and foremost, because that's probably the easiest and and cheapest thing to do is let's get rid of some of these impediments that will allow me to bring to build a little old dwelling home for my mom in my backyard. You know? And then that takes that issue out of the way. The other thing is property taxes. And I proposed a property taxpayer program, calling it a, you know, taxpayer time out where we freeze property taxes for everybody and not allow our city manager to budget for next year on the anticipated tax increases.

00:24:25.640 --> 00:26:20.775
Because that's what he does is he figures how much more money he's gonna get from anticipated, you know, valuations and increases. And then he budgets for that, and it's just this vicious cycle. And and it's an upward spiral of of more and more taxation. Why not just freeze it today and force our city manager to live within the means, his means of today? That gives us a tax, that gives us a break on taxes. And then maybe that allows a lot of these individuals who are getting forced out of their homes to stay in their home. Nobody should be pushed out of their homes, especially for things like that, especially for property taxes. You know, right now you've got exemptions and all that, but there I'm talking about for every homeowner, making sure that we can freeze property taxes because it's really the valuations that are driving everything, you know. And, I sat on the property appraisal task force for Governor Perry. We went around the state talking about this particular issue and it had and that was many years ago and it still hasn't been resolved. Well, the state is coming forward with some, they're they're they're raising, you know, the, the homestead exemption. They're they're giving a little sum to people 65, I think. So people are gonna get a little bit of a break there. I wanna push back, though, because I I mean, we're all for increased wages, but you've got you've got a, a safety net challenge right now where people are in crisis. There's almost 70,000 names on the Opportunity Home, San Antonio waiting list for either vouchers or Section eight housing, some sort of assistance. And our homeless population has gone up, and almost every police officer you talk to on the street will tell you there's an acute shortage of permanent supportive housing, and we got a couple of thousand people that are either acutely mentally ill or suffering from drug addiction or both. And so they don't fit into the Haven for Hope or any of these other sobriety based programs, and they don't have anywhere to take them except the Bexar County Jail to get them off the streets.

00:26:20.775 --> 00:26:31.539
And so they're we're in a crisis moment that needs more immediate attention, I think, than the very sensible longer term solutions you're proposing. Yeah.

00:26:31.539 --> 00:26:41.880
I'm not saying not to address those issues. I mean, don't get me wrong. I mean, I've worked with Haven for Hope for fifteen years. I understand the homelessness issue and the challenges around that.

00:26:42.420 --> 00:26:46.188
You know, I I I I've even proposed a customized approach.

00:26:46.188 --> 00:27:35.589
We we have to take almost a look at almost every individual to see what their specific needs are. But if there's this long list of people waiting for public housing, then, you know, the solution is removing the barriers to constructing more. And a lot of people don't want concentrated affordable housing in their backyard. And I understand, but at the same time, what are some creative solutions that we haven't thought of? And I've looked at the tremendous real estate inventory that our local governments have. They have five little pieces of land, five acres, two, three acres, odd. A lot of it. A lot of it that we're having to pay to maintain. So why not just gift these to the developers so they can put in affordable housing in there? It'll be spread out over the city.

00:27:36.450 --> 00:28:31.589
The the cost of that land is their profit margin and everybody wins. And now we've got a piece of property that's actually being put to produce something which is a home, a dignified home for somebody. Right now we just have lots everywhere that are just sitting there. And we're spending money on maintaining them. You know, that's what Kirk Watson did in Austin. And I'm this is not a novel idea. This is something that he did in all those high rises you see in Austin, that used to be a trash heap. And he talked about giving away the piece of land to the developers. And all of a sudden, he created the incentive for construction and look at what's going on over there. Rolando, you mentioned city manager, Eric Walsh, who has been in his position for quite some time now. And city voters recently agreed to undo the the salary cap that was placed on him by the firefighters union with that election.

00:28:32.609 --> 00:29:01.509
He's now facing a, I would say, a relatively small deficit of $30,000,000 and a billion dollar plus budget. That's to me is not a rounding error, but it's not a a crisis. I know it's gonna grow more in the second year, but even then, it probably represents less than 5% of the budget. There's been no public conversation from city hall about how to, achieve a constitutionally mandated balanced budget. The city's obligated by law to do that.

00:29:03.410 --> 00:29:24.349
Let me suggest that maybe attrition and other cuts in the civilian staff population would be easier than cutting services to the public, but there hasn't been any conversation about that. And I wonder if you were mayor and you're gonna have a new council, whether there would be any push to the city manager of economizing on hiring?

00:29:25.690 --> 00:30:22.140
The the last thing I would wanna do is to cut jobs. I mean, we I don't wanna go there. I think there are other places that we can create efficiencies. You know, again, I go back to the example of, buying power and combining purchasing opportunities, with all of our government entities here. We were just talking earlier about having two library systems. You know, why can't you just put all library systems into the Alamo Community College District and let them handle it? We get out of the business of libraries, and we focus, you know, on on what we really should be doing, which is basic services. So I think that, what the the one thing I look forward to the most with Eric is working with him on getting more creative, bringing outside my my experience from business and and marrying the two. You know, government obviously is not a business, but it should be run with the discipline of a business. And I bring that to the table. So let's get creative on how to do that. But I wouldn't want to look at cutting jobs.

00:30:22.140 --> 00:31:35.134
I'd want to look at, cutting inefficiencies, wasteful spending, because at the end of the day, you know, the the prospect of this deficit, the first thing that comes into my mind is public safety, fire, police, EMS. We're not touching that. No matter no matter what the deficit is, we're not touching it. And so I don't want that to be a threat to our public safety. So guess what? Go find efficiency somewhere else because this is off limits. We we can't go there. If anyone were to go there, our city would go into a a death spiral because then our crime would go up, the inefficiencies of of not having enough, you know, fire, EMS folks out there, first responders. And then it wouldn't allow me to go out and sell San Antonio because people would see San Antonio as a as a dangerous place or or a place where the EMS doesn't arrive on time. So we can't do that. And so I will protect, you know, firefighters, EMS, making sure that police have what they need. And then we look at other stuff like parks. You know, county and city are running parks. Can we can we just get along and have one park system, one library system?

00:31:35.515 --> 00:31:57.384
And and and the list is long. City city county consolidation would make a lot of people happy out there that don't think it'll ever happen. And, you know, you just saw the elbows between the city and county on the library system as BiblioTech was developed. And, I would be all for that. That would that would that would enshrine you as a mayor if you're able to accomplish any city county consolidation.

00:31:57.683 --> 00:32:20.099
Tell you what, we'll start with we'll start with one concept. I I like the library approach. Maybe we'll start with libraries. And and why would you put libraries at the ACCD? I mean, they're an academic institution. They're they're all At the Alamo Colleges. Yeah. Why wouldn't you just say, Mike, here. You know, you you give funding for it, but but right now, we're we've got double funding. You know?

00:32:20.099 --> 00:32:31.214
Let's consolidate our library system so people can still enjoy their their libraries. No one's gonna take that away, but it's gonna make the city more efficient because we're in the business of providing basic services.

00:32:31.273 --> 00:32:46.279
And the ACCD is in the business of providing academic services. And I would put libraries under academic. You know, same thing with other stuff and, you know, I'll dive deep with that but, you know, I will work with Peter Sakai. With friends.

00:32:46.420 --> 00:33:12.640
Kind of County Judge. Bexar County Judge. And with the commissioners. Mhmm. You know, it's time that we we start really a true collaboration because this is about the greater good. I'm I'm in it for the greater good, not for any particular faction. And so we gotta make sure that we find those efficiencies. And, look, that's kind of how I built my career is is fixing things. I'm a fixer. We're entering the public phase of what I would call the public phase of Project Marble.

00:33:13.019 --> 00:34:08.130
City council in their last meeting approved adding the Sports And Entertainment District to what we're calling now the Convention Center Complex, which is this, in my mind, spectacular idea or vision to dramatically, accelerate the redevelopment of hemisphere, bring into the the Alamodome with that, connect it with the Land Bridge, keep our our Convention Center Complex the largest in the state and with yet another expansion in addition to what we did in 2016. And it now appears that a very significant amount of the arena would be funded with this terrors that the state has allowed the city to capture some sales tax that otherwise would have gone to the state. So to me, that's going to maybe ameliorate a lot of people that were concerned about how much because are we going to pay?

00:34:08.130 --> 00:34:33.119
How much are the Spurs going to pay? How much the county? And it almost looks like a much more feasible deal now to me. But I wonder how you see that as we sort of move past the city council vote and start to get into the nitty gritty. Yeah. Well, first of all, let me address. There's a lot of misinformation, coming from my opponent's campaign that I had agreed to giving 50% of, you know, taxpayer money.

00:34:33.679 --> 00:35:27.750
Again, just campaign rhetoric. I never did that. It was a it was a questionnaire that was put in front of me. What my intent was is to show, that we really need to look at best practices. What has worked and what hasn't worked in other cities, with other stadiums, other arenas, and let's use that as a starting point. And so for me, this is a project that that could take San Antonio in a much different direction, in a positive direction, game changing direction. We need to continue to become the tourist hub of Texas, particularly on the convention visitors side. We need to be I wanna be the best convention side in the country where, meeting planners fight to get in here and when we have a long list a long wait list of conventions coming here. Let's get to that point, but we're not gonna get to that point if we don't have the amenities around it like an entertainment district.

00:35:27.969 --> 00:36:02.358
The Spurs being downtown, extremely important. I wanna fix the tower. The tower needs a lot of help. I wanna fix the Riverwalk. The Riverwalk, I'm not saying it's in disrepair, but it's well on its way to being in disrepair. We need to let's let's liven up those things that that, you know, make the city great and bring a lot of economic impact here. And then let's stop vilifying the Alamodome. Look, the Alamodome delivers. It just delivered$400,000,000 worth of economic impact on just the final four. I don't know how much did that thing cost, a hundred and 50,000,000. I don't know what it was. It was about a hundred and 90 at the time.

00:36:02.358 --> 00:40:17.909
It it's paid for itself multiple times over. So let's stop saying that the Alamo, isn't AlamoDome isn't gonna work. We need to, maintain and upgrade all these facilities. I'm not a big fan of the Critter Bridge, by the way, that that they proposed. The Critter Bridge is Hardberger Park. This is a human bridge for a lot of people. A critter bridge too. Anyway, that's a lot of money for a bridge. You know? Let's I'm not saying that we would tune it out, but let's focus what what would be the priority? Priority for me would be convention center and arena, you know, and then entertainment district. Those are on the same side, needed, another hotel there, making sure that we turn it into a world class destination along with whatever's gonna happen at the rest of the hemisphere and La Vida. We've got 500,000,000 worth of improvement at Alamo. So at the Alamo, so all that is already working. We got the new hotel. So on the West Side, the ballpark coming for the mission. Over there. Yeah. The ballpark over there. I still I helped create the Sona Cultural around Market Square. We gotta continue to push that westwardly. I see some really good development on the West Side. You know, I would love to create a a Conjunto or Tejano Walk Of Fame, into the West Side. Why wouldn't we do that? I wanna have live music in these venues along, these avenues on the West Side. You just pick every restaurant and ask every restaurant owner to to play live music, Tejano, Cojonto. Let's let's think big, and it doesn't really take that much. It just takes a concerted effort with the vision, that will get us there. So there's a lot of stuff we could do downtown. But let me tell you this this one last thing on on project marble. First of all, the first thing I'm gonna do is we're gonna change the name, and and we might, reenvision it a little bit. But project marble needs to benefit every district. It can't just be district one or two. So what I'm proposing is that the revenue that comes from the arena needs to be put into a fund and that is earmarked for every district divided into 10 equal parts, but it will only be used for infrastructure and public safety. And that way every council person gets those funds that will go to their district just for those two things because those are the two most important things and those are the two things that are needed most. And then that way everybody in the city wins. It's not just to play for downtown, it allows everybody in the city to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity. You'll have to negotiate hard with the Spurs, Rolando. If we if they get the same model they have with the county, they they took responsibility for the operational costs in return for being able to manage the arena, handle all the bookings, benefit from the concessions and parking. And so it would have to be a very different, negotiated deal here in hemisphere. That's where my years and years of of negotiation will come in. I'm good at that. And, you know, I like to sit down with them and say, look. You know, we this if this is gonna be, an arena, financed by visitor money, whatever we end up doing. And the people, the taxpayers need to get their return on their investment, 100% return. And the way they'll see that is through the scheme that I just laid out, is every district gets money for infrastructure and public safety in equal parts. You know, Rolando, one of the things that perplexes me about you, even disappointed me a little bit, because you're the American dream to me. I'm second generation immigrant families from French Canada. You're first generation born in Sonora, Mexico, obviously had some parents that were, you know, completely committed to building a better life for their family. And it's the great American story. Right? And one generation later, here's a guy with an attorney, multiple advanced degrees, making a huge impact in the state and city, now running for mayor. And yet when I heard you talk about immigration, I think it was at the San Antonio Report Greater Chamber debate with Gina Ortiz Jones. It was mostly focused on, deporting criminal aliens. And I think you have a handle on the data as well as I do.

00:40:18.530 --> 00:40:29.463
The the number of immigrants who are criminal is probably equivalent to the number of citizens who are criminal, which is to say a very small minority, but they have an outsized impact, but still they're a very small number.

00:40:29.923 --> 00:40:58.875
Whereas hundreds of thousands of immigrants have come through this city and were processed. We didn't ask for them, but first in the Trump administration, then in the Biden administration, you know, you had these vast numbers of asylum seekers trying to cross the border or crossing the border. And we became the the gateway and processed those people on their way, you know, to the next flight or bus bus ride to wherever they were going. And kudos to the city for how we did it. We didn't even know if we were gonna get reimbursed for a long time.

00:40:59.255 --> 00:41:41.588
But, we are a city, where hundreds of thousands of people trace their heritage to Mexico, by one generation or two or three generations. And, we have many people, who are Spanish language dominant, Mexican culture dominant, and they're they're living in fear over what's going on in our country with ICE, whether they're whether they're citizens or they're noncitizens. And it looks to me like you would move away from a more empathetic position if you were mayor that has kind of been the tradition here in our city of being open arms and, maybe more of a law enforcement, more aligned with Washington and what they're doing.

00:41:41.588 --> 00:41:45.135
But let me give you the floor to clarify where you are on that. Sure.

00:41:45.135 --> 00:41:56.114
Well, first of all, yes. I'm an immigrant. My parents waited ten years to get, our documents so that we can come over. They came over legally. Of course. Yeah. We were here legally.

00:41:56.929 --> 00:42:18.715
My dad submitted whatever paperwork it was, and it took ten years to get that. And that's when we finally came over to El Paso from El Juarez. We have been attracting immigrants, legal or otherwise, for decades for selfish reasons here because we need people to work in jobs that a lot of Americans won't take.

00:42:18.715 --> 00:43:25.068
And you recognize that as a business person that the economy needs immigrants, Right? Not just as a business person, but I started my legal career as an immigration lawyer. There you go. So so talk about empathy. I have the empathy, and I know the struggles, and I know the reasons immigrants come here. And I don't judge whether they came here legally or not, particularly those that have come here in the past that have been here. We've asked them to work for us. We've embedded them into our economy, into our society. They pay taxes. Their kids are dreamers. Kids are dreamers. I consider myself to be a dreamer not because, you know, we have, you know, I I don't have documentation, but because I had nothing to do with my parents' decision to bring me here. I was nine years old. So I'm kind of a dreamer, and and and I and I want the dreamers I want their situation to get fixed quickly. Okay? Because we need them to stay here. We now this whole issue of, Gina saying that I wanna deputize police officers to be ICE agents, that's baloney. Right? I've never even said that. And they're not gonna do that. And they're not gonna do that.

00:43:25.068 --> 00:43:51.079
I think that's offensive to our police officers, by the way, that they would be manipulated. I think chief McManus has has charted a very sensible course on that issue from the beginning. He's been very clear. He has to follow the law. First of all, sanctuary cities are illegal in Texas, and, you know, I'm not gonna break the law. And the thing is is that both Salazar, sheriff Salazar, and McManus have come out and said they are gonna cooperate with federal officials because they have to.

00:43:51.079 --> 00:43:58.219
But that doesn't make them ICE officers. That's correct. And and and so for for her to say that I wanna deputize, it's it's ridiculous.

00:43:58.440 --> 00:45:19.139
Again, going back to those personal attacks on, you know, on my character and my integrity. But here's the reality of it. When I say that I do want criminal aliens to be deported, I mean it. But right now, a lot of people are living in fear because I think a lot of it is people stoking fear. Nobody is deporting anyone if they're not haven't haven't already been received a deportation deportation order. That's what they're looking for. I think a lot of the people that were told you're okay until your asylum hearing are suddenly finding out they're not okay and they're gonna be on a plane to God knows where. Well, if you if you came here under asylum, I believe and I said this the other night. You you you should get your due process. You should have the opportunity to stand in front of an officer or a judge so they can hear your case. That's absolutely true. Okay. And The problem there is that ninety percent of the cases are getting denied because they don't call. Well, that's always been the case. People want economic asylum more than political in many cases, and and the law doesn't So if they're living in fear, it's fear that their case isn't gonna qualify. Now people who have been here for a long time without documentation, who have been law abiding and family people and the kind of people we want, you know, they should not be living in fear. And they're not deporting those folks.

00:45:19.139 --> 00:45:25.320
I'm telling you right now. That's not how the only people who are getting deported are those that have already been deemed deportable or criminals.

00:45:26.114 --> 00:47:02.405
And and and the fact that the other folks are scared is because people are just stoking these, you know, rumors about that happening. The other day, I heard that these babies that were US citizens got deported. Well, they didn't get deported. It was their moms, and the moms chose to take them with them. So they could the babies could've stayed. We don't deport, US citizens. Right? So there's a lot of misconception going out there. But just to make my position clear is that first and foremost, immigrants are human beings and and they come here for the same reasons our ancestors came here and I came here. My parents brought us here. We're a country of laws, so we have to abide by the law. But we also have to recognize that the vast majority of the people that are here were drawn here for for the prospect of a job, and we've given them jobs. We welcome them here indirectly. So we have to fix that issue first, and that's where our immigration system is broken. And then we hear about, you know, all these attempts to fix our immigration laws. Well, we haven't been able to do that, so we have to fix immigration laws first. We have to work on guest worker programs because we do need workers. So it's a matter of fixing, but that's a federal issue. I hope if you do win the the mayor's race, Rolando, that you'll be able to send a public message to people to say come out of your fear and drop it. I'll say it right now. Come out of your fear. You have nothing to fear. You know? You say that, but we have a Republican president who is challenging the fourteenth amendment and wants to defend our whole issue.

00:47:02.405 --> 00:47:35.900
Yeah. I don't agree with that. Look, the the people that are being deported are criminals who have a natural record and those that have already gone to a judge and the judge has deported them. That's all those are all the only individuals that are being addressed right now. Whether that changes or not, I don't know. But I will fight that because that that we can't have that. We we gotta make sure that we we get rid of of the individuals that have already had their day in court. Alright. Rolando Pablo, candidate for mayor. Thanks for coming on to Big City Small Town. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you very much, Bob.

00:47:39.639 --> 00:48:07.338
Please share this episode with friends and colleagues, and do sign up for Monday Musings, our weekly newsletter at bigcitysmalltown.com. Big City Small Town is brought to you by Western Urban, building the city our children want to call home, and Geekdom, where startups are born and smart ideas become businesses. Our producer is Corey Eames, video by Erica Rempel, and sound engineering by Alfie de la Garza of Sound Crane Audio. We will see you next week.