153. The Race to Lead Bexar County: Peter Sakai

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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 Robard.

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This week's guest is Bexxar County Judge Peter Sakai, no stranger to our audience, but I will refresh your memory and tell you that Judge Sakai is running for reelection, the March 3 primary as a Democratic candidate. But here we are in mid January, and early voting is just around the corner starting February 17, and it will run for 10.

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As most of you know, more people will vote early than vote on election day.

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So get ready. It's coming soon. Judge Sakai, welcome to Big City, Small Town. Good morning, Bob. Reward. I've known you for many, many years because you have, as our audience knows, that you served for many years as a district court judge presiding over the 225th court. But also more, I think apropos to our conversation today, the Children's court and. The Children's court judge. Children's Court Judge, you did remarkable work over the years protecting our most vulnerable children and in turn, women that were in abusive situations, very tough family, family situations. But then you pivoted and ran for a different kind of elected office after Judge Nelson Wolf left after more than two decades in the spot. And now you're running for reelection. Our first question to the former mayor Ron Nirenberg, when he was in our studio last week, was, why are running?

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So let me ask you, Judge, why are you seeking reelection?

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Well, first, thank you, Bob, for the opportunity to speak through your podcast and your great show here.

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I'm Peter Sakai, your county judge, as you introduced me.

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And for 26 years, I was a court judge, the children's judge, the family judge, protecting children, empowering families and trying to fix the system, improve the system. And so I was very successful with child welfare, child abuse and neglect cases, domestic violence, and just trying to help people one family at a time. So when the opportunity to run for county judge came up, I stepped down to step up to be the next county judge because I wanted to continue my public service nearly 30 years now.

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First and foremost, Bob, I'm not a career politician.

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I am a children's family judge.

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And the North Star, so to speak, has been to really work and make our community a better place to live, work and play. Further, my leadership style is to bring people together, bring the experts together to find the solutions on complex issues such as child abuse, neglect. Bexar county is a leader in that, in regards to that at a state and national level. And what we have done in my first term is to be very family friendly, centric orientated. I promised the voters when I first ran that I would run on a back to basics government. In other words, let's just figure out what we can do. Today we are dealing with an economic tsunami, so to speak, with the federal policies that have created tremendous cuts, cuts that to SNAP and food stamps, food insecurity, cuts to the Affordable Health Care act and subsidies and Medicaid, healthcare access and security. We have an affordable housing.

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So my leadership is again to bring people together, to bring the experts together and to find the solutions that we need. Most recently in commissioner's court, we allocated emergency money for rental assistance.

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And we know right now we have a lot of people facing some tremendous issues with housing. They're on the edge of being evicted and going on the streets, children and families. We also know that we have food insecurity. People need food now. And we just yesterday in commissioner's court gave a grant to the food bank,$250,000 to deal with food insecurity. We have to work with our university health system and to make sure that we have health care access. People need to realize that the university health system is the county hospital. We have to provide indigent care. So the local government, specifically the county government, is going to have to pick up the slack. Now do we have the resources to cover the deficits?

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Hell no. But what we're going to have to do is we're going to have to partner up with the nonprofit community, with the philanthropic community, with the business community to find those solutions to deal with the issues that are facing the taxpayers, the working families. I'm out there. I think my primary duty as county judge is to protect the working families and the taxpayers of this county. And so again, as county judge, that's the reason why I've stepped up to be your county judge for these past three years.

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And I'm asking the voters to vote and support me for another term of office. What do you say to people on the campaign trail, judge, who say I voted for Ron Nirenberg for maybe city councilman, he served District 8 for four years, but then he's the first mayor to serve the full eight year term that he's legally allowed to serve since Henry Cisneros in the 1980s.

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What do you say to people that say they're very familiar with him and they voted for him and why they should keep you in office versus voting for the former mayor? I respect anybody's opinion and I will respect the will of the voters for this coming up election.

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But I think my record, my experience, my value set again is what separates me from my opponent, my public service. And I think it's my dedication as a servant leader. Bob, we've been a lot of those nonprofit organizations, Cortisone Ministries, which I know is very near and dear to you and near and dear to me and many others.

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And you've seen both as a journalist and now as a podcaster, so to speak, what good work that we've done in our community. And that's the reason why I'll let the voters decide who has best served this county, who can best need the people, especially the working families. Again, I think the biggest issue that is facing our community is the economy, food insecurity, healthcare access insecurity, affordable housing insecurity. And so I understand people may look at leadership style, but I think you need to look at character, you need to look at integrity, you need to look at value set. And are you suggesting, Jeff, that your opponent's values are questionable? No, not at all.

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I put my. I have never run a negative campaign and I don't intend to do so in this kind. I grew up in the Rio Grande Valley, son of Japanese immigrants.

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My grandparents came over Japan nearly a hundred years ago. They face the same issue the immigrants are facing now. They were told to go back home.

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They were discriminated against, they were not allowed to buy land. And so history repeats itself. So that's the reason why I think I am in the right place for the right reasons. And the reason being is that as a judge, as an attorney, defending the rule of law, the Constitution of the United States, to defend the rights of everyone, including the immigrants. That's the reason why the court supported an immigration services for children and families. And obviously there are people that disagree with that. But that's what separates me, is that I am totally focused to protect children, to empower families and to find the solutions for our family. We need to keep families together.

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That is my focus and that is my strength. And I believe that's the reason why I will be reelected for another term of office. I want to talk about the election more, but you just mentioned immigration. Let me ask since the Bexar County Commissioners oversees the Bexar County Sheriff's Department, what has been the policy and the practice of the county in recent weeks and months in the face of these operations by ice, by federal immigration authorities that President Trump and his administration are sending into cities?

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They've been in San Antonio, but not in the Same way that we've seen in Minneapolis and other cities. How is the or the county responding to that? Well, as county judge, I've personally gone on record through my social media to condemn those particular actions by the federal law enforcement, ice, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice. Why? Because they are violations of the Constitution. Remember, I'm an attorney. I'm a judge for over 40 years.

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And because of the stories of my immigrant grandparents, I truly believe I'm in the right place at the right time to advocate for the immigrants who come to this country to work hard to establish their families, to establish their careers, to find a new life, to fulfill the American dream. I'll be honest with you, Bob.

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My grandparents and my parents would have never dreamed that I, son of farmers on both sides of the family, would be a county judge. But that's what makes America great. And we need to remember that we are a great country, but we are in a crisis. And the Democratic majority on the Commissioner's Court has condemned the actions. We support Sheriff Salazar in giving dignity respect. But we also have to follow the rule of law, Bob, because some of those rules are horrendous and they're unconstitutional. And we must continue to fight to defend the Constitution. The Constitution doesn't defend itself. It needs people to speak up. It needs people to take action.

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We just finished our MLK Martin Luther King march, the march and the dedication to nonviolent opposition. And that's where I draw the line. We have to follow the rule of law. I will not support any violent action or actions that violate the rule of law to justify anything that's unconstitutional or improper.

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Amen. Well, back to the election. We're used to longer campaigns in our society, but we feel like we just caught our breath after the last election in which voters successfully passed the county's Proposition A and Proposition B. This is a very short campaign and a very short period of time before early voting starts here in the new year, as people sort of begin to focus on the county judge race. I'm wondering how much money you think you'll expend in the primary race. And I wonder how actively you're campaigning. You're famously or infamously known for your wife Rachel, running the campaign, which is unconventional. She's not a political professional. And as you said, you don't see a politician when you look in the mirror. And I just wonder, in a very competitive race, is your approach to the campaign, both in terms of spending and in terms of how you're using your time and what you're doing in the short period of time is that going to be affected in getting you reelected? We'll let the election day, March 3rd figure that out. But I will tell you we have a campaign together. I have consultants that I am paying and paying big money to. We are unrolling a political campaign that is going to help identify my strengths. But again, once again, Bob, I'm not a career politician. I'm not going to go out there and start blasting away on negative ads or talking ill about my opponent. What I'm going to focus on is what my strengths are, what my values are, my dedication to the rule of law, my dedication to the Constitution, my dedication to protect children and families, my reputation to be work. Oh, I'm a hard worker. That's something being a son of a farmer happens. Bob Rivard from the Rio Grande Valley. I'm a valley boy and so I've learned to work hard from sun up to sundown. My parents also told me do things the right way, be honest with integrity. I've never ever been challenged on my integrity. Bob. Is that isn't that a little different than what. That's worth something? That's worth something, Bob. And I think that's the reason why I get so much credit from the community and I'm connected to the community.

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So yes, I realize we have to do all those political things that you put and I'm proud to have my wife Rachel stand by me and be my advisor. She is my rock. She is the reason why I'm been very successful. She and herself is an expert on Education over 40 years in Harlandale Independent School District, Alamo College district and private school over at Providence High School. She is a leader with nonprofits, sitting on boards, being a consultant, helping fundraise for nonprofits. She and I have been had a tremendous partnership, a life partnership that has truly made a difference in our community. So I'll defend and anybody who criticizes me. Well, why is Rachel so involved? Because she truly cares for her community and so do I. So this community has had the advantage of having Peter and Rachel Sakai make a difference. And we have made a difference. We have made our community a better place to live, work and play. Well, we invited Rachel into the studio this morning and she's not here so she doesn't have to listen to you praise her so eloquently.

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I'm a little worried about the election itself, Judge, and I'm talking about the boat. There's news this week at the commissioner's court.

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Through no fault of the counties. The California election software supporter Votech went away and multiple Texas counties were left to go find another vendor.

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You have been negotiating for months with a company called VR Systems in Florida. That seemed to be on track, although there's complaints about how long it took between the time the commissioner's court approved approved working with them and how long it's taken staff to get a contract.

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But I think we were all surprised to read this week that as the item came back onto the agenda for final approval, an executive from VR Systems flew in from Florida to tell the court they couldn't sign the contract in its current form. We didn't have the benefit in the media of being in the executive session with you, but it sounds to me like the contract that was proposed by the county would have made the private vendor responsible for any follow ups interacting with the state election system, which is called team. And we use that programming for the last election and it worked. And it's the only valid registration system recognized by the state of Texas. Everything has to go through Team. Right. And so one of the things, Bob, in regards to that VR contract, first, yes, it's the lawyers involved. And as you're probably well aware, when lawyers get involved, they're going to be disputes. I am committed to safe and fair elections. And by the way, for the past election, November last year and in the May election, we had the same issues, right? We had backlogs, we had what, a 75,000 backlog of registers. And our elections administrator, who by law is responsible for the operations and running this election, not the corporate county judge, not the commissioner's court, it is the elections administrator who answers to an elections commission who by the way, Bob, never met for 20 years until I got on and said, hey, we need some oversight of the elections department and ultimately chose the current elections administrator. And so it is clear that we are going to have a safe and secure.

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I've been assured by the elections administrator that we have taken the remedial actions to make sure that everybody will be registered to vote. We had the same discussion in November and the sky was falling, according to some of the activists out there. But we got it done and I have no doubt that we will get the registration done and we will do. Now why the contract?

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I'm going to be real blunt, Bob. It's a multimillion dollar contract.

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Not only do I have to do a safe, secure election, I better protect the taxpayer money. And I'm not as a judge, as a lawyer going to sign a bad contract that says were not liable. The VR contract was again was issued back last year and we got through successful elections.

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The only issue I remember, Judge election night, and I think we saw each other at the spurs gathering afterwards was the delay in the early vote race. Talk about that.

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That was a decision by the elections administrator.

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Again, it is her authority, it is her right by law to make the decision how elections are run. And she did that because people were still in line to vote. And she interpreted and got an interpretation from the Secretary of State that she could not release any vote results, specifically the early vote totals that are already been tabulated until the polls closed. She interpreted as the polls were still open. As you remember, we had an overwhelming response on the November elections in regards to referendums A and B. And so the polls didn't close for about an hour, hour and a half. And therefore she made the decision. Now, we talked to her and we said, well, in the past there's been results left. She goes, well, they weren't following the law. And so again, the elections administrator is set by law. She is her authority. I as a county judge can give her suggestions and give her some recommendations, but she has to make that call and then she has to answer to elections Commission. And then again, as a result, as I as county judge chair of the Elections Commission, I called for a review of her performance.

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Nobody questioned the integrity of those elections. Nobody questioned whether they were safe and fair. They do question her management style and some of the issues that come in from employees and former employees, they were concerning. And we have addressed it and we've asked her to come up and make sure that she is running an effective and efficient office. And again, the elections commission is going to have to meet after this election and do a performance review. And we may need to make and see if there's some changes. The VR contract will not resolve the issue. That is a misinformation. And just like referring to Man B in the November election and the misinformation that was being put out there is misinformation being put out right now. We will have a safe and fair election come March in this primary. What we need to do is be prepared for the general election, which we believe will be even a bigger election than all these elections that we've had. So I am optimistic. We have given direction to the lawyers, get this contract done and what we're going to do now, I understand the criticisms and people making comments. I will ask them to please let the elections administrator do the job that she's been delegated by law. And ultimately, if the elections administrator doesn't fulfill her duty, then we'll have to do her performance review and we'll have to determine what consequences, if any, need to be done. So unlike a city election, city of San Antonio, in a county election, you've got 26 municipalities in the county altogether, counting San Antonio and 25 others. Are you confident that that evening we'll know the outcome of the election clearly, or do you worry that that many municipalities having into the county that we might not know in real time whether or not you've been reelected? Bob, I think the key, and I've said it again, I'll say it again, we need to have a safe and fair election with integrity. And so if those results need to be delayed in order to comply with the law, I have to live with that. Even though everybody wants to yell and scream, let us know about the early vote, think about on the national election with a time difference and that you have people on the west coast already knowing and elections have been called.

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I agree with the fact that the law really wants to make sure that elections are safe, fair, with integrity. And so if we have to just wait till those results come out, the bottom line is that those results have to be done with integrity, Bob.

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That's what's key. So I understand the criticisms of the elections administrator in the office, but let's make sure we understand what's most important. That's to follow the rule of law. All right. I want to ask you a couple of questions about the county, the bureaucracy, the county culture. Your opponent, former Mayor Nirenberg, is saying that there's a lot of backwards policies that need to be reformed there, and that's what he would bring to it. I wonder what your experience was the first year, the first term, rather a county judge seeing it from that perspective versus before when you were on the court. Let's just talk, for instance, about what I think is the hardest job in the county, which is the Bexar county jail system and the sheriff's department having to run that. The Express News published its database of what people in the county earned recently. And we have deputy sheriffs that are making a quarter of a million dollars,$180,000 a year, huge overtime sum, some of them making more in overtime than they make in their base salaries. We constantly have jobs open there.

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It's to fill those jobs. Some of the people that are hired turn out to be not very good people after all, and end up on the other side of the law. What's your thought after Four years there about how we can best efficiently and fairly run a county jail. And that includes, I would assume, not wanting to pay people these huge sums of overtime, but staffing up to the levels that require maybe a more well managed system. Well, let me say this, let me make it very clear, Bob, that when I ran for county judge, I promised the voters that I would do a back to basics. And I've done that.

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I've done that with public safety, which includes the sheriff, the jail and deputies. I also said that we would work on public health, which was university health, and creating two new hospitals, two new clinics and the underserved areas. And I would also focus in on economic development to make sure that we have a workforce development program. Now regards to the culture of the county. Yeah, the county's been. I was a district court judge during that time, Bob. That's the reason why, one of the reasons why I stepped up to run for county judge because I saw how inefficient and ineffective it could be, especially in procurement. I'll tell you, the people most critical of my leadership are the people I believe that want things to stay the same. I went in there to change things. Quite frankly, Bob, I probably have pissed some people off. People are not happy that changes have been made. One was I saw that we needed a more efficient and effective procurement. I had to get a change of a purchasing agent. People complained about getting paid. As a district court judge, I'd have to make a phone call, say, hey, can you get a nonprofit vendor paid?

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Well, let me check it out. And only because of that phone call.

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So things were ineffective, inefficient and sometimes transactional. Bob is who you knew.

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And I said, that's not the way it should be. I wanted better customer service.

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So I've made changes with the procurement. I made changes in the public works. Art Reinhardt, who just got stolen away back to the csa, changed the culture at public works. Developers had to file paper and pay with checks not online.

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That's changed. We have made it more effective, efficient for procurement, supply sa. We have made the certification process so that small businesses can thrive and prosper again. There was a big backlog. Workforce development.

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We have the best workforce development in Texas. Fast Track and Texas fame. 90% graduation, 90% retention to jobs going to advanced manufacturing, manufacturing.

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And so the county is moving forward. I promise to be open and transparent, Bob, Tell me when the county ever did town hall meetings. Tell me when they discussed the budget. Tell me when they ever got public input. They never did.

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I just Told you, Elections commission never met for 20 years.

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There were a lot of things that were required by law that weren't being done.

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Now, regards to the jail, I work with Sheriff Salazar. When I started, you got to remember Commissioner's court, the sheriff and the DA were all at odds.

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They even argued over a boat. All right, tell me when you've seen any of that type of discussion of arguing over something meaningful that has no meaning in regards to protecting the families. So what we've done is I've got alignment with the deputy sheriff's union that was at odds. I've got alignment with the sheriff, who I work very well with. And we also put together a public safety committee when there were violent repeat offenders shooting at the police officers, causing the district Attorney's office and the San Antonio Police Department to point fingers at each other and literally be at war. Bob, that was on the news. Tell me, when was the last time you heard the DA and the chief of Police? That was because I brought the stakeholders together to figure out what were the needs.

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We were still dealing with paper. And in some ways, the jail is still very much behind in technology. Why are we still paying deputies a quarter of a million dollars? That's an overtime issue. That is a collective bargaining issue. That is an issue that the county has to oblige by. And I will support the payment of overtime because that's no different for San Antonio Police Department.

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Bob, the law enforcement have to be 24 7.

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They have to be out there to protect and defend our citizens.

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And I'm not going to criticize now, we have held the sheriff accountable for those overtime payments. We have increased deputies over 100. Understand that. We have balanced the budget for three straight years. No property tax increase.

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We have decreased the property tax bill for seniors and for the disabled veterans. And we have been able to reduce spending. A back to basics approach. At the same time, we have put our focus in on public safety, new deputies, increased pay. So, yes, as a result, we have those overtime issues. And I'm not going to apologize for those working officers. I'll be real blunt. They're entitled to the overtime pursuant to the collective bargaining contract. That's the rule of law. You pay them what they're. Now, the question, Bob, is are they doing the performances and are they fulfilled, efficient, and are they effective? And those are the things that we need to continue to do in my next term of office. I think most voters would say that they don't begrudge anyone the pay for their hard work, particularly overtime, but that the system could be improved to avoid having people to work that kind of overtime and be paid those.

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Well, I need another four years to undo what's been done for 30 years. Bob. Okay, let's. I think that's a fair assessment. Let's talk about propositions A and B just a little bit and tell our audience how proposition came to be. Because in the very beginning there was a push on the county and on you, judge, to come up with the county's version of its support for a Spurs arena much more quickly than happened and you wanted more time. And the result was Proposition A, which is a generational investment in the east side in both the Frost bank arena, the Freeman Coliseum, the surrounding properties there. As much as I don't have the number in front of me, but I'm going to say 300 million plus can go into that. How would you implement that over the next four years if you're reelected? What are we going to see over there? Well, we're going to have to see is first of all, yes, you're right. When the spurs in the city first talked about a new arena without the county, the Express News, I think through open records put out the communication that the spurs in the city. So I immediately stepped up as county judge, didn't realize that that was going to be an issue during my first term and said, okay, hold it, the county needs to be involved. We're the current landlord and the spurs are a tenant and you can't interfere with our contract. So we immediately got involved. And so it was clear that the spurs wanted a new arena and the city wanted to look at the downtown area for revitalization.

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And so I had to make a decision, do I oppose it and then let the spurs leave at the end of the lease or God forbid they leave town? So I made the decision that the county need to partner up and be part of that. We saw that last time 20 years ago when the city and the county basically were at odds in dispute. I think it was Judge Sidney Taylor Cryer and Mayor may you rest in peace, Howard Peake. The city didn't participate and therefore the county built then the SBC center out there. So I looked for the ways to make it a win win for the county. And so one of the first things I came to realize, and it was my leadership that decided that I wanted to make the revitalization of the east side the first and foremost issue, and I thought that was going to be very important in order for referendums A and B to pass 2 is how are we going to have a sustainable economic business plan out there? So we started, we talked to the San Antonio Rodeo and the rodeo came up with a great plan is to create a western culture for that county facilities. So we figured out how much they needed to make sure that the Frost bank center does not turn into the next statue dome. That it could be viable to be an entertainment center. That we changed. We also renovate the Freeman Coliseum and also too we changed the barn so to speak with the dirt floors to multi use venues so that we can put small businesses and create a atmosphere much like a pearl, so to speak. A pearl like atmosphere where people will come and spend their day. So that was the basic for the county's involvement in A and B and then in regards to B. And that was the hardest part of the election was the bill building out of the spurs arena. And it was, and I want to make it clear the county was not involved with Project Marlboro at all. I still don't know what Project Marvel is. That is something my opponent and the city has yet to fully clearly define for the community.

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Really you don't understand it in general is the redevelopment of the remaining hemisphere properties, the convention center.

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Well, but they didn't, they didn't ask or get any input. I've had a 30 minute briefing to really hear what those pieces are. I don't see why we need a land bridge. I don't see why we need a. New hotel that's off the drawing board now with the federal government no longer providing those funds. Let's go back to the east side judge. How will that unfold?

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We've had the head of the San Antonio Rodeo and Stock show and Rodeo, Cody Davenport. Cody Davenport on the podcast and he's obviously very enthusiastic about being able to create something along the line of the fort or stockyards or what we've seen in Calgary or some other places where rodeo and western culture activity is kind of a year round enterprise and attracts a lot of both locals and visitors alike. How does that start? Are there sort of shovel ready projects that we'll see? No, we're far from that. We are in the process. First of all, we haven't started the clock on a collection of revenue. So we have again the lawyers are involved. We're going to have to go through a lot of due diligence to make sure that we protect the county facilities, that we will give our contributions to the new spurs arena and that it'll be in tandem because we're going to have to execute this so that we don't lose any revenue in between. We have to make sure that the revitalization of the east side and the commitment to the downtown new arena all go in tandem. And so there's. We are just starting those conversations right now. I will assure the community that we will have community engagement. We will want to know what the community really wants in regards to that. Because the county venue tax and Bob, we had that discussion on the referendum was a dedicated tax. Pursuant to law, it could only be used for any economic development that was tourist related. So we couldn't go out and build schools and housing and whatnot. Now we have an opportunity to revitalize and see as we change the county facilities, the Frost Bank Coliseum and the Coliseum grounds. Can we also include the Willow Springs golf course? Can we look at the revitalization and de industrialize that area around the warehousing and change those to schools, medical buildings, hospitals, whatever the community needs. And so those are discussions that are going to have to be had. We're a long way from having any type of shovel ready project. We have to do our due diligence and that's what's kicking off right now.

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In this particular year. The city is looking at either originally adding a senior staffer or now maybe perhaps a contracted vendor, a consultant to oversee everything that it's going to do in hemisphere starting with the arena and the adjacent entertainment zone. Do you see the county taking on a sort of east side czar for a better.

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Well, we're probably looking at some type of overall project manager, project controller. This is a huge, huge project that has to be done right. And so we're going to bring the expertise needed to make sure that we have a revitalization e site and that we get the facilities and we do this in a very coordinated way. Well, I wanted to bring it back to the top of the conversation, Judge, where you talk about the crisis we're facing at the federal level and how that threatens our local Bexar county community over the next four years. It seems like there'll be an element of triage for sure. As you mentioned, maybe that quarter million grant to the food bank, but like as the food bank would say, food for today, tomorrow and then a lifetime.

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How do you see over the next four years balancing both the short term thinking and maybe meeting the immediate basic needs of Bexar county, but likewise continuing to think with the long view to create that resiliency over time. Where do you see your greatest levers for influence control? I am doing what I've done during my entire public service, especially from being a children's court judge. I don't have all the answers. I have to bring the experts in.

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And in regards to food insecurity, I have now had three meetings where we brought all the stakeholders in in regards to food security, the food bank, the nonprofits, the churches, the governmental agencies that are all involved.

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And we have learned that we're not all connected. And so families are all kind of out there. And what we need to do is we got to leverage every resource that we have.

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The county doesn't have enough resources to cover any of the deficits that the federal government is imposing, but we've got.

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Nobody does. So it's going to take a collaboration. We're going to have to get the philanthropic community involved. And that's what happened most recently on the KSAT news piece where there was a rental assistance.

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Our housing rental program that we kicked in from the December meeting hasn't formulated because we're doing the contracts.

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And so I had to call upon a philanthropic organization who remains anonymous, who will step in and help this particular.

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That's the kind of leadership that is going to be needed.

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We need to be able to pivot. We need to be able to meet the needs as far as long term.

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I will tell you what the county has done from a public health and to deal with other issues is support the public schools districts with $21 million of federal funds for mental health programs with 13 school districts. Why? Because we have an issue of active violence in our schools. Students do not feel safe.

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And so we also committed $14 million to drug and alcohol treatment facilities with our opioid settlement money.

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We also have two new hospitals, two new clinics, two on the south side, one on the east side and one on the northeast side to serve the underser.

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I need the community to understand that the university health system is the county hospital. So if they have the cuts to their subsidies or the cuts to their Medicaid, they're going to have to go to the county hospital.

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We have supported public housing and that's one leadership directive initiative I've done. Because we know that in regards to the urban core, San Antonio Independent School District, the baseball stadium, Bob, I led that. The county is what delivered the baseball stadium and made it happen. Because what I did in regards to asid, which was most important piece of that was I committed to affordable housing. Of 1,250 housing units in the urban core, most particularly San Antonio Independent School District.

00:38:21.969 --> 00:38:54.599
If we do not have increasing Enrollment of children and families in their urban core. That urban core school districts, be it San Antonio, isd, Harlandale, Edgewood, South San. They're not going to make it. They're not going to make it unless we have a fundamental change in our funding mechanism. So we need to build up and that's the reason why the county has to lead in. Are we going to solve the public finance and public. No, that's a fight in Austin, Texas that we'll have to continue on and we'll have to have obviously a change in political parties in order to us to have any hope there.

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But what we're going to do locally is we're going to do our very best to make sure that we're meeting the needs of our local families. So that's what I bring to the table leadership. But at first it's because I am focused on a basic back to basics approach to government. Let's meet the needs of the immediate needs and on the long term needs. So as we meet the immediate needs, yes, we will have to strategize and figure out on the long term and see how we partner together. That's how I created Children's Court, Bob, and the many stories there. That's how it's nationally renowned. We brought the philanthropic community, we brought the county together, we brought the nonprofits. And you've seen how nonprofits have flourished with the collaboration between the governmental entities. We've seen that.

00:39:44.460 --> 00:39:52.139
I brought Family drug court, early childhood court, Baby Court, College Bound docket, cutting innovative programs, leadership.

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That was because I brought the people together to find the solutions.

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We're making a fundamental difference with foster care in Bexar County.

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Now is the foster care system fixed? No. But in Bexar county it runs very, very well. We know that domestic violence. We just had a report from the Collaborative Commission on Domestic Violence in court yesterday. It is a city county collaboration.

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It is one that I created as a local administrative judge and one that I'm extremely proud. Why? Because it is a viable, strong organization that continues to collaborate. Is one of the strongest collaborations between the city and county. As a result of my leadership to deal with the complex. Is it fixing domestic violence? No, but it is bringing the limited resources we have. The city of San Antonio works from a public health with their Metro Health district and the county has been able to put programs that have made commitments in domestic violence program training, especially with the sheriff's department. We know that those domestic violence cases, as the media is covered, are the most violent cases.

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And so that is what's going to be required a back to basics approach to government that focuses on public safety, that will focus in on public health, that will focus in on workforce development and infrastructure. That is what's going to make Bexar County.

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And finally, and if I haven't said it, I'll say it again, I have balanced the budget three straight years.

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No new property tax increase, reduced spending and we have been able to provide to reduce the tax bills for seniors and disabled veterans.

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Bexar county is strong and what the next four years with my re election is to build a better Bexar.

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That's what I want to do. Make Bexar county government more effective, efficient. Make it more open and transparent. Make it so that it has a sense of integrity and community service. That's my promise to the voters of Bexar county and that's the reason why I'm running for reelection and asking for their voter support. And I truly believe that this community that I truly love and have supported for nearly 40 years in public service, a servant leader who's put children and families first. I'm not a career politician and so I have been there day one and I will continue to do so regardless of the outcome. I will respect the results of the elections come March 3rd. And let us now just keep working forward because I still have much work to do and we can't afford to have a change of course in the direction of where Bexar county is going. And I will put my record up and I'll let the voters decide who can provide the best leadership. But I have provided strong, steady, effective leadership. Let me ask Judge before we wrap up because we're about out of time, what's your relationship with Mayor Jean and Jones? If you are reelected for at least the next three years, you'll have to be working in concert with her if we're going to see the city and county collaborate in effective ways. She's been a far less enthusiastic elected official about both the new spurs arena and the baseball park that you know, was already resolved before before her election. Do you have a personal relationship with her? Have you guys seen her? It is a cordial, respectful. We have met, we have had those discussions. But I'll be real blunt.

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Yeah, she's very driven, she's very focused and there are difference of opinions as to how we move forward. We saw that with the referendums and how difficult those referendums were in regards to what messaging was put out. So as you recall, Bob, in our last podcast on referendums A and B My job was to go out. Now one of the reasons why I was very cautious perhaps, and that's a word that's being used, is because I'm a former judge, I'm not a politician. I don't go out there yelling, screaming, putting on press conferences.

00:43:53.639 --> 00:44:49.519
I was deliberate, I was intentional. I listened to both sides of a dispute. I then make a decision and then I, I am able to articulate the reasons why. And you saw that we're referring as A and B. Once I saw what misinformation, disinformation was put out, I put out the information in regards to the county venue tax, what the restrictions were and what that election was all about and why I pushed back, so to speak, on the spurs initially and say I have to have all the evidence, I have to be assured that this is the best decision for the taxpayers of Bexar County. And I believe we have a game changing event with the passage of referendums A and B to make this community a better way. And as we've touched base, we're just starting, we are going to now put the details to what that revitalization of the east side, what that revitalization in downtown will look like and how the city and county will work together.

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And I will continue to work with the mayor and the city council. Remember, city council government or city government is based on the mayor, the council and the city manager.

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So that's what reason why county government is separated to state. County government is based on an extension of the state of Texas. We can only do what the state allows us to do. In essence, as we see the city of San Antonio can do anything that the state tells it not to do. And we're seeing that played out. And that's the reason why sometimes you'll see the city and county be on separate tracks because the city and county are based on two different laws. All right, Judge Peter Sakai running for re election.

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Thanks for coming into Big City, Small Town. Thank you, Bob.

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All right, y', all, thanks for listening to this episode of Big City Small Town.

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If you enjoyed this conversation, please share share it with friends and colleagues who might find it interesting. You can also sign up for our newsletters, Bob Rivard's Monday Musings and my San Antonio Something. You can find those linked up@bigcitysmalltown.com our show big city Small Town is made possible by west and urban building, a city our children want to call home, and geekdom, where startups are born and smart ideas become businesses. If you're part of a business or organization that believes in strengthening San Antonio civic engagement and would like to explore a partnership with us at Big City, Small Town. We'd love to hear from you. You can reach out through our website or connect with us on social media. All right, y', all, thanks for being here. We'll see you next time.