This County Judge Candidate Forum is presented by the League of Women Voters of the San Antonio area, a nonprofit Nonpartizan all volunteer organization.

The Nationwide League of Women Voters formed in 1920 from the movement that secured the right to vote for women continues its 100 years plus mission to expand civic participation and give a voice to all Americans through broad educational efforts and advocacy.

The League does not endorse or support any candidate or party.

Questions for this form were submitted by league members and the public.

The candidates have not seen the questions.

Each candidate will have a minute and a half to respond to questions and each will have 2 minutes for a closing statement.

All three candidates have read and agreed to follow the rules the league has established for conducting a civil forum in which candidates can explain their views rather than commenting on their opponents.

Here are the rules.

Candidates will respond to the moderator.

Only candidates must not refer to their opponents by name or otherwise.

The responses to the questions should reflect their own ideas and policies.

Civil discourse is expected at all times, and violations of the rules will result in the microphone of the candidate violating the rule, being muted and their remaining time on the question forfeited.

Welcome to the Bear County Judge Candidate Forum presented by the League of Women Voters of the San Antonio area.

I'm Randy Beemer, your moderator and the candidates in order of their ballot position.

Our Trish Deberry Republican.

Most recently she served as Barry County Precinct three commissioner resigning to run for county judge in 2009.

She ran for San Antonio mayor and she has owned her own public relations firm and was a television journalist.

Peter Sakai, Democrat.

He has served as assistant district attorney, associate judge of the Children's Court and in 2006 was elected judge of the Texas 225th district court.

He resigned that post in October of 2021 and Edgar Coyle libertarian moved to San Antonio in 2016.

He has not run for election before and works as a draftsman.

We're going to go in order of the questions left to right for those of you at home.

And then the next question we'll start with the next candidate over.

So we'll start with Trish Deberrey.

But all of you will answer these questions one at a time.

Trish, domestic violence continues to rise in the county.

So what are your plans to combat that?

First of all, thank you, Randy, for the opportunity here in Colorado.

My hope is that we have a robust debate on the issues.

And yes, I've called domestic violence when I was a county commissioner a scourge, you know, a public health crisis in this community.

One of my proudest moments as a county commissioner was leading the effort and working with the DA's office to make sure that we allocate $300 million, a historic amount regarding prosecutors and investigators because we had a 5000 case backlog.

And as a county commissioner, I found that unacceptable.

I also led the effort regarding a resolution to make sure that not just domestic violence courts were hearing those cases but that all courts were hearing those cases.

And there was a little bit of pushback associated with that.

But we eventually got there.

So we have to continue to do more and actually, regarding the $300 million that I appropriated, I actually wanted to do more than that because women and children should not be living in fear and despite the fact that we had a collaborative commission on domestic violence, it's been roundly criticized that there was no data.

There was no metrics.

There was nothing really associated with how that was moving the needle.

So really, what we had to do was make sure that we're appropriating more money, not just for the D.A.

office, but also for the courts.

And we got to have more advocates regarding women and children.

Thank you.

All right.

Again, the same question to Mr. Sakai.

Domestic violence continues to rise in the county.

What are your plans to combat it?

Well, Randi, let me thank Lauren and the League of Women Voters for this opportunity to have this forum.

Yes, I'm Judge Peterson and I'm running for County Judge.

And in regards to issue domestic violence, that is something I have dedicated my whole life to in regard to the children and families, especially when I was the presiding judge of the district courts.

In charge of Children's Court and the Family Drug Court, the early childhood court and the college bound doctor for foster kids.

Cutting edge, innovative programs.

What we're going to have to do for domestic violence is look at it as a process.

And we got to look at as a school that domestic violence sits on with the district attorney's office.

Who files charges the courts adhere to those cases and handles the perpetrators.

The nonprofit community who provide the support services and commissioners court, who provide the funding for all these entities.

And what we need to do and what I did do as district court judge, which established the Collaborative Commission on Domestic Violence, bring in all these entities together to figure out what the problems are and then coming up with solutions.

That's what we're doing now.

And that's your next county judge.

That's what I will continue to do.

Is figure out what the problems are.

We need the voice of the victim to be heard.

That was what made was very clear when I created the cloud or commission.

And we've got to protect the victims and we must deal with the perpetrators and change their actions and behavior by changing their attitudes and beliefs.

And I'm committed to put that as one of the top priorities for the commissioners court.

All right.

Now, Mr. Coyle, same question to you.

Domestic violence continues to rise in Bear County.

What are your plans to combat that?

Well, I think we need to first acknowledge why domestic violence has risen over the past two years.

You see a lot of increase in result to the lockdowns.

And as you know, people were locked in their homes and it was a very stressful time.

So I think that contributed heavily to the rise in domestic violence.

What we need to do from a leadership role at the county level is understand how we got into this situation.

And I think, you know, when you look around at the state of the world today, there's a lot of stressors going on right now.

And at a county level, I think we need to work as much as possible to reduce tax burdens on the citizens of Bear County.

And, you know, is pain like that?

And for repeat offenders, and stuff like that, we need to prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.

All right, thanks.

We're going to move on to the second question again for viewers at home.

Each candidate gets up to a minute.

30 to answer each question.

2 minutes for the closing statements.

And we're going in order.

In terms of which question and which candidate starts first on that question.

So this goes to Mr. Sakai.

First, how can the county prepare residents for the effects of climate change to assure a healthy and sustainable future for everyone to thrive?

That's a great question, Randi.

We're going to have to deal with climate change.

First, of all, we have to acknowledge it.

We've seen it.

We've seen the freeze of last year.

We've seen the extreme heat of this year.

And then we saw COVID and the pandemic and the challenges it brought with COVID taught us is that we must be prepared.

And as county judge, one of the statutory authority, so the county judge is to be in charge of the Office of Emergency Management, which is housed at Brooks.

And that's why the county must take the lead in regards to the issues that climate change brings whether it's drought, whether it's freezes.

We need to be prepared.

What we've learned is that we have a digital divide.

We need to provide high speed Internet connectivity to all parts of the community so that the seniors can give adequate warning to when their water or their electricity was being cut off.

We need to be prepared to have warming centers or cooling centers in the summer when we have the extreme heat.

So, Randi, that is something that county commissioners court and as county judge is going to have to take responsibility for, and I'm prepared to do that.

Having been the local administrator, judge in charge of the district court, in charge of the courts, during the COVID pandemic, and lead in the courts through that process of making sure our court system remained open and accessible to the people of our county.

All right.

Same question to you, Mr. Coyle.

How can the county prepare residents for the effects of climate change to assure a healthy and sustainable future for everyone to thrive?

Well, I think that climate change is inevitable at this point.

I don't think we're going to be able to offset what's already been put into the atmosphere as far as, you know, carbon footprints and stuff like that.

At a county level, I think really what we need to put our priority on is electricity and making sure that we have a functional grid.

As we've seen over the, you know, the freeze of 20, 21 electricity is crucial.

And as we move forward, we're going to continue to have, you know, extreme demand events, whether it be from extremely hot summers or, you know, colder winters.

I think we need to look at a county wide investment into expanding electricity production.

On a county level, I think we should be looking into nuclear power.

I think it's high time that Bear County has a nuclear generation plant.

And with today's technology, you know, thorium reactors and stuff like that, we can get a very safe nuclear power plant that provides, you know, electricity to be able to have safe and clean electricity.

All right.

And Mr. Barry, the same question to you.

How can the county prepare residents for the effects of climate change to assure a healthy and sustainable future for everyone to thrive?

So I think first and foremost, first and foremost, Randi, we have to have a leader in this office.

And I want to offer a clarification.

The judge commissioners court is a judge by the Texas state constitution only.

You are really the CEO of the county, meaning you don't have to have a law degree.

You are the chief executive officer managing a $2.8 billion budget.

Why is that important?

Because as we talk about climate change, which is very real, you know, one of the things that I did when I was on commissioners court was we had to look at a natural gas fleet.

We've got a fleet of vehicles, whether it's deputy sheriffs, whether it's the public works office or what have you, about converting that fleet so that we're not necessarily putting, you know, horrible hydrocarbons into the atmosphere.

And so talking to the public works office and making sure that that was a priority.

We've got more work to do in that vein.

But it's also we talk about the big freeze and what happened.

As somebody who's worked in crisis communications all of her life.

I mean, that is my wheelhouse.

And so what I have asked for is we look at the utilities, whether it's water, whether it's electricity.

What I've asked for is the county has a seat at the table at CPS energy and its energy and water systems because a third of CPS revenue comes from outside the city of San Antonio.

Yet we do not have a seat at the table regarding representation of the suburban cities, nor those who live outside the city limits.

And what is that?

If we don't have a seat at the table, that is taxation without representation.

And so having that seat at the table is critically important.

Mr. Coyle, we'll start the next question with you.

What will you do to improve health outcomes, including mental health and women's reproductive health in their county?

Well, you know, I think there's been a lot of investment in university health system.

I think we need to look at you know, the budget that university health system has.

And we really need to put money where it needs to be.

You know, as far as reproductive health I don't think, you know, with with all that's happened with Roe v Wade, Roe versus Wade, I don't think that the priority should be you know, prosecution or anything like that personally.

And as a Bear County judge, I wouldn't seek anything like that.

But we definitely need to put the money where it's going to be well-spent.

All right.

And Mr. Berry, the same question now goes to you.

What will you do to improve the health outcomes including mental health and women's reproductive health in the.

Mental health, I should say, and women's reproductive health in their county.

So university health system is one of the biggest line items in the budget.

As a county commissioner, I agree.

Related to ARPA funding, one of the buckets that I wanted to make sure that we were advocating for was mental health.

We have a severe shortage in this community and in this county.

And mental health has with the closure of the Nix Hospital downtown, that was an elimination of 120 beds that we never replaced here.

So we have a homeless problem and a homeless issue, and mental health has something to do with that.

And so what I advocated for was the Center for Health Care Services and UHC to come together to really investigate the opportunity for a short term mental health facility that will keep people out of the jail and out of hospital emergency rooms.

150 bed so that people get stabilized, that they get wraparound services and they become productive citizens of society.

And we have a morbid maternal morbidity rate that's out of control here in San Antonio.

And so when we look at the Women's and Children's Hospital with UHC that's about to open within a year's time, we've got to invest more in that and regarding reproductive health of women, I've been very clear about the fact I can't do anything about the fact that Roe v Wade and what the Supreme Court did.

But what I can tell you today is there have to be exceptions for rape, incest and health of the mother.

And I will advocate for that as someone who lost a baby, who had chronic chromosome disorder between my two children, I had to terminate their pregnancy, which was the hardest decision I ever had to make.

And it's affected me still to this day.

But there have to be exceptions to that rule.

And we're going to advocate for women in that vein.

Same question to you, Mr. Sakai.

What will you do to improve health outcomes, including mental health and women's reproductive health in Bear County?

As county judge, I commit to mental health and the women's right to have health choices in regards to the reproductive rights.

And let me be then clear as to what I mean by that commitment.

We, the county has an opportunity now under the current commissioners court to create a new public health entity, which I totally support.

And within that public health entity, I want to make sure that mental health and drug and alcohol rehabilitation are an integral part of any public health issue that we have to do.

I will tell you, as a district court judge in charge of the district court, seeing those child abuse cases and family law cases I know that mental health and drug and alcohol addiction are the big issues along with domestic violence.

And those are issues that we must address.

And as a county judge, I want a back to basics budget, what I call bare necessities, which will focus in and the child center and family focused, and that is a solution, a resolution in my mind that what we need to do is treat these issues as public health and embrace the public health entity, make sure that the unincorporated areas, the 26 suburban cities and the city of San Antonio work together to figure out what those problems are, deal with the diseases diabetes and obesity, and come up with the solution so that we deal with wellness and nutrition in our community and make our children and families healthier.

Resilient and better prepared for education and for the workforce.

All right.

The next question we begin with Mr. Barry.

What resources are you willing to allocate to ensure that all voters have equal access to the polls and can obtain accurate information efficiently about voting in our county?

Well, first of all, Randi, we have to have a you know, the county elections office is a is a big byproduct of the county.

And so as we look at why do we need to do it, it shouldn't come down to a lawsuit against the county regarding the closure of voting sites, because what is voting about voting at the end of the day is about convenience and opportunity to be able to vote.

And so as your next we are county judge, suppression of the vote will never be something that I advocate for.

We have to make it convenient.

We have to make sure that we have the resources, that we have the staffing in place, because that's the challenge right now.

Now that we're back up to more than 300 sites, Jackie Callanan, who, by the way, is getting yeoman's job in that office regarding what's going on with the elections that we've got the staff to be able to do that.

And so to your point, Randi, there will come a time because Jackie Callanan has indicated that she may retire within a couple of years.

So there will be a very robust process at commissioners court regarding who that next person is to take over that elections office.

We've got to have better security in that office.

We've got to make sure that we prioritize it in the budget.

And then regarding who is the next person to replace Jackie we've got to make sure it's somebody who's fair and evenhanded and make sure that whether you're a Republican, whether you are a Democrat, whether you're an independent, that you have accessibility to be to be able to go vote.

It will be a priority when I'm your next mayor.

County judge.

Thank you.

Mr. Takai.

Same question.

What resources are you willing to allocate to ensure that all voters have equal access to the polls and can obtain accurate information efficiently about voting in our county?

As your next county judge, I'm committed to support the elections department and the right to vote as a constitutional right.

And unfortunately, I believe we have legislation that has provided restrictions.

In fact, suppressions this primary vote.

This past year, we had complaints of seniors not being able to vote by mail, and we had complaints of that.

Their votes were not counted.

Nearly 20% of the votes, as we understand it, were not counted.

That is something that cannot be accepted.

And so my amendment not only is to enforce and make sure that the elections department is well funded and has the technology.

And if Jackie Callanan should decide to retire, I want a national search to make sure we get the next person in there that's going to use technology and use the best resources available to deal with this issue of denial of access and denial and suppression of the right to vote.

We cannot allow the seniors their right to vote.

And that's the reason why my commitment and one of the fundamental issues for the county is to run in the elections department, and I will make sure that it is funded and it has leadership and leadership provided by the county judge to make sure that all voters have their right to vote and their vote and voice is heard and counted.

Same question to you, Mr. Carlisle.

What resources are you willing to allocate to ensure that all voters have equal access to the polls and can obtain accurate information efficiently about voting in Bear County?

Well, obviously, I think that the elections department has done a great job so far, but obviously there's there's always more that can be done.

I think we should expand polling sites and, you know, just put the money where it's needed to get people out to vote.

I know there's issues with absentee ballots and stuff like that, but if you look over the last two years, you know, we we kind of just turn the whole election process on its own.

So I think we need to really get back to normal and put the emphasis on polling sites and in-person voting and making sure that, you know, absentee ballots are actually counted when they're sent in.

All right.

This is kind the next question goes to you first, and that is what remedy will you offer for homeowners who face increasing property taxes resulting from the rising property appraisals?

Well, I'm going to do everything I can to control property taxes, if not lower property taxes, understanding that when we look at the back to basics, we've got to make sure that the county employees, especially the deputies, of the sheriff's department, are taken care of.

And that is an issue we're going to have to really tackle on.

And so there is going to be this balancing issue as the county judge there, county must be big enough to protect all its citizens, but it must be small enough to live within a budget.

And that is the challenge as the county judge, along with the county commissioners is to make sure we're meeting the needs of our constituents and our citizens and the basic services.

It's public safety, it's public health.

It's the right to vote through the elections.

Department.

Those are all the medical services through the university hospital system.

Those are all issues.

And so we need to keep a lid on property taxes.

But we also have to deal with the appraisal district.

And I am committed to put a county commissioner on that Berks County appraisal board that's going to hold the chief appraiser and the Bear County appraisal district accountable for the way they establish their evaluations.

I got my tax bill and I still don't know how they figured that out.

And so I know that a majority of the citizens are also asking the same questions.

And I want more accountability of the county appraisal district.

And I believe with my leadership, we can control taxes and get those valuation issues addressed in the proper way.

Mr. Coyle, same question to you.

What remedy will you offer for homeowners who face increasing property taxes that result from rising property appraisals?

Well, as Bear County judge, I would fight for the abolition of property taxes here within the county.

I know that's a big feat, but I think we need to talk about it, because if you look at what's going on with skyrocketing appraisals and inflation going out of control like it is, you know, we're at a 40 year high for inflation doesn't look like it's reigning in any time soon.

I think in the very near future we're going to have a housing crisis on our hands if we don't get this under control.

And I think the best way to do that is to get away from a property tax revenue generation model and try to switch to a sales tax as far as a county wide revenue generation.

So I think that would do a lot to cap this issue and that's what I would do if elected.

Bourke County Judge.

All right.

And Mr. Barry, the same question, what remedy will you offer to homeowners who face increasing property taxes that result from the rising property appraisals?

Well, the good news is, Randy, I've offered some remedies as a county commissioner.

I came in office and I was going to lower the property tax rate come hell or high water that's exactly what I was able to do as I was at the doorstep of people.

It's not an effort to lower the property tax rate when appraisals are out of control.

And so, yes, what we can do with the counties, we can control the property tax rate.

And I did cultivate two other votes as the only Republican on this court to make sure that we lowered the property tax rate to the lowest it has been in 25 years.

I also teed up a homestead exemption that didn't exist at the county until I got there.

I made sure that we were asking questions of Georgia Indiana's university health system to make sure that we had a homestead exemption there.

Thankfully, all of those things have happened and the city followed suit.

But we've done about all we can regarding property taxes and appraisal reform here at the local level.

Property taxes and appraisal reform.

True appraisal reform.

Ladies and gentlemen, begins at the legislature.

And so the special session starts.

Whoever gets this seat.

Two weeks after we get in office, I will walk the halls of the legislature.

I've already had conversations with the senior leadership of the state to tap into the $27 billion rainy day fund, which should be a tsunami fund, considering the amount of money that's in there to wipe out the error rate of school districts, which will decrease property taxes.

But we also need more revenue streams so that education is not borne on the backs of homeowners.

And that's why I'm advocating for perhaps a revenue stream of legalized gambling or even legalized marijuana.

Thank you.

All right, Edgar, we'll start the next question with you.

How do you envision dealing with infrastructure and transportation issues with the steady influx of people to the county?

And how will you implement your plan.

Well, I think this is going to be one of the biggest issues facing our county in the next decade.

So I think we really need to put the emphasis on roads you know, all the roads that go all throughout the county, not just San Antonio.

I know there's a lot of emphasis on just San Antonio, but, you know, there's there's other villages and towns all throughout the county.

So we need to really put the focus on where the congestion is.

And you see a lot of people now moving from inside for ten and 1604 to a little bit outside of 1604.

So we really need to focus on six, you know, four, I think.

And you know, I would definitely make that a high priority as far as the budget.

So.

All right, Mr. Barry, same question.

How do you envision dealing with the infrastructure and transportation issues with all of a steady influx of people to our county?

And how would you implement your plan?

Yeah, zero growth is not going to stop here any time soon.

When you look at estimates by 2050 we are going to have 6 million people that live in this greater San Antonio area.

And by the way, a majority of growth will occur outside the city limits of San Antonio because of non annexation by the legislature.

And so how do we control that?

As somebody who sat on the board of the Metropolitan Planning Organization and heard other counties, whether it was Kendall County or whether it was Carmel County where there was out of Skokie County, the county lines are going to start to blend all together very quickly because they're experiencing high growth too.

And so at some point we're going to have to take a look we have $7 billion of construction on the ground regarding 64 regarding the interchange at 64 and I-10 regarding 35 and the double decker $3 billion in downtown San Antonio.

But we're going to have to start looking at a third loop.

And that means we take a very close look at Highway 46 and what that means for perhaps a third loop here in a very rapidly growing county, Texas is already doing investigative studies regarding what it would take to bring Highway 46 to fruition as a third loop.

But we've got to have those counties at the table too.

And I've had conversations as a result of being on the Alamo Area Council Governments.

I have relationships with the judges and all of those surrounding counties, and they're on board.

And so we've got to continue to have the conversation.

But transportation mobility equals what quality of life.

It's got to be a priority.

Thank you.

I miss Sky the same question.

How do you envision dealing with the infrastructure and transportation issues with a steady influx of people to Bear County, and how will you implement your plan?

Well, obviously I agree we're going to have tremendous growth in the county and it's going to be in the unincorporated areas and suburban cities as cities are literally landlocked with the annexation laws that the legislature has passed and so, yes, there are we know that H 35 double decker is going to be all the plans and is going to go up in the next few years.

We know that 1604 and the improvements on that need to be finished out.

And as county judge, I want to commit to make sure that we put those projects with the minimal disruption to the small businesses and to the cities that it will affect.

But at the same time, what we need to recognize is it's not a matter of building more lanes.

What we need to do is look at advanced rapid transit and make sure that we are moving people in the best way first in order to deal with road congestion and the issue of what we call non attainment.

If we don't get these ozone levels deal with the pollution that traffic causes, we're going to have the cost of non attainment, which will put cost of inspections on each citizen and so my commitment is to work with the are we a transit system and those transit systems and figure out how we can move people in a better, more effective and efficient way?

Via has gotten a 8% sales tax approved by the recent voters.

We have an opportunity to really look at how we move people around in this county.

And as county judge, that's what we need to look at multimodal transportation.

How do we move people east and west and north and south and how do people get to work and how do people get to their health services and the services that they need?

All right, next question.

We'll start with Mr. Barry.

What measures will you support to control crime and to reduce the jail population?

Well, I think everybody here knows as a county commissioner, I took on a jail administration in the jail population.

I will tell you that jail administration and the county jail is a beast.

We have almost 300 vacancies at the jail right now, by the way, if we get to 350, guess what happens?

The National Guard takes over.

So one of the things I talked about was how do we get a handle on 13 to $15 million in overtime that you, the taxpayer are paying for?

I asked for a consultant to come to the table, the benchmark against other counties and what they're doing better.

So we can perhaps take a look at that.

One of the things that becomes very clear is that we're going to have to increase deputy pay.

The other thing that becomes very clear is that what has not been a priority in the county budget is public safety and deputy sheriffs.

We've got to make sure that a lion's share of what we're doing regarding the county budget is devoted to community policing and public safety.

So we got a lot of problems with the jail, inhumane conditions there.

Any time a woman who's a detention officer has to call and make a police report to be relieved of her shift to go pick up her children, people that are soiling themselves on double and triple mandatory overtime shifts, we have to do better by those people I stood up for the deputy sheriffs.

I was proud to have their endorsement in the primary.

I will continue to do that.

But while we're at it, when we talk about what the crime rate we have here, it's at an all time high.

It comes with public safety and neighborhoods.

Talk about it every single day.

They want more officers on the street and it has to be a priority with the county.

Thank you.

Same question Mr. Takai, what measures will you support to control crime and to reduce the jail population?

Well, first of all, I'm committed to work with the sheriff, and that also means to increase the amount of deputies we have, especially for the unincorporated areas.

As we indicated, that's where the growth is going to be and that's where we're going to have to deal and deal with crime.

We also know that juvenile crime, especially violent crime, is up.

And so we need to make sure that we have a handle on public safety, that neighborhood associations and citizens made it real clear they want to feel safe.

And so we must always support our law enforcement officers, our men and women in blue.

In regards to the jail, that is, again, like the stool analogy I give the district attorney's office that files charges and puts people in jail, the court system that disposes of cases and gets people out of jail, and the commissioners court that funds the jail along with the sheriff who operates the jail and all four entities must work together.

I'm the unifier, not the divider, to bring all those entities together, create rocket dockets in the courts, to move cases out, to get a deal with the deputies and compensation and retention and incentives for them to stay at the jail.

We need to make sure that our district attorney's office is prosecuting those cases or dismissing those cases, whatever they may be, so that we can move people in and out of that jail.

And it is going to be a big issue that, as county judge, I'm willing to take on and fix and solve that problem.

All right.

Mr. Coyle, what measures will you support to control crime and to reduce the jail population?

What is county judge?

I really think we need to put the emphasis on ending the drug war as much as we can within our county.

We've been fighting this war for more than 40 years, and we don't have anything to show for it.

Now, you've got states like Colorado who have legalized marijuana.

You have a lot of people here within the county who have stuff like weed that they might have brought back probably not should have brought back from Colorado and THC and stuff like that.

I think we really need to stop prosecuting nonviolent drug offenders and we really need to put the focus on individuals who are committing acts of vandalism, destruction of property, and we really need to focus on the violent drug offenders, you know, carjackings and domestic violence and things of the like.

All right.

The next question we start with Mr. Sakai.

How will you address the continuing high levels of poverty in our county, including improving affordable housing for homeless and for low income residents?

Great question, Randi.

One of my platforms is to deal with capacity of housing, as I indicated earlier, under the bare necessities, a back to basics budget.

I want to focus on affordable housing the capacity of affordable housing.

We know that haven for hope is full in that capacity with children and families, what I call the working poor people that are being displaced as obviously eviction is eviction rates are going up.

And then we have the chronic homeless, the people that live on the streets that unfortunately probably cause a lot of problems in our communities, in the neighborhoods.

And I've heard those complaints and we have to have a special strategy for those many of those chronic homeless are veterans that have PTSD and have mental health issues.

That's why my commitment to mental health and drug and alcohol rehabilitation is crucial that we deal with poverty from a public health perspective.

That's the reason why the public health entity that the county has created and I will support has to deal with the wellness, has to deal with nutrition, has to deal with what we call the food deserts, places that don't have fresh fruit and vegetables in their neighborhoods.

And so I want to partner up and create public private partnerships with Eric Cooper in the food bank to deal with that so that we can deal with the food insecurity, deal with the generational poverty, deal with all those issues that we have to figure out what the problems are.

And then come up with solutions as a community by bringing all the stakeholders together.

And that's my pledge to you as your next county judge.

Mr. Coyle, same question to you.

How will you address the continuing high levels of poverty in Barrett County, including improving affordable housing for the homeless and for low income residents?

You know, as a county judge, there's only so much we can do.

You know, you've got inflation running out of control.

Like I was saying, that's really not helping the situation.

But, you know, that's not something that I can control.

I do think that abolishing property taxes at the county level will go a long way to bringing down the cost of housing and rents.

And that that will definitely ease the burden on the problem.

So I think we really need to put the focus on that.

There's the barrier.

The same question to you.

How will you address the continuing levels of high levels of poverty in our county, including improving the affordable housing for the homeless?

And for low income residents?

So poverty is still a very huge issue that we have here in San Antonio County.

In fact, I want to get down to brass tacks.

We have the exact same poverty rate that we've had since 1984.

We have kept people in poverty for far too long and some of that comes with economic development and what are we doing in certain areas of town.

And so we talk about my platform being bold, brave and better for mayor.

And so one of my efforts and my focuses has been on the West Side of San Antonio, which by the way I feel like has been dumped upon and not focused on for far too long.

The jail on the Near West Side is a barrier to economic development it's a barrier to bridging the wage gap and it is a barrier to economic development.

You combine that with Haven for Hope, which by the way, does great work, but that double whammy to the West Side, which by the way, the poor zip code in their county is 72 07.

Where is it?

It is located right behind the Bear County jail.

In fact, the poorest zip code.

Three others are there, too.

It is a pipeline to prison.

And so the opportunity to investigate and explore the possibility of moving the jail out of the Near West Side of San Antonio to enhance economic development and pull people out of poverty, there is key to how we move the needle because what I tell people all the time, a rising tide floats all boats.

And I feel like the West Side has been ignored.

And so as your next county judge, we will have those conversations, we will explore the opportunity.

The answer is never.

No, we can't do that.

The answer is we will look at the opportunity.

All right.

The next question, we'll start with Mr. Coyle, and that is about CPS energy and Bear County.

The mayor of San Antonio serves as what's called an ex-officio member of the CPS Board of Trustees.

Should the county judge be also included on the CPS board?

Yes, I think that's definitely something that we need to look into.

And CPS doesn't serve to San Antonio, so obviously the county needs a voice at the board.

I would be in favor of that as per county, Judge.

All right.

Same question to you, Mr. Berry, mayor of San Antonio on the board of CPS, ex-officio member.

Should the Barrett County judge also be on that board?

Absolutely, Randi.

I talked about this earlier in a conversation regarding climate change.

I sat on the board or the commissioners court for a year.

And one of the things we dealt with was snowmageddon and what happened there.

And I did call out CPS energy for the lack of communication and for the fact that the areas outside the city of San Antonio were really the last to get water and electricity restored.

In fact, my mother, which by the way, one of the things I want to advocate for, too, regarding the grid is that we put assisted living centers on the same grid as hospitals because my mom fell in the dark purple shoulder and I really strongly believe it led to her decline and eventually her death because she just gave up.

It was a combination of COVID and what happened during Snowmageddon and so as we look at the opportunity, I'm not going to ask right now for a portion of the revenue that comes in to the city of San Antonio regarding CPS energy.

But what I am going to ask for to represent taxpayers because as I said before, if we don't, it's taxation without representation.

I have said that since I resigned my seat.

It was part of my platform since the beginning.

But we've got to do better by those that live in the suburban cities and outside the city limits of San Antonio.

Because if we don't, it's a travesty and you're paying for it.

And a $31 rebate is not enough with Sky.

The same question to you.

The mayor of San Antonio ex-officio member of the CPS board to the county judge, also be on that board.

Yes, by all means.

And I also would echo and say that what we need is to make sure that the county is represented on those boards, CPS and source.

And the same same answer would be there, too.

I have full confidence in the new currency of CPS energy.

Rudy Garza.

I find that he's open and he is embracing the ability to work with the county.

And he and I have had those conversations but I think what needs to be recognized is the county has to also represent the unincorporated areas and the 26 other municipalities.

And so we need to make sure that when CPS and SA's, the utility boards in our community that are, that are run very well, but at the same time we need to make sure that they hear what the issues are, especially as I indicated earlier under the Office of Emergency Management, we needed to make sure that CPS and source was communicating with the county on the Office of Emergency Management as we went through those drought periods or with those freeze periods where people were put at risk.

And so what we need to make sure is that we are communicating, we are collaborating and we are coordinating the three C's that I think are essence of any true public private partnership whether it be with other governmental entities or whether it's between the city and county.

We must always work together for the benefit of all citizens of their county.

Next question.

We'll start with Mr. Berry.

How will you ensure that residents in the unincorporated areas of Bear County receive adequate services like those that are provided by municipalities?

So I think really I mean, the judge will put something forward where there regular meetings with the municipal cities.

And I fought some great relationships as a county commissioner, whether it's Jair Trevino over in Council Hills, whether it's the mayor of Fair Oaks, Park Heights, I mean, there are 26 unincorporated cities.

And so we have to have continuing and regular conversations as a result of what happened.

As I've said before, during the big freeze, there was constant communication with those folks.

And as somebody who's steeped in crisis communications and being the leader during emergency ops when the city came out with their water sites, for instance, there was one site that was located outside the city of San Antonio.

And I said, No, no, there have to be more.

So the county stepped up to make sure that we had those.

And so I was on the ground.

I was talking to people.

We had water sites where potable water that we were bringing in to the cities at Burney and Fair Oaks and the extreme cities.

And it's an important conversation because those are the areas, as I've said before, that will continue to grow.

We are a fast and thriving urban county.

And so if we're not continual in the conversations that we're having with the mayors of those cities, which I've said before, there are great relationships that I have with those folks, whether it was making sure that they got through Snowmageddon because by the way, again, they were the last people to get water and electricity.

We've got to make sure that we have dialog and that we're bringing them to the table to have those conversations.

Mr. Sky, the same question to you how will you assure that residents in the unincorporated areas, a Bear County, receive the adequate services like those supplied by the municipalities?

Again, the three C's communicate, collaborate, coordinate, especially with those 26 suburban cities that are also part of their county along with the unincorporated areas.

But this is where the relationship with the county commissioners.

Remember, the county judge is the judge of the court, but he is his vote is equal with the county commissioners.

And each county commissioners must be treated with dignity and respect and have that excellent relationship and what I'm asking the new commissioners court after the first of the year, as the next county judge is I'm asking our commissioners court to be more open and transparent and one way I believe we can do that, to communicate and collaborate and to coordinate with the unincorporated areas and the 26th municipality is that we have to have what we call town hall meetings, or we have to have open hearings in the community, especially in the unincorporated areas.

The City of San Antonio does it with their budget process, and I think that is a dynamic that what we need to bring to Bear County is to make it more open and transparent.

And I want to work with our county commissioners because they're the ones that will deal with their specific precincts, and I have to work hand in hand with them to make sure that we move forward as a team for all.

Bear County.

Mr. Coyle, same question.

How will you ensure that residents in the unincorporated area as a Bear County will receive adequate services like those that are provided by the municipalities?

Well, it's county judge.

I wouldn't want to supersede any local municipalities.

I think what we need to focus on at the county wide level is, you know, infrastructure, roads and stuff like that, and then emergency services, making sure that we have adequate, you know, 911 service and stuff like that.

And we need to make sure that we keep the county government as lean as possible.

All right.

Next question to Mr. Sakai.

First, if elected, what specifically will you do to involve deaf, hard of hearing, blind and visually impaired individuals in your administration to ensure that the policy's programs and services accurately reflect their needs, concerns and the issues of citizens in Bear County who have these issues?

Great question.

Remaining.

And when I'm elected, the first thing I want to do is I want to bring all the department heads, elected officials and meet with all of them, along with the county employees.

And I want to be able to have a conversation with all county employees as how we deliver service.

I was working in that courthouse for 26 years as a district court judge.

I know how Burke County operates.

I was a county employee for all those years, and I want to make sure that Bear County is providing the best customer service.

It can be, and especially to the people who have those type of disabilities, those type of handicap, those type of issues that are mandated that we provide.

We got to make sure that our system is accessible, our courthouse is accessible, that our services are taking the needs of all the disabled.

And that's why the high speed Internet connectivity is going to be a fundamental issue for me as county judge.

We've got to make sure that all our citizens are connected.

And that is one way that Burke County can ensure that students, seniors, anybody, small businesses are going to have to have that utility, that high speed Internet.

And that's a commitment I want to make as your next county judge.

Mr. Coyle.

Same question.

If elected, what specifically will you do to involve deaf hard of hearing blind and visually impaired individuals in your administration to ensure that the policies, programs and services accurately reflect their needs?

Well, I'm not too sure as to if there's a deficit with that group that can't get what they need, but I would definitely make sure that we have the adequate training as far as, you know, ASL and stuff like that for the for that community.

But, you know, we would put whatever money that we need there.

Mr. Barry, same question.

If elected, what specifically will you do to ensure that deaf hard of hearing, blind and visually impaired individuals in your administration are in order to ensure that policies, programs and services accurately reflect that population's needs?

Well, clearly, Randy, we have more work to do in that arena.

I am not a professional politician.

I have not been to the courthouse for 26 years.

What I am is somebody who's been a small business owner, somebody who's a pragmatist and an entrepreneur, looked at solutions, looked at problems that, by the way, have really most in part operated in the dark at the county.

Cronyism still exist there.

That's kind of a good ol boy system.

And so I was proud of the fact when I came into office, I shook things up.

I represented people who did not have a voice and couldn't speak for themselves.

One of them being the county employees 5000, which did not have a parental leave policy at the county over the course of the history of the county and in 26 years and so I cultivated two other Democratic votes and made sure now as a result of my advocacy, those that have children and those that adopt children do not have to take comp time or sick time to be able to have a work life balance.

That was important.

And when I asked that question to the county manager, I said, Why haven't we done this before?

His answer was, Quite honestly, Commissioner, nobody advocated for it.

Another example, elder abuse, a prosecutor, an investigator in the elder abuse office of the DA's office, it remained vacant for five years was until I went to a meeting, realized it was vacant, that I called the dean my office and said, Hey, I'm willing to advocate and fund these positions because these are people that do not have time, the elderly, for restitution nor prosecution to wait on that.

And so I did that.

And so the work, specifically regarding those with disabilities follow suit we've got to work with Gordon Hartman, that multi system sitter that he just opened, because the county has helped to fund that and we could do more for that community.

Now it's time to move on to the closing statements again.

This is in reverse order from the beginning questions.

So we start with Mr. Coyle, 2 minutes for a closing statement.

So I'm Elder Coyle, libertarian libertarian candidate for County Judge.

The reason that I'm in this race is because of what I've seen over the last two years in response to COVID like many of you out there watching right now, you were disgusted and you couldn't believe what was happening over the last two years.

I'm in this race because I want to stand for you and what I saw from leadership county wide level as far as the emergency in response to COVID 19 was just atrocious.

And I really think that we need bold leadership and someone who will fight for your freedoms and liberties if and when another emergency such as this happens.

So I appreciate your consideration and thanks for having me up.

Mr. Sky.

Well, I want to thank all Carolyn and the League of Women Voters for this opportunity.

My name is Judge Peter Sakai, and I'm running for county judge and I'm asking for your support and your vote.

I've been your public servant for the last 40 years, been in the district attorney's office, been in private practice, being an associate judge of the nationally renowned children's court and four terms as the 220 fifth district court.

I believe this community knows me this community trust me.

And I believe I am connected to this community.

And that's the reason why I believe I will prevail.

As your next county judge, the late General Colin Powell said it best when he said leadership is about connecting people.

And that's what it's all about.

It's about putting people together to find out what the problems are in our community.

I clearly wanted to make sure that Berks County is going to take care of the bare necessities, and that means the children and families, which are the most important infrastructure of this community.

And I want to make sure that our policies and our practices, that we're embracing diversity, that we're embracing the openness and transparent government that our community desires.

I want to make sure that we lower property, property taxes, that we are focused on public safety that we deal with the problems.

But what we must do is we must come together.

And what we must do is figure out as a community, as that as one, as a unifier, not a divider, that what we need to do is come up with solutions.

That's what the voters are asking.

And that's what I will be and I will do as your next county judge.

Thank you for this opportunity.

And, Mr. Berry.

First of all, thank you so much for the opportunity to be here today.

I am humbled.

I am honored.

I am blessed.

Keller And in the League of Women Voters, this is hard work to put on something like this.

But a couple of things that I want to leave folks with tribute to Berry, only the second woman in their county's 200 year history to ever run for this seat.

And there will no doubt be other women that came after me.

And so I'm proud to serve as a role model, not just for women, but for my daughter, who's 17 and going on to college because I want my kids to get back to San Antonio and find the kinds of jobs that they want to find.

I also want to make sure that, you know, maid native San Antonio, I'm born and raised here.

My dad was a career Air Force veteran.

He's 96 years old.

Still, my his own mom has purpose in life.

My mother worked in civil service at Fort Sam Houston and Kelley Air Force Base.

And so my DNA is here in San Antonio.

And their county.

And the reason why I'm running for this position is because I want to lead and I want to make a difference here.

And I want to make sure that we have a pragmatic business, pro-business work ethic in this seat.

And as somebody who's contributed to this economy, as a small business owner who had as many as 100 people who work for me, I think it's important that we have somebody in the office managing as a CEO, not really a judge.

The chief executive officer of the county who's managed budgets, a $2.8 billion budget, signed in front of a paycheck on the back of a paycheck, hired and fired people make difficult decisions regarding health care insurance.

Those are all very difficult decisions that you make as a small business owner.

And it is what made me so effective as a county commissioner, whether I lowered the property tax rate or whether I appropriated a historic amount of money regarding domestic violence, whether a body camera turnaround policy within ten days was restored, whether an elder fraud unit brought back to the DA's office or whether it was a family leave policy at the county.

Folks, that is leadership.

And it's a big, bold vision.

And as a leader, you inspire your people to come with you.

And that's what I want to do.

And so I humbly ask for your vote tonight.

Thank you.

Well, thank you very much.

First of all, to the candidates.

Christina Berry Peterson Chi Edgar Coyle.

I also want to say a special thank you to everybody here at Clarion and to the League of Women Voters for setting this up and for providing the questions.

We wanted to point that out, that they did provide the questions.

And thank you for watching.

For more information on the candidates in this race and all the others on the November eight ballot, you can go to voter411.

org, or you can pick up a copy of the league's voter's guide at any public library.

Please vote early voting starts Monday, October 24th and runs through November 4th, where you can also vote on Election Day, November eight.

Again, thanks for watching.