To start with, the 2013 municipal election was the first election where council members could seek a third term, after having been limited to two for over two decades. Only five members could exercise that option, one of them being Mayor Julian Castro. A sixth member, District 8 Councilman Reed Williams, chose not to seek a third term and retired off council, leaving his seat open and hotly contested for.

Gilbert Garcia of the San Antonio Express-News speculated that third term could possibly be blamed for the low voter turnout, breeding an air of familiarity and suppressing change. However, we’ve had low turnout in municipal elections for a long while, including the period of more restrictive term limits. What I find even more interesting is how everyone gets excited thinking about turnout in the upper teens when presidential races draw 60-65% on a regular basis. But that’s for another blog entry.

Only two races ended up in runoffs, one driven by a crowded field in District 5 to replace incumbent David Medina and the other in District 8 where three candidates waged a contest of ideology and ethics. Instead of digging deeper into those two races here, I’m going to defer each to a separate blog entry as a leadoff to the next leg of the race.

Mayor

Starting with the mayor’s race, this should have been much like his first re-election bid in 2011, when he garnered 81% against a very similar field of perennial candidates and unknowns. However, in this race the mayor pulled no better than 67% with 33% spread across six other  candidates, including Rhett Smith who drew 13% of the vote. Smith drew as many votes yesterday as all of his prior bids for the office. If his trend continues, maybe in a decade or so he’ll build a large enough following to win the seat.

But, putting the trivial aspects aside, that 33% held more meaning than the relentless bids of the Commander or the Force. Talking to several people, those votes were protest votes against the mayor looking for a home. While Castro may have waged a minimal campaign this election, if a strong conservative challenger emerges in 2015 those protest votes and probably several others will have found their home and upset the mayor in what would be his final term of office.

District 9 councilwoman Elisa Chan has always been rumored as a challenger to Mayor Castro but appeared to have iced those plans, possibly unsure of challenging a mayor who has been on a popularity rise since his re-election in 2011. But this election could be the signal Chan needs to change her plans for 2015. After all, while the mayor may be popular in DC, London and other places, in the end only San Antonio gets to decide whether he gets another chance or not.

District 3

When former Councilwoman Jennifer Ramos stepped down to seek a seat on the Commissioners Court, eight candidates filed for the unexpired term. Since only the remaining council members can select a successor, according to the city charter, city council unanimously selected Leticia Ozuna over the others, including Rebecca Viagran and Gabriel Velasquez, both who challenged Ozuna in yesterday’s municipal election.

But that selection process should have been an indicator of how the race for the D3 seat would play out. While council members were impressed with Ozuna’s visionary attitude, the southeast side district is more about personal connections than anything else. Just like a mayor can garner popularity with a nation but be rejected by his own city, a council member can have the support of the city but be rejected by his or her neighbors who have the final say.

Ozuna came to council with big ideas for the city, most notably the continued investment in the San Antonio Area Broadband Network, a very high speed fiber data network aimed at benefiting the city, as a whole. But when it came down to the things affecting D3, such as a zoning debacle involving the Pecan Valley Golf Course. Ozuna tried during the later part of her term to shore up neighborhood support but, when fighting against longtime alliances, three months is not enough.

When the early vote came in Viagran opened with over 50% of the vote and ended the night with a point more to clinch the victory. Talking to Ozuna early in the night, we both discussed the need for the one on one connection. While she tried earnestly in the last few months to make that connection, block walking tirelessly and hosting several community events, in a district like D3 which is one of the older districts in the city, sometimes it takes deeper roots to connect with the neighborhood.

Viagran may serve the needs of D3 but, from what I’ve seen, will have a hard time filling the visionary mentality of Ozuna. This will be one of those races where the district may have benefited in the short run but may lose out in the long run as well as the city. Viagran’s suggestion of an alternative energy incubator at Brooks City Base on Texas Week with Rick Casey is not a new idea, but one that’s been in the works for a while.

Districts 2, 4, 6, 7, 9 and 10

Looking across the rest of the city, incumbents won in all districts except 5 and 8, which I’ll write about later. Incumbent council members in those districts drew no less than 57%, the final tally for District 6 Councilman Ray Lopez. In District 4, Rey Saldana overwhelmingly won with 84%, a record high for that district, validating his hands on approach to dealing with district needs.

In many cases, opposition voters had legitimate beefs with their council members, including lack of attention or differences of ideological opinion. Talking to a few staff members of some of those districts, those opposition numbers are driving internal discussions on how to better serve the district. With three of the districts looking at one more term after this, we’ll see if they met the challenge in 2015, when voters get their next shot at the candidates.

Overall, it was an interesting municipal election, albeit with less than 7% of the registered voters participating. One friend noted that since 2001 no more than 10% and as little as 4% of the registered voters in San Antonio voted for the mayor of the 7th largest city in the nation. But that’s for another day and another blot entry.

Mayor

• Julian Castro – 8th day and 3rd day
• Sergio Falcon – No report
• Irma Rosa - 8th day and 3rd day
• Jesus Reyes – No report
• Michael “Commander” Idrogo – No report
• Raymond Zavala – No report
• Rhett Smith – No report

District 1

• Diego Bernal – 8th day and 3rd day

District 2

• Ivy Taylor – 8th day and 3rd day
• Norris Tyrone Darden - 8th day and 3rd day
• Hector Medina – 8th day
• Antonio Diaz – No report

District 3

• Leticia Ozuna – 8th day and 3rd day
• Gabriel Q. Velasquez - 8th day and 3rd day
• Rebecca Viagran - 8th day and 3rd day

District 4

• Rey Saldana – 8th day and 3rd day
• Joseph “JoeJo” Savage – 8th day

District 5

• David Medina – 8th day and 3rd day
• Ricardo Briones - 8th day and 3rd day
• Richard Cardenas - 8th day and 3rd day
• John Carlos Garcia - No report
• Shirley Gonzales - 8th day and 3rd day
• Frank Ramirez – No report

District 6

• Ray Lopez – 8th day and 3rd day
• Greg Brockhouse - 8th day and 3rd day
• John Barfield – No report
• Steve Shamblin - 8th day and 3rd day

District 7

• Cris Medina – 8th day and 3rd day
• Michael Gonzales - 8th day and 3rd day
• Gloria Rodriguez - 8th day and 3rd day
• Carlos Zaldivar - 8th day and 3rd day

District 8

• Rolando Briones – 8th day and 3rd day
• Ron Nirenberg - 8th day and 3rd day
• Mike Kueber - 8th day and 3rd day

District 9

• Elisa Chan – 8th day and 3rd day
• Jason F. Salinas - 8th day and 3rd day

District 10

• Carlton Soules – 8th day and 3rd day
• Celeste Montez-Tidwell - No report
• Arthur M. Thomas IV – 8th day and 3rd day

Where to Vote

To start with, if you haven’t voted yet, you have until 7 p.m. to vote. If you need help finding where to vote, the Bexar County Elections Department has provided a handy tool to help find your polling place. I know it’s a beautiful day today, but 15 minutes max will get it out of the way. I just wish we had the ability to vote anywhere today, like Austin does.

Election Results

Election results will be available at the Bexar County Elections website with early voting results posted about 20-30 minutes after 7 p.m. Since around 60-70% of votes are cast in early voting these days, you should start to see a trend by the time the first results are posted. If a candidate has a 65+% lead at that time, that race is over, I don’t care how optimistic you might be. Sorry, I just call them like I see them.

Election Turnout

John Tedesco of the San Antonio Express-News has posted a couple of articles already about the election, both focused on the low turnout, one with some good graphics.

• These dismal voter turnout numbers will shatter your faith in democracy
  
• A slow start on Election Day

His articles follow a column by Gilbert Garcia of the Express-News about the need for some changes to possibly boost voter turnout. Bob Rivard also wrote on the subject, as did District 8 candidate Michael Kueber. I added my two cents to the equation, including an interesting chart showing how San Antonio fared with other major cities across the nation on voter turnout. The bottom line is we don’t do so well. I’ll dig deeper into this issue next week, after doing some extensive research on the other cities. For some reason, Texas doesn’t do so well across the board.

If you’re so inclined, you can follow the candidates’ Facebook feeds through a list I created for SA City Council. I may not have them all but, at this point, I’m not going to update it any more. It comes down Monday.

Election Night Updates

Best way to start the night is with some great street tacos at the Twisted Taco Throwdown at the oldest VFW in Texas, Post 76.

I think I picked the right truck because the line behind me is pretty long. Great Tacos al Pastor. One cool thing is that the VFW Post 76 is right on the Museum Reach of the SA River so barges bring folks from downtown here to have fun.

Here at Greg Brockhouse’s watch party to start the night. Talked to a few people who met Greg during the campaign and were impressed with him. His brother said one polling place was actually running ahead of last municipal election, but that’s most likely an anomaly.

Crowd is starting to grow here at Greg Brockhouse’s watch party. So far his brother and father, Craig and David, are here greeting folks. Greg will be here shortly after stopping by the house to freshen up.

Just talked to Greg Brockhouse and he’s understandably disappointed. He did better than I expected against an incumbent but incumbent’s are tough
to beat. I don’t think this is his last race.

Here at the Mayor’s victory party and everyone’s upbeat. Rep. Joaquin Castro is here also, as well as Rosie Castro.

Rep. Joaquin Castro introducing Mayor Julian Castro and Erica, being re-elected to his third term. Mayor Castro just wished Erica a Happy Mother’s Day as well as to Rosie. Castro says she is why he entered public office.

Stopped by Leticia Ozuna’s campaign before all the precincts were in. It seemed like there might have been a chance but, as you saw, that was not to be the case. D3 is a tough district to run in. It really requires a lot of personal touch. Ozuna reached out a lot but apparently it wasn’t enough.

The next stop was Rey Saldaña’s victory party at Taqueria Mexico. This is where Rey and I first met when I interviewed him on his first race so it was cool to see him back there.

My final stop was at Ron Nirenberg’s watch party where the mood was pretty upbeat. Nirenberg scored a victory, even if he’ll still have to face Rolando Briones in a runoff on June 15. After being outspent 4 to 1 and Briones’ endorsement by current D8 Councilman Reed Williams, Nirenberg finished the race with a little over 4 points more than Briones. You can bet the strategists will be pouring over the precinct numbers as soon as they can to see where they can outscore the opponent. I still feel the westside of IH-10 is an untapped resource for Nirenberg but the numbers will tell more.

Nirenberg can attribute a lot of his voter turnout to an army of dedicated supporters, including these two young campaign workers, Noah Howe and Chris Stewart.

Garcia points out several issues that seem to plague our local elections, from a less than stellar field of candidates to confusion about redistricting. But one point he seems to spend more time on is the extension of term limits, citing candidate familiarity as a possible reason for voter apathy.

“It’s also time to face some facts about the relaxed term limits approved by voters in 2008. For years, we heard that poor municipal turnout was directly tied to the strict term limits implemented by this city in 1991. The argument went like this: If you allow voters more time to become familiar with their local representatives, they’ll come out to vote,” said Garcia.

He went on to say “This year, with the council class of 2009 allowed to seek third terms, it’s obvious that the opposite is true.” While one might want to point fingers at term limit extension as the reason for the apathy, there’s really no data to support the position and is yet another straw grasp to figure out what the real problem is.

But that doesn’t absolve the issue San Antonio has faced for several decades. In fact, as Garcia pointed out in his column, the last time San Antonio saw anything resembling active voter participation was when it elected Henry Cisneros as mayor in 1981. That followed the creation of single member districts, which changed the voting dynamic of the city dramatically.

But, after looking the chart produced by Fair Vote, it’s evident there’s something more at issue within Texas. After all, Texas’ major cities round out the bottom of the list without another city intermingled. That says we may be doing something wrong in Texas with regards to municipal elections.

There have been some tweaks to the municipal voting process, as Garcia suggested, such as moves to align the elections with November general elections. Austin even recently made a change that allowed voting on election day at any polling place, much like what happens during early voting.

Rey Saldana has been actively pushing for increased voter turnout, even though he’s experiencing little opposition, targeting non-voters in an effort to raise the numbers in District 4. It seems to have had some effect but only election day will tell the tale.

Bob Rivard also wrote on the subject, suggesting that convenience such as voting by mobile device would help change the tide. To start with, there are some very serious technology and legal hurdles to overcome for this to happen. But it’s not outside the foreseeable future. However, I would counter if it were this easy, why would we see such larger turnout numbers for a presidential election, yet half the numbers for statewide and half them even more for municipal elections? It’s the same process.

The Fair Vote trend has me curious about a Texas phenomenon I plan to investigate over the next couple of days. Could it be these other cities align with November? Are their municipal elections partisan? Is it just the apathy of a Texas voter? There is a root cause that’s out there that apparently no one seems to have tapped into throughout Texas. But getting an answer tomorrow will not change the results.

Expect more dismal voting turnout, especially if we get thunderstorms.

Before we go too far into this critique, I have to say the premium site is a refreshing new look for news in San Antonio. It’s clean and easy to read. It’s also very responsive and adaptive to many devices, including iPhones, iPads, and various browsers. From what I understand, the site leverages HTML5 and responsive web design. It’s also absent of all the troll commenters from the free site, who just seemed to live in the comments sections, not to provide any meaningful dialogue on the content, but to use the area for a soapbox on just about anything under the sun. Most were hateful and really just another place for them to vent, without really wanting to engage in thoughtful discussion.

Paywall news sites are popping up all over the place these days. The New York Times is sort of the bellwether of the news and has played around with all sorts of models, from a strict paywall site to a hybrid site with some content free and some premium to the current metered site. Based on some indicators from friends, that seems to be the best model for them, allowing readers the opportunity to explore the site and make a “buyer’s decision” on whether to subscribe or not. Today, it appears the Dallas Morning News will embark on that same model, leveraging a metered approach.

But, even with the Times’ breaking some ground in digital content, it is already looking at new models in trying to improve the revenue base. Announced recently, the Times will now offer different subscriber packages aimed at targeting particular segments of its readership, from low cost subscriptions for important and interesting stories to deep category-specific segments in areas such as politics, technology, and arts. The intent is to market the content the Times is known to cultivate, sliced and diced according to reader interest.

One of the challenges I do see with this proliferation of paywall sites is the cost to stay informed, especially for readers like myself who generally scan many different sites to gain a deeper level of “the story.” An option I would like to see explored is a tokenized approach to reading deeper news, brokered by a payment aggregator. This would allow me to access the premium content at a number of news sites on a pay as you read model, yet still only deal with one payment account. It would avoid having to set up a payment process at a host of news providers.

This would be a perfect niche market for PayPal, Google Play, iTunes, or Amazon to enter into agreement with the news providers, giving them not only a marketing channel for deeper engagement, but a technology platform for brokering the transaction. Of course, these payment providers would need to move off some of the transaction models they current operate under, often viewed as heavy handed towards the broker and not the content provider. But, for now, while the content providers are still figuring out their models, this will probably have to wait.

Likes

So what do I like about the new expressnews.com? To start with I like the redesign of the website into a more responsive web design that adapts to the device. This design proves there is no need to build a news app for the mobile device, either smartphone or tablet. It allows for a design once, deploy many approach for the site, hopefully reducing the development costs and increasing device footprint. I also like the clean design of the site regarding content and categorization. It seems to read more like a newspaper now, without a lot of the clutter.

Dislikes

My biggest dislike is having two different sites for the content. It’s really hard to tell what’s on one site and what’s on the other, or if there’s even a difference. I’ve noticed that the Express-News is starting to migrate content from the free site to the premium site, offering some columnists only on the premium site. That’s actually a good thing in that columnists typically evoke more a discussion style look at news, and need a focused audience to engage with.

While I like the cleaner look of the articles, in some cases the content seems to be spread out too far. I’ve found myself having to page and page and page just to get back to navigation space to look at other articles. Also, there seems to be a random display of articles that changes almost on an hourly basis. While that helps keep the content looking fresh, in some cases the articles are actually old and just happened to fall into the random rotation.

We’ll see how this paywall experiment plays out, especially with the Hearst model of dual sites compared with everyone else’s singular site. Regardless, the day and age of free all the time is quickly fading. After all, gathering and curating news is not something that comes free, especially if you’re looking for quality.

Van de Putte’s speech highlighted the workplace discrimination many Texans face today because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. She specifically referenced one San Antonian, Eric Alva, who was the first soldier wounded in Operation Iraqi Freedom and later came out as gay. Alva has spent the last several years working with HRC and other organizations to advocate for the repeal of the military’s policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and on December 22, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the repeal with Alva proudly looking over his shoulder.

But, after serving to protect this country and finally being allowed to serve openly, Alva can still be denied employment by an employer in Texas because he is gay. Today, the Texas Labor Code protects individuals from employment discrimination because of their “race, color, disability, religion, sex, national origin, or age” but does not protect them because of their “sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression.” As Gov. Van de Putte said in her speech “A man who loves his country is denied and is discriminated against because of who he loves, and Texans, that has to change.”

Van de Putte has stood behind her words by introducing SB 237, “relating to the prohibition of employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.” On the Texas House side, Rep. Mike Villarreal (D-San Antonio) has introduced similar legislation in HB 238, with identical language. Villarreal has introduced this bill in several sessions prior but it has yet to make it to the House floor for a vote. SB 237 is currently stuck in committee and will probably not make it out of committee this session. But it will be the first time companion bills on both the House and Senate sides of the Texas legislature will address the issue.

But why would this matter, at a time when LGBT rights are gaining traction in America? After all, DADT has been repealed. Same-sex marriage, while still denied in 40 states, is making grounds in several states on a monthly basis. The Supreme Court has heard two cases, one with regards to California’s marriage code and another with regards to the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Is it really such a big deal for LGBT Americans to call out such protections with the movement being seen?

Just this past week, Jason Collins, America’s first active male athlete in a major U.S. sport, came out in an interview with Sports Illustrated. While other sports players have come out as being gay or lesbian, either those players had retired or were not in a major U.S. sport. That’s not to diminish their decision to express the honesty of their situation. It’s a recognition of the “locked closet” that seemed to have existed in leagues like the NFL, NBA, NHL, or MLB. The thought was that if they came out, their career would be ended and their endorsement contracts would dry up. They would be pushed aside for who they really were.

Collins ended that widely held notion when he made his decision to come out. Several have tried to play down his decision, saying it really didn’t matter. Many tried to wash away a decision that, at this point in history, is one of the most heart-wrenching choices a person can make. But, for all that downplay, mostly by an anti-gay community who didn’t want to empower any more movement towards acceptance, Collins helped break down a few more barriers that existed in society about a class of individuals who have faced, and continue to face, intolerance for who they are.

Mike Jones, Associate Editor for the Tulsa World, said it best in his op-ed piece written after not only Collins’ announcement, but the supporting statements by Charles Barkley. “For society to get to the point where it really doesn’t matter, there has to be a starting point. As much progress as we have made in racial relations, there still is a long way to go. Collins’ announcement gets us further down the road to accepting those who are gay,” said Jones.

One has no further to look than the comments to Jones’ piece to see that it apparently still does matter to several individuals. The reader “govchains” said “Society will not improve with all citizens announcing their sexuality! Nor, will it degenerate!” In the comments to the San Antonio Express-News editorial on Collins’ announcement, “viejo1 said “So much ado about nothing. It’s nobody’s business who I sleep with.” In the article on Collins another reader, “loftus” said “Yuk..!! He ‘comes out as gay !!.’ Out of what ?? Another disoriented lost soul, I guess.!! His compass got stuck.!”

Those comments, and many others expressed across the nation, demonstrate why protections are needed for the LGBT community. Each one of those persons who made the comments represents a potential employer or supervisor in a company. If they will express those thoughts in public in this day and age, it’s hard to not think they would express that outrage in the workplace, in terms of dismissal or demotion of an LGBT employee.

Looking at the Human Rights Campaign’s Municipal Equality Index, it’s no wonder that those cities that scored the highest are the cities many consider to be tolerant of LGBT individuals. In fact, most major cities across the country score high on the MEI and, in fact, have policies that protect LGBT individuals in not only city government employment, but also have protections citywide for employment non-discrimination. That represents a direct correlation between the policy and the acceptance. Many would say those cities don’t need the policy. But it’s through the recognition of that policy that the city has developed into a tolerant environment.

San Antonio is on the verge of changing its policy to become more tolerant and accepting of LGBT citizens through changes to the city’s ordinances. While the path forward has not been fully developed, CAUSA, a group of individuals in the LGBT community, is working actively with city officials to define that path. For those who feel San Antonio doesn’t need the protections, I can only point to the comments within the city’s news publication and the scores of individuals who will show up at City Hall protesting those changes.

Those individuals represent citizens who would choose to discriminate against a San Antonian because of who they are. That is why it still matters and why our city leaders should include those protections, along with the protections the city currently provides in its ordinances today.

After all, every person, regardless of who they are, deserves the right to live a life free of discrimination and attack.

Williams shoes will be some of the biggest to fill on council, serving as the fiscal watchdog of the council. His ability to dig into the numbers and just lay the facts out for everyone else on council and the city to see has really helped set a strong standard to bear. Even in my short time serving on his staff I could see why he’s so well loved in the district. Attention to the key details of serving the district is paramount in his operations. Each Monday of a council week he sits down with the entire staff to go over the agenda and zoning cases, looking to see what needs further investigation and discussion. Heck, we even dialed him in from home when he was down from a hard weekend at his farm in the Hill Country. That’s dedication.

But he’s not running for re-election and the district is looking to new leadership among three well suited candidates. Each has his own attributes which you should dig into before casting a vote. But what seems to be shaping out among the three are certain definitive points to consider when casting a ballot.

To start with, Michael Kueber, a retired attorney from USAA, is probably the most conservative of the three. His positions are more libertarian than anything and focuses mainly on smaller government and less regulation. His blog presents the best view of his ideology, as well as a good insight into the person. If anything, Kueber is the most transparent of all the candidates. He has published his answers to every single candidates questionnaire he’s received, something you won’t find on any of the other candidates’ websites.

Ron Nirenberg, Associate General Manager of KRTU, leans toward the moderate side of the political coin, based on some of his answers on questionnaires.  He is an advocate of the mayor’s Pre-K for SA program but also seems to balance business interests with social concerns. While some might try to pin the “liberal” tag on Nirenberg, his answers don’t seem to push towards what I would consider a strong social position. In fact, he seems to align more closely with the ideological position of District 8 more than any of the other two candidates.

Looking at Rolando Briones, it’s very hard to really pin down his position on issues other than standard rhetorical answers, mainly because he refuses to answer any candidate questionnaires. With such a critical race and such a good candidate slate, that would be the first thing I would expect from a candidate in District 8. More disconcerting, it’s difficult to figure out when Briones got his “conservative creds” based on his contribution record, as evidenced by a report presented by the Nirenberg campaign on Briones’ contribution record.

Couple that with a known pattern of either evasive or troubling ethical issues reported by the Express-News and it’s very difficult to see how Briones can really benefit the residents of District 8. As I wrote in Plaza de Armas, I see Briones as an ethical train wreck waiting to happen on city council. Even this weekend, the Express-News reported on yet another Briones ethical issue regarding being awarded a $500,000 contract while serving on the city’s Planning Commission.

This past weekend Councilman Reed Williams, who had previously said he was not going to jump into the race unless the politics got dirty, seemed to have walked back on that pledge with his endorsement of Briones. Interestingly, one of Williams’ reasons for endorsing Briones is “giving out his cell phone number,” demonstrating his approachable nature. While I respect Williams immensely and know his commitment to constituent issues is a priority from a firsthand basis, that factor doesn’t hold water in one of the most critical races in the city.

What I really feel is that Williams’ endorsement for Briones is more in terms of trying to keep a “firewall” vote against Castro’s agenda on the council dais. Many have considered Nirenberg to be yet another “yes” vote for Castro on issues such as downtown development or education and less about serving the district. Whether there is any merit to that assumption remains to be seen.

Looking at District 8 from an ideological perspective, it’s the most moderate district in the city, opposing the Pre-K initiative by 51% and voting for Romney by 53%, both some of the tightest margins in the city. However, if you dig deeper you find an even more distinctive ideological boundary in IH-10 with the west side of the city voting more moderate than the east side.

Dissecting the Pre-K vote, the west side actually approved the initiative with 52% of the vote compared with 56% opposing it on the east side. In the presidential election, the contrasts are even more stark. The east side of the freeway voted 60% for Romney while the west side voted 50% for Romney.

Probably most interesting is that almost 70% of the voting population lives on the west side of IH-10, giving it more voting clout than the east side with voter only 5 points lower in the 2012 election. This means the voting strength may be on Nirenberg’s side if he can turn out the vote on the west side of the freeway. But municipal elections typically have the lowest turnout so any major GOTV effort by either candidate could help swing the election for them.

Finally, in looking at how events have turned out in this race, I feel it is important to bring the best candidate forward in such a key race. Looking at the positions of Ron Nirenberg, the questionable actions of Rolando Briones, and the reasoning behind some endorsements, I feel compelled to state my support for Ron Nirenberg for the District 8 council seat. Having a strong moderate position on issues related to our city best represents the district’s viewpoints. Transparency and ethics are also a key reason to have a strong candidate replacing a strong councilmember.

These days we are becoming more and more in touch with what’s going on around us thanks to the increase in social media tools available on our smart phones and computers. Facebook and Twitter continue to be the predominant tools for tracking and following information, but Instagram and YouTube are also jumping into the fray with their own tools and methods. Add to that the aggregation tools like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck and you have a great compliment of social medial tools to help you stay plugged into the info. But the tools can’t do everything.

Tuesday, NPR’s Talk of the Nation discussed the challenges of vetting social media information with Slate’s social media editor, Jeremy Stahl (@JeremyStahl), about the challenges of media organizations in leveraging social media as a tool for both gathering and reporting breaking stories. Stahl also wrote about this topic at Slate, in the wake of the bombing in an article titled “Thou Shalt Not Stoop to Political Point-Scoring.”

Not only were Stahl’s comments timely but also very innovative, when looking at this issue. During the show, callers also provided some key points to consider, when dealing with breaking news through social media. Here are some key takeaways from the show and other sources:

• Automated Feed – If you have an automated social media feed, which most major organizations do through Hootsuite or other automation tools, shut it down as quick as possible to avoid posting something that might appear insensitive or disconnected. Stahl said in allowing the updates to continue “it makes you look like you’re out of the news but it also can make you look callous if you’re not tweeting something that is sensitive to very sensitive events.”
• Trusted Sources – While you may monitor or follow a lot of individuals, you should spend time curating a list of trusted sources, or develop a list in the wake of an event. Look for sources you know personally or who you have seen vet information thoroughly before posting. In the wake of an event, look for official sources like police departments or public information officers who follow a protocol regarding information release.
• Multiple information/multiple sources – When looking at information, if it’s the same information repeated on multiple sources, you should be highly suspicious of the information. Multiple variants of information from multiple sources typically means there are more eyes on the lead, verifying the authenticity of the lead. From an e-mail to the show “If something is misinformation, even when it’s widespread, the cue so far is that the information is the same on all channels. That means it’s one source. If it doesn’t expand, there’s nothing to support it.”

Even after some organizations should have learned the lessons from Monday, it appears those lessons seem to fade away in lieu of trying to scoop each other on the latest breaking news. Just today CNN appears to have had to walk back on a report that a bombing suspect had been arrested after video seemed to have identified an individual. CBS News followed through and reported that while a person of interest had been identified, no suspect had been arrested, followed up by a tweet from the Boston Police Department’s Twitter feed (@Boston_Police).

One thing I’ve also seen with social media has been the addition of geo-location to the information. While this has been sort of a novelty for most in social media, it’s starting to turn into a valuable tool when looking at information analytics. Today, a company called SnapTrends, based out of Austin, demonstrated a tool that not only mines social media feeds but also leverages geo-fencing to isolate the feeds to particular locations.

In doing so, the company is able to isolate to updates that occur specifically around a location to not only get feedback from people at a a location, but also separate first-hand knowledge from the rest. In the case of the bombing, the company could geo-fence the area around the finish line and find Instagram photos, Twitpics, and a variety of other pieces of information that were direct eyewitness accounts of the incident.

Using this tool, a company, media organization, or event can identify issues or feedback directly related to a location like a store or an event like Fiesta Oysterbake. You don’t have to be reliant on hashtags or other identifiers in tweets or status updates. Simply geo-fence the area and mine the information from that area. The tool has many other reporting options but the geo-fencing is really its secret sauce.

The bottom line, in this day and age of readily available information, is to vet the information thoroughly before passing it along. Remember, social media can be like rubber necking on the road. One person starts by looking over and the next thing you know you have a major problem and usually some unintended accidents.

If you have any tips yourself, leave them as a comment for others to see. It would be great to get other ideas and perspectives on this subject.

Maybe my stint at City Hall has made me even more cynical of city council races these days, but I find too many of the candidates who file to have an attitude that’s focused more about themselves than really trying to address the issues of the district. I’m sure most of the candidates mean well, but if they really wanted to solve the big problems, they would invest the time to dig into creative solutions for the district. That being said, a few good ideas did emerge from the forum.

Held at St. Timothy Parish, a church that sits square in the middle of Cassiano Homes, one of the SAHA housing projects, the forum brought together not only COPS/Metro Alliance members but other interested folks from the D5 community, as well as politicos like myself. The format was simple: Seven questions focused on issues of District 5 with 4 minutes to answer then at once. One bonus question, as I consider it, was a commitment to attend as many council meetings as possible, noting the absenteeism of the current office holder.

Digging into the questions, you can find some glimmers of new ideas or innovation for the district. But it’s very clear no single candidate holds the “edge” in the district, in terms of being a strong leader for the community, including the current office holder. So let’s break down the areas and see who shines. If a candidate just really touted rhetoric without any concrete solution, I excluded them.

Public Safety

While the question focused on a relationship with Chief McManus, in reality the true focus was what would you do to help improve the public safety of the district, listing some of the highest crime rates in the city. On this subject, each of the candidates, other than Medina, seemed to have some interesting options to consider.

• Ricardo Briones – Supports the use of an 18-wheel SAPD substation to be used in the area, along with increased foot and bike patrols. Doing so would help bring increased presence into the community, outside the vehicles. However, unlike downtown where these patrols are prominent, it’s unclear how feasible the approach really is.
• Richard Cardenas – Cardenas wanted to more aggressively pursue grants from ATF and DEA, as sources, to increase patrols within the district. He also promoted the idea of getting officers out of vehicles and into the streets.
• John Carlos Garcia – Focused more on building neighborhood associations, not homeowner associations, that would increase citizen patrolling. This is not really a new idea and could be more rhetoric than reality.
• Shirley Gonzales – Gonzales pointed out that the business community conducted monthly meetings with SAPD over issues and suggested this could be extended to citizens and associations. One thing she did point out was that the meetings were an opportunity for SAPD to discuss with citizens new technologies and methods for combatting crime.
• David Medina – Probably spending the bulk of his allotted time on this issue, Medina really just rehashed much of what was already in place. He pointed out that crime had gone down in the district by 10%, a figure he said was backed by FBI statistics.
• Frank Ramirez – Ramirez offered an option of moving non-violent offenders into programs in the district. The key to this is having the programs for these offenders. Too often we move offenders out of incarceration WITHOUT an adequate support network.

Economic Development

This area is probably the one needing the most focus in the district, which ranks as the poorest in the city. The demographics of the district prove this out, with the majority of residents earning less than $20,000 a year. One key component of improving the economic condition of District 5 is the Westside Development Corporation, begun under the term of former council member Patti Radle. So the area does have a trajectory for economic development that continues to grow.

• Briones – Briones suggested greater partnerships were needed with both Port SA and the Robert B. Green Center. He also suggested monthly small business sessions where education and training opportunities for small businesses could be explored, much like the Accion model.
• Cardenas – Cardenas suggested the need for a master plan for the district to help identify areas of growth and opportunity. Some master plans have been developed already, including the Downtown West plan that covers the area west and north of the county jail. So this may already be covered but it sounded good.
• Gonzales – Gonzales followed the same line of thought that Briones had about providing summits, rather than sessions, for small business development and training. She also encourages continuance of the WDC plans and efforts.
• Medina – Medina has been very active working with the WDC, considering he was working for Radle when it was developed. Medina did extend the mayor’s idea of Café Commerce by establishing mobile extensions of the main site located at the Central Library.

Parks

In this area COPS/Metro Alliance pushed for more parks or improvements of existing parks. While Ramirez didn’t offer specific solutions regarding the parks, other than reinvest, he made an excellent point about them in that former generations were able to enjoy the beauty of the parks but later generations can only enjoy the shells of these parks, due to deterioration.

• Briones – Public/private sector bingo.
• Cardenas – Cardenas offered a solution of extending the venue tax to increase park funding. While it sounds creative, I’m not sure if this is fiscally feasible.
• Garcia – More bond money for parks. It sounds good but I think there’s a process for how this money gets allocated. Unless he’s saying scrap the process, I think this is a non-starter.
• Gonzales – Gonzales offered no real solutions but did point out most parks have very little shade, shelter or working water fountains. She makes a great point and probably one that could attract more people to parks, especially during the hot days of summer.

Business partnership within the Lanier cluster

COPS/Metro Alliance focused on one of the core educational areas of District 5, the Lanier cluster. These schools form the heart of the district and represent probably some of the poorest and academically low performing students in the district. I can speak from experience that, given the right focus and resources, some great leaders come from this cluster, including a student I mentored who is now a very successful advertising executive in New York City. So the focus of the question is on how to help improve the educational experience within this cluster.

• Cardenas – Public/private sector bingo but with a twist of adding in trade arts such as culinary arts.
• Gonzales – Gonzales has a vision of developing an activity hub focused around Lanier, Tafolla, the San Antonio Natatorium, and the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center. It’s actually kind of innovative and could help lead to some new opportunities for giving students new focus.

Weatherization

The focus on weatherization was to ask candidates what they could do to help advance this program within the district. One of the big challenges with homes in this district is the age and deterioration over time. Many leak so much energy it is very expensive for residents to even consider heating or cooling them. The challenge is that trying to weatherize the home can be difficult due to the need for restorative work.

• Briones – Briones proposes having monthly energy neighborhood summits, bringing them to churches and community centers to give residents more information on programs and options available. With regards to substandard houses, he proposed working with Habitat for Humanity to help bring the homes up to the level necessary for weatherization.
• Cardenas – Cardenas proposed looking at revitalizing the San Antonio Development Agency to help redevelop some of the homes and lots within the district. Of course, this needs to be explored to see why the agency went defunct. Once again, Cardenas played public/private sector bingo.
• Gonzales – Gonzales said the problem was more complicated than it seems on the surface. Regardless, she said it needs more than just summits and proposed door to door outreach to help identify residents who might qualify for the improvements.

The rest of the questions on code compliance, working with COPS/Metro Alliance, support for more senior centers, and attendance at meetings provided superficial answers of affirmation with no in-depth solutions. Maybe it was because of placement on the list of questions towards the end that yielded sparse or weak answers.

At the end of the forum it was apparent the candidates, excluding the incumbent, didn’t show as much of an understanding in city government as I would have expected. Granted, when entering office the council member should surround themselves with a highly competent staff to help navigate the issues. I found that when working with Councilman Reed Williams staff they were the most efficient and effective I have seen, helping Williams address the key issues on council.

It’s hard to say how this race will fare, given some of the issues about Medina that have surfaced in the past year. In some ways, I can understand why Mayor Castro endorsed Medina for another term, seeing his effectiveness in working to help improve public safety and helping increase economic development in the Westside. But I would hope that if Medina is re-elected he take the time to look at some of these big ideas presented by other candidates as ways to help move bigger rocks in the district.

Update 4/22/2013 – I’ve added the webcast provided by NowCastSA.

SAISD Superintendent Search

In the case of the information provided by Bankers Anonymous, it is one of several pieces of information that has led to Isquierdo withdrawing his candidacy from consideration. The issue has also led the Board of Trustees to question the process and who really knew what and when. The board had turned the process of screening candidates over to an external firm, PROACT, to help bring in talent aligned with the goals of the board for the district. According to the firm’s fact sheet on Superintendent Searches, one of the components the district would receive is “background checks.”

So what this really leaves us asking is did PROACT fully complete their contract, did the board act too hastily, or did the board just ignore the information PROACT provided? We’ll probably never really know, in this case, since personnel discussions are usually held in executive session. The point is that this information is available in the public space, as evidenced by the blog entry of Bankers Anonymous.

Even more so, the board or district staff should have leveraged Google to provide a more clear picture of who Isquierdo really was. In the article about the process by the Express-News, trustee Patti Radle (District 5) said “It’s kind of like the negative got out in front of everything and I think that the community never got to see what seven board members saw in this person.”

However, what seems to be the person the seven board members saw was a salesperson for Digital Advantage, a joint venture between Sunnyside ISD and National Academic Education Partners, a Miami based firm focused on turning schools around. The partnership was also structured to allow Isquierdo to receive $75,000 a year selling the program to school districts around the nation, according to an article in the Arizona Daily Star. What’s interesting about NAEP’s work is it’s “Under Development” when you check the Case Studies section.

The bottom line regarding the SAISD and public information is that the district, more specifically the board, failed to really vet a candidate for the highest staff position in a district that’s trying to demonstrate it’s turning around from a failing district. Hopefully, not only has Isquierdo learned his lessons from the past but so has the SAISD Board of Trustees. My suggestion is that maybe some of these trustees consider hiring some of their entrepreneurial students to dig into future candidates with Google.

City Council Ethic Inquiry

Regarding the ethical allegations by the Texas Ethics Advisory Board, a tea party group who actually has nothing to do with the Texas Ethics Commission, the motive isn’t really to expose issues but to exact retaliation using bureaucratic measures against public officials. In the article by the Express-News “The group says it’s retaliation against the council’s 2011 decision to offer benefits to the domestic partners of city employees.” The information the group leveraged is publicly available through our City Clerk’s website, where you can search campaign finance reports.

The group targeted over 1,000 allegations identified in the reports, most of which were dismissed by the Texas Ethics Commission. Ethics allegations were filed against Mayor Julian Castro, Diego Bernal, Ivy Taylor, Leticia Ozuna, Rey Saldana, David Medina, Ray Lopez, Cris Medina, and Reed Williams. While the group claims to target “progressive candidates, officeholders and political action committees who have long been contributing to the runaway growth of government,” in reality it’s contributing to runaway government by requiring TEC to thoroughly investigate its allegations and provide responses.

Bill Elmer, chairman of the group, feels it’s important to make life miserable for its targets. “The most fulfilling result is for somebody to not run again because it’s too much of a headache to answer to the TEC investigation,” Elmer said in the article. So, instead of working within the democratic process, the group is essentially leverages bullying tactics against those they disagree with. Plain and simple, this is bad practices leveraging public information gone amuck.

Public Information in Reporting

Finally, the best usage of public information I have found has been by news media and organizations who leverage the information to keep citizens informed. The best examples I’ve found have been the New York Times interactives, Washington Post, and locally the Texas Tribune. Just this weekend, the Tribune provided a great interactive to allow Texans to get to know more about their legislators and state officials. Called the Ethics Explorer, it lets you dig into the education, employment and top donors to our state’s elected officials. On a nerdy side, what I especially like about it is the usage of HTML5.

So public information can be used in so many ways. In some cases, to help expose bad situations before they happen. In other cases, people can use the information to bully others publicly. Finally, and probably the most useful, public information can be used to help keep the electorate more informed and hopefully more educated when going to the voting booth.

Campaign Finance Reports for 2013 Municipal Election:

Mayor

• Julian Castro
• Sergio Falcon
• Irma Rosa
• Jesus Reyes – No report
• Michael “Commander” Idrogo – No report
• Raymond Zavala – No report
• Rhett Smith – No report

District 1

• Diego Bernal

District 2

• Ivy Taylor
• Norris Tyrone Darden
• Hector Medina
• Antonio Diaz – No report

District 3

• Leticia Ozuna
• Gabriel Q. Velasquez
• Rebecca Viagran

District 4

• Rey Saldana
• Joseph “JoeJo” Savage

District 5

• David Medina
• Ricardo Briones
• Richard Cardenas
• John Carlos Garcia
• Shirley Gonzales
• Frank Ramirez – No report

District 6

• Ray Lopez
• Greg Brockhouse
• John Barfield
• Steve Shamblin

District 7

• Cris Medina
• Michael Gonzales
• Gloria Rodriguez
• Carlos Zaldivar

District 8

• Rolando Briones
• Ron Nirenberg
• Mike Kueber

District 9

• Elisa Chan
• Jason F. Salinas – No report

District 10

• Carlton Soules
• Celeste Montez-Tidwell
• Arthur M. Thomas IV

How can you not feel for little Abbey who, in a YouTube video that has gone viral, is tired of “Bronco Bama and Mitt Romney” and has had about as much of this presidential election as the rest of us have. I believe Abbey has expressed to the nation what all of us are feeling right now – enough of the back and forth. Let’s just get this thing over.

The 2012 election has turned into one of the most polarizing elections in our history. I watched the talking heads the Sunday before the election, and almost every single pundit said they’ve never seen the presidential race this close or this polarized before. Romney leads among independent voters, but that number has eroded dramatically, meaning the impact of that advantage has been lessened. Come election night we could see one candidate win the Electoral College and another win the popular vote.

On Saturday’s edition of This American Life, I listened to a segment titled “I Know You Are, But What Am I?” that chronicled relationships that were strained over political differences this election season. In the past, these anecdotes would seem out of the ordinary, but as I heard the stories played out, I recalled friends of mine who have had similar experiences.

While some of these estrangements play out face-to-face, the majority of them occur through social media such as Facebook, where your conversation is exposed to all of your friends. Friends of yours who don’t know each other jump into the conversation, a great feature when you’re talking about the latest episode of Downton Abbey or the best place for street tacos. But remember the three things your mother said you don’t start a conversation with? Yep, politics is one of them.

Granted, this doesn’t happen with the majority of online conversations. When we see the temperature in a thread rising, most of us will step in and call a truce; the tried-and-true “agree to disagree” phrase pops up. It’s the yellow card of social media, warning everyone to tone it down a bit.

Anyone who is a friend of mine on Facebook knows I’m going to bring up political issues. In fact, when you pull up my Klout profile, Politics and Local Politics are two of my three influential topics. I sort of take pride in how civil the tone has been in conversations between my friends.

But this past year I have had to block and ban two people because their tone just got out of hand. It shocked me, considering these were people I respected. But sometimes that disconnected experience of social media allows you to say things you might not say in a social gathering. Sometimes social media is an oxymoron.

I’m not alone in this experience. Just before the last presidential debate, I noticed the status of one of my social media guru friends, Colleen Pence. It said: “I’d better get off the computer for the rest of the night. Hackles are raised and I’m unfriending people who I used to respect who don’t seem to understand the meaning of the word respect. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.”

What happened this election season? How did we lose the ability to chat respectfully? Personally, I believe we reached this point as a result of targeted messaging by the campaigns on specific issues – messaging that sometimes doesn’t present all the facts. This season has given rise to not only increased coverage of the campaigns but an increased use of “fact checkers” – a sign, some pundits have suggested, that we can’t even agree on basic information anymore.

As soon as a campaign, news site, or blog makes an assertion, thanks to the wonder of social media and link-sharing that point starts making it around our circles, sometimes without proper vetting. In an article in the Charlotte Observer, Hans Peter Ibold explores the rise of fact-checking, including a deeper look into how news is curated.

“Today’s fact-checking is teasing out new norms, such as the recent emphasis on transparency and engagement. Journalists are asking questions like ‘What should we fact-check?’ And, most legit fact-checking projects include background on how and why the content was fact-checked, as well as any limitations of the approach,” Ibold said.

One of my favorite “facts” that has spread through social-media circles is that Obama has abused the power of the Executive Order by issuing 923 of them. It’s a viral text that has spread without any links to resources or documentation. Recently a good friend told me his best friend is not voting for Obama because of it. Whipping out my trusty iPhone I surfed the web and quicklydispelled the false information.

Is this trend a sign our republic is doomed? Hardly. If anything, it’s helping elevate the conversation on some critical issues. I equate it to “storming,” the second phase groups typically go through when working together. We’re just learning how to use these social media tools and talk to each other through the internet.

Just like the early days of Facebook, when new “friends” learned not to share every uneventful moment of their days, we’re all going to hopefully learn maturity and respect as we talk about politics.

But, in the meantime while we’re weathering the storm, let’s just remember to still be friends.

Before we go too far, remember that I’m a Democrat and espouse to the key principles of the Texas Democratic Party as outlined in its platform. I may not agree with every single thing in the platform but, when compared with the platform of the Republican Party of Texas, there’s more that I agree with than disagree with. But, even though I’m a Democrat, you’ll never catch me voting straight ticket. I evaluate every candidate individually to see if they are qualified for office and deserving of my vote. I vote for more Democrats than Republicans but I do split my ticket. I also find many Democrats I respect do the same.

So, before I cast judgment on George P. I want to hear which office he seeks and what his ideas are. Then I can make a decision about whether to support him or oppose him. But we’re about a year away from that even happening. Most likely, if he’s filing now, he’s targeting the 2014 race and will probably be surveying the landscape before making a decision. This isn’t his first political rodeo. He’s already cut political teeth by co-founding the Hispanic Republicans of Texas, a PAC that represents the new Latino future of the Republican Party. Over the past three years, the group has given over $300, 000 to Hispanic Republican candidates.

Bush’s entry not only is newsworthy based on his political genes. It also comes at a time when Republicans are waking up to the fact that if they plan to remain viable in the political conversation they need to properly address issues important to Latinos such as immigration, citizenship, education, and health care access. Political strategists and party leaders on both sides realize the potential of capturing that vote when it turns out. In the case of Democrats, it’s a matter of focusing on the key advantages provided by Democratic office holders in fighting for those issues. In the case of Republicans, it’s changing the conversation within the party to become more relevant to Latinos and having positive conversations on the issues.

The biggest problem for both is increasing turnout in the community in Texas, which typically lags the nation. It’s difficult to understand why that turnout lags and what the key factors are that prevent seeing stronger numbers. However, as one political strategist said Thursday, the sleeping giant will awaken only when someone wakes it up. The question is which party will do that.

Many have speculated that Texas will eventually turn purple by the end of the decade. However, as party leaders and political pundits look at the numbers, that purple tint may not occur until the next decade, further delaying Democrats recovering statewide offices in what many have termed the longest drought of absence in the nation. Increasing voter turnout will bring that date back into this decade and could see significant gains in 2018. Looking at 2014 you might see one statewide office won by a Democrat but no more than that. Many have speculated Mayor Julian Castro should make a run for governor in 2014 but personally I don’t see the handwriting on the wall for that.

What could delay any gains Texas Democrats could have in painting Texas purple would be a Republican Party that experiences a transformation and embraces Latino issues. Everyone agrees that securing our borders is critical. But after that, the two parties differ on positions. Remember those two platforms I listed? Let’s look at some differences.

In the Democrat’s platform you find the following position “reform the Immigration Nationality Act to address the millions of workers that are in our country illegally by establishing a path to bring them out of the shadows of the underground economy, thus preventing unscrupulous businesses from taking advantage of their indentured services that is detrimental to legitimate businesses and to American workers that play by the rules.”

However, in the Republican platform you find no such position addressing the issue. Instead, you find recognition of the problem with the following statements “Mass deportation of these individuals would neither be equitable nor practical; while blanket amnesty, as occurred with the Simpson-Mazzoli Act of 1986, would only encourage future violations of the law. We seek common ground to develop and advance a conservative, market- and law-based approach to our nation’s immigration issues.” The platform then addresses things like clarification of Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment and modernizing the social security card.

You see the differences in positions. What’s interesting is that this kind of language is mild compared to what you hear by most Republicans. When asked whether the Texas legislature should address the instate tuition issue regarding undocumented immigrants, most feel that position should be removed, making it more of a challenge for those students to attend college in Texas.

So, the entry of someone like George P. into the landscape does drive a new conversation in Texas. Looking at the leadership of the Hispanic Republicans of Texas you’ll find more moderate Republicans than anyone. My guess is these people would leverage Bush’s entry to politics as an opportunity to start those conversations of transformation. If those conversations are thwarted by hardcore conservatives like the tea party, transformation will be a good four years away. If they are embraced, then Texas Republicans could continue to be a strong force in Texas.

Regardless, before we cast George P. Bush out as a candidate, let’s at least do our civic duty and hear what he has to say.

Nationally, voter turnout for the 2008 election was 64.36% with over 122 million voters, a drop from 1968 when voter turnout was 89.66%. In some countries, such as Australia, voting is compulsory and voter turnout is around 95% every three years. However, just making voting compulsory doesn’t solve the problem since Mexico, a nation with such a requirement has turnout in the 60% range.

Locally, Bexar County voter turnout in 2008 was only 3% less than the statewide total. In 2008, Bexar County experienced a 57% turnout in registered voters compared with 60% statewide. In 2008, Borden County had the highest turnout of the state with 82.42%. Bexar County ranked 169th out of 254 counties in turnout. Just bringing us in line with statewide average would take us to 121st or about halfway in the list of counties.

Now Borden doesn’t have a lot of voters in the county so reaching that high of a turnout number may not be that hard. In 2008, there were 438 registered voters in the county and 361 of those cast votes in the election. Looking at counties comparable to Bexar County, Collin County in North Texas may be a better comparison with 425,091 registered voters in 2008 and 296,583 casting votes in the election, giving them a turnout percentage of 69.76%.

If you look at state and local elections, that number starts to half along with the rest of the state. Statewide it’s a trend but, as you can see from Borden, not one that is realized in every single county. As a note, Presidio was the county with the lowest voter turnout at 33.7% but with only 5,213 registered voters. Hidalgo is the largest county with low turnout at 42.83% of 305,316 registered voters.

Today Travis County puts in place a new system for voting that will hopefully increase voter turnout throughout the county. Today, all polling locations will be open but instead of voters having to vote in their “home” precinct, they can vote in any voting location throughout the county. In other words, it’s like early voting on steroids. Thanks to technology and high speed networks, every single location can be a voting center for the county.

In San Antonio, one of the key vision areas of the SA 2020 plan is focused on Government Accountability and Civic Engagement. The vision for the area is as follows: “In 2020, San Antonio’s citizens are deeply engaged as elected leaders, business leaders, volunteers, and voters in the process of making government more responsive and accountable to San Antonians.”

One of the ways to get there, according to the vision plan, is to “Increase Voter Turnout.” That area has been assigned to the UTSA College of Public Policy, which has been working on several initiatives in the area. In the coming weeks, I’m hoping to sit down with the Associate Dean of the College to discuss what efforts are being planned and what performance measures are being put in place to measure achievement.

I’d like to also sit down with the leadership of all the county party organizations to see how we can engage them to help increase voter turnout. This is not a partisan issue and every party would benefit from increased turnout. Having the parties at the table would also help demonstrate that while we may disagree on policy, we can all agree on the need for a more engaged community in civic responsibility.

Finally, I have proposed the idea to Bob Rivard about engaging high school students in a series of civic discussions modeled along the lines of Constitution Café. Rivard recently facilitated a discussion of civic engagement with Dr. Christopher Phillips, author of Constitution Café. After the discussion, Rivard and I donated 24 copies of Constitution Café to the class of students from East Central High School for their discussion. It would be good to follow up with them and to start more Constitution Cafes in other high schools or colleges around the city.

Along with voter turnout comes voter engagement, including learning about the candidates, attending candidate forums, and engaging in public forums on issues. Today we have adopted a complacency model that discourages participation. We proxy our decisions and ideas to a few then turn around and gripe about those proxied actions. It’s time to change that trend and get back to civic involvement. But that should come as a part of the process, or maybe they drive increased turnout.

The bottom line is that things need to change, if we ever expect to see our city grow and prosper beyond where it is now. As things progress, I’ll keep you posted and probably engage several of you in the conversation. I’m not looking for “board sitter” type people but those who are willing to give some time, forego their party ideology for a bit (remember, this isn’t a red or blue thing), and help move the needle forward.

Until then, let’s get this election in the books and see what the future will hold.

Texas races

• President
• Senate – Cruz/Sadler
• CD-20 – Castro/Rosa – Henry’s Puffy Tacos - 6030 Bandera Road
• CD-23 – Gallego/Canseco
• CD-35 – Doggett/Narvaiz
• SBOE-3 – Williams/Perez
• SBOE-5 – Mercer/Bell-Metereau
• SD-10 – Davis/Shelton
• SD-25 – Campbell/Courage – Courage - 7122 San Pedro Avenue
• HD-117 – Cortez/Garza – Campaign HQ – 310 Valley Hi
• HD-125 – Lisa’s – 815 Bandera Road
• Bexar County

Marriage initiatives

• Washington – Referendum Measure 74  – Y
• Maine – Question 1 – Y
• Maryland – Question 6 – Y
• Minnesota – Amendment 2 – N

US Senate races

• MA – Warren-D/Brown-R
• MO – Akin-R/McCaskill-D
• NV – Heller-R/Berkley-D
• WI – Baldwin-D/Thompson-R
• IN – Mourdock-R/Donnelly-D
• CO – Murphy/McMahon-R
• VA – Kaine-D/Allen-R