To provide great transactional leadership in getting the everyday business of responding to service calls from constituents is fundamental to any well run office.  It is against this backdrop that I have sought to provide transformational leadership on issues related to our County that change the way business is done, for the betterment of all. They are: 1. Energy, 2. Health Care, 3. Jail Population, 4. Transportation and 5. Resource Recovery. 

And while these are important and line-up with roughly 80% of what the County does in the area of health and justice, there are yet other issues that impinge upon our core tasks. Some of these other areas are water, education and clean air. Water, like all resources, should be conserved wherever possible. In the case of education, we see the effects of a lack of education on our many souls that run through our jail. Need we say more about the need to breathe clean air?

The 81^st Texas Legislative Session also presents its own challenges and opportunities for us.

Finally, it would not be me if I did not mention Texas History and its proper understanding and preservation. We have been the fortunate heirs to a very rich legacy in this regard. It is for us to study it and pass it along to generations that follow. Although I love to talk about the eight separate battles or skirmishes that Bexar County hosted to liberate us from Spain and Mexico, there are many other worthy objects of our attention. Just as an example, the East Side Cemetery Complex, which is chock full of local history along with the many other cemeteries that exist in our County. The list of areas worthy of study and preservation goes on.

In closing, I would borrow from the wise words of President Thomas Jefferson in his first inaugural speech in 1801 upon his election to the Presidency of the United States. "I ask so much confidence only as may give firmness and effect to the legal administration of your affairs. I shall often go wrong through defect of judgment. When right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground. I ask your indulgence for my own errors, which will never be intentional, and your support against the errors of others, who may condemn what they would not if seen in all its parts."