Remarks by Alyssa Garza
151 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 3 of 7
- Play at 1:22:27
“Thank you for keeping us on the timeline. Mayor. Yes, ma'am.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:41:05
“Yeah, and I think in the past we've asked whenever you put that percentage of you could put the actual dollar amount. Yeah, but all the slides.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:41:18
“I think they've been able to put an estimate, yeah.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:27:55
“I guess... I really don't want to do this, but... Yeah, I mean, if this is just the first reading... No, it's not.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:28:10
“Right, well, what I'm saying, like... I guess I can change my vote, I don't know.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:28:22
“Yeah, I think I have a little bit more questions that I didn't get to talk to some folks until like 1 p.m. today, and I'm still sitting on some questions, but we'll continue the conversation. I just, I don't have an alternative, right? And so I can't, yeah. Not really.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:29:26
“Yeah, but I mean, even if I change y'all, y'all still prevailed. Y'all still have the no's, right?”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:29:57
“I was just, I'm trying to like figure out what's possible.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:30:20
“I just, I totally forgot about Josh not being here and I, I don't want to like kill something if he doesn't have the opportunity to contribute to the conversation, but I just don't know with everything he's had going on. I don't know if he has the capacity to.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:33:21
“Well, I mean, I don't think anybody's like briefed him. Okay. Do I, what are the steps to that?”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:34:34
“We have all voted. This is just so that we can reconsider it so we could loop you into the convo, Josh.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:35:30
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:37:19
“Yeah, I am going to be approaching staff with some more questions, and I'll try to... not derail things too much for the next one. I know like we have our timeline and all the moves that we make right now impact what is even going to be presented to us and all of that. Um, do you have some hesitation, some concerns, the comment or the presentations from earlier? I feel like address a lot of the things that I wanted to know from last time. also being able to explain to some constituents why some projects take longer than others or why they feel like, you know, why should they pay more for…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:39:40
“Yeah, ditto. I really wish some of our neighbors would feel comfortable coming and kind of sharing their perspective so that it's not just me trying to be that vessel and voice. But I guess that's something we can work on if there's some folks who have very specific concerns to have them come out. Or maybe even email. This is just like for the public. A lot of folks, when they have really compelling questions or questions or concerns, even them shooting an email or picking up the phone and calling city staff, I think historically staff has been super receptive to breaking down rationale,…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:49:21
“Can, so can you explain like for the viewers at home, when I show them things like this, the pushback I usually get is 86 cents. Like the, like, where are you getting that? Because why are our bills higher compared when they, when they see that little chart where it says like how much you paid last year and whatever. And it's difficult for me to explain it to them. I honestly, they just don't buy what the chart is saying. Does that make sense? So like, help me.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:54:55
“Okay, I guess I understand that with the... what you just showed as where it's like that flat. For stormwater, it's that flat 86, I guess, right? But what is the, I guess, I'm just like trying to better understand some of the concerns of neighbors when they talk about, how this chart makes it seem like it's not that big of an increase, but they're gonna feel the increase because they don't fall within the average consumption. Because they have more kids or whatever, I don't know. Yeah, my electric rate anywhere near this.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:55:58
“Yeah. Because I hear a lot from folks who have large families or because, I mean, and I've talked about this before since 2020, there are still people who they never were able to recover post the flooding events or post one big post-COVID event. uh, disaster type of thing where they lost their job or, you know, their, the job that they worked like Walmart, you know, they, they stopped being 24 hours or whatever. And they, there's like, um, multi-generational or multifamilies, like not multifamilies in the sense of multiple, like several families living under one roof. And those are the folks…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:58:24
“I don't even know because it's like the people I think most impacted or the ones that have a lot of strong feelings and emotion about it are the ones who have higher consumption, but how do we even, even if you got like an average or whatever, like how do we know what their particular situation is? You know, I don't know.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:58:53
“Oh, oh, okay. Like geographic location, like can you isolate that? Yeah.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:59:19
“Councilwoman Rodriguez brought up a good point when we talk about aging infrastructure. That's why I have historically kind of pushed back or tried to voice concerns when there's like proposed increases on this because we had a lot of things in limbo for example we have some um overarching questions or we're just trying to clean up like what all our utility assistance program like our local like the one from the city and i know we we worked through that like we found out what where the um issues and barriers were there. And then we also have funded more utility assistance and we had some…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 3:01:29
“Yeah, but is it is that possible like the geographic location or neighborhood? Sorry, I like went on a tangent but when councilman councilwoman Rodriguez named the aging infrastructure one of the other things that we that I was like really pushing for was Kind of cleaning up or reducing barriers or even y'all staff brought in other programs to help people with their home rehabilitation so again like naming that Asian infrastructure is an issue, but the city has tried to Even address that and I appreciate that but it would be interesting to see it if geographically if the neighborhoods like…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 3:02:43
“Yeah. Cause I know we, we might not be able to like solve this immediately or even this cycle or whatever. But what I have seen at least since I've been on since 2020 is we, we start a conversation and, So far the council has been, we just add on to that conversation and try to unpack it until we reach a better understanding Just like better options, does that make sense? So I'm not saying that that's gonna bring us any closure, but I think it's important to at least try to unpack that.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 3:08:54
“I'm not convinced that an increase in the tax rate is a solution either. No, it's not. I mean, it could kind of, but.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 3:09:34
“And help me understand so that I can explain it to my neighbors. Does that make sense? But I understand we're making strides in so many other fronts to be considerate of those scenarios that I brought up. I just felt compelled to name those scenarios again, because those were the latest conversations that I've had earlier today. Yeah, I'm just trying to figure it out like everybody else.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 3:11:33
“Right. But I mean, some of us move at the rate of the conversations we have with our neighbors and For better or worse, that's just the reality of the situation. I tried to explain my understanding of this. I mean, I got, when we get the presentation, like what, Thursday, Friday, I mean, I just have like a weekend to try to go and, one, understand it myself, and then two, have like digestible information to talk to the layperson. So I think it's important to name that, like it is a, Hefty charge.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026