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Ed English: Austin City Council candidate
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Jun 5, 2025
Talk to the 7/28/14 meeting of Texans for Accountable Government at Sherlock's in Austin, Texas.
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he wants to come to tag and address this
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body this astute body that's going to
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give them the difficult questions then
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by all means whether your establishment
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or not you're welcome here so I'd like
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to bring up Ed English thank you very
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much
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thank you for privilege for having an
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opportunity to speak to you and I've
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been here several times but beyond that
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I've known many of you for quite a while
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we've worked together on a very
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important project which is changing city
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government and I want to try to be as
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brief as possible so that I can save
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time for a little question Justin if you
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wave at me in about five minutes I'll
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try to wrap it up so we can take a few
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questions
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but I am at English and I'm running for
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City Council in district 7 which we are
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sitting virtually in the middle of and
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I'm running for city council one really
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overarching reason and that's because I
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want to be part of taking back control
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of this city and city government for you
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and I for far too long in fact I would
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say two to three decades and get a lot
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of agreement on that the decisions that
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have been made by city council and the
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city government are not in your best
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interest in mind they've been made by
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council members and mayors that have
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been funded by the same group of people
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real estate developers downtown law
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firms and those the direction of the
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city has certainly favored them and
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lined their pockets and we need to
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change that
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the the framework has been put in place
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to make that change happen I and many
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other very very dedicated volunteers but
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literally thousands of hours over a two
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to three year period into getting a
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system that's in place now to implement
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that change those same powers that we're
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trying to replace they've lost tooth and
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nail from from the start they said we'd
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ever get the petitions uh enough
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petition signatures to get it on the
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ballot we proved them wrong they said
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we'd never get it passed in fact they
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threw a competing proposition on the
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ballot of November of 2012 to confuse
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the voters we'll never get it passed we
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did they said a group
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they said a group of average citizens
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without the help of a lot of
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professionals could never draw maps that
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would represent the city that was done
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in fact it's very very rare in this
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state where you draw a line on a map and
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say this is a voting district that
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lawsuits don't come out of the woodwork
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the maps were finalized in November and
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there has not been a single legal
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challenge to those Maps
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and I want to be a part of that change I
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want to be a part of taking back control
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of this city for you and I unless you
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happen to be a downtown skyscraper
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Builder or a very high-powered attorney
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and then I'm sorry we got a difference
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of opinion
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but but the city continues to this day
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to make decisions that are not in your
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best interest or either patently illegal
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uh it not in your best interest
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whether you see the bond package that
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you're going to be asked to vote on for
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a rail project in November thank you
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very much if you look at if you look at
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what underlies the decision they made on
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the route for this rail it's not to take
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cars off the road it's not to reduce
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traffic it's delaying the pocket of
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developers that can build uh very
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expensive projects along that route and
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in fact what they're doing right now is
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they're spending your tax dollars to
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promote that project that's illegal the
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city can spend your money to inform you
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of what's on a bond package but they're
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not allowed to promote that if you
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started to hear the ads I think it's
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very clear that they're promoting that
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something else they've done that's
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patently illegal in fact it was recently
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ruled so by a state judge if you looked
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at your utility bill you've seen all
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those little those little fees that are
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stacking up on the bottom more and more
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of them get bigger and bigger
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that's illegal
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I'll give you an example the city made a
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decision to put onto your utility bill
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and drainage fee or they're working on
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that now and it's a done deal to pay for
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the buyout for the homes that were
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damaged or lost in the Onion Creek
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floods now whether you're for that or
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against that is a different decision
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it's a different matter but that
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decision belongs to you and I it needs
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to be on a ballot we need to vote on how
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that money is spent
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and for those reasons I want to make a
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change I want to be part of a change and
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I urge you to look at more than one
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candidate more than one District because
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when it comes time to make these changes
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it's going to take more than one vote on
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the city council because it's going to
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be a team environment you're going to
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have to have a group of people who can
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see common ground and make progress who
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have a like-minded make a change that's
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better for all of us not just for
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developers and law firms and I'm running
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against several candidates in this
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District district 7 who are nothing more
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than a voice for the same old
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establishment people and I ask for your
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support in whatever form you can provide
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I need your time I need your talent and
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I need your money and if you can make
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donations it'll go a long way toward
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helping me get elected in this District
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I'm Gonna Leave it right there and take
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some questions because I got the way
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foreign
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so I'm kind of disgusted by the amount
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of debt that our local governments have
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gone into Austin is definitely a leader
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in that and with this another Bond
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coming another election and you said
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that they're using our money to promote
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it which is like you said illegal how do
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we hold them accountable to stop the ads
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now before they have an influence and
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then maybe catch it later after the what
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happened to be four million dollars how
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many millions of dollars is it
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um how do we stop them
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billion dollars
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yeah B with a B
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3.34 billion dollars plus that doesn't
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include the overruns and and other
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things against May is going to tell us
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about yeah
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the buying package
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workers voters in
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November the exact language of it's
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being worked on now will probably be
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approved within the coming weeks you
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don't have a lot of time and you're
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going to have to do it the old-fashioned
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way you're going to have the right
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letters you're going to have to go down
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to Council meetings you're going to have
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to participate in what they call
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Citizens communication when these issues
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come up and express your discontent with
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it sadly the decision will be made
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before well I say sadly that assumes
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that the voters approve it and I right
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now the winds are blowing to this Rail
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Project is running into a stiff headwind
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and you're going to see a very very
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slick marketing campaign that really
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ramps up over the next couple months to
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sell you on this idea and the decision
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will be made in November right now it
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looks like it's going to fail there's if
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they're just facing too much resistance
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in fact they threw some Road
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improvements in with the Rail Project is
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a little sugar coating on it to get more
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people to vote for it but you're going
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to have to do it the old-fashioned way
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if you want to stop it before November
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and
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unfortunately for Council Prospect like
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me who would take office in January the
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decision will be made hopefully we won't
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have to be implementing a very
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importantly thought out real project the
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voters will turn it down in November
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is this only in Austin because I live
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in uh actually in Travis County but I'm
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out in Pflugerville is it going to
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affect me in other words is it going to
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raise my taxes too or is uh am I able to
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vote on this I mean because obviously
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all the peoples out in Hayes County want
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to vote on it and things like that maybe
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but I mean they're going to try to put
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it all together so we can all get
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screwed together that's a that's a very
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good question and it's my understanding
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uh and until the the way I always look
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at Bond packages are the devil's in the
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details until that bond package is
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actually written and you see the
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language of it anything can actually
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anything can actually happen but it's my
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understanding right now that that'll
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only be presented to Austin voters there
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are several other Transportation
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projects which would be voted on by a
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larger audience Merry Christmas
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on tan one and I really thank you for
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all the work that you've done
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I wouldn't trade a minute of it
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questions are you familiar with the UN
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Agenda 21 plan yes I am how do you
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I think a lot of things that you see
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going on here in Austin a lot of
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decisions that have been made are are a
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little spooky because they very much and
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I'm not the expert on that but I do have
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some level of knowledge of of agenda 21
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and the decisions that have been made
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here in Austin are eerily close to the
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propositions put forward by the United
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Nations my other question is how do you
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feel about
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I'm going to answer that very honestly I
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don't know enough about it I need a
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little bit more of an education but I
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would be very open to hearing uh the
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concerns about that do you think it's
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right for a city to force medicate its
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population yes or no no I don't know
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thank you
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thank you
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thank you so much in English
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foreign
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