The East Side-based nonprofit COPS/Metro asked candidates simple yes or no answers to inform neighbors at its 2025 Accountability Session.
COPS/Metro, a nonprofit focused on solving community issues in San Antonio, particularly around the East Side, held an Accountability Session over the weekend for mayoral and City Council candidates in the upcoming runoff election.
The session saw hundreds of neighbors come out to voice their support and problems with what they see as key issues for potentially elected officials.
“In this particular meeting that (candidates) realize that the people are interested, and they want to know what their positions are,” said Yolanda Turner, a COPS/Metro leader.
Mostly, candidates were limited to responding yes or no to policy beliefs held by COPS/Metro.
Candidates were not allowed to campaign, give speeches or mention their opponents, all while the audience could not react to their stated thoughts.
Moderators asked candidates like Gina Ortiz Jones and Rolando Pablos where they stood on things like infrastructure investments in neighborhoods, workforce training programs like Project Quest and Ready to Work SA, and how they felt about state and local government control, all of which Ortiz Jones and Pablos agreed on.
The two candidates also agreed on not promising to say no to taxpayer funds being used for Project Marvel, the initiative to build a new sports stadium downtown.
“I see Project Marvel as a job creations program. And just like we ask for public funds to train, we need to be able to use public funds to create jobs,” Pablos said. “Our tourism industry creates a tremendous amount of jobs, and we need (to) be able (to)protect them.”
“I’ve been very clear that we need answers to three questions before we talk about any commitment of city funding. We need to know how much it’s going to cost, who’s going pay and how is the city going to benefit,” Ortiz Jones said. “I think there’s been too much discussion on how we’re going to pay for this, not nearly as much discussion on how is a community going to benefit.”
COPS/Metro has adamantly opposed Project Marvel using taxpayer dollars to fund the new venture, stating that they still have yet to see the economic benefits that were once promised when the Frost Bank Center was built on the Eastside. However, leaders say, that doesn’t stop them from looking to have an open dialogue.
“There are ideas, and even if we don’t like them, we’re willing to sit down and discuss options,” Turner said. “And to have a sharing of ideas with developers and with us and the citizens in the community as to how to finance Project Marvel.”
