SPEAKER_00 0:00

But I believe that's what government's supposed to do. You're supposed to innovate, you're supposed to try new things. Um, because at the end of the day, you're trying to help people in very difficult positions. I feel like that's our job.

SPEAKER_03 0:13

Hi, Huntresses. This is Talk Rich to Me.

SPEAKER_02 0:19

Where we get more comfortable talking about money and dealing with money.

SPEAKER_03 0:23

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SPEAKER_02 0:55

She previously served on Austin City Council and was mayor pro tem first of that. So excited to welcome Delia today as a part of our Money in Politics series. Um, hearing from a candidate and politician and what it's like, how our money is used. Um thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Of course. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

So you weren't always in politics. What were you doing before you entered that world? Sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Um I so I have a I joke I have a bit of a forest gump story because it's not a I've I've done very non-traditional things. But after college, I went to Texas AM. Um I wanted to live in Austin, and um I saw that the Austin Fire Department was hiring. And so my father was a firefighter. I was always inspired by the work that he did. I've always liked to challenge. Um, I get bored easily, and so I thought I'd apply to the Austin Fire Department. I did, and really that's what got me into local politics. I got involved in the union very quickly, which is the organization that advocates for the for you know employees. Specifically, fire and police can negotiate their employment contract. Other employees don't get to do that, unfortunately. And then you can get more um um bargaining rights by a referendum, which is people signing a petition and then people voting on whether firefighters can get more collective bargaining rights. And then I just always had this dream of going to law school, didn't have any lawyers in my family. Um, and then when I finally turned 30, I thought it's now or never, which is a really hard choice because I loved being a firefighter. You go to work every day and you help people. Um, I wanted to be a stronger advocate. And if you if you talk to any of my family or friends, they they know my personality and it like aligns with being a lawyer. Um, so I went to law school and my job out of law school was um working at the attorney general's office in the child support division, and I was an assistant attorney general for the state. That job was helping families who needed child support. We did a whole order helping with custody and visitation and did that, and that's when I got involved in um politics outside of being part of a union, and then got involved in the the um advocacy for districts on the city council and in advocating for that, um, decided to run for city council.

SPEAKER_02 3:17

And so that was when Austin we didn't have districts. So it was the process of putting in, is it 10 and 1?

SPEAKER_00 3:24

10-1, yes.

SPEAKER_02 3:25

So 10 districts, one in here.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Yeah. So it was previously a seven-person council, and they were all elected at large, which means you have to campaign the entire city. And that is hard for uh minorities to win in those types of races because you have to raise a lot of money, you have to have connections that a lot of brown and black people don't have. There was what they called a gentleman's agreement, and it was that there would always be one Latino and one African American on the council somehow, and they had reserved these seats. And so you were only supposed to run in this seat if you were black, and you were only supposed to run in the seat if you were Latino, but that didn't all that wasn't always honored. So there were sometimes white people running in the seat and winning. Um, and so the the attempt to get districts had been tried six times and it failed six times. I was appointed to a charter charter review commission to look at the entire charter and see if there anything that we should change. The work that I got involved in was the seventh time to try to get districts in a very split vote. I think it was 7-6, voted to recommend 10-1. And the council decided to not put that on the ballot. And so then a whole group of just independent citizens that I was a part of decided to try to get it on the ballot anyway. And that's the referendum where you have to stand outside CBS and ask for a signature and say, can you please support this process? I had done that as a firefighter when we were trying to get collective bargaining, and so I was familiar with it. Um, and so we were able to get it on the ballot. It was very confusing because there were two initiatives on the ballot. There was an 8-2-1, so eight districts, two at-large members and one mayor, and then there was a 10-1. And I think it was done to confuse voters, honestly, to make both fail. Um, but we were the total underdog and 10-1-1. We were just this little sandlot group of people supporting we weren't. There were some longtime local advocates, but the power really seemed to be behind the 8-2-1. And we we won. It was amazing. There's always like a party, you know, for whatever group. I still remember election night thinking I'm gonna go, we're gonna lose, and then I'll go to the rest of the election night stuff. And I, you know, to this day, I'm like, we won, we won. And so it really changed the uh diversity of council. That first 10-1 council, we elected the youngest council member, who was Greg Cassar, who is now a congressman. And um, the first Latina, I was the first Latina to be elected to city council, and it was the first time there was, I believe the first time there was um a majority female, so it was a majority female council as well.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

Uh wow, I didn't know that part of your story. So that was like your first taste of winning. I'm sure you had some wins working for Canada Fighters Union and and like supporting candidates. Um, but like on the inside, like you fought for absolutely, yeah. And then you were like, I gotta do more of this. Um how did you decide to run for city council?

SPEAKER_00 6:22

Well, it was during that 10-1. Austin says it's very progressive, and I sometimes wonder why, because I see I see things that aren't um people who say they're progressive aren't really that progressive. And so um I uh I think this is why a lot of women get involved in politics. They get mad. Um, and because I think for women it's not about they don't care about the, you know, the the visibility, the number of followers they have. I mean, that does matter in in some you know cases, but um, I just got mad at what I was seeing in the community who claims to be so progressive in not wanting the option that would really give people of color and people and vulnerable communities more power. And they were actively, I believed, to fighting that, fighting fighting this structure that would give all parts of Austin a voice in in at City Hall. And so it made me really mad and that's why I decided to run.

SPEAKER_02 7:22

Amazing. What were the first steps when you decided to run? How did you first get started?

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Um, well, I mean, the structural pro you got you have to make the decision first, right? And then it was nothing but positive uh feedback when I said, I think I want to do this. And so then, of course, there's a filing um process where you have to file. You can either pay the filing fee or you can get signatures, and you want to get the signatures to kind of show you have the support from eligible voters in your district. You have to get a treasurer. Um, when you file your application to be on the ballot, it's it's a symbolic person many times. So, like um I was lucky. Um, the district that I was running in, there was a formal former council member that lived in that district her name was Jackie Goodman, and she was very well known in the community. And she had actually considered running for the seat, and I met with her, we had a great conversation, and she said that she said, I was only gonna run if if if if she thought there wasn't good candidates, and she said, But I want to support you. And so she was actually my treasurer for my first um campaign. She's very helpful, very amazing. She's um she's passed away, but uh she was very great uh mentor for me as a former council member. Um, and so you have to get your treasurer, and then you just start raising money. You you do have to assemble a campaign team, and that really is the hard part about what kind of campaign you're gonna run, because you can really spend a lot of your time raising money and you can have a bigger team. I didn't come from money, and the ide I was worried about committing to a really big team and then worrying about paying them. And so I kept my team small and did as much fundraising as I could and felt comfortable with because that is the absolute hardest part for me has been raising money. When you come from a family that has a lot of pride and in um, we don't need help, we can do it ourselves. It's hard to ask people for money. When I met with the team that helped with the fundraising part, she just said, open your phone and start calling every single contact. And I mean, when you think about that, you have random people you met in your single life. And so I didn't do that. I didn't call every single person, but I called the ones that I thought would give and not a single person told me no. Um people forget, people get busy. I mean, I I do too. Like I will forget to donate to a campaign. So then you're so you so you have to basically go through your contacts and make the call. Um, that's evolved into texting recently. I think people are just so much more comfortable texting, and then people just don't answer their phones anymore. So texting is the only way you're gonna get a hold of them. And so then you're just raising money. Council races have limits. You can't accept corporate money, you can't accept pack money at council. Some people just decide that they're not gonna accept um political action committee money. Um, and then it's individuals have limits. So for council races, they're they were pretty low, it's 250s. On one hand, it could be depending on your network, right? Like if you have a network of a bunch of people who can give 250, it's easier. If you have a network that can only give 50, you're calling more people. I did hire someone to help me raise money, and she would basically sit there next to me and take notes, you know, and say, okay, they said they pledged this, and then you have a day where you have to go back and nudge these people, you know.

SPEAKER_02 10:40

Hey, are you gonna be able to donate?

SPEAKER_00 10:43

And uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:44

I used to be in tech sales. So the idea of someone to help you that's like not just the note taking, but also like the encouragement. Yes, got this. It's like that sounds amazing, yeah, actually.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

She's like a campaign doula. I don't know. But is that job exist? I just made that up. But yeah, it's like okay, keep going. And then there was even when I got to my county attorney race, they even the system work, you had two phones because it was the most efficient use of time. So they had dialed up the next one ready to go when you hung up that one. And that was a lot. I mean, that was I had to like give have a personal peprelli in my car before I walked into these sessions because it is hard. It is hard to do that.

SPEAKER_02 11:28

With those contribution limits, it really is a frankly a numbers game and calling people and getting your message out there. What were you able to get any kind of bigger donors in the mix?

SPEAKER_00 11:39

No, you can only accept the two. That's that's it. You cannot even ZACs if they do that as 250. 250.

SPEAKER_02 11:45

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

And it's funny, it they'll say 250 per individual or 500 a couple. Well, it's just still 250 individual. So but they've gone up that I believe it's 500 now. So now the the individual limit is 500. You can't receive any more than that.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

Inflation for that first city council rate race. What was the ballpark of what you had to raise?

SPEAKER_00 12:07

If you weren't raising at least 75k, I think in the at-large system, you weren't really gonna be competitive. Um with districts, there were candidates who were who won that had raised less than that. So it did, it did prove the point that 10.1 helped people who don't have that influence and the and the and the money backing, because there are candidates that self-fund. So you can either you loan yourself money and then you can pay yourself back with donations, or you just it just sits there as like this, you know, give don't, you know, you're like in campaign debt, but it's your own debt. Um, so you can choose to do what I guess you want to do with that. I'm pretty sure there have been successful candidates that didn't raise more than like 40 or 50 now. Yeah. But my first campaign, um, I think it was around 75, is what I raised.

SPEAKER_02 12:55

Yeah. That's a lot of checks.

SPEAKER_00 12:57

Yeah, it's a lot of checks. It's a lot of checks. And then and then you're not only raising money, there's I mean, Austin is so like advocacy driven. There is a club for everything. There are the environmental democrats, there are the progressive Austin Democrats, there are, I mean, there's I don't want to guess because I could be wrong, but like you get surveys, so you're constantly filling out all these surveys, you're asked to go speak at forums, then you're block walking, you're knocking on doors. I was working full-time through this all as well. I was still an assistant attorney general. Um, it did get to the point in set the September leading up to the November election, I asked for time off without pay and they denied it. So I I resigned from that position. And so, so that's the thing, right? How many there's not a lot of people who can afford to just quit their job. I was in a position, the only reason I could was because of my fire pension. I had a fire pension that I had rolled over into an IRA, and so I was making withdrawals from that to pay my mortgage, which you know was causing penalties for for pulling it out. Not everybody's in a position to be able to do that. And so I worked as long as I could, and then I resigned from my position. And so I didn't work from September to January is when I, you know, got sworn in. I'm like, yeah. That's scary. And let me throw a little like uh something that happened in between. I got pregnant during that time. Yes. Oh my goodness. Um, and so I didn't have health care. So thank you, Planned Parenthood. Um, and so was getting my first, you know, prenatal stuff that way. Um, and then thankfully was successful and you know had health insurance come very January.

SPEAKER_02 14:44

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:45

Um that's already a big life change in all directions and all it like it all when it rains, it pours in a good way. So that was city council, um, your raise. What did future races look like? Because that was your first time getting your name out there with your district constituents.

SPEAKER_00 15:08

I'd I'd um thankfully, because I've been involved, I I was the front runner in both my council races. And you know, as then as an incumbent, you have the power of incumbency and your and name recognition and you know, um campaigning on your record and all that kind of stuff as people who already contributed the first time.

SPEAKER_02 15:26

Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

You can call again. Um and then you've met more people at that time. So, you know, you so that's very helpful. So the second, my second campaign was, you know, not not too difficult. But if you're smart, you run as if you're losing. And so that's how you just make sure because you don't want to get to election night and be like, I should have done this, I should have done this. You just put it all out there. Um, my county race was extremely different because it was countywide. Whether good or bad, COVID happened and it stopped a lot of in-person. And that was probably really good for my mental health. Because I was still on city council trying to navigate COVID, trying to get help for my district. And then I decided to that I wasn't gonna run for re-election for council. I was gonna run for in the county attorney race. And so before COVID shut everything down, that was, I mean, driving to Lake Way, because I mean Travis County is huge. Driving to all over, you know, way, way, way north Austin, way out of my district, which was speaks again to the beauty of 10-1, is that you have a district and you know your district and you stay in your district and you advocate for your district. When you're doing a countywide race, it's everybody, right? And so, and there are no limits in that race. I could get larger checks, which made it a little easier to raise money for that one. And I actually had a runoff, so that's that was the worst thing because you get to election night and you're like, guess what? You have to you have to campaign for two more months.

SPEAKER_02 16:50

Yeah, that that light at the end of the tunnel got closed real quick.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

Um, that was a really hard race. Um, I had a lot of mud slinging towards me. Um and uh I had to raise more money, but it was it was easier. It was less awkward because I had done it before. I honestly thought I lost that race and I was okay with that, and then I won. So um you put it all out there. I did. I put it all out there, and then and that's that that election night. I was happy, I was, I was content. Before hearing the results, I was content. I was like, we did everything that we could. We stayed positive. Um, and you know, I I'm proud of, I'm proud of the campaign we ran. I always see these decisions as a win-win because I'm grateful that I have an amazing support system. And I often said, you know, if I win, I win. And if I lose, I have a handsome, loving husband and a great kid, and I'm still a lawyer, you know, and I and I can I can I can still work in some other capacity. And so I've always gone into it that way. It's a win-win.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

Amazing. So I know you had mentioned kind of a difference between contested and uncontested races. A little bit of how easy it is to raise and the symbolic nature of what you raised. Could you get into that a little bit?

SPEAKER_00 18:14

Sure. There's very few times, I think, in a council race where you are not challenged. I can't think of a time I've seen an uncontested council race. County races are very different. Um, you'll see uncontested county races a lot. And so my second race was uncontested. It is harder to raise money when you're uncontested because these calls are happening before the filing deadline. It does happen that at the last minute somebody files. Um, and so without knowing that, you still have to start making your calls and you have to file reports. Um, and it'll it says how much money cash on hand you have. And so having a strong number there can scare people out of the race, you know. I mean, I think if you think of a race now, Greg Abbott, Greg Abbott has millions of dollars, and a lot of people see that and think, oh, there's no way. They call it scaring people out of the race that way. But so when you're trying to raise money, um, many times they'll say, Well, do you have an opponent? People who are experienced in this world. And and I said, Well, I don't have one right now, but the more money I can raise, could show up, the more we want that. Exactly. Um and so there were comp there were many conversations. I'm gonna give you this much now. If you get an opponent, I'll give you this much more. And so that's good because you have that pledge at least, you know, and so then you can call them when you get your opponent, you can call them up and say, I got an opponent. Um, but it is harder when you were unopposed. And so, I mean, it's always good to keep a good amount in that account because you never know what the next election's gonna bring.

SPEAKER_02 19:44

After hearing this, I was like, oh, so should give a ton of money before the filing deadline. Yeah. And then like candidates can give the money back after the filing deadline if they don't need it, right? Um, that was me. That was not Dahlia. Uh, but it's actually maybe a little bit the opposite, like giving early to candidates that you support helps them kind of stave off that competition.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

Absolutely. And I think I think you know, everybody takes a different strategy and they're giving because the position I'm in, I get calls all the time. Can you give, can you give if any of my personal friends are running, I give to them early. I don't have time to keep up with all the different candidates. Like right now, there's a lot of AISD candidates, there's a lot of there's ACC candidates. Um, I don't, I I know a couple of them, but um, I've just decided I'll say I'm gonna wait till the filing deadline. Because what has happened in the past, you have someone that you kind of know run, and then one of your good friends jumps in the race. And so then you, you know, you're like, I've actually had to have the call to tell one candidate, I'm sorry, I have to give my support. I had actually given to that candidate already, and I said, I'm sorry, I have to switch this candidate. And that's a really hard call to make. I mean, there's loyalties and just in everything in life, right? And it's never been I like them better, it's just that I know them better, you know. It's like yeah, I know them, I've known them forever. They've they've supported me as a candidate, they've block walked for me. There's loyalty in all of this. And it's interesting how some c candidates deal with that. Um, I've all I always understand it. I and I hope other people do too. Like in a in a in a recent race, I've known one significantly longer. Both had supported me in previous races. And that one candidate um who I knew less time asked for my support, and I and I just said that you you know he's like a brother to me. He's been there since my council days. I hope you can understand. And I it's she really appreciated that.

SPEAKER_02 21:39

Well, and that directness I'm sure was very valued, right? Some people might just avoid the call. For your first race, you raised 70,000, 75,000 ballpark, and that was council acquired small dollar checks. You moved into county races. What is ballpark raising at the county level?

SPEAKER_00 21:54

For my contested race, I raised about 150. Um, and then I had A runoff. So then you basically have to start all over again. And that's hard to do when they've given, you know, already. For my second that it was uncontested, I think I still raised about a hundred thousand dollars for the for the uncontested one. Because then it it does, it's weird. It gets a little bit easier every time, both for just you personally having to make the call and then just um, you know, people wanting to support having seen your work.

SPEAKER_02 22:24

We've talked a lot about check sizes. Um, I guess what is kind of on the larger side of checks at the county level that you've received.

SPEAKER_00 22:31

I can just talk personally for me. My largest donation was a $10,000 check. Um, I think that's probably on the larger end for most people. That was a surprise. I wasn't expecting that. When I ran for county attorney in the middle of that campaign is when George Floyd was murdered. And so that also interestingly got a lot of people with wealth to moved them to get involved. And so it was interesting that I did get these larger checks after after that happened. And then just other support um, you know, after that happened, because I was the I was like the outside reform candidate. Um, I truly believe that that changed my the dynamics of my race and um and why I won is that people were wanting reform and wanting uh you know different ways of thinking. That my opponent at the time was from inside the office. She'd come. I'm the first person to to be in this position that didn't come from inside the office. And so I think being the outside candidate is what changed the race for for me.

SPEAKER_02 23:34

Yeah. And so the range of I'm sure even ten dollars helps, um, if not just symbolic, but also actually adds up um with but I guess I had imagined that the checks would need to be a lot like $10,000 is a lot, but I always imagined it wouldn't be need to be a lot more to be like impactful with a candidate.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

No, it's all impactful because when you think about it, even giving $10, that person's probably gonna talk about that. You know, they're probably gonna talk about it with their neighbor, with their and then that in of itself is worth maybe even more than what the $10 could have could have bought. And then just the like literally the buy-in of that. Um it was interesting, you know, when I when you use your friend network who have no idea what to give, it was interesting because I, you know, I had a group of friends that are not very politically involved, mostly mom friends, and the range of what they would give really, I would say they all had about the same financial resources. And I think it's just because they didn't know. They didn't know what the right amount to give was. Your campaign person will tell you, ask for $500, ask for a thousand dollars. But I'm such a wuss about this, and I hate doing it so much that I all the time say, whatever you can give helps. I do it all the time. It does help. Yes, yes. There are calls you make that you know, like the person who gave you $10,000 last time, you ask for $10,000 again. With mom friends, I I don't I hold nothing like they would give from $50 to $500. And I think like even the one that would give it $500 would be like, is that enough? Like, you know, they didn't know. I'm like, it's perfect, thank you. You know, and then I would tell the $15, it's perfect, thank you. Like that's what you know, and I just I wasn't comfortable enough to say, like, well, she gave five, I wouldn't be saying like, well, she gave $500. I was like, thank you for giving what you what you gave. And I mean, I feel like that's that's the every candidate has to bring the their authentic self into this, because that's what people appreciate. That's what worked for me is you know, being grateful for what you could give. And um, and again, like that's how I've gone into all of this is like I can only be myself, I can only do what's comfortable to me, and I will do as much of that as I can. And if that's not enough for me to win, that's okay. That's okay.

SPEAKER_02 26:07

Um yeah, it's inter like that's part of the one of the reasons we wanted to have this conversation and kind of the next person in the series who is an active donor and and how she thinks about it. But it's just I believe the stat, at least for federal races, is only like two or three percent of people give to campaigns.

SPEAKER_00 26:27

I believe that sounds right.

SPEAKER_02 26:29

And it and I look up the stat because gender equity is like our whole thing. And it is the same rate among men and women that make donations, but women often have no idea how much to donate. And we all don't talk about it with our friends as much, right? Like, oh, I put in like I might say I donated, but I'm not like I did 200 bucks. What do you do? Right. And so I just encourage all the huntresses to like especially if you're already taking that action, like take the action to tell someone so we can all kind of get to our level set of like, what are we doing?

SPEAKER_00 27:03

Yeah. And I feel like you can come up with your process, right? Like you can say, of course, you I guess you have a you would have a budget for giving, right? And then you say, like, you know, if it's um a local race, I will give it this rate. If it's uh, you know, like you can kind of set what your process is and then limits how like I feel like council races, most people of higher means can give the limit to So what are things that you spend campaign money on? So you have a team that you have to pay. It's interesting. When you my first race, I had a lot of volunteer power. It gets almost a little for for my experience has been a little bit less because they're like, oh well, you're gonna win. You know, so it's a little bit harder to get like people to volunteer.

SPEAKER_02 27:47

Well, honestly, I don't know that a whole lot of voters know what a county attorney does. Yeah. Right. I think some of it is like city council that's a thing that even like makes it into movies. Yeah. Right. So we have like some idea of what it is. But I and it's overwhelming to get in the booth and see like 50 races you have to vote for.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

Yes. Right. It is, absolutely. Um, but so you for my council race, you I had many more volunteers. Um, and then you have to supplement that with paid people. And so, you know, you're paying people to do your phone banking, which is calling or texting. You're paying people to bl to block walk for you, to go knock on doors. Getting that name recognition requires buying a bunch of signs. Depending on how much money you raise, you could you could do commercial, you could do like TV and radio, digital ads, Instagram and Facebook has made it a little bit more affordable to do those types of ads. My first council campaign, our campaign headquarters was my house. And so, you know, people were coming in and out, phone banking, um, picking up um it's now all digital, but there used to be when you block walk, it was like these, you know, sheets of paper with addresses. And so they'd become I've block walked. I've had sheets of paper.

unknown 28:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:58

So doing the sheets of paper that come, you know, and then you want to water pizza, you know. Um that was actually the most fun. That first one was the most fun. It was very grassroots, very people. I mean, we literally moved the couch out of our living room, and because that you know, the living room was the first thing you walked into, and it was this giant table. Imagining like folding tables and chairs.

SPEAKER_02 29:19

Like we have a campaign sign on the wall, maybe it was a spare one.

SPEAKER_00 29:24

Yes. Our living room was at um we hoisted the giant sign on the back of a truck. Like that was really the most really that was a fun, fun campaign. You can use campaign money for different things. For example, um, I can use it for we have a Christmas party, and we do ask for our, you know, we're public, we can't, we don't have private money in government. And so we ask our directors to donate for the Christmas party, and then I cover the rest with campaign money, which is you know, usually about four hundred dollars. And so I can use that to help supplement like some of the work, like some of the once you're in office, once you're in office, you can use continue to use the money. Yes, candidates who have lost and still have money, they'll donate to a nonprofit. I can also use campaign money to give to give to other candidates.

SPEAKER_02 30:08

Okay. Let's get into your work as county attorney. What do you do?

SPEAKER_00 30:16

It's a lot. And you're right, people don't people don't know. Every county is different. Um we have a criminal and civil division, so we prosecute misdemeanors on the criminal side. We also offer protective orders for any anybody can come in and apply for a protective order. We also are in charge of civil commitments. Um, we have a statutory duty to do that. And then on the civil side, we represent the county in all litigation, um, both as on the plaintiff and defending lawsuits against the county. And then we also provide legal advice to all the elected officials. So any elected official in Travis County reaches out to our office if they have a legal question, and then we um advise the commissioner's court. As the elected, everyone in the office is appointed by you. Um, you know, we didn't like totally clean house, but there is there is changes in leadership positions at when a new elected comes into office.

SPEAKER_02 31:13

I guess and you're not personally on cases right now.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

Um no, I do not I do not go into court. Um it is more an executive like management type of position.

SPEAKER_02 31:25

I know there's something that you're advocating for uh right now, the Family Justice Center. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:30

Can you tell us about that? Well, there's that too. There's all these things I didn't put that, I didn't add that, I guess, to what we're doing. But you know, on the criminal side, that's why I ran for this office to um institute reforms in the criminal justice system. That's what got me passionate about this position. And so there's a lot of like policy reforms we've done and trying to provide more diversion opportunities than putting people through the criminal justice system for low-level nonviolent crimes, because we are misdemeanors, which are the lower level, more nonviolent type of type of offenses. Um and then our protective order division helps people, survivors, if uh people subject to stalking, harassment, you have to you have to meet certain certain um criteria to be given a protective order, because then you're essentially taking someone else's freedom away by saying you cannot go close to this person, you cannot go within a hundred feet of them. And so there's a whole cis there's a whole procedure to be able to obtain a protective order. Um and so we were, you know, I feel like this part of our office had not gotten the um the resources that it needed. Um I think that it's kind of like this silent problem that happens that doesn't get talked about, you know, domestic violence. And, you know, we saw a spike in that during COVID because of the dynamics of COVID. We were grateful that we were able to continue providing this resources over the phone because it used to be purely coming into the office, which can be hard for someone who is being in this controlled dynamic. How do they get out of their house to come to an office? And so we were able to provide the application process through phone interviews and then hearings, online hearings with judges who will grant the protective orders. And then once COVID was over, we came when we came back, we decided to keep that for people because it worked for some people. And so we still allow phone applications, but then also we've started to expand the way or change the way we helped people get protective orders. And um in in my first administration, my first, I guess, term, we had talked about expanding those resources because when somebody comes in for a protective order, they're basically handed a pamphlet and said, here's 75 numbers for nonprofits that you know you could get help maybe with immigration services, um, child custody issues, you know, different things. And there's this model called a family justice center that had started in California that apparently got huge bipartisan support when George Bush was president, he visited these centers in California and was like, these are amazing, they should be all over the nation. George W. He became a big advocate for them. And they're just so amazing in that in some communities that have family justice centers, which is basically co-locating all these services together. So when a woman comes in and is filing for a protective order, you don't have to have a criminal case to get a protective order. You can just, you know, there there could be no criminal case associated. You just meet the criteria for getting a protective order. Um, and so you can meet with law enforcement if you want to, and she can also find job, you know, advice, find there's a food pantry there, uh, diapers there. So the idea is co-locating all of these resources into one location to stop them from having to go to all these different locations. We don't have one here in Travis County, and so we've been really working towards that. It's been a two-year process. The government runs runs slow. When you're when you're either changing a system or implementing a new initiative, there's there hurdles will happen, and it's easy to just say, oh never mind, it's not gonna, it's not gonna happen. And I'm grateful that our team is like, how do we get past this? How do we how do we solve this this hurdle? And so we've just been you know getting over these hurdles little by little, and our family justice center is set to open early next year. So we're excited.

SPEAKER_02 35:18

It's amazing. Well, and I imagine your background and not every politician goes through the path that you did, right? So I know it was firefighters union, right? I don't know if you had to like work with the police union, right? Yeah, um, working at the city level and at the county level to be able to like bring these different areas of our public services together. Yeah. Um it's like you are kind of I'll go with uniquely qualified to like both having the people to call and the experience of how these systems work and like pulling it all together.

SPEAKER_00 35:54

I I do. I'm able to, you know, I've said that city council years are like dog years, like they're like dog years for getting experience in in politics and strategy and an elected office, because I feel like every one year of council is like six years of any other elected office because you're just the amount of work, the amount of community engagement, the amount of challenges that you face, the amount of of being out and and addressing issues, the amount of people yelling at you because you're not doing it the way they want you to do it. I mean, it was City Council was, I say this all the time, was the hardest job I ever had, but I'm so grateful for that because it is, I feel prepared me for so many things. And this family justice center, just relatively speaking, an easy lift compared to when COVID happened. We were trying to get money out the door, and our law department was telling us you can't give money away. You could, you know, you could do this, but you can't do this. I've dealt with some really difficult challenges as a leader, and it has helped in this, in this, and and and in any endeavor. When when I first took office, there had been discussions of it's called counsel at first appearance. And in Travis County, if you are arrested and you can't afford counsel, you were not given counsel at your first appearance. And um, there had been years of discussing how do we get people this opportunity to have counsel because it's such a critical moment in their criminal case. As soon as I took office, we put everything in place so that our office could be ready to participate in CAFA once that started. And so we implemented a process that had been talked about. Nothing new. It wasn't like a new idea I came up with. It was just we're our prosecutors were reviewing cases quicker because a lot of cases get dismissed. You know, we can't prove them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Um, we implemented a more streamlined process to help people get out of jail quicker if they're not going to if their case is not going to be before a jury. And so, and this happened already. There's tons of cases that get dismissed. And we implemented a more efficient process to be able to be ready for counsel at first appearance, and we now have counsel at first appearance. It's been going on for, I want to say six months now, and there's been challenges and it's been hard, and um, but I believe that's what government's supposed to do. You're supposed to innovate, you're supposed to try new things, um, because at the end of the day, you're trying to help people in very difficult positions. I feel like that's our job. We're trying to help help people. I think that's the beauty of our democracy, right? You want to elect people who you think are gonna advocate similarly or who are when they get in office are actually gonna do the work they told you that they were gonna do. And so this was CAFA was largely driven by community advocates from it's been really cool, like from really groups that are more younger groups to groups that are, I mean, there's a group that we meet with that I think the average age is like 75. And I love them, and they're like, why can't you all get counseled for superior and implement? Every initiative has been community driven, and then you need people in office to to say, yes, I'm gonna help.

SPEAKER_02 38:56

It's interesting that probably goes back to the fundraising part, like when you're defining the different areas of what you stand for and what you're gonna try to do, and you're talking with these community groups then, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:07

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 39:08

And convincing them if you agree, right? Convincing them that like you are the candidate to help get that done. Exactly. Like going and getting that done. Exactly in office. Constituents have an impact when you're actually in. What can we do to support different initiatives?

SPEAKER_00 39:24

The work is really hard, not just for the work. I feel like elected the work is hard. You hear a lot of cr criticism more than you hear thanks. And so, like, I think if you if there's somebody out there an elected and that you appreciate the work that they're doing or you know the work that they're doing. In fact, I'll just say yesterday we had this presentation before Commissioner's Court, and um after the presentation, I got a text message and it said, You did an absolutely amazing job of bringing all these resources together, and you faced so many challenges and you got over them. Amazing work. I honestly I think reminding people because the work is hard and and you hear a lot of criticism. So I think that in one way, I think another way is to get involved with these advocacy groups that help and and you you need to be pushed. Another thing that really helps is host you can host a fundraiser for a candidate and use your circle of friends and and people show up because it's so interesting to them. I think those are ways that you can support.

SPEAKER_02 40:26

It's like I feel tickled to get to have those conversations. Like the opportunity to like meet a candidate. Thank you, Delia. Yeah, thank you. Um this has been a really, I hope, informative conversation, level setting how this all works, how candidates use money, hopefully encourages people to not be afraid of getting involved financially or otherwise.

SPEAKER_00 40:49

I'm we'll add during this whole school closing thing that's recently happened, um, our daughter school has closed. It was on the list of school closures. And there was this whole parent thread that they were so angry and so, you know, trying to do everything in their power. And on one hand, I understood it. I understand everyone's busy, but on the other, there was a part of me that was like, where were all these people when this conversation was happening at the legislature? They didn't know they they didn't know about it, but you know, it's like, and and so now that they do, now that they do, I hope they are supporting candidates that are public school advocates. And so I think that that's what how like everyone gets busy. I'm only I'm only involved in this because my father, as a union leader in his fire department, I grew up in it. I grew up in politics because of my father, right? I know not everybody does that. But um, you know, when when these things affect your life, the way it affected them, and when you look, I wasn't mad at AISD. AISD is doing everything in their power to keep afloat as a state AISD. Yes, yes, as a state keeps, you know, taking money away from them, giving money to private schools with no strings attached to it. Um and so I, you know, I I hope that people think about when they get it like how how are these things affecting them? What what it look really dig into it and figure out how they're they're affecting you, and then pick candidates who you know are gonna advocate for for these types of issues. And and they're out there. There's amazing candidates out there, you know, that want to do the work and have stepped up to do it.

SPEAKER_02 42:23

Yeah, like use like it's okay to feel angry. Yeah, use the anger. Yes, right.

SPEAKER_00 42:29

Absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:30

Like that's how we got a 10-1, thanks to Dahlia. We use just anger.

SPEAKER_00 42:34

Just me. A broad coalition, but I was one of them. And I and I I will say I I the slogan was mine. I said 10-1, trust Austin, and and the group loved my trust Austin slogan. So beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 42:48

Uh the the best solve to anger is doing something about it. Right. Um, all right, you ready for our final two questions? What is one piece of advice you have for all the huntresses out there?

SPEAKER_00 43:00

If something makes you mad, if you feel like you should get involved in something, it's natural to feel scared or feel like you're navigating water that you've never been in before. Um, but you know, I know that that for me is a personality. I I don't, I I love challenges. I can't keep my mouth shut sometimes. I have to talk. Um, but there are times when I've thought of raising my voice about something to this day, and my heart starts to raise. And I'm like, should I say that? Should I, and I would say just say it, do it, be courageous. Um, especially, you know, if you're a mother, your your daughter seeing that. I feel like one of my inspirations was my mother, and seeing her speak up for herself, speak up for her children, speak up for, you know, some some wrong, seeing that was, you know, such an inspiration. So it's just a wonderful, I guess, mentoring moment for your children, seeing that you you speak up, you you be passionate about an issue that is helping, you know, your community, helping you, helping your family.

SPEAKER_02 44:05

All right. And finally, what does rich mean to you?

SPEAKER_00 44:09

So I personally have always thought of rich when it as money. Like rich to me, like are you they're rich, or you know, that's that's always been money. But I I think maybe the questions for me when I think of wealth, I've always thought of wealth as a support system that you have if you fail at something. So for me, wealth, I say that I grew up um, we weren't wealthy in terms of money, we were wealthy in terms of love. And I feel like it takes that's all it takes to have kiddos that are confident and willing to take chances and ready to take challenges and ready to be resilient, is having this loving environment to grow up. So, so kind of rich in wealth, I feel like, are just having a group to fall back on, somebody to fall back on, and knowing that because every challenging thing I've decided to do in my life, what gave me the confidence to to take on that challenge was knowing that if I failed at it, it was gonna be okay because I still had this amazing network to fall back on. What has um guided me and challenged me is like I'd rather, I'd rather have failed at something than regret not doing it. And so I've always thought you learn the most from failure. Your path will just, you know, go a different way. Thank you so much for being here, Delhi. Of course, thanks for spotting me.

SPEAKER_02 45:27

Okay, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 45:28

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