Boys and girls, I feel like we are so, so honored to have our city councilman, Mr. Ron Nurenberg. He is your city councilman because you live in District 8 and he represents District 8. So when they call me and ask if he could come and do a kid's town meeting at McDermott Elementary, well for sure I was elated because I wanted him to know how proud we are of our fifth grade students. So today you're going to be sharing some of your concerns because his job I guess so to speak is to help people in our District 8 community and I know he has an emphasis on environment, correct? And keeping our city clean as all the city councilmen do. And I know I saw, read something about you are especially passionate about water safety and that kind of thing. He graduated right here in San Antonio from the University, Trinity University, but he has a higher degree called a master's from the University of Pennsylvania. He was just elected in July, so this is your first term, sir? Yes, sir. All right, so he's excited. We are the pilot school, meaning we're the first ones to really get to do this with all of the press that's involved. We are, we are very excited about that, right? Yes. Yes, so Mr. Councilman Nurenberg, thank you for coming to McDermott today and I hope you have a great experience because we certainly are looking forward to your message. Thank you very much, Principal Tatum. You guys have a great principal, don't you? Yes. Well, good morning, Falcons. Good morning. I hope you're doing well. How many of you know what city council is? Raise your hand. No? That's okay. That's what we're here to learn about, right? Well, I appreciate you all being here. I'm your District 8 city councilman and for those of you who don't know, city council works downtown and throughout the city to help do the basic things in our city. Keep it safe, make sure there's police on the street, make sure your streets are paved, things like that. All the things that we sort of take for granted as we go out in the community, we do that at city council, make sure there's money available to pay for it all. There are 10 different districts in the city of San Antonio. I'm District 8, so we number them from clockwise and you start in the middle. District 1 is downtown, 2 is on the east side and we go 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 is northwest. So there's 10 of us downtown plus the mayor. Anybody know the mayor's name? Julian Castro, you heard of him? He's our mayor. He's the 11th member of city council. And between all of us, we work on many different issues from water to streets to fire departments, all these different things that you have concerned about. And I think it's a tremendous privilege to be here in front of you today because how many of you can vote? You can? Maybe in your student council election? How old do you have to be to vote? 18. That's right. Who here is looking forward to being able to do that? All right. That's good. What do you think it takes to vote in San Antonio besides being 18? Yes, sir. Once you stand up and say your name and then give me your answer. Enrique? Enrique? What's the answer? Responsibility. Absolutely right. I wasn't thinking about that, but that's a good point. Yes, ma'am. Abby? To some extent. Yes. Don't be in jail. You can't vote when you're in jail. Technically. There's some nuance to that, but yes, sir. I'm sorry? The sense of learning. Yeah, so learning about the issues and the candidates that are in the election? Yeah. Well, all these are good answers, but we're missing one ingredient. You have to register to vote, right? You have to, when you turn 18 or when you're 17 and a half and you're getting ready to turn 18, you can fill out the card or by the time you're there, maybe we can do it online, but you've got to register to vote. Anybody know how many people are in San Antonio? A lot. I won't bore you, but it's about 1.4 million people in the city of San Antonio, and if you go outside of the city, another 600,000 or so, so there's about 2 million people in this county region. Guess how many registered voters there are? Should there be 2 million? No. Nope. Because not everybody's 18, right? That lives in this area. There's about 900,000 voters. That's right. So I've got a little experiment. How many classes are here? Two classes? Six? Four classes. So how many students are here? You don't know? We don't know. All right, let's take a wild guess here. All right, everybody quiet. Quiet down. All right, I want to make a little point. In the city of San Antonio city council elections, we're having a little trouble because people are getting real distracted. They're not wanting to take time to go out and vote, even though we give them two weeks to go do it. They're finding other things to do. How many of you are excited about voting again? Good. Good. All right, I want all the rows behind the first one. Keep your hands raised. Everybody, even the front row. Okay, behind the first row, put your hands down. Keep them raised on the front row. Put them down out there. You're not allowed to speak anymore. All right, I want all of you to put your hands down. You're getting lazy, okay? Keep them up. All right. All right, here down, you put them down. You four stand up please and turn around. How would you like it if these three young men and this young lady were from the rest of this period forward, make all the decisions for you, in terms of what you're going to eat for lunch, when we're going to stop the class, when you're going to... You guys would like it, wouldn't you? Yeah? Okay, you can sit down now. We better make sure that you guys are friends with these folks, right? Well, I do that. So really, if you didn't know them, would you like them to do that for you, make all your decisions for you? Well, I will tell you that every year in San Antonio, we do that. We talked about how many registered voters there are in the area. We talked about the elections and all the things that we have to do. But guess how many people out of 100 take time to go vote in a city election where we elect those 11 people and each of us represent about one point or 140,000 of your neighbors? Yes, ma'am. Go ahead. 50 out of 100? That'd be great. We do that almost in a little presidential election, but here locally in the city of San Antonio where we get to fix your streets, we get to figure out how many police need to be on the street. 10? Getting close. Who said five? You're right. Five people. So basically about this many people for all of you who chose to stay home or got lazy or didn't really feel like it was an important thing. So how many of you are excited to vote again? How many of you want these folks to make the decisions for you? All right. Well, you get my point. Voting is a very, very important thing and that's where it all starts when you're 18. You can go do that. But the point is, even if you're not 18 you live in the city too, right? It's very important that you have things to say. So I want to thank all of you who took the challenge our office sent out a request for you to think about all the things that are important to you in our city all the things that maybe you don't think aren't so good or don't think are very good you want to fix and got some responses ready. And this is the first of many, many of these events that we hope to have throughout the city. We're calling it our Kids Town Hall and if you have any better ideas about better names and want to create a logo or something there's another challenge for you. Be happy to have your help. But it's very important. You guys are 25% of our population. Of all the 1.4 million people in the San Antonio area, it's actually more than that. One quarter of them, 25% are not yet old enough to vote. But guess what happens when these folks stand up, these four folks, you can sit down. You all of a sudden start to like them, right? And tell them, we like pizza for lunch or whatever. Make sure you have pizza. Well, what happens is when these are the only folks that are making the decisions, everybody gravitates towards them and wants to know what they're thinking. They end up calling all the shots. What's important for us to do is start talking to our neighbors because everybody lives here together. Even if you're 18 or you're not 18 you've got something important to say about your community, right? You have to walk to school maybe. You want to make sure your streets are safe. You want to make sure your parks are clean. Well, you have a very important role in that process. And so I want to thank you for being here today to ask questions. And I want to thank you for thinking about your community and your city. You should start talking to your parents about that. Letting them know. Because they can vote. They can vote for your family to represent your family and about things that are important to them. And having these conversations is important for us as a community and make it better. And I will tell you that we are very lucky in San Antonio because despite 5% of the folks still calling the shots at the voting booth you have 11 people, men and women who are very concerned and care a lot about you guys and about how we leave our city for you when you become the leaders. So real quick before we get started on the question and answers I want to thank a few folks that made this possible. All of the teachers at McDermott you guys are inspirations to myself and my team. I do want to introduce my team. Karen Vega who is our newest colleague. She is actually still a student at St. Mary's University. Harjo who just graduated from Trinity University. Kota is somewhere. Kota is here as well. And we've got another part of the team that's working for you every day and every night. We're on Facebook. We're on Twitter. You can call us. We want to hear about your concerns and we certainly want you to participate in these things. So thank you again. I also want to thank Stagg restaurants. Ned and Fabiola if you are here really appreciate you underwriting this and now cast SA which is you guys are on TV. All right. This is being streamed all across the city and across the world. So and we'll be able to have a link for you. We'll send it to your teacher so you can replay this you can replay the this forum to them and you can go back and see whatever I answered your question in two months or three months or a year from now if I actually did what I said I was going to do because that's important very important part of the process too. So let's go ahead and get started with question and answer and who's going to be my first who's got the first challenge question that they would like to address. And please stand up and say your first name and what your question is. My name's Helen and we don't have enough after school recreational facilities available for no charge for latch kids keys to involvement activities. There are a lot of kids there are a lot of kids needing something to do after school. Thank you for your question. Well first of all I'll say that I didn't know you guys used the phrase latch key kids anymore because I'm I was a latch key kid and the latch is ready and everybody know what a latch key kids. Okay. Somebody who has to go home your parents probably still at work. You got to turn the key get yourself in and figure out something to do for a few hours. Well, that's a great question. We have what's called it in San Antonio the Department of Human Services and these are things that we aren't part of the streets and public safety. These are other things that we do that improve quality of life and if you know if you read our city charter if you really would like to fall asleep fast you can read our city charter I'll send you a link to it but that's all the rules of the road that we have to live by and a mission for San Antonio and for our representative council is to look out for the welfare the quality of life of our citizens. So not only is it about streets and public safety and parks and libraries it's also about things that help improve our quality of life. So that's what you're talking about. How do we make it enjoyable to live here in San Antonio? We're doing a number of different things we have programs for after school for youth throughout the school districts we partner with NISD and AISD on some of these and we also have a thing that called fitness in the parks you all look like you're full of energy so I would recommend that you talk to your parents about the program called fitness in the parks and these are free fitness classes that we conduct in different parks around our community and certainly there are a number of them in district 8 I don't know if there's one within walking distance of McNermot but these are things that you could do either on a weekend or after school if they're available and I will say that we don't always have the answers so we're looking to you also for creative ideas so if you have new ideas for new programs we want to hear them and I mentioned who's on social media who does Facebook? You guys are probably too young to do Facebook right? No? Let me actually let me ask you a different question because I want to know how many of you have cell phones? That's amazing I want you to know that I wasn't until 25 that I had my first cell phone so you consider yourselves lucky Well we are on the reason why I ask that we are on Facebook we're on Twitter we have obviously our phones email addresses any way that you can get in touch with your city council member and we all have all of these things you should take advantage of that because we'll take complaints we'll take suggestions we'll take ideas but anyway you can communicate with your public officials you should use that use that method so good question thank you who's got the next question? Yes sir we have a mic for you you guys are so well organized and behaved I do want to give you that compliment Cars often speed on USA Boulevard in front of our school and you're not slow down this makes it unsafe it is difficult for our school to get across and go from the city how can the city council help? we can try so you're talking about speeding in front of your school so which is one of the reasons why we have these school zones is so we keep people slowing keep people from speeding in front of your school so I'm a little dismayed to hear that that's still happening there's several things that we can do we have the San Antonio police department which is one of the best police departments in the country incredibly efficient we work with them all the time in a program called San Antonio fear free environment it's called SAFE S-A-F-F-E and these are different police officers who respond to issues like this and we communicate with them daily about different pockets of activity that are happening so we can direct them to you know put some resources into school zones that are having trouble if you're having a lot of speeders we can let them know that this is a problem area we rely on that communication though so we're not everywhere in the district my staff we're at number seven so we rely on you to tell us where those issues are but we can direct the attention of the SAFE officers and S-A-P-D to those particular areas there are other things that we do within a department called transportation and capital improvements if you think about the the beneath your feet all the things that we do beneath your feet in the city the roads, the sidewalks things like that that's called transportation and capital improvements that's the department that handles it but we can do different things on the street itself to help slow people down like speed bumps which actually don't really work that well putting new signs street speed limit signs we can adjust the speed limit sometimes with cooperation from our state representatives but the first step would be to have S-A-P-D come out and observe that and maybe catch a few speeders scare people in the slowing down alright good question next question out of questions yes ma'am I'm making Karen work there is a lot of congestion on Huebner and Fredericksburg roads in the morning and afternoons what can be done to make sure students are safe getting to and from school Huebner and Fredericksburg road so this is one of the the big challenges that we have with building our city we've got I'm sure you've seen all across our district we've got a number of different holes in the ground that we've put there on purpose because we're trying to build better streets and the city of Huebner and Fredericksburg has a lot of work on it can you repeat your question again there is a lot of congestion on Huebner and Fredericksburg roads in the mornings and afternoons what can be done to make sure students are safe getting to and from school well we need to address pedestrian safety throughout our community and we started to do that do any of your parents work in the medical center a lot of you wow okay well you've probably heard them talk about how dangerous it is sometimes to walk throughout the medical center and we've had some very unfortunate accidents happen out there recently but again we rely on our citizens like you to let us know where there's particular issues particular challenges so we can go and address those pedestrian safety issues one of the things that we're trying to do you've all seen you know you walk along the sidewalks they're right up against the street on the curb and you have cars zooming by you we're trying to move those out away from the road so that there's some space between the roadway and the sidewalk so there's you know there's less interaction between pedestrians and cars we're also upgrading our traffic signals in some areas we've gone from radar technology now to better visual actually the other way around visual camera technology to radar technology that can better better determine when a car is at an intersection so we have better pedestrian you know what a pedestrian is? okay walking on the crosswalks we have better crosswalks some that are audible you can hear they're counting down for you so all these different things are in the process of making our our community better and safer to walk around in I will say again I didn't mention 3-1-1 everyone knows what 9-1-1 is right you don't want to call that unless it's an absolute emergency we also have a non-emergency number that goes to our city people that are working you know all the time on issues like this you can call 3-1-1 from any phone and you can ask questions all kinds of questions like this and direct us to particular areas of concern so 3-1-1 is another one and I'm sure most of you who raise your hand on the cell phone question probably have smart phones of some kind but we also have an app a mobile app called San Antonio 3-1-1 and you can do all of it from your your smartphone without actually talking to anybody good question thank you you guys are making me nervous yes ma'am my name is Haley and we are willing to help improve our community but what can we do we do not know what we can do as a young citizen to help make improvements what can we do to help well that's a that's a profound question I will say there's nothing you can't do that 95% of your neighbors aren't already doing too the only thing that you really can't do that other people may be doing and just these four people is vote you can be involved I think the best thing anyone can do in this city to make it better is to talk with their neighbors about the things that they like better conversations what ends up happening is that there's always a few issues that draw a lot of attention that's all anyone wants to talk about well 98% of what's going on the city is stuff like what your classmate asked about which is the sidewalks in the streets getting to school those are really going to impact you tomorrow so I think being involved in your school whether it's city council or coming to forums like this talking to your friends talking to your family I know going to school on a school bus you probably don't want to talk about city politics and streets and police and things like that but you're probably talking about what you saw on TV last night but I will tell you that these are really cool and fun conversations to have and they're important conversations to have if you really want to make a difference in your community you have to be involved in your community and there are things that you can do right now just like what you're doing today to be involved and to ramp that up just a little bit more we have a program in my office called district 8 community academy we have involved young people from high school to college to as young as 8 to be involved in my office to help figure out things that their community that their colleagues their classmates are interested in I would love to involve any of you who are interested in volunteering one of the challenges is your issues that you care about are not always the same as people who are 30 or 40 or 50 years older than you but we need to be addressing them all so help us by telling us what those issues are which is a lot of what today is about Hi, my name is Paige many adults in our area complain that they're not finding jobs as well so do you see any new businesses being put in that area that will provide new jobs? Yes and that's a great question too you know our economy is built on the availability of jobs often and our entire country has been through a recession San Antonio has been much better off than most but we're starting to see more economic development this is an issue of focus for everybody on council is bringing new businesses in the area so yes that is happening we're working on policies to make it easier for people to do business and in areas of town where we're having challenges keeping businesses open because there's construction or because there's just some history of lack of opportunity we're working on those things as well so we can have jobs available for people but I will tell you that the secret of San Antonio is getting out people want to move here so there's 1.4 million people in this city today in 20 to 30 years when you're in my place there'll be double that just about that's hard to imagine but imagine this place having twice as many people in it when you're up here so people are moving here we're working on making sure that businesses are attracted here and I will add one more thing which is the most important thing that you can do to make sure that you are occupying one of those jobs is to be exactly where you are now I'm not going to give you the same speech that you've heard a thousand times but I will tell you that the future that you want the nice car and the nice house and the job depends on you staying exactly where you are doing the best you can in school and having the conversations that we're having now on the other side of that we do have programs again through that department that I've been telling you about Department of Human Services we have some jobs training programs that we partner with we have some education programs we even have literacy programs for adults who are having challenges reading we have all those as part of the mix of services that different partners throughout San Antonio offer to help find those jobs we'll get to you I promise we have seen gang competing we've heard as well in our school what can be done to assist businesses in cleaning up on one graffiti quickly gang graffiti graffiti in general is a big nuisance, it's a big problem everyone I'm sure is familiar with graffiti the challenge of graffiti is that it appears that if you don't take care of it instantly there's a gravity that sucks in more graffiti over time just to clean it up as fast as possible it also requires reporting it so I mentioned 311 there's also an actual graffiti app so another smartphone app called no graffiti SA you can put it on your cell phone if you find graffiti somewhere you can snap a picture of it and the app will tell SAPD and I'm sorry it'll tell code compliance it'll tell you exactly where it is because they take a snapshot of your GPS location it's really cool so you take a picture of it, send it on and we'll get it cleaned up all else fails, you're not getting a response you can call us you can also tell your friends because I'm sure none of you do this I'm sure you probably know someone who does graffiti and if you don't know they are doing it they might actually be doing it without you knowing it tell them it's not cool it takes a lot of money to get rid of that stuff it brings the property value of your home down there's better ways that we can be spending our time on more productive things one of our colleagues actually graffiti of some kinds is art so he's designated certain areas to go and do graffiti in an artistic way we don't want to encourage graffiti that's defacing certain buildings or other things around town but if it's art, we have a place for art in San Antonio and we can help with that finally my name is Tarun, crime seems to be increasing in our community like breaking into apartments or houses what can be done to help our policemen better serve and participate in our community yeah well that's our number one job is to keep you and your family safe and we take that very seriously as our police chief in San Antonio is a great public servant and in fact, over the course of his tenure since he's been here in San Antonio, our crime is way down we've seen spikes in certain times of different things some violent crimes, some property crimes District 8 the problem crime in District 8 is property crime just like you mentioned house home break-ins car break-ins, thefts that kind we are working with the police department the same way we are with code compliance and with the safe officers to identify the areas we've worked with businesses up and down the I-10 corridor to establish a communication group they had this long before we got there but we're helping spread that communication network farther so when a crime occurs other people know about it and we can help with catching the criminals and we're also working with SAPD Chief McManus and his team have done a great job focusing resources on particular problem areas of crime they call them pop units problem-oriented policing focusing resources in areas of high need particularly with violent crime but also with property crime so we're working on identifying the particular areas that are having issues at the moment to work to address that and focus resources in that area this is a challenge for all of us though fighting and stopping crime is not as simple as placing police resources placing police at the scene it's about educating our community it's about lifting up the economy it's about making sure that people have jobs and have money to send their to put food on the table school things like that all the things that we do to make our community a better place like you talking to your friends will have an impact on making it safer so that's what we're trying to do as well in the end though if there's ever a problem and you're not getting your help you can call us these are great questions guys any more questions okay well let's open it up do you have any other questions yes ma'am hi I'm Jacqueline I wanted to say some few words because like you're never too old to make a change and try something new and just do you and try your best to make a change in our community because after all we live in it we live here and don't don't let nobody knock you down and tell you that you can't do it because you can and after all we live here and we have to survive and provide for us so just try your best and uplift our community can I get an amen well said Jacqueline very well said yes sir my name is Tavia and there's a lot of people smoking and doing bad stuff and I was wondering how we could help stop that yeah well yeah there's a lot of that happening it's educating people about what's good for their health and what's good for their community in terms of smoking San Antonio in 2010 actually back in 2004 passed a smoking ban a partial smoking ban to keep smoking away from particular establishments in 2010 they updated it again to restrict it even further so we have a smoking ban in place that essentially bans smoking from all indoor places and all outdoor public places it took effect two years ago if you see somebody smoking in front of their house or something like that it's a question of individual choice we have we're confronted with those choices every day do I do something that's good for me or bad for me because there's a lot of options out there but I'm glad that you identified that that's an important thing so we do have a rule of law in place with regard to smoking but there are many other things that will rely on educating people about what those good choices are okay thank you we're next yes what's coming some apartments don't pick up after themselves like the trash or the dumpster we're getting a we're getting a 101 on 311 a lot of these issues are solved by contacting us either through my office or calling 311 or code compliance directly but we do have ordinances regarding littering and so we can follow with that and make sure that they're picking up after themselves a lot of times though I know we're talking you may be familiar with these plastic bag plastic bag ordinances that were plastic bag policies and eliminating littering from plastic bags love to know what your thoughts are on that but a lot of the trash flies off to another place so we have trouble picking it all up my office we do have through that community academy we do organize volunteer groups to go out and clean up particular problem areas we do that with graffiti and with littering and so if anyone wants to spend a Saturday afternoon or want something else to do besides play video games we'd love to have you my name is Karthik and in the streets they're stealing wallets and electronic devices and what can we do to help and stop stealing electronic devices or wallets in the streets like where like Fredericksburg and just when you're walking down the sidewalk yes other kids or adults like they're like adults and they just go like hey give me the money yes so what you're describing is an actual robbery which is a major crime if that happens to you you need to call 9-1-1 you guys are still very young you're obviously very articulate and there's not many people smarter than these fifth graders I can tell you but you should walk with people obviously when you're going to and from school you do not walk alone if you have cell phones, those cell phones I'm sure your parents gave you because they want to know where you are so if you're walking in between your house and school you need to let them know that you are but if you're a victim of a crime like robbery, theft if someone threatens you you need to let the police know and that's an emergency so you do dial 9-1-1 and then after that's all done and the police report is filed and we want to talk about it from what we can do as a city to stop these things from happening then you come talk to us that's very concerning that they would be harassing young people like you and I'm I completely understand your frustration about that but we are on your side everybody in the city and everybody in this room are on your side so we don't want that to happen I'll let Karen choose who she takes the mic to because I'm making her walk around in circles my name is Jesse and there's like gangs and bullies at every school and how can you stop them from coming to our school and picking us gangs from outside of the school okay well that's another that's another police issue and I'm sure your school NISD police department is aware of that we're going to have a meeting I appreciate you letting us know about this you're seeing this you have friends in other schools as well they complain about the same things okay well this is an issue that we'll start talking about with SAIS by being with NISD and with SAPD but that doesn't need to happen our school security resources only go so far same with the city but these are issues of the highest priority if they're threatening our kids you guys yes ma'am Karen you go how can we stop people from just throwing away stuff and giving it to people in need of stuff okay let me make sure I know your question a lot of people throw away things that are useful you know I don't know a good answer to that question does anyone want to take that I'm sorry I won't do that yeah do you have a good answer to your classmates question you could donate it instead of donating is donating okay and donate it instead oh okay well donated is one way we have several organizations we have many organizations in town that take donations so if you see somebody throwing away something that can be used by somebody else let them know about Goodwill Salvation Army the Children's Bereavement Center a lot of different organizations that can take that stuff anybody else want to answer that question and we'll you know if if somebody doesn't know what to do with something call us we'll help who else wants to answer the question before we go on to another question I saw some people watching bad stuff on YouTube like scary games and stuff at school no at home even at their apartments really well there's a whole lot we can do about that I will tell you that also some people keep saying bad words on YouTube because every time they say that it's inappropriate I agree with you we will have to contact YouTube about that though I wish sometimes I wish that city council could do much more for you than we can because this is the level of government that works very very hard for you unfortunately YouTube is not one of the areas that we can they do have standards and policies though they have the terms of use if you see those things and it really concerns you there's an email address at the bottom there you can flag material because it's inappropriate it violates their terms of use so you can do something about it I don't know how well that works though interesting question by the way my name is Jenna I have two questions one of them is about robbery some people are stealing things that are outside because like some of them have like just gates that you can just walk through and they'll just steal something and then my other question is on some rows where the pedestrians walk sometimes they'll say walk and for like about two seconds and then it just starts counting down oh the crosswalks so let me take that question first and you'll have to rephrase the first part of the question because I'll just say yes I agree with you that is a problem we can address it so the second part about the crosswalks that's another area we'll need to let us know about because the timing on those things can often be tweaked when we get feedback when it starts counting down though technically it's still you can walk in it until the stop appears but if it's not enough time for pedestrians to get across that's a big problem but it's one that's really easily addressed so just let us know where those intersections are and the reason why we're such a great team is that we all write things down so just let me know or Karen or Harjo or Kodano where that particular intersection is and we'll make the phone call started today I'm Jermiah and I usually see a lot of people don't have a seatbelt and keeping and putting kids in the front seat oh yeah well that's not good I mean that everybody's heard click it or ticket yeah you can get a ticket for not not wearing your seatbelt and you can get a double ticket for being a for your parents can for not having you wear a seatbelt or being in a car seat that's a big problem if you see that happening remind the person that it's probably worth their 20 seconds to put on a seatbelt as opposed to the several hundred dollars that they'd be paying for a ticket if they got caught I'm Jermiah and in some of our apartments there's a lot of people they see that it says to like throw pick up after your pet and they don't do it and they just leave like their the dogs or their pets on the park where kids are trying to play and some kids are stepping on it yeah nobody likes stepping in it right we can take that literally or figuratively so let me I'll answer that question just a second but I did want to go back to the seatbelt issue we have seen in the last several the last couple of months we have seen young people and we've seen adults die from an auto accident where death could probably be avoided because they didn't take the 20 seconds to put on the seatbelt so this is a I mentioned it hits your your wallet but it also can be a devastating thing for a family to have to go through so remind people about that if you see them not wear a seatbelt it's not worth the time it's a small area between your own home and where you're going it's not far away so even if you think you're going to two minutes near the corner store put your seatbelt on with the droppings we have a phrase there's not really an ordinance against doggie droppings as much as we would like them to be but we have a mantra in my office it's called be a better neighbor this is something that drives our entire effort as district 8 city council office what can we do to be a better neighbor that means that means pick up after your dog it means make sure that we're not we're not doing something to the detriment of another district it means working the best we can for district 8 neighbors and for people all over the community and everything that we do but you can use that mantra do be a better neighbor what does that mean be a better neighbor when you're sitting in math class yes sir not disturb them when they're working great answer one of the teachers clapping their hands on that one correct I mean little things like that be a better neighbor you all have a very important influence in the circle of life that you walk in and if you think about what can I do to be a better neighbor that will help take care of a lot of things including doggy droppings Jenna and Karthik that a lot of robbery takes place and mainly one of them is in my apartments for the past three years they've been saying they're going to fix the gates but they never have and for the past seven years and for this last year more than seven crimes has been taken in our apartment in your apartment community yeah you have so everybody knows what government is right it's just a group of people who have been chosen to make decisions because the rest of us don't really have time to get that involved or we don't want to or whatever reason well apartment communities have the same thing they have management they're not voted in they own the place they're hired to manage it but those are the folks that you need to talk to about issues like that if they're not taking care of the things that they're supposed to because when you move into your apartment community they're going to contract with them they say they're going to do something and you're going to give them money for doing that part of that is taking care of the gates and making sure they mow the grass so make sure they live up to their contract if you have trouble call us we'll call them too what can we do to help the local ecosystems with the pollution and us building buildings all over the place and destroying their ecosystems you're getting an amen from Jacqueline that's a great question that's another great example of why we should ask ourselves how can we be better neighbors you know our community is growing so I told you that we have 1.1 million people moving into the city of San Antonio very soon over the next 20 or 30 years obviously there's going to be we're going to build places for them to stay we're going to have to build places for them to work things like that so there is an element of us having to build in San Antonio we're going to continue to do that but we have a lot of different things that we're doing now to help us do that in a balanced way in a smart way you know Principal Tatum mentioned water this is one of those areas you know when you take a shower make sure that you turn it off you're not wasting water when you're washing your hands or washing the dishes make sure you don't leave the faucet on things like that that you can do makes a little difference but if you can imagine that the entire city is still operating with that frame of mind what can I do we can have a better city with regard to air and land and all those things those are very good questions and those are questions that we don't yet have the answers to but I'm very interested in finding the answers to them because when you're again when you're standing here you realize that we haven't made mistakes that we can't undo so that's very much on my mind thank you for that question and also make sure you talk about those things with your classmates because again we don't have all the answers one more question sorry guys my name is tesla people are tesla people are hurting other animals and they don't care about them they're experiencing a lot of dead animals during the street and they don't stop to care about them and how can we do to help that? yeah you're talking about the animals in the streets there so let the record show that the last question that was asked was asked by someone named tesla very nice name so we have a department in san antonio called animal care services they are in charge of dealing with all these issues about helping us deal with stray animals in a humane way some of them we don't deal with we don't deal with wildlife the state deals with wildlife but domestic animals like feral cats and dogs we do pick them up and we make sure that they're not contributing to a disease problem or they're not overpopulating so we get them spayed and neutered and we have homes for them but the animal care services department is one that 10 years ago in san antonio unfortunately we had no we had kennel space very little kennel space we had animals being put down in mass because we didn't have a really good operation to deal with them today in san antonio we have doubled down we have really focused in on taking care of animals and we've done that we have mayor huley on castro mayor hardburger what's that these mayors have been strong on animal care and so we have made significant progress and today of all the stray animals that we that we see and we take care of and spay and neuter and get them shots 83% of them are released live so I think it's around that amount of changes from month to month am I allowed to take one more question no they're giving me the hook well I want to tell you from the bottom of my heart and from my team how much I appreciate you taking time to visit with us this is again a pilot we plan to do this many many more times across our district and again if you have any questions for me call me email facebook twitter any way you can get a hold of me I'm very serious about the fact that you don't have to be 18 in order to make a difference in this community and you don't have to be 18 to get an answer from your city government I'm not the only one who believes that so make it make make that your choice to be involved in your community and take advantage of the opportunities you have to make our city better so thank you very much for joining our school and by the way did you know you chose the best school and the best fifth graders right we wore a falcon today we also want to thank your staff for working with us we appreciate it and we thank all the media who were able to come out today and join us I think this was a great activity for fifth graders we have class meetings in which they discuss concerns about school and class and this gave them an opportunity to discuss concerns about our community so again we thank you


In this discussion, we will discuss the discussion question of, what is a bond? Support Accounting Instruction by clicking the link below, giving you a free month membership to all of the content on our website, broken out by category, further broken out by course. Each course then organized in a logical, reasonable fashion, making it much more easy to find what you need than can be done on a YouTube page. We also include added resources, such as Excel practice problems, PDF files and more, like QuickBooks backup files, when applicable. So once again, click the link below for a free month membership to our website and all the content on it. So when considering the topic of bonds, this is probably one of the broadest types of questions they could be given in an essay format or discussion question type format. A couple of different ways to approach a question like this. One would just be to first define the bond and then probably get some characteristics of the bond and then possibly talk about how a bond might be recorded, journal entries related to the bond. A bond is going to be a written promise to pay an amount identified on the bond. So we're going to have the par value or the face amount of the bond plus any stated interest. So a bond is going to be an agreement to pay the par back plus any interest. It's going to be very similar to a note in that way in that the idea would be that we would be trying to finance the company if we're going to be the issuer of the bond. We're going to issue bond in order to finance the company. We're going to receive payment in order and we're going to give a promise to return the payment typically to return the principal and plus any interest that's going to be stated on the bond. Bonds are usually going to be for amounts of $1,000 bonds, possibly $5,000 bonds are going to be the amount types of each individual bonds and then we can group them together and sell multiple bonds at particular times. So in essence that's going to be what the bond is. Now we can get into different types of bonds and we can also get into the issuing of the bond. How would it be recorded? What would it mean to be recorded at a discount or a premium? Different types of bonds could include bonds that are either secured bonds or unsecured bonds. A secured bond would just mean that there's some type of asset, some type of collateral on the bond so therefore if there was no payment on the bond then the collateral asset would then be compelled, you can compel them to sell the asset and therefore use the proceeds to pay off the bond. So they're more secured, secured bond are going to be safer type of bonds in that way whereas unsecured are not going to be supported by collateral and therefore have to be a bit more risky. We can also have serial bonds which are going to be bonds which are unlike kind of a normal bond which has one maturity date. A serial bond would have multiple dates that it would typically be maturing in a series of dates in the future. We can have convertible bonds, bonds that can be exchanged for shares of stock. We can convert the bonds if that's going to be some type of bond. We can also have bonds that are callable and that would be a bond that we can call back at a stated price before the maturity date. So those are just some other things that if we had a general question like this we can list out the different types of bonds that are there. It might also be useful for trying to pick up as many points as possible in something like this or just add discussion to a question like this to compare and contrast bonds to other types of financing options. And when a company issues a bond what it's trying to do is try to get money for whatever it needs for the business. Now obviously revenue would be the way we would like to do that, to earn revenue. But if we need to finance the business in some other way we have a few options. We can issue bonds or we can take out a loan from the bank or we can issue stock. So we might want to compare and contrast bond financing to other types of financing just to try to pick up as many points and see what this type of question is looking for. And the bond financing is similar to taking out a loan. We're still going to have a note basically that we owe in the future. One of the main differences is that the bond we can give to the public. So we have the ability to sell bonds. We might be able to sell bonds on an exchange even. Whereas the loan typically we're restricted more to the bank. So it might be more possible therefore to raise more capital with bonds if we could sell the bonds to the public. So that's going to be one of the advantages of the bonds. One of the problems with bonds which is similar to a note is that we do have to pay back the interest and the principle on the bond. So we not only have to pay back the bond money that we get, we have to pay back interest or we have to pay back whatever we say is on the bond at the end. The par value, the face amount plus the interest on it. Whereas we would have to do the similar thing with a note. We'd still have to pay back the note and the interest. But if we were to finance with stock, say, then we wouldn't have that. We can issue the stock and we get the money and we wouldn't have to pay back anything. So what's the bad thing about that? Of course, the stock, we would be giving up ownership in the company, some type of ownership. So claims to the dividends, claims to the value of the company in case of liquidation, the net assets of the company and some voting and controlling rights. We're giving up with the issuance of stock. Whereas bonds, we don't do that. We keep control of the company. We don't give away any of the value of the company or any of the purchasing or decision-making power when we issue bonds. But in order to issue bonds, we have to give something and that something's going to be paying back the bonds. Plus the interest we're going to have to pay on the bonds. Now, we might also discuss what the bond is going to go on the books for, how are you going to record it, what's a premium and what's a discount, just to pick up as many points as possible. And when you issue the bond, we could issue it at par. We could issue it at a premium. We could issue it at a discount. And all that means is that if the bond, say, is going to have, we have a $1,000 bond. And let's say the interest rate on the bond is 10%. Then the question is, what are we going to sell those bonds for? Note, you can't change these two things. If it was a note, we would change the interest rate. And so if we want a $1,000 loan, if we were trying to get a loan, we would say, I need a $1,000 loan bank. And they would say, OK, well, let's haggle over the interest rate. But here, the interest rate's already on the bond if it's already been made. So we can't haggle over the interest rate. All we can haggle over is the price of the bond. So if the market rate then is different, if the market rate is, say, higher, if somebody is trying to give me, we're trying to get $1,000 from this person, and the market rate is higher, they can give their $1,000 someone else and get 12% return as opposed to hour 10, well, then we're not going to be able to sell our bond unless we sell it at a discount. So if the market rate is greater than the stated rate, we're going to have a discount. If the market rate is less than, well, let's put it down here. We're going to say it's 5%. Well, then someone can only go somewhere else and get 5%. That's supposed to be a 5, by the way. And if they can only get 5%, they're going to want our bond for sure. But we're not going to sell it and give 10% of the $1,000 unless we are able to sell it at a premium. We would want more money. So that's when we can have it sold at a discount or premium if the market rate was the same, then we would just sell it just like a kind of a note. We would just say, we'll pay the 10% interest. That's the market rate and 1,000. If we made the bond just at the same date that we sold it, we would try to shoot for the market rate. And that would be the case. If there's any difference between the date it was made and the date sold, it's less likely that the market rate is going to equal the stated rate on the bond. And then we're going to have to issue it for a discount or a premium.


home of a lawful subtenant rather than that of the tenant. If neither the tenant nor the subtenant are making a home in the left property, the eviction ground will still allow the landlord to bring the tenancy to an end. Landlords will have a way of tackling completely abandoned properties. They will also be able to use the ground if someone is occupying the property, but that person does not have a lawful subtenancy. Amendments 107 to 110, the bill provides for a repossession ground that enables a landlord to gain repossession of a property where a tenant has failed to comply with the terms of a tenancy agreement. During stage 1, some stakeholders, including Shelter, expressed concern that the tribunal should not have to grant repossession for breaching a statutory term of the tenancy and should be able to consider the circumstances in each case. Amendment 107 removes the mandatory element of the eviction ground so that a breach of any term of a tenancy agreement will give rise to a discretionary ground for eviction. Amendments 108 to 110 are a consequence of this change. I think that this is proportionate and balances the rights of landlords and tenants, ensuring that the tribunal will only evict a tenant where it considers that a reasonable decision given the breach. Amendment 180, in the name of David Stewart, amends the not occupying the let property ground to change the reference from the tenant's home to the tenant's only or principal home. That amendment is not necessary. Every eviction ground in schedule 3 begins with a sentence giving it a name or label. It is no more than that. As section 41.7 of the bill makes clear, amending the name as amendment 180 would make no difference in the law to the circumstances in which the eviction ground does or does not apply. It would simply make the label longer, and I am grateful for the opportunity. I am now going on. The tribunal will need to be convinced that the tenant is not occupying a property as his or her only principal home. The law is already generous in how it interprets the occupation of such a long holiday, or even a stain prison would not be a failure to occupy as an only or principal home. However, I am grateful for bringing that to my attention, Mr Stewart, and I hope that I have reassured him something with that. Amendment 181 sets out a requirement for a particular form of notice to be served on the tenant. However, the bill already contains a power to prescribe the form of notices and the Government will use that power to ensure that every notice sets out clearly what grounds for eviction might apply, what the tenant needs to do and what the timescales are. As a result, the detail specified in what would be paragraph 1A is not needed. Not only that, the form of notice appears to be misleading, it states that if at the end of the notice period it appears to the landlord that the tenant does not intend to occupy the property, the tenancy will be terminated with immediate effect. However, it then goes on to provide for the tribunal to terminate the tenancy. The tribunal would not be in a position to consider the eviction case if the tenancy has already been terminated. In addition, amendment 181 requires the landlord to make inquiries. However, a landlord who had not made inquiries would have no reason to have sent an eviction notice on the basis of the ground. Finally, the amendment allows the eviction ground to be met, only if the landlord would suffer harm as a result of the tenant's failure to occupy the property as the tenant's only principal home. However, the private residential tenancy regime is designed to protect people's homes. It is not designed to protect houses that have ended up being used only occasionally. Indeed, holidaylets are specifically exempted under 6 schedule 1 of the bill. The existing assured tenancy regime under the 1988 act applies only if and for so long as a property is used as a tenant's only or principal home. Our system similarly focuses on protecting people's homes where the eviction grounds apply. We are not talking about someone's home. Of course, a landlord might be perfectly happy for the tenant to stay on, but that would be for the parties to agree between themselves. For those reasons, I would urge members not to support amendments 181 and 182. Minister's amendments in this group are largely fine-tuning and reasonable, but the one that stands out is amendment 107, which seeks to remove the provision that a first-tier tribunal must find that the ground named by subparagraph 1 applies if the tenant has materially failed to comply with a statutory term of the tenancy. I would have thought if a tenant fails to comply with a statutory term of the tenancy that would be a reasonable ground for the tribunal to find in favour of the landlord. Therefore, I cannot see why the section or the lines are being removed, and therefore we will oppose the removal from the bill. Other than to say that we do not know what the statutory term of the tenancy which will be done in regulations will be laid out, but we think that this is fair and proportionate to allow the tribunal to have that power to be able to do that, and we think that that is fairer than what Alex Johnson is suggesting and what we originally proposed. Can I invite David Stewart to wind up and indicate whether or not he wishes to press or withdraw his amendment? I have heard what the minister has to say, and the minister has previously agreed to meet me on the reasonableness ground. If she would also agree to meet me on amendments 180 to 182, I would seek leave to withdraw three of those amendments. Are members content to withdraw those amendments? I call amendment 181 in the name of David Stewart, already debated with amendment 180, and I invite David Stewart to move or not move. I call amendment 182 in the name of David Stewart already debated with amendment 180. I remind members that amendment 182 pre-empts amendments 104 and 105, and I invite David Stewart to move or not move. I call amendment 104 in the name of the minister already debated with amendment 180, and I invite the Minister to formally move. The question is that amendment 104 be agreed to, are we all agreed? I call amendment 105 in the name of Margaret Burgess already debated with amendment 180 and I invite the minister to move or not move. The question is that amendment 105 be agreed to, are we all agreed? I call amendments 106, 107, 108, 109 and 110, all in the name of the minister and all previously debated. I invite the minister to move amendments 106 to 110 on block. Can I ask whether any member objects to a single question being put? In that case, we put the question on each amendment individually. The question is that amendment 106 be agreed to, are we agreed? We are agreed. The question is that amendment 107 be agreed to, are we agreed? In that case, there will be a division. Those in favour of amendment 107, please show. Those opposed to amendment 107, please show. Amendment 107, the result is yes, six, no, one. There were no abstentions. The amendment is agreed to, therefore. The question is that amendment 108 be agreed to, are we agreed? The question is that amendment 109 be agreed to, are we agreed? eu cofiniadon, ne Ny ai ddim yn billedigion, a siaradion yn promising mewn. Ond nid gwrdd Sefrad Jerusalem sydd yn blaen at dwei iddy d doetredod, mae case ydi gwaith gan Daith i gweithio gweld, Mae'n meddygol i chi d blissau appealingu deall hynny. Mae'n meddyl e Samsung Yn ni, maith gwrs drwith aj буду cydmryd, I nodi'r iaith. Amennychwm 173, rwy'n hunr WINSH to drac f начинаh y mae ych byw. Argymell anton admire 184 o petrug geniffellol Sondl. I invite Alex Johnson to move or not move. Thank you. The question is that amendment 184 be agreed to. Are we all agreed? No. We are not agreed. There will therefore be a division. Those in favour of amendment 184, please show. Those not in favour, please show. The result of amendment 184 is yes, one, no, six. There were no abstentions. The amendment is therefore not agreed to. I call amendment 101, in the name of the minister, already debated with amendment 53, and I invite the minister to formally move. Thank you. I call amendment 101A, in the name of Alex Johnson, already debated with amendment 53, and I invite Alex Johnson to move or not move. Not moved. Sorry, my apologies. Is it 111 rather than 101? 111, my apologies. 111A, in the name of Alex Johnson. Not moved. I call amendment 111B, in the name of Alex Johnson, already debated with amendment 53, and I invite Alex Johnson to move or not move. Not moved. Thank you. I ask the minister if she wishes to press or withdraw amendment 111. Moved. It's not done. It's not done. Thank you. The question is that amendment 111 be agreed to. Are we all agreed? Yes. No, that we are not agreed. There will therefore be a division. Those in favour of amendment 111, please show. Those against, please show. The result of amendment 111 is yes, six, no, one, no, one, no, one, no, one, no, one, no, one. The result of amendment 111 is yes, six, no one, there were no abstentions, the amendment is therefore agreed to. I call amendment 185 in the name of David Stewart, already debated with amendment 53, and can I invite David Stewart to move or not move? Thank you. The question is that amendment 185 be agreed to, are we all agreed? No. We are not agreed, there will therefore be a division. The result of amendment 185 is yes, two, no, five, there were no abstentions, the amendment is therefore not agreed to. I call amendment 186 in the name of David Stewart, already debated with amendment 53, and I invite David Stewart to move or not move? Moved. The result of amendment 186 is yes, two, no, five, there were no abstentions, the amendment is therefore not agreed to. I call amendment 187 in the name of Alex Johnson, already debated with amendment 53, and I invite Alex Johnson to move or not move? Not moved. Thank you. We now move on to grounds for eviction, criminal and antisocial behaviour, and I call amendment 112 in the name of the minister, grouped with amendments 113, 114, 115, 116 and 124, and I invite the minister to move amendment 112 and speak to all amendments in the group. I will start with amendment 112, convener. Schedule 3 of the bill provides for the grounds under which a landlord can gain repossession of the let property. One of the grounds is where after the tenancy has begun, the tenant is convicted of an offence connected to the immoral or illegal use of the let property or an imprisonable offence committed in the vicinity of the let property. This is presently framed in the bill as a mandatory repossession ground, which means that, if the ground is established, the tribunal must grant an eviction order. Amendment 112 provides that, if an application for eviction under this ground is submitted more than 12 months from the date of the tenant's conviction, the repossession ground is discretionary. The effect of this is that after a year has elapsed since the relevant conviction, the tribunal must consider whether the landlord has a reasonable excuse for not bringing the eviction case forward sooner. This change will ensure that a landlord cannot hold the mandatory repossession ground over the tenant's head indefinitely to be used at a later date. Amendments 113 to 115. Antisocial behaviour that causes alarm, distress, nuisance or annoyance is simply unacceptable. The current ground for antisocial behaviour covers the tenant's acting in an antisocial manner towards people who live in the let property and antisocial behaviour committed within or in the locality of the property. On reflection, the Government has concluded that this repossession ground does not go far enough, which is why I have brought forward amendments 113 and 115, which define relevant antisocial behaviour to encompass any antisocial behaviour for which it would be reasonable for the tribunal to issue an eviction order given its nature to whom it is related and where it occurred. Antisocial behaviour is subjective in its nature and directing a person from their home is a serious penalty, so this amendment also introduces a test of reasonableness that the tribunal must consider before issuing any eviction order. Also an application for eviction on that ground must be made within 12 months of it occurring unless the landlord has a reasonable excuse. Amendment 114 makes a minor change to the language used in this ground to ensure consistency. It changes the word acting in an antisocial manner to the word behaving in an antisocial manner. Antisocial behaviour will not be tolerated and we need to ensure that where serious antisocial behaviour occurs, a landlord can take the ultimate action to evict the tenant. The tribunal will consider all of the evidence presented to it, including where the behaviour took place before deciding whether it is reasonable to do so. Amendment 116 provides a landlord with a further course of redress when there is another person living in or frequenting the property who has acted in a criminal or antisocial manner. The antisocial behaviour and criminal conviction grounds in the bill is introduced and relates solely to the behaviour of the tenant. This amendment introduces another ground that will enable a landlord to regain possession where a tenant associates in the let property with a person who has a relevant conviction or engaged in relevant antisocial behaviour. A relevant conviction is where, after the tenancy has begun, this person is convicted of using or allowing the use of the let property for an immoral or illegal purpose or has been convicted of an offence committed in or in the locality of the let property, which is punishable by imprisonment. Relevant antisocial behaviour is any behaviour that, if it had been engaged in by the tenant, might result in the tenant being evicted. That is a discretionary repossession ground, so the tribunal must also be satisfied that it is reasonable to evict the tenant. If the tribunal is considering the case more than 12 months after the relevant conviction or incident of antisocial behaviour, it must also consider whether there is a reasonable excuse for the landlord's delay in making an application to it. In a case involving joint tenants, the ground applies to any one of them. Amendment 124 is a technical amendment to join up amendment 116 with the ability of a landlord to provide the shorter notice period of 28 days when seeking an eviction order on the basis of certain grounds. That will ensure that a landlord can move swiftly in order to address the antisocial behaviour. I move amendment 112. The question is that amendment 112 will be agreed to. Are we all agreed? We are agreed. I call amendments 113, 114, 115 and 116, all in name of the minister and all previously debated. I invite the minister to move amendments 113 to 116 on block. Can I ask whether any member objects to a single question being put on amendments 113 to 116? In that case, the question is that amendments 113 to 116 are agreed to. Are we all agreed? We now move to grounds for eviction legal impediment to let continuing. I call amendment 188 in the name of Patrick Harvie, grouped with amendments 117, 118, 119, 120, 121 and 122. I point out that amendment 188 pre-empts amendment 117, and I invite Patrick Harvie to move amendment 188 and speak to all amendments in the group. Thank you, convener. Once again, I will limit my remarks to the amendment in my own name and leave members of the committee to discuss the others. In part 4 of the bill section 14 sets out that a ground for eviction is that the landlord is not registered by the relevant local authority under the landlord registration scheme. Effectively, the two triggers that would bring this ground into effect are that the local authority has either refused to enter the landlord in the register or has removed it from it. Those triggers would only apply in relation to something that the landlord has done, not to something that the tenant has done. It seems to me that it is basically unjust that a tenant would be subject to eviction when they have done nothing wrong, that they would lose their home on the basis of the landlord's behaviour that has led to them being removed from the register. Let's remember that that fit and proper person test in the landlord registration scheme is not a high bar. It's not a high bar by any means. For a landlord to be in a situation as serious as it would take to have them removed from the register, it is clearly something that should not impact on the tenant in that way, leading to an eviction. It seems to be far more appropriate in those circumstances that a management order would be made available to ensure that the tenancy can be managed by a social landlord or another responsible entity or body who is able to ensure that the tenant can continue in that property. I acknowledge that amendment 188 would not achieve that. I lodged it in order that we can have the debate on that point of principle. I hope that the minister will engage directly in the question of what is the proper response when our landlord has behaved so badly that they are kicked off the register. Is it really the proper response that the tenant should suffer eviction? As well as that question of justice, I would also raise the possibility of a practical consequence of that. If, for example, a local authority responded to a serious criminal offence by a landlord with a significant number of properties in a community, it would be faced with the prospect either of removing them from the register and leaving a large number of tenants facing almost immediate eviction or delaying taking action and allowing that landlord to continue to let to new tenants. I do think that there is a serious consequence of this if we don't have an alternative approach. I have no doubt at all that the Scottish Government's many very excellent lawyers would be able to craft a better way of producing an alternative approach to this kind of situation, but it does seem to me that the bill as it stands is wrong. I hope that the minister will agree that an alternative might be sought. On that basis, I would like to move amendment 188. I invite the minister to speak to amendment 117 and other amendments in the group. I will speak first to amendments 117 to 122. When considering the eviction grounds, we want to ensure that they strike an appropriate balance between the rights of tenants to the right to respect for their home and the rights of private landlords. The legal impediment to the left continuing repossession grounds in the bill are refusal or revocation of the landlord's registration by the local authority. Revocation of their HMO licence or an overcrowding statutory notice has been served on the landlord. Those grounds are mandatory, which means that if the tribunal establishes that the grounds exist, it must issue an eviction order. Having considered the evidence presented to the committee, I think that it would be disproportionate to mandatory evict a tenant from his or her home simply because their landlord has in some way failed to comply with duties and legislation. For example, it might not be fair if a tenant was evicted just because their landlord registration was revoked by the local authority. The tribunal should have the power to consider all of the evidence presented to it in such cases and make a decision based on whether it would be reasonable to issue an eviction order. I have brought forward amendments 117 to 122 to change the nature of the legal impediment to let continuing grounds from mandatory to discretionary. That means that, even where the tribunal establishes that the necessary facts to make out the eviction grounds exist, the tribunal will still have a discretion about whether or not to evict the tenant and it will only do so if it is considered reasonable. Amendment 188 by Patrick Harvie's amendments said that it is an offence for a landlord to operate without being registered with the local authority. Under the current assured tenancy system, most landlords use short assured tenancy agreements, which can be terminated on a particular date. If a landlord ceases to be registered with a local authority, he or she should terminate the short assured tenancy to avoid committing the offence of letting property. When unregistered, given the open-ended nature of the new private residential tenancy, the landlord requires some way of bringing a tenancy to an end where he or she has been refused registration or had it revoked. The eviction ground in the bill provides the means by which a landlord can bring a tenancy to an end. To exclude that, it would undermine the system of landlord registration and could lead to a landlord being found guilty of an offence for continuing to let the property. Accordingly, I ask the committee to support my amendments and I ask Patrick Harvie not to press his amendments. Okay, no other members have indicated that they wish to speak. Can I invite Patrick Harvie to wind up and to indicate whether he wishes to press or withdraw his amendments? I acknowledge that the minister's amendments in this group are an improvement to the bill as it stands. I do feel that we are in danger of imagining that there is a binary choice here that either we have to allow a landlord to continue to be registered and therefore potentially, even after being guilty of some kind of infringement, being able to continue to let new tenants or we have to remove them from register and lead to the potential for eviction in order to protect them from committing a subsequent criminal offence. I am still not convinced that the option of a compulsory management order is not the right way to go. I would encourage the minister to give some further thought to that before stage 3 and to consider whether, in those circumstances, allowing that tenancy to continue to operate but be managed by another body, one that is a fit and proper person, whether that is the appropriate response to that kind of situation. Having said that, and with the possibility of perhaps communicating with the minister ahead of stage 3, I would ask to withdraw 188. Minister, do you want to indicate whether you are willing to meet Mr Harvie? I am happy to meet Mr Harvie and other members of the committee. Are members content to withdraw that amendment? I call amendment 117, in the name of the minister, already debated with amendment 188, and I invite the minister to formally move. The question is that amendment 117 be agreed to or we all agreed. We are, I call amendment 118, in the name of the minister already debated with amendment 188, and I invite the minister to formally move. Thank you. The question is that amendment 118 be agreed to or we all agreed. We are agreed. I call amendment 119, in the name of the minister, already debated with amendment 188, and I invite the minister to formally move. Thank you. The question is that amendment 119 be agreed to or we all agreed. I call amendment 120, in the name of the minister already debated amendment 188, and I invite the minister to formally move. Thank you. The question is that amendment 120 be agreed to. Are we all agreed? I call amendment 121, in the name of the minister, already debated with amendment 188, and I invite the minister to formally move. The question is that amendment 121 be agreed to. Are we all agreed? We are agreed. I call amendment 122, in the name of the minister, already debated with amendment 188, and I invite the minister to formally move. The question is that amendment 122 be agreed to. Are we all agreed? The question is that schedule 3 be agreed to. Are we all agreed? I call amendment 175, in the name of Adam Ingram, already debated with amendment 174, and I invite Adam Ingram to move or not move. I call amendment 176, in the name of Alec Johnston, already debated with amendment 159, and I invite Alec Johnston to move or not move. I call amendment 123, in the name of the minister, already debated with amendment 85, and I invite the minister to formally move. The question is that amendment 123 be agreed to. Are we all agreed? I call amendment 124, in the name of the minister, already debated with amendment 112, and I invite the minister to formally move. The question is that amendment 124 be agreed to. Are we all agreed? The question is that section 44 be agreed to. Are we all agreed? Felly, mae'n bwyddu i'r sgwm fan i dda, neu maen nhw'n hyd i'r ddweud. Felly, mae'n ddweud am y torb? Yn y cwestiynau, mae'n ddweud. Felly, mae'n ddweud got y ddweud wedi'u yr unigion o'r honnw, ond mae'n ddweud yn i fynd Llyfr, ac mae'n ddweud i'r ddweud. Mae'n ddweud i ddweud hwn i ddweud. Mae'n ddweud i ddweud i'r ddweud. Mae hefyd hwn. In that group, section 47 and 48 deal with wrongful termination, and it's very welcome that there is a provision to address a situation in which either a tribunal has issued an Labour a Biterip stimulate adnod afterwards having been mislead, whereas a tenant who has been persuaded to give up a property afterwards having been mislead. I cannot be the only MSP who has constituents who have raised such issues, not unlike those issues in which misleading information or attempts to mislead were used to persuade a tenant to leave or to require to leave a property that they otherwise are happy to continue to rent, so it's really important that there's a provision for dealing with this kind of situation. However, on both of these sections, the action that can be taken requires to be initiated by the former tenant themselves, and I don't think it's difficult to understand that a tenant who's lost their home in this way has got a great deal of other stuff to be getting on with in finding a new place to live, settling into it. Very few situations I think would see a tenant having either the information that they would need or being in a kind of situation which would make it easy for them to challenge their former tenant in this way and to have appropriate action taken. My amendments address both of these sections by allowing a person providing independent advocacy services on the tenant or joint tenant's behalf to initiate this kind of action. I've suggested that this might include a housing charity, a welfare rights advisor, and I'm sure that we can imagine a range of different organisations being able to take that action on a tenant's behalf. Amendment 191 is consequential to both giving a definition of the terms of advocacy services and independent. I do hope that the minister will be open to this argument and I move amendment 189. Thank you very much. I now invite the minister to speak to amendment 125 and other amendments in the group.  The purpose of amendments 126 and 127 is to place the tribunal under a duty to issue a copy of any wrongful termination order to the local authorities with which the landlord is registered. The effect of those amendments is to further join up decisions made against a landlord by the tribunal with the broader regulation of landlords. Local authorities will be able to take those orders into account when considering a landlord's fit and proper person status under landlord registration. Amendment 125 is a minor technical amendment to clarify the drafting so that it reads immediately before. With regard to Patrick Harvie's amendments 189, 190 and 191, at present there is absolutely nothing to stop a former tenant seeking assistance from persons providing independent advocacy services when the former tenant is making an application for wrongful termination. Those organisations, as Patrick Harvie outlined, provide an excellent service, but they can do that without specific provision allowing third-party applications. They can already provide as much help as they wish and can even represent the tenant at the tribunal. However, due to the nature of the application, it is unrealistic to think that an application can be made without any or detailed input from the former tenant. If the tenant is to be involved, I see no reason for the application not to be in his or her name, albeit made with as much or as little assistance from a third party who wishes to provide it. Otherwise, we would end up in a situation in which an application could be made against the tenant's wishes. The application relates to the tenancy that a particular person had, and it should surely be his or her choice whether or not that tenancy is referred to a tribunal application. In addition, wrongful termination orders are about compensating a former tenant for losing his or her home. Under the bill, the payment is made to the person who makes the wrongful termination application. The amendment would have the effect of allowing third parties to receive any compensatory payment, and I do not think that that would be appropriate. With regard to Clare Adamson's amendments 192 and 193, we heard from a number of tenant representatives organisations during stage 1, who voiced concern that the proposed maximum payment to tenants for wrongful termination is not sufficient to reflect upheaval, removal costs and emotional distress that the tenant is likely to have incurred and incurred needlessly. Although most landlords operate within the parameters of the legislation and comply with their obligations, I know that not all do. I want the wrongful termination order to act as a disincentive to landlords. I do not want landlords misleading tenants or the tribunal in a way that leads to tenants having to leave their homes. Accordingly, I would ask the committee to support my amendments. I endorse Clare Adamson's amendments 192 and 193 and I would ask Patrick Harvie not to press amendments 189, 190 and 191. I now invite Clare Adamson to speak to amendment 192 and other amendments in the group. I thank the convener for the opportunity to speak to the amendment. That is a very complex area in terms of the different values of compensation that can vary across the country, depending on the value of the rent that is involved for people. In all of our deliberations in this bill, it has been about achieving balance and fairness to both the landlords and the tenant. Mr Harvie has already eloquently laid out the difficulties of a tenant facing a wrongful termination and the other pressures on them at the time. I feel that we need to have a level of compensation that makes it worthwhile for the tenants to pursue their rights under the bill and to act as an encouragement for the very best behaviour of the landlords. I invite Patrick Harvie to wind up and to indicate whether he wishes to press or withdraw his amendment. I was a little disappointed that the minister did not see the merit in those amendments. No one would dispute that action seeking recognition of a wrongful termination does need to be well informed by the experience of the tenant. However, I would take issue with the argument that that means that there is no reason that it should not be done in their name. One of the issues that I think the whole committee has been aware of in scrutinising this bill is the vulnerability that some people feel in challenging a landlord who, let us remember, in some places, particularly where there are large commercial landlords, that landlord might be somebody's next landlord, as well as their former landlord. To be in a position of challenging that landlord in name does feel very different than having another organisation do that on behalf of the tenant. I also question whether that is purely about compensation. Clearly, that is a very core part of what the section is about, and it is an important one. Surely, we should also be expecting, for example, in looking at the fit and proper person test under the landlord registration scheme, we should be expecting factors to be taken into account such as whether a landlord has a track record of misleading the tribunal or misleading their tenants. There is a longer term and a wider public interest in that, not purely a private interest on the part of a tenant seeking compensation. It may be that that raises the potential for other changes that might be proposed at stage 3, but for the time being, I would like to press amendment 189. The question is that amendment 189 be agreed to. Are we all agreed? No. We are not agreed. There will therefore be a division. Those in favour of amendment 189, please show. Those against amendment 189, please show. The result of the vote on amendment number 189 is yes, 0, no, 6. There were no abstentions. The amendment is therefore not agreed to. I call amendment 125 in the name of the minister, already debated with amendment 189. I invite the minister to formally move. The question is that amendment 125 be agreed to. Are we all agreed? The question is that section 47 be agreed to. Are we all agreed? Yes. I call amendment 190 in the name of Patrick Harvie, already debated with amendment 189, and I invite Patrick Harvie to move or not move. I call amendment 191 in the name of Patrick Harvie, already debated with amendment 189, and I invite Patrick Harvie to move or not move. Mae niligoedd. And yerwyr vet. Y kiwr argynwyr yn doesn gan awards, y fyddfa 1126 i «Mynst CEO », i ddweud i mroe108, ac wrth ddelchon piwn â получ diadotriadol hefyd. Morron wedi fy inquiwn ac i ddweud yn www. 맞our. I call amendment 192 in the name of Clare Adamson, already debated with amendment 189, and I invite Clare Adamson to move or not move. Moved. Thank you. The question is that amendment 192 be agreed to, are we all agreed? We are agreed. The question is that section 49 be agreed to, are we all agreed? We are. I call amendment 127 in the name of the minister, already debated with amendment 189, and I invite the minister to formally move. No. The question is that amendment 127 be agreed to, are we all agreed? We are. The question is that section 50 be agreed to, are we all agreed? I call amendment 128, in the name of the minister, already debated with amendment 85, and I invite the minister to formally move. I call amendment 129, in the name of the minister, already debated with amendment 21, and I invite the minister to formally move. The question is that amendment 129 be agreed to, are we all agreed? I call amendment 130, in the name of the minister, already debated with amendment 85, and I invite the minister to formally move. I call amendment 139, in the name of Clare Adamson, already debated with amendment 189, and I invite 참 perd, welcome Can help are we all agreed the question is that section 53, be agreed to are we all agreed we now move on to the death of 12 amendment 142 in the name of the Minister grouped with amendments 144 143a, 144 peroinha expected 195, 196, 197, 198, 147, 148 and 149. I point out that amendment 194 preempts amendment 145. Can I invite the minister to move amendment 142 and speak to all amendments in the group? The bill currently provides that where a sole tenant dies, either a brief partner may inherit the tenancy or an executor of the tenancy state must bring the tenancy to an end. Those intended amendments are to ensure that if there is no one to succeed, the tenancy will end without need to appoint an executor. The effect would be if the tenancy is terminating the death of the tenant unless there is a partner with a succession right to inherit the tenancy. I listened closely to stakeholders' evidence on this during stage 1. During my own appearance at committee, I stated my intention to bring forward an amendment at stage 2 to ensure that if there is no one to succeed, the tenancy will not end. That is because in considering the issue further it became clear that the tenancy not ending on the death of the tenant may disadvantage both the landlord and the deceased tenant's family. Any monies left in the deceased state could be considerably reduced if they took the executor a while to terminate the tenancy. Also, if the tenant died in test date, the landlord would be sitting with an empty property that they cannot re-let until such time that the sheriff appoints an executor and the executor subsequently terminates the tenancy. That convener is still my intention, but having considered my amendments further, I would like to withdraw them at this stage so that I can consider further the process by which accession we will work. That would mean asking Clare Adamson to withdraw her amendments at this stage as well. Can I invite Clare Adamson to speak to amendment 143A and other amendments in the group? Thank you, convener, and I thank the minister for her commitment to take this forward to stage 3. It is an important principle that we take forward in all of this. We have been keen to emphasise that it is a family home and someone's home that we are talking about. In circumstances where there is a sibling, a carer or a younger person in the family, a child who could succeed the tenancy, it is important that those rights are respected. I will choose to withdraw my amendments given the commitment of the minister to look at this at stage 3. Thank you, minister. Do you have anything further to add and to confirm that you are withdrawing? Sorry, convener, I am withdrawing with all the amendments at this stage. However, the policy intention is clear and we will come back with a process for succession rights. Can I have the agreement of members that they are content for the minister and Clare Adamson, for the first of all the minister to withdraw her amendments? The question is that section 54 be agreed to. Are we agreed? Thank you. I call amendment 143 in the name of the minister, already debated with amendment 142 and I invite the minister to move or not move. Thank you. I call amendment 144 in the name of the minister, already debated with amendment 142 and I invite the minister to formally move. Sorry, to move or not move. Thank you. The question is, I call amendment 194 in the name of Clare Adamson, already debated with amendment 142 and I remind members that if amendment 194 is agreed to, you cannot call amendment 145. Can I invite Clare Adamson to move or not move? I call amendment 145 in the name of the minister, already debated with amendment 142 and I invite the minister to move or not move. The question is, I call amendment 146 in the name of the minister, already debated with amendment 142 and I invite the minister to move or not move. The question is, section 55 be agreed to. Are we all agreed? We are agreed. I call amendment 195 in the name of Clare Adamson, already debated with amendment 142 and I invite Clare Adamson to move or not move. Thank you. I call amendment 196 in the name of Clare Adamson, already debated with amendment 142 and I invite Clare Adamson to move or not move. I call amendment 197 in the name of Clare Adamson, already debated with amendment 142 and I invite Clare Adamson to move or not move. I call amendment 198 in the name of Clare Adamson, already debated with amendment 142 and I invite Clare Adamson to move or not move. I call amendment 147 in the name of the minister, already debated with amendment 142 and I invite the minister to move or not move. Rwyf ni'n dweud y mynd o gwaith ar gyffredinunolol 156 y byddur i'r gwahau? Rwyf ni'n dweud i tudwithiau yn cyhoeddiaeth Trybunol, a rydyn ni'n mynd i ffordd y byddwyr 131 yn yr ymgyrch. Fy enw i chi'n ffordd y byddwyr 132. Rydyn ni'n dweud i ffordd y byddwyr 131, ac yn gweinwyr 131 I'n dweud i'r fyddwyr 131 panwgofod dros ar gwaith. the more accessible forum of the tribunal. Criminal cases will continue to be dealt with by the share of courts as usual and this amendment does not affect the jurisdiction that the court of session has in relation to landlord and tenant matters such as judicial review. I'm talking now on amendment 132, convener. All private landlords are required to register with the local authority in whose area the let property is situated under part 8 of the Anti-Social Behaviour, etc. Scotland Act 2004 to ensure that they are fit and proper to be letting houses. Amendment 132 provides that where as a result of proceedings before it, it comes to the tribunal's attention that a landlord is not registered with relevant local authority. The tribunal will be under a duty to notify the local authority. The tribunal must tell the authority the landlord's name and address and the address of the property for which he or she is a landlord. The effect of that will be to enable local authorities who have responsibility for administering landlord registration to take enforcement action against a landlord who is unregistered. I move amendment 131. Thank you very much, minister. No members have indicated they wish to speak. Do you have anything further to add? The question is that amendment 131 be agreed to. Are we all agreed? We are agreed. I call amendment 132 in the name of the minister, already debated with amendment 131, and I invite the minister to formally move. Thank you. The question is that amendment 132 be agreed to. Are we all agreed? We are agreed. Now we want to overlooking minor errors in the documents. I call amendment 133 in the name of the minister in a group on its own, and I invite the minister to move and speak to amendment 133. Amendment 133, convener, inserts a new section into the bill, which provides that any minor errors in the documents specified will not invalidate the document unless the error materially affects the effect of the document. The effect of this will be to ensure that the new tenancy works well in practice, as we do not want tenants and landlords to be penalised for minor errors that do not distort the effect of the document. We want a system that is user-friendly and capable of taking a common sense approach. I move amendment 133. The question is that amendment 133, I take it you have nothing further to add minister. The question is that amendment 133 be agreed to. Are we all agreed? Thank you. The question is that section 57 be agreed to. Are we all agreed? I call amendment 148 in the name of the minister, already debated with amendment 142, and I invite the minister to formally move. The question is that amendment 148 be agreed to. Are we all agreed? I call amendment 100. Are we all agreed? No, it's up. Sorry. He's reading it, they're all mine. Okay, the question is that amendment 148 be agreed to. Are we all agreed? It was indicated earlier that the minister was going to move the amendments in that section. We believe that the minister has moved amendment 148, is that it? No, it's not moved. Can I just confirm, minister, that you're not moving amendment 148? No, it's consequential in the previous amendments that I've already mentioned. Amendment 148 is not moved. Okay, I call amendment 149 in the name of the minister, already debated with amendment 142. Not moved. Minister to move or not moved? Not moved. The question is that amendment 148 be agreed to. Are we all agreed? The question is that section 58 be agreed to. Are we all agreed? I call amendment 138 in the name of the minister, already debated with amendment 21. Can I invite the minister to move or not move? The question is that amendment 134 be agreed to. Are we all agreed? The question is that schedule 5 be agreed to. Are we all agreed? The question is that section 59 be agreed to. Are we all agreed? I call amendments 135, 136, 137 and 138. All in the name of the minister and all previously debated. Can I invite the minister to move amendments 135 to 138 on block? Can I ask whether any member objects to a single question being put? In that case, the question is that amendments 135 to 138 are agreed to. Are we all agreed? The question is that section 60 be agreed to. Are we all agreed? I call amendment 139 in the name of the minister, already debated with amendment 21 and I invite the minister to formally move. The question is that amendment 139 be agreed to. Are we all agreed? I call amendment 140 in the name of the minister, already debated with amendment 21 and I invite the minister to formally move. The question is that amendment 140 be agreed to. Are we all agreed? The question is that section 61 be agreed to. Are we all agreed? called amendment 141 in the name of the minister has already been debated with amendment 21". The question is whether amendment 141 will be agreed to, are we all agreed? The question is that section 62 be agreed to, are we all agreed? The question is that section 63 be agreed to, are we all agreed? The question is that the long title be agreed to, are we all agreed? That ends stage 2 consideration of the bill and that ends our business for today. I now close this meeting of the committee.