Border Trade Advisory Committee
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Job No. 2368089 1 2 3 4 5 6 BORDER TRADE ADVISORY COMMITTEE 7 8 9 10 UTEP CAMPUS, UNION BUILDING EAST 11 3RD FLOOR, ROOM 308 12 UTEP - TOMAS RIVERA CENTER 13 EL PASO, TEXAS 75205 1 4 1 5 1 6 17 SEPTEMBER 7, 2016 1 8 1 9 2 0 21 Reported by Ruth Aguilar, CSR, RPR 2 2 2 3 2 4 2 5 Page 1 Veritext Legal Solutions 800-336-4000 Job No. 2368089 1 COMMITTEE MEMBER APPEARANCE 2 SOS Carlos H. Cascos, Chair 3 Caroline Mays 4 Rafael Aldrete 5 Gabriel Gonzalez 6 Andrew Cannon 7 Paul Cristina 8 Ed Drusina 9 Veronica Escobar 10 Josue Garcia 11 Cynthia Garza-Reyes 12 Jake Giesbrecht 13 Lisa Loftus-Orway 14 Oscar Leeser 15 John B. Love, III 16 Brenda Mainwaring 17 Matthew McElroy 18 Julie Ramirez 19 Ramsey English Cantu 20 Pete Saenz 21 Gerry Schwebel 22 Tommy Taylor 23 Sam Vale 24 Juan Olaguibel 2 5 Page 2 Veritext Legal Solutions 800-336-4000 Job No. 2368089 1 MR. CASCOS: Good morning. I'm glad 2 everybody made it well. It's great to be in El Paso 3 again. I love coming to the city not just because the 4 mayor and the judge are here, but this is like my fourth 5 or fifth time I've been here and I'm going to be back 6 again in a couple of weeks and then I think Mr. Drusina is 7 telling me like we're trying to schedule or is scheduled 8 for another meeting in November to come back. 9 MR. DRUSINA: All right. 10 MR. CASCOS: Okay. That's great. I can't 11 get used to the time change, but I like it. Get up at 12 4:00 in the morning. Let's -- let's get going. It's 13 great. Thank you very much. 14 Before we get started, I do want to 15 introduce a few new members that we have. I'm just trying 16 to get the -- I know one of them. I know two of them. 17 First of all let me introduce 18 Cynthia Garza-Reyes with the Pharr Economic 19 Development Corporation. This is her first official 20 meeting. She's been participating in the past by -- by 21 attending and after I saw that she was always trying to 22 ask a question and no one acknowledged her, I decided to 23 put her on the team. 24 And, Cynthia, welcome. And it's glad to 25 have you here and when we go around, introduce yourself if Page 3 Veritext Legal Solutions 800-336-4000 Job No. 2368089 1 you will say a little bit about yourself quickly. 2 And then Bret Erickson. Where's Bret? He's 3 not here? 4 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Speaking sotto 5 voce.) 6 MR. CASCOS: Okay. All right. Well, Bret 7 is a new member. He's with the International Produce 8 Association. And when we started this, we -- we figured 9 that it'd be good to have somebody from the produce arena 10 since we are doing a lot of produce crossings. 11 And then the last member is -- I just met 12 him -- Tommy Taylor from Fasken Oil and Ranch Limited. 13 And, Tommy -- I just saw him early on when 14 we were walking over here -- good to have you. 15 MR. TAYLOR: Thank you. 16 MR. CASCOS: Thank you for joining us and 17 thank you for taking the time. 18 You know for now just a couple of 19 housekeeping things. One is make sure that your cell 20 phones are on -- on vibrate or mute. 21 Secondly, is as you introduce yourselves for 22 the record, just so we know that you're here, make sure 23 that you speak clearly into the microphone. As we engage 24 during the day and you have a question or commentary, I 25 know everybody knows who you are, but people that are -- Page 4 Veritext Legal Solutions 800-336-4000 Job No. 2368089 1 that are listening to this may not recognize the voice so 2 always introduce yourself and state your name before you 3 ask a question or you make a comment. Even when you take 4 a vote on something, make sure that -- that you introduce 5 yourselves. All right? 6 Okay. Did everybody sign in? We have a 7 sign-in sheet. Did everybody sign in, please? Copy of 8 that so we can -- 9 It gives me great pleasure to introduce the 10 honorable mayor of El Paso. I've know- -- I've gotten to 11 know him since I've become Secretary, Oscar Lesser and/or 12 Leeser (different pronunciation). And is it Lesser or 13 Leeser (different pronunciation)? 14 MR. LEESER: Leeser. 15 MR. CASCOS: It's Leeser? Because you're 16 not the Lesser. We get to know each other better. He's 17 been a great -- I mean he's been a great -- he's been the 18 best mayor of El Paso I've known and the only mayor of 19 El Paso that I've known so he's the greatest mayor that 20 I've ever met. It gives me great, great pleasure to 21 introduce him and he's got some words to say us. 22 Mayor? 23 MR. LEESER: Well, thank you and you know, 24 I've had a -- I've had people come up from out in the 25 public and they'll walk up and tell me that I'm actually Page 5 Veritext Legal Solutions 800-336-4000 Job No. 2368089 1 the best mayor in the city of El Paso and I do explain to 2 them that I'm currently the only mayor too. So I'm glad 3 I'm the best you've met. But, no, you're right. First of 4 all I want to thank you for -- for being here and I want 5 to thank UTEP for hosting this. It's -- it's important to 6 our community. But the Secretary's been here, what, four 7 times now? 8 MR. CASCOS: At least that. 9 MR. LEESER: Four times since I've been in 10 office and he's become a -- not only a good friend of mine 11 but really a good friend of the community and that's 12 really when you take office, you want to create 13 relationships but not for yourself, for your community, 14 community that you -- you represent. And, Secretary, 15 you've been a great friend to El Paso. 16 When we had our FAM (phonetic) tour and our 17 FAM tour is when we've actually brought companies to 18 El Paso to actually get them familiarized and give us our 19 guest speaker as one of the FAM tours and show up. His 20 flight was delayed, but we saved him a steak and lobster 21 and he did a great job of eating it and speaking. 22 But, no, I -- it's important when we bring 23 companies that not only they know that they have the 24 representation and -- and support of the city but also the 25 state and that's so important and you've been able to -- Page 6 Veritext Legal Solutions 800-336-4000 Job No. 2368089 1 to give us that and we -- and when I was sick -- and thank 2 goodness I'm fine -- you were texting me all the time 3 checking on me to make sure. And those little texts mean 4 a lot. 5 And, Judge, you were no different. 6 So, you know, they mean a lot as you 7 continue to recover so you did a great job, you're a great 8 friend. Thank you for being here. I know you're going to 9 be here for the Army/UTEP game and you'll be here and 10 touring Fort Bliss which is a great part of our community 11 where, you know, it represents 35,000 men and women 12 that -- that support our country and also -- so it's great 13 to have you here and representing the state and also being 14 part of that -- that huge part of our community. So thank 15 you again for being here. 16 I want to thank everybody for -- for being 17 here and making El Paso your home for the next couple 18 days. Thank you. 19 MR. CASCOS: Thank you, Mayor. 20 Our second special guest is the Honorable 21 Veronica Escobar, the El Paso County Judge. And the one 22 thing that we have in common aside from being, you know, 23 judges at one point, she's still a judge, is that we're 24 not on the ballot. 25 MS. ESCOBAR: Thank God. Page 7 Veritext Legal Solutions 800-336-4000 Job No. 2368089 1 MR. CASCOS: That's so great. Right? Great 2 honor. I've had the pleasure of meeting Veron- -- I like 3 first-name basis -- meeting Veronica several times and 4 she's been a good friend as well. And the last time I was 5 here, I was -- I had the honor of being in her office and 6 we -- we chatted a little bit. 7 So with that, let me introduce to you the 8 Honorable Veronica -- Veronica Escobar, the county judge 9 of El Paso County. 10 MS. ESCOBAR: Thank you so much, I 11 appreciate it.