Hi, I'm Leigh, Munsil.

Welcome to the First 100 days, a live event with the San Antonio Report, speaking with Judge Peter Sakai about his vision for Bear County and its future.

I'm really glad to have you here.

Thank you for joining us.

Well, thank you for the invitation and thank you for the opportunity to come before the public.

And kind of briefly, in the best way I can kind of lay out what the Sakai agenda will be in and what the Sakai administratio at Bear County will be.

Okay.

Well, if you don't know, Judge Peter Sakai has a long history in the judiciary here in Bear County, 25 years, most recently as a judge on the Children's court.

And he was elected in November with just over 57% of the vote.

So strong support within the county for for this new administration you're about to embark upon.

We are technically 26 days into it already.

I understand the first 100 days is not exactly what we're dealing with at this point, but it's important to talk about the first 100 days of any elected officials time in office because it gives us the public the first look at how you're going to govern, what matters most to you, how you'll prioritize and how quickly you'll get started.

On some of the things you talked about during the campaign season.

So we're so glad to have you here.

The first question I wanted to ask was, we know that you're accustomed to holding a gavel given all of your judiciary experience, but how is commissioners court treating you so far?

Commissioners Court is obviously a whole different environment, and I knew that when I decided to step up and run for County Judge.

And so I have four of the colleagues and I have made it clear at that first meeting that I want civility, I want to calm, and I want the sense of order.

And so that's one trademark or something that I'm going assist upon is that we don't interrupt each other.

We listen to everybody who comes into the courtroom.

We treat everybody with respect, even those that even those that people we don't agree with.

And we're working through that.

I am appreciative to my fellow county commissioners.

They have really responded.

And so I'm really looking forward to this first term to establish whatever legacy the Sacchi administration will leave.

So far, the meetings have gone well.

I've been complimented about how I run the meetings and we're going to make Burke County Government work great.

I was just going to mention that your election marks Bear County's first change in leadership in more than two decades.

Decades.

Your predecessor, Judge Wolf, shaped that county significantly since taking office in 2001, on the day you took the oath of office, our San Antonio report headline, I believe, called it a new era for Bear County.

I think rightly, if you had to summarize the focus of your new era in one sentence, I know I'm an editor.

I'm sorry, in one sentence, how would you describe it?

I would describe it with the following words.

And then if you allow me to extrapolate that it's about revitalization, it's about retooling, and it's about re-energizing Burke County government and reforming reforming our county government and the vision and the leadership I provide.

Now, if I can kind of take that.

Yeah, tell us what that means to you.

Revitalization means I believe I first of all, having to work there 26 years.

I know most of the employees that work at the Bear County Courthouse and I know people that are the housekeepers maintenance all the way up to the elected officials.

And so what I say about revitalization, I'm talking about treating all the employees with dignity, respect, recognizing that their morale, their work environment, their compensation are all part and parcel of Burke County providing bigger government.

And so I want to make sure that I give them the dignity and respect they deserve.

Also understand one of the issues I'm sure we're going to touch on is the jail.

Yeah.

And so I'm reaching out to the deputies.

I'm going to roll call.

In fact, today I'm going to roll call and talk to the deputies, not to promise anything, but to tell them I will listen to them, I will work with them.

But I'm also going to work with the elected official, the sheriff.

I'm going to work with the jail administration.

I'm going to have my staff and the county staff working together to try to fix those issues that are confounding and causing issues at the jail.

I really think, yes, there's a lot of issues, not only compensation, but it's just the work environment.

And so that is a just an example, a revitalization, a retooling, so to speak, would be to see how we can make better county government, more effective and efficient.

You kind of touched on it.

We still use technology that's outdated.

I had a meeting with the county auditor at a meeting with the purchasing agent already, and they're using technology that's 20, 30 years old.

The court system that I came out of still use the same paper system that I did 30 years ago.

To me, that's unacceptable.

So we need to employ technology so that we can make it more effective and efficient.

And so that re-engagement is about connecting with the citizens.

I want to see more transparency, openness.

A lot of times I found that out on the campaign.

Our citizens don't really understand county government.

It's never really been explained.

And that's oftentimes why city county government gets lumped together and we all get criticized.

We really live in two separate worlds because that's the way the systems are built.

So by reengaging the citizens, by becoming more transport, an example I want I've asked my committee, while I will be asking my county commissioners, let's have town hall meetings.

We need to explain the budget.

We need to be more transparent how we do things.

We got to make sure through newsletters.

I have instructed my staff we need to put out these type of communications so that our citizens are better informed and the ultimate result.

I want to see it more effective and efficient, better county government, and I want better customer service that the better county government can provide.

I wanted to ask about on the paper system in the courts, is that contributing to the backlog of cases that's leading to overcrowding.

That detailed.

There?

Separate issues, separate issues.

And that's an issue that I bring.

That's that is in my wheelhouse to know about the justice system, just to deal.

And let me if you allow me to extrapolate on the jail population, people just keep blaming the sheriff.

What people don't realize with the jail overpopulation, it's like a four legged stool.

There's a leg of the sheriff who runs the jail.

There's a leg of the district attorney's office that files the cases and puts people into jail.

There's a leg of the courts that resolve cases and either get people out of prison or dismiss the case, and they come out and then there's commissioners court that funds all the processes.

We have to decide the budget and or end the use of taxpayer money.

And so if you think about a stool like what we're sitting on, the strength of this stool are the pegs that bind it, not one leg.

The stool stool cannot stand on one leg.

It needs all four legs and they need to be connected.

So my wheelhouse, so to speak, is to bring it together.

The court system must move cases.

I'm committed to increase the amount of jury trials, get those out because the jury trials move the system.

Civil cases will move.

Criminal cases will move.

We will see more and more case dispositions.

The sheriff needs help because at this time we have anywhere from 600 to 700 prisoners that are ready to go over the state of Texas to go to prison.

And they're sitting in our jail because the prison system is backed up.

We got probably about 200 to 300 prisoners, inmates that are in there because they have mental health issues.

That's something I ran on.

We should not be incarcerating the mentally ill, but we have no beds.

So I have to strategize and figure out in the most cost effective way how we're going to move that.

If we were able to just move that population to jail over time.

The sheriff has assured me the jail over time issues would go away.

So I have to make a decision.

Do we go ahead and commit to build a facility or build a transitional program that could move these prisoners?

Or do I just say status quo?

Sheriff, that's your problem.

And I think that's my strength.

I am going to sit with the sheriff as an elected official and say, Sheriff, I need you and your staff to come up with the ideas.

If not, we did two feasibility studies that were done in the prior administration.

And I'm going to I'll be honest, we paid money for that.

And the waste of taxpayer money is to put those studies on a shelf and say, nobody reads it, nobody does anything.

I am going to pull those studies back out and ask the sheriff, have you implemented the recommendation since that these two experts, it turned out two studies are very aligned and make very similar recommendations.

Well, that was going to be one of my questions.

Do you think the studying time is over on the jail and there are already some clear actions that could be taken?

I mean, is it staffing?

Is it maintenance?

Where where do you start first.

With the above?

And so.

You pick on.

What I said about revitalization.

We need to revitalize the jail.

We have not taken care of that facility.

And so we need to I mean, one of the issues that has and it came up during the campaign was the fact that the there was an issue with lock light.

Yeah, that's inexcusable.

Why?

Why has Bear County allowed a security issue there?

We also have an issue with jail over time with the fact that what the one of the recommendations was that they should shift from an eight hour shift to 12 hour shifts that the sheriff has been saying that there are issues there.

So I need to have a private discussion with him to say, Sheriff, what's what's the problem here?

We also know and today I am going to meet with the deputies and I need to hear from them directly.

That's that's the most important part of this process.

I need to show them dignity and respect.

And I need to say, hey, I'm not going to promise you anything.

You know, I know you guys want more money or you want more benefits.

But the same time I've learned over the years with Child Protective Services and a caseworkers there, same issues.

And what I heard clearly from caseworkers, it was never about money.

It was about the work environment and about the dignity and respect they were given.

And so what I mean by that, you got to talk.

Then you've got to find out and bring the experts in like the studies have done.

And you got to say, what are the solutions?

And then you and all the stakeholders have to figure out that how do we make it happen?

Do we need extra deputies?

Do we need the technology?

What do we need to do to make things work?

And then finally, it's coordination, which means execution.

And that's something that I was very big on as a judge and children's court.

Okay, we're going to create a program, but I want to see a return of investment.

The role that something big on the corporate side of the world.

And so I want to see if I give more money over to the jail, to the DAP or whatever, or invest in more technology than what I get in return.

And that's the perspective I bring.

So data metrics, analysis, I'm an old sports fan.

There's the foot, the book Moneyball, which says, you know, you can measure even athletic talent as opposed to just looking at people and say, well, it looks like a great ballplayer.

No, how do you perform and execute?

And that's what I hope to bring to Bear County government.

You mentioned baseball.

Oh, since our minor league baseball team, the San Antonio missions were acquired by a new owner group in November, renewed speculation has arisen about the possibility of a downtown baseball stadium.

Do you support building a stadium closer to downtown?

And have you been briefed on where that stadium might go?

Okay.

Well, let me give something background so people will say, well, let me say this.

And what is to say that during the campaign it became an issue and my position during the campaign was I was not supporting a baseball stadium with taxpayer money.

And I'm still at that position.

But I have met with the local baseball ownership.

I'm very impressed they got David Roberts and Manu Ginobili.

I mean, who wouldn't want to love to help a local group like that?

And so in my conversation to them, I had a conversation much like I'm having with you.

Look, I know what I said and I still am there, but I'm a judge.

And again, that's my wheelhouse.

The judge always listens to all the evidence.

He brings in the experts or the people that'll help him understand issues.

He will hear both sides and then he has to make a decision.

And that's what I said.

You baseball owners need to make your case.

And then I bring in that filter of if I'm having to provide taxpayer money, what do I get in return?

What's more are I.

And one way I help them understand my perspective.

Are you a good philanthropic citizen?

You look at H-E-B, you look at Valero.

You look at the Spurs.

You look at our big corporations here.

Yeah, they probably do get some tax benefits, tax incentives, perhaps tax money in order to help whatever projects.

But think about what they do for our community.

Think of what the Spurs do that.

That's why, you know, I'm confident with the Spurs that they're staying put.

And we're going to try to help them in the best way we can.

But I can then say to the taxpayer, if I'm criticized that look, but this is what we get back in return from them.

And I want to see what they do for children and families.

As a baseball fan and a fan of Moneyball.

I love baseball.

I want baseball to succeed.

And even though it's perhaps not Major League, it's still a venue where families can go.

I want to know what the baseball ownership is going to do to reach out to the little leagues.

I want to know what they're going to reach out to, see what leagues reach out to the high school baseball teams.

What are they going to do to help support baseball so that it is truly a community project?

It is a community so everybody gets buy in to this to this baseball stadium.

I hope that they can get all the private equity and get private financing.

And I can just say I could be at the ribbon cutting and take credit for it.

But if not, yes, I will look and hear of any proposal that they bring to me.

You said that children and families will be the focus of your tenure.

And so I'm going to ask you this a little bit differently.

Judge Wolf was in this role for 20 years, 20 more years into the future.

How do you want life to look for children in Beaver County in a way that it doesn't look like now?

I think the strategies need to be driven by equity solutions, which means we need to look at the flaws of the infrastructure as a micro type topic.

Is it much about technology?

And I said, Well, we have outdated technology.

We've got to bring that up and it's going to be expensive to do that.

Well, we've got a digital divide.

We have a digital divide where there are and COVID highlighted the fact that there are parts of this county that have no Wi-Fi access and therefore students were denied their education needs.

And the numbers show from the studies and the data that 20% of the public school children kind of disappeared.

They know they're probably out there and they're probably somehow but unfortunately, we don't know the final effect down the line.

And another generation, did we create another generation of dropouts that we're going to have to help support.

We also know that the rates of poverty are way, way too high.

We know that the rates of domestic and family violence are way I mean, we're at Bear Counties at the highest level in the state and unfortunately, perhaps even in the nation.

We've got issues to address.

We've seen the tragedy in our neighboring county involved.

So those situations, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when something like that is going to happen.

On that note, one of the most important pieces of the role of county judge is deciding how to appropriate money through the county budget, as well as administering grants.

During your first commissioners court meeting, you said that the second court is going to be transparent.

How do you plan to ensure that the grant and budget processes are as fair as they can be without just arbitrarily picking winners and losers?

Well, first of all, we that's the reason why I'm asking my county commissioners to create town hall meetings.

I don't necessarily want to create my own.

I want to respect the county commissioners and and their involvement and be respectful that when I go to the various communities, I do so with the approval or consent of the county commission that not so much concern, but they're part I want them with me.

I want them to chair the meetings.

I want them to help explain the budget process and the grant process to also want to make sure and I may be looking at task forces bringing citizens to the table and putting them together.

Thank you.

I have a slightly more personal question I wanted to ask you.

When you took your oath of office, you place your left hand on your father's 1952 Bible.

Your official biography tells the story of how as a teen, your father and the rest of his family were placed in Japanese internment camps in California in the 1940s due to unfounded fears of disloyalty to the United States.

You said that the stories your father told about this violation of his civil rights led you to the legal profession and your eventual career as a judge.

How did this incredible injustice in your family history make you more engaged, not less engaged in public service.

That, you know, give you a little background?

I'm a baby boomer, so you guys can figure out, I think we've got a bunch of baby boomers in the room.

And so I grew up in the 6070s when there was a lot of there's a lot of parallelism.

There's a lot of activism, a lot of issues, civil rights, a lot of issues with the was my dad said the hippie culture.

Of course, I do.

I will admit I had long hair at one point and my dad responded that he had another daughter in his family.

And of course that was a dig at me.

My dad and I didn't necessarily see eye to eye.

I probably had a more progressive view here, perhaps.

He also had a crew cut, So that probably gives you an idea where he was.

He was far more conservative, so we didn't see eye to eye.

We'd always argue.

And so but there was one story that he wanted me to understand and there was something.

And he kept telling me the story, even to the point we set, we we would go on our annual summer vacation to go see my relatives in California, my crazy cousins over there.

And we basically would go and he says, Hold on, I'm going to we're going to stop.

We're going to stop.

And at the internment camp in Poston, Arizona, where I grew up, and it's in the middle of the Mojave Desert, and you got to go 75 miles off Interstate ten and you got to go straight into it.

It's just, God forbid, forsaken, barren territory.

We stop in the middle.

He goes, This is it.

I know we're here.

And I say, What do you mean, sir?

There's nothing here.

Because, yeah, this is where this is where I lived during World War Two till I enlisted in the military.

And I just was like, Where's the building goes?

No, it was an old army base before the Calvary.

So it was all horse barracks, which means they're all wooden structure.

So when you really looked, you saw the concrete kind of pads or the concrete foundations that were still there, but all the wood structures were gone.

And I said, This is where you grew up goes, Yeah.

And then you go, I said, He said, it was a bunch of horse because yeah, that's where we lived in the stalls.

And I at first had a hard time grasping that.

And then as I went to school and learned about our history, the history, especially in regards to races and discrimination, it really upset me, angered me.

And I said, that's that's not right.

I mean, first of all, you got locked up because you're a Japanese American.

He also told me the personal stories of how the FBI came.

And there's a story, what they called a no no boys, because the FBI had to ask all Japanese-Americans, do you swear your allegiance to the United States and do you disavow your allegiance to the sovereign of Japan?

And my dad told me that he was so angry at that time, and I guess that's where I get my fire.

He said, no, Why?

Why should I swear allegiance?

Well, unfortunately, that put you on an enemies list.

And my grandfather actually kind of spouted off, apparently, and he got his ship to another camp that was more restrictive.

People don't understand that there was a camp in Crystal City.

But the really tragedy of that is that the Crystal City camp was where you went when they were ready to ship you back to Japan.

And there were Japanese-Americans taken back to Japan because they were considered enemy citizens.

And so those stories just struck me profoundly.

And so that's the reason why, as an attorney, as a judge now, as county judge, I'm very sensitive to the rights all rights, constitutional rights.

That's why I'm a big you know, and I don't kind of pick and choose which constitutional rights that we should be.

We should obey all of them.

And and we know that we had this country has a history of racism, has a history of discrimination.

And I'll be real blunt.

That's that's what drives me, that we should never marginalize any minority group.

And we've kind of seen it during the 911 with the Muslims.

Unfortunately, we're seeing it with Asians now.

And so that's the reason why, as public officials, we need to be careful with the words we use because it can be interpreted and then people can carry out their personal animus.

And so those are the stories my dad taught me, and it's put me where I'm at now.

And so I want to take care of the least of us.

I that's the reason why I'm big on looking things through an equity lens and making sure that we're taking care.

Because if we take care of people at the lowest level, especially those that are in the justice system and we bring them up and we that's what my family drug court, my early childhood taught me.

We bring people that have been disconnected from society, They've been marginalized.

Sometimes their own families don't want to deal with it because they've been on drugs and bad behavior.

But when we basically get them off drugs, get them to understand, to take responsibility, show up, to work, go to work, they become successful and they become taxpayers.

And I think when I when I see that, I think we've done a good job.

So I know you've got you've mentioned some really great projects out there, but let's never, ever forget the children and families in our community, especially the least of us.

Thank you so much, Judge Sakai, for being here.

Thank you to everyone in the room for joining us for this really important civic engagement.