22 Sides

A Veteran, A Vision, And A Fight For District C

• Robin & Alexis • Season 2 • Episode 4

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We invited Patrick Oathout, a born-and-raised Houstonian, Army armor officer veteran, and technologist working in AI safety, to make it concrete. He breaks down how a council member can actually change daily life in District C without grandstanding: organize neighbors before storms hit, clean up illegal dumping quickly, and push 311 from “addressed” to “resolved” with real-time dashboards and human accountability.

Patrick’s story powers his approach. Fired as a teen for being gay, he learned early what it means to be shut out—and how to fight back with purpose. Years later he led a tank platoon in NATO’s battlegroup in Poland, where clarity under pressure wasn’t optional. Back home, he maps those lessons onto Houston’s needs: designate nonpartisan block captains, stock storm toolboxes, identify who has generators, and give each block a direct line to utilities. None of it requires waiting on a budget cycle; all of it builds trust neighbors can feel.

We also dig into public safety that’s measurable, not theatrical. Think smarter camera placement that actually catches plates, noise meters that help triage, and town halls that teach residents how to collect usable evidence. Pair that with a simple, public tracker for reports—so people can see where a case sits and who owns it. On city services, he argues for a customer-service mindset: auto-updates for common trash delays, human escalation when tickets stall, and a clear standard of “resolved,” not “closed.”

Because District C touches every other district, coalition-building matters. Patrick lays out how to work with fellow council members and the mayor to defend local control when the state tries to strip it, especially around flood control funds. He’s not promising to “fix flooding” in a year; he’s promising visible progress that earns trust today, while we build long-term infrastructure tomorrow. Along the way, he commits to inclusive town halls across the district, diverse staffing, and clear communication that meets people where they are.

If you care about pragmatic fixes, neighbor-to-neighbor resilience, and using data without losing the human touch, you’ll find a roadmap here. Listen, share with a Houston friend, and if it resonates, subscribe and leave a review so more neighbors can find us.

For more on Patrick Oathout for Houston City Council District C click here for more information:  https://patrickforhouston.com/

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Meet Patrick And The Race

Speaker 3

If you want to.

Robin Mack

Okay. Okay. So you open this one up.

Alexis Melvin

I'll I get to open this one? Yes. What if I don't want to open this one?

Robin Mack

Oh come on.

Alexis Melvin

Okay. I'm Alexis Melvin. And I'm here with Robin Mack.

Patrick

Hey. And I'm Patrick Oath out, running for Houston City Council District C.

Alexis Melvin

No, you get to say that last name again. You're Patrick what?

Patrick

Oath out. It goes oath of office goes out the door. It's a Dutch origin, and I think it got very anglicized at some point. That's cool. I think I can say it. O South.

Robin Mack

Yeah, and you're running for which seat?

Patrick

I'm running for Houston City Council District C.

Robin Mack

And we got to vote like pretty quickly after this recording, right?

Patrick

Yeah, two months. It's a special election to fill Abby Cayman's.

Alexis Melvin

And how long is that particular seat before you have to vote again?

Patrick

Yeah, it's it's about a year and a half. Um I'll be campaigning again in 2027.

Robin Mack

Okay, so you are about to hit a voting season that's a special seat just for replacing Abby, and then you get to be in the seat for a year. Is that what I'm getting? Yes. Okay, great. And then you're gonna keep going, or you're like, that's it. I'm gonna keep going. Okay, go ahead.

Alexis Melvin

That's what you say now. We'll see.

Robin Mack

Oh my gosh. Well, it's been such a marathon in Houston because if you look at district 18, it's like, okay, well, then they get an empty seat and then they have to fill the seat, and then now they're gonna have to get a permanent person for the seat, which is actually a whole different district. So if you're keeping up and you're tired, I mean it's relevant.

Alexis Melvin

Yeah. Yeah. It it's ridiculous. But you know, it's Texas. We seem to like to vote. We do it all the time.

Patrick

Yes, yes. And so many positions are elected in Texas. It's another unique facet here. And then on top of that, you know, these districts are don't overlap. So city council to Congress to, you know, they just they're all different and they're changing. We're in the middle of this big gerrymandering process, and uh voters are not tracking that, you know, even that uh council member Abby Cayman resigned. So when I'm out block walking, they're like, wait, are you running against her? I'm like, no, she's amazing. There's an open seat. Um so yeah, there's a lot of voter explanation here. And it you know, it obviously costs the city a lot of money too. Every time we got to staff all these polling locations, make sure everybody's trained.

Alexis Melvin

Well, and and a lot of things I don't think people understand is that this is a city election.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Voting Chaos And Voter Confusion

Alexis Melvin

Because it is a city office, which means the city does pay for it.

unknown

Yes.

Alexis Melvin

Now, all the other elections, the county pays for it.

Robin Mack

Okay, so what is happening to Abbey? Because I imagine there are a lot of Abbey fans. And even if there weren't Abbey fans, like I don't think people are know that she's changing positions.

Patrick

Yeah, so she's running for county attorney, and Houston has resigned to run rules. Um so uh that primary is uh coming up, and you know, I think I'm super excited for her to be in that role. She's got you know such a strong background pushing back against the So we're not losing Abby, she's not going away.

Alexis Melvin

If we vote her in, we aren't losing her.

Robin Mack

Good. Yes. We gotta vote.

Alexis Melvin

If we vote her in, okay, like everything else. Okay. Most of it has to do with the voters and the ones that don't show up.

Robin Mack

Okay. And then are you somebody who lives in District C?

Patrick

Yes, I live in District C. I was born and raised here actually.

Robin Mack

So that's a hard claim.

Patrick

Yeah, I uh that's it. Born a couple blocks from Rice University. I went to Poe, Lanier, and Lamar for middle, uh elementary, middle, and high school, all public schools. Uh I used to walk to Poe in the morning. And uh yeah, I've seen Houston and the neighborhood change so much. I went to Six Flags when that was still around. I remember before there was a levee park.

Robin Mack

Uh okay, so for those of you keeping up with the math, how old are you?

Patrick

I'm 34 years old.

Robin Mack

Okay, because yeah, okay. So you've been here, you're not new to this, you're true to this, and you are committed to the seat.

Patrick

Yeah, absolutely.

Robin Mack

That's awesome.

Alexis Melvin

So here's the question: why did you want to run for this seat?

Patrick

Yeah.

Robin Mack

That's a big seat.

Patrick

Yeah. Well, part of this is because it's home. I grew up here, I've seen these neighborhoods change over time. Um, and I've had some experiences growing up that, you know, really made me want to push back against bullies. In high school, I was let go from a job for being gay. The job had a don't ask, don't tell policy. It was a summer camp out in the hill country of Texas, gone there for eight years as a camper, took on a job, and I had already been out of the closet. I came out at Lamar High School, and they told me camp counselors can't be gay, or at least we can't know about it. And that was kind of a political awakening. This was obviously pre-Boss stock. The irony is my mom is a labor attorney and I had no recourse whatsoever. Um, you know, I went away to school for a couple of years, and I joined the army then after January 6th, 2021, because I was worried about the state of our democracy. I was pissed off watching those folks storm the Capitol. And I think also I was nursing a part of me that wanted to prove my masculinity. I got bullied a lot growing up for being effeminate. I played with Barbies, wore dresses. When I'd play a video game, I'd pick the girl character. I think a lot of us have that experience growing up.

Robin Mack

Absolutely.

Alexis Melvin

This side of the table does. Yeah.

Robin Mack

Yeah. Yeah.

Houston Roots And Lived Experience

Alexis Melvin

I mean Except it wasn't Barbie because Barbie was like not even thought of then.

Robin Mack

Well, that's she's holding the boomer side of the table. So how are you? How old are you now? You just had a birthday, Alexis.

Alexis Melvin

I'm 77.

Robin Mack

Okay.

Alexis Melvin

I'm proudly 77.

Robin Mack

I also had a birthday. I'm 43. So we're we're we're holding different spots, but we're all familiar with these these moments. And so are you saying you joined the army after January 6th?

Patrick

Yeah, I joined did basic training in April 2021. So three months after uh January 6th happened. Wow. And I was in basic training as a 29-year-old with a bunch of 18-year-olds. It was so much fun, to be honest. Basic training is really intense.

Robin Mack

You're like transformation, here I come. Yeah.

Patrick

Um, and the army, I have to say, was an amazing experience. You mean everybody was always focused on getting the job done. It's such an interesting group of people, so diverse, it really reflects the gamut of perspectives we have in the United States. And um, I was a a uh uh armor officer, so I led a tank platoon.

Robin Mack

Whoa.

Patrick

Uh at NATO.

Robin Mack

You got to play with some toys.

Patrick

Yes, yes, yeah. Um at and I led this platoon at NATO Battlegroup Poland. So we have a bunch of battle groups positioned on the Russian border in case they were to attack, they're meant to be the first speed bump. And the US runs the battle group in Poland. It's a multinational coalition with Croatians, Romanians, Brits, and obviously Polish troops. That seems cool. It was it was a really cool experience. Let me tell you, they I mean, the Polish and the Allies were so excited to have us there. This was 2023, so in the midst of you know the Ukrainian-Russian conflict, and uh they were so excited to have Americans there defending democracy.

Robin Mack

I bet your mom was nervous, so you're like on the front line. I was like, Oh, she's probably got a gut of steal.

Patrick

Yeah. Uh I have my my mom was absolutely worried. Uh and I am somebody actually who gets more motivated to do something when people discourage me from doing it.

Robin Mack

Right. So you can absolutely not win. We will not have you in this seat. And um, how dare you trying to claim uh district C when you like only grew up in it and you want better things for it? Like, okay, fine.

Patrick

Yeah, yeah. You know, I think this is probably a common queer experience because you're told so many times growing up, you can't wear that, you can't play with that toy, you can't have that name, you can't go to this room, you know, you can't be a part of our friend group, you can't go to the bathroom with us, whatever the example is. And um I think that gets really old after a while. Oh, yeah. It's exhausting.

Alexis Melvin

You start to resent it, shall we? So it's you you can't unless you've had the experience, you can't understand how much you could resent it.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Alexis Melvin

And yeah, I'm just surprised there isn't a lot more violence.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Alexis Melvin

I mean, you know, long fingernails can do really bad damage. So but but let me go back to my question, which is you know, why, you know, what's the thing, what are the things that you want to do? Why is it that you want this seat?

Patrick

Yeah. Well, I as I said, I've seen this neighborhood change over time, and I'm worried about Houston now. Trump's back in office, Abbott wants to take over the city, and I'm not gonna let these folks take over our my hometown. They want to strip Houston of our local control. We need, as a city, we are becoming the third largest city in the U.S. We need the infrastructure, public safety, and affordability to match it. And we need smart folks on city council who have experience and are pragmatic and want to solve these issues because Houston has got a lot of tough problems ahead of it. And I think we need to come together and find common sense, smart solutions to these things and stop getting sucked into, you know, the game Travit Trump's Travit. Now, that's my uh conjugation of Trump and Abbott now, but the the fight that Trump and Abbott want us to have.

Alexis Melvin

Yeah, because a lot of it doesn't exist, a lot of it's made up that they're doing.

Patrick

Yes.

Fired For Being Gay To Service

Alexis Melvin

And and I guess one of the questions that is a little bit puzzling to me is you've had a fair amount of experience overseas, you know, and those sorts of things. Why'd go for something very, very local?

Patrick

Yeah. Well, and on top of it being my hometown, uh, 12 years ago I worked for the city. I interned uh under Anise Parker at the Department of Neighborhoods, and I built a mobile app for the department. It was basically like a Yelp for local businesses. So you'd get on the app and you're like, hey, I want to shop at a local Houston business, and you'd use it to search. And I saw, got a glimpse of city politics at that time, and I loved it, that it was about the meat and potatoes of delivering services, not often sucked into partisan battles, and often a lot of room for innovation. You know, folks are dealing with really tough operational problems, how to get the trash picked up, how to make the water work. And there's so much room there for smart solutions that, you know, make things work a little bit better and people appreciate it. So um, I've been somebody who I have a lot of different experiences, but I'm always looking to like deliver results, find a solution, and you know, not get sucked into big, you know, fights that aren't worth talking about.

Robin Mack

Is that what started your curiosity in being in politics? Was working during that time? Because I think it's very fair to say that we know a lot of people that aren't interested in politics at all, shut it out completely, only, you know, deal with their life, and they think either someone else is handling it or maybe they've been told too no too many times. I mean, a lot of structures do not include them and have always been broken, that sort of thing. So, I mean, to be fair, as resilient as we are, we're at this table for a reason right now, but I want to include people that have struggled with those moments of my representative doesn't care about me. There's no place for me in this city. I do live in Texas where they're always coming for me. What is it that I can do? Or or even as far as like my vote doesn't matter, you know. I mean, I always try to make a space for them at the table because even resilient people go through those spaces. But when you got started with the app, is that your first time and that kind of turned you on to politics? Or you saw space for yourself in there?

Patrick

I think it was earlier than that. I think when I was um I did speech and debate in middle and high school, so a little bit of a nerd, and you talk about different political issues, you have to argue both sides, and it helped me form strong opinions on what I actually believed because I got to learn the other side. I think too, getting fired from a job in a state that didn't have any protections at the time for labor discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation was an awakening. I was like, this state does not have my back, and I am not going to just leave here and give up on it. There's other people like me. And so I think that was a point that crystallized for me like Texas is so important. I think it decides the future of this nation. I mean, all the fights, climate change, abortion, book bans, it's all here in this state. The future is not going to be determined in California and New York. And so it's really important that we as Texans get organized and we're really close to flipping the state and changing the nation as a result of it. And so I get why people are marginal. I feel I get why people feel, you know, dissatisfied with politics. And in 2026, it's become about a lot of self-righteousness, you know, um, getting on social media and saying why the other side is wrong, this, that, and that, and not building solutions together. And I think we need more elected representatives who have that mindset. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

NATO Tanks And Duty Abroad

Alexis Melvin

Well, yeah, one of the things that, you know, I'm really tired of hearing everybody talk about how horrible their opponent is or how horrible the other people are, or how you can't do this or can't do that. Um but they've never tried. And it it's like, how do you know you can't do something if you haven't tried?

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Alexis Melvin

Now, granted, in Houston it's a little bit harder to get your ideas through city council because it's got to go through the mayor.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Alexis Melvin

And pretty much the mayor can get rid of any idea he doesn't like.

Robin Mack

Um that's because he can set the agenda.

Alexis Melvin

Yeah, he sets the agenda. And I mean, I mean, there was an ordinance passed that says like I think it's three city council members can add something to the agenda, but he still has to call the agenda. And so, you know, the the deal is you do have to work with the mayor, and and anybody that says I'm just gonna run over the mayor is crazy. It's like you gotta work it out and fight find a way to get there. But that's doable. I mean and besides that, there'll be another mayor sometime soon. Right. Or not soon soon, but I mean it we do we do have term limits, so they aren't there forever. Right. But I guess my real question now would be so what are the one or two things that you as a um a district council member can do and would want to do?

Patrick

Yeah. Well, I segment the items I want to work on into three different buckets. One are things I can start doing day one, I can just use my district service funds. Two are things, priorities I'm gonna push for in the budget, and then three, uh ordinance reform. Let's talk about what I'm gonna start doing on day one, and I don't need to wait on city council writ large to pass it or for a budget. There's things I can get done right away. One of those is to create a disaster response plan for District C. I lived through Allison, Rita, and Harvey, and you know, we've gotten more infrastructure now. We weathered this winter storm well, but I don't know if I'm optimistic that the next um hurricane that comes through, we're gonna survive unscathed. And infrastructure takes a while to build. So in the meantime, let's get organized as a community. On every single block, somebody knows this is my block captain. They know where the emergency toolboxes are, they host the charger phone party, they identify the house that has power. They're the one who calls Center Point, you know, hilariously. I remember when Allison hit Houston, we were without power in June for a week. So no AC. All the doors were open on the block, and my mom was running down the street at the center point truck, fix our power, waving dollar bills in the hand in her hand. Like, come fix our power. Let's have one point person on each block who handles this. It would honestly help center point. And I think also it would just get us organized as a community. We have somebody to turn to. And there's probably people on blocks who, you know, maybe don't have the ability to weather a disaster because they're most likely. They're there's all sorts of situations there. Um, so it's something I'm really excited about. It's we can just get ourselves organized. And a really good example of this recently is what we're seeing in Minneapolis. The folks, the community there are organized. They have all their um habits now of, and I call them habits because they seem like they're organic cultural things of like whistling when they see ice people around, posting things on social media. I mean, this is the community rallying together, creating shared practices, habits, and this happened organically. I mean, this is the power of organization, and I want to do the same for Houston. And once you know the people on your block who's your storm block captain, which by the way is a very nonpartisan issue, then I think it gets us organized for all other sorts of things that we would want to focus on in this.

Alexis Melvin

Yeah, the that was I think the real problem with that is you've got to make sure it doesn't slip into partisanism.

Patrick

Yeah.

Alexis Melvin

I mean, if they just start if they start doing politics and they're the block captain, that's a problem. That's a good point. I mean, it it it's got to be something where the person says, no, I've got this set of jobs I do, yeah, and I don't get into the middle of any of the uh elections or anything else.

Fighting Bullies And Finding Voice

Patrick

Yeah. Well, uh I that's a really, really great point. Um fortunately, storms tend to be, you know, focused on like let's all come together and solve the issue at hand. Um, and we can definitely emphasize that too. The other thing is it gets folks talking to each other. I mean, I feel like now I don't know all the neighbors on my block for whatever reason. This gets us talking to each other. And no matter what our political divides are, getting to know folks around the corner and not just scrolling on your phone, I think, is good in general.

Robin Mack

And do you know if there's currently a fund for that or is it something that would be new? Because I know that when Abby did run, you know, she came right in after Harvey. So um it was easy to say that Bel Air had floodings and um, you know, different places needed a lot of support, but uh and we've come a long way out of that. But currently, do you know of if anything is left as far as funds, or is this something you'll have to generate?

Patrick

Uh this will be, you know, the I actually don't think this is gonna cost a lot of money. This is about just getting people organized together. It is gonna require a lot of time and effort um to identify the people, you know, in each neighborhood who are point people for this type of thing. But um I would allocate, you know, part of the regularly annual um district service funds that are given to me to parts of this initiative that we need to, whether it's for publicizing it or funding some of the tools we end up needing for this type of thing. But honestly, this is just uh tapping the people who need to do this, getting them in a room together, giving them a half a day training of like when there's a storm, this is the number you call. Plan for these things on your block, and then they disseminate that on their blocks. Wow. Yeah.

Alexis Melvin

You know, and if possible, get them good numbers.

unknown

Yeah.

Robin Mack

Definitely. Yeah, definitely. I mean, you know, how does that work?

Alexis Melvin

If the person's working as a block captain and they're trying to call center point and they've tried all day and get nothing but a busy signal, that's not gonna work. They they need the special numbers.

Patrick

Yes, that's a good point. That's a really good point.

Alexis Melvin

Because I'll assure you the mayor and uh county judge don't get busy signals.

Robin Mack

Yeah, and I mean per uh street, you could have dead zones as far as being able to call out for certain phones and not others. And that's a great point. It can really it can really make a difference if there was a point person and and a fallback person and in my I'm I'm in uh district H and near Northside. And my city council member, I always like to remind people when Isabel Longoria lost, she lost by 16 votes. So votes do matter. And in in our area, sometimes the iPhones don't work, but the Androids do. And we have people now who have generator boxes, but if they're out of town, their whole house is lit up with energy and then nobody can access it, you know. Uh so it's it's we're in a place where it's like we're we can kind of shoulder some of those things per zone, uh, even even by the the backs of people who have been able to get those resources, but even then, you know, there needs to be some sort of um ahead of time planning, if you will. So that's really great. What uh what else do you got under your your category two, your category three?

Patrick

Yeah, you know, I'm really focused on public safety too. I mean, we all want to live in a safe community, and I think there's ways that we can systematize, uh systemize. Sorry, I added a created a word there. Um to some of these, some of the things we're trying to do to keep the city safe. I think there's uh low-cost solutions now like cameras and noise meters that do that do the initial triaging and flagging. So uh HPD, the constables, the sheriffs, which are already pretty constrained in terms of resources, can um have a leg up when they're starting an investigation or have um a prioritization that directs them where to go.

Why Run Local And For What

Alexis Melvin

Yeah, so so where do you see the pushback on things like cameras, for instance?

Patrick

Yeah, well, obviously a lot of privacy concerns. Um I do think the genie's a little bit out of the bottle here because of ring. There's really now, you know, twenty cameras on every block now these days. Now these cameras are sometimes only activated if you have a subscription or if there's motion.

Alexis Melvin

But if we when you walked up here, you were on four of my cameras, two of my natural neighbors, and three across the street. Yeah, yeah.

Patrick

So we are, you know, there there these are everywhere now, but there's really low cost solutions that we can use to make sure if there's theft, burglary, um, that these things are resolved quickly and that we're arriving to the police department with a little bit of a leg up to catch this stuff quickly. I think, you know, obviously our public safety community is really constrained these days. There's a lot of overtime. And I think anything we can do to sort of um alleviate and deter crime further probably is a good solution as well.

Robin Mack

Aaron Powell And are you doing anything so far to connect with people who have uh implemented some of these plans? For instance, Mario is uh my current representative, and you know, my neighborhood is very advocate heavy. Yeah. So they don't have any problems like calling people or you calling HPD or the precinct or documenting. But the problem was was they didn't know where the process got stopped or when it got stopped. And what Mario did was have for them and you know, everybody who wanted to report something, create a one spot, I think it's Sura's website, where um you can report something and see in real time where that goes, when did it get reported, where is it at in the process? And it's all very transparent and it can be really helpful. Um, people have been very satisfied with that because then if it feels like you're being heard, it is documented, and then it it feels like your representative is in the loop.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Robin Mack

If there needs to be some support in that, but sometimes not. Sometimes it's just like we need to see it on something other than a Google Doc, or we don't know if it really got handled or just checked off from 311, you know, like you just don't know.

Patrick

Yeah, I think that's a really great idea. At the end of the day, folks want to just feel that's something's being taken seriously, that a case was not just shoved into a filing cabinet somewhere. Um, especially if you've caught the person, the license plate on camera. Right. It seems pretty easy these days. Um, and so I think that's a really good idea as well.

Alexis Melvin

Well, and with a little bit of training, you'd be much better at catching it. Like one of the things most people don't realize is that most camera placements won't catch a license plate.

Patrick

Yeah.

Alexis Melvin

But it's really easy to change that.

Patrick

Yeah.

Alexis Melvin

And so, you know, it it it's sort of like pixel it up. Yeah. Well, you know, basically they're shooting down like this, you don't see the license plate.

Speaker 3

Okay, yeah.

Alexis Melvin

So if it's down closer to the ground, you see the license plate.

Speaker 3

Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Patrick

Interesting.

Alexis Melvin

And you know, those sorts of things. But I was gonna what I was saying was if I mean I've been to a couple, this was a few years back, of the HPD uh classes on how to do stuff like that, and they left out all the stuff you need to know. Which was interesting. They were talking about selling cameras almost, is what it sounded like, which is okay, I get it. They think the more the merrier, but you gotta go through and explain a lot of things as far as how to set them up. Yeah. Which I think they could do better with it.

Patrick

Yeah, that's a really good point. We could probably do a town hall that sort of invites discussion on this thing. So it's so interesting in 2026, you know, everybody's seen true crime, you know, shows, listened to podcasts, and everybody thinks they're a detective and they don't understand why the case isn't getting solved. And I think there's legitimate reasons why things take a while. Uh, but to your point, you know, just having transparency and showing like this is the uh tracker on where it is in the process would be super helpful. You know, to this same tracker transparency point, another thing I'm focusing on is creating 311 dashboards. I don't know if you all have used or even have on your phone the 311 app for the city of Houston.

Robin Mack

I've called them, but I have not used the app.

Patrick

It takes six to nine months for something to get resolved. There's requests on there that are five years old. And I think that we could at least build, at least in my office, build dashboards that track these requests. And I'd like to push over time to try to modernize the app. And I don't know if it's AI enabled where there's a chatbot feature where if you have a run-of-the-mill request, like I need to get my garbage can replace, it has the saved answer for this type of thing. But you know, we can start pushing this out in my office without waiting for the app to be revoked by just creating some self-service portals.

Day One Plan: Disaster Readiness

Alexis Melvin

And and you know, it's one of the things that if you design what you want correctly, and by that I mean not necessarily the app or whatever, but if you design what you're looking for correctly, then it makes it much easier to get it done. And it it's pretty simple.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Alexis Melvin

I mean what I mean, what you want for that one is everything that goes in gets logged, and if it hasn't had any activity in a certain length of time, it eventually goes to a person.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Alexis Melvin

And it's tagged to a person. Now, you know, if there's a reason it's had no activity, it might go back to the automatic logging and and looking at it, but at some point it needs to have some resolution.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Robin Mack

And a human. Yeah. I think that still helps. It still helps because there needs to be like real accountability. Yeah.

Patrick

Well, I do think the bulk of the requests, you know, the Houston Chronicle put out data on this when it comes to 311, are often requests like my trash shouldn't get picked up. Now, there's probably an automated answer for that. I.e., you there was a holiday Monday, so sh schedules got shifted to the right, or we didn't operate yesterday because of weather, but I can promise you in two days it's going to get picked up. I think there's probably some, you know, low-hanging fruit here solutions that could auto-populate answers like this. You know, you enter your address, it says you click my my trash wasn't picked up, and it says your expected trash pickup date is, you know, two days from now or something like that.

Alexis Melvin

Well, and uh the big problem with a lot of it though is that with 311, they clear things that aren't cleared. I mean, I've had that happen with at least half the calls that I've made. Is, you know, I because I go in and check. In fact, if I you know, if someone asks how to handle something, I tell them, put it on 311, go back the next day and see if it's still up, and then call your representative. Yeah. Because if it's not staying up or they cleared it for some weird reason, your representative can't find out anything about it. Yeah. So, you know, try to do the upfront work, make sure it's still there. And usually they've just cleared it for absolutely no reason.

Patrick

Yeah. The standard, the I'll say this in quotation, Marks, the standard of care for 311 should not be was this addressed, it should be was this resolved. Exactly. And um, I think we need to build that into the tracking system. Um not just was this referred to the department that handles this issue. Yeah, because that's not resolved. Yeah. Right. I think we need a customer service mindset in my office specifically when it comes to constituent services and with city things like this in general. Nobody should call and be told, either A, I can't help you, B, we send somebody out and they say, Oh, this is not my problem to solve, or C, you know, in a lot of cases, I think we're outsur outsourced outsourcing services to um neighbors. Like um, you're supposed to call so-and-so department to fix this pothole. Um, and maybe within a realm of logic that's reasonable, but I think that we we should have a mindset first of like, I'm gonna do everything I can to help you. And that's where I think, you know, self-help guidance or FAQs on like, hey, if you're there must be what, 50 to 70 reasons people call. Let's map all those reasons out, create the standard template answer for if it's this, you do this, this, this. And then we give arm people with the solution as opposed to just telling them, sorry, not my problem.

Robin Mack

Yeah. And one of the things that Abby brought up when she ran for this seat was that it, you know, we need to remember that all of our districts, as big and as weirdly designed as they are, bump up against other districts. So how are you planning to partner with other city council members?

Patrick

Yeah, I mean, I'm happy I want to create coalitions and work together on different initiatives, things that, you know, cross different districts or that we're all passionate about. Um, I know Mario and Alejandra uh well, and so happy to collaborate with them, you know. And I actually think, frankly, having three queer members on city council would give us a queer voting block that could bring a prop A initiative forward, you know, and I think uh we would all work well together. And I want to have that type of relationship with every city council member. Um, and sometimes that's about, you know, just not being not yelling through a microphone, getting to know people behind the scenes, developing relationships, and finding where there's common ground. And I think on municipal issues, there's probably a lot of common ground. We all want the trash to get picked up, we all want the potholes to get fixed. Um, it doesn't matter your politics uh for those issues.

Robin Mack

Do you see any common ground so far with Whitmeyer?

Keep It Nonpartisan And Practical

Patrick

I think Whitmeyer and I, you know, I let me say this. I have spent many years in the Army working with people from all sorts of different backgrounds and different perspectives on things. And um I think that we can definitely find common ground. Um he's spent a lot of years in the Senate, you know, fighting for democratic causes, and I really respect that. And I want to have a collaborative relationship. You know, we live in a city, we have to work together. I think at times there's going to be places we disagree. I've got strong values, and I'll tell him when I feel differently about something. Um, but you know, we as Democrats especially have to work together. In Houston, we have to stop fighting each other. The real enemy is Trump and Abbott. And um, I think we have to find ways of working together.

Robin Mack

And are you still in the Army or will you just be full-time city council member? I'm not sure on that.

Patrick

Yeah, I'm an individual, I'm in the IRR in the army. So it means like if there were a huge worldwide conflict that called up us up, um, we would potentially be involved. Now, I don't know where we would deploy tanks. That's where my expertise is.

Robin Mack

I don't know, I'd be the front line. Yeah.

Patrick

Maybe Minneapolis. Who knows? But um yeah, I'm not active duty right now, and I'm not doing um, you know, active reserves either.

Robin Mack

Okay, great. Because, you know, it it isn't there a thing where if you're uh do they have a rule about if you get called off? Like, do you still run the seat or is this another election? Or how do you know how that would work?

Patrick

It's a really interesting question. I don't know.

Robin Mack

I feel like I have to ask more follow-up. What happens if you leave the seat with after District 18? It's like, come on, Sheila, what happens if you get sick? Come on, Turner, you've already been sick. So I would like I feel like we we have to have plan A, plan B if we if we can see it.

Patrick

Yeah, well, you know, fact, check me after the episode, but I remember Mayor It's okay if you don't know. It's okay. I think when Mayor Pete was mayor of South Bend, he got called up as a reservist for a while to Afghanistan. And he continued in the role. Um, I don't know what the City of Houston rules are. Okay, so this is like a sub-1% possibility that A, the IRR is activated, and B that they need a tank officer. If that situation happens, we're in, you know, a whole different realm of conflict, and um I don't expect it to happen.

Robin Mack

But we are currently in the game of Jumanji. So we we just have to ask these questions.

Alexis Melvin

Yeah.

Robin Mack

So uh had to just do you have to are you gonna say anything? I feel like I'm interrupting you.

Alexis Melvin

Oh yeah. No, the only thing I was going to ask was are any of the current council members uh endorsing you?

Patrick

Uh no, no, no one has publicly declared endorsements. I have good relationships with a lot of folks. You know, in an open race like this, I think there's a lot of candidates, uh, a lot of um, you know, let's see how you who makes it to the runoff.

Alexis Melvin

There's there's seven candidates, right?

Patrick

Seven candidates.

Alexis Melvin

I just thought I'd check because for a while there before filing deadlines, it was changing hourly, it seemed like.

Patrick

Yeah. But I have good relationships with a lot of council members. Um it's on me as a first-time candidate to prove myself. Um, to prove that I'm willing to do the work of block walking, that you know, I have the volunteer and apparatus behind me. I'm making smart strategic and communication decisions. I'm out talking to members of the community like I'm doing here, that I'm willing to put up the work. Like, you know, a campaign is often a proxy for how you're going to be as an elected council member, especially as a district person where you're handling constituent issues all the time. So if you're just running a campaign from your desk, you're probably not gonna be a good district council member. You gotta go out and talk to people. Um, so I'm gonna prove myself and um and uh I'm excited to do that.

Robin Mack

That's great. How are you gonna get people to get out and vote for you? Because I ask everyone this. There are now more non-voters than voters. And and like we've mentioned here, some people may not even know that this seat is up, right? So what's your game for that to get on people's radar?

Public Safety Tools And Tradeoffs

Patrick

Yeah, we have to out-communicate voters. I think I have a really strong message and story, but I gotta communicate it to voters and convince them, you know, we have to first do a lot of things here. Inform them of the election, inform them of me, get them persuaded to vote for me, and then inform them of the date of the election so they go out and vote.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Patrick

It makes it for really complicated messaging. Um, but you know, it's about talking to people in person, it's about calling them on the phone, it's about going to community events, and it's about finding advocates in the community uh who are willing to support you. I do have a lot of endorsements from the community, and those have been really good surrogates for my campaign.

Robin Mack

Like what?

Patrick

Uh a lot of LGBTQ folks in the community.

Robin Mack

Okay, so we're gonna get that bar party shuttle and go into the voting, and Lana Blake's gonna be your MC. She's gonna tell them what blocks to click. No, yes. I mean, maybe people can't tell Lana no. Yeah.

Patrick

Yeah. I mean, you know, who's to say we shouldn't go out, you know, in Montrose, uh, get out the vote and canvas and I think one of the bars, uh I don't know if they're still open.

Robin Mack

I think one of the bars had a voting poll.

Alexis Melvin

Yeah, it had a change name, but they did have um the last year before we did the common voting locations, uh, you know, they had a polling place and um which bar was it?

Robin Mack

Uh oh, I mean I didn't vote there, but it but Chris saw that uh people felt safe voting there. So he when we had 24-hour voting, they did put a voting poll in one of the bars, and I don't know which one it is.

Alexis Melvin

I know exactly where it is.

Robin Mack

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know, but sometimes they do change names, so I'm not really sure. But um and you know, like inclusive churches have had a long history of voting polls. Bering is an amazing church to to go be at. Alexis went there one time and they were closing the booth because they literally knew who was left vote to vote and who wasn't. Like I'm they're so attentive.

Alexis Melvin

They were basically on election day, um, you know, not really terribly paying attention. They're like, we only have three voters left. Everyone else has either died since the last election. Yeah. Or they voted. Yeah, and I'm like, no. It's like, wow. It's a we're watching for them. When they show up, we'll make sure everything's ready to go.

Robin Mack

A lot of times, Alexis and I have seen people that are afraid to vote or afraid to go alone. So we'll say, uh, you know, meet us at Cafe Express because there's always a lot of parking across from West Gray. We'll have like a meal, we'll talk about whatever the deal is, or if there's any questions, we'll just walk over and vote together.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Robin Mack

You know, and then come to find out. They said, that was pretty anticlimactic, really easy. What's the big hubbub about it? Can I call my friends to do this too? Or like asking me to do that.

Alexis Melvin

Can I call my friends and invite them? Please do. Please do. They can invite their friends. Yeah.

Robin Mack

And a lot of times at West Gray, they'll see someone that they know as far as an official on the ballot. And so they like you can actually talk to them. And that's uh kind of enlightening for people that don't usually get that opportunity. Right.

Alexis Melvin

And they're, you know, they're afraid of law enforcement and those sorts of things. And usually it's like, you know, we'll find somebody that we know really well, like Alan Rosen. It's like, okay, these people are afraid you're gonna do something bad to them. Alan's like, me? Yeah. And you know, they're like, oh, well, so you're actually the constable. Yeah. He's like, yeah, the constable, not a constable. Yeah.

Patrick

Well, and to your point, I mean, uh, one way of getting voters excited out there is showing them that they can trust you and listening to them. I think that comes by talking to people and saying what matters to you, and then shutting up as a candidate. I think we're primed as candidates to be like, hi, my name is Patrick O'Dott, and I'm running for district council, and then here's my platform, blah, blah, blah. I have found it really powerful, unlocked to be like, tell me the issues that you care about in your neighborhood. And sometimes folks talk about things we have no power over at City Council. But I mean, you it's a starting place, and then you can connect it to a local issue. Um, you can talk about your point of view on that subject. Um, I think a lot more listening has to get done too.

Robin Mack

And that's a big thing about Houston is there are so many different branches that a lot of times places do get calls and they're like, we don't really handle that, but we can point you to this. And I'm glad that you you have that perspective and you're willing to help people out on that.

Alexis Melvin

I mean, that was part of the incentive behind doing 311. Yeah. Because I mean, just in the city, there are so many different places to call.

Patrick

Yeah.

Transparency For Crime And 311

Alexis Melvin

I mean, who do you call about whatever it is? Because there's tons of stuff going on. The interesting thing that occurred to me came up sort of when you were talking about something a little while ago. Um, you know, when you talk public safety and those sorts of things, nobody talks about the fire department. Everybody talks about the police, but no one talks about the fire department. Why do you think that is? I think they do a fairly good job.

Patrick

Yeah. Yeah.

Alexis Melvin

They show up, they put out fires, they the ambulances show up, treat you, you know, with the initial triage and get you to the hospital. Yeah. That's their job. Yeah. And you know, they're noisy and they make all sorts of demands and other things, but they do their job.

Robin Mack

Yeah. Well, and they definitely vote. So you should be talking to them. When they want their uniforms and their pay raises, they vote. So uh I think that's great. Well, what do you do to keep yourself well? Because this doesn't seem like a long run, but you're in it for the marathon.

Patrick

Yeah. Um my whole life I have been somebody who just works really, really hard and finds energy from talking to people. So this is gonna sound like a dodgy answer, but how I keep myself well is doing more of it. Campaigning I have found so energizing, especially with everything going on in the world, going out and talking to people and realizing like we all want what's best for this country. I mean, I raised my hand when January 6th happened because I was legitimately worried about this country. And now out here campaigning in Houston, it's given me so much energy and happiness because there's so many good people in the city and we just want the city to be better. We have sometimes disagreements on how we go and do that. But um I think that, you know, just talking to people has really honestly given me a lot of energy. I think too, uh something I do to center myself is be in nature. And it's why I enjoy block walking so much, is just being out in the sunlight or going to Fleming Park or Rice University and taking a walk around uh really helps me uh center myself as well and focus on what's important.

Robin Mack

That's wonderful. Yeah, we have a lot of really great outdoor spaces that are not not, you know, not in comparison to other states and stuff, but around the city we do have some revitalizing spaces that we can center in. And it's good to get outdoors for sure. And I do see you get passionate when you're talking. It's not a YouTube interview, so I just I just want to say like you get lit up and you're passionate, and and it seems to me like maybe you're kind of like a little extrovert extrovert on that. Like you just get your energy when you're out with people. Is that what you're saying?

Patrick

Yeah, I think this is tied back to growing up being queer, but I think I am an extrovert. But so many times growing up, I was pushed out of a friend group or told your voice is too high, are you gay? And I learned how to be an introvert. I learned how to be by myself. Yeah, but there is a really core part of me that loves talking to people.

Robin Mack

Nice.

Patrick

And um that's beautiful. And I think too, I have chosen maybe unfortunately a couple careers that can be lonely. Being an officer of a platoon, everybody's looking at you. You're out there outside for 40 days straight, not showering, all the soldiers are looking at you for the answers, and the radio's crackling, the order came through, you didn't hear it, and they're like, sir, what are we supposed to do? And you're like, you want to say, I don't know. I have learned, I have spent a lot of time in a bunch of jobs being by myself. And what I love about campaigning is I'm never by myself. I am talking to people all day. So, in a weird twist, this has been really, really energizing. So um, it may sound like a weird answer that how I calm down from campaigning is campaigning more, but um it Really, yeah. Well that's also what you have to do. Yeah.

Robin Mack

So it's because it it's it's a it's a large amount of space to cover. How are you incorporating the inclusiveness of Houston diversity? Because we do it there's a lot out there. And district C does touch a lot of points.

Faster Fixes, Real Resolution

Patrick

Yeah, I mean it's the heart of Houston. It's the only district, city council district, that is surrounded by every other district. So to your earlier point, it requires partnerships with each city council member. I want to make sure that my um, you know, city council office does town halls in every part of the district, and that we're including members from all the different communities on my staff in listening sessions, appointing them to various boards. I mean, I really do want to listen here and get ideas from the community. Um, I don't, I'm not gonna be an elected who knows the answers to all problems. I think I know really I know how to structure problems, I know how to structure listening sessions, but the idea for what's wrong requires listening to everybody. Um and yeah, I just I wanna I wanna have a posture too of like prioritizing equity and listening to folks and and taking all of their perspectives as valid. You know.

Robin Mack

Um And did you say what your educational background was? I might have missed it if you did.

Patrick

Yeah, I went to Duke University, um, studied uh public policy and philosophy.

Robin Mack

Okay.

Patrick

Um and I was an art history minor.

Robin Mack

Yeah, you did. Yeah, okay. You didn't say that, but it might have been before that.

Patrick

I got the other I didn't get.

Alexis Melvin

They're a little bit relevant to say the least.

Patrick

Yeah, for sure. You know, what I did with my undergraduate education actually is I wanted to learn how to think and not learn topics. So I picked public policy because it was analytical. Um, it was about math, economics. I picked philosophy because it was broad, ethics, think about things logically. And then art history taught me how to see, how to notice details. Beautiful. I think you need to learn. I wish we prioritized teaching people how to think as opposed to, you know, um just facts and skills, especially in the age of AI. These things are at your fingertips. You know, it's not a shame if anybody uses AI these days to learn something. But do you know the right questions to ask it is the much tougher thing.

Robin Mack

Aaron Powell Right. And I think I think every field is going to incorporate it somehow to some degree as we go. And I don't know anything about the people running against you, but and I'm not I don't I'm just I'm with Alexis. I don't like people who necessarily talk about other people, but out of out of the seven people, why you?

Patrick

Yeah. I mean, first off, I was born and raised here. I this this has been home to me, and uh I've seen this district change over time. Two, I have a variety and range of experiences I don't think we've ever seen on city council. I'm a veteran. I actually work we didn't talk about it here, but I work in AI safety now. I built an app for the city. I have a technology like technology literacy that's gonna make me really useful on city council. If we ever end up, you know, adding new technological systems in our city, I'm gonna know how to ask the right questions. Nice. Um and I spent years in the business community too. I also spent years in the advocacy community. You know, throughout college, I worked a lot on immigration and refugee issues. My senior thesis was on the resettlement of LGBTQ refugees in the United States. So I understand a lot of different issues. I am very used to diving into a situation I don't know anything about and learning very quickly. And I think that's given me a really flexible mind and a a political sense that prioritizes results and outcomes over um righteousness.

Robin Mack

Wow. I would just like maybe I don't know, a third of that from some of our national leadership. And I don't mean to take away from some of the work that people do, but that's just that's I mean, it's very we could use that on a lot of levels right now. Thank you for your commitment, really. And I look forward to seeing you rock that seat maybe a few times, right? So am I missing anything, Alexis?

Alexis Melvin

Obviously. I always have questions. Yeah, the the thing I guess I'd look at is that you know you have a very short period of time once you're elected to make something happen that people see as positive.

Robin Mack

Yeah. To like keep the seat.

Coalitions Across District Lines

Alexis Melvin

Yeah. Yeah. And I mean in in Houston and at the district level, almost everybody says, oh, I'll fix flooding. We aren't going to fix flooding. Unless you can figure out how to tell it to rain where you want it to rain. But, you know, and basically it gets thrown back in their face, it seems like every year you know, just constantly, because fixing flooding can be done. It takes a long time. I mean, the engineering suggestions of you know, pumping it underground is probably the best thing. Um basically I did a a project a long, long time ago that that's what we came up with. That's what you should have.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Alexis Melvin

And it's perfectly doable. It's no big deal. It just requires that uh some things be done that a lot of people don't want to have done, which is tunnel.

Patrick

Yeah.

Alexis Melvin

But so, you know, the the question is what do you think you can get done first?

Patrick

Yeah. Well, that's what you know, honestly, to this fixed flooding point and people over-promising things they can't deliver, voters are pretty savvy. They they see through it, they're pretty informed. I found on block walking that they they have pretty smart questions. That's why I'm my disaster response plan was like the solution to this. Like, I can't fix infrastructure in a year, but here's what I can do is I can get folks organized. So in case things do flood again and we're not prepared, at least you got folks on your block that you can talk to for the next disaster. That's why I'm really focused on things I can start doing on day one. I want to I, you know, following Mario Castillo's example, I also want to dedicate my district service funds to cleaning up a legal illegal dumping, especially prevalent in the heights. This is again something I can action right away. I don't need to wait for an ordinance or a budget or even a session to start. I can, you know, get moving on that quickly. So I'm focused on, you know, quick win solutions that sort of build trust in government. Again, I think that's so lacking these days that government's not gonna solve our issues. And I think it's fair. It's got a really tough time sometimes solving these issues. So let's find creative ways of doing these that don't require um even a council vote or a budget to pass.

unknown

Okay.

Robin Mack

I think that's awesome. What you're also saying is that you're gonna leave people with skills, structure, and support literally in on their street, in their area. And so if they're committed there, whether it's a new person who moved in, a renter who's about to move out, like they can take that to other places or they could keep it there, whether you're in that seat or not. And I appreciate that commitment. Because the one thing we're not going to um be done with is natural disasters. You know, I mean that it we're we're so focused on human disasters, and I keep reminding people half of this stuff does not need to happen. But the nature part uh we that can just affect us uh for generations, you know. And so I I I really do appreciate that commitment. And but the the flip side is true as well, is like skills can also travel with you and be in the moment on site. So it's it's really important.

Patrick

Yeah. You know, the final thing I want to say too, and I think that's something that also makes me different from other candidates in this race is again, we need a fighter who's willing to stand up to Trump and Abbott. I was in the military, I can speak to a lot of audiences, and I am really committed to democracy, Texas, and the best for Houstonians. And we need folks who are credible advocates on this stuff and are willing to push back and who also unite democratically aligned people in the city and focus on who the real enemy is. And I think I'm the person to do that.

Robin Mack

And on that point, how does a city council member do that? I mean, just for people connecting the dots here, because you could be thinking really local about trash, and that might be the only thing that some people ever talk about as a city council member. But when you're talking about state and when you're talking about national, like what what does that look like?

Working With The Mayor Wisely

Patrick

Yeah. Well, it's absolutely true that, you know, Abbott has a stranglehold on the city, and it's really made it tougher for us as a city to do a lot. But we can use, I can use my platform and coalitions with other council members to push back when they try to strip us of our local control. I mean, Greg Abbott is now trying to come for the Harris County Flood Control District. You know, we're sitting here talking about this stuff, and he wants to divert funds from Harris County to other surrounding counties. And I don't want them to do that like Houston's got enough flooding issues as it is. So let's use our platform to speak out on this stuff. And we are more effective using our platform when we're amplified and in unison. And this is why it's really important to have a good relationship with every council member and the mayor. So we are singing from the same song sheet and really pushing back against state overreach when it's happening.

Robin Mack

It's also really good to remember that Abbott does not have term limits. You have to vote him out. Yeah. A lot of people don't know that. And that's but part of the problem, you know.

Patrick

Um and it's emboldening him. He wants to, he's now coming for our elections. I mean, so you know, we really have got to slow he he's already come for our schools. Like, we have got to slow this down, and we need elected officials who are willing to fight in intelligent ways and aren't picking um dumb battles, but you know, as our Matt as our mayor just said, like smart fights.

Robin Mack

Absolutely.

Alexis Melvin

And they have to be aware of the real situations and problems. Yeah. I mean, a lot of times the stuff you see from some of our elected officials are pure internet fantasy.

Speaker 3

Yep.

Alexis Melvin

And and that that never helps because when worse comes to worse, they'll disprove you because they're the ones that made it up usually. Yeah.

Patrick

Or it's or it's it's righteousness but with no solution behind it. So-and-so is bad. This and this is evil. Well, what are we going to do about it? Or what's going to replace it? And that's honestly, you know, a lot of people talk about courage these days and speak up, speak up. I actually think it's more courageous sometimes these days to uh build solutions. It's really easy now to tell people why they're wrong. It's a lot harder to sort of get into the details and figure out, okay, the reason we do trash this way is actually because it's there's only a couple dump sites in the city. And so Houston's a really spread-out city. These trucks have to go miles and miles and miles through traffic to bring all that trash back. And so that's why we do it this way. There's these following solutions that we could do, but there's significant trade-offs to those. And we need elected to like talk to the public and explain that succinctly to everybody, too.

Robin Mack

Right.

Patrick

Right, yeah.

Robin Mack

And and oh my God, and maybe get the people on the television to say the same thing. Yes. Reporting, misreporting and reporting has has inaccurately has been a problem too. It does take away from some of the things that the city is trying to do and that the city cannot do. But um, I just I appreciate you pointing that out and how we can bring strategy back to it, we can bring unity into it, and there are uh levels that city council can reach beyond uh the city of Houston.

IRR, Endorsements, And Runoff Math

Patrick

Yeah, and we can do that all without compromising our values. We just have to get on the same page.

Robin Mack

Yeah, absolutely.

Alexis Melvin

And at times you have to say, okay, we're working on this problem right now. Those other 17 problems where we disagree really don't matter right now because that's not what we're working on. If you have 20 priorities, you don't have any priorities. Right. And so many people don't understand that, you know, sometimes we'll disagree, sometimes we'll agree, and that's just fine. And, you know, it's like you either have to agree with me 100%, or you know, I'm not gonna do anything with you. And it's like that never works out. Yeah. Because I never agree with anyone all the time.

Robin Mack

Well, and there's a lot of need in a very diverse city. So thank you for being willing to listen and to include all voices and to um offer really simplified answers because people are stressed and they do want the answer, and that is why they're going to the representative. And a lot of representatives are still not even reachable in their seats. So I mean, it that's that's a huge disservice. So you're I'm glad that you're off to the right start. And I hope everyone gets out to early voting, which starts when?

Patrick

Uh March 18th is when ballots drop.

Robin Mack

All right. All right. Well, we will post this and we'll keep sharing this, and we look forward to having you back, whether you win or not. Yeah. Because I believe that if you're running, then you're willing to be in this conversation for a while, whether you win or not. So I'm excited to have you here. Thank you for being a guest on 22 Sides.

Patrick

Thank you. It's my honor, and like I said, this stuff energizes me. So thank you.

Robin Mack

Yeah. Well, if you're listening, take care. If you can uh subscribe, support, share, do that thing, and stay updated with Patrick Howe?

Patrick

Uh Oath Patrick Oath Out, and check out my website at uh www.patrick4houston.com.

Robin Mack

Nice. Patrickforhouston.com.

Alexis Melvin

Something people can remember, including me. Okay, thank you.

Robin Mack

Yeah, thank you. Bye.

Alexis Melvin

Say goodbye, Pat.

Robin Mack

Bye.

Head Shot

Robin Mack

Host
Head Shot

Alexis Melvin

Co-host