welcome thank you for tuning in i'm and with me is andy rojas who's running for selectman in belmont and do the people at home would like to know a little about you thank you very much judith and i'm happy to tell a freshman in college and lucy who's a junior at the high school both went through the excellent belmont school system and i've had a great time here we also have a pug named smudge and a cat named bingo and we have a very busy household thank you please tell us a little about your education and background yes i'm a landscape architect and we are business i've been self employed in the business for thirty years i work with allison like i mentioned before we do architecture landscape architecture interior design and planning i have a masters in landscape architecture from harvard university i studied real estate development and management at the harvard business school i have a bachelor science in architecture from the city college of new york and i have an honorary degree in media arts from the massachusetts communications college spent a your last rooms thank you tell us a little about your experience in belmont sure i've been involved in town government for about eight years aurally vice chairman of the planning committee and the police new police station feasibility study committee is among others thank you andy i'm sure you're asked this question a lot why are you running for and you know i ask myself the balance of no one but no i'm running because my experience education and skill set right now are able to provide belmont with the  services that it needs at this particular juncture and it's time it's amazing the what the town needs right now because of its potential economic development among many of the other issues my skill set seems to very directly with what the town needs so that's why i decided to run thank you i think the residents at home might be interested in your personal story and your family your roots would you share some of that with all of us sure thank you i was born in a small suburban town outside of havana cuba and my family and i immigrated legally to new york city in one nine hundred fifty seven that was two years before castro castro took over fifty nine in one nine hundred sixty everything my family own they had real estate assets that my grandfather built was nationalized so we had we ended up in new york city with no assets no income my family started over in factory my mother and father and factory jobs basically they poured all their resources into me had no more children in order to get me educated and believe me the that experience has shown to me the incredible opportunities of education to anybody in this country even from the humblest of backgrounds and also it has made me a very important you know activist in individual property rights i really protect residents and individual property rights and i think it stems a bit from this cuba experience thank you for sharing that story you certainly got my vote do you have any closing statements for the people at home thank you yes i do thank you very much judith and thank you all at home i know you're trying to decide between us and let me help you you know i've demonstrated that i first i listen and then i take action i'm not afraid to take strong positions and to take positive action sometimes you know people agree with them sometimes people don't but you know what i take these because it's best for belmont i am a a leader that is you can make decisive decisions in times of crisis i've done it before i've done it in town many times i protect presiden rights i worked with the senior center on the generator issues with the residents i worked at the wiling to school with the roof top unit noise issues i've worked on parking issues i've protected parkland both on royal road and in grove street park so to make sure that no permanent structures take away our open space i believe in better access the town government and i also believe that we need to address concerns on building committees that we all have we have both demonstrated that we listen we've both demonstrated that we understand the issues but i have demonstrated that i can listen and act if you want  will act decisively solve your problems respect them preserve the special character of our town and the special school system that we have then your decision  clear i'm mandy rojas and i'm ready to lead right now i ask for your vote on monday april second thank you very much thank you