>> mayor jones: good morning, good morning. The time is now 9:15 a.m. On
june 18th, 2026, and the meeting of the san antonio city council is now called
to order. Madam clerk, please call roll.
madam clerk. Today's invocateur is the guest of councilman
mckee-rodriguez. Over to you, sir. >> mckee-rodriguez: thank
you, good morning everyone and happy pride. Today is a beautiful and very busy day. Thank you, mayor, for your patience in starting the
meeting. We were running a little bit late today. To quote the princess diaries, a queen is never late, everyone else is
simply early. In the spirit of pride month it is a pleasure to
introduce aja. She has a strong sense of community and dedication.
her participation in the drag community started in 2021. Her inaugural performance was a benefit benefit for the aides foundation, an
experience not only to start her career, but also the passion for using
performance as a positive impact. Professionally she balances a multi-facetted career. By day she's a business manager and in the evening
she transitioned to the role of a host and entertainer, gracing stages across san antonio. These engagements allow her to connect with diverse
audiences and contribute to the family member fabric of ourl community.
her current focus is for strength in the community. Please join me in welcoming
aja. [applause] >> good morning.
thank you guys for having me. This is such an honor.
I will greet you guys. Greeting mayor, city council and my councilman, jalen
mckee rodriguez. It is an honor to be here twice this time.
I wish you guys a happy pride today and everyday. If you guys can bow your
head with me, I'm going to say a prayer for us. From this point of the light
within the mod god, let light stream forth into the minds of every person, every
being. Let light descend on earth earth -- sorry.
from this point above within the heart of god. Let love stream and forth
into the hearts of every person, every being. Let love descend on earth.
from the center where the will of god is known, let purpose guide the will of
every person, every being, every purpose which the holy master known and survived.
let goodwill and the will to be good descend on earth from the center which we
call from human race. Let the plan of love and the light work out.
and many seals of the door of evil dwells. Let light of love and power
descend upon earth, manifest and restore divine plan of earth as attacks come from
all angles. Please pray for our lbgtq+ folks, particularly our
trans community, which we face ongoing hate and discrimination and attempt
to assure. Never let your own discriminations or
disagreements or personal conflicts stop you from aligning where it matters
most. We also would like to extend our prayer to our lbgtq
youth. Sorry. Our lbgtq youth who are
fighting to find themselves in a place that is unsure, unsafe, in a time we are
already challenging and we pray that they be granted a knowledge where they can
find love, peace and serenity. Thank you.
>> mayor jones: thank you, aja. Please remain standing and join me in the pledge of allegiance.
>> mayor jones: item 3 is approval of the minutes for the june 3rd and 4th, 2026
council meetings. Are there any corrections or edits to the minutes? Hearing none, is there a motion for approval? >> I make a motion to
approve. >> mayor jones: there's a motion to approve and a second. Please vote. The motion carries, thank
you. We have one proclamation today, a very important one.
juneteenth. I will now read the proclamation and then recognize councilman mckee-rodriguez to speak. Whereas the city of san
antonio recognizes that juneteenth day honors the historic moment when freedom was finally realized for the last enslaved african-americans in the
united states, reaffirming the enduring ideals of human equality and dignity.
whereas on june 19th, 1865 marks the date when union forces arrived in galveston,
texas, and enforcing the emancipation proclamation more than two years after
its issuance. Whereas juneteenth stands as the oldest commemorateing day
of remembrance for slavery in the united states and also stands for the ongoing
pursuit of civil rights. It provides the san antonio community an opportunity to
honor african-american history, culture and contributions and to recommit to fostering equality, understanding and unity for all residents.
and whereas the juneteenth independence day parade organized by the san antonio
juneteenth freedom coalition will take place on june 20th, 2026, followed by
a festival in comanche park number 2, celebrating through programs, community
gatherings and activities that highlight heritage and fellowship.
now there are I, mayor of the city of san antonio, in recognition thereof, do
hereby proclaim june 19th, 2026, as juneteenth day in san antonio, texas.
councilman mckee-rodriguez. >> mckee-rodriguez: as we reflect on juneteenth this year, we remember it not as a historic milestone, but call to action.
it is the day federal troops arrived in galveston, texas, two and a half years after
the emancipation proclamation to enforce the end of slavery. Two and a half years. And the system of slavery didn't die easily and its
legacy didn't disappear with a stroke of a pen. And if you ask today, some will tell you some systems of bondage never ended, they just evolved.
that's the uncomfortable truth that we're called to confront.
did slavery really end on juneteenth or simply shift into something else.
what oppressions exist in our society today? What institutions were born
under slavery and segregation, but now have continued under different
names. How is it limiting the success of our black communities? Even now we're seeing ice and various levels of law
enforcement rip families apart and such a violent and I am humane practice started
in slavery. What is done to one of us is done to all of us.
in san antonio we've made meaningful progress, we've passed a non-discrimination
ordinance, we've named [indiscernible], we've introduced equitable
framework to assist frameworks, contracts and services and these are important steps, but they're just that. Enduring centuries of racism
takes more than statement, it takes courageous and often uncomfortable action. We can't ignore the data, black americans are incarcerated at more than
three times the rate of white americans and that's not accidental.
metzger evers, malcolm x, fred hampton all murdered, all for demanding dignity
and justice for black lives. It didn't stop there. It continues with theth of
trayvon martin, sandra bland, marques jones, chaired round tree, george
floyd, and countless others whose name and know and so many that we don't. So when I and others challenge law enforcement practices or question
long-standing norms and it makes you uncomfortable, I ask you to pause and consider the history of our lived experiences. We're not asking you to
debate our reality, we're asking you as allies, as leaders, as neighbors to help us change it. And it's not supposed to be easy because real change
never it, but it's necessary to save lives and create a better future.
for over 400 years this country and state have worked to undermine the
black community and still do in many ways. Juneteenth celebrates the end of slavery, yes, but it also marks the beginning of a new kind of fight to end
its legacy. So I invite you this year and every year to stand with us to speak out and to act. I look forward to celebrating with my
community this weekend at the parade on saturday at 9:00 a.m. Starting at sam houston high school and the many events happening over the week.
I'll see you in the streets surrounded by a powerful, resilient and deeply rooted
community that continues to lead the way. Thank you, mayor. >> mayor jones: thank you, councilman. Would anyone else like to
speak? Anyone else on the dais? You're welcome to come to
the podium, sure. Please go ahead. >> good morning.
my name is oscar vehicles. We've been doing a juneteenth parade for the
last 27 years and we want to thank you all for recognizing and letting the
city know that we'll celebrate liberty, equality and justice for all.
and I'm not about juneteenth because it's a holiday, I'm about juneteenth because
liberty, equality and justice for all, not just black folks, but everybody.
when I came back from vietnam, I went around the world to fight for people's
freedom and I come back and we had a colored restroom, a colored water fountain and
colored restaurants. And I said from that day on, I would be fighting for
liberty, equality and justice for all. So anybody that recognize
that, I want to appreciate them. This is freedom.
the city is responsible for doing the presentation. I like to give credit for everybody that support us, and we hope that we'll see everybody's parade wave on
saturday at 9:00. Thank you. >> mayor jones: thank you,
sir. [applause] >> oscar vehicles last week
buried his wife and he took the time out to come out to show you how important it is for
us to come together and have a good time and celebrate our freedom.
>> mayor jones: thank you. >> mayor jones: let me foot stomp, encourage
everybody to be there at 9:00. I look forward to it. I hope as many of my colleagues can join me that morning as possible.
we've got a busy agenda here. Erik, I'll turn it over to
you for the city manager's report. >> good morning, mayor and
council. Two items. One, I wanted to have an opportunity to bring a very special city employee before the council this morning,
ms. Ana martinez is celebrating an extraordinary milestone of 50 years with
the city. That deserves a round of applause right there.
[applause] so ms. Martinez currently serves as a deputy court
clerk in municipal court and is known for her professionalism, extensive
court knowledge and commitment to excellence at the courts. She's a certified court clerk through the texas court clerk's association.
she began her career in 1976 with the city, in the city welfare department, which
probably over time turned into the department of human services.
as a grant funded clerk transcribing case manager reports and then joined the
municipal court team in 1985. During her career has served
in a variety of roles as she's moved up in the organization.
proud san antonio native, mother to a daughter and grandmother to three
grandchildren. And she reportedly finds great fulfillment in
supporting the judges and the public as they navigate the court system.
it isn't very often that we have a 50-year city employee. Ana, thank you for join willing us this morning. I wanted to recognize you
and your service and your service to our community and the organization. And thank you before the council this morning. Thank you very much.
[applause] >> mayor jones: ms. Martinez, if you would
indulge the council, we would like to come down and take a picture with you.
[applause] >> and then the second item is another great news story.
today's video highlights an employee who is here today, robert ybarra, from the
solid waste department, who was recently awarded the national waste and driving
association driver of the year for the entire country. [applause] so the national
waste and recycling association recognizes one public sector driver every
year, and robert is this year's awardee. He started working for the
city in december of 1994 and promoted into a driving position in 2003.
in his 30-plus years with the city he is accident free. [applause] the award celebrates the best of his industry, professionals with
the skill, the discipline and the commitment to set a safety standard for waste and recycling operations, so I wanted to thank robert and congratulate him and have an
opportunity for him to come before the council this afternoon. That is today's video, so let's roll the video. >> this award from the nwra,
the national waste and recycling association, this award will be presented to
me in washington, d.c., so we will be going over there to accept the award.
I have been employed with the city of san antonio for 31 and a half years. Right now I'm a side loader equipment operator. I collect the carts on route
servicing garbage, recycle or gongs as needed. I -- organics as needed.
I also have a role in training new drivers. The core values that I think we use a lot here is teamwork. We are always out there, but
sometimes we do have delays, so we need other drivers to come and help.
we're all trying to get back here safely. The other one for me
personally is integrity, because we are there by ourselves in the truck, it's
just us. We have to make decisions out in the field and it's just having pride in your work. Even though no one is there
to see it we still have to do the right thing. It's really an unbelievable
feeling, me and my wife going to dc to receive my award.
I never thought this job would take me places like that, but to be honored that way it's exciting for me and my family. It's not just for me, it's
for the city, it's for the department. My name is robert ybarra,
I'm a side load equipment operator and I was selected as the 2026nwra public
sector driver of the year. [applause] >> congratulations again,
robert. That's all we have this morning, mayor. >> mayor jones: congratulations, sir. Thank you, erik.
there are no individual items scheduled for today. Items 10 through 29 are on
the consent agenda. This means they will be considered as a group and there will not be a staff presentation unless pulled for individual
consideration. Because item 26 is related to items 5, 6 and 7, I
recommend moving this item from the consent agenda to be voted on with the other
toyota-related items. Is there any objection to that? Great. Thank you. Are there any other items
council members would like to pull from the consent agenda to be heard individually? Hearing none. Okay.
all right. Item 26 has been pulled for individual consideration.
and we are on -- we have no members of the public who have signed up to speak on
the items that remain on the consent agenda. There's is motion to approve the balance of the consent agenda? >> second.
>> mayor jones: there's a motion and a second to approve the balance of the
consent agenda. Any highlights, questions about the consent agenda? Councilwoman viagran? >> viagran: thank you. This morning I would like to
highlight item less than, an ordinance approving a construction contract for
the father ahmand center. It is going to be approximately 1200 square
feet replacing the recently demolished community center which had been up for years
and been a gathering place. This modern iteration of the father amman community
center is going to include a lobby, a gym, two classrooms, community
programs and a dedicated office space for parks and rec. So I look forward to moving that forward. I would also like to
highlight item 12, fire station 21 replacement. This was part of the fiscal
year 2024 budget, a total of 12 million was authorized for the design.
this is fire station 2021, replacing a very old fire station on south flores.
I look forward to that. Seeing our firefighters housed in a new facility,
state-of-the-art. I'm very excited about that. So I look forward to moving that forward. Thank you, mayor. >> mayor jones: are there
any other items for highlight? Councilwoman kaur. >> kaur: thank you, mayor. I have two highlights today. One is item 10, which is a
contract for the kenwood community center authorizing eight and a half million
dollars to do the entire construction of this community center. This was one of the first things that my seniors asked me when I was elected three
years ago, that this building was closed due to foundational issues and they really wanted this building opened again so folks can father.
so I want to shout out dhs for their hard work and helping us create a
community design team that actually provided input into what the public art in the building was going to look like, where the bathrooms were going to be located,
and dhs did an amazing job. And thank you to the capital delivery department who has
assured me that there is a bonus for early completion in this project in the
budget. I'm excited to hear that as well. The next item I want to highlight is item number 28, which is a methodist
healthcare right-of-way agreement. I want to thank the city attorney's office to their diligent work in getting this done so it does not
delay the construction for methodist healthcare. I know juan is here today and he's been a great partner for the district 1 team, as your organization
has for the entire community, they just opened up a doulah center.
if anyone needs those services they can access them pretty easily. Thank you for your partnership as well. Thanks, mayor.
>> mayor jones: thank you. Erik, one clarification on item 22, which is the
downtown disability and mobility study contract. Yesterday we had a
discussion from my of my colleagues and we want to make sure there's sufficient
citizen input into what that group, one, looks like, as well as the kind of longer,
more strategic guidelines, objectives, goals that are considered as part of that. So understand that's a one-year contract, but we want to clarify that that is
going to be flexible enough to account for the feedback that we described yesterday. >> yes, ma'am. I think what you talked about was having councilman
mungia kind of lead the charge on getting that for the council members. >> mayor jones: I wanted to confirm that for the public.
thank you. Okay. There being no further
discussion, there's a motion and a second to approve the -- excuse me.
okay. Councilman mckee-rodriguez. >> mckee-rodriguez: thank you, mayor. I wanted to item number 29, appointing and reappointing
our municipal court judges. I want to give my gratitude for those who applied and
those ultimately chosen. We were so impressed by those we got to interview and we got to hear about your passion for service of our community.
and municipal court is often one of the first interactions that our constituents have with local government and so I wanted to once again say thank you
for upholding the courts in the way that you have, and I look forward to working with
you as chair of the municipal courts advisory committee. Thank you, mayor. >> mayor jones: thank you, councilman.
any other questions or highlights? Okay. There being no further discussion, there's a motion and a second to approve the
consent agenda minus item 26. Please vote.
the motion carries, thank you. Items 5, 6, 7 and 26 are all
related to toyota and if there's no objection will be discussed and voted on
together. Hearing no objection, madam clerk, please read the
caption for items 5, 6, 7 and 26. >> item number 5 is an
ordinance approving a 10-year tax abatement agreement with toyota motor
manufacturing, texas, inc., to abate 100% of real property, personal add ad
valorem property taxes for improvements within an existing texas enterprise zone. B, a chapter 380 economic development agreement for
$9,500,000 for ready to work program funding and city fee waivers. C, an endorsement to participate in cps energy's e-16 rider program.
d, recommendation of saws fee waivers in an amount not to pedestrian $4,515,950,
subject to saws board approval. E, negotiation and execution of an advanced funding agreement between the city of san antonio, bexar county
and the texas department of transportation with a city contribution in the amount
of $20 million to support road infrastructure improvements.
and f, allocation of $4,500,000 for intersection improvements and
appropriates funds accordingly.
item number 6 is a resolution approving the negotiation and execution of
an advanced funding agreement between the city of san antonio, bexar
county, texas and the texas department of transportation, txdot, for
the development of the proposed east-west state spur project with a city contribution of $20 million. Item number 7 is a resolution nominating toyota
motor manufacturing texas, inc., for a designations a qualified business and a
triple jumbo enterprise project under the texas enterprise zone program.
and item number 26 is an ordinance authorizing and approving publication and
posting of a notice of intention to issue city of san antonio, texas
combination tax and revenue certificates of obligation in a maximum principal
amount not to exceed $25 million, and providing for an effective date.
>> mayor jones: thank you, madam clerk. Staff has a presentation. Thanks, alex. >> good morning, mayor and council.
I'm excited to present for your consideration an incentive package
intentionally designed to position san antonio for a transformative economic development project. I'll start with some background on the company.
toyota has already invested over $4.7 billion at the company's southside location
since 2003. They directly employ over 3700 people and their local
supplier network includes approximately 5400 additional employees.
in 2022 we commissioned a study of the economic impact associated with toyota and
its suppliers investment in san antonio, and found that through 2035 they will
contribute $208 billion in gdp and support 15,000 jobs and $1.34 billion in annual
wages. So for some perspective, this represents seven percent of bexar county's gdp and 2.5% of the total wages in our county.
the project under consideration would include construction of a
2.5 million square foot facility to accommodate a new flexible production line
manufacturing over 200,000 vehicles annually. They're planning to start
construction by september of this year and be operational by 2030.
this expansion is planned at their current location and this image shows the land
they have available. And while we've known an expansion of this caliber
was a possibly, we've also known we'd have to compete for it.
in connection with this project, toyota plans to invest $2 billion and create
2,000 jobs. As part of this incentive package, we would require
that the 2,000 jobs created would meet or exceed the bexar county average wage,
which is currently $32.36, and which will be indexed annually.
staff is recommending our wage expectations align with the texas enterprise fund, which for this project is also being recommended. The texas enterprise fund,
it's a state program and it consists of -- and it includes total cash
compensation rather than simply just base wages. In the advanced
manufacturing industry and specifically with a company like toyota, shift
differentials, overtime and bonuses are significant, which is why this standard
more accurately reflect the wages associated with these jobs.
our policy also requires that 10% of a baited texas be invested into wraparound
support for their employees in the form of childcare, transportation or workforce
development, which they have committed to doing should we be selected for this
investment. This incentive package
specifically developed to increase san antonio's competitiveness for this
investment. We're recommending a 10 year 100% tax abatement with an
estimated value of $88 million. Along with $20 million for
road improvement investments to connect the site to highway 281 via a northeast
entrance. This entrance is critical to mitigate the impact of
additional vehicle traffic associated with this project. Item number 6 on today's agenda authorizes an advanced funding with txdot
for delivery of this road improvement. And item 26 on the agenda
would authorize debt to fund the improvement. This debt will be backed by
anticipated growth in cps revenues associated with an increased energy load for
this project. And while txdot has committed to an aggressive
timeline for delivery of this road, they cannot guarantee its completion prior to the plant being operational. So to improve more efficient
access to the site in advance of the eastern entrance being available, we
recommend additional infrastructure support for specific road improvements along the western entrance to the plant. These improvements will be
funded through the economic development incentive fund, along with savings from
infrastructure improvements associated with project iceberg, which resulted in
the rear axle manufacturing facility. We're recommending ready to
work support in the form of on-the-job training grants up to 8.25 million
dillard's, and incumbent worker grants up to $750,000.
to access each 5,000-dollar on-the-job training grant, toyota would be required to
hire from the ready to work program. And we're also recommending
$500,000 in city fee waivers, also to be funded from the economic development incentive fund. Aside from city-funded support, we're also
recommending an e-16 rider incentive, which is an economic development tool council can make available to significant power uses. The estimated value of this
discount is $16.2 million over six years. Cps will also be offering
support in the form of additional infrastructure for the project and a
natural gas discount. And saws will also be savoring infrastructure
support and wave waive impact fees as noted on this slide. Item number 7 on today's
agenda seeks approval of a resolution nominating this project to the texas enterprise zone program, making them eligible for up to $3.75 million in state
sales tax rebates. And lastly, due to the speed of the project, we're also
recommending a single point of contact with development services.
I'd like to take a few minutes to highlight some of the details on the impact this project could have in our community. The city's total incentive
value is estimated at $122.1 million. However, we've estimated
city tax revenues of 34.7 million during the three years of construction.
during which time they will still be paying property taxes, along with sales taxes for all of the construction. If you look 10 years after
the abatement expires, we anticipate $92.4 million in property taxes and sales
taxes to the city. So over the next 25 years, these revenues actually
exceed our incentive costs. And as far as direct impact to residents, if we take the
2,000 jobs created, multiplied by the annual average wage, which is
roughly $85,000, this project is anticipated to result in $178.8 million in
wages into our community every year. And finally, the estimated
economic impact for this project during the initial three years of construction
is $3.2 billion. And 7.6 billion annually once it's operational.
so mayor and council, given the proven commitment toyota has demonstrated to the
san antonio community and to position san antonio to aggressively compete for
this transformational investment opportunity, staff recommends approval and authorization of the various items included in this incentive package.
and while this concludes my presentation, I'd like to invite frank voss, president
of toyota texas, to share a few remarks. >> thank you, alex and good
morning, mayor jones, city councilmembers and city staff as well as the
community members here today. It an honor to be here on behalf of the 3700 workers of at a toyota texas, as well as some suppliers, to help
support the expansion right here in this community. For over 20 years toyota has
been building something great in san antonio, not only high quality vehicles, but also careers and livelihoods for thousands of san antonians.
while our plant is proudly located on the southside and has been an important catalyst for the significant growth and development happening on that side of
town, our team members and our suppliers' team members, the hard working people say
assembling, toyotas, tundras and sequoias everyday, they live in every council
district in this great city. So we hope that between our people and the high quality
trucks and suvs on the roads throughout this region and the philanthropic impact
we've made over the past two academic aids, especially in stem and education, you feel
that toyota is for everyone because it is. We extend our deep gratitude
to city manager walsh and the assistant city manager team, the economic
development department and many others for preparing a package that we hope will be
competitive and help san antonio win this project. And we thank each of you for your consideration of it. In return, we're excited for
the potential impact that 2,000 more high quality, stable jobs with toyota
paychecks will make in the lives of this community's citizens and our local economy for years to come. We're thankful for all the city's support in every step
over the last 23 years and we hope that if san antonio is selected it will be
another once in a generation investment that this entire city can be proud of and
benefit from. Thank you for your partnership and for your support. >> mayor, one other thing I'll add before we move to
questions. I wanted to recognize and thank the entire city team
that worked on this project, and you've heard some of the names, but it's
far-reaching. As you all sit there as council members and mayor,
we also are the owners of the utilities. I know mr. Puente and his
team are in the room, but saws and cps spent a significant amount of time
on this issue as well as well as our own mike ramsey, mike shannon of the capital
delivery departments, art reinhart in public works, john peterek, ben, troy and
margaret in the finance team. Ray rodriguez and laura reyna in the city attorney's office, and of course alfred and brenda in the economic
development department. And really working as a team with our utilities, utility
partners and greater satx, we were able to come to a point where we were able to bring this to you today for recommendation, and hopefully good news in the
future. Thanks, mayor. >> mayor jones: thank you.
we have two individuals from the public who have signed up to speak on this item. I'll call them in the order that we have signed up. Jonathan gerwitz, followed
by jack finger. >> mayor and council, as chair of the public policy
committee in the greater san antonio chamber I'm here to show support for the tax
agreement with toyota manufacturing texas and to thank toyota for its
long-standing commitment to our community. For more than two decades toyota has been much more than an employer in san antonio.
the company has been a true community partner investing not only in manufacturing,
operations, but also in the people, organizations and institutions that help our
region thrive. Toyota's presence has helped establish san antonio as a
globally competitive manufacturing hub, supporting houses of direct and indirect jobs and attracting suppliers, investment and talent to our
region. Their economic impact extends well beyond this
facility, benefiting small businesses, families and schools throughout our region. Just as important, toyota has consistently
demonstrated a commitment to corporate sit 10 ship with volunteerism, charitable
giving, workforce development partnerships and support for educational
initiatives. Today's actions support toyota's continued investment in san antonio while helping ensure our community remains
competitive to future growth. Communities across the country are competing aggressively for advanced manufacturing investments in
tools such as tax abatements, help position san antonio as a place where
world class employers choose to expand, innovate and create jobs. As we continue to diversify and strengthen our local economy, retaining and
growing employers like toyota is one of the most effective strategies for creating opportunities, for economic prosperity and securing a strong future for
generations to come. On behalf of the greater san antonio chamber and our
volunteer leadership, I want to thank toyota for its enduring partnership and ask
city council to support this agreement. We appreciate toyota's partnership in san antonio and look forward to continuing growing together
for many years to come. Thank you. >> mayor jones: jack finger. >> madame mayor, other members of the san antonio
city council. For the record, my name is jack m. Finger and just for
the record, I did sit out that invocation this morning.
toyota. How many years has it been for san antonio?
well, at least 20. 20 years. Has a big multibillion
dollar plant on the south side. To say that is going to up and leave san antonio is, to me, a little bit farfetched. If I was born at night, it
certainly wasn't last night. But we're about to find out how many of you were born last night. You know, we -- in this big deal we have here, that's
what the headline says. We're going to give away how many perks?
city offers toyota $142.7 million in perks. But for what?
mr. Audio-visual man. How many actual jobs is going to be new on this one? We talked about the thousands of jobs. Add more than 400 jobs.
400 jobs. I think that's the bottom line. Return the camera, if you would. Now, I calculated -- here,
you can put that up there now. Maybe I'm just an amateur at
this, but I counted 400 jobs and that's $220,000 per job. $220,000 per job.
that, on top of the 30-some odd dollars each job is already providing.
is $220,000, does that seem like a little bit much to you? It does to me. So anyway, return the camera, if you would.
we are already going to give them all kinds of giveaways and road improvements and
on-the-job training. And waivers, fee waivers, utility fee waivers and so
forth. But I notice that we're going to give them a
10-year, 100% tax abatement? How many of our average mom and pop businesses here in
town can get a commensurate type of tax abatement like that?
do we ever give such? No. Here's one. That bottom second one there. Second circulated area
there. Yeah. If you can blow it up a little bit. Incumbent worker training amount in the amount of
$750,000 in order to upskill existing employees . Why don't they train their
own employees on their own dime? We're already training them
with the on-the-job training. Why are we giving them extra
training? Why don't they do it themselves? Thank you. >> mayor jones: thank you for the public comment.
we always appreciate that. Because that one was incorrect, however, I do want to make sure that the public, that is paying a lot of attention to this,
understands the news article that he referenced, referenced a rear axle
plant. That is an issue settled and we look forward to those 400
new jobs coming. That does not have anything to do with what we are discussing today. But thank you for the public comment.
those are all the individuals that have signed up to speak on item 5. May I have a motion to approve items 5, 6, 7, and 26 so we may begin
discussion? >> viagran: I make a motion to approve.
>> mayor jones: we'll now move on to council discussion. For clarity, because the numbers may be different for those that are paying
attention. The reason we're talking about item 26, you saw in there a reference to a $20 million incentive. Item 26 speaks to a
$25 million bond that we would have to pay and that accounts for additional costs and interests, potentially, with having to pay that off.
those two are related but in case anyone was wondering why those numbers were
different. >> walsh: mayor, that's only if needed. >> mayor jones: that's right. As needed. But they're related. Okay. Thank you.
councilmember mungia. >> mungia: thank you, mayor. I want to thank alex and belinda and also greater:satx, y'all have
done an amazing job putting together a wonderful package that I think is so
beneficial not just for my district and the south side of san antonio, but regionally speaking. This is a huge investment for our community.
we have had a great longstanding relationship with toyota ever since you guys came here and I think it's paid -- the dividends are immeasurable.
thank you for all the work you have done. These are fantastic jobs. These are folks that my parents grew up with that worked there and are able to
sustain a family and a great sense of living. This has been a lot of
partners getting together, including saws and cps pitching in.
ultimately, this is best, not just for the south side but for the entire region of
san antonio, bexar county, even south of us. A lot of folks who live outside the county benefit from these jobs as well. Thank you for all your work.
thank you to the city and I look forward to passing this and hopefully getting these
jobs and hope y'all will give me a tour once it's been built.
thank you very much. Appreciate it. >> mayor jones:
councilmember alderete gavito. >> gavito: thank you, alex for the presentation. Brenda, thank you for your help in getting it to the
finish line. Obviously sarah with greater:satx.
as councilman mungia says, it truly is a partnership. Thank you, frank, for your comments. Of course, toyota has a great team.
I see melinda in the audience too. But as you mentioned, frank,
there's so much that toyota does to uplift our whole community.
I see rosa and jorge. There's such success. I saw y'all give $50 million
in community donations alone last year. That tells us you're invested here, partnered with us, partnered with our city.
thank you for that. We know, all of us here on the dais and in chambers, we
all have the goal to reduce generational poverty and economic development is our
key to that goal. So we have to continue we have to continue doing the work. If we're going to truly
uplift our city, this is the kind of wins it's going to take.
so thank you so much for all of the partnership. Thank you to saws and cps
for their willingness to work here. Let's get it done.
thank you. >> mayor jones: thank you. Thank you.
councilmember viagran. >> viagran: thank you. Toyota has been a
cornerstone employer on san antonio's south side. Toyota has maintained a
manufacturing presence in san antonio for approximately 23 years,
since its establishment. And 20 years since production began,
redirecting sustained investment in the future of our city.
this company, toyota, has demonstrated a long-term commitment to san antonio's
workforce and community. With this today, you continue to show that you
have confidence in san antonio's manufacturing capabilities.
toyota's presence in san antonio represents one of the most significant
economic development success stories in our city's history and serves as a
model for how strategic investment can transform an entire region.
you've been more than an employer. This has been more than an employer. They have been an anchor institution that has
attracted investment, strengthened workforce development efforts, and
created pathways to economic opportunity for generations of families. We saw base closures come, impacting the middle class of the south side -- the
south and west side of san antonio. With toyota's arrival, we
had opportunity again. And this is what it has been since it has established its
operations. A $4.7 billion investment from private sectors make it
one of the largest ever made in this city that says we believe in san antonio.
that we've helped position the south side as a nationally-recognized manufacturing and logistics hub, enhancing san antonio's reputation as a prehere premier
destination. Other people want advanced manufacturing but what you have here, what we have here is a community . It's more than just a
company. We must continue to support responsible economic growth
and infrastructure. I am so excited that this opportunity comes along with this new council and mayor. Because it doesn't always come along.
the former councilwoman rebecca viagran -- we knew what land toyota had.
as we went, as sisters to events, we would ask what are you going to do next?
what are you going to do next? What's coming next? And the opportunity for the rear axel plant came with our last council and that
was exciting to see that kind of growth. Now you have the
opportunity, city of san antonio and this council, to continue to look at the
improvements with a public-private partnership that allows employers like toyota to expand and succeed. Strong infrastructure is one
of the most important factors companies consider when deciding where to
invest. By making these improvements today, san antonio is positioning itself to compete for future employers.
infrastructure is key. Road infrastructure is important and the
improvements to roads and transportation networks help reduce congestion, improve
safety, and enhance mobility for residents and businesses throughout the area.
the continued growth of toyota is not only a victory for the south side and
district 3 but it's a victory for the entire city of san antonio and the state of texas. It strengthens our economy, supports our local
businesses, our state businesses, expands employment opportunities,
and reinforces our position as one of the nation's leading manufacturing
centers. I remain committed to working alongside toyota,
its community stakeholders, and everyone involved. And today I am excited that
the city council of san antonio gets to also say and commit to work alongside
toyota. At this point I would like to enter others that have
indicated their support and that's letters of support from the alamo community
college district and the south texas business partner into the record .
so thank you so much. I look forward to the next steps. I know this is a beginning of the process but as we move forward, understand
that the city of san antonio and the community of san antonio understands and
recognizes the efforts you've put in. And in return, you have
always understood and recognized the value of the people of san antonio, their
abilities, and the workforce that we have here. Thank you. Thank you, mayor. >> mayor jones: thank you. Councilmember meza gonzalez.
>> gonzalez: thank you, mayor. Thank you, toyota, for being here today and to all city staff and greater:satx that helped bring this together
as well as saws and cps. Folks have said this -- and you'll hear it after I
talk -- that toyota has been a great partner for the last 20 years. And so I look forward to supporting this item today. Just a couple of clarifying
questions for the public, because this is such a huge investment.
for alex, the $20 million of
revenue that will be generated through this project. >> gonzalez: and is the reoccurring -- is there a reoccurring annual cost to
our general fund operating budget at all? >> for that debt, no. That's why it's all being included in that item 26. >> gonzalez: wonderful.
thank you. I think for more than 20 years toyota has been a
strong partner. Its presence has helped bring other manufacturers,
including navistar and jcb to the same part of the city. I think we can expect a significant new investment like this from toyota to
signal to other major employers that our city has the resources, the talent, and the vision to be a reliable and effective city to do business with.
this investment represents a strong return for our residents. Toyota is looking at roughly $2 billion in private investment set against a
city package of $142 million. That's a close to $14 of
private investment for every public dollar we commit. Just as important, most of
our share is not cash out the door. It is revenue we only forego
once the $2 billion is built. In return we gain a
permanent expansion of our tax base and a forever revenue stream that continues long after these incentives have ended. I think that's extremely
important to note, as our residents are watching the votes that we take today.
again, I want to thank city staff, greater:satx, saws, cps, obviously toyota, our
local partners that I see in the room today. Thank you for your
commitment to this city. I've known a lot of you folks for a long time and
the commitment is clear and I think you love this city just as much as we all do.
thank you. Again, thank you for considering san antonio,
toyota. Thank you for considering san antonio for an investment of this scale. Thank you so much. >> mayor jones: thank you.
councilmember whyte. >> whyte: thanks, mayor. I'll be brief.
very excited about this. Having toyota here in san antonio for the last 23
years has been a huge win for our city. And the fact that we can do
this today and allow toyota to expand and hire more of our citizens, again, another
win for our people. You know, we talk all the time about creating jobs for
our citizens. Good-paying jobs. We talk about bringing
revenue into our city. We know the budget issues that we're having here right
now. And so how do we bring more revenue into san antonio, into this region, help us do all the other things that we want to do?
it's things like this. So I want to say thank you to toyota. Thank you to this council for being so supportive of this.
this is a win for our city. This is a win for our people. And I look forward to seeing all the great things the city of san antonio and
toyota can do together moving forward. Thanks, mayor. >> mayor jones: thank you. Councilmember kaur. >> kaur: thank you, mayor.
I want to thank city staff, greater:satx, edd department for all of your work and all
the additional folks that erik mentioned put their hard work into this.
greater:satx, sarah, and your team, you have done a great job. To the toyota team, I want to say thank you for your investment into ready to
work. Ready to work is a very unique program that has the
up potential to do so much for our community. I actually had the chance to meet a son of a mom who works at toyota as a part of the ready to work program.
and that son has graduated from high school, from jefferson, is in college
right now, starting his own business. As the ready to work was intended, it's truly changing generational lives. I want to thank you, guys
for the work you have done
all of the investment that you have given into our community at-large. I had a chance to talk with one of your leaders at the gemini, inc. Luncheon at the
sa book festival. That festival, although ones that is potentially on the
chopping block, has really changed lives for a lot of kids . You all continue to invest in the community. I also hope what you hear
today is a group of folks that really believe in your company and that has
continued to invest in you all as you have continued to invest in us.
this body really appreciates everything you have done. I wasn't on the council,
obviously, when you guys first came to the city but now having been able to vote
for the 2024 rear axle plant and this one today, it's an honor to be able to do that.
it's an honor to be able to work alongside of you guys to support our community and
jobs for our community. I also hope what you see is that in a time where we are
having really tough conversations after this with a trial budget that's in a potentially deficit, we still believe in you and believe in your organization
and are willing to double down on our investment. So when you're considering
those potential other cities, just remember that we really want you all here.
regardless of the conversations that happen after this, this is a body that is going to do their due diligence. Is going to make sure we get
the est deal for our residents. And right now we believe in
doubling down on you all. Our conversations after this do not mean that there is a
disbelief in our infrastructure that we cannot handle what you all need. It is a sign that we really are going to do our
diligence on every item. And on this one we feel confident that we have. This is a great package that we hope you will accept. Thank you all for your
investment, again, and thank you to the team for everything that you've done. Thanks, mayor. >> mayor jones: thank you. Councilmember spears.
>> spears: thank you, mayor. It's hard to add to this because you can tell we're all so excited about it. Myself included.
but thank you again to city staff, greater:satx, mike, our economic development
department, all of your hard work. I know it takes a lot of work to get this accomplished. So, great job.
toyota, you've just been a strong corporate partner and it's been 20 years.
I can't believe that. But it's not lost on me. I have a family friend that
works at toyota and the opportunity changed the trajectory of his life for
himself, his wife, and his two kids. On a personal note, I'm
grateful for that. I often talk about the need to attract new businesses to san antonio but I also believe showing how we retain and expand our
world-class employers already operating here is equally or more important.
and you've been a trusted partner for decades and we're very fortunate to have
you here. 2,000 jobs is significant. It's a huge impact to our
community in an area that needs it the most. And we're just truly
grateful for you having the foresight in how that will impact san antonio.
you've already demonstrated a great commitment to san antonio and it goes far
beyond our operations and it's through your workforce initiatives, education
partnerships, and community involvement that this company has become a part of the fabric of our city. As you continue to expand, it's creating opportunities
not just within the plant but through the broader supply chain. That's not lost on me. It's opportunity for so many locally to support
additional employers and our small businesses here. And economic activity
through our whole region. I just think it creates things for our residents and
strengthens our workforce in a way that we can't accomplish on our own. So we're grateful for that. I appreciate your confidence in san antonio and I'm
excited about the opportunities this investment creates for all of us and our workforce and the future generations. I also want to shout out to
txdot, bexar county, and the city staff for their willingness to partner on
this project. It's this kind of collaboration is how we
tackle our biggest transportation challenges. So thank you for that.
txdot has been a tremendous partner in san antonio and I really appreciate their continued investment in our infrastructure that supports
our growing community. Good infrastructure is not just about moving cars, it's
about connecting people to jobs, supporting economic growth, and improving the
quality of life. And I think it's this long-term thinking behind
this effort and the commitment to evaluating solutions that serve our
community for decades to come that we really have to appreciate.
we've seen firsthand how important state transportation investments are to san antonio and the region and to bexar county, and I look forward to our
strong partnership with them. This is just a great example of what can happen when a company sees value and continues to invest in san
antonio. I appreciate so much all this hard work that's gone into this. I know this has taken a lot. So, thank you again and it's
encouraging to see a company of toyota's size and reputation continue to
choose san antonio. I'm really happy to support this item and I look forward
to seeing what this next phase of growth brings. >> mayor jones: thank you.
councilmember castillo. >> castillo: thank you. Ththank you, alex for the presentation. I just wanted to emphasize the hard work of your team
and then of course all the organizations and partners in this very large project.
and, of course, for being quick to respond to a handful of questions that my
team had on short notice. Thank you if your team for your due diligence and getting back to my team and I with those questions. There were a couple of
components I wanted to uplift, particularly toyota's commitment to pay 100% of the additional 2,000 full-time employees' entry wage of with that wage being
an index for future wage growth. I'm pleased that it includes
requirements to include the osha ten safety courses and the programs that will also
address heat-related illnesses. These were changes to the incentive program that my team worked alongside labor and your team, alex, to
ensure we could include this in any future incentive agreement. Grateful to see that applied to this proposal. Further, the city's tax
abatement agreement with toyota includes a commitment from toyota to include 10%
of its annual tax abatement value towards wraparound services each year. I understand the agreement supports community priorities that were
identified in 2024 and approved by council. But I'm hopeful that as part of the focus, toyota and the city of san antonio will continue to strengthen a
local justice-involved employment program such as the one with toyotetsu.
toyota supplier. And that they currently run. Hopefully that's a program that can be strengthened and tied to this project as well.
providing support for local high-quality childcare providers who offer
affordable care to working families. I know that is a priority for you all. And then of course increase the company's support to
career training education program with our local isds. I'm grateful to see the work taking place with somerset isd and their
audio] those partnerships with our isds. The agreement requires the
wraparound support plan at least 60 days prior to the first year of the abatement term with investment completed by december 2031. I understand this is an
agreement that will then require staff approval. But my ask to erik is if
when this agreement comes forward if it can come with the chair's agreement to
ewdc that we can review what those expectations are for council discussion?
>> walsh: sure. >> castillo: to emphasize what my colleagues have highlighted, we know toyota's commitment to the community is strong and
that's evident in the investment in education, community, quality wages, and benefits to our community members. And then I wanted to
highlight one of the programs, y'all's driving possibilities program with the east central isd. And also the additional donation of $70,000 to the
alamo community college foundation to support s.t.e.m. Students and their
training programs at palo alto and st. Philips as part of the toyota experience.
grateful and looking forward to the proposed plan and revisiting what those
wraparound services can look like. Again, just wanted to
emphasize
interested in the e-1616 rider. I appreciate the team
answering those questions. Those are my comments. Thank you.
>> mckee-rodriguez: thank you, mayor. Thank you for the presentation and thank you to everyone for your work on this. Thank you, mr. Voss for being here. It means a lot that you're
here today. I want to convey to you that I am a natural no vote on
incentive packages and I have to be convinced. It's not easy to get me to
agree to some of these major incentives. I want you to understand the weight with which I view items like this. I'll start by conveying the
challenge that's been alluded to that makes this vote significant.
navigating a budget deficit in which our revenue is not keeping pace with our
expenses. Naturally there are two ways to address this.
it's by significantly increasing our revenue through the property tax,
sales tax, or utility contributions, which poses a challenge, as many face
economic hardship. The second way is to decrease expenses by cutting city programs, which poses its own challenge as constituents rely on these
services and these programs that have high expectations of service from us. And the cutting of departments often means job cuts.
and that's more people losing income and facing financial uncertainty. We're going to be navigating that conversation in just a few minutes.
and so I view these incentive packages with scrutiny and I want to be sure that the number of jobs created and their wages and every other community
benefit that we negotiate will outweigh what we are asking our constituents at
the end of the day to contribute to the deal. And so speaking generally about any deal, will the jobs generated be associated with greater home ownership
that increases our property tax base or will the wages be enough for the employees to be able to spend now have to increase our sales tax revenue?
and will both of those outweigh the property taxes we're abating?
will the capital projects take from other needed infrastructure projects?
I appreciate the slides that demonstrates when this began to manifest.
my challenge for future deals, as you navigate many of those, will be how do we
make some of those benefits occur faster. And I would also like to
establish a longer-term master plan that shows us what combination of economic
incentive packages and what quantity should we be aspiring to in order to
significantly increase our revenue so we aren't year after year balancing a budget in deficit. That being said, I'm going to vote yes on today's
incentive package because I feel everyone involved has done a great job negotiating beyond our expectations. Many of the benefits, including the capital
investment, the jobs created, and the wages, especially an entry wage
above $32 an hour, these are phenomenal and aren't very common. And toyota has been a strong partner and one of the major partners choosing to invest
in our residents. I tell my constituents all the time that the reason we don't have the grocery stores, the movie theaters, the amenities, and the
investment of private corporations and developers in our district is they don't see the value in our community until we've been gentrified and new residents
move in. New people they deem worthy move into our district.
you can't force people to invest in communities that they don't care about or believe in. Those industries, employers, and companies that do choose
to invest in you, you value them. And so I appreciate the partnership that we have had with toyota over the past 20-plus years.
this is us, as an organization, investing in you and in your success.
as you contemplate any number of cities willing to have you at the table, our
hope is that you continue to choose and invest in us. Thank you.
>> mayor jones: thank you, councilman. Would anyone else like to speak on the second round? Okay. Great.
thank you, alex, for the presentation. Thank you as well to all the community partners that got us to this day. It's a lot of work and yes,
has been described, a little bit of a start and stop. Over a year ago is -- before
many of us were in the seat, this was discussed and now we're here today.
2,000 jobs is certainly to be something to be excited about, especially when you
think about a company that has the reputation that toyota does.
I do, as alluded to by my colleague, want to make sure the public has transparency
in terms of what we are doing here, though. Alex, can you clarify for
everybody the exception that we made on the wages front? >> so typically, our
incentive policy asks that we look at simply base wages
it's roughly $25 right now. But in particular, for jobs like these, a lot of
advanced manufacturing jobs, there is a lot of cash compensation associated with
overtime. >> mayor jones: just to put a finer point on it, we were comfortable with making the exception because with the base wages and in
accordance with our policy, we get there after six months, correct, alex?
additionally some may be wondering about the incumbent worker training
program which many of us were excited to kill and that is still included here. That was included in the previous package and wanting to be as successful as
possible, we decided it was in the best interest of this deal and our competitiveness to go ahead and include that. So that is why that is still
there. I think for us there's also been a very important lesson
here in terms of the 10% investment of the abatement. When you see there it really
speaks to the city's investment. Unfortunately, due to texas code, we were not able to account for saws and cps's contribution as part of
that. So that is something I've talked to councilman
mckee-rodriguez about, including in our ledge agenda. That is us leading $6.3 million on the table because we could not count
that toward the 10% that would have gone into things like childcare and some of
the other wraparound services that would have contributed to the quality of life of the employee. That is a lesson learned for us.
I do, as mentioned, councilwoman kaur allude today certainly connecting
this topic with an item that we will discuss shortly. I remember as the
undersecretary of the air force, we would make our basing decisions with great
care. Not only would that environment support operations but how would that location also support quality of life.
and certainly this is not a done deal. We're thankful, frank and
team, to where we are now. Grateful for the feedback by us and japanese leadership
that is, again, encouraged by what the city has done. I certainly don't want us to
trip over ourselves or step on our own feet as a result of sending any mixed signals
about our ability to well manage and invest in the infrastructure that you need. Not only when your employees are at work but certainly
when they're at home. When they're at home. They also at home need clean
drinking water. They need their toilets to flush. All those things. And so we need to make sure that we are thinking
strategically, certainly about this investment but also the connectedness to the rate increase that we will consider here shortly with our water system.
okay. Thank you. There's a motion and a second. Hearing no further items, please vote.
the motion carries. >> mayor jones: good morning.
the time is 11:tip and we:10, ae are back from recess. Item 8 is a briefing on the
fy27 trial budget. Staff, over to you. >> mayor, thank you.
as freddie goes up to the podium, this is a continuation of a discussion
we had a couple of weeks ago at the council discussion. We are thankful for the
feedback we received from you. We're bringing back to you a trial budget and some recommendations, but also trying to answer some of the
questions from the work session. So looking forward to today's conversation. The next steps for us would be the development of the
proposed budget that I would deliver to you on august 13th, so we've got a
little under two months to kind of finalize. We are still dealing with
some of the challenges and several of you pointed them out earlier already at the
council meeting, freddie will cover those high level and we'll walk through where we're at with the trial budget and the recommendations.
go ahead, freddie. >> thank you. Good morning, mayor and city
council. My name is freddie martinez and I am the budget director for the city of san antonio. Today's budget presentation will provide a recap of the
session at the convention center. We'll talk about the '27 trial budget acknowledged a little bit on the next steps in the budget process that
the manager just alluded to. Just a couple of things on the trial budget, just a
reminder, it's not a budget yet. We'll come back in august with the proposed budget. It just a preliminary allocation of resources.
however, unlike the five-year forecast that we did last month, we're focusing on the two-year plan for fy27 and 28. We built on those
assumptions in the five-year forecast that we presented last month and we
incorporated the city council feedback and discussion that occurred at the goal-setting session last month. Today's trial budget will
also give an opportunity for the mayor and council to provide additional feedback so we can take that back as the manager mentioned over the next roughly two months
and a proposed budget that will be presented to you on august the 13th.
just a recap of the goal-setting session from may 22nd, so we have city
council priorities as and community priorities that were identified in the
survey by priorities and engagement. On the city council side you can see priorities include public safety, which include police, fire and animal care
services. Infrastructure for streets and sidewalks, human services, which includes services for seniors, housing and homeless
services, and then finally parks, community spaces and library. On the right there of the slide you'll see that the community priorities were
for the most part in line with what the council priorities are, and those
included homeless services, affordable housing, police services, streets and then fire and ems. Also during the goal-setting session we provided a
program inventory analysis for 21 general fund departments. The analysis included a program inventory for about 1.55 billion, which is about
92% of the $1.69 billion general fund budget. Of those amounts, about
1.1 billion, or 72%, were considered mandated city services, of which 39.8% of
those were priority city services. Of the other 427 roughly million dollars, 27.6 are for non-mandated city services, of which 12.4% of
those are for priority city services. Moving on to the trial
budget. So the recommendation today is we recommend the use of a
property tax increase that utilizes the unused increment as well as a state
allowed revenue growth so we can maintain our operations. I do want to point out that
any property tax increase would not affect our seniors or disabled, which accounts for about 46% of our homesteads. For the rest of us that
property tax increase as presented in the trial budget would equate to about
$6.75 a month. I want to reiterate what you've heard in the past that the property tax roll is not final. That won't happen until the
end of july. So the finance department budget and city leadership will continue to work on those numbers and you will see those as part of the
proposed budget in august. The trial budget maintains mandated city services, as
well as priority city services. You'll see in some of the preceding slides potential reductions to other city services, and then we also
have some potential adjusted and new revenues that I'll walk you through here in a second. Overall for our '27 trial budget, this would include
the recommended property tax increase used the unused increment as well as the
3.5% revenue growth. But before that at the current tax rate based on our current information from the appraisal district, we're projecting that our
base values -- base property values will decline resulting in approximately
8.2-million-dollar or 1.7-million-dollar to property tax revenue.
the next row it would be the property tax rate increase that we're recommending with the three and a half percent, as well as the unused increment, which
would increase about 53.8 million for next year. And then our sales tax,
we're projecting a modest two percent increase in sales tax from 416.7 to 425.
cps revenue we are as part of the trial budget projecting a slight decrease
or $11 million from the estimate of 559 million. And then finally, we do have
a small five percent decrease in our revenues. I'm explain the new revenues
in a sec, but we are including in the budget for '27, nine million dollars
for potential new and adjusted revenues. So here are the potential
fee adjustments used to obtain cost recovery. In total over two years they
total $21.9 million so that's included in the trial budget. They include such items as the ems transport fee that will go from $1,500 a
transport to $1,700 a transport, which will generate a little over five
million over two years. The fire prevention fee revenues, about 2.6 over two
years and also adjustments to the hazardous material fees.
next is another potential increase to the parks environmental fee. It's currently two dollars and the proposal here would be to go to 2.50 over two
years, so 2.25 in '27 and 2.50 per month in 28. We also have a proposal
included in the trial budget for a library non-san antonio are the fee
of ten dollars annually and we anticipate that would generate about a million dollars a year. Another line that's new there that you will see is
if you obtain additional cost recovery for city support for events, so this
would include the general fund, expenditures that are allocated for events in
fiesta, like parades and other things taking place during the celebration. Doing that cost share with those organizations would generate about 1.4 over two
years. And finally we have a couple other adjustments. We'll be looking at credit card fees, waste hauler permits and one other thing
that we're going to be doing this summer is that we're going to be working with all departments to try to identify additional sources of revenue, looking at rates
and other revenues that haven't been fee adjusted in quite some time and we're not anywhere near cost recovery or at cost recovery, but we'll bring
those back to you during the proposed budget in august. This next slide talks about
the anticipated general fund increase in expenditures that is included in the trial budget. As you can see, compensation and employee benefits are
going to be the major cost drivers and they're being for about $83 million of
this 105.7 increase. The costs are operation and maintenance for some of the
'22 bond projects coming online, the parks and linear creek way development as
well as
contractual increases, technology, equipment, building maintenance, fuel, all those put together total about 23.6 million. And currently in the trial
budget we're anticipating a requirement of $11.7 million in reductions to balance the
two-year budget. I talked earlier about the property tax increase, the
$58.3 million. Our proposal would be to use those dollars to partially
pay for some of the increases in our public safety, so you'll see
collective bargaining and healthcare benefits in our public safety section is
55 million, civilian comp, mandated costs and contractual increases are
between four and five million and there's other costs for equipment, building, technology, and other costs that are included as part of that
80-million-dollar projected increase in our public safety budgets.
so this slide illustrates our trial budget. I'll call your attention to
the top of the slide. Projected resources. So you will see a note there
that this does not include any of the reductions that we had in the two-year plan
or any revenue enhancements, so we would be facing a deficit in 28 of
157.7 million. So the strategy is to balance our budget over two years would be as I mentioned to utilize the property tax use of the
unused increment as well as a state-allowed revenue growth of 3.5%.
new revenues that we've identified that were on the previous slide would total
21.9 million over two years. And then we would also have to do reductions of about
23.4 million over two years and then you see 32 there's seee there's -- because of the
increases you see above we would have to adjust our financial reserves to maintain the 15% that's required under our financial policies.
what we also heard at the goal-setting session last month is what would it look like if there was no property tax increase and when he to cut our way out
of the deficit. Just keep in mind this is not what we're recommending today, but this is just kind of a look at what those potential cuts would look
like. So currently we're doing comprehensive budget reviews with the library, municipal court, police, fire and human resources.
so we're anticipating at this point to generate about 6.3 million annually.
there's also street maintenance programming in the general fund that's eligible that for debt that we can transfer to the capital budget.
and we're also doing a detailed line item review with all departments across the city, kind of part of our new hybrid budget methodology that we're
doing. We're looking at that and between those two we think we can save about $16 million over two years. Next there are 46 vacant
positions across approximately they are not critical positions, non-critical positions is what we're
looking at. They're vacancies, not anything really vacant --
not currently, but from the last couple of months. These are things that have been vacant six months to a year mostly. So we think we can generate
about -- a little under $8 million in savings there. We would propose a hiring
freeze and approximate pick up a million dollars in '27 and two million dollars in 28. We are also working on some department reorganization.
overall we anticipate that we could save 7.9 million. If we did those it would
affect approximately 46 positions, however. Under that delegate agency
discretionary funding there's a portion of our delegate agency funding that's for discretionary contracts. As part of this proposal or
this scenario, we would forego those $4.9 million in discretionary to the
non-profit partners that participate in delegate agency funding. The biggest number on here or the two biggest numbers of what's left is we have
looked at the program inventories and identified some program service level
reductions. These are across several general fund departments. As you can see there it does I will packet a lot of positions.
now, we're still in the process and we'll work over the summer to if we need to
go through this route to work with the departments, work with leadership to
determine the impacts that we would have to city services if we were to reduce some of these or all of these programs. So we would come back to you
in august with some of those. Finally, to achieve and to mitigate the deficit without a property tax increase, we would need to forego
civilian compensation increases in '27 as well as fy28. So all told, those cuts would add up to about $138 million and there would
be 209 positions affected if we went down this scenario and did these changes.
so next steps, what we're seeking for today is city council input on the staff
recommendation. Just as a reminder that includes an increase in the city property tax rate, the new and adjusted revenues that were presented today as
well as any potential reductions that were listed today. And as a reminder once again we'll be back and we're going to work with the
budget team, departments and executive leadership to produce a proposed budget
that will be presented by the city manager on august the 13th. Mayor and council, that concludes the presentation. I'll turn it back over to
erik. >> thank you for the presentation, freddie. I think the early work that we've done in the spring, the very good conversation
you all had as a group at the work session today puts us in a great position to
balance the budget over the next two years. And there are multiple
pieces of the game on the table here. Just a reminder of the thing
that's kind of balancing -- the balancing piece for me is that just generally
agnostically our expenses are growing faster than revenues so we need to do both things. We need to decrease our revenue -- decrease our
experiences and increase revenue where we have an opportunity. As you heard from freddie, just becaused on the last two and a half weeks of work
we've identified about $22 million over the next two years of new and
adjusted revenue. I think both property tax elements that we've talked about, both up to the three and a half percent state allowed and the use of the
increment, an impact of $6.75, but those two are very different, right?
if we use one rather than the other, if the increment is going to have a potential
impact of $3.66 per month on a household. The three and a half% has a
$3.08 per month impact. And then the reductions that freddie laid out on slide
12, there's a lot of things on there that we're going to need to do, that we should
do regardless, the comprehensive budget reviews that we've done this year of police, fire, municipal court, human resources and library, you know,
regardless of which path we take, you will likely -- you are going to see those
reductions because that's why we go through that effort is to identify the efficiencies. We are going to take every opportunity to take dollars
out of our operating budget and move them into capital to save operating dollars.
we started that two years ago. We did some of that this
year. What freddie laid out to you is kind of the last piece remaining in the general fund and we'll take advantage of that.
we have 217 vacant positions in the general fund right now, and you saw on the
slide we're going to be recommending we eliminate 45, 46 of those positions.
that's okay to do because I think we've got to ebb and flow and bring our expense
rate down. And I'll just echo what freddie said, a lot of the work we're going to do over the next two months is make sure we're communicating to
you all and ultimately the public what those reductions mean in terms of service
impacts. We will focus reductions not in the mandated city service
category and not in the priority city service category, but in that third category of all the other things that we're doing like we've done over the last two
and a half weeks. Appreciate the work of the budget office and the executive staff to get prepared for today. I'll hand it back over to
you, mayor. Thank you. >> mayor jones: thank you, erik. Appreciated that presentation, freddie.
a couple of
revenue, which is at this point the greatest contributor to budget.
we see that going down, though, from one year to the next, just for the public's
benefit, could you please explain why that happens? >> yes. As you recall last month when we did the five-year forecast and the
goal-setting, we picked up in the estimate the cps revenue because of milder weather. Also some sales that cps energy is producing that our
ratepayers are not purchasing, they're selling it in the market. So the off-system sales and not considering the same type of weather patterns
that we do, so a million dollars is a a lot, but it's about two percent of that
559-million-dollar estimate. >> mayor jones: my understanding there's also a tax credit. >> there was also a nuclear tax credit that cps received
from the federal government that had never happened before and we're not banking that it's going to happen forever. >> mayor jones: okay.
thank you for that clarity. Do we have anyone here from the lege team?
sally or jeff, do you want to speak to it? Jeff, gave you the cheap
seats, man. Can you talk to us a little bit about the risk
associated with potentially not taking the increment left?
what has that looked like in the previous legislative session, what can we expect
for us to understand is there a risk of us losing it if we don't take it now?
>> it rolls away. It's three years, right? So after the third year that
increment is gone, so it's a use it or lose it in the law.
it came about because when the legislature lowered the rollback rate from the
previous eight percent to three and a half, a lot of government entities, including ours, said three and a half is something we can live within, but we will
never capture the ups and we'll always deal with the downs.
meaning property values are up during a hot real estate market, they're up above
three and a half percent, we can't capture that revenue, but if it's below that three and a half percent we have to live within that. So the legislature said we
will add that increment model to it so you can tap into the unused property
taxes when you voluntarily have kept your rate below the state-allowed number,
and apply that to sort of smooth out the ups and downs of the real estate market.
so it's there today. Obviously anything can change at the legislature in terms of your question about risk, but that tool is there for cities to be able to
balance out the ups and downs. >> and mayor, in the previous legislative sessions, stay up there jeff for a second to correct me.
but we have it on both ends because in the last legislative session there
was a bill that almost got to the finish line that reduced the three and a half to two and a half and there was discussions in bills that would eliminate that
increment that is there for the reason jeff just explained. So there will be a risk in future legislative sessions. >> that's exactly right.
I think the one thing I would add is that the legislature had always seen
it as this is local control that local officials have. We're giving you the ability to adjust your rate to draw the amount of revenue you need, we just don't want it
to go up uncontrolled without any changes to the rate, if that makes sense.
>> mayor jones: thank you. Appreciate that. And just for plain speak for the public that's watching, one of the recommendations is transferring items from
our operational budget to the debt. That essentially means not
paying for it with cash today, but putting it on our credit card, correct, erik?
>> yes, ma'am. Yeah. But we don't have a credit card that does that, just so that the public understands. [laughter].
>> mayor jones: too bad, somebody already submitted the or. Okay. Councilwoman viagran. >> viagran: thank you,
thank you for the presentation. This budget is of course --
I knew was on the horizon after covid. I didn't know it would come
in this time where we would be in military conflicts around the world, which we
should not be in, but that's another conversation. So to go to the last slide
where you want input from seeking slide 13, increasing city property tax rate, yes,
I am for using the unused increments and seeing where we can do that.
in terms of new revenues I think we need to look at our permitting process. I think we have opportunities there with garage sale permits, with
permits of all the vendors that line up southwest military drive, and that.
so I think we need to look at that. And then and with the
reductions we do need to look at our departments and spend the summer
right-sizing just our commodities and our contracts and what we need, what can be done in-house, what do we need to use our oncall for, doing that in a
timely matter. I think that's the opportunity we have.
when we talk about our economic ecosystems and we talk about our budget, I
want to be clear that a household budget is not a city budget, which is not a
business budget. So what I'm going to do for my summer project is I am
going to work with my community stakeholders, and I'm so glad so many of the businesses are out here, to do a really budget workshop with the residents of
district 3 where they come in together, they look at their household budget, and while the city gets their right size, that maybe we in our own homes look at how we
right-size our commodities and our subscriptions and things likes that.
I look forward to seeing my residents in my field office this summer for that, but
what I will like, and if we can go to slide 6, before I have that workshop, if we
could pull up slide 6, the trial budget, is we have that $6.75 a month on
homestead, but do we have a percentage so if residents are doing a worksheet and they know their house is pretty small, pretty old, maybe only their -- it's
worth $80,000. That happens on the southside. What would their increase look like? >> so with the increment and
the three and a half percent it's about a six percent increase, and that's using
the average homestead. >> viagran: okay. So that's the one thing I'd like them to see is if I know my property taxes are going to go up six percent,
what does that look like monthly. Thank you for that.
the other thing is I think we do need to look at our seniors and those living
with disabilities and making sure they're using the tax freeze. I look forward to working with the county on that as we take that information out
out. For me this really is -- I'm not for -- I don't want to
cut any staff. I can understand hiring freeze and I know we have
vacant positions, but I'm okay with the hiring freeze, but if we go to the slide 11
with 11 or 12. Filled positions, vacant positions. I don't like the idea of putting any of our employees out there looking for a job
when I know in district 3 alone we need -- there are departments that are
understaffed. Before we do that I want to make sure that where we're needed and the departments that we're needed in terms of the hiring freeze that we
do that before we start looking at reductions that illustrate filled positions.
and that 68 is problematic for me. They're all a problem. Anything that has a filled position where we're looking at cutting because we need
like the quality of service. And no civilian compensation increase, that's
unacceptable. We can ask the residents of san antonio -- everything is
going up in price. We can ask them to increase that so they can increase
their property tax to maintain the quality of service they have. And to ask our civilians to take on more responsibility but we're not going to give
you a simple living wage increase is problematic. And that would include lgc
employees also? >> yes, ma'am. >> viagran: that is
problematic. That is why I think this conversation where if the property tax rate is not increased where we're going to do this, and again, if
you bring me something that we're going to cut projects we have to use an equity lens and a safety lens where we're cutting projects. And that is also if we don't
increase the property tax then we have to do it from projects that are flood
projects, that are sidewalk projects, that are street projects, that need to be done. And what I would need is if this body cannot give you
alternatives but they tell you they're not going to give you a property tax rate increase, you need to tell me how much it's going to cost in 2030 to fix that
street or to get that drainage. Because the price is not -- is only going to go up. They're not falling. Concrete is only getting
more expensive. And we can sit here and we can hope, oh, the technology will catch up and we'll do this. We all know that the first
version of any technological program that is going to help us do things better is
expensive. So I need to -- I want to do this smarter, I want to do
this fairly, but what I need --o understand is that the power of the city of san antonio
is in the people power, and eliminating staff is not the answer.
so I am for the property tax increase. I still think my city store
idea is a great idea. I don't know where alex is. I think we could get a lot of revenue from that. But again, we need to start being creative.
and I can give you a list of projects that I think might be delayed, but I would
still want that number that says if we delay this another year, if we don't do
this drainage project this year this is how much it's going to cost the year after. So nobody wants to raise taxes, I understand that.
everybody's stretched, me included. But we have to prioritize
and we have to budget and we have to get our residents in and ask them where are we spending money? And the vendors had no problem making money these
past few weeks. So there are places that we can look at our budget and
be more effective. And san antonio is resilient and san antonians know how
to hustle, so I think we will -- we need to have those conversations.
I look forward to hearing from my council colleagues and their solutions for that last slide. Thank you. >> mayor, one thing, just
that the councilwoman was talking about the senior and disabled tax freeze, just to remind the council of a stat that we shared with you at the work session.
46% of our homesteads are frozen in terms of city taxes in the senior and
disabled tax freeze. When we talk about adjustments to the rate, 46% of the homesteads will not be impacted because we've got that freeze in place.
>> mayor jones: thank you, erik. Councilwoman alderete
gavito. >> gavito: thank you. Thank you, freddie, for the
presentation. Obviously this isn't a great position for us to be in but
we were elected to represent our residents and to manage our city budget, and that
includes making tough decisions. So I am appreciative of the
diligent analysis. I am fully aware that this was tough and comfortable --
a tough and uncomfortable exercise to go through. And I know we'll probably
have to go through some more iterations. So again, we have to make
tough choices right now. I am fully supportive of the fee adjustments on slide 8,
but in addition to that, I'd like us to explore other increases.
I know that my colleagues and I up here always hear feedback -- and judge, don't
get mad at me. We always hear about speeding and code compliance issues. I would like us to use this opportunity to do something
about it and look at exploring an increase on speeding tickets and code
compliance tickets. I fully understand that judges will have the
discretion, on what fine to impose, but if we want to disincentivize speeding
let's make it hurt. If we want to disincentivize code compliance issues in
our neighborhoods, then let's make it hurt. But I think I'm saying all
that because I want us to explore what is legally feasible. I'm fully aware that there may be some legal restrictions, but again, I
think that this is a good time to look at that kind of stuff, especially so that we
can all complain about it a little bit less. On slide 12 I'm fully
supportive of everything on there and I think that we can do more on some of these
reductions in all of the line items. The only thing I am not in favor of is no
civilian compensation increase. I think that our city employees are going to have to do more with less resources and less partners
to lean on to get the job done. I do think and I'm going to stand firm that we treat our city employees fair and give them the cost of living wage
increase. There might be less headcount in the city at the end of this all, but that should not take away from taking care of the city
employees that we do have. So I just wanted to let y'all know I'm not in favor
of that. Right now I still think that we need to go through a couple more iterations of this tough exercise. So I can't be supportive of
a property tax increase right now, but I know we're still at the very beginning
of it and there's still more work to do. That's all of my comments.
thanks. >> mayor jones: councilman whyte.
>> whyte: thank you, mayor. Well, from the git-go I'm going to say that I'm absolutely opposed to any sort of property tax
increase. I think we're living in tough economic times right
now certainly, and raising the cost of living on people is unacceptable,
particularly when I don't believe that we've done everything that we can as a
city government to eliminate all of the waste, the redundant spending.
and frankly, made some of the hard decisions on the nice-to-haves.
and I want to say before I go further that I am very thankful for city staff and
the work that's been done over the past couple of months because I know that this is difficult. And a lot of work has been done to find these
inefficiencies that I'm talking about, to try to consolidate in different areas and to try to find money to close this budget gap.
but I think there's more that we can do. And I'll tell you, my staff did some great work and we looked around at other cities across the country
because they're facing similar challenges. Just to name a couple here,
colorado springs, they had a 31-million-dollar shortfall that they were able to
reduce with workforce reductions, furloughs, deferred compensation
increase and some facility closures. San diego as well eliminated
some recreational services, arts funding and others. In austin, voters rejected a
property tax increase and now their city government is looking at cutting some of
the similar things there. But I particularly want to point out something from
colorado springs because they eliminated what they call the meadow park
community center. And I'll tell you why I want to bring this up. It says here the community center was going to close following an evaluation of
program participation, staffing constraints, and availability of similar
services at other nearby community centers. They did not want to close
this community center that had been there for decades in that community.
but the reason I bring that up today is because these are the type of hard
decisions that they were able to make, that they had to make that I think our
council needs to look at. If it was brought before us to close a community center,
I think we would all immediately say wow, no, we don't want to do that
because we know the value that the community centers have for our residents.
but I use that as an example of the tough decisions that I believe we need to get to.
if we do this property tax increase, based on our own staff's financial analysis,
all right, we are still going to have a general fund deficit of $155 million in
2031. So a property tax increase, it's just a band-aid to get
us through the next couple of years. It doesn't solve the
problem. We have a structural issue here with the way our city
government is spending money. We've got to right-size,
we've got to make the tough decisions like some of these other cities are.
and I do believe that we're on the path to doing so and our budget team has done a
great job of putting us on that path, but there is more to be done.
and the time to do it is right now. And we should not use that
band-aid and raise taxes on the citizens of san antonio. So with that, I'll leave you
with -- I do agree on the fee adjustments. I think that is a reasonable
area where we can raise some revenue. I'm of course a no on the
tax increases. I will say again an area where we need more is in
public safety. And I get the argument of, well, mark, we're in a
budget deficit. How can we add in any area? And again, I'll say when
public safety is your number one priority, when you're putting a budget together,
you start with what you need for public safety and then you build out everything
else around it. And that's what we should be doing here. So with respect to the trial budget and what I'd like to see in the fall is I would
like to see funding for the additional 65 police officers. That's all I've got, mayor, thanks. >> mayor jones:
councilmember mckee-rodriguez. Sorry, meza gonzález.
>> gonzález: thank you, mayor, and thank you for the presentation. Again, folks after me will say this is a hard time for everybody.
we know budgets are tight for everyone personally and we see items on the news,
right, alamo colleges is going through this, bexar county is going through this, some of the school districts are also talking about these property tax
increases and we're one of those entities as well. A couple of clarifying questions for the public. On the potential fee adjustments listed, are
there any other potential fee adjustments that are not listed, but we're talking through? >> yes, councilwoman, there are other things we're
looking at that we'll be doing over the course of the summer. Another thing we'll be doing is part of the budget process that we do is the
budget office meets with every department and we go through any potential
revenue adjustments they can propose and then we bring that to city leadership and ultimately a lot of those will be presented on the 13th of august.
>> gonzález: I know that awhile back we took my daughter to the san pedro
driving range and we had a municipal golf pass that we used for the year.
I didn't know if that was an option my colleagues would consider of having some sort
of monthly parking pass for our parks. Maybe not so much -- that
gives you some access all over the city, and we make it like a yearly pass,
excuse me, so I'd like to consider what that looks like
>> we'll have discussions with parks and rec and we can certainly bring that up and have a conversation on it. >> gonzález: okay, thank
you. On the library non-resident fee, how is that
implemented? >> so the non-resident fee as currently proposed would
be kind of like the library is able to track those users that are not in the city
limits so they would impose -- if this were to come to fruition and be
passed as part of the budget they would am impose that ten-dollar fee, like you described that parking pass, it's a 10-dollar fee and it would be for bexar county
residents that are outside the city limits. >> councilwoman, as we go through the budget and look at this, the actual implementation is almost as
important as what the dollar amount is. So I would anticipate if we
do it we would make it effective october 1. We do like a january 1.
there have to be notices. We want to make sure people are advised of it and have a
mechanism for them to be able to be aware of that impending potential charge
when they're checking out books in september and october, so that everybody has got a preparation. But we're going to think through the execution of
that as we go through the next it two months. >> if I may, councilwoman,
as another example, a fee needs to be cost recovery. And one of the reasons we
can do that is because we are not recouping our current costs in terms of
non-city residents. >> gonzález: thank you. On the slide outlining the
reductions, I think it's slide 11, what is the program service level
reductions. Can you provide some examples of that?
>> so as the mayor -- as the manager alluded to, those are going to be out of that
bucket of other city services, so there's a variety of other city
services across some general fund departments that would be part of that.
so as we go through this summer we'll be looking at reductions that we can do,
but these would be program-specific reductions that we would do.
so it would reduce the service level, but we would need to use the summer to look at what the impact would be of those reductions and then that would be
presented as part of the 2027 proposed budget. >> gonzález: okay, thank
you. I think, you know, we've got the email from cne about our
budget town halls, and my budget town hall in district 8 is august 20th and we're
june 18th, right? So these next two months what are these residents hearing from us from the city outside of a survey. I don't know if anyone can
help answer that question. >> councilwoman, we won't have -- after today we'll
start working on the proposed budget, so I think this was a conversation during the council work session a couple of weeks ago if you all want to cost
conversations during the month of july or have us organize in your districts
additional council conversations, budget conversations in the month of july, more than happy to do that. But we don't have -- we will
not have a final product to share with you, so it's more about the input and maybe explaining what the potential impacts would be, some of the things we're
looking at, but we won't have anything time until the end of july, early august.
>> gonzález: yeah. I wouldn't be opposed to that.
I know it's hard and folks are traveling. I think because of the times we're in and we're doing what we did in the last budget cycle, it's almost
the same calendar. I think even my town hall I think is around the same month as I had it last year. So just because we're in such unique times with our
budget, I feel like there should be an effort made to maybe this time around go
out for feedback, right, because how we relay this back to -- it's as simple
sometimes for me as if c and e even has some graphics on hand that they can just send
out to the council offices, we end up making those a lot of times on our own, which
is fine too, but just kind of to summarize some of these big conversations, we
try and do that. As simple as that, but I think going out there to the
community and asking for that input is important because if not, we're really
not going to talk to them for another couple of month. >> we can follow up with
each one of your offices about whether or not you want to do some of that stuff in july and graphics and so forth. July is always going to be
busy. >> gonzález: I know, I know. >> I don't think that's any reason that we can't have evening or weekend events.
we'll work with each of your offices. >> gonzález: thank you so much. I guess the feedback you're looking for on slide 13 on
reductions, I'm supportive of the reductions that we're making. I know this is a tough time for city staff and they are doing the work.
they don't run for office to do this work, they're doing this every single day, come
into work and going home to their families. So to make sure that our city staff is not impacted by this, that's important to me.
the new revenue, I appreciate the work that our budget office is doing to
look for that new revenue. And ideas that my council members have, increasing the
I think without talking to residents, I've been to a few hoa meetings the last
couple of weeks and the reaction I'm so, can't support something
like that at the moment, but I know we're just starting these conversations. And I also know residents expect to receive the type of services from the city.
they have expectations on the services that they receive from us. So, keeping that in mind. I look forward to further discussions on this.
thank you. >> mayor jones: thank you. Councilwoman spears.
>> spears: thank you, mayor. So, I have been meeting with
my constituents. We've got about three budget town halls teed up at the
end of july. And the one with c&e, I think mine's on the 19th.
to councilwoman meza gonzalez's point, it would be great if we could engage c&e more there. Right now my constituents are not supportive of the
tax increase. I will say I agree with the fee adjustment idea and this
is just a really hard time, right? It's hard for us to be up
here and every day facing our constituents, talking about how do we cut back on
things when the needs are so great. I've got to remain focused
on the basics of what we're supposed to do here and what our residents expect.
I know that our families are all -- all the families in san antonio and in the
community are feeling a lot of pressure and a lot of higher costs everywhere they
go. So, I appreciate that we're having this serious conversation about our priorities and where we can find some efficiencies
within the budget. I do really want to look at that before we really -- I
appreciate that that's going to take some time but I want to really see how we can be
more efficient with the dollars before we start really talking about the tax
rate increase. As always, public safety is my top priority and
residents need and want safe neighborhoods and fast emergency response times.
and enough officers on the streets to keep our community safe.
I say this too because there's this misconception that my district does not
need more officers. But firsthand this week I found that simply untrue.
I had two separate shootings in district 9 this week. One involving a teenager who
was found deceased and another involving a police officer.
these are a stark reminder that our police department must remain a top funding priority as we work to recruit, retain, and support more officers.
and our fire departments have needs that we simply cannot defer.
somehow they make it work with less. And maybe we can ask them
how we do that better ourselves. But residents are paying their taxes and they expect the basics to be done well, and that is resoundingly
public safety, infrastructure, streets, drainage, and core city services. And so we have to do those first.
every dollar that we spend should be measured against whether it's improving the
quality of life of the taxpayers who are funding it.
I've heard loud and clear from my residents that they want us to look for savings,
eliminate lower-priority spending, and make tough decisions before considering
the additional tax burdens. This budget process is our opportunity to refocus on
the fundamentals and ensure taxpayer dollars are being directed to services
residents rely on most every day. I actually do look forward to working on this. This is something I enjoy looking at.
and I'm ready to dive in and help wherever needed on looking at how to be more
efficient with our dollars. But also finding opportunities to work with
bexar county, with the state and the federal government as well.
look for grants and funding opportunities that are available to us and pursue
those in a way that make sense. Maybe we need to redesign certain things so that we're eligible for these programs, these ideas.
I just think that's an important thing to consider too, as we're looking at
additional revenues for the city. I believe we are defined by
our resiliency. I also think that if we are in a position where we do
reduce programs, just remember we have an opportunity later to bring them back, maybe better than what we have right now, and more effective and
efficient. Be sure to know that while this is the trying to budget, I am actively working on how we can improve the efficiency and
stretch our tax dollars, improve efficiencies within our government.
and this is hard and it should make all of us uncomfortable and concerned
and worrisome and you should lose sleep at night over it. I know I do.
I worry about it. That's really all I have to say. Thank you for your hard work. I know it's hard on you too.
thank you very much. >> mayor jones: thank you. Councilmember kaur.
>> kaur: thank you, mayor. So as I was mentioning earlier, we are in very
tough times right now, and having really tough conversations across all of
our city governments -- city government and governmental entities. So I think it's important to take a minute to understand that no one right now is
taking this lightly. That we have folks here that work for the city that are
potentially going to have to find work elsewhere because we have to make budget cuts.
and just like us having to make budget cuts, we have to do so diligently and make
sure we know that we are not creating impact on the areas that need it most.
I know councilmember spears just mentioned some of her areas. I have different areas that I would like to share. But I think what's most
important from today's conversation to take away is that this is going to be a
tough summer for all of our entities and we have to make some really tough decisions.
because I do not think it's fair to just increase all of our rates across everything
blindly and put all of our problems back on our residents. I think we have to be more judicious and think very strategically about what are
the services that we absolutely need and how do we make sure we're doing
justice by them by doing our due diligence. That being said, I want to
thank city staff for what you guys did in two weeks. I think it's incredible that you were able to go through our $4 billion budget and look through all of the
places where you felt like at least you could make some recommendations. These are not final but I wanted to commend you because that's definitely
not easy work. I also think it's important to emphasize that we're not going to be able to adjust budget cut our way out of this so I think we have to
figure out some type of compromise in this situation.
as far as slide 4, I wanted to mention -- councilwoman castillo and I, at the
educational opportunities committee, the youth group actually took this slide and put it in comparison to what the youth felt their priorities were.
I thought that was a very interesting slide. I would love for the upcoming budget conversations, if we could have that as well so the
rest of the council that's not on the committee that councilwoman viagran chairs
can see that. But interestingly enough their priorities for -- like
homeless services and affordable housing were also their numbers one and two.
but numbers three through five were different and parks and libraries were some of the top spaces they really wanted. If you think about it, it's
because they are the most active users of some of those spaces. If you look at this list that has been shared with us, parks and libraries, I
would like to make sure, when you guys come back, that regardless of what the
cuts happen, that those programs and services aren't going to be significantly impacted. I do understand there's efficiencies to be had but
we do have to make sure that the folks using the programs are able to do so well.
I would like that reassurance. In addition, for the revenue
increases slide -- I forget which one that is. I do support these revenue increases. I think they're innovative. The one question I wanted
clarified is for the ems fees. We want to make sure that our most vulnerable aren't affected. Justina, can you comment
about the ems fees and who that's going to impact. >> it's from either private
insurance, medicaid, or medicare. For those that don't have insurance, we have the charity care program. >> kaur: great.
they would still not have to pay the increase? I just wanted to make sure that our most vulnerable are not scared to use ems services because they don't
have the ability to pay. In addition, I also wanted to share some of the topics
that I mentioned that I would like more clarity on because I am going to
provide some of the details of things that were suggested in the cuts. And want to make sure that these ones are heard, specifically.
catholic college, I think we also heard from the youth, is an amazing resource for
our kids. They do a lot of great coaching and counseling. I understand there's a ccr that has been put forward about the sponsorships.
but I would like to see how we can make sure we're deduplicating the
scholarships, sorry, if there is any. And coming back to us with a recommendation that continues to allow them to support the work that
they're doing there, because I think it's really important. For historic preservation, I wanted to get some clarity on what that position -- or
if that would completely remove the culture heritage district. I don't know if you want to answer this now or get back to me.
you guys can get back to me on that. In addition, I would like some clarity on the nhsd waivers. So city fee waivers, inner
city incentives, and minor home repair. >> we'll start with the
minor home repair. As we have been looking at our major and minor rehabs,
we started partnering with outside agencies, specifically nonprofits. Because of those partnerships, we've been able to stretch our dollars
further. So we can do the same number of homes with less money.
>> kaur: so for that one specifically, my ask is to keep it at the same level.
I would like, in the follow-up when we talk about nhsd's budget in august, to
see if they could do more homes if they kept at the same budget.
that's the one thing we know for a minor home repair, if we can keep people in their
homes, it prevents them from becoming unhoused in the future. What about our inner city incentive? >> in the past couple of
years we funded mainly affordable housing. So we have done the
cattleman's square acquisition, a portion of that has come out of the inner city incentive fund. The casita pilot program is funded and other affordable
housing. For our fee waivers, those waive city fee waivers for
affordable housing, small business, and industry. >> kaur: okay. I would love if my colleagues had any opinions about that to share, because
those, I think, are really important for our community. If we can preserve those as well, I would really appreciate it. So I do think, based on what
you have shared here -- and of course what my colleagues have mentioned, but we saw
the 50-year employee earlier today, it would break my heart not to give that person a raise for a cost of living increase. Not even a performance raise
or longevity raise. Absolutely we need to do our cost of living employee
increases and make sure that everyone at the city, our entire employee population
understands we value them even though we're going through really tough times, like the conversation we just had. And then the last question
that I have is for -- I think you said this but I wanted to clarify that the fiesta events would be more cost sharing so that we're shifting over the costs on
that, right? It's not like we're not going to do them, we're just going to cost share the events? Yeah.
you can go ahead, erik. >> walsh: I didn't want to interrupt you. >> kaur: that's okay. >> walsh: yeah, we set targets in that trial budget
that we would recoup 50% of that expense. We have not worked on all of
that. We're going to be doing that over the next couple of months but that will have an impact on some of the costs of those events, I suspect.
but we need to work through that and the mayor and I talked a little bit about that in our briefing that it's setting a target and how we get there.
>> kaur: I do think based on the work you guys have already done -- and I did some loose math for some of those ones that for our district would be the most
important. That if we just did the unused increment and captured that and not the property tax increase, we could still fund some of the
programs and affordable housing that are really important to our residents
while getting a balanced budget. So that would be my feedback
on that last slide is how do we get to where we need to get to with just our unused
increment. And let's continue to look through the budget this summer to see where else we might be able to find places that we could have a little
bit more efficiency in case there are things that come up this summer that folks want to fund to enhance our programs that we are already doing for our community
members. But again, thank you for your work. I think we've done a lot in two weeks and so I'm excited to come back in august to
see what y'all come up with. Thanks, mayor. >> mayor jones: thank you.
councilmember mungia. >> mungia: thank you, mayor. A couple of notes. Can you go to slide 6, please?
so when it comes to the homesteads on the senior and disabled tax freeze, I
appreciate us recognizing that and that's something I'll be talking to residents about as a benefit. Doing research, it's about -- I think 47% of the
city are renters. Unless you are in a rent-restricted property,
those renters are going to feel the tax increase fully. Probably disproportionately
so tax increase, they tell the renter the rent is going up next term.
I do think about half the city. I understand this is a small percentage of folks that will not feel that but it is certainly something to
consider when we have that many in this city. And if we can go to the
slide about the fees. I'm not sure which slide that is.
>> mayor jones: slide 8, please. >> mungia: thank you. I think it's good to look at these. I do -- maria, thank you for
the presentation we had yesterday. But the ems transport fee,
that is paid through insurance, is that correct? >> yes.
it's paid through their private insurance, medicaid, or medicare is the majority.
>> mungia: what happens when somebody doesn't have insurance? >> we have a charity care program that covers some of that cost.
>> mungia: does that fund get tapped out every year? >> it's a pool of funding
that municipalities can apply for. We submit our costs related
to services that we provide to ems for uninsured or underinsured and we get
reimbursed for those costs. >> mungia: thank you. Appreciate that. I think when it comes to fees, I had a good conversation with you all
yesterday and I want to put it out there too. I think there's an opportunity with some of the private towers to get a percentage out of that
business as well, especially considering their fee is really underserved compared
to the market. I think if that's a possibility, at least matching the private tower fee to what our contractors are allowed to charge.
because that is unbalanced right now. So I think if we balance that out and charge 3% or something of that nature. Or I was talking to
councilwoman castillo, maybe a permit fee attached to that too I think we should really look into that and see what's possible.
I do understand the fiesta events and kind of cutting back on that.
but I do just -- recalling the conversation we had at council about keeping some
events free. So I would like to maybe understand later how that
impacts events. I know we approved a $5 admission but that was not
very well received by folks and I think part of that issue for the fee was because of increased costs. We're going to push that cost out again.
I just worry what that's going to look like. Take a look at that.
I think these cuts that are identified are definitely very, very difficult.
I do agree with colleagues that even if we are reducing, it is worth
looking at at least one 2% for staff cost adjustments because we do have
inflationary costs in our economy and so I think even a very small percentage is
something that benefits and helps. I do know that we talked
about the impact analysis. So we look at those cuts that are going to be made --
on slide 12 -- without a property tax increase. That is quite staggering,
especially the debt transfers and the program service level reductions is
the largest amount that I'm seeing there. I know we're going to do an impact analysis on which districts are going to maybe feel that or which programs
are active in certain areas of town that those things will now be removed.
I'll be curious to see what that looks like for district 4.
because when I go to residents and I ask them, I'm going to ask you to pay
more and they're going to say what more are we getting? So I say paying more and we're still cutting $20 million.
they're seeing the services be the same or less. That's a very difficult
conversation to have. So I think when it comes to a tax increase, we have to
be really diligent in how we see the equity lens in that process.
because campaigning, talking to residents all the time, they just feel like these services are not there. I can talk to them, make the conversation, the argument
that without a tax increase it will be worse. But again, when they're asking to be paying more, they expect more. And I can't just say it's
just an inflation cost. It's going to be the same thing. That's a very difficult thing that we'll have to explain to folks.
in addition to what some other council members said, alamo colleges is looking at
their tax increase. Counci welcome maybe if we look at some of the other
entities evaluating those so we can get a better picture of what's going to happen. You know, we look at things and say the city's tax increase is going to be $5
every month. The saws increase, that's going to be $3 every month.
all these things start to add up on the other taxing entities and fees that we're
charging more for. The larger picture in one fiscal year may not be the
$5, it may be $20 a month for folks. I think that analysis will
help us educate ourselves on what we're contributing to tax increases in general.
those are conversations I'll be having with my residents and we're going to have a town hall with folks too and I look forward to that analysis but those are
things that are certainly top of mind for me. >> walsh: thanks, councilman. You know, great conversation so far.
let me reiterate that we are going to have to reduce our expenses and it will have
impacts. And my primary responsibility is to make
sure that I deliver to you all the budget for the city of san antonio.
so while other public entities may be going through something similar
and there's a broader impact, we're not going to do that work over the
summer. We will show you kind of where they land. But that's not my focus and it won't be my focus as I deliver the budget to you
all. I understand that that's a bigger issue going on with
taxable values within the county and everybody is being impacted. But I also don't want you all to think that that is a consideration, a financial
consideration as we deal with our employees, our services, and our budget. Because it's not going to be. And I just don't want any
misconceptions. But happy to make sure that as we deliver the proposed
budget and incorporate for you what other entities are doing, we can do that
easily. I just don't want it to be misconstrued what you're asking for. >> mungia: absolutely. Thank you for clarifying
because that's exactly what I mean. I think it's prudent for us to acknowledge other things happening around us. That's not our focus.
that's not things that we're voting on but these are things that are affecting community members. And we're asking them to pay more.
again, we're looking at it as our tax increase is going to be this amount of money
per resident per month per year. I have a duty to look at the bigger picture for residents also. I completely understand that
doesn't affect what we're doing here. We have our own budget issues and staff we need to take care of and our services but it's a larger
picture that should be identified. If that's disproportionately
affecting other parts of town. Not every district is talking about a tax increase. It's important to know the
geographic where folks are getting bigger hits . Thank you for that. >> mayor jones: thank you. Councilmember castillo. >> castillo: thank you.
thank you, freddie for the presentation as well as the budget team. This is something I have been taking out to neighneighborhood associations o
engage community and a constituent asked me what is your position on this? And I shared with him, yes, it is a tough conversation but the obligation is very
clear that the city of san antonio and council has a responsibility to ensure that we continue to maintain city services and have stability in terms of
operational stability. And what that looks like is ensuring that, one, we continue to do our due diligence as we navigate this conversation.
but what's also key and very important for district 5 residents is that folks want
to continue to see las palmas, bazan library, collins garden fully staffed
they want to continue to see full programming within parks and our community centers. They want to continue to see and have access to healthy
neighborhood programming and healthy food access. Within las hardinas we have
a pomodoro so how can we be strategic and intentional. But also highlighting how
none of the work gets done without city employees and work in the field.
that's why I'm uncomfortable with any recommendation to pause a cost-of-living
adjustment. While I appreciate the potential fee adjustments, looking at the two-year total, that's $21.9 million. I do believe there's
opportunity to explore additional ways to continue to -- again to reiterate,
during the
housing instability for long-term rentals for san antonio residents that may result in us needing to increase relocation services, et cetera, and so
forth. I believe there's opportunity for us to
explore short-term rental fees and how we can have a cost recovery structure and
increasing for vacant and nuisance properties? Again, how can we ensure
that we're tackling these vacant and nuisance properties that serve as a
host of issues from public safety, overgrown vegetation, so on and so
forth. In addition to that, I highlight the total cost
recovery adjustment totaling $21.9 million. If we look at the
compensation for the cost-of-living adjustment for employees over two years, that's going to be $24 million. If I'm going to say I want
to support a cost-of-living adjustment, I'm going to have to do my due diligence to find other ways to help support us get to that cost-of-living adjustment.
and with the current cost recovery potential adjustments that doesn't get us there. Again, I just wanted to run through some of the
non-negotiables for district 5 residents that we should continue to maintain.
I understand we're in this tight conversation but my district 5 residents expect
that we continue to invest in community nutrition, community health and
improvement plans, healthy neighborhood plans. Again, the neighborhood association where they asked me straightforward, what is your position?
they shared that there's so many community resources that we do not want to see
reduced. In addition to human resources, we have to continue to support city employees with tuition reimbursement.
that's what makes the city of san antonio such a great organization that folks want
to work for up to 50 years and tuition reimbursement is something we should
continue. Of course supporting our part-time nutrition centers. As I mentioned, our libraries are just core tofully civilization
institution, and especially in district 5 where where of our isds are facing school
closures. At rodriguez elementary we have had parents come and meet with us to say how can we better partner with the las palmas library because
they no longer have a librarian in their school. I want to make sure we're supporting our library staff so they can support our students that are
experiencing an absence of librarians in their schools. Ensuring that our libraries
are fully staffed is a priority.
city incentives have helped produce deeply affordable housing projects that are tax credit properties. That means they are rent stabilized for the duration
of that tax credit. I would like to see that resource protected to ensure we can continue to produce more affordable housing. Again, my district 5
residents really value parks and rec and their programming. Ensuring that the centralized programming is continued to be protected is
something that we'd like to see. I appreciate the
conversations about public works and the ways in which we could potentially shift
that to capital improvements. Again, any reductions to
street, lights, crosswalks, so on and so forth is not something my constituents would be comfortable with. I do think in part of the budget conversations, I
think having within that presentation that if we do not explore a scenario in
which property taxes are increased, we would potentially -- not potentially -- we would see a reduction in flashing speed signs, radar
detectors. Many of those things that we are receiving requests at every neighborhood association I get a request for a stop sign or a radar
detector. I think having that list of failing to consider any
scenario would mean less in our streets. So again, same thing with
pavement markings. Not exploring a property tax increase can mean -- will
mean less pavement markings is something that our residents deserve to hear.
but of course as we navigate these times, that we continue to support
sustainability. Which ties back for a potential fee adjustment within our neighborhood associations their expectations are with auto
and metal recyclers. How can we explore more accountability in what those
fees would look like. I would like to consider what is feasible in terms of
increasing that fee for auto metal recyclers. Austerity is not a realistic
budget plan when coming up with priorities, particularly in an
economically-segregated city. Those are all my comments. Thank you. >> mayor jones: councilmember
mckee-rodriguez. >> mckee-rodriguez: thank you, mayor. Thank y'all for the presentation. As I typically say about
this topic, this is a pretty bleak outlook and I appreciate the work staff has done to provide us options that we have asked for, especially what it
would look like to cut programs, department, and staff to balance the budget versus what would it look like to implement a rate increase and what the fee
adjustments could mitigate both of those. I want to convey something
simple. If our revenues remained the same and every department stayed the same, the police and fire budget would grow because it is mandated by
our collective bargaining agreement, even without new positions.
we would need to every year that the
cut the departmental budgets. As time goes on, the police and fire department would grow even without any new positions added.
and we would be cutting more positions every year. And so I want to make that
point. I'm circle back to that. To councilwoman spears'
point regarding the shootings that you identified in your district. I want to pose the question respectfully and with all seriously, because I want us
to find a shared understanding. I have this conversation frequently in my district. I would ask what role do we expect the officers to play
in a shooting? Was their response inadequate? Do we need more officers because we know shootings will happen and their
response just didn't strong enough? We want to be faster? Is that the reason? Is that the purpose? Is there some way to be
strategic there? Or do you believe that if we hired more police officers,
the shooting
not going to retaliate because the city hired 60 more officers?
or would the shooting have happened anyway? I believe when we have this
conversation, we constantly say, oh, there's a shooting. We need more police.
we are placing an unrealistic expectation on the police department and
it's to our detriment, their detriment, and our constituents' detriment.
if we want to respond to them, maybe that is the answer.
if we want to prevent the shooting to be happening, we are going to be taking steps that deeply impact our ability to do that. We cannot expect police to
exist on every corner where conflict is occurring and just so happened to be in the place where a shooting the going to occur. We need to address the root
causes and unfortunately the root causes of crime can only be addressed by the very programs and social services that we would cut here.
the safest cities in the world do not focus a third of their investments in
policing and in military. They invest in healthcare, housing, transportation,
education, and overall community well-being. And the cuts to the
departments are a band-aid and it won't get us out of our deficit.
it is not going to improve our standing structurally. Police and fire are the departments that we're all most sensitive to. No one wants to say, oh, we
understand the services that you are providing and we understand that your
departments do a lot with sometimes not enough. And so what I would ask is
that we look into an independent comprehensive analysis of both fire and
police to identify efficiencies and identify areas, both cba mandated and
non-cba mandated that we could identify savings in that would not impact their services, not impact the resources they have. You can't tell me that
within 600, $700 million we can't find some amount of savings -- we can't find 5,
10, $15 million that could potentially go to hiring more police, more fire. We need that task. I think it needs to be done independently and I would
ask that we do that as quickly as possible so we can then identify some of
those cba-mandated areas. We can incorporate those into topics of discussion in
our future cba discussions. And with what you've laid out today, with no rate
increase we're looking at a loss of over 200 jobs. That is a pretty significant portion of the jobs that we're looking to create with one of our economic
incentives. I'm not comfortable with that. 200 positions that we're cutting here and we're going to be looking to make up by
abating taxes for another corporation somewhere down the line.
with over 132 of those being filled, that's 132 households losing income,
losing benefits and access to healthcare. So those of you who are
comfortable with cuts that have been identified and the departments who are losing
resources and those positions, they are going to be fired. They are going to lose their income. Some of them are the only
people in their household with an income. And so that's 132 families
wondering what's next and how they're going to get their next meal. 132 families at risk of homelessness. And that is above all what I
want to protect in all of this. We have to look out for our
employees. Every time we acknowledge the work they put in and the fact that they make our city run, it would all be a lie if we are willing to cut
their positions. For that reason, we can't afford to cut any filled
positions, at the minimum. All eyes will be on our employees to do more with
less so they do deserve that cost-of-living adjustment and we need to make sure we can deliver on that. I'm also concerned about what these cuts mean for our
service levels. There are certain people that may find very little value in certain departments and programs but it's largely because they don't
need them. But you cut parks programming, you cut housing
programs, you cut library services, you cut services that prevent people from becoming homeless and we're looking at detrimental community outcomes,
including increased poverty, lower educational attainment, poor health
outcomes, increased crime, increased homelessness and increased need for the very services that are facing cuts today. And then you'll ask for more
police officers to respond to all of those outcomes. So there are going to be
difficult decisions made this year and a lot of difficult conversations in our districts. I would like to know -- this is information that I'm
requesting -- what is the average property tax bill impact per district?
what's the dollar amount each district can expect, on average, the homeowner's
bill will be rising? This one is going to be a little bit more time consuming. If we can get reports from the departments being
considered for cuts, I would like to know the programs and services utilized by my
district. I'm sure that would be beneficial to my colleagues as well to know what is the fairest trade-off? If your bill is going to go
up 30 to $40 or 50 to $60 is that worth knowing that the programs that our district
utilizes the most and the impact in service levels can continue, is that trade-off
worthwhile? I want to have that conversation at our town hall. Somewhere between now and then, that would be really
helpful. Someone brought this up earlier but can we find out how many property tax bills are frozen by district? Because people do want to
know when we talk about a property tax increase, one of the first things you hear is what about seniors on a fixed income? Being able to communicate to
them, hey, we have this property tax freeze for seniors and people with disabilities, this is the number of people, this is how they get access to this.
this is how they qualify. So that will also help people be a little bit more
comfortable if they're unaware that that takes place. You can rest assured that those seniors you want to protect, that they're not
going to be impacted by this. Overall, there is an incongruence with the expectations that we and our constituents have of city
services with the outlook should we make these cuts. We're going to have to navigate those alongside our constituents because we will not get better services with
less resources. To make it easier, I'll lay out a concern I hear and
it's that services on the east side -- I imagine on the south and west side -- there's a belief that those services are not up to par with the services on the
north side in districts 8, 9, and 10. You drive past city parks on
the north side and they're never unmowed. Code enforcement isn't slow or unresponsive. Folk up there are okay with cutting departments because
they have never experienced lackluster service or unequal services that have
been inequitable. Regardless of whether or not that's true, that's the perception. And so if there is any reality to that, there is
any truth to that, we need to identify how we can make these cuts as equitable as
possible in nature. I have heard that said a few times said up here.
residents in districts with the greatest need need to have improved services and
you balance that with cuts to services where they aren't needed.
rather than a departmental programmatic-based cut system, maybe it's over here
this is the level of service we're going to provide and try to make better. Over here, if the services aren't as needed, we're not going to offer them to the
level we have been. There's got to be a balance there. Overall, thank you so much. This is a lot of staff in the audience.
you are all appreciated. Hopefully none of y'all are one of the 132 positions
that are up for grabs. Know that I'm here for you and hopefully my colleagues
will agree. Thank you, mayor. >> mayor jones: thank you.
councilman galvan. >> galvan: thank you for the presentation and all the staff who have been working on this and will continue to do that difficult work over
te next months. I think when we talk about the tax part of this
conversation, I think it's critical for the public to understand too and for us to
understand where we're at with this is we are structurally limited here at
the local government level on what kind of taxes we can raise, what kind of fees we
can raise compared to other cities across the country. There's a different view
here in our state capital about how we can function, what kind of revenue we can
raise, who we can raise it from. Some of the things we are looking at, the property tax increase is one of the only ways we have to raise
revenue, and even then it's capped. The conversation as to other
ways we can get this revenue and it's somewhat but very little to no other way.
we talk about how can we make sure our city has the best quality of services possible, this is the primary source. When you see development and
things change, this is the primary source of revenue we can get here. It's a tough one because we all have to pitch in for it and it's understanding what
we get out of it is the most critical point. If we're going to pay for
more, how to make sure that we're getting more and going to see more robust services.
there's a lot of need out there and so I want to make sure -- in the last budget
presentation, I believe the cost estimate for the median homestead was $70 a year.
is that accurate? >> with both the increment as well as the 3.5%, it's
about $81 per year for the average homestead. >> galvan: but not the
median? >> for the median -- I have that.
for the median, it was 70. >> galvan: I would appreciate what
councilmember mckee-rodriguez laid out. We can go on with our
community, getting some information from city staff, branded material we can
here. Nothing is set in stone but this is what we're debating
overall, I think I prefer to see minimal staff reductions as possible.
and looking into ways we can adjust any kind of unnecessary spending as much
as possible. I appreciate the look at some of the food and travel,
some of the branded merchandise we have here. Even if it's minimal, if
we're talking about $100,000, even $80,000, in that range for the total
city, I would rather look at that versus looking at an entire program being cut off because that's the same amount. Some of the programs we have
listed are only in the $100,000 range. Some of them even less. I would like to see how we can reduce those costs in other places.
I mean, if it's -- it's not going to be practical, there's always going to be
limits but if it's just cutting pens and pencils, I would rather look at all the
options available. We don't want to make our services any less than they have to be so I prefer to look at that. For myself, I'm supportive
of looking at the incremented rate and seeing where we can get to that
point. If we can protect our education programs, health
programs, parks as much as possible, that's my goal. If we look at efficiencies,
let's go forward with the efficiency part of it within those departments but what I
want to make sure that we're ddoing is the community impact that's going to have.
in district 6 we have a mixed bag of a district. There's some folks that have
the largest hoa in the entire city, the second largest in the state in my
district. Other neighborhoods do not have that. There are no community centers, no pools. There are no large parks
that people can participate at without driving to. Even further out of the
neighborhood. There are a lot of places that do not have these amenities. No libraries, et cetera. And so just a matter of
making sure that as we're looking at scaling any program down in any form, looking at the impact it has to the community on educational achievement in
the area, health disparities, income, and access to those same
services. I've talked a lot to melody and the team at dhs about
the nutrition centers. I have one in my district that's critical to that community because it's not only a part-time nutrition center they have had for a
long time, but it's also one, there is nothing else in the area.
there is no senior center. Yes, we can make sure people get transported over to a
comprehensive senior center, it's a different thing to talk to a community to say
there is nothing near you that you are connected to, you have to go outside 410
to get to one or go several miles away. Figuring out how we can plan
for that a little bit and how can we make sure those folks are not left without something is critical to me. Finding ways to preserve those centers is really
critical until we get to -- I prefer comprehensive senior centers in those
areas. Otherwise, I think it's the same story that councilmember mckee-rodriguez laid out about this side of town is
not going to get that service. If we're going to scale down somewhere else, I think we go to somewhere where there's similar services.
if there is an hoa nearby that can provide those services, let them do that.
let's get to the places that rely solely on the public to do that work, I think we
have to figure that one out. And public works, you know, I want to preserve as much
there as possible, of course. I think if we can get some kind of analysis about what the current maintenance needs are, whether it's for
striping -- some of the minimal work we do -- and see where those timelines are at. That's critical too. What I don't want to see is
areas that have not seen is that sidewalk, that stop sign, maintenance on the
crosswalk, et cetera for I don't know how many years, but for a significant amount of time, I don't want them to get deferred even more. I would rather those be
addressed and the ones doing okay, let them continue to do okay. I know we're working on making sure all of our sidewalks are ada compliant
just being able to see that within these recommendations are going to be critical too, I believe. The fees make sense on slide 8.
I think for slide 12, I know a lot of it is what are we doing without the increase.
I want to see a mixture there. What things can we still do
in the reductions, whether it's the vacant positions or the comprehensive budget
reviews. But of course understanding that we're still going to
need that support for the increase. Seeing what impact that
would have to our property tax request to our residents --e city would be helpful .
if it goes down in any way, would be interested in seeing that. If not, understandable but would like to see that laid out in front of us.
again, I want to reiterate my support for continuing that cola adjustment for
staff. We've got to make sure folks are able to afford the daily
life . I think those are all the big things. I mentioned the stuff around the non-informational merchandise through city
departments, including I would say our own city council office as much as possible. I get it. We all have our ways to
communicate to our residents but I would rather reduce that stuff, whether it's food and travel budgets, et cetera, before I start cutting staff anywhere else.
thank you, mayor. >> mayor jones: thank you. On to the second round.
councilwoman viagran. >> viagran: thank you. A lot of good conversation,
information. Some things that I don't think they're addressing quite what you asked us to address, in some cases. So I am just going to kind
of go through things. I appreciate councilman galvan talking about the
resource. The reason this is easy for me to say we need to raise the rate is because that is the property tax that we have.
unless jeff comes and tells me the state is looking at a state income tax, this is
our resource, property tax. I don't think the state is thinking that but I could be
wrong. We'll talk about that in legislative session.
in terms of city council responsibilities, erik, I appreciate you staying laser
focused on our budget. And while we do have a lot of taxing entities within
bexar county, in my district alone, I have four school districts. So I do not want you -- thank you, city staff for being here -- having my city
staff spend time looking at other people's tax increases
some significant answers to say, yes, we're moving forward with this 6% or this
median income so then we can send a letter. Me to my school districts
and school boards who are all elected officials also, and the alamo community
college saying we just raised property tax. We just have done this to make our budget. Please be considerate as your board decides what to
do next. We as a city need to lead on that. I appreciate you saying that. When it comes to public
safety, this is why I have the to level set on there. I don't think we should spend more time on looking at do we need more officers. One, we're in the middle of
a budget negotiation. I think we need to stick there, focus on that.
the other is I don't think -- unless pd has come knocking at your door, we
are in the transition of leadership, currently, and I think we need to get that
set before here's another 50 officers, decide what you want to do. And we barely have any substations or the substation toilet at east is
broken. So I really want to make sure that we're thoughtful
about that. But the one thing that councilman mckee-rodriguez brought up is key. I would love to see if we could work with our
stakeholders to see how much law enforcement do we actually have in bexar
county? If we think about it and we think about school police, alamo college has law enforcement. Our smaller municipalities,
aacog. When we're looking to move forward in hiring, maybe --
the constables, the bexar county sheriffs. There's just a lot of law
enforcement out there. And maybe what we need is when we get -- not new
officers, but better coordination between our law enforcement agencies. And maybe as we go out there and we look for a new chief, we let that new chief of
police understand. These are the amount of law enforcement entities out
there. How do we manage it and how do we address calls and
information. And we just made the park rangers at the missions, we
got that from the state of texas so that they can arrest and detain. So I think that's really important before we have these larger conversations
about I'm going to cut a whole department so that I can bring on 40 new officers
that we may or may not need, because the constable can do that job. I think we need to look at that before we have that conversation.
I will be around this summer. Erik, the team, and maria -- and justina knows already. You are surely going to hear from me when we talk about
this reorganization. Because all I heard was equity lens this, animal cequitylens that. That is important but if that department goes away
because we had to reorganize, if part of my legal department goes away because we had to reorganize, where are we then?
I know this is tough and there's going to be a lot of questions coming from
district 3. And the ideas of taking this median income into the district and seeing how that is going to impact them, I think is key.
but I would really like us, as the city of san antonio, to get out of the gate so
that the other taxing entities understand this is what we've done. This is the move we're making. And follow -- please try and
follow our lead and be as thoughtful as possible when you talk about your needs.
because I can see us foregoing an increase and others saying, well, woohoo
for us because we can raise it 8%. Thank you. >> mayor jones: councilmember meza gonzalez. >> gonzalez: just quickly
wanted to add. I think we talked about the airbnb fees, increasing
those. Is that part of the discussion? I know we have like a three-year permit but other cities do a yearly permit.
if you look at houston and dallas, it's almost double what we do.
>> walsh: I think it's definitely on the table. And councilwoman castillo brought that up at the work session. We didn't have time over the
last two and a half weeks. I think it's safe to say that you will see a proposed
recommendation in the budget in august that changes those fees.
>> gonzalez: okay. Thank you. >> mayor jones: any other
comments on the second round from my colleagues? Okay.
thank you, staff, for the hard work, always, but certainly over the last two
and a half weeks. For the public's benefit, I also asked for kind of what
it looks like, what is possible by the increment. I know when we have a
follow-on discussion we'll understand what's possible if we just took the
increment from '25, and '26 where does that get us. It's not a pretty picture
but for the fidelity all of us are looking for, that would be helpful .
it's hard to commit here to supporting a property tax increase when we just have
done a numbers exercise. We have no idea we look forward to that analysis. As was looking through this,
understand it's not recommended for discussion only but some of these cuts -- some I agree with -- and I will come back to that.
but some of these cuts, we're looking at some of these cuts that would
disproportionately impact our most vulnerable. When we talk about the department restructuring, it's not just any lawyers, it's lawyers that are in our
compliance, opportunity, and access office formerly known as dei.
these folks serve the underserved and equal access to public works and the
civil rights manager at the city attorney's office. I'm sure there's some efficiencies there but in some of these restructuring, there's still nine positions
that would be impacted there. To my colleague, councilman
mungia's point, as we're looking at the broader context at which these cuts
may take place, we're looking -- especially on the nutrition side, as councilwoman castillo mentioned. In a state t that hasn't
expanded medicaid the fact that we would be decreasing any positions related to
health improvement, community nutrition, closing four part-time nutrition centers for a savings of just under $100 million -- excuse me, $1 million, not
$100 million. It's really important as we're going to have the conversation shortly after about saws, when we look at where does work potentially
get delayed, but which parts of our community are most impacted by the fact that
they even need a nutrition center. I need to understand the
operational impact of some of these things. To the things that I actually agree with on some of these cuts. Look, if you are a private
entity charging a ticket fee. For example, you just
happened to be on the list, san antonio botanical garden. But we're reducing our funding from $1.2 million to $1 million.
they charge a ticket fee. They have an event called bubbles and blooms .
they'll be okay. I want to see a full list of these things, erik, that if you charge a ticket fee, then you can figure it out. I would like to see that go
to zero. $1.2 million to zero. If we're talking about cutting nutrition centers, we're not going to fund the botanical gardens.
I think this is actually also what my colleague, councilwoman spears was
discussing. These entities that we subsidize that are profit
making. So the fullest of those, erik, would be appreciated.
similarly, when we're talking about only cutting half of the subsidized --
the things that we subsidize for fiesta, that 700k I know was just one event, and
that's only 50%. You're going to have to talk to your centro buddies what
that means for them. Again, if you charge a ticket fee, we should not be
subsidizing your things and you can figure out how to right cost that. Some of these other things -- I do agree with the consolidation of
communications functions. I feel like we have approved several communications contracts and if that work can be conducted by those coms contracts or if there
needs to be also a writing of the distribution of work across the contracts and the
civilians. I agree there can be a consolidation of functions
there. I want us actually to look at seeing if we can increase
the number of folks for the audit team. My understanding is when we
look at kind of number of auditors per capita, we may be a little bit short
compared to other cities. When I look at what they were able to identify -- you have heard me share my concern about some of the practices that lead to I
think an insufficient level of oversight into things that drive up cost.
I appreciate here the audit team's identification of and now our ability to find
$3 million across two years regarding reducing overtime through the implementation of management and monitoring of leave policies. If we can increase the audit
team to similarly find cost-saving measures in the future, I think we'll do
ourselves well. The mayor's fitness council, understood. Got to cut it. We'll work to find a private sponsor.
that's just what it is. A lot of these things -- frankly, we shouldn't be funding these things at all. San antonio book festival. Corporate, philanthropy,
foundations, like pick this up. 150k in each year.
that's nothing. I'm not saying we don't need a book festival, I was there this last time and it was great. These are not things that
the public needs to be paying for. Military and veteran
affairs, chamber, can you pick that up? Others can pick this stuff up. Okay. The other things I'd like to
see before we start talking about a rate increase, I want to understand what can come in from the tirz, erik, even in '27, as well as '28, when folks I think see some
of the things that are being invested in at the cost of other things and us
potentially having to raise the property tax. We need to understand what can come in from the tirz. Freddie, I know you're also doing a deep dive into other
things that can come from the revenue manual. Thank you for that.
I also understand and I appreciate councilman mckee-rodriguez's
recommendation that as part of this we review the outstanding private debt due
to our community. So we'll look for that next time.
justina, the $20 million that you found due to the deep dive for the medicaid
1115 waivers, because we're talking about public health, we've just talked about some of the things that would be impacted as a result, do we have an understanding now of
how we might think about investing that money that's been identified?
>> sure. We went to -- >> mayor jones: is your
mic on? >> we presented to the community health committee last week, got some good feedback from them, so we are working on a plan that
will be discussed with the city manager and then presented as part of the proposed budget. >> mayor jones: great. Thank you.
I appreciate that. I'm not sure if we have rene here from hr,understanding
when we went through this exercise last year is that 90% of the city employees
make under $100,000, is that correct? >>
>> mayor jones: okay. I'd bet money on it because I remember that number.
but all that to say I certainly am thankful for everybody that dedicates
their time and talent to our city. I want to make sure if push comes to shove, erik, that we are giving the pay increase to those that are
the neediest, frankly, so keeping that to those that are making under 150k that
work for the city. Got some priors to your increase.
>> mayor, I'll jump in there. That will likely be my
recommendation. Past councils have talked about that and actually done it, past city managers have done it. It creates a division within
the employee workforce. So I won't be making that recommendation in august.
certainly we'll be prepared for you all to talk about that if you want to do that as part of the review of the proposed budget. >> mayor jones: I
appreciate that. I think there's already a bit of division considering 90% of folks make under 100k. On the library piece just
because councilwoman meza demons, I had the same question in terms of hey, how does that work? As explained it works when people are checking out and
their card is identified. As somebody again that was raised by a single mom, public library very important to our community. I also need to understand
what does this actually look like in practice? I know we pay a little bit more than -- sorry, we offset some of the county's expenses as it relates to
that, but the library is just not where I'm supportive of cuts.
or charging that fee. Okay. Thank you again for the hard
work. Let me -- yeah, thank you again for the hard work, and
we'll look forward to the proposed budget in august. >> yeah, mayor and council,
this is exactly what we needed to hear. We really appreciate the conversation, the continuation from the work session.
look, at the end of the day, you can rest assured and anybody that's concerned
about it can be rest assured that we're going to deliver a two-year balanced budget
to you in august, so the feedback you're giving us today, the feedback from the
work session, we'll work diligently and at the end of the day we'll all get
squared up. As long as we set the framework and not put ourselves in a position where it's a short-term gain and a long-term impact, then
I'm confident -- I'm not going to propose to you all that, and it's something that you all won't want to do either, but the conversation is helpful for
us as we launch off into that deep dive over the next two months.
thanks, mayor. >> mayor jones: erik, actually, it reminded me, lots of attention on, frankry, the biggest parts of our budget.
I know there was interest by many of my colleagues and some kind of audit, even a
portion of, as it relates to the police department. In the interest of cost savings, are we interested to do even a portion of that to inform the '27 budget?
>> actually, on that list of reductions you see about six-million-dollar reduction in police overtime. So -- secondly, I don't know if buddy is in the room, but
I think he is launching off into an audit of police overtime just like he just
recently completed the overtime with fire overtime. >> mayor jones: will we have that for '27? >> I already jumped ahead and said we're going to cut
six million dollars out of it, so we'll do the deep dive on that. I think his process piece will be important to what councilmember
mckee-rodriguez said, which is are there issues within the cba that we need to identify from a practice standpoint? But you will likely see
reductions to police overtime in the proposed budget. I'll check with buddy about where he's at with his overtime.
>> mayor jones: to be clear about what you've just said, so there's the
recommendation of 6 million. There is an audit around specifically the overtime,
which may yield additional savings? >> I don't know what the
audit will yield. >> but those are two separate issues. >> they are two separate issues. There will be service
impacts if we reduce overtime in certain areas in the police department, and we'll come back to you all in -- if we do those we'll come back to you in august
and say these are the impacts to services, whatever they are. I don't know what buddy will come up with, but he's going to review the processes and
procedures and the approvals and the adherence to both the collective bargaining
agreement and the rules and regulations of the police department. That's the scope of his audit. >> mayor jones: yeah,
appreciate that. Because the fire department's audit, it didn't necessarily say a reduction of overtime, it yields a decrease in
service. Some of that was because it was a management -- >> it was a management issue, got it. Okay.
thank you. On to saws. >> item number 9 is an
ordinance approving adjustments toes to the san antonio water system's rates for residential, general, irrigation and wholesale customers for 2026
through 2029. >> mayor jones: let's get started.
okay. The clerk has already read the caption. Over to staff for a presentation. >> mayor, I'm going to turn
it over to mr. Puente to do the presentation. >> good afternoon mayor,
council members. Thank you again for the opportunity to be in front of you. Relatively short presentation.
a lot of the issues that we've had we've been discussing with you.
so on -- I used this slide at different times, especially at your town hall
meetings where I've been going and tucking to our residents about our needs. When I present this slide I usually talk about we've been able to do all these,
meet all these challenges and not have a rate increase.
those challenges could not have been made without transparency, accountability and a disciplined financial management. The fact that we went five
years without a rate increase demonstrates that we were not simply passing
calls to our customers. We absorbed those pressures while continuing investment in our critical infrastructure. The primary driver of this
rate proposal is infrastructure investment. During the last five years saws has successfully managed and delivered approximately $2.6 billion
without a rate increase. With the expectation that projects that began in the
latter years and remain under construction, we have completed
as planned, but we now face a larger challenge, a $3.2 billion program over
the next five years. Our track record gives us confidence that we can successfully execute this plan as well. Just as importantly we have
been transparent and accountability regarding our capital program performance
and we will continue that same level of accountability going forward.
we recognize that expectations today are different than they were even a few years ago. That's why we commissioned an independent efficiency
study to look at our capital program. It is important to note that it is not an audit, it is a capital operational review focused on identifying
opportunities for improvement. The preliminary findings confirm that saws maintains a very sophisticated ability to identify and manage large
scale infrastructure projects. The study specifically highlighted our strong balance sheet, technical competence of our workforce
and integrated management systems. At the same time the study
acknowledged that utilities today operate in a very different environment, a more complex and expensive environment. Aging infrastructure,
resiliency requirements, workforce challenges, and escalating construction costs all require us to continuously improve. The recommendations from the
study focus on governance, communication, strategic planning and stakeholder
engagement. Once the board formally accepts this study we stand ready to brief this council and implement those recommendations as we
incorporate them into our operations. Water stewardship or what we --l
non-revenue water. One of the most frequent criticisms directed at saws
involves water loss from breaks and leaks from our water distribution system. And frankly, it is criticism that was well deserved. That is why in 2023 we
renewed our focus and established the office of non-revenue water.
since then we have reduced real water losses by approximately 25%.
25% in just these last two years, three years, a reduction of that issue that
was really highlighting the news a few years ago. There's even more work ahead
and we recognize that, but we are one of the leaders here in texas. Houston currently, for example, experiences twice the volume of real water
loss that saws does. In fact, the country of denmark invited and sponsored a visit by saws staff to discussion different approaches on how
to tackle this issue. We are not declaring victory, but demonstrating
progress and a clear commitment for improvement. Data centers, although it's
not part of this rate increase, councilmember galvan asked us to talk a
little bit about data centers. Currently we have eight to 10 under consideration, probably closer to eight. We meet biweekly with cps
energy to coordinate our efforts to find out what's happening, what their doing
versus what we're doing. Cps sometimes has challenges because of nondisclosure
agreements but we've been working with them to know what each other is doing and what is coming down the pike so that they can be ready and we can be ready.
next month or board will be considering a water master plan and part of that plan
will be how are we going to handle redundancy and reliability, specifically
with data centers on how they're going to be involved in this process. Some policy items to review and implement for next year are that they require a
maximum use of recycled water. That evaporating cooling is something that we have to have as least possible, as few possible of that kind of
operation. The loop system is much, much better.
a modified rate and fee structure we will also talk about, and also any
contamination controls that need to be implemented. Why a four-year rate plan
matters. This slide illustrates why this four-rate plan is so
important. Infrastructure planning does not occur one year at a time. Contractors, engineers, suppliers, financial markets
all need certainty regarding our able to fund projects over the years.
the 2026 through 2029 capital program totals activity. If rates were only approved for the near term, projects scheduled for '28 and 29
become uncertain, delays create significant risks. Construction costs continue
to escalate, meaning projects become more expensive.
the rate projects increase the likelihood of lost water, of infrastructure
failures, regulatory challenges and future water supply constraints.
a four year plan allows us to fully sequence those projects, secure competitive
pricing and deliver infrastructure at the lowest cost possible for our
customers. This proposal reflects extensive discussion between
saws and the utilities office. The recommended rate plan before you today is not simply saws' proposal, it reflects a thorough review
by city staff, several adjustments that reduced our revenue requirements knowing
that those adjustable reduced amount of revenue required preserving our
infrastructure needs to maintain reliable service. In other words, a lot of the compromises we've made with the office of public utilities was on the o&m
side. I think they recognize that this capital infrastructure is needed for the future. A demonstration that saws and the city work together
to scrutinize the costs to be a fair rate plan for our customers.
this slide shows the agreed upon -- the agreed upon plan that this rate supports.
the investment is focused on this includes wastewater treatment, water supply reliability, system
reliability, water stewardship initiatives, replacement of infrastructure and growth-related projects. These are not discretionary
projects, these are necessary projects. They are investments
necessary to maintain regulatory compliance, protect public health, accommodate growth and ensure water security. The city and saws agree that
projects are essential and should move forward. This slide reflects the
rates that were ultimately agreed upon by saws and your office of public utilities.
the plan before you today requests a compromise that balances affordability with
our infrastructure needs. It provides certainty for customers while allowing saws to responsibly plan and execute our program. Importantly this
recommendation has already undergone significant review and refinement through the
city process and what I just --s that review by public utilities office when the
rates went down through the first two years and then a ceiling and a floor for the
all right third and fourth year. This is not simply our proposal, it is a rate plan recommended by your office and after months and months
of analysis. We heard you during your budget discussions.
these are not easy decisions, but we have a program that I believe helps
us in this endeavor. One of the most important elements of this proposal is
the expansion of affordability programs. We are not -- we are
increasing reliability from 125 to 150% of the federal poverty level.
we are increasing funding for other programs and strengthening community outreach efforts. I want to highlight the fourth bullet in this slide.
today we know neighborhoods that have a significant number of households already receiving uplift benefits. For example, if we see we have a computerized program
where we can look at down to the block level and if you take 20 houses on that
block, if 12 of them are on the uplift program, if 12 families are on that
program, chancers that other families on that block also need the help and assistance
we can provide. Under this program we will use that data and census
track information to identify those areas. And we know where these areas are. It's easy to drive through san antonio and know exactly
what neighborhoods we need to put into this pilot program. We will then automatically enroll them into these households and provide them
with six months of complete -- before they have to complete the
qualification process. In other words, they will be automatically enrolled into
this program. In six months we will help them continue the qualification if they do qualify to stay on that program.
this is a more targeted and more productive and more equitable approach to this
affordability assistance. And by the way, this potential rate increase does
not affect any customer already on that program. Even after this 2026 rate
adjustment, saws will continue to have some of the lowest residential water and
wastewater rates among texas cities. As you can see, many of the
cities, even our closest neighbors, austin, houston, corpus, have the highest
rates in texas. That affordability has been achieved while investing in
long-term water supplies, infrastructure reliability, environmental stewardship,
drought resilience and still maintaining the highest credit rating saws has ever
had. So saws as a utility are able to continuously have
these low rates and still meet those requirements that this community relies on.
so mayor, council, I know it's a brief presentation, but I think we've been in front of you, I've been to your town halls, met with you individually, and I
stand ready to answer any questions that you may have. >> mayor jones: yes, at my
town halls I was like where's robert? Just kidding! We have public comment. We have several folks that have signed in to -- signed
up to speak on this item. The first person is kevin. You have three minutes,
followed by erik lattinger and jonathan gerwitz. >> thank you, mayor jones,
council members, thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is kevin, I'm honored to serve as chairman of the greater san antonio
chamber of commerce. I know many of you who serve on council and I sincerely thank you for your service. I'm here today in support of the proposed san antonio
water system four-year rate adjustment. This support comes with the
unanimous endorsement of the great chamber's board of directors.
no one wants higher utility costs, however leadership needs us to look at today's
costs and future consequences if we fail to invest in the infrastructure that our community depends upon. Water is not simply another
utility, it is the foundation of public health, economic development and
quality of life of the children and families who call our community home.
the proposed rate adjustment will help fund critical improvements to aging
infrastructure, strengthen wastewater treatment and collection systems,
modernize operations, reduce water loss, enhance system resilience. These are not optional investments. These are essential
investments. At the same time, the business community believes
strongly that investment must be accompanied by accountability. We support continued transparency, public reporting and measurable
outcomes so ratepayers can clearly see how these dollars are being invested
and what results are being achieved. This decision is ultimately
about stewardship. It is about making prudent investments today so that we
can avoid much higher and greater cost, deferred maintenance and insufficient
infrastructure in the future. Just ask our neighbors in corpus christi about that path. The easiest vote to often to
delay infrastructure investment for whatever reason. The responsible vote is to make the investment before a crisis forces it upon us at
a much greater cost. On behalf of the greater san antonio chamber of commerce, I respectfully encourage your support of the proposed saws rate
adjustment. And again, I want to thank you for your leadership and devotion to the people of san antonio. Mayor, I hope most of you
who know me personally know that I care about every quadrant of this city, east,
south, west, north, all of them. I've done this for many, many years in many capacities. This is a large decision.
I don't want my water bill to go up, but when I look at what is happening with water
loss it is stunning to me if I had a pipe leaking at my house I'd get it fixed.
I'd find the money to do it because I can't waste that incredibly valuable
resource. Goodness. Look at what's happened in austin. I drive through alamo heights, they're on stage 4.
thank goodness the saws board some years ago took action on the vista ridge
project. [buzzer]. Thank you for your
leadership. God bless. >> mayor jones:
speakers]. >> what's up, guys? It's been awhile.
I really didn't want to come up here and sound too angry so I thought I'd write some
jokes instead. Saws ceo robert puente makes a base salary of $593,000 a
year, and he recently received a bonus of over $132,000 a year.
that's $725,000. That's about 10 times as much as y'all are making from this job. That's kind of funny to me. I don't know.
maybe not to y'all. It's a little funny that some of y'all might not
afford it. Maybe we could afford it if we cut out some of the
nonsense that y'all were talking about earlier because must people realize
that san antonio has a spending problem, not a revenue problem. You know, this ordinance has to be a joke. At a time when most average
americans and american families are struggling at a time when we don't know how
much gas is going to be from week to week because of what's going on in foreign
countries. Mr. Puente came to my community in district 10 a few weeks ago trying to sell us on this idea, telling us it's only going to be a
couple bucks more a month. The one making over $700 a year doesn't understand what
it's like to be broke at the end of the month, wishing you had that couple of extra
dollars. He doesn't understand that. So someone making that kind
of money asking we the people for more money, is a joke.
mr. Puente has been in power since 2008 and the average water bill has increased 41
to 61% since then. And he wants another 30 percent.
what a joke. I also want to point out that mr. Puente is past
retirement age so maybe he should stop enriching himself and step down and
let somebody else do the job. Thank you.
[applause]. >> mayor jones: jonathan, followed by jack finger.
>> mayor and council, I am chair of the greater san antonio chamber's public
policy council. The chamber recognizes the critical importance of continued investment in our regions, water infrastructure, to support
long-term economic growth, system reliability and quality of life.
as one of the fastest growing regions in the country, san antonio must continue to plan proactively to meet future water demands and ensure the resiliency of
our infrastructure. The greater chamber supports thoughtful and strategic
infrastructure investment, including the proposed investments necessary to
maintain and modernize critical water infrastructure as -- as well
as the associated rate adjustments proposed by saws saws.
I'll note as you did, mayor, that transformational economic investments like the one toyota is making, are only possible because of the water and energy
infrastructure investments of our public utilities. Support for this rate
adjustment must be accompanied by strong accountability, operational clarity and measurable progress in addressing the infrastructure and system
management challenges currently facing the community.
of particular concern is the urgent and ongoing issue of widespread water loss
throughout the community. Water loss at the scale currently being experienced
represents not only financial inefficiency, but also the loss of an
increasingly scarce and valuable public resource. Saws cannot effectively deal with this loss without the proposed capital program. The greater chamber churches
saws staff and board of trustees to publicly report against clear operational
branches tied to leak reduction, infrastructure replacement, response times and non-revenue water reduction goals that have already been identified
within the utilities planning framework. Greater chamber supports
these infrastructure investments that position san antonio for long-term
success and strengthen the reliability of our water system. Their proposed rate adjustment should be accompanied by clear
accountability measures, clear reporting, improved coordination and
demonstrated progress in addressing the operational and infrastructure challenges most affecting our community today. Thank you.
>> mayor jones: thank you. Jack finger, followed by luis rodriguez and then
jessica pelaasios. >> well, madam mayor and other members of our
illustrious san antonio city council. For the record my name is jack m finger. It's a classic tactic among negotiators, one side will
say, I propose that I will sell you these widgets for a mere 100% increase over what
we've been doing in the past. The other side says are you
out of your mind, 100% increase? No! Okay, okay.
I'll make it a mere 75% increase. Are you stupid?
I'm not going to accept a 75% increase! >> okay, okay, I'll get
real. A mere 50% increase in the cost of these widgets.
well, you reciprocated so much here I guess I'll try the 50% area there.
when the 50% is what the other side was planning all along!
what is saws planning to do with our bills and what are you planning to give them?
well, what do the headlines say once again? Let's see what the
audio/visual has to say. City backs smaller saws hike.
and let's see if we can read the red underlined area there and blow it up a
little bit. This week city staff offered a rate hike of bills between
26% and 30% by 2029. 26 to -- thank you. Return to camera, if you
would. By my calculation, that's about 30% over -- that's almost -- that's somewhere between eight and 10% a year.
eight and 10% a year. Not one or two percent, not three or four, eight or 10% 10%
a year. Now, I'm sorry, they say this is going for
infrastructure, we've got to fix all our leaks and all our paging pipes.
I already thought that we were paying that with our rate-paying bills there.
isn't that what we -- we expected saws to do? I remember I go back so long
to remember that back in the '70s and '80s and '90s when they had leaks all over the
city with a plastic pvc piping and they said we've got to have a rate increase
for that. We keep giving rate increases and I say where is the money going? What happened to all the money we paid in the past?
well, maybe it's going to mr. -- all these exorbitant salaries.
do you think? [buzzer]. Thank you.
>> luis rodriguez, followed by jessica, and then rebecca.
>> is luis here. >> he's not here. >> mayor jones: we'll go straight to you, thanks. >> thank you. Good afternoon, mayor jones
and city councilmembers. My name's jessica and I serve as the director of
government affairs at the san antonio hispanic chamber of commerce, proudly
headquartered in district 4, representing nearly 900 business members throughout
the entire city. The san antonio hispanic chamber of commerce supports
the saws proposed rate adjustment as a necessary investment in long-term
reliability of our water and wastewater infrastructure and our city's continued
economic growth. On average, san antonio grows by 20,000 residents
every year. The reality is that as san antonio continues to
grow, so does the demand placed on critical infrastructure systems.
reliable water and wastewater service remain essential, not only for residents, but for employers, housing development, workforce
growth, and future economic investment. We appreciate that saws has
engaged extensively with stakeholders throughout this process and has continued to
refine its proposal based on discussions with city leadership.
we also recognize the modifications made following the june 10th council b
session resulting in the lower proposed -- in a lower proposed rate than
originally presented. At the same time our support for infrastructure -- for
this infrastructure investment must be accompanied by ongoing
collaboration and partnership and transparency as outlined in a letter sent to you at the beginning of the month. The san antonio hispanic
chamber of commerce encourages saws to provide accessible updates on how
these investments are being implemented including measurable progress toward
infrastructure improvements and water loss reduction efforts. We also encourage continued collaboration with the business community to
increase awareness of available conservation programs, rebates and other
resources that can help residents and employers better manage utility costs.
and finally, we support continued efforts to strengthen affordability through cost management, ongoing evaluation of contracts and expenditures,
and exploration of additional funding and partnership strategies that
can help strengthen affordability while ensuring critical infrastructure investment. Thank you for your time and your consideration and
commitment to san antonio's future. Thank you.
>> mayor jones: rebecca rebecca viagran. >> good afternoon, mayor,
council members, city manager, city attorney. My name is rebecca and I am proud to serve as the president and ceo of south texas partnership.
and our board of directors are in strong support of the proposed saws rate.
our mission is sustained economic prosperity across south texas through collaboration and advocacy. A critical part of that mission is to ensure that
all businesses, families and communities have access to infrastructure necessary to
grow and thrive. And that the foundation of that infrastructure is
water. Every resident, business, school and hospital depends on reliable access to safe drinking water everyday. Investing today allows us to
replace aging infrastructure before it becomes a public health emergency.
this discussion is about more than rates, it's about securing infrastructure
investments necessary for long-term growth across san antonio.
nowhere is that more important than on the southside where aging
systems and increasing demand are converging. These investments ensure
that south san antonio is not left behind, but positioned to thrive as our
city grows. And growth is already happening.
in 2024 alone they issued thousands of permits. Water and wastewater systems
are also essential to competitiveness. Businesses can locate anywhere. They choose communities that can guarantee dependable
security, like water security. As companies invest in san antonio, they are not just creating jobs, they bring new families, housing,
schools, suppliers and commercial development. Growth of this magnitude
depends on one critical resource, reliable water and wastewater infrastructure.
we also recognized the importance of affordability and we appreciate that
continued investment is going to happen in the uplift program. We are encouraged that saws has already committed to continue transparency,
strong oversight and clear reporting on how rate-supported investments
improve service and create opportunity. We courage you all today to
acted decisively today, supporting this ray adjustment is a commitment to safe drinking water, system reliability and long-term water security on
for all san antonians. And demonstration that south san antonio's infrastructure
needs will be met with the same amount of urgency as the rest of the city. We respectfully urge your support of this proposed rate adjustment and thank
you all so much for your time and consideration. Thank you. >> mayor jones: thank you. That was our final speaker. Is there a motion to approve
item 9 so we may begin council discussion? >> I make a motion to approve. >> second. >> mayor jones: great.
we'll move on to council discussion. There's going -- we're each going to share our comments. But I'm not going to bury the lead because we've been
here a little bit later than we anticipated. The request before us is in
fact the cheapest option to our community and minimizes the risk that we know of at
this point to the greatest extent. Correct, mr. Puente?
>> yes, mayor.
four-year rate spread that allows us to do it in that manner.
the other options actually increased the rate increase for the third and the fourth
years if we just had a two-year rate increase. >> mayor jones: so this is the cheapest option for our community, keeps rates the lowest, and it minimizes the
risk that we know of. >> correct. >> mayor jones: so
delaying increases the risk to our community and increases the cost to our
community. >> both happen if we push this down the road, yes.
>> mayor jones: thank you. There's also been some question about previously
there was the -- at a time when saws decreased the rate so part of the angst now,
right, is we're faced with a rate increase in part to address what was a decrease
previously. Just to level set for the public and for some of my colleagues, would you please explain why that decrease took place?
>> saws was part of the reason why this community was able to grow the way it
grew the last few years, along with cps energy, along with programs that our city
puts in place when a lot of people were moving to san antonio and they moved
to san antonio. This influx of residents on the residential side caused
a lot of revenue coming into saws. It was more than what the cost of service was to provide them that service. Under state law we could
only charge what it cost us to provide that service. And so all that revenue is
coming in. We felt it was the right thing to do to come back to
council and say the residential rates are too high.
reduce them, please, and council unanimously voted to reduce them 11.7% on the
residential side. >> mayor jones: thank you. While I've got you, just
because, again, we just heard from toyota, it's fresh on the mind, sir, can
you go to slide 9. Can you point out which of these things here would
directly impact our ability to support a toyota expansion?
>> will 289.8-million-dollar water supply it's water recycle.
toyota means we're growing, toyota means we'll have more jobs, not just jobs in the
factory, but ancillary jobs throughout that area. More suppliers will come in,
more people will probably live closer to -- wanting to work closer to that area.
we're growing and we can't -- saws utilities cannot plan for a water
project one or two years in advance. It's long-term planning. The fact that toyota is coming today, I guarantee you they looked at our water
supply and wanted to know is that box checked, and it is checked. We want to continue to check that box and that's what that particular -- those
projects are for. >> mayor jones: delaying the rate increase threatens
our ability to provide the things that allow us to compete well for toyota. >> I believe so, mayor, yes. >> mayor jones: okay. Cecelia, it's not in the
slides, but I know you have it committed to memory. Can you level set again for us some of the fines that we would face if any of our water infrastructure
knowingly -- goes down, excuse me. >> so in relation to our
treatment water recycling centers, depending on if we were to receive permit
violations, we're talking about per day, right? So it could be $100,000 per
day if we had -- if there's violations. And if we had those on top
of each other, we had certain violations on top of each other, we've said it,
we provided it in our february b session responses, that we'd be
looking at another consent decree. At that point our last consent decree was $1.2 billion over 10 years. Corpus right now is in
excess of I believe $3 billion. Houston is in excess of
$5 billion. So at that point lie we were last time, we were required
to provide -- we were required to perform all of the activities that were
within that consent decree for our collections system, and that led us to have to
increase our sewer rates significantly over those 10 years. That would be required if we were to get into another consent decree as well, it
would be a requirement at that point from the federal government as well as not
just as needing those rates, but at that point it would be a requirement by federal
government that we would need those rates and move that forward. >> mayor jones: thank you. I see ed. Did you want to say
something? >> I wanted to caveat that and obviously saws performs
at a level where we are meeting our permit requirements right now. We will continue to do that as best we can. So autism of those things
about fines, would be theoretical if we were to have failure at the plant
and permit violations. I want to make sure that that's also clear. This isn't something that we're saying is absolutely going to happen.
these are all hypothetical, theoretical situations that we have seen in other cities
and we want to make sure that's understood. >> mayor, on the set of slides you talked about water supplies. On the wastewater side, we
are also looking at expanding our big wastewater treatment plant, the class
plant. As we grow, obviously we are water and wastewater, water
supply and wastewater, they both grow together, and this particular projects are also
to expand our claus plant. >> mayor jones: thank you. And thanks, edd, for ed.
if it were tomorrow it's not something we would be discussing, but I think laying out the full range of risks that relates to -- that's what your capital
project is based on, your worst to first, so addressing those risks helps
us to afford those fines. Not addressing the risks increases the odds of facing
those fines. So we want to know how expensive they could be, $100,000 a seems like a lot of cash that we don't need to spend.
thank you. Councilwoman viagran. >> viagran: thank you, mayor. San antonio is fortunate to have such strong utility
partners with both cps and saws that have consistently demonstrated a commitment to
serving our residents while maintaining responsible stewardship of our public resources. So I think the question -- I don't know if it's for you,
robert, or for andy or erik, if we postpone today, what does that do?
does that impact our credit rating and does that impact impact -- robert, you can
answer for y'all's credit rating. >> postponing means projects
become more expensive. It means that the rating agencies are looking as to
why was it postponed. What are the circumstances of that postponement.
the credit agencies are already looking at us because of the fact that a
20-year tenured cfo retired, they look at those things. They want to see continuity,
they want to see how you're replacing those individuals. We want to see assurances so
that they can tell the bond hold -- the bondholders that saws is a good credit risk.
so delay is something we would have to explain, not only because our owner is
asking for a delay, but because of the increased costs that we're now going
to have to address because of the delay. >> viagran: erik, would that impact our bond rating? >> maybe indirectly, councilwoman.
we do the annual ratings with the agencies in july. The last seven or eight
years since I've been city manager, we generally don't get a lot of questions about
the utilities, cps or saws, but that's not to say that they couldn't ask us.
>> viagran: okay. I just wanted to get some information on that. And then, robert, the last time you were out up here when we did a rate
adjustment, and I think that was for our business community, that was in 2002
or 2003? >> the last full rate increase we had was in 2015, but it was a five-year rate increase for vista ridge. So it was 2015, it ended in
2020. >> viagran: okay. And that's when we looked
netflix and we kind of reduced the rates -- >> that was in 2022.
>> viagran: 2022. I thank the board for being here today.
and pat hasso, who was a past board member, she would constantly tell me you
need -- saws needs help, saws needs help. And preparing me and
understanding that, yes, we are going to make that adjustment today, but
eventually we are going to need to get to the point where we will need to have a rate adjustment for residential. So I think -- this is not
new to me. We knew that this was coming after the pandemic.
saws has identified the need to adjust the current water and wastewater rate,
structures to meet projected revenue requirements and maintain the long-term fiscal health of their utility system, and we are the rate approvers.
this is our policy, this is what we do. We do not sit on the board.
when I did get a elected, there was talk of hey, why don't you sit on the boards
of the utilities? I was like no, there needs to be a clear separation between the council as the owner, what we do, and the board, in terms of the
responsibilities you have. And I do want to applaud you because I feel like we're
not showing appreciation for you in your efforts and what you've done. So thank you so much for your service. I understand that it's been
thoughtful. The fact that the city, because I see troy standing
there -- robert, I'm going to ask troy a question now. Troy, you know what I think
of your work and how great I think it is. So your work saw very
minuscule changes with what they brought forward in terms of that rate increase
for their need? >> it's consistent with what mr. Puente mentioned in his slide deck. We looked at the items on the o&m side and made
recommendations that they adjust that and we're in agreement with those recommendations. >> viagran: thank you. So the story I want to tell
and as we tell the southside story, and while it's like -- I appreciate you
saying these were all hypotheticals. However -- y'all know where
I'm going with this. Mitchell lake. Everything from the north
flowed south and we found ourselves in a crisis. With
the federal government. And saws came in and they had to make the adjustments,
and they have to stay within regulations. And they have been doing
that consistently. So you never know when this is going to happen.
I sit on the southside that sees tremendous development. Everything annexed in.
and robert, you and I have this conversation all the time, and my team has the
conversation with your staff. All that was service on the
southside was bexarmet. We didn't know what bexarmet was doing. So when saws took over in 2012 they weren't sure what was where.
I have properties still on wells, I have properties on septic tanks
because we don't have the infrastructure in part of the southern sector. When I go to my neighborhood associations, which is where I had most of the team go to
talk about this rate adjustment, they were like, does that mean you're going
to address xyz? And they understood that this is what this rate
adjustment meant. That we were able to maintain the service and
address the problems that we had because of our aging infrastructure.
pecan valley, I was with them before a few weeks ago. They understood this because
they want their pipes fixed. They want to have -- they want newer pipes.
they want newer meter systems. That's what they want there. And that is why, for me, I ask my council to support this because my residents
are in need of this. You can come with the story how this doesn't have that
or they're still on septic tanks or this is that. Yes, because they were on a
completely different system. It was called bexar met. Public works is trying to be
as strategic as possible. I don't want to delay this. I don't want to put this off I don't want to make this more expensive by waiting a while to do this.
I wish I had told you no when you told me we were going to reduce the rates. If I could go back in a time machine, I would. But it just made sense there
because we were coming out of a pandemic and we thought that this would be a good
break for our ratepayers. I knew this wouldn't last forever.
I knew what was coming on the south side but we were taking it in increments as
development comes. Thank you, business community and the developers that signed on. Because y'all are here and y'all are there because
you're like for the time after the pandemic, y'all have put forward and done
what you could for new development. But there is a price where we need to get our residential ratepayers to put in to have a bigger
voice. So, I'll be approving this today.
I understand that there are other issues -- and I hear I'm voting this way because
of the leaks, because of that. But my confidence is in city staff. My confidence is in the board.
my confidence is in that robert brought us vista ridge when we needed it and
we can have that conversation and we can have the accountability we need, we just need to get in the room and have conversations about that.
so I am moving forward today knowing that we have old infrastructure. We need to address that. And if we want equity infrastructure, it takes
investment. And I need to have the residents, the ratepayers
with skin in the game. Because if they don't, they will not take it seriously
about water conservation, about how they maintain their own pipes.
and when they invest -- and I can't explain to you how pecan valley was encouraged
to hear about this. Changes were coming. We were identified, south side, southeast side was identified as an area that needed significant
investment, is that they understood, okay. And then we can plan for our
homes and our pipes and our plumbing in our house. But they don't want to make
that investment if they know they're going into pipes that may or may not work.
or it's going to dig up again. So the decisions we make today will shape the quality of life for future generations.
our focus should remain on creating a resilient, sustainable future for all
residents. We know we need the flexibility. I need y'all to be fluid in the decisions you could make, robert, and that's why
any conversation of being very rigid on how we do things does not help, as we
are ten different districts with ten different needs. Thank you, mayor.
>> mayor jones: thank you. Councilmember alderete gavito. >> gavito: thank you. I'll keep my comments short. I know I have not been
confident in saws' plan throughout this process and today my concerns remain.
I cannot vote yes on the current proposal until there has been a level of
accountability from saws. For me, it is hard to approve a proposal that increases salaries for execs and staff, adds positions, all the while the city just
got out of a conversation of us potentially having to cut our city staff. And it's hard for me to accept this proposal while water is still running down
our streets. And while it places the burden on residents in this
unforgiving economy. It still boggles my mind that we wouldn't wait to have this rate increase discussion before we have the results of our audit
that my colleagues and I have asked for. I feel that there are major
operational inefficiencies that saws needs to work through. And these operational inefficiencies could potentially save cash and
reduce the need for us to ask the residents to pay for it.
I'm open to continuing the discussion down the line once these issues have been
addressed. I think you saw in a lot of the chambers' letters -- I
do want to thank the business community and the chambers. But still there was that sentiment of accountability needs to be had at saws.
there's that theme there. You know, I am happy -- I am open to having the
discussion once these inefficiencies have been addressed.
I was happy to collaborate with my colleagues to come up with a list of action
items for saws to work through prior to coming back, maybe later october or
whenever y'all come back. This list includes basic things like addressing water
leaks and making sure that saws does not leave streets that the city of san antonio
spends really, really good money on and saws later comes back and does some --
fixes a pipe or whatever -- and leaves the street in disrepair.
that all impacts our residents' daily lives. And so, you know, we need to
take that into consideration. And also again, I'm going to
hone in on happy to have the conversation once we have the findings of the audit.
again, look forward to having a more thorough conversation once a good
plan is presented and we'll wait to see when that happens. Thank you. >> mayor jones: robert, if you would like to respond
and then I would like to have the chair come up and speak to the audit piece.
>> thank you, mayor, council. So a lot has been said about
requesting us to do an efficiency audit. I have a different
recollection of that process. I was asked specifically at a b session if we had ever done an efficiency audit. And they referenced the cps
energy efficiency report, efficiency review. And my response to the council -- I believe it was councilman whyte at that time -- was no, we had not.
and the reason we had not was because of the ongoing, very robust benchmarking
that saws has and continues to have on every one of the areas that the cps energy
efficiency review covered. So we look at that on an annual basis.
it informs the executive and mission alignment, which handles compensation and
creates the scorecard for the organization every year. We look at that benchmark
data and we use it to inform the targets that we set for the performance of the
organization on an annual basis. And so I brought the cps
energy efficiency review with me today. So when I look at that table of contents, it covers exactly the benchmark areas that saws already conducts
today. The blind spot we had -- and I had a meeting with
districts 10, 7, and 1 in 2020. They shared with me a great
deal of concern they had related to the capital planning and delivery and
interface with public works. We didn't have a capital department at that time.
it had been collapsed into public works. And they shared with me some
very specific concerns they had regarding our interface with the city and how we
were delivering capital. And as a result of that, that feedback, feedback I
was receiving from the community in that same realm and after the discussion
with me about the need for an efficiency review or an audit, as they say, we
created -- we did a number of things. We engaged our consultant to
look at our capital planning and delivery process. We had them specifically
look at our coordination with the city of san antonio. I'm happy to say, as a result of that meeting, I met with the city manager
and asked why was the capital projects division and public works collapsed
and why were processes that we established as early as 2007 no longer being done?
I didn't realize they weren't being done. So, as a result of that, we
created the mou that we entered in with the city over two years ago that
outlines how we classify projects. Once we determine the projects are in an area where the city or saws do not have builts, we engage
the process so we can know as much as we can early on and include that information in the design and construction process so we know exactly what we're
paying for. So that's been in effect. I think the marbach project
is probably one of the first projects where the mou is now being implemented in
that project. The second thing the board did was create a capital
oversight committee of the board of trustees at saws in anticipation of implementing
the most complex and the largest capital program that we've seen in many years.
so the consent decree was very different. It was all wastewater
piping. This includes wastewater treatment, wastewater
distribution, water distribution, water supply. It is a very complex and
long-term capital program. And so we think the work that we're doing with the consultant is very timely as we final this four-year program.
we've already seen some initial recommendations presented to the board
oversight committee. The board oversight committee has some additional work that they're asking that consultant to complete.
we are anticipating that this program will be approved so we can final the
recommendations from that consultant. And when the committee has done its work, the plan is to present that plan to the board so we will know what
the implementation process, the options we have for delivery of that program.
the timing and the sequential processes that we need to consider to
successfully deliver this project on time and on budget. >> mayor jones: thank you, chair. Erik, did you want to say
something? >> walsh: no. It's not pertinent to the
matter before the council. I disagree about how we got there but I think the point
is we have an mou with saws that better coordinates, and frankly now has saws as a
signatory on those high-profile contracts. Which was the thing that needed to happen. But that's not pertinent to y'all's conversation.
>> mayor jones: thank you. Councilmember meza gonzalez. >> gonzalez: thank you,
mayor. Thank you for the presentation and to saws and your team for getting us here as well as our team at the city.
troy and your team, thank you so much. Every resident, I think regardless of what district you're from in this city, wants two things and I have
heard this from my constituents. They want water they can
depend on and water they can afford. Most of the time the systems that support them seem invisible, right up until a main breaks, a bill spikes,
or a weather event overwhelms a system that wasn't prepared for it. This vote in front of us is keeping both of those promises to san antonio at
the same time. I don't think any household should have to choose between an essential service and the rest of their budget.
I'm encouraged by the joint recommendation the city and saws has brought forward.
it takes the needs of our residential ratepayers seriously while still giving
saws the resources to do the work our city genuinely needs. A couple of -- few clarifying questions. On the capital efficiency
study, when was that conducted and when was it finalized? >> puente: the capital efficiency study was started earlier this year.
it's not finalized. Phase 1 is complete. There's another phase
coming. What our board wants to do is have this capital
committee that our chairwoman talked about. Look at it, address the things, ask the questions, and then go on to the full board for their acceptance
and approval. >> gonzalez: and of the recommendations it's produced, which has saws already implemented and which remain outstanding?
>> puente: well, they didn't make any specific recommendations yet, and that's what phase 2 is about. But what they did address
was the challenges that we're going to have and that other utilities are having.
and that is the -- >> mayor jones: slide 4. >> puente: focus on
governance, communication, strategic planning, and stakeholder engagement.
it's preliminary recommendations there at the bottom. Those are the initial findings that they have that they want us to look at and
address. >> gonzalez: is it too soon to ask this question? Do we think there would be any additional savings in phase 2 that could ease
future rate pressure? >> puente: I don't know. But it is safe to say, in my
opinion, that when you look at those things, those preliminary recommendations,
strategic planning. Does that necessarily save money today? It's planning into the future. Governance.
how do we report back how we're doing to the board and to council and to the
community? So those savings are more efforts that are long term
and the savings, therefore, are long term. >> gonzalez: thank you.
as we start talking about our next bond, which we've started already with
preliminary discussions. Saws needs the capacity to be able to replace mains at
the same time that we do our street reconstruction projects.
and so my question is for art. If saws does not have the
financial capacity to replace mains at the time of our reconstruction projects,
how would that impact our projects at the city? >> hi, councilwoman.
as far as planning for the bond program and how saws does that, they can answer that. The city has the bond program as well as our
annual street maintenance programs. And so on the bond project, saws typically joint bids with us on that and they can plan for that as the bond
program gets developed. As we're talking about the 2027 bond program through capital delivery, they will be looking and planning for that.
on the operating side for public works through our annual street maintenance program projects, that's where we've seen in times, as we ramp up our funding,
saws has a priority level. They work through a tiered level on how they replace
their projects. That's where sometimes we may need to move forward to
replace the pavement on an old line because it's not at the same priority on the
saws side. >> gonzalez: can you explain that last part?
>> as we are doing our mill and overlay projects, that's where we have conversations
with saws, are they going to replace an aging water or sewer line.
they have a tiered program. As we consider our annual programs, saws has to make a
decision if they have the capital to proceed with the replacements or if we will just proceed with replacing the pavement on top of older lines.
>> gonzalez: okay. I think a lot of my colleagues have shared this that we expect saws to replace their aging infrastructure, right?
and especially at a time when we do large projects, to prevent having them
ripped up again. In delaying this, I feel we're saying opposite of what we are all expecting when we talk about this coordinated effort with
projects. That we want this coordination but we're not going to give you the tools to do that such coordination.
and so I just want -- I mean, I know that I'm thinking about that because
as I was sitting here thinking about bond projects and thinking of this was a
city department, it would us basically be saying public works, you hold off on all
your capital projects but everyone else keep moving. None of that can happen.
it all has to happen at the same time for us to keep that goal of coordination.
and so I think for me I am approving this proposal and want this to move forward
today because I think water and wastewater serve as the baseline that lets every
home, school, business in this city function. And the longer we wait to invest in it the more expensive it becomes and the more we put at risk.
again, I think what makes this a clear decision for me is that this does not ask
our residents carry that weight alone. The agreement between the
city and saws lowers the increase our residential households would otherwise
have faced while still equipping saws to deliver the improvements our growing city demands. I believe this is a fair balance that puts our
residents first and that's why I will be approving this increase. Thank you. >> mayor jones: thank you. Councilwoman castillo.
>> castillo: thank you. Thank you, robert for the presentation. I'm going to emphasize what I stated during the last briefing that we know our
residents deserve access to clean water whenever they turn on the tap, and
reliable water infrastructure is public health.
the proposed projects are necessary to avoid sewer overflows, boil-water
notices, water supply issues, service interruptions, pipeline failures, and costly regulatory violations. As I've emphasized before,
delaying the projects will increase costs at the risk of public health issues as well. Saws rate structure is equitable and ensures every
family has access to safe and affordable water. Saws is also increasing
funding for its assistance program. I'm hearing many of the concerns and hearing the emphasis on accountability. But what I want to encourage
is for folks to sit with the 2025 water management plan that your team has laid out
and presented to council. I would like to understand what are the components that this body would like maybe increased? I appreciate the plan in
terms of water detection, addressing leaks. And many of the recommendations, many of which are already in practice, is to ensure we're
hiring more personnel to go out and detect water leaks before it turns into more
gallons out on the road. Again, highlighting that it takes personnel and it takes
resources to address those capital improvements. So just want to commend you
and your team for the 2025 water management plan and laying out the direction and
the needs of saws. But in addition to that, we can't expect you all to do
more with less. And clean water is a scarce resource and should be
protected and not commodified. That's what I value about
the leadership of your board is ensuring that we ensure that everyone that needs
water access continues to have the access to quality water.
but I don't have any current questions. The presentation made it
very clear. But I did want to pivot over to some of the public health
aspects. So erik, if I may, I did have a couple of questions for metro health in terms of understanding the public health importance of
preventing contamination events like boil-water notices and service interruptions. If someone can help walk us through how reliable systems
protect vulnerable populations such as children, seniors, and people with compromised immune systems. >> all right.
ththank you, councilwoman castillo. Just know that dr. Jacob
representing metro health and I'm joined by dr. Woo. In short, just know that our
task is making sure that safe drinking is critical to public health. As we talk about the public health function, our mandate is to ensure conditions
where all can be healthy. For our more vulnerable populations, having reliable
water service is very important for residents likely to be affected by water quality issues to avoid preventable illnesses. Much of the material removed
from municipal water supplies cause diarrheal illness.
those can progress to severe dehydration and hospitalization, possibly .
in the end, the integrity of the system is important. That's why we want to make
sure that in concert with the public works department, the saws, we provide any
technical assistance as your local health department. >> castillo: thank you,
dr. Jacob and dr. Woo. Can you all provide some examples from other communities where underinvestment in water systems have led to
significant health concerns? >> I would say the clearest example is what happened in
flint, michigan not too long ago. They are a decade into
recovery efforts. In flint, michigan that showed the impacts of
divestments. Just acknowledging at least the clearest public health example that we have been talking about in this century.
that happened not that long ago. I don't know if there's anything else you want to add. >> castillo: thank you,
dr. Jacob and dr. Woo. I thought it was important for us to emphasize that connection of water being public health. And it's a non-renewable
resource. Potable water is a non-renewable resource. I appreciate the work and you all sharing that context for my colleagues and I.
and that context is important because as councilwoman viagran has
laid out, the water runs south and it is areas that do not have water and/or
sewage connections. And I'm grateful again with the coordination with saws, we have been able to work through those issues, find a solution to pilot and
increase funding for laterals to the people. Identifying the issues --
saws board came up with an issue we can support but all that to say failing to
invest in this infrastructure -- again, we just talked about how our
city is economically segregated. There are specific parts of the city of san antonio that are still waiting for basic infrastructure.
by delaying and putting off supporting saws with their rate adjustment is delayed
improvements to long-neglected parts of our city. >> puente: yes, councilwoman. I appreciate your questions
about public health. And there's been a lot of comments about
accountability. We are held accountable every single time someone
turns on their water to cook, to bathe, to do anything with water. We are held accountable. We do over a thousand lab tests a month, making sure
the water is safe for those specific purposes, protecting public health. >> castillo: thank you. I appreciate that, robert. Lastly, just reiterating the
point. We're seeing it with bond projects that we're still waiting to see complete. With our imp, cip, namp projects, the costs continue
to rise and with these large-scale capital improvement projects, a
delay or kicking the can further down the road can mean a rate increase in a
month or a year and improving the services our constituents deserve.
>> mayor jones: in case it informs the comments of my remaining colleagues, those
that have asked for or considering a delay, do you have an operational risk
assessment that would help us understand the risks to our community as a result of
those delays? Potential delays, excuse me. >> puente: not a specific
operational risk, a formal one. But we recognize the fact that we have been running the system for this period of time.
that these delays will happen. For example, we have had a very wet spring. Rain causes more flow that goes into our plants, which
causes it to be potentially a violation because of so much going in.
our plants have to be able to accept a certain amount of million gallons per day.
and so that's an operational risk. If we are not able to expand our treatment plant. So yes, it's not a formal assessment of the risks
involved but we know what those risks are if we're not able to fund these projects
that we have online. >> mayor jones: okay. Thank you for clarifying
that. >> puente: oh, definitely. >> mayor jones: it sounds like there are some folks on
this dais that are contemplating a delay, absent an understanding of
the operational risks to our community. Which exacerbate potentially
some of the public health risks just identified by dr. Jacob, correct?
>> puente: you're absolutely correct. >> mayor jones: asking for a delay and not understanding the operational risk is where
we're at. >> puente: yes. It's very -- we're treading
on where we don't want to go. We want to be able to take care of our system. We have identified the projects that will keep us
in compliance. The projects that will continue to allow us to grow
the projects that we need to invest in. It costs more to continue to maintain them than to actually improve them and rehabilitate them.
>> mayor jones: I want to make the point because it really parallels what we just discussed with the budget, which was -- that was a numbers exercise but
we have yet to understand the true impacts of some of those cuts.
similarly here, folks are contemplating a delay without understanding the impacts of what a delay would mean, beyond the cost. Go ahead, chair.
>> mayor, can I add something? Plans for all of the systems at saws. And so from that standpoint,
we are very aware and feel obligated, now that we know the condition and the
assessment for our water/wastewater infrastructure.
and we know the worst first. And that was the basis for the direction to staff to
create this program. Because we are aware that much of the infrastructure
is ready for replacement. And so just the risk factor of knowing that information
and not being proactive and putting a program before the council to replace this
equipment is in and of itself not accountable or transparent.
so I just wanted to add the fact that for the past six years, the board present and
board prior has been evaluating all of these master plans for the various systems, treatment, production, distribution as well as the development of
the water development plan. I want to thank councilwoman castillo for recognizing that. Because it was a great deal of work that went into that.
it was delayed a bit because we wanted to incorporate the board target of the 50%
reduction of non-revenue water loss in that plan. It bears sharing with the council the effort that the board took to create this equitable plan focusing on
worst first. But there is operational risk knowing what's in those
master plans and not acting on them. >> mayor jones:
councilmember galvan. >> galvan: thank you, mayor. Thank you, robert, for the presentation today and for the saws teams for the
conversations we have had over the past several weeks and months. I appreciate all the follow-ups that you and the team have provided me over
this week and the past several weeks in questions I have raised here on the dais
and follow-up after, through communication with my residents. You know, rate increases are never something I take lightly.
I have been skeptical since the beginning. When we first came to council talking about the budget for saws overall. Kind of questioning some of
the rate structure and things like that. Went through those pieces with you all very diligently. Residents across the
district voiced their understanding of the critical need when the saws'
representatives would come out to the meetings. Understand the costs associated with it. Also wanted to understand how saws wanted to reduce
the impact to ratepayers. They asked how do large and industrial customers compare
to residential? How can more conservation efforts help all ratepayers.
thereby reducing costs to saws. How is saws taking into
account data center growth and how can folks on fixed incomes and working families
shoulder this rate request. Since then, again asked those questions and saws
answered. A few years ago saws changed their rate structure to
ensure those that use more water pay more. Simple.
those developing on the edge of our city pay more for that infrastructure too,
understanding that's going to require more infrastructure.
saws' conservation plan, which I'm grateful to see councilwoman castillo brought that big book out. I know that cover. It's a critical part of it.
these aren't things sprouting up out of nowhere. These are things you have been working on year after year. Part of the conservation
looks through 2075, focusing on reducing the system-wide water demand to 87 gallons
per capita per day. Last year they were at 111 gallons per capita per
day. They are doing more. Making sure they're doing
the policy work through our land use policies and development codes as well. I know that's a conversation next year. Similarly, looking at the
upuplift program, looking at ways to make it more affordable for the folks who
can least afford an increase. And have showed today the
targeted pilot program in many of our districts to figure out how we can make sure that the folks who are not seeing this program are enrolled as quickly as
possible other means. On data centers, I appreciate slide 6 being
shown. Today but of course all the conversation we had prior to this in our own conservation about the council consideration request that
my office put forward along with conversations we had in march talking about all the
work you'll do over the rest of the summer. All the key things that my
residents have been asking about are related to rate and fee structure,
contamination, deevaporative cooling and the use of recycled water system which has a lot of capital needs. Looking at ways to show us how we're going to be able
to get there one day, whether it's data centers or large water users in our
city. Continuing to work with staff to address some of logistt
art and other council members talked about when it comes to the pipe work.
and post construction quality assurances and many other pieces there
audio]. The timeline for it all, I feel comfortable moving
forward with this criminal investment. To ensure our most
vulnerable residents will not be impacted by this rate increase.
I trust that that work will continue as saws continues to brief this council over
the next several years. As you have those regular meetings. I do want to note -- I know there's skepticism from many of my colleagues.
so questions about how the operation will go and how this is all taking place.
I don't think that should go unnoticed. I don't think it has by saws leadership. Making sure we're addressing these things that are
critical to give us confidence to continue working very well with y'all. Of course we're always going to try to work well with the
utility. But I want to make clear those among us looking for some more critical actions to take place prior to this rate increase shouldn't be
pushed aside as not looking forward to some kind of answers here.
address these long-term issues they have seen in their communities.
there are some key concerns I have always heard, these are things that have come up and it's critical to get those things addressed.
I'm inclined, naturally, as a gut reaction to support a delay. I understand the risk and I'm trying to make sure that I'm cognizant about that
through this conversation today. I still think it's fair for us council colleagues to get the answers they're seeking but eager to hear the rest
of the council conversation today and sharing my perspective on it. Thank you, mayor. >> mayor jones: you said you understand the risks but
they haven't done an operational risk assessment, so which risks are you talking about? >> galvan: understanding the risk about potentially
seeing an increased rate, potential. >> mayor jones: the cost? >> galvan: the cost overall. Understanding the delay in
the projects and the capital investment they'll need to make, regardless. I get them and I'm not trying to say that they're diminished in value, I think
it's just we're having this conversation now and we've been having it for a while. I think council colleagues who are seeking more information deserve to get
that information. Eager to hear what they're thinking as well on this conversation. >> mayor jones: thank you. I wanted to clarify because
there has been no risk assessment done to understand the operational risk of any delay. There's none. We understand the costs will
increase, as has already been laid out. This is the cheapest that it
would be, the rate increase. This is the best way to minimize the risks that we
know. Delaying this only increases the odds that we will actually hit the ceiling of the cost, if not bust it. And we don't know the
impacts on our infrastructure that has already been identified as needing upgrade or repair. So for folks to say I understand the risks, you
don't because they haven't been laid out because they haven't done the analysis. They've done the analysis for what they've presented. They have not done an
operational analysis that would support nor justify a delay.
the up uplift program, I am thankful for the inclusion of an increase in that.
because raised by a single mom I'm always going to look at what does this mean for
those folks -- the most vulnerable in our community. When we go from 125% of the
federal poverty line to 150%, I don't know if folks necessarily understand who we're talking about. So for a family of three in our community, that means
that we were helping somebody who was making $17.78 an hour.
we are now, as a result of going to 150% of the federal poverty line, we're going to
be helping somebody, a mom and two kids, who was making $21.34 an hour.
that's who we're helping. The most vulnerable. We should not delay this.
can we also maybe -- robert or somebody else on your team that can speak to the
distribution of our current uplift customers as well as where we would most likely
see an increase based on raising the upper limits of who we would be helping.
>> puente: yes, mayor. We have a heat map that shows where these families
live. But as we know our city, as you know our city -- and
every council member knows their city. They're concentrated in the core of the city. District 5, district 3, district 2.
they're concentrated there. 4 and 6. And that's not to say there's not families in district 7, 8, 9, and 10. They're throughout the city
but that's where they're concentrated in the inner city. >> mayor jones: thank you. Councilmember mungia. >> mungia: thank you,
mayor. Robert, I just want to say thank you to the
conversations that we've had. Thank you to coming to the town hall that I invited you to do. I know there were some tough
questions and some of our residents can be a little prickly sometimes about it.
I appreciate you standing up there and answering the tough questions. Not everybody is prepared to do that and I do appreciate that very much.
>> puente: thank you. >> mungia: I think we've had some very productive conversations, you and I. I think you understand the needs and concerns I
expressed to you and some of the problems I feel have been longstanding issues
that require some solutions for. And so I appreciate -- I'm
glad we're having a large conversation today about south side and other east side and west side parts of town that have seen underdevelopment.
but I do want to recognize, especially with the bexarmet situsituation my colleagues have
pointed out, when it comes to the septic systems and wells, it's not necessarily saws building out the pipework to take people off of that.
and I think that is a problem. I understand that is a cost issue and that's going to be something that we talk about later.
but I do want folks to understand that we are making people who live there
or people who are building out communities and commercial development, they have to pay for that. And I think -- I have never been a developer so I don't
know the world. I can't say that I do. But I can imagine that 20,
30 years ago when there were other parts of our city that were booming, the framework
existing piping wasn't the gap system we had with bexarmet.
these were large tracts of land that didn't require laterals all the way down
the street. That's a cost being put on to the private sector and by
small individuals. I have shared examples with the council about individuals. Small businesses and residents that are having to --t
the bill for that. I think that is a travesty, when we talk about development on the south side and what we're trying to do over there.
and I think there are some other issues that we talked about that require some more
due diligence to take a look at. And I do think, I have faith
that you and the board can work on that and provide solutions.
I do think with a little bit more time I will feel more comfortable with that.
but I do thank you for all that you've done. I would like to ask jalen to
come up for a little bit too. Thank you also for the
conversation we had. We had a long chat last week and I understand you took a
lot of time and effort to understand the issues I had. You have given me some
responses to that. You do have a very good reputation in the city and
people do trust your leadership, and I do too as the board chair.
I think you have done some amazing work under your tenure.
I think there's a lot more to do and you recognize that too. You're not one to say, hey, we're done. You're constantly changing
it on the go. What I see and explained to you are some systemic issues
that keep happening. What I don't want to do -- and I know that it's very easy for me to pick up the phone and maybe call folks and say, hey, this is an
issue I have. Can you address it? And it could get addressed.
but what about all the issues and folks that don't have access to me or know
that they can call me? Or know you all as individuals, right? And so these are a lot of examples -- there's a lot of examples out there of folks
who just don't have that access. So I'm looking at systemic
solutions. Well beyond anybody who's here. I mean, in 20 years none of us will be in this room, hopefully.
that's kind of what I'm looking for. >> I want to be here but I
may not. >> mungia: I do think with extra additional time we
talked about we can get there . I think my concerns can be addressed in a really good way that I'm looking for. I do appreciate that.
I appreciate my former boss who is here, dr. Rocha garcia, she has been helpful
and took my calls and concerns. She sat here and she understands these issues and what's going on through the development of things.
I didn't know if you wanted to add something. >> I appreciate your comments. Thank you for the comments regarding my tenure as well.
I say often I'm not a native but I really am committed to this community. Thank you. I too share your concerns. I look forward to an
opportunity to write some of the poor management decisions by bexarmet
historically, and quite frankly some of the strategic decision that the
water board made not to invest in the south side of san antonio. I'm aware of that history. But I will tell you to delay for a couple of months is
not going to bring that solution forward. I am committed -- and I'm
sure my colleagues share my concern about the overall -- our current philosophy of
development paying for itself. And we are excited about what's happening on the south side of san antonio. When I was here, I led the
effort to get texas a&m in our community. I thought it would be great for san antonio to be the only city in the state of texas with both flagship
institutions in our community. Lots of work to get done. That will be a heavy lift. I don't want to stand behind that but I am ready to roll
up our sleeves, work with our stakeholders. If it requires us to go back
and engage a rate consultant to help us determine how we would look at that, I'm
willing to do that. In addition, though, we're going to need your help
because it will require us to work with the city-appointed capital
improvements committee to look at how we structure impact fees. >> mungia: absolutely. >> that's why I was saying it's not a couple of months
or a couple of weeks deal. It's going to take some time to work on that and if it
means we're going to work on that right now and begin that process, I'm all in. >> mungia: absolutely. I think some hard, concrete planning efforts that
reassure us of those timelines would be helpful. I have seen this happen
every time. There's important infrastructure that needs to be funded. I get that. I understand this program.
but at some point we have to get some better assurance on these solutions to happen.
>> one of the aspects of the efficiency plan is a communication plan and how we need to implement that ongoing. And our decision-making
process and internally to make sure those projects are delivered. That work is being done with our oversight committee and we look forward to bringing
that back to the council so they can understand that plan. But we need a final approved plan to do that. >> mungia: with that
discussion, I move to continue this item to an a session to october for the
council to consider a saws rate adjustment for 2027 and 2028 and a meeting discussed
and provided. >> gavito: second. >> mayor jones: there's a
motion and a second to continue the item to october.
as was just mentioned by the chair, however, the things that you've asked for,
councilman, are probably not going to be addressed. Secondly, we don't have an operational risk assessment that helps us understand the risks of delaying.
and further delaying this only increases the costs of these potential projects.
so those are the challenges that we would knowingly face as a result of continuing
this item. For those that are just returning, there's a motion
and a second to continue the item until october. Please sign in if you would
like to speak. Councilwoman viagran. >> viagran: so, I
understand that there was a list. I have not seen the list.
I am -- I'm speaking as chair of economic workforce --
>> mayor jones: you might want to elaborate on the list. >> viagran: let me start this way. Robert, was a list sent to
you regarding what they would like to see and you or jalenen can answer.
>> puente: councilwoman kaur sent me a list. >> viagran: I have not seen that list . I did not get it. It's not in my e-mail.
so I have a problem with delaying for a list that was made by council members but
we do not have the list of who the council members were.
and I'm concerned about of course protocol and the appearance of a walking
quorum, possibly on this issue if we don't have that. I will not be supporting
this list because -- I will not be supporting a delay because it's shrouded in too
many questions for myself, who was part of it. Did we have a walking quorum? Should we even have a list? Things like that.
again, I do believe that we could pass this today and that we could get the
answers that we want and the accountability that we need. Because I know -- I see art
here and mike and john peterek was here. When we talk about our
team -- and even rod and razi. My belief is that they will
be the shot callers, as anything we move forward in these projects and keep a
very good eye on this to make sure that any memo of understanding, anything is
kept on track. So I will not be supporting a delay. I do not see that a delay -- from what I'm hearing, a delay does not -- will not
change at least three votes on this dais because of the three noes that I'm certain
of that have expressed that. They're not going to get the changes that they want.
I would like to move forward and not do the delay. Thank you.
>> segovia: if I may, mayor, can I make a couple of points? >> mayor jones: sure. >> segovia: if we're talking about --
>> mayor jones: have you seen the list, andy? >> segovia: I was provided
a -- yes. >> mayor jones: you were provided a list. Thank you. >> segovia: the first comment, mayor, is that
we're going to have issues in terms of walking quorum. That should be discussed in
executive session, since it is a compliance issue. Second, the list that was shared with me, I understood it as a list of issues that some of the council members
had concerns about. I made it clear that whatever vote that is taken
today can't be contingent on the ceo, mr. Punte or the board taking certain
actions. Certainly as the ratemaking body you can ask all the questions you want, raise whatever issues you want but whatever vote is taken can't
be tied to a particular action by either mr. Puente or the board.
>> mayor jones: thank you. That's very helpful. Some of the items on that
list, I'm very concerned, veer into what is not the purview of this body.
and more so are related to operations and personnel, which are square in the
bucket of the board. We want to make sure we are compliant but not inviting
any undue attention to ourselves needlessly. Is there any other
discussion on the motion to continue? Councilman mckee-rodriguez.
>> mckee-rodriguez: thank you, mayor. I entered this meeting undecided and I'm going to talk you all through my thought process and I'm
going to try to be as gentle as I can. I think in this context a
delay could grant more confidence in whatever vote I cast. It could get me closer to a yes. It could be what's needed to
get me there. This is probably been one of the most challenging rate
increase discussions that we've had. In the last presentation I responded to, I described a few of the things I appreciated about saws'
approach, especially the rate structure that ensures that the largest users pay more. That's something that our community really values with
saws. Whereas they critique the inverse of cps's approach in
which they incentivize those who use more with lower rates. And I appreciate that saws does not prioritize corporations over working
families. I appreciate this request seeks to minimize the impacts of our most vulnerable and capture as many of those households as
possible by increasing the threshold for participation in uplift and the like. I also have discussed a few challenges. Today I'm contemplating all
of that. Number one is there is of course a critical need to make these infrastructure investments. When I think about some of
the mayor's words when she first got elected and described her priorities, it
was those areas we cannot afford to fail. We don't disagree on that at
all. And so the idea that these are projects that we cannot afford to not fund really weighs on me as I know that it does all of my
colleagues. We just had this discussion around a property tax rate
increase and we're balancing that discussion on top of this one, on top of any
other -- anything else impacting the quality of life for the applicant of our residents. I understand a delay may make these projects more
expensive and may necessitate a higher increase in the future . What exactly that number is is to be determined. To that point, I do have a
few challenges with how we got here. We're talking about infrastructure that at a recent meeting you have said it could fail in the
immediate future. That makes me really concern about the long-term planning efforts of saws and just a few years ago -- this has been brought up too -- a
rate decrease was proposed. I asked does this make sense? There's nowhere you could utilize these funds or mitigate a future rate
increase? And are you going to come back for an increase later?
the response was it's always possible we can come back for a rate increase. It was not stated we were going to need money for capital investments that
were do or die in a few years. That leads me to believe that you as an organization did not know you needed to make these major capital
investments or that your long-term planning did not meet my expectations.
so either one of those is unacceptable. I'll allow you to respond after I'm done. But there's also been a number of major projects
that our community relied on and were excited for that were delayed because saws
didn't know where their infrastructure was or because saws otherwise coordinated poorly with the city and the contractor. I understand any time
there's multiple parties involved the onus does not fall squarely on one entity.
but businesses were closed and they represents dozens and hundreds of jobs lost.
people who were impacted by a lack of accountability in public institutions.
that led to an erosion in trust in saws and in major city projects that should be
a net positive for our community, that we asked them to support with eagerness and excitement. And every single time that saws was asked about a major
issue, it's always someone else's fault. And so the city led efforts
to create an mou to address those issues with saws related to our projects --
or that led to those efforts. Every conflict to that point
is a finger-pointing blame game. I think back to one of my first major interactions with you, robert, via e-mail where I shared my concerns
about water shutoffs in apartment complexes where residents paid their
utilities and the apartment manager neglected to pay their bill. And the response was to punish the residents and shut off their water or to
threaten that. And they could not cook, bathe, brush their teeth.
when I e-mailed this concern to you asking for a change, I would describe your
response at the time as snippy and it made me incredibly angry at the time. Largely, to me, your response neglected the
impacts of the shutoffs or even the threat of a shutoff had on residents.
it was not the only approach saws could have made but it was the most convenient,
though one of the most inhumane. So we as a council had to
take action to address that approach. And then you look at grayson
heights and the water leaks and leaks across the city and it's always someone else's fault. Never saws'. And so there's never
anything that saws can do. If I were to compare that with any department head in
our city, if I reached out to them with a concern that has two degrees of
separation from their pursue, they would never say it's not their responsibility, that it's somebody else. They would work on a
solution, identify partners, and address the issue. That's not the case with saws and that is incredibly frustrating. And we've since had
conversations -- and I do believe the tone has changed and you internalized my
feedback. A part of me feels it has been in earning my vote.
now all of our questions can be answered and there's a plan to address our issues
and it's at this point when a rate increase is needed, it's not at any other point
over the past several years when concerns have been raised. We have discussed trust and the desire for each of us individuals to trust you and
to trust one another. I want to get there and I know that we'll both work to
get there and we'll be fine. On this topic, multiple things can be true.
it can be true that you've navigated saws through challenging times and led
the utility well. I don't want to neglect that. You could be the best leader that saws will ever have in its history.
I don't want to neglect that. That's possible. It can also be true that something is wrong here and that there are balls being
dropped along the way and something needs fixing. And I don't know what that
is. It may also be true that the rate increase is needed to
do the work our community needs and expects of you, expects of all of you and
all of us. It is also true that there has been a gap that has gotten us to the point where without a rate increase our infrastructure can fail.
gotten us to the point where the location of saws' infrastructure is casually
guessed and leads to businesses shutting down, people losing jobs and the trust in our ability to deliver infrastructure improvement eroded.
gotten us to the point where a large contingent of our council is contemplating not
supporting this increase that you need, much to the detriment of our city.
and so there's still a question of whether or not we believe these projects
will be done well. We've talked about projects that our community needs and
are excited for that have not been done well, have not been done timely. What is to say that the projects you need and the projects that are a priority
that are of utmost importance and significance, how do we know that those are going to be done well? Because we don't have that trust right now.
and when we as a body rubber stamp a request without addressing those
deeply-troubling issues, we disappoint our community and the people who place their trust in us. And someone needs to atone for that.
and so I had to ask myself if there is a point where I could confidently support a
rate increase. The answer is yes. Many of my colleagues have
tremendously -- points made today are clear. This is a public health issue. That is an area I don't neglect.
this is something our residents are counting on us for and counting on us to do
and to make this difficult decision. And I desperately want to avoid this conflict and I hate that we're at this point today.
I also don't know that I need any new information. What I do think what I need
is purpose and intention from saws. I'm not sure that that's yet been conveyed. I do think we're on our way there.
I think there's leadership who's made some clear points and expressed a desire to
get to that point. So my vote is still approaching the end of my
ten minutes, still undetermined but a yes vote for me would only be out of fear. It would not be a confident yes vote.
and that concerns me because I don't cast votes that way. Thank you.
>> puente: first, I appreciate the fact that you have an open mind.
that you're giving me and saws the opportunity to convince you to say yes to
this very-needed rate increase. I appreciate that.
secondly, I am troubled on how much to respond because I don't want to come across as defensive. I don't want to come across as not being able to take
any blame or anything like that. But let me just tell you
what our position is. One of the things you talked about is long-term planning.
whether some of these projects that we're saying are needed now because of a
potential violation in the near future. One perfect example,
councilman, is winter storm uri. The project that we have on the books that we want to start this fall was originally scheduled to
start in 2022 --. Hurricane uri happened, the state government passed
senate bill 3 and told utilities you have to do some things -- they didn't
tell the private secker, sector, just told the public sector, that if the power goes out
you have to still provide at least 20 pounds of pressure to the residents.
that senate bill 3 cost us over $300 million. That $300 million would have
paid for some of the projects in 2026, later this year, and in early 2027.
so we believe that we do have long range planning. Please don't take that as me
being defensive. I will admit that -- I'll say this out lloyd too everybody. That's something that joe lynn and my board told me
about is don't be so defensive so I'm working on it. I'm glad you recognize that my attitude has changed to some extent.
councilmember gonzález mentioned the streets and we talked about it last night. One of the things they told me, and I hope I get this right, erik, is he's been
trying to tell you, the council, that these issues that come up are only one,
maybe two percent of the time that saws works with the city on these
governmental projects. Unfortunately that one or two percent are very
visible, it causes a lot of complaint, it causes a lot of angst by the businesses
that are affected, the residents that are affected, and they call you, they call you. And we need to address that. And one way we addressed it
is this mou that's been talked about, memorandum of understanding, where we are
signatories to the construction contracts that the city enters. When y'all are doing drainage or street repair and we're doing -- changing
out of our sewer or water infrastructure. So I believe, councilman, that these issues are going to be taken care of. The other one about the
apartment complexes, this was a concern of council district 7 also.
only 45 minutes was an apartment complex out of water. However, the threat -- and it made a lot of news. It caused every other
apartment complex to fall in line and to start paying their bills to where we don't have that type of problem anymore. Now, the email that you
talked about, if I was snip snippy, I hope I wasn't, but I remember telling you -- I
don't know if it was in the email or over the phone, because one of your big
concerns was just the threat of turning off their water causes a lot of angst on
that renter that paid their rent, did everything they were supposed to do, and
their water could be cut off because we were notifying the residents that their
water could be cut off. That in and of itself is an event they shouldn't have
gone through. I admit that. And because of our conversations we don't do that anymore, we haven't done that anymore.
I believe I was responsive to you even to the extent, for example, that there was
a complex outside of district 2 but in the county, that we kept your
staff apprised of as to how they were paying or not paying.
for having an open mind. I ask that you give us the opportunity to earn your
trust again. I said the same thing last time we were in front of you, I was in front of you, but we can -- we can get it done.
I'm confident we can get it done. >> mayor jones: thank you.
as district 2 is one of the areas that is most underserved, I personally
would like to understand the progress made on the councilman's request over
the last meetings. Gavino, are you ready? The update on the request
that he's made? On the projects?
>> well, part of it is identifying certain neighborhoods.
I'm from that neighborhood. I know that neighborhood. I can tell you exactly where these things are needed. And we will enroll people in the program without them
having to qualify initially and give them six months to -- after we help them
with the paperwork to make sure they stay on those roles. So we understand that district 2, a lot of the districts have needs but
those are some of the things we have planned for these pilot programs to see how well they get more people on our affordability program. >> mayor jones: got it.
would you like to add anything in terms of the previous questions that have been asked by the councilmember? >> regarding the uplift
program, that's exactly what robert is talking about. I know that byron gibson
worked very closely with your office. What we try to do as the information comes available we worked directly with the councilman and his staff.
so depending on what the various issues are we work closely to provide as soon as we can. I don't know if there was an outstanding issues that we
didn't resolve for you yet, but it was my understanding that we've provided you with the information that you had been requesting. >> mckee-rodriguez: so the
mayor and I were having a conversation about this and I was prepared to ask you a question and that be the determining factor of whether or not I would vote
yes because it would tell me whether or not you were listening. And the question was at a previous meeting I had asked what's going to be the
impact per district average, the same question I asked about the property tax
increase, and how many users in each district will be participating in the uplift
program or will not be impacted by this rate increase? >> councilman, I think the response to that is in the roughly 400 page document
that we sent back to council based on one of the previous meetings that we had where
all of you asked a whole lot of different questions. So we put it altogether. I think it's in that do you mean. >> mckee-rodriguez: I'll
use crtl f to find it. >> mayor jones: thank you. Councilmember spears?
you're next. >> spears: thanks, mayor. I appreciate all the hard
work you've put into it. This is very simple for me. I asked for some things in
january, I still have a lot of questions. I've been out to all my constituents over and over and over, they're not ready, I'm not ready, so I'm going
to vote with my constituents and if we delay, then that may give us time to better
help my constituents understand the urgency and need. I do believe that we need to make some improvements, but I just have to represent my
constituents here. Thank you. >> mayor jones:
councilmember kaur. >> kaur: thank you, mayor, for the opportunity to
speak. The brain to train tour was super helpful when I got to go. Thank you guys for approximate helping me set
that up. And the video pitch has the way that saws was created and the entire message to our residents is, residents, you own saws.
you are the owners, you are the ratepayers, you get to tell us exactly what and how
to do. And our residents elect us to be in this position as
the owners of saws to do the due diligence that's necessary to make sure every
rate increase that goes through has all of the operational concerns that we
are facing that are addressed. We 100% -- I 100% agree that
you all need these funds for these infrastructure improvements. District 1 is not known for infrastructure challenges for absolutely no reason.
and at the same time it is our responsibility and what we were elected to do to do
our due diligence to make sure that we have dotted our I's and crossed our t's when
we were putting more taxpayers to increase their rates for what they're
paying for saws. So that being said, I also -- there was this
notion that if we asked for a delay for this that we don't appreciate what the
board has done. I hope the board does not take that from -- at least
from my perspective. I am so grateful for the hours that you all put in
and serving in that capacity. It is not your full-time job even though today and all of the other days that you spend doing diligence has
been. This is for most of us our full-time job, so we do have the benefit of being able to spend more time actually going through and figuring
out what our constituents are saying. And just as mr. Puente said,
our constituents call us. So last week I mentioned I had three big concerns.
one was on construction, uplift, and impact fees. So I went through and went
through all of the cases that our constituents have called us about, 103 cases
over the last couple of years around saws issues. Here are some of the ones that I got on construction. Lavaca street, saws dug up the street and left it open
for week. Melba drive, saws came to address a water leak and
left a huge pile of dirt. Marshall street, dug into the street to repair the
water line and patched the hole and never laid out asphalt. Crown hill park, asked for a street sweeping because of the mess that saws left one
of the things that I asked is we all have room to grow and public works and the
capital delivery department will tell you that we pushed them just as hard.
what I'm asking for is what is the percentage of projects over the last three years that have had to go back and been redone because of constituent complaint and
what is the metric that you want to decrease that by in the next four years.
water leaks, parkland, meters have been leaking for a week.
joy street, recurring leak for over three months and hasn't been addressed.
blanco, called saws within a week, not resolved. North hampton, water leak,
yet to take action. Dawn ridge, reported a leak four times. What is the actual number of days that it should take for a leak to be addressed?
what is the target for what we want to reduce that -- the amount of days by?
from communications perfect when it comes to construction, east park, saws cut out water without notice on thanksgiving day. Gray oak drive, water was
turned off multiple times over the past few months and they get five to 10 minutes
of notice for an outage. They are requesting four hours.
[indiscernible], an active project in front of a business and wasn't notified. What are the communication standards for every project
that we want to hold ourselves to and how can we mirror those same
communication standards across all the facilities. We say this multiple times, when you walk out on to that street you're not trying to look at the sign.
there's no tag on' construction equipment that says this is a saws project,
this is a public works project, this is a cps project. All they see is construction. So we have to get aligned
and we have to be better on our construction projects. These represent real operational challenges that need to be addressed and this doesn't take into
consideration big bond projects. Mr. Puente, you mentioned we've had some major issues with some big bond projects, some of which we still
haven't reconciled, but at the same time one of the requests that we had made is
what subsurface utility engineering is being done on even not bond projects?
I understand that mou applies just to the bond. What else are you requiring your contractors to do on water main line projects so that we can better
understand what level of diligence is done in the design phase on y'all's end as well. So a briefing for that has been requested.
aside from this, I mentioned that one of my biggest concerns is the uplift
program because as was shared, the uplift program helps our most vulnerable
that will actually be hit by this. At the end of the day, most of us will be able to bear this and deserve -- councilmember castillo
mentioned that we have to bear with this, but we have to make sure the most vulnerable are not affected. What hurt me most was the last time you guys presented
a saws rate increase is we went from 100 to 125% eligible on ami for the
poverty level for uplift. So I expected those numbers to increase significantly. And yet they haven't. They actually decreased. And that broke my heart
because that means we are leaving folks that need the help out there without getting them the support that they need. So in the letter you
presented the pilot program, which I'm excited about, and yet a little nervous.
I feel like six months, they're not able to provide documentation and then we cut them off.
and now we've had to -- they're having to increase their rates again and they've only budgeted for so much. So I'm curious to see how we
can explore that pilot program, but would like to riff what that looks like so
that we don't unintendingly affect people in a negative way. I'd also like to see what the target enrollment is at the end of this whatever
term that you come to for us for the next two years, so by end of fiscal year '28 we
are going to get, right now it's 10% of enrollment for unlift of eligible
customers. By end of fiscal year '28 we're going to be at 20%
enroll. Set a target and let us hold you accountable to that target based on what you know your outreach team can do.
and the last thing we talked about is developer impact fees because one of the biggest issues that we just discussed in the trial budget earlier was
affordable housing. We have to figure out together, and I know jillian
just mentioned in partnership with our capital advisory committee we need to figure out how do we better address impact fees. Because yes, it was
mentioned that some of the outer areas get paid a little bit more for those.
when you look at it and break it down, I asked you guys to give me a breakdown
of what the difference would be for a 20-unit complex versus a 70-unit complex
versus one home. And because of the way water lines work and the way the impact fees are set up, it doesn't proportionally change.
so a project that's 20 units' whole budget is so much smaller than one that's
larger we have to figure out a way to say we're going to decrease your I will packet fees because we know we want you to make your unit, your 20-unit complex affordable.
so all of that to say -- I know you guys said you would look at that and make a plan
for it. And it has been commented that we're not going to get any of that in the next three months. Those are all long-term
things. But I think what you guys can do is set real targets for us and give us real-time lines. So by the end of this year
we'll have a timeline for when you could see a new impact fee in place.
by the end of next -- by the end of three months you should at least get a target for some of the metrics that we sent. So I guess what I'm looking
for is targets, metrics, and timeline to be able to come back and say, you all have a
plan to address some of these issues that have come up time and time again.
so I want to thank all of you guys. I know it's been a gruesome several months. I hope you hear that my concern in wanting a delay
is coming from a place that I am so glad we have a municipally owned water utility and I want us to be the number one in the nation, and that means
sometimes we have to take a little bit of time to get things right, put things in place, so we all feel the confidence, and so that most importantly, our residents,
your owners, feel the confidence that we are doing the absolute right thing. So I hope you understand that that is where I'm coming from.
and lastly, I'd just like to say we are all colleagues up here. We all got elected to do this work. We may not all always agree,
but I would ask us to respect each other to the best of our abilities and
know that we are all trying to do the right thing and not interrogate any of us as
we are here on the dais. Thanks, mayor. >> mayor jones: councilman
whyte. >> whyte: thanks, mayor. To me today is -- there's
one central question and it's whether we are going to keep doing business as usual
or not. Last year I asked for an independent third-party
efficiency audit of saws. I was told it was going to happen.
in 2023 cps did it, the daymark company is the one that took it on.
many of us have reviewed it. And since that time while cps certainly not perfect, I
think we would all agree that the strides that have been taken by that utility
have moved it in a positive, forward-looking direction. I believe saws, while I
understand there's been internal audits done and internal metrics used, it is
my position that an independent third-party needs to review what's going
on so that just like cps that ceo rudy garza would implement all of the
recommendations and he really has gone about implementing the recommendations of the daymark group. Saws needs to do the same.
the issues with saws are widely known. Billions of gallons of water
being lost every year. It's water that then saws can't sell and it's water,
frankly, that also is damaging our streets and costing our city money.
we've had issues with saws in the development community. We've had the disconnection issues, battles with council, lack of
accountability on joint projects. You know that mou that was
referenced earlier really was a result of what we felt was a lack of accountability
on saws on the joint city-saws project taking place around the city.
and it took, what, nine months I think to get a simple mou in place.
you remember, robert, when we had that back and forth where when you took the
podium, you essentially said that day that on all joint cps -- when all joint saws
and city projects, when delays were caused, you pointed the finger what my
point is that day is it doesn't matter if it's the city or the saws. The citizens in san antonio just see one city government and don't care what is
happening but they can't get out of their driveways because the work is dragging on outside of their homes. I appreciate you and I sitting down after that and
talking through it because I think on that day what we realized is we both want --
we both want the same thing. I want to say publicly you have always been available
and accessible to me and any issue that I've called you with you've tried to fix.
and I greatly appreciate that and I greatly appreciate that after that
muc meeting there was a lot of collaboration between the city and saws to get that
mou in place. But today we stand, I believe, at a crossroads.
it's business as usual or actually get the change from this utility that we need.
and I do have some good news. I believe that the board
that is in place at saws at this point is committed to making change happen within
that utility. I've gotten to know the chair over the past six,
seven months. I knew she was widely respected before, but getting to work with her and talk with her about these issues has shown me that she
is a first rate professional and saws is lucky to have her as the chair.
the councilwoman dr. Rocha who I was lucky enough to get to serve with, you being
there along with greg mann, ed and some of the others I don't know, but I only know
by reputation, I believe the saws board is in a really good position to demand
change and to move the utility in a positive direction.
I also believe that our business community is finally getting, I guess, up
to speed on the issues that city council has known exists with saws or has
existed for quite some time. These letters of support that all of us have been
receiving over the past few weeks are very, very different than the letter of
support council is used to receiving in the past when one of our utilities has
requested a rate hike. If you look at each one of them, I think they all talk
about accountability, they all talk about transparency. Rather than just the three
or four sentences saying we need to invest in the utility for san antonio's
future, please approve the rate hike. Rather than that we have multiple page letters that address business community concerns with saws
operations. And I think that's extremely, extremely telling. And so with a good board in place and with the business
community now actively apprised of what's going on at saws and with a council that I know is determined to have a well-run positive utility that benefits the
citizens of san antonio, I think we're going to get there.
but as for this particular rate request, I don't believe the evidence is
there that today should make any councilmember feel confident that the numbers
have been crunched as they should have, that the money saws has spent in the past
has been wisely spent or that the revenue generated by a potential rate increase
will be wisely spent in the future. If this rate hike were to
pass, you're talking about somewhere in the neighborhood of 200
additional dollars a year per family that they would be spending on their water
bill. That's a lot of money to the average san antonio family. And you know, in the last couple of weeks I've had friends in the greater
san antonio community say, marc, I don't understand, what's the big deal, it's a
few dollars. What's really going wrong? I mean, there are only 11
people on this planet that are cast with the responsibility to monitor
this utility and make sure that it's doing right by its citizens.
we are the ones going to the neighborhood meetings, that are hearing the stories of
people literally not being able to get out of their driveway into their street
because it's been torn up again or that water is flowing down their street
and they're worried about their kids playing in it. We hear these stories every
week. And that's why we are in the best position to make this
decision today. While I'm not going to support it, my hope is that
in october or if you choose to delay and come back in january like somebody
mentioned may happen, whenever it is that you come back, I'm ready to have the
conversation again with a clearer plan. With defined metrics and
goals on some of the issues that my colleagues have raised.
we all want the same thing. And I know we're all willing to work together to get it.
but today I do not believe this council has enough evidence or should feel
confident enough to support this particular rate request.
thanks, mayor. >> mayor jones: thank you. >> mayor, can I --
>> mayor jones: go ahead, please. >> just to clarify again, to the extent that council members are asking for plans and metrics, that would be
something again that the saws board would need to consider working with saws leadership in terms of developing those, if they choose to do so.
so again, it's not something that the council would approve or -- it's something
that saws as an independent organization would have to come up with.
>> mayor jones: thank you, andy, for that. Jeff, do you have a second?
jeff is our public utilities analyst. Jeff, remind us how long you've been doing this? >> 25 years. >> mayor jones: 25 years.
okay. And you crunched the numbers and validated, checked the homework of saws, is that right? >> good team as well, yes.
>> mayor jones: okay. Are you confident with your number-crunching ability and your 25 years of experience as a public utilities analyst that what has been
brought forth, one, makes sense and is adequate to the work that is being
requested? >> I think it's reasonable and accurate, absolutely. >> mayor jones: great. Thank you for your expert advice.
councilwoman meza gonzález. >> gonzález: thank you. Just some clarifying
questions. I don't know if this is for andy.
the delay that's being asked for -- if this is for my colleagues to answer.
there is a list that is being talked about. I am not supportive of the
delay because folks keep referring back to a list and specific items that they've
dealt with in their district. So if there is a list, can there be a list, should those items be looked at by everybody on council?
and that's -- I guess what I'm kind of in the sake of transparency, and the
colleagues who have brought up issues is a list something that was shared
with everybody, when, how? >> what I understand, councilwoman, is there was a
list developed by some council members that was just a list of issues that they felt had -- wanted to talk to and have addressed through an interaction with
[indiscernible] and the key was it wasn't a list of anything that had to be
required or was contingent on them voting one way or the other. It was a list of issues that they wanted to address as the whole council was
considering this rate adjustment. >> gonzález: and what did the list entail? Like specific -- >> that one I would ask, I
mean, your colleagues in terms of the -- the issue you bring up in terms of information they're sharing in that, that's really a question more for your
colleagues. >> gonzález: can I ask any of my colleagues that have
brought up a list, you will send it to me right now? >> mayor jones: in the interest of transparency, if I asked -- if we're talking about delaying this and it's
based on a list that not everybody has seen, I'd ask you to go through your list
right now, please. I'd like to understand also who are part of the group.
>> kaur: I will let my council colleagues self-identify. I asked for anybody that was working on some of the issues I had faced so I
asked if anybody was speaking to me, I asked them and I can incorporate it. But I'll go through and read it all. Saws project construction,
communication and timely completion. Problems, saws has repeatedly failed to coordinate with public works and capital delivery on
concurrent projects, begun new construction without adequate notification to residents and delivered projects overbudget. This provides not providing
updates or informing council offices about delays. Request, a three year project review with a concrete plan including measurable targets for
improving on time and on budget delivery a and a defined protocol for working
with city departments and notifying affected residents for all projects.
problem, outdated infrastructure records are causing affordable delays --
avoidable delays when spreadsheet are already open. This is an operational failure that compounds construction fatigue and
erodes public trust in city government. Request, subservice utility
engineering with specific steps to ensure infrastructure is accurately
documented before construction begins. Post construction street
quality, [indiscernible] consistently deteriorates faster than roadways leaving
streets in worse condition than before. Partial repairs create
hazardous seams. However, not every repair requires curb to curb
[indiscernible]. Ensures completed work meets street standards.
>> mayor jones: colleagues, please. >> would it be easier if we
got a printout. >> kaur: I'm happy I can keep going. That was the first bucket. >> gonzález: I guess what I'm curious is if there is a
delay, what are the actions -- what are the action items that we're --
>> kaur: each one has a request. >> if I can interject --
>> gonzález: are we basing the vote on fulfilling that request? >> no, the short answer, councilwoman, is no, the vote cannot be contingent on
any action that is being -- that will or will not be taken by saws.
again, this was viewed to me as simply a list of issues they wanted to have discussed. So the answer to your question is no, there's no
tying of this list to any vote, there cannot be any tying.
>> and have saws address. >> to the earlier question, councilwoman kaur asks
people to self-identify. I was pushing -- obviously I've been pushing for water leaks for years now. We talked about the 430 woodlawn lakes loss of
water. We talked about in 2023 we essentially lost what we get from vista ridge in water leaks on our streets. We've also talked about how
these water leaks not only are scarce resource running down our streets, but it's
also messing up our streets that I mentioned earlier the city pays really good money
for. I also added about the construction, how saws
leaves our streets in disrepair, it impacts residents. And finally one of the last items on the list was audit. >> mayor jones: anyone
else want to self-identify. >> I'll also add I've talked to the councilwoman about the issues that I've presented. We have had conversations
about that. I probably told everybody up here my concerns that are
incorporated into that list also. Thank you. >> whyte: I'll say as well, nobody is voting because of anything that's
[indiscernible]. My understanding is these are issues that councilwoman and a couple of people had and wanted to relay to saws to get addressed at some
point in the future. But we're not voting because of a list or no list or
whatever. We're voting on the issue of whether or not it's appropriate to give a rate hike at this point in time. >> gonzález: I'm asking
what the action item is. They have been brought up to get to a delay, so I'm just asking what is the plan between now if there is a delay to whatever date is
being discussed? When we come back or -- >> so we've all laid out
questions and concerns and comments and feedback as it relates to rate increases, not just this one, but prior ones with cps even. And what I understand about
councilmember kaur is she is a convener of students I think she genuinely wants to
support this rate increase and see it pass. And what I determine from all this is she said hey, I've heard council members bring up all of these
concerns. These are the concerns of my constituents. I'm going draft a list and make it as easy as possible for saws to understand what
is it that my council colleagues are saying, especially the ones who are leaning no or are saying no. And so I saw the list this morning and I agree with a
lot of it. My vote is not contingent upon you addressing and solving all of it, but I think that what I imagine you want is feedback from
any of us who are considering voting no or leaning yes is what is it
that you want to see of saws? What is it about our vision, our leadership, our plan. What is it that y'all want to see as a body that owns
saws? So I think that's the spirit of the list. I don't think anybody's vote is contingent upon it and I want to clarify that.
I also don't know that that many people said indirectly. Thank you, mayor. >> mayor, I'd like to call
the question to the current motion. >> whyte: second. >> mayor jones: there's a call the question, which would end debate on the
motion to continue this item to october. >> I guess you don't have to
do f4, f2, whatever. >> I was talking to your staff. We don't have the information -- the question you asked.
we're trying to research it. But I was just talking to frank from your staff so we're going to work to try to find exactly what you're asking.
from the information we have, approximately 57% of your district would fall
within that 125 level poverty. So we would work with you and your staff to better identify what's going to be the penetration rate and
then how many people do we expect to then sign up on the uplift at 125 and then
if -- however this vote goes to 150. So we'll work with your staff to identify the exact question and then we'll try to get that detail for you.
>> mckee-rodriguez: thank you. I appreciate it. >> mayor jones: thank you, gavino. There's a motion and a
second to continue the item to -- I'm sorry, to call the question.
thank you. Which would end debate on this item. I understand there's some other folks that have flagged they still had
comments on this. Let me say that, for example, councilwoman castillo and others that may still want to speak on this item.
but it's been called to question. On that two-thirds are needed to pass. So a vote yens debate. Please vote.
the motion carries. Okay. So we are going to now go
back to the motion that was made to continue the item to october.
upon which we can still discuss. Not at all. Okay. Thank you. All right. So we are going to now vote on the motion to continue the item to october.
please vote. The motion carries. The time is now 3:37 p.m. On --.
no, we're going to exec. The time is now 3:37 p.m. On thursday, june 18th, 2026.
the city council of the city of san antonio will now meet in executive session to consult with the city attorney's office pursuant to chapter 551 of the texas
government code and to deliberate or discuss the following items: economic development negotiations pursuant to 551.087, the purchase, exchange lee of
real property pursuant to 551.072. And legal issues related to
litigation involving the city, emergency >> mayor jones: the time
is now 4:38 p.m. On june 18, 2026 and the san antonio city council will reconvene
in open session. No action was taken in ex