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Good morning.

The time is now 9.04 AM on August 14th, and the meeting of the San Antonio City Council is now called to order.

Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Councilmember Corps.

Present.

Councilmember Castillo Angiono.

Present.

Councilmember Via Gran is supposed to be here virtually.

She should join us shortly.

Councilmember Mungia.

Present.

Councilmember Castillo.

Here.

Councilmember Galvan.

Here.

Councilmember Alderete Gavito.

Here.

Councilmember Mesa Gonzalez.

Here.

Councilmember Spears.

Here.

Councilmember White.

Mayor Jones.

Here.

Mayor, we have quorum.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

I'd like to recognize Councilmember Alberte Gavito to introduce today's invocator.

Thank you, Mayor.

Today I am honored to welcome our invocators from Am Ashram, located in District 7.

Am Ashram holds a special place in our hearts.

We had held one of our last coffee with a councilwoman there, our monthly meetups, and it was just such a it was such a beautiful experience for so many of our residents.

Am Ashram is a community dedicated to spiritual growth, meditation, and service, offering a place for reflection, peace, and connection.

The work helps people, helps bring people together across cultures and beliefs.

And they serve as an important part of our city's vibrant and diverse faith community.

Please join me in welcoming Arya Nayak to lead us in today's invocation.

I will begin with the Sanskrit Universal Peace Chant as our invocation.

The meaning is may we march forward with a common goal.

May we be open-minded and work together in harmony.

May we share our thoughts for integrated wisdom.

May we follow the example of our ancestors who achieved higher goals by virtue of being united.

Namaste honorable mayor and city council members.

Today, Raksha Abandon represents the duty and responsibility we all carry to protect and serve one another, not just as family, but as neighbors, citizens, and members of one larger human family.

Since 2004, HSS has celebrated this day nationwide, visiting civic leaders, first responders, and community members to honor their service and strengthen bonds of mutual respect.

Today we would be honored to tie a Rocky on your wrist as a gesture of gratitude and prayer for divine blessings upon those who protect and serve our community.

As a token of appreciation, we've also placed a photo frame in front of you.

We will now demonstrate with the Rocky tying.

Thank you.

Thank you for the very beautiful invocation.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republicans.

Thank you, Mayor, and good morning, everyone.

This morning I'm honored uh to um highlight uh the South the Central Substation.

If y'all could please make y'all's way up to the front, the Central Safe 5K fund for back to school supply drive and health there, held on Saturday, July 12th, was an extraordinary example of community and commitment in action.

And simply it would not have been possible without the dedication and leadership of our exceptional safe officers.

A special thank you to Officer Frank Tapia and Sanchez for their visionary minds and tireless hearts behind this incredible event.

What started as an idea that you all brought forward came to full scale, a community-wide effort that delivered critical resources, including backpacks, pencils, lunchboxes, folders, index cards, and so much more to hundreds of SCISD students.

Your ability to organize vendors, coordinate sponsors, build an entire health bear from the ground up, and map out a full 5K race route in District 5, all while marketing the event and turning registration into a generous school supply donation campaign.

It's nothing short of inspiring.

You all went far beyond um above and beyond community-driven event that united over 500 runners in support of our students.

This event was not just fun and meaningful, it was a shining example of proactive, holistic community service.

You both demonstrated what it means to be a safe officer, not only ensuring safety, but also uplifting and empowering our families that you serve.

To Sergeant Tahina, the Herina and Delgado, thank you for your steadfast leadership and for fostering a team so clearly rooted in compassion, initiative, and excellence.

Your guidance makes events like this possible, and we're all grateful for the culture and service that you all have nurtured.

Our office was honored to support such a thoughtful and impactful initiative.

We're truly proud of Central Safe and the team that did everything you did to help ensure a strong start for our kids all throughout SCISG.

Officer Tapia and Sanchez is there anything you all would like to add.

Good morning, all thank you.

Thank you for all of this.

This is definitely overwhelming.

But just to highlight this project became actually the first of this nation to actually do this.

So we're proud to continue on and with the support of everybody, China Command, our team back there, Central Downtown.

And uh it's a team effort, definitely a team effort for this.

And I also like to say uh other council members be on the lookout because we might be coming to y'all to to see if you want to be part of our 5K.

So, yes, um, we do have to uh pre-plan and then whatever uh council district we decide on, we will get with y'all.

I appreciate it.

Thank you, Councilwoman Castillo, for everything you've done for us.

And also, I want to recognize our association as well, and of course, everybody back there.

Um they had a big help in it.

So it was exciting event.

Hopefully, you all can attend next year.

Opportunity to provide Councilman Mark White with the right along of District 5 and the previous day we went in District 10, and I emphasize the commitment of Central Safe, the compassion uh that you all bring to District 5 and the relationships and rapport that y'all have with District 5 residents.

So I'm extremely grateful for y'all's service in District 5, and I was sure to let Councilman Mark White know um how grateful we are for Central Safe.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Castillo.

Uh, if there is no objection, we'll get started with the consent agenda so we may clear the agenda for the budget discussions.

Items four through 15 are on the consent.

Excuse me, sorry.

Read my own handwriting.

Items six through 15 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.

Uh note that item 12B has been withdrawn.

Item nine will be heard individually for recusal purposes.

Are there any items council members would like to pull from the consent agenda to be heard individually?

Okay.

Madam Clerk, do we have members of the public signed up to speak on the consent agenda?

We have one member of the public signed up to speak.

Oh, I'm sorry, on item four only.

Okay.

The first and only person is Jack Finger, who has three minutes to speak.

He will speak at the item.

It's right here.

Madam Mayor, other members of the council, my name is Jack M.

Finger.

Uh just a point of clarification, Madam Mayor.

Uh, are you asking me to speak on I sign up just on item number yes, sir?

Just item four, three minutes.

Thank you.

Okay, well.

Uh is Madam Mayor, if I may so ask, could I could we all say a staff presentation on item number four before I uh make my remarks to you, the counselor?

Thank you.

Sure.

Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda?

It is moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda except for 12b, which has been withdrawn.

Um council members, are there any highlights or questions about the consent agenda?

Anyway, council.

I have a order.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Donald Orion and John Kelly.

Uh John Kelly is here in the audience if he doesn't mind just standing up quickly.

Thank you, John.

John is John Kelly is a retired civil engineer with a career that spans 45 years in transportation, including 10 years as TechSan Antonio District Engineer, and has called San Antonio and District 8 home for more than three decades.

He holds a BS in civil engineering from the University of Arkansas and has served on his HOA for 12 years.

Mr.

John Kelly is being appointed to the zoning commission for District 8.

Thank you, John, for your continued service to our community.

Uh Donald Orion is the president of ADA Consulting Group and has resided in San Antonio for over two decades.

He holds an MS in civil engineering from UTSA and a BS in civil engineering from Texas AM University.

Donald is being reappointed to the zoning board of adjustments for District 8.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Alter de Gabito.

Thank you, Mayor.

I wanted to highlight items 11, 13, and 14, which are reappointments to our boards and commissions.

We have four of these amazing commissioners here with us today, so I want to give them a shout out.

I'll start by recognizing Francis Guzman, who is reappointed to the San Antonio Early Childhood Education Municipal Development Corporation.

Frances is a longtime resident of District 7 and has been serving in this role since 2015.

She has been a crucial voice in shaping the growth and direction of pre-K for SA.

Frances is now retired, but her has a background in education and English as a second language.

She also has a long history of civic engagement and volunteer activities serving the San Antonio community.

Thank you so much for your continued service, Francis.

Next, I want to uh recognize Robert Sipes, who is being reappointed to the zoning commission.

Oh, there you go.

Rob was appointed to his role in 2017 and has been a dedicated voice on the commission, even serving as chair.

He has been appointed by the zoning commission to serve on the planning commission technical advisory committee for the past four years.

He works as an architect and specifier for Marman Mock Architecture, giving him valuable knowledge and experience to support zoning recommendations.

He has been a wonderful partner to District 7 and keeps me in the loop on anything coming through the pipeline.

I'm honored to reappoint him for another term.

Thank you so much for your willingness to continue serving Rob.

Also joining us today is Melanie Cawthorn, who's being reappointed to the Disability Access Advisory Committee.

Oh, there she is, Melanie.

Melanie has served on the committee since 2021, and I will say that even prior to uh me joining council, I knew of Melanie's advocacy.

She's a very strong community advocate.

She is the co-founder and executive director of Disability SA, a nonprofit that aims to make San Antonio the number one community for people with disabilities.

She has championed inclusion and equity for over 20 years, supporting and leading initiatives that remove barriers for people with disabilities.

Melanie brings both academic expertise and extensive experience to this committee, and her voice has been crucial in helping create a more inclusive San Antonio.

Thank you, Melanie, for your tireless work in the community and for your willingness to represent District 7 on this committee.

Last but certainly not least, I want to highlight Irene Zinmeister, who is being reappointed to the San Antonio Commission on Education.

Where is Irene?

I know she's here.

There you should.

Um Irene has is a tremendous member of District 7 community and an amazing partner in serving our youth.

She played a critical role in District 7's recent back to school event where she handed where we handed out over 800 backpacks to San Antonio families.

She has served, she served as the community school coordinator at Saul Ross Middle School for over 30 years.

Her tireless advocacy for students, teachers, and education system as a whole makes her an extremely valuable member of this commission.

Irene, I'm so grateful for your continued service and an honor to reappoint you to another term, and I'm ready to be voluntole for whatever you need me to do next.

Please help me in giving all these four a round of applause.

And although they couldn't join us today, I do want to mention Ashley Benya from the Brooks Development Authority, Ellie Smith from the Port Authority of San Antonio, Anne Marie Groove for the Historic and Design Review Commission, Don Rios for the Linear Creeks Parks Advisory Board, and JC Smith from the Veterans Advisory Commission.

These five are also being reappointed to their respective boards and commissions, and they are all extremely valued members of the District 7 community.

I'm so grateful to reappoint each of them and that they answered the call to serve.

Thank you so much.

There's a motion to approve consent except for 12B, which was withdrawn and item nine, which was pulled for recusal.

Um, Councilmember Via Gran, uh, we will need a voice voice vote from you.

Okay.

Please vote.

Vote vote.

Council me Councilmember Via Gran, we will need a vote voice vote from you.

Yes.

I.

Thank you.

All right.

The motion carries.

Um, Council uh item number nine has been pulled from the agenda for a recusal from the mayor.

So um city clerk, could you please read the caption?

Item number nine is an ordinance extending the La Vietta Lease Agreement with B Link for one year renewal term commencing on September 1st, 2025 and expiring on August 31st, 2026.

Revenue in the amount of 9,000 348 dollars and 45 cents will be deposited into the general fund.

Thank you, Debbie.

There are no members of the public sign up to speak.

Do we have a motion on this item?

Motion to approve.

Do we have a second?

So we have a motion, a second.

Is there any council discussion?

I just like to tell if there's any folks from La Vieita here.

We're almost done.

But this time next year, we're going to be celebrating on South Alamo.

So thank you for uh sticking with us through all of this.

There's a motion and a second.

Um let's vote.

Councilman Via Gran.

I yes.

Motion brushing pushing pushing.

Let's get started with item three.

Uh city clerk, please read the caption.

Item three is a presentation of the City of San Antonio 2026 proposed operating and capital budget for the fiscal year beginning October 1st, 2025.

Eric, please uh present your proposed budget.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Morning, Mayor and Council.

Um today is uh an opportunity for me to lay out to you a comprehensive plan that encompasses our annual financial spend for fiscal year 26 as well as fiscal year 27 from a balanced standpoint.

Um it is reflective of the community and the council priorities.

And today is the beginning part of the next phase of our annual process.

Um it begins that process uh of review that will culminate on September 18th when the council adopts the budget.

We will have beginning next Tuesday um a series of works of 12 budget work sessions scheduled over the next five weeks that provide the council and the community um with detailed information in what is included in the proposed budget.

We also have 10 um district town halls that are scheduled in each of your districts.

Um and then finally uh at the end of uh the next item on the agenda, council will be asked to take a vote on the state requirements to set the proposed city property tax rate and the required public uh budget hearings according to state law.

Um I'll I'll cut to the chase.

The tax rate is not changing and is staying the same.

So let's talk about the proposed FY26 budget.

Um the the overall city budget um encompassing restricted funds, our capital budget and general fund is proposed at 4.04 billion dollars, which is a 2.2 percent increase.

Our general fund, which we spent a lot of time at the end of June at our budget work session talking about, is proposed at 1.69 billion dollars, a 1.6 percent increase.

And I'll talk a little bit about that number as we go through the presentation, but you'll recall during the trial budget conversations at the end of June, our projected expenses in the general fund were three and a half percent.

High level in terms of city positions.

Um the um the total um pro in the proposed budget is uh one thousand.

I'm sorry, thirteen thousand seven hundred and twenty-three positions.

It's a net decrease of 116 positions.

Um, and as we go through the presentation, you'll see some of these elements.

Uh 68 civilian positions are proposed to be reduced in the budget.

121 positions um were um changes due to uh grants or contract changes, and we have 73 new positions being added in our police and fire departments.

Overall, within the police department, uh the proposed budget has an authorized strength of 2,893 police officers and 1,850 firefighters.

So I shared this information with the council uh about a week ago.

Um, and as many of you know, um, every July uh we will go through our annual bond rating review as a city.

Um and as I shared with you, we continue to maintain our top-tier credit status from all three major rating agencies that really underscores and hopefully you had a chance to see the summaries that were produced by the three bond rating agencies that really uh point back to um how we manage our finances, how we plan, and the long-term financial stability and how those things are impacted and integrated.

At the end of the day, our our bond rating is our our credit score as an organization.

It allows us to borrow at a lower cost, resulting in more money into projects.

We're triple A from both SP and Moody's and A plus with Fitch.

This is a huge accomplishment.

We have continued to do this year after year, regardless of what's happening with pandemics or the ups and downs of our national economy.

And my hats off to the finance staff led by Troy Elliott that continues to manage this area of our organization.

So let's talk about the general fund.

Many of these things you're familiar with, but I thought it was important to circle back to the conversation that occurred at the end of June.

The forecast in May and the trial budget in June projected deficits in our general fund, both in 26, actually throughout the five-year forecast.

But our June conversation particularly focused on FY26 and FY27.

One of the financial policies that we have as an organization that is a bit unique is that we balance our budget over two fiscal years.

You all will be required to only adopt one budget at or one year at a time.

But from a financial planning standpoint, it's a best practice that has served us well.

Our revenues are still growing, but uh at a slower than our historical growth.

Um I shared with you at the end of June that expenses were outpacing revenue.

San Antonio was not unique in the sense of some of the challenges that we were seeing in sales tax and in some cases uh property taxable values.

And many cities in Texas are have been feel have been feeling the same uh challenges.

There is an error, and there continues to be an error around uncertainty around uh continued federal funding and programs, initiatives, or even infrastructure as we go forward, and then as we shared with you at the end of the last legislative session, um the last legislative session did negatively impact uh some of our revenue over the next two years.

Well, beginning beginning this year and in fiscal year 27 and going forward.

Part of what we talked about with you at the end of June was how we were going to approach this summer and the work that we needed to do to balance the fiscal year 26 and lay out a balanced plan for fiscal year 27.

Our guiding principles that that we shared and that you all talked about on at the end of June were that we were going to protect essential and mandated services, our core services.

We were gonna minimize the impact to vulnerable populations, and we were gonna avoid uh long-term risks at the expense of changes in the budget.

In other words, um avoid taking uh a short-term gain that's gonna cost us more down the road.

Our objectives were clear, right?

And I think as we um worked through what the departments as we went through the summer, our objectives were to balance the budget over two years.

Um it was to reduce our expenditure growth, it was to reduce the structural imbalance that we were projecting, it was to address core service areas and address the community and council priorities that we saw through the survey as well as through your conversation.

So the trial budget projected deficits of 21 million dollars in fiscal year 26 and 152 million in fiscal year 27.

The plan before you that you will begin going through detailed work sessions on over the next five weeks, balances it in a number of different ways.

Um we reduced spending with minimal impact on essential services.

We made sure that we captured savings from completed projects and unspent and and unspent balances that were not going to be spent by the end of this fiscal year.

We moved eligible projects from our operating budget to the capital budget.

We implemented and you'll see here uh shortly the CPS revenue policy that we have in place, and then that specifically pertains to uh the capture of uh off system sale revenue within our financial policy, and we increased fees and fines to add new revenue.

High level uh what what what transpired over the summer?

So the the combined deficit uh projected deficit of fiscal year 26 and 27 was almost 173 million dollars.

Um we received the uh certified tax rolls from the bear appraisal district at the end of July.

Um when we received the uh certified tax rolls from the bear appraisal district at the end of July, they were um they were different than the information that we shared with you at the end of June based on preliminary information, and you'll see here in a slide we saw almost a one percent decrease in base taxable value.

Um the city's not been in that position since after the 2008-2009 recession.

Um, and that resulted in an additional little over 12 million dollars in lost revenue over the the next two years.

We have CPS off system sales of 69.2 million dollars.

We revised our revenue projections over uh beginning this fiscal year, fiscal year 26 and fiscal year 27 that's generated almost the nine million dollars.

You'll see that we adjusted, we're proposing adjusting fines and fees at 12 million dollars over the next two years.

Um but by far the most attention that we spent over the course of the summer was reducing our expenses beginning this fiscal year and proposing to reduce expenses in fiscal year 26 and planning for 27.

And I think it's important for me to talk a little bit about this.

Um fiscal year 27 is a plan, and and what I'm proposing to the council is that obviously you all will adopt a fiscal year 26 budget.

Um we will we will monitor as we do our financial quarterly updates to the mayor and the council how we're how conditions are faring, what is our revenue and expense looking like, and as we see adjustments throughout the fiscal year in 26, then um then those are areas that we can use to uh mitigate anything that is in a fiscal year 27 plan.

The fiscal year 27 plan could look entirely different this time next year.

Um and it's it it it acts it's proposed to act as a guardrail for us to make sure that we're looking down road and not just uh around the around the uh the front of us.

So I mentioned uh taxable values.

Here you see the base values that we received from the appraisal district resulted in almost one percent decrease in base values.

We have new values.

This is new construction, both commercial and residential, at 1.76 percent.

Um overall uh a change to the uh taxable value growth of only 0.86 percent as we go into next fiscal year.

Um you'll see on the revenue there in fiscal year 25, we're expected to collect 471.9 million dollars in property tax revenue, and next year, uh based on those taxable values and the decrease in base values, that amount is going up only 500,000.

So property tax revenue is relatively stable, uh, especially when you're talking about the size of our budget.

Um there the uh as I mentioned at the beginning of the presentation, and you'll deal with the next agenda item.

There is no increase proposed in the tax rate.

It is the 33rd consecutive year that uh that that's been the case.

Our rate remains the same at 54.159 cents per 100 valuation.

So where did we land in terms of property tax relief?

Um the proposed budget includes almost 152 million dollars in property tax relief in a number of different areas.

Um the average um there are 250 over 255,000 homesteads in San Antonio with an average taxable value of 233,000, almost 234,000.

We have 75.8 million dollars in homestead exemptions, and that reflects um at a 20 percent homestead exemption for um uh property owners.

We have 48.8 million dollars and over 65 exemptions, and that directly is tied to 13 a little over 113,000 seniors.

We have the senior tax freeze at 24.3 million dollars, and then uh 2.3 million for disabled persons, and then uh uh $600,000 for child care facilities.

That's a new exemption that the city approved last year.

All told this is revenue that the city is for uh foregoing and um leaving in place uh to provide property tax relief to uh homeowners here in San Antonio.

So overall, our general fund revenues you'll see on this slide are projected to grow at 0.8 percent overall for the general fund.

And our three major revenue sources you see here are um conservative in nature and below our will be below our historical averages.

Um we're only uh looking at a 0.1 percent change in property tax.

Um we're proposing a 2% adjustment in sales tax and 2.8 percent in terms of CPS revenue.

Um historically we have been at uh at sales tax probably a little bit above three percent.

Um our estimate this year is is running at about 2.3 percent, so 2% is conservative.

There's certainly a sense of wait and see in the economy and um with inflation low and unemployment low, there continues to be a hesitancy to spend, and um so we are conservatively projecting only two percent next year.

So high level, and we will roll these into the uh budget work sessions that begin next Tuesday.

Uh but uh one of the things we talked to you about at the end of June was looking at uh a number of our revenue sources, albeit smaller in terms of impact to our overall budget, but that will impact some services we provide.

Um adjustments to alarm permits and renewals for both commercial and residential.

Um these these um fee adjustments, these permit adjustments uh have last were last touched in 2010, so it'd been some it's been some time.

Um a proposed increase in traffic and parking uh fines.

Uh next Tuesday you'll hear from Judge Obledo and her budget work session, and she'll go into more detail in this.

Uh implementing food inspection fees in accordance in accordance with the new state law.

We have a number of uh smaller ACS permit fees uh that we're proposing, and uh code compliance that really are uh focused on administrative fees for areas that are deemed dangerous, uh vacant lots, absentee owner fee increases.

Again, many of these fee increases have not been adjusted in some time, and you'll see in the budget document that was delivered to you yesterday as you go through the preparation for the budget work sessions.

There's a section of the budget that that shows what the what that permit is now, what it's proposed to be, and when is the last time the city adjusted so I mentioned the hundred and almost 111 million dollars in reduced spending that we um proposed in in today's budget.

Um let me let me walk through kind of in big areas how we tackled the matter ahead of us.

Um I use a football analogy, you know, we used six or seven linebackers rather than three because we wanted to make sure that as the mayor mentioned at the budget work session, we were gonna we were gonna check between uh the cushions of the sofa um before we started looking at making adjustments to critical services.

So we did that through a critical review of a budget of department budgets, uh savings from unspent funds, uh completed projects, um, uh hats off to the departments as they prepared proposals to bring forward to myself and the budget team.

Um they were thoughtful.

Um I had given give guidance to the departments to prepare reductions in the certain in the sense of being able to prepare for that conversation.

Police, fire, and animal care services were asked to prepare a 1% decrease in their budgets.

Um parks, public works, uh, public health and human services were not required to put forth reductions because they were departments that were working through our comprehensive budget review throughout the last fiscal year or this fiscal year.

All the other departments were asked to prepare 10% budget reductions.

And so as we went through that, uh we found uh efficiencies and reductions.

Um I mentioned um the expenses to capital.

Our comprehensive budget reviews of those four departments uh reflect a number of efficiency adjustments.

Um and I'll I'll sum it up and you'll see the details certainly in the budget document, and we'll have them in the work sessions.

No major impact to services that we provide, uh, but I do think that that it is uh a required review.

The comprehensive budget reviews will continue next year, and we have a um we'll finalize a list of departments and functions.

I'll tell you right now that one of the things that I'm gonna ask that that uh the innovation group to do next year is really focus on consolidations within our organization in preparation for fiscal year 27.

The trial budget, as I laid it out in uh in June included a 3% adjustment across the board for civilian employees.

The proposed budget today is proposing 2%.

Um and so you'll notice probably more importantly that in the fiscal year 27 column in our plan, there is no adjustment proposed or planned.

And it would be my recommendation as we go through fiscal year 26.

There's going to be a lot of things that we'll want to adjust.

It would be my recommendation that we make sure that we fill that pot as we go through fiscal year 26.

Critical budget review.

And it was a very worthwhile exercise that we began doing last summer.

We reinstituted that last year and certainly spent quite a bit of time as we went forward into this proposed budget document.

There's a lot of detail here behind here, and they're included, and we will go through all this detail as we go through the budget work sessions.

But suffice it to say, I think it's important for me to reiterate that there is no major impact to services as we are proposing.

The 68 positions that are proposed to be reduced, of those 68 positions, 35 of those positions are filled.

And for those of you that watched or were part of the conversations that we had at our mid-year budget and forecast, at that point, we started slowing the hiring of non-critical positions through an internal process, knowing and anticipating that we were going to be in a position like today where we were proposing to reduce positions.

So as we talk about investments, I'll I'll I'll put back up here what we heard from the council as well as the budget survey in the areas that were the top priorities for you all as well as the public.

And we'll walk through each of these areas over the next couple of slides.

They are the daily life and machine that make everything work.

And I mentioned earlier we have a 2% across the board for civilians, an 8% for adjustment for firefighters effective October 1, in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement, and a an adjustment of 4% for police officers in accordance with the last year of their collective bargaining agreement.

Uh will be anywhere from 86 cents a month to $32 a month.

Premium increases for police and fire are going to be increasing at 10% consistent with their respective collective bargaining agreements.

So in terms of one of the top priorities we heard through the budget survey in terms of homeless services, I'm proposing uh the establishment of a homeless services and strategy department.

Our outreach work, uh our relationship with our our nonprofit partners has really been part of a uh an overall suite of responsibilities in our human services department.

Um but I'm proposing that uh we uh move these resources underneath our chief housing officer Mark Carmona.

Um really uh not to necessarily um focus on not just the day-to-day, but the strategic approach that um that I'm recommending that we take as we go forward.

Um we have uh in the budget an additional 4.8 million dollars to continue the low barrier shelter.

And you all recall that that that low barrier shelter was initially funded through a lease, I'm sorry, through funding from ARPA, and it was funded through the end of October of 25.

It is a necessary tool that we need to have in the continuum of ensuring that that people have a place to go.

And so part of the strategic conversation that Mark will be leading up is how do we coordinate, not just, and I'm not talking about inside the city.

I think we do well and we can always do better, but how are we taking a community approach to creating a comprehensive system of care?

I do anticipate, and I'll mention it here shortly.

Several of you have talked about it already.

You know, as we talk about a new municipal bond program, certainly you all have talked about the ballot for voters to consider another allocation for in housing bonds.

In my mind, and I'm certain I'm sure certainly in your mind, there is a difference between transitional and permanent supportive housing and affordable housing.

They're two different populations, but they're all part of the the whole continuum.

And Mark is going to lead that effort to provide those recommendations to you.

And that a positive exit is making sure that that folks have a place to go that is upward, and we want to make sure that our batting average is as high as possible in dealing with that with that population.

To address encampments, which was a priority of the of the public.

And the comprehensive budget reviews are not just a review of the budget and expenses, it's really looking at the internal processes of the departments.

Through that comprehensive budget review as well as the key recommendations from uh consultant that we hired to look at how we are delivering, managing, communicating our capital projects.

I'm proposing the establishment of a capital delivery department, which would be made up of 188 individuals that currently have parts of those responsibilities within our public works department.

This department's sole focus will be on delivering, communicating, managing, executing, and completing capital projects.

These individuals will wake up in the morning and go to bed focused on this effort.

Public works is a critical part of what we do.

It is one of our core services, and in terms of maintaining our infrastructure and building new in my professional recommendation, that is too much in the size of our city.

And as many of you know, and I think Councilwoman Corr mentioned yesterday the work that we did that the council approved earlier in the year around how we're coordinating with utilities and looking around the corner on projects, particularly within 410 and specifically in the core areas of the city.

We need to do it better, we need to do it faster.

And and as we go forward in contracts for uh execution, we have certainly talked about making adjustments and providing incentives and stiffer penalties as it relates to the completion of work.

You know, overall, I believe that this is something that will better serve us, especially on the potential conversation that you all will have about a future bond program and ensuring that we are delivering uh these projects in a timely manner and communicating them in a professional way.

Mike Shannon, who is currently our development services department, will be appointed today to oversee that effort.

The transition will occur over the next couple of uh weeks.

Um this adjustment in our organization is does not require additional costs, it's a reallocation of resources.

Let me mention one thing at the bottom.

I did talk about the future bond program.

We do have a budget work session scheduled later on this month.

I can't remember the date off the top of my head, but uh to talk about our debt management plan, infrastructure, and capital delivery, and it's where we'll also lay out an opportunity to at least initiate that conversation with the council and look for some direction from you all as we begin uh the fiscal year on that process, which um will take a little bit of effort by you all, the staff, as well as the community.

Our capital budget I mentioned at the beginning of the presentation is 1.1 billion dollars.

You'll see that the largest segment in going into fiscal year 26 is um six almost 650 million dollars towards the mainly the terminal, the new terminal development uh as we go forward.

The remaining allocation consists of our facilities, uh parks, drainage, uh, convention center, technology improvements, neighborhood improvements.

Um we do include, we did include 11.4 million dollars in the proposed budget capital budget to address uh the flood damage on Bidal Creek, Old O'Connor, and Old Grissom Road.

As the mayor shared with you several weeks ago, that was one that is that continues to be that will, and I'm anticipating it will continue to be our priority in the second special session.

But at the end of the day, uh we continue we we we need to make repairs, we've done repairs temporarily, and we'll need to start working on uh start working on permanent uh fixes in those areas that were damaged in June.

We also have within our capital budget um two million dollars for additional streetlights, um and several of you have mentioned that over the last couple of days in accordance with keeping up with our implementation of street lights and the streetlight plan that that was developed several years ago.

Um, and I know that there will likely be a lot of conversation as we talk about police and code compliance around street lights.

The other part of infrastructure is our public works department, which uh will focus on maintaining our infrastructure, our traffic systems, our sidewalks, our street maintenance program, our infrastructure maintenance program, and still will have uh almost 700 employees, one of our largest departments.

Um we are setting aside uh money in the budget uh to have somebody come in and kick the tires on our street maintenance program.

And I'm we talked a little bit about this in June, and I've talked to several of you over the last couple of months.

Um our system, our five-year SMP system street maintenance program, um, was initially created over 15-16 years ago.

And uh we have access to better, more robust data.

Um I w I'd like for somebody to come in and give us recommendations based on what we have.

You'll see on the next slide, the proposed budget includes 122 million dollars for street maintenance.

Um, if you think about it, uh, over the last five years, we've spent almost six hundred million dollars in street maintenance.

And what I want to ensure and be able to provide to you all is that we are doing that work where it's needed, and uh that we're doing it that is making uh a difference in the community.

Um, and I think I think it's long due uh for a look to see how we revamp that.

That would be a review that we would do, somebody would do for us, and certainly we would bring those recommendations back to the council for your feedback.

I think a key part of one of you asked me the other day, you know, what happens to the five-year street maintenance program.

Well, nothing happens to it.

I think a key part of any recommendations that we receive from somebody are not just recommendations on what to do, but how to implement because certainly there is information out there, and we want to be forthcoming and clear with the public as well as our financial plans.

So I just mentioned the 122 million dollars in street maintenance.

It's almost 1,500 projects throughout the city for 416 miles, um, and then 17 million dollars in new sidewalk investment, both new sidewalks as well as repairing sidewalks that are pushed up by roots and trees or cracked or crooked or unusable, and will result in uh 21 miles of new sidewalks and 11 miles of repaired.

The next area of focus is uh affordable housing, and certainly as we continue on our strategic housing implementation plan, the proposed budget includes 30.4 million dollars in both general fund as well as grant funds to continue our work going in the next year.

Of the goal of the the strategic housing implementation plan of 28, a little over 28,000, 13,100 will be constructed under construction or in the pipeline, 47% of our goal.

Um of the 150 million dollar bond allocation that the voters approved in May of 2022, uh you all have allocated and approved 127.8 million dollars.

So we have by far a majority of the money out in production right now.

Um part of the initiatives that were important for us to make sure that we shored up as we went into next fiscal year or proposed going the next year was ensuring that there was no change to the number of individuals that we would be able to impact and serve in two primary areas rental assistance as well as uh major and minor repairs.

Um, and in both cases, um, in in terms of rental assistance, we moved money internally from the city to be able to ensure that that that number will uh will not decrease.

You'll hear from Veronica Garcia at her budget work session how she has worked to uh identify additional efficiencies, frankly, by working closer with our nonprofits and being able to deliver those uh specifically our minor repair projects in a more efficient, less costly way.

Um, and so we'll certainly start having a conversation about that that uh next Wednesday at your budget work session.

In terms of public safety, um, certainly operating under tight budget conditions and and being mindful of our financial position.

Uh investing in core services that I've talked about so far certainly still applies uh to police and fire.

I am proposing additional police officers and firefighters, and I'll talk about the firefighters on the next slide.

Um the proposed public safety budget uh for fiscal year 26 in our general fund is 63.7 percent compared to 61.6 percent in our FY25 budget.

Total combined between police and fire, those two budgets make up uh 1.079 billion dollars of our 1.6 billion dollar general fund budget.

In terms of police, the proposed budget is at 630.6 million dollars.

Um the proposed budget includes the addition of 53 new police officers, 28 of which we talked about during both in our mid-year budget as well as the June trial budget.

Those 28 positions are primarily our uh supervisory positions that will be needed at our South Floors uh police substation that is scheduled to open up in 2027.

We'll need to get those positions in the academy next summer and and be have them in place by the time they uh by the time that that building opens.

We also are proposing an additional 25 uh police officers for uh patrol, and this continues us on our move towards adjusting our uh officer time to 60 percent proactive work and 40 percent on call.

We had a goal over five years of adding 360 officers, um, and with these 25 for the first three years of this plan, um, we have will have added 190 towards that goal, and certainly there will be a lot of conversation about this.

The the police budget work session is on Tuesday, and um the goal is a goal, right?

And we do what we can with the financial resources we have, um, and I know there'll be a lot of conversation about that next Tuesday.

Um, I do believe that as we continue to see growth in the city, that um ensuring that response times and our proactive ability to engage with the public continue to be a priority of ours.

We are also converting um 65 vacancies in our park and airport police from uh from those two divisions into uh positions within the San Antonio Police Department, and we are scheduled to have for the first time ever six academy glass classes, and we have budgeted for six academy classes as we go into fiscal year 26 with a projected estimate of 270 graduates uh going forward.

In terms of fire, our total fire budget proposed budget is 428 and a half, almost almost a half million dollars in our general fund.

It focuses in in really two core areas.

One is increasing our enhanced squad unit program.

We began that program three years ago, two years ago.

And we currently have four enhanced squads.

The enhancement about this is that they are generally located at our busiest engine companies and allow a slightly additional change in our staffing model to allow a pickup truck with the necessary equipment to be able to respond to emergency calls.

80% of the calls, and you'll hear from Chief Frosto on Tuesday.

80% of our calls are medically related.

And so this enhancement allows the engine and the staffing to be available for maybe more important or higher priority calls.

And we added uh three in this year's budget, and we're proposing to add two more next year's budget.

They would be located at Fire Station 10 and at Fire Station 21.

Secondly, in terms of priority for the fire department, was 1.4 million dollars for really two different types of assessments that we need to do or that we're recommending we do.

One is focused on staffing and equipment and what are the emerging trends in terms of preparation and training that we need to do as a fire department.

The second part of that is really an assessment of our facilities.

We have two fire stations under construction in both districts three and district four.

We'll have another uh replacement fire station under construction here within the probably the next half year, uh nine months in district three, replacing uh fire station 21.

And several of you you all have been to fire stations and uh those are the one facilities that we have, probably other than the airport that are used 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Um so the assessment of our facilities to ensure that we have that we can develop a plan to maintain, renovate, and maybe in some places replace some of our fire stations.

Laying out that plan uh allows us to be able to present to you, you know, how do we accomplish that?

We won't be able to accomplish it all at once, but uh that type of assessment is going to be necessary.

Uh Maria, the chief, and um and I met with um Joe Jones and Javier Padlon yesterday just to talk about the budget, and um they brought up um three albeit minor issues uh but important to the fire stations, and they all had to do with smaller facility issues.

So with 54 fire stations and locations all over the city, um kind of reassessing where we're at and putting together a plan to address those is our recommendation.

And then lastly, I don't want to diminish it, but the fire department borrows the um the police department's drones, and um we're setting aside money to enhance that that capability within the fire department.

Um this includes probably would also potentially be a in uh a topic of review in terms of needs and resources and emerging trends, um, but uh the fire department will have drones next year for situational awareness, um mapping perimeters and identifying hot spots and all kinds of uh issues that are outfitted to those drones.

Animal care services, uh the council has been extremely supportive over the last couple of years.

There are no major reductions, certainly in our animal care services department.

Um with the amount of investment that this council has approved over the last several years, um, you can see here that all of our major metrics are moving in the right direction.

Um and the team at Animal Care Services are doing an outstanding job with the community, the animal community and with neighborhoods, and our percentage response to critical calls, which was embarrassingly low two years ago at 44 percent.

Um we are projecting uh this year to end at 83 percent and then 97 percent next year.

Um we are in an overhire position at animal care services to ensure that we always have those positions filled.

Our live release rate continues to remain high.

Our adoptions are scheduled to be up, and I think probably the one that that is sometimes overlooked but uh very important, and Mr.

Bachman shows up every once in a while on Wednesdays and reminds you, but our spay neuter numbers are up this year and are projected to go up uh next year by six and a half percent.

We opened up those two spay neuter clinics on the east and west sides earlier this year.

And it is a great resource and is proving to be very valuable because it's closer to the community and provides them access to those free or low cost spay neuters right down the street from where they need it.

Delegate agencies, the proposed budget has a combined 28.9 million dollars.

And you all will recall that we had a conversation in the springtime about the consolidated funding process, which is our solicitation process to procure services from nonprofit agencies, whether they be uh homeless services, senior programming, after school programming, uh safety net services.

Part of the conversation that the council had is reflective in the in the budget.

We have two different categories of funding in agencies.

We have what is referred to as designated funding and competitive funding.

Designated funding for us are agencies like Haven for Hope or the independent school districts that provide after school care or uh the Center for Healthcare Services, services that are needed in the community and are important to our operations.

Um our competitive funding are those agencies where we ask you all prioritize in a session.

What are the areas of most importance to you as a body?

And then through the solicitation agencies propose how they will do that service for us over a period of time.

The proposed budget for those design for those uh competitive funding agencies only includes funding through the end of May.

And uh beginning next week on Wednesday when um Melody Woosley presents her proposed budget.

We'll talk about delegate agencies and begin that conversation.

Um dependent on that conversation, uh, we may uh uh need to revisit with you what your priorities are because we will need to do an RFP this uh fall for funding after uh uh the end of May 26.

Um we did make a a slight reduction in uh the delegate agencies in the proposed budget.

Um typically agencies don't spend all their money when you're looking at it from a from a uh a comprehensive view.

Um so we eliminated uh a half a million dollars out of that budget in the proposed in the proposed budget uh to accommodate for anticipated unspent funds as we go uh through next fiscal year.

The proposed budget for those competitive agencies does not reflect any change to what their budget is now.

And I'll highlight that part of y'all's conversation in the springtime around these services.

Um part of the conversation was uncertainty about federal funding, and part of the takeaway from that meeting was to let's let's figure out where the ground is going to settle.

Let's keep everybody through the end of May.

Let's have another conversation with the new mayor and council in the fall and reset our focus as we go forward.

And we've incorporated that in the budget.

Our restricted funds, uh, there's no proposed fee increase to our our solid waste uh budget.

Um that fund is a utility fund and is uh almost 161.5 million dollars and provides uh practically daily service uh to 380,000 customers throughout the city.

We will have a continued focus on homeless encampment abatement as well as illegal dumping.

Um, and we will revisit some of you will recall that for a period of time the city had not made adjustments to that utility uh rate.

Um and uh after uh going through some adjustments um several years ago.

Part of what we do now is look at that rate every two years to ensure that uh we are uh passing along the services that consistently are highly rated by the public and and certainly needed.

Our airport uh is expected to have a proposed budget of 169.4 million dollars, and Jesus will be before you in several weeks to talk about this.

We are expecting a uh an increase, a slight increase in uh uh passengers through this fiscal year or going into fiscal year 26.

We have 48 uh nonstop destinations.

Um several of the uh food and beverage concepts that the council approved uh will begin opening later on this year in November.

We have a groundbreaking uh for the new parking garage in uh in this fall, and our um ground load facility, the additional uh gating that's at the that's being constructed at the end of the uh terminal A is scheduled to open in December of 2025.

I was out there on Saturday, and uh construction um is happening, was happening even on Saturday, um, and we're making great progress out there at the airport.

In development services, um, another enterprise fund we have where it accounts for all the revenues and expenses associated with all development related activity.

Um we have seen a uh a decline in residential permitting by um a little over 16 percent this year and a decrease in commercial per permitting of 10 and a half percent.

As we go into fiscal year 26, uh we are projecting a 0.3 percent decrease in residential and a 0.7 percent decrease in commercial.

Much of this is as you can expect is likely tied to the economy, uh tariff conversations, and interest rates.

And so we closely monitor um this activity, and in this enterprise fund, as revenues decline, we strategically reduce our expenses uh to encapsulate all of that work.

Um, and we have begun that work uh in the springtime.

Um we do this to be able to um ebb and flow with the demand.

Um and um one of the things that we are including in the proposed budget for consideration as we go into fiscal year 27 is a conversation around uh changes to potential revenue or services, and that's a conversation that I think I'd like to probably start with you all uh appropriately so, get feedback from you and then um examine how we how we approach that as we go into uh fiscal year 27.

I'll also say that building permits are one of our early warning indicators.

So I showed earlier that we saw 1.6% increase in taxable values.

That's all new construction.

So uh with permitting being down uh this year and not anticipated the change only marginally uh going into 26, those are likely to be pressures we see in future taxable values going forward.

Lastly, uh our hotel occupancy tax is 108.7 million dollars.

Um the hotel occupancy tax projections are 2.8 percent higher than our FY25 estimated budget.

The proposed budget, uh you'll see on that table uh maintains the same level of funding for visit San Antonio, arts and history, arts and history and preservation.

Um the general fund does include a half a million dollars for general uh public art maintenance.

Um in order to adjust for uh necessary changes within the budget, we make uh you see on the chart, uh we saw we made the we're proposing to make adjustments in spending at both our convention center and Alamo Dome, and Patricia will be laying that out to you here in the next couple of weeks.

Lastly, um we have a hundred and sixty-two million dollars, 162.7 million dollars in federal and state grants in our proposed budget.

Um, and it does reflect um changes that we've seen.

We've had 1.4 million dollars in uh redu reductions in metro health grants, um, and you saw uh likely saw my email uh at the end of last week.

Um a 27.1 million dollar allocation for solar grant, um, which was a larger effort uh practically statewide that was led by Harris County and the EPA canceled that grant uh last week, which amounted to about 27.1 million dollars of grant funds for us prospectively going forward.

It was work that had not begun yet and was in the preparation phases, but undoubtedly there continues to be some uncertainty around federal funding as we go forward.

I shared with the with the mayor uh the other day that I'm particularly concerned about.

Well, I'm concerned about everything, but I'm particularly concerned about uh potential changes to CDBG and home.

We've not seen those impacts yet, um, and certainly as we talk about our federal initiatives program that will undoubtedly be one of our core areas and is a big part of one of the council's priorities and the public's priorities and be ensuring that we're moving the needle from an affordable housing standpoint.

One of the things that the mayor and I talked about it was a question the mayor had, you know, we do a lot of tabletop exercises about floods or cybersecurity or those types of activities.

But the mayor asked me a great question.

She said, Do you ever have you ever done a tabletop on what happens if CDBG goes away or home or metro health grants for immunizations?

And one of the things that that uh we'll be conducting, and I think um uh based on conversation with the mayor, um there are other agencies that are important to our ecosystem that are equally impacted, like the Center for Healthcare Services, the hospital district, uh Bear County potentially, the nonprofit partners.

So convening a group of individuals that we are all inexplicately linked.

Um Center for Healthcare Services, if there are declines and positions and services there, that has a direct impact on our outreach, our EMS units, and our police officers.

So it was uh uh a great idea uh and question that the mayor had that really started um kind of the the notion that we need to do a tabletop exercise on how we're going to close ranks uh if there are changes at the federal level in terms of funding.

Once we're done with this adopted, once you adopt the budget, um, just to put a marker for you, we do want to revisit how we do the budget in the future.

And this was a conversation that began in the springtime, actually started last fall through uh a council consideration request.

Um culminated in a presentation by PFM uh to the council earlier this year, really designed around giving the council under a four-year term a little bit more leg room to be strategic in terms of priorities and uh develop a hybrid budget methodology that that involved outcome-based budgeting, zero-based budgeting, priority-based budgeting, not listed here, but certainly uh necessary performance-based budgeting.

Um, one of the approaches that um I would like to revisit with the council, uh, particularly this council, is your feedback on that in conversation so that we can adjust accordingly uh going into fiscal year 27.

The next steps on the budget process, obviously, budget work sessions start next Friday.

I'm sorry, next Tuesday, uh Tuesday and Wednesday.

Uh we have uh a youth town hall, which was hugely successful last year, and we'll we're we're scheduling to do it this year as well, as well as the the um uh the community town halls uh in each of your districts.

Um we have two budget uh and tax rate hearings that will occur in September, and the the uh the proposed budget will be up for your consideration for any amendments or changes you'd like to make in adoption on September 18th.

Our budget this morning was uploaded online uh to our open government um which has uh literally all the information, not just the pretty pictures.

Um and so the public is certainly invited to uh visit that site and look into the the depth of our organization and uh where we're doing and what we're proposing to do.

Our budget work sessions, as I mentioned, begin next week and run through September 17th, and our budget town halls are listed here.

They begin uh on August 18th and end on August 27th.

At these work sessions, we'll be working with each of you to ensure that they're structured in a way that uh that you'd like.

Um, and these uh work sessions will certainly include um executive staff and myself for answers and questions and and presentation on those nights that are happening simultaneously, uh Marie and I will divvy those up and and cover both.

Mayor and Council, that is the the proposed budget presentation.

I want to thank uh the um the departmental staff that worked um for the last couple of months on the proposed budget.

Um I certainly want to um extend my gratitude to the uh department executives uh for their work and diligence uh as well as Justina and Freddie and the budget staff, um Troy uh and uh the finance team and um finally uh my executive leadership team with Maria and Ben and the rest of the assistant city managers.

Umy times um the the um the summer summers always are long um and this was particularly challenging because of the matter ahead of us.

So there was a lot of time spent away from families uh over the summer, so I want to thank the staff for what they did.

Thank you, Mayor.

Eric, thank you.

I also want to echo um this council's uh thanks to your entire team uh that did that too many times.

I think we saw each other there on Saturday.

So uh thank you for the very hard work to help ensure that um we could consider these things thoughtfully and and thoroughly.

Um the um I I do want to um reiterate, I think the importance of uh the tabletop exercise.

I think as much as we can do to help ourselves understand what assumptions we are making needlessly um or maybe unintentionally, uh that'll help us understand where we may have potentially some flexibility as we enter into a very difficult fiscal environment.

Uh certainly as I've mentioned again, the implementation of the reconciliation bill, it's almost like you know a COVID is coming, right?

So, how do we um essentially ensure we're best prepared and postured uh to respond to that, as well as we also look at some other considerations that we know will come before this body next year, which are rate increase uh requests from both CPS and from SAWS.

Um I think that um as as part of and as part of the tabletop, normally, as I've participated participated in those, those always illuminate um things that we need to be doing now.

I think what would also be helpful um even before that though, um Eric, is if um you can maybe refresh the things that were done um during the time of COVID that we might already be thinking about as we um look to shore up some of the capabilities in, for example, um those uh those department the department addressing our unhoused those uh part those uh departments addressing um affordable housing, uh housing assistance, et cetera, just so we know those are already options, and maybe we also include those as considerations in our in our tabletop.

Um I know we will um uh talk about this a little bit.

I if you could though speak to, or um it was actually Maria that gave me the brief, so maybe it's Maria that does it.

But um this how this is informed by or how we might think about uh the strategic performance uh measures as part of um shaping um this budget.

I know there are things that we know we need to do.

I also understand there are things we would like to do given you know a longer time horizon.

So if you click and I understand it's being refreshed, um, but if you'd please help um address that here.

Sure.

Uh good morning, Mayor and Council.

So each of the departments have a set of performance metrics.

You see some of those in the proposed budget document, uh, and that is just a sample of those metrics that each of our departments uh compile on a daily basis.

So when we are looking at reductions or additions to the budget, the departments provide us part of the justification, what are those metrics that will be impacted by those changes that we're making.

So for example, um animal care services, they have strategic plan and they have certain metrics that we're trying to address, like our getting to 100% of responding to our critical calls.

So that's how the departments um are tying those uh strategic plans for those departments that have them, and how we're making sure that our initiatives are moving forward those goals or or potentially how we're impacting them with the decisions that we're recommending to you all.

Great.

Thank you, Maria.

Mayor, I'll give uh one other example that I think that that I think is important.

Um I mentioned in the presentation about ensuring that the proposed budget did not reduce the number of families that we could help with rental assistance.

And uh based on funding, as we were looking at the metrics, we saw that number was declining.

So uh as as we developed the budget in the summer to me, based on the conversation that you all had and from the community survey and and frankly just being a human being, that's not a number that that we can afford to let go down.

So we made some internal adjustments to ensure we weren't taking backward steps.

So we use the metrics going and coming sometimes, and and that's another example.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Um and thank you for highlighting again the the guiding principles, which is fund our no-fail missions, minimize long-term risk to our most uh most vulnerable and minimize any uh long-term risks as a result of changes in the budget.

Um as we go through the the budget workshops, my direction would be to help us understand geographically and by uh by certain uh frankly most vulnerable demographics, how any changes uh that you've proposed here in the budget, um, how that is illuminated in in those changes and how we might need to be considerate of those.

Um when we, as I've talked about, we want to also be the city wants to be considered an employer of choice.

Um, and I understand uh you know what 13 million looks like if everybody gets two percent.

What I'd asked the staff to provide uh the council with um is what an alternative version of that might look like.

Uh for example, if we kept that uh pay increased promise and we worked our way from the bottom up, um, what does that 13.1 million get us?

Um that might not be the answer some folks uh in the audience want to hear, but what I think it does is help us understand, you know, and and what does that get us?

Maybe that gets us everybody under 45k working for the city gets a pay raise.

Yeah, I'd like to understand kind of how far that money goes if we start from the bottom up versus just the two percent flat.

Eric, can you speak to a little bit?

Um you mentioned here the continued kind of structural imbalance um that we will have.

Um but help us as we frankly as we should be doing, and I know you said even a year from now the 27 budget may look very different.

I think for many of us that are taking a longer term outlook on this, what is a little bit scary uh is what 2030 looks like if we don't take make some significant changes.

So can you help us understand this budget in the context of addressing that longer term challenge?

Yes, ma'am.

Um so we do the five-year financial forecast as a as an early warning indicator, it's a best practice that many cities do.

Um and um the the things about a forecast is that it it is it is um based on historical trends and information we have as we transition to the actual budget, we focus on the first two years.

But to your point, Mayor, you know, we we certainly have to continue to be mindful of um of changes that will occur or plans that you all made one to discuss.

Um I just stood up there and talked about a fire department needs assessment that would look at the next five to ten years of what we need to do in terms of adjustments.

Um those type that type of strategic uh viewpoint, whether it's animal care services or police or fire or any of the departments, really kind of uh at the end of the day, we've got a buttress up against you know our capacity.

And our, you know, I I I think I said this at the end it's never gonna be our revenues are never gonna match our expenses event uh exactly.

But as long as we're within one or two percent, um, then I think that's fiscally prudent.

Um and the gap that we shared with you all at the end of June was a three and a half percent increase in but in uh expenses, a one percent increase in revenue, and a ninety-eight million dollar gap in our in our trial budget.

That gap has been narrowed tremendously in terms of adjustments that we're proposing to make in this year's budget, 26.

And I think, Mayor, uh, you know, as we go through the um the budget work sessions and the conversations with the council, um, we will um work to give the council maybe a range of impacts uh that we could potentially see beginning in 28.

That way, that way you all can look uh further down the horizon.

Yeah, I I appreciate that, and that'll be helpful.

I know we've had some initial discussion on uh even reviewing city initiated initiated tours, for example, uh, but understanding frankly how far we can get without making some other changes is going to be important.

Um the I um appreciate the the thoughtfulness around um the um uh the units specifically around the the unhoused um as well as the thoughtfulness around making sure we've got dedicated folks, the capital delivery department.

At this point, did you have either a qualitative or a quantitative assessment about how that helps us either stay on track or meet some of those projects uh sooner than than expected?

Well, other than knowing we need to do better.

Uh no, I'm I'm yeah, yeah, so better than now, guys.

Yeah, so I mean look I I think the the our outreach teams and the relationship with on the homeless side um work well and and need to continue to work well and we need to continue to be responsive to the public in terms of of their uh request for service.

What I think what what I think it will be um uh uh something that moves the needle is a community-wide conversation with other partners about how we are tackling this comprehensively and not as individual organizations.

Um and I think um, you know um Mr.

Carmona uh no pressure, but he you know, part of this relationship building um and strategic advice to me that we can share with you all um to better inform you all as you talk through the housing bond potential in a in an in another uh uh potential municipal bond program.

And and there are clear differences between affordable housing and 30 percent and 50 percent AMI.

And um they're very different than what transitional housing or permanent support of permanent supportive housing looks like.

And I think uh we'll start to see some of that conversation next Wednesday at the budget work session on the homeless side.

On the capital side, uh you know, I did mention it during the presentation, but the the outside consultant who came in conducted a lot of employee focused groups as they developed their recommendations.

And uh probably the most important part of the feedback that I received from them was that the employees knew what we needed to do.

They know they know exactly what we need to do, and they had just as many recommendations on how to improve our communication, our execution.

So uh frankly, I think sometimes it's making sure that we set the train on the rail and ensure that that rail is moving in the right direction.

And uh I was excited to hear that uh and Maria sat in some of those employee focused groups.

Uh the employees are gonna be energized uh and are energized by this new opportunity.

Great.

Uh thanks.

Uh council member Viegeran.

Councilmember Castillo.

Uh thank you, Mary.

Thank you for the budget team for the presentation and for y'all's continued work in ensuring that we always have a balanced budget in front of us.

Uh as I emphasized during the last uh budget conversation, oftentimes when uh council has our list of requests from our constituents as well as our our our wants that we have, it's the city employees that help materialize that project, uh whatever the case may be.

And you know, in terms of the two percent cost of living adjustment, I'd like for us to consider three percent.

Uh I understand your argument, but when we consider the the premium increases, if you have a family, it it essentially nullifies that two percent uh cost of living adjustment.

And looking at some of the fund reductions, I see that some of the employee wellness programs are um set to be eliminated, particularly Personify, which allows employees to uh add funds to cover some of the costs, whether it's like a dental appointment, wherever the case may be.

So I hope that's something that we can reconsider and look how we can address uh some of those pieces.

Uh in terms of things that I'd like clarification on and um if we could get this offline are regarding some of the reductions from the general fund for uh some of our public works pieces, like for example, the flashing stop signs.

Uh I understand that some of the high uh priority areas have been addressed and there's funding to continue to tackle uh 326 more.

Um but before we move forward with the reduction of that piece, I'd like to see uh citywide where those 326 are going to be placed.

Uh, and then also understand, right?

I know many of us have requests for those flashing stop signs.

Is it because we may need to increase support at public works to help get those flashing stop signs installed?

So I just want to understand um, you know, what are the requests that folks have from city council, and then are there issues in terms of installing uh those stop signs.

Um same regarding the radar radar feedback signs.

I know these are a couple of things that my constituents request, and I see there's still funding to install some, uh, but I'd like to see where those are set to be installed before we eliminate um additional funding for that.

Um same thing with the non-service alleyways in district five.

We have uh a lot of non-service alleys.

Uh, public works does a great job at uh helping to address those issues, but of course we're limited in terms of how much funding each council district receives and tackling those pieces.

So shifting over to homelessness and housing, uh, I'm pleased to see within the budget we're actually going to see an increase in homes to participate in the home rehab program despite uh a reduction in funding.

So just grateful for Veronica and her team for um, of course, always meeting our constituents where they are, literally in their homes uh to rehab or whatever the case may be.

Um but I did want to shift over to the fines and fees.

What I heard from district five residents during the code enforcement strategic planning session is that they would like to see more accountability in terms of vacant properties and vacant lots.

So, in terms of some of the proposed increases, I think that would run parallel to what we're hearing from community.

More accountability will likely mean increased fines and fees for vacant lots and overgrown vegetation.

So uh that's something that I would be supportive of.

And then with the proposed increases to traffic violations, uh, if we can receive a heat map or data district by district on where those uh citations are issued, that'd be helpful moving forward uh with the budget discussion.

Uh I did have a question regarding the uh encampment abatements with the five million allocated towards that, is that labor from a specific team or can you help me understand the the allocation of the five million yes, councilman?

Um councilwoman, my name is just Anna Tate on the budget director.

So the money that's uh allocated to the encampment includes both the outreach team from uh the homeless uh services and strategy department as well as funding for solid waste to do the actual cleanup.

Okay.

Um because the question that we get from community, right, is if that five million is shifted towards, for example, investing in permanent supportive housing, how can we help get folks in long-term housing?

But ultimately, a reduction in the five million would be reduction in labor in terms of our outreach workers, correct?

Okay, thank you.

Um those are all my questions.

I look forward to jumping into the weeds of things as we go department by department.

Thank you, Mayor.

Yes.

Uh Councilwoman Altera de Gavito.

Thank you, Mayor.

I want to start by thanking Justina and her team for all the hard work that you all did on this budget.

I know that summer is not necessarily fun for y'all, so I hope y'all get to take the rest y'all y'all need after this.

Um, I also want to congratulate Eric and Ben and y'all's teams for keeping our bond ratings high.

I know that we are, I think all of us feel comfortable that we are a well-run city.

Um, so thank you for for all y'all's efforts there.

Uh I want to reiterate that core services are my residence and my top priority.

Obviously, police, fire infrastructure, animal care services, addressing homelessness.

Um, these are services that we can't afford to negatively impact next year.

So I appreciate all the work that's been done to find uh in if find efficiencies, and I am definitely looking forward to hearing each departmental uh department's but uh presentations regarding homelessness.

I I'm looking forward to to digging in here.

Uh one of the things that we hear that I hear from residents is that we we spend a lot of money here, but there they are also feel like the problem's getting worse.

So, you know, I'm not advocating that we spend less, but I think that we need to be strategic on how we spend that money.

I'm I'm looking forward to the new homeless services and strategy department.

Eric, you just mentioned earlier that we need we need to look at this holistically as a community and understand what the left the left hand needs to understand what the right hand is doing.

Um, you know, maybe there's areas where there's duplication of services, and maybe there's areas that aren't being addressed at all.

Um, but all I know is that I get the feedback that wow, the city spends a lot of money, but this problem is getting worse.

I I do and they feel that it's getting worse.

I I want to thank all of the work done for uh cleaning up homeless encampments.

I know that that's something that our residents ask for a lot.

Um I also want to hear about the success of the low barrier shelters.

Uh you know, let's just let's let's dive deep into that and see what we what we can do there.

Um I also appreciate the focus on prioritizing abatements in sensitive areas such as drainage ditches.

Uh, we've seen a couple of um deaths of of our unsheltered uh residents in in a drainage ditch, and you know, for us they end up in Woodlawn Lake, and that um obviously is scary for a lot of uh folks, and so we need to continue to prioritize drainage channels in particular for cleaning up homeless encampments.

Um in the meantime, obviously investing in effective street outreach, accessible mental health, um, substance and abuse treatment, uh, the eviction prevention and emergency assistance is crucial.

Uh moving on to the capital project delivery department.

I want to congratulate Mike Shannon on his new role.

Where is Mike?

Is he here?

Thanks.

Congratulations, Mike.

Let's give a round of applause for him.

I'm still mad that I have butter from ACS, but um, congratulations on your new role.

Um, you know, I I know that working with Mike in in the previous departments and seeing what he did at ACS.

I I'm I'm really looking forward to his leadership here.

Um public works, you know.

I know I partnered with councilwoman Dr.

Sakor and Councilwoman Castillo on the public works reset.

Um that wasn't easy.

This is a concern that we constantly hear from our residents.

Um, you know, seeing 88 positions vacant in the public works department, I can't help but wonder if that did have an impact uh on the on the service delivery for our residents.

So I want to ensure that we have the proper boots on the ground that the critical positions are filled in the public works department.

I'm also looking forward to can improved communications because that is something for specifically for public works.

That is something that my residents uh let me know about again and again where you know they're they're planning for a project to start on XYZ date and it doesn't two weeks late, and that's very disruptive to their daily lives.

On um slide 25.

I know that councilman White's gonna talk about it, but uh you know, I do want us to continue to explore how adding 65 police officers instead of 25 will look like and and seeing where we can make that happen in our budget.

Um if we can have that that uh information by next week, that would be helpful.

And um, I know councilman white's gonna talk about the memo uh a little bit more.

Also, too, I do have a question.

Can you all fill me in on the 65 park and airport police vacancies and what that's gonna look like yes, councilwoman?

So back in earlier in May, we mentioned that we were gonna transition law enforcement from airport and parks to the police department.

So there are currently 65 vacant positions that are being transferred as part of this budget process to the San Antonio Police Department.

Those will begin the academy classes as we begin the fiscal year to fill those positions.

When we present to you next Tuesday, the chief will elaborate on his plan on how to deploy those positions.

Number one.

Um number two to assure you that there's no gap in service when it comes to continuing to provide safety to both the airport and our parks.

Okay, and and and I'm yes, thank you for mentioning that, Maria, because I'm particularly um concerned about the gap in service for our parks.

You know, I know a lot of our residents use the parks for physical activities, for mental health activities, for for community gatherings, and so we want to make sure that there's no gaps of service.

And one of the things that I had understood from our park police, and this is a while ago, is that they spend so much time driving from park to park, you know, and so all that time driving is less time actually monitoring and being at the park.

So I want to figure out how we make that more efficient uh for them as well.

Yes, fine.

Uh thank you.

On uh animal care services.

Yes, you know, I know that this was an issue I pushed hard on on my first term along with my council colleagues.

So let's definitely keep the momentum going.

We've made great strides in the past, and so um, you know, let's just keep our foot on the gas with that one.

Uh on slide 28.

I am looking forward to the discussion on delegate agencies and seeing where we can uh potentially reduce a duplication of services.

Um, I also want us to explore how we can partner with a county on this.

You know, I know a lot of these delegate agencies uh work with the city and the county, and so I think that this is an area for uh potential partnership and seeing how we can work effectively together with with the county on this, and also too, um, as councilwoman Castillo mentioned.

Um, you know, I I also wanted to see the numbers on a what a three percent cost of living adjustment would look like for city employees.

You know, I often say that uh I have the best team and I know the power of a great team, and the city team is an amazing team, and so I want us to prioritize that and and see what it looks like.

Um I did also want to agree with councilwoman Castillo on the vacant building fines.

That's something that we hear a lot of from residents in District 7.

So I definitely want to explore that as well.

Those are all my comments.

Thanks.

Councilmember Corps.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, so I want to start off by saying great job to the team on the budget process.

I know it's um always tough going into a deficit.

It's not as fun for us either because we have less room to say what the priorities that we saw this last year that we really want y'all to focus on in these next few months, but I'd like to echo some of the things that my colleagues have already said.

One of the things I want to make sure that we do is the consultants that came out um earlier this year to talk about the budgeting process, and Eric mentioned this, um, and the mayor also did too.

I'd love for us to really get strong on performance-based and outcome-based budgeting.

I know our council member White will talk about zero base in a bit, but I really want us to think about how do we really track towards outcomes and performance measures versus just outputs.

So, not how much we're doing, but how much of an impact we're making because of what we're doing.

So I I thought they did a great job presenting to us when they came earlier this year, so would love to see what I know they're gonna come back and hopefully really focus on some departments and try to start uh uh department at a time to figure out exactly what we want to track towards um big goal-wise.

And then uh just wanted to get a clarification on this COLA because the when you mentioned the five percent premium.

Is that to our employees or are we covering that?

No, ma'am, it's an increase in the employee premium.

Um dependent on what plan they're on.

Um dependent on the number of dependents it would have uh an 86 cent impact per month up to 32 dollars in our most expensive plan with the family.

Okay, and when we do when we do the compensation HR budget work session, we'll lay that out and and lay out some of the alternatives you guys are talking about.

Okay, I misunderstood that because I thought we were covering the increase in the premium.

Um, but so I would support what my both of my council colleagues have just said.

Let's please look at what uh at least a three percent would be because it feels like we're giving just a little bit, but then just taking that same thing back for premiums.

Um, as far as the revenue goes, I wanted to say thank you guys for coming up with some of those creative sources for additional revenue.

Um, like was mentioned, I know Councilman Castillo asked for a heat map for traffic incidences.

I think that's really good.

I'm excited about the parking violation increase because my downtown neighborhoods hate when you know their parking violation is cheaper than what it would have been to park at the Alamo Dome for an event.

And so I think seeing that increase is gonna be really helpful for that.

Um, and then also for the new health inspection fee.

I mentioned this when we connected in our briefing, but I'd like to see what the net benefit is for FN or the net charge, maybe is for F and B businesses because I understand that the health inspection fees are increasing, but they also got a reduction based on state law change.

So I just like to see what that is.

Um also is there we talk about illegal dumping, and I know solid waste is not changing in our budget, but I know many of us often see um illegal dumping as a huge problem for our neighborhoods.

Um have we explored looking at increases to fines for illegal dumping?

No, ma'am, that was not one of the areas we looked at, but could potentially look at uh Judge Oblato will be before y'all next Tuesday, and this all always comes several weeks later.

So if that's something that you'd like us to explore, we can look at that as well.

Yeah, I think it would be great to explore that.

And if Judge Obledo could also talk a little bit about how we're getting more stringent on the code, code fees and ACS violation fees, that would be really great so we can see the layout.

Um it was fascinating to me when y'all shared that if you go online and pay a ticket, you're probably going to be paying uh more than if you were to go to court.

So I just want to see the impact of what that looks like.

Uh all right, going into department highlights.

I wanted to say thank you for funding the low barrier shelter.

I know that's been a debate for some of us, but it is important work and we have to continue to do it.

What I'd like to see for the DHS presentation, could we get the one thing I did hear from some of our street outreach folks was that not everyone is actually allowed in the low barrier shelter, that some people are being pushed away.

So I'd like to understand, because in my thought it's low barrier, meaning anyone can actually uh be a resident there.

So if we could figure out how many people have been turned away and why, I would love to see that.

And I I know I'm just gonna make the reach, but I think Councilman Castillo mentioned I know there's additional capacity at that uh at that shelter.

So how and we it's gonna cost more money, but it would be a great exercise for us to understand if we could have more funding allocated to it, how many additional unhouse folks could we serve there.

I'm glad to see that for the fire department that the needs assessment is being done.

I know that's gonna be really important to take a look at long-term impacts for some of our machine equipment, et cetera.

And I want to give a shout out to them because they explained to me the squad program, and it's actually very cool.

Like it's uh a great way to save money and not use our fire engines as much as we need to.

So excited to see that we're increasing support there.

Um councilman Alderata Gavito took my exciting news about public works, but I remember we were all sitting in a session earlier this year, and we were getting a presentation from Mike at ACS, and I was like, Mike, be careful.

This means that you're gonna be we should put them in public works next and try to help find support there.

And lo and behold, you're totally our Swiss Army knife.

And so I can't wait uh to see what you do at the Capital Projects team.

And mostly the thing that I think I really appreciate about Mike is Mike says what he's he says he's gonna do something and then he does it and he follows up with you.

And it might not always be the answer, but it's always about finding a way to get the work done.

Um one of my previous chiefs said it's not no, it's how, and I feel like that's one of your big rules that you live by.

So I'm excited to see what we're gonna get all we're gonna get communication two weeks ahead of time for every single project.

Um we're gonna be able to get all the perfect door hangers and all the bright communication from capital projects.

I know it, Mike.

But that also being said, DSD now you guys got big some big shoes to fill.

So um with the permit with the department for DSDs actually decreasing.

I think we have to really make sure we're looking at the folks that are reviewing our permits and that all of them are trained really well and really well aligned so that folks that are actually applying for that get clear, concise information, and that their service is not uh that deliver we can't let that service delivery drop because we've always been so good in that department.

So we don't want to make sure we want to make sure that that doesn't get affected by the reduction.

So just a one clarification on the the follow-up memo was really helpful on the PCI scores.

I'm super excited about this 500k for redoing our SMP.

And so I am so excited to have like a map and it's gonna show the PCI score and it's gonna with innovative technology because you know that changes every day and it's gonna show the last time the street is I'm putting this out there so that it comes to fruition it's gonna say the last time the street was done and then it's gonna say this is why we're choosing this street and not it's gonna be great.

I know it so I'm really excited about that and I can't wait for it to see done.

But Councilman Author I think so mentioned our public works audit and so when I talked to Eric he mentioned that the new director coming in who I heard was Mike Frisbee is going to do that was a joke.

I heard he's gonna um I heard he or she is going to or they are going to look at that audit and do it internally so I'm requesting and I this is gonna double down if my colleagues will we would like to see what that audit is we don't want it to just be something internal that never gets released so I'm asking for that to make sure it comes back to council.

Absolutely councilwoman and and you know where we're talking about public works I think it's appropriate to recognize that um we we have been recruiting for public works director and hope to make a selection um uh by September uh Razi's last day is uh the end of September so you know uh with your years and years decades of service um we're working to make sure that that transition is is as easy as possible in this focused uh public works area yeah and Rosie's done a great job and we're super grateful for everything that you've done for our community and uh your service to our city is uh has been really incredible uh two real quests if we can squeeze them in in the budget that we don't have um ACS we did this CASA outreach program with some of our uh folks there that went door to door and knocked and talked to residents and it's literally the best way like I love that we're addressing critical calls and it's super important but we have to figure out long-term solutions too and the way we do that is by building relationships so if we can support that program we were able to talk to over 200 families and we saw 125 pets that were not uh sterilized that we could now start building a relationship with those families so a request to see if there's any way to support that program additionally and then the second thing the street light program was mentioned as I understand there's about uh additional capacity that the new contracting team could actually do if they were received more funding there's 3,000 gaps 3,000 lights in the gap analysis if we were to fund it's ridiculous but if we were fund 15 million dollars every year we could knock that program out in two years.

I understand that's probably not going to happen but if we can give even an additional couple million dollars that would be great because we know this is just the gap and there's a lot more need for street lights too.

Thank you mayor.

Thank you council member white man I gotta I gotta follow that thank you mayor uh thank you first of all to um to the budget team yeah y'all do amazing amazing work it's difficult it's tedious it's it's long hours and so we really really do appreciate uh everything you've done um yeah I also want to thank councilwoman castillo because she mentioned it earlier and and we did get to write around her uh her district yesterday and I appreciate the tour and uh really a valuable exercise I think uh prior to the budget because some of the things we've talked about today uh the illegal dumping the vacant properties and things like that uh the councilwoman was able to uh to show me yesterday and and see the needs there and so uh councilwoman thank you uh thank you for that uh very pleased to see that the uh we're not raising the tax rate that that was a was a non-starter for most of it and uh most of us and I'm very pleased with that you know I've said it a lot I don't I don't think we have a revenue problem I think we have a spending problem uh we talk about um property tax revenue and everything staying staying flat or lower uh first I will say uh that that's a good thing um and I uh want to again applaud my colleagues up here that worked with me to maximize the uh property homestead exemption um two two years ago I think that's that's valuable for our residents and and I'm and I'm glad we did it uh what we've got to do is get a handle on on where we're are spending our money uh and I was happy that councilwoman Aldrette Govito again uh you know said those those two words core services uh that is what our residents expect uh to be delivered um in a high quality manner and we need to focus our dollars uh there on the uh on the core services to me um and I'm gonna start right off the top and and uh well let me say this first uh the budget team doing those uh um departmental reviews where we went line by line and talked about you know the expenses and what we really need um that is of course wading into uh my favorite three words of zero

To me, um, and I'm gonna start right off the top and and uh well let me say this first.

Uh the budget team doing those uh um departmental reviews where we went line by line and talked about you know the expenses and what we really need.

Um that is of course wading into uh my favorite three words of zero base budgeting.

And uh I think we found it valuable here because we found some inefficiencies, we found some dollars that we could then uh move to to other areas, and a reminder for my council colleagues again that that is what zero-based budgeting is all about.

It's not about cutting, right?

It's about finding the areas where we're spending needlessly, wastefully, uh redundantly, taking that money and then moving it to the priorities of our citizens.

And so uh I'm looking forward to that discussion uh later in the year on how we're gonna begin to implement this new process.

And yes, councilwoman core, I understand hybrid process, ZBB performance based, outcome-based, um, we're gonna get somewhere uh that I think was going to help improve our our budgeting process.

With that said, we've got to talk about public safety because everybody up here every single year, every budget conversation says that public safety is our number one priority.

And if that is the case, then adding the officers that we need in this budget to get to the 360 more quickly, right?

Needs to be a priority.

To me, it's not well, can we add the full 65?

Should we only do the 25?

No.

If public safety is the number one priority, you start with adding the 65 officers like the plan was, and then you build the rest of the budget around it.

So I am extremely disappointed to only see funding for an additional 25 uh new officers in this budget.

Um, and in that light, um some of my council colleagues and I have signed um a memorandum, Eric, which we're gonna which we're gonna send you later today.

Um, and we and uh Maria, we talked about it the other day, and I mentioned to you that this would be coming.

Just to ask you if we were to go from the 25 to the 65, what would that look like?

Where would we move the money uh in the budget to accommodate the funding of those additional um 40 officers?

So appreciate you guys uh in advance looking into that because I do think it's very important uh that that we stick to the plan because again, everybody will remember the plan here is to have more officers on patrol rather than on call.

And we've seen what the studies show when we put more officers on the ground, particularly in the high crime areas, crime goes down.

And there's nothing more important, I don't think, to anybody up here uh than keeping our residents uh safe and keeping their property uh safe as well.

The low barrier shelter.

Uh I am going to uh respectfully um disagree with my council colleague in district one.

Um 4.8 million dollars for this low barrier shelter.

Um as the city manager stated, we've been doing this during with uh with ARPA money, it's now run out, and this was my fear that now we would take money from the general fund and do that.

Uh I I think it was said that this is gonna serve you know 450 people.

Um I would like to know what percentage occupancy the hotel has has uh has had over the last year or so, but when you look at 4.8 million dollars for 450 people, you know, some would say to me, well, Mark, that's just a little over 10,000 a person.

And so is it isn't this a good investment?

The the issue here though is uh could that 4.8 million dollars uh be spent in a different manner?

Um one of the ways is what I just mentioned.

We could add the 40 uh officers to the budget with some of that money, right?

So would we rather use that money uh keeping um people in our neighborhoods safe, keeping their property safe, or do we want to do um this this low barrier shelter?

So I I think we really need to take a hard look and have a discussion on if that's something uh that we really want to do.

Um I'd also like to know who who is being uh housed uh at this low barrier shelter are these uh San Antonio residents.

Uh delegate agencies 28 million dollars.

Um very much looking forward to having that conversation.

I think you said in the fall or or next year.

Starting next Wednesday.

Starting next Wednesday, even better.

Um the days of every group coming to us every year, 250,000 for you, 500,000 for you, 750,000 for you, those days have to stop.

Uh we need to require these delegate agencies to show us what they've been receiving and how that money has had an impact for right.

What is the return on investment uh for the city, and if they're asking for more money, what exactly are they gonna do with that money?

What results can we expect?

Uh we cannot just continue to dole out money uh to all these different agencies every every single year.

I want to echo my colleagues' uh sentiments on the three percent, Eric, for uh see what that looks like for our employees.

I mean, you guys work so hard, our our council staff's work uh work so hard, and um it it hurts me that that we wouldn't be able to do that three percent.

So I certainly uh echo my colleagues' sentiment there and see what what we can do there.

Um Mike, I I again everybody up here has already said it.

Uh you're the man, congratulations on the new spot.

Um I know it's gonna it's gonna work out great for you uh as well as for the city uh and the residents of San Antonio.

Uh Rosie, um I'm glad Sook mentioned it.

You you you have been a um real joy to work with over the last two years.

Every single time um I've called and and needed something, you've you've found a way to make it happen and and and make it happen quickly.

And uh what a what a tough job you have had.

It's it's a huge department and so much going on, and uh you work so hard and you always do it with a with a smile and and in a manner that I I know uh that all of my colleagues really um uh really respect and appreciate.

So thank you for for all your work um for the city of San Antonio.

Uh that's what I have for now.

I'm very much looking forward to these briefings coming up over the next uh couple of weeks and uh hearing from my colleagues about what their districts need and really trying to focus our efforts on the needs of the residents, and I'm gonna say it today, and you're gonna hear me probably say it ten more times and say, Mark, you gotta quit saying it, but I'm gonna keep doing it.

Our job when we spend our citizens' tax dollars is to determine how we can most directly and positively impact our residents' day-to-day lives, and I hope we keep that in mind in uh in our discussions over the next couple weeks.

Thanks, Mayor.

Councilmember Spears.

Thank you, Mayor, and I too want to thank uh City Manager Walsh and the whole team.

I know this is a lot of work and effort, and I think you've laid a great foundation for us to work from.

Um I do believe our budget discussion does need to go back to basics, and this means focusing also on our core services, which a lot of my colleagues are saying that they too care the most about.

Um these core services impact the quality of life for all of our residents, and they must be and remain the top priority.

As San Antonio is growing, we do have a greater demand for our essential services.

I'm just gonna say it.

I I want the 100 officers still.

I I'm to me the 65 is the floor.

We need a hundred.

Let's get the 100.

And um, so I'm asking that we look at increasing our police recruitment numbers and expedite getting to that goal of the 60 percent of proactive patrol officers.

Um I also want to see that we are adding additional squads for the fire department.

These are investments that keep our neighborhoods safe and connected and thriving, and what my residents are asking for and quite frankly deserve.

Um that being said, our personnel are who make these services possible.

Uh every mile of the streets are paved, every 911 call answered, every code enforcement visit, and every park that's maintained depend on the commitment of our employees.

So I think the their contributions to the quality of life in our city are invaluable, and I support that we find a way to keep the employee cola adjustment at the 3%.

Uh cost of living increased doesn't keep pace with them, that does not keep pace with inflation, needs our means that our employees are ineffective effectively earning.

I'm stumbling over my words.

Effectively earning less money year over year to remain with the city, and that's just not right.

They are they are doing so much to serve all of us.

Um with regard to ARPA dollars, I think we need to be mindful that these dollars were meant to be spent on one-time expenses and not meant to sustain programs and projects.

So I'm asking that we please review and prepare information regarding any programs that are reliant on ARPA dollars and address how we can minimize any impact on our general fund.

And further, how can we redirect our dollars to core services in a more fiscally responsible way?

Realizing that this may mean we rework and eliminate programs or initiatives that are reliant on ARPA dollars but cannot sustain themselves, or that we find are inefficient or ineffective.

Um I do want to echo what a lot of my colleagues are already saying, which is uh the the need, highlighting the need and emphasize that we need to collaborate with the county, other suburban cities, and our community pot partners to be the most effective with tax dollars and reduce redundancies.

I think this is gonna be key moving forward.

Let's see.

So that being said, again, we do need to be careful stewards of our tax dollars.

Um managing our spending doesn't mean we have to cut vital services.

It means that we're just asking those tough questions about every program and administrative expense to ensure our dollars are going where they have the most impact.

I do have just a couple of questions that we can dive into as we are moving through the budget process.

I do see the airport has a huge chunk of the capital budget this year, and I just want to make sure that we're tracking how those improvements turn into more jobs and economic growth for San Antonio.

Um our budget, it's relying on shifting eligible costs to capital funds.

So we need to make sure this that we're not overloading the capital budget and creating long-term debt obligations for short-term operational needs.

Um then I wanted to ask have we received from greater SATX information about potential economic impacts from businesses that are coming to San Antonio over the next two years, and could we expect to see any potential relief?

So those are some of the things I'm highlighting, but do you have something on that?

I was just gonna add that we will incorporate your questions into the work sessions and and um both on the airport and um uh economic impact and um and then in the economic development department potentials we see generally over the next uh twelve to twenty-four months.

Great.

I really appreciate it.

So that's all I have for now.

I look forward to all the budget sessions that we have coming out.

Thanks.

Great.

Councilmember Castillo Angiano.

Awesome.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I just want to say thank you to the city staff and Eric for putting the presentation together.

I know when I got that 700 plus page binder, I was very excited to just kind of tear into that and rip it open.

Um, even though I'm a very slow reader, so I don't know if I'll finish it during my two months, but I will most definitely try.

Um but I do want to make a quick statement for the tours.

I've been working with Councilman McGee Rodriguez on some budget amendments, and tomorrow I'll send that memo to all of y'all listing those items and with the major budget deficit, uh, one of District 2's tools is the inner city tours, which basically just allows uh investment in historically underserved parts of town, and it's basically just gonna include capital improvements, designs, uh land acquisition, and some community programs, and so my request is that we just pre-authorize these items similarly to what was done last year.

Uh that way they don't impact the general fund, and so I would appreciate my colleagues' support uh including those um items for pre-authorization, and I'll get with you all today uh to talk about that.

But I do want to transition to the city employment compensation or sorry, city employee compens uh station.

I'm definitely want to echo uh my colleagues with the three percent COLA uh for city uh employees.

I think that um you know we definitely want to, you know, um ensure the retention of city employees and just make sure that our team has the resources uh that we need to do the high quality work.

And then uh I do want to dig into the homeless services um since this is basically my expertise.

Uh so are we maintaining our investment in services to prevent homelessness?

Like, for example, is the rental assistance also going to be moved into that department.

No, sir, it's not.

No, it'll be it'll still be housed within the housing off uh neighborhood housing services.

Okay.

Okay.

Uh thank you for uh clarifying that.

And then um also I I guess I wanted to know what the plan was for encampment sweeps uh and where we are planning on placing houses, folks.

Uh, because I know that we kind of can't just pick them up, move them without a plan in place.

And I know that there's only 28 uh detox beds available in the county, and I think we should maybe look at investing more in this area, or if possible, relocate some of that funding that we give to nonprofits uh to add to that care, uh, because not a lot of folks want to go to Haven for various reasons.

Um and so it's kind of difficult for us to forcefully pick these folks up without their um I guess approval.

So I I'd be really interested in looking at that.

Um and I don't think that encampment sweeps are helpful, and I think that they only cause more harm in our communities.

Um this is the uh community that I work with, and at Thrive I see it firsthand that forced displacement and property seizure can just strip people of their essential necessities like tents and sleeping bags, hygiene products, medication, and important documents like IDs or birth certificates.

And when it comes to encampment sweeps, uh most often these items are damaged or lost, which can be pretty devastating and traumatizing, and sweeps just also disrupt social networks within those encampments, leaving individuals just more vulnerable and isolated.

Um, and this can definitely um make one's mental health worse.

And I know that there's also a health concern like lack of access to water to use the restroom or shower, which can eventually cause chronic or infectious diseases, sometimes leading um to death.

And um sweeps are just often most violent in that law enforcement does not come in a compassionate holistic approach and is often more hostile to our own house.

Um I've witnessed it with my own eyes, so I can attest to that.

And I don't think that sweeps are or I should say that I I think sweeps are not or are a waste of city money, and that I don't think that this addresses the root cause of homelessness, like a lack of affordable housing, um, and I know that they're also costly.

I actually did some deep diving and found that the average cost of sweeps was about 1600 to 6,000 across different nations, uh or sorry, across different cities in the nations.

And I I guess I wanted to see if we know what the average cost was for encampment sweeps here in San Antonio, or it can we find that anywhere.

We'll provide that at the work session for uh for human um for actually that that work session is next uh next Wednesday.

So we'll include that average cost.

Awesome.

Perfect, thank you.

And then uh do we know if our current outreach workers receive hazardous pay?

And if not, I definitely would like to advocate for higher wages for the outreach team uh because they work super hard and they do a lot of work that's trauma informed and it's also mentally and emotionally draining.

And I know that we have a very high uh turnover in these homeless outreach positions that impacts our ability to respond to folks experiencing homelessness and our ability to address um the concerns for homelessness.

So I think that we need to retain the quality folks in these positions who can build the relationships with folks living on these streets and those with relationships we can build trust and just help more people feel safe to accept acceptance.

And then I did want to transition to uh police changes.

And I I know that this is a little uh tough to get into because I know that it considering the police budget is difficult to cut back.

Um, but I I guess I want to look at reducing our investment here because every time we hire new officers, we lock ourselves into future investments required by the CBA.

And when residents respond to surveys, we need to make a distinction between crime reduction and policy response time uh after the crime occurs.

And so if we are concerned with maintaining uh reduction in crime, then we need to continue our increase uh investment in the integrated community safety office, which works to bring about the holistic approach to reducing crime in our neighborhoods.

And so I guess my question is do we know if we're going to increase our investment in this department?

Councilman, um we um for the Office of Integrated Community Safety, uh we transitioned a position over the year.

Um so you'll see an increase of one personnel in the office.

That's that's a change that we that we have.

Awesome.

Thank you for the clarification.

Um and then I I do want to lastly echo uh councilman Castillo's on the absentee property fee.

Um I I guess I wanted to see if there was a max fee that we can charge Councilman, uh what you will see in the proposed budget is that we're increasing the registration fee.

Uh what you will see in the proposed budget is that we're increasing the registration fee.

Um Councilwoman Castillo had asked about the fine, and we'll cover that next week.

My understanding is 500 is a max by state law.

So today the the we can go up to that amount.

Awesome.

Thank you.

I think that's all the notes that I have for today.

Thank you.

Really appreciate the clarification.

Councilmember Mungia.

Again, thank you to the budget team for all the work and preparing this.

And uh there were so many times I passed by and saw Maria's car here along with everybody else's at late at night.

So thank you all for all that.

Um just a couple notes for ACS.

I saw we did have some critical call uh response time, which was pretty high.

And I'm hoping in the presentation for that department, we do see the non-critical call section, because I know that's another piece that you know a lot of our residents are still asking about.

And also hopefully we can get to that point, but we can talk about the D4 ACO position.

That's something I brought up before.

I think it was districts one through five, had a district-specific animal care officer.

Uh and I think those have been reassigned to cover the critical call load, uh, which is great, but I want to know a timeline when we might expect those to come back to our district.

Uh also echo the comments on civilian compensation.

I was actually at a HOA meeting last night, and uh there's a civilian employee who said you guys can give us two percent, but our health care is gonna go up five percent, and it didn't make sense to him, right?

So I think we gotta do better up to three percent, especially considering that.

I will also um echo the personify health benefits uh inclusion.

I know a lot of our employees um do extra steps during the day just to get up to a certain level to add something to their HSA account.

Um so I think that's very beneficial for our residents.

I mean our employees for the fire department.

I do support, of course, the two extra squads uh for support, and I'd like to know the two stations I think y'all talked about adding that to.

Fire station 10 and fire station 21.

Okay, where are those?

Fire station 10 is off uh is over there by uh Little Flower Church.

And fire station 21 is down here off of uh South Floors.

Um and we'll be we'll have a new fire station a little bit further down the street uh here in about a year and a half.

Okay, great.

I think that's very important, and I know uh last fiscal year we were able to get an extra squad for the south side.

I want to make sure that's maintained.

Uh, because as you know, D4 does not have a hospital right now uh in operation.

So that is um people's emergency line uh is the fire department.

I agree also with the street light gap.

I like to see when we get to that point where we are on that status, and also looking at the procedures for right-of-way um authority because uh the electrical lighting necessitated right-of-way entry, especially for trenching.

The solar lights do not.

Um so it's effectively the same work we do with sidewalks, which we do not require signatures for.

So that could be a faster process to get these done quicker if we're still doing the old system versus what we could do with the new system.

Uh and again, I'll I'll stress that with that light gap as many lights as it has in it, um, was evaluated under the current UDC process, which I would argue is still um not where folks have the expectation for lighting.

So I think in the next UDC we'll look at closing that gap for street lights, which will mean that even if this gets completed, there will be more lights in the future needed based on that.

Uh and the budget presentation, does it include uh CIP funding for each district that we typically get?

No, sir, it does not.

Okay.

So I want my colleagues to know that, right?

Because we all utilize that, and I know that's uh that's a debt um, you know, funding, so um that's very important to many of us.

And on public works, I have to say again, um, thank you to Rosie.

I think you're probably the happiest person in the room right now based on your time.

And uh look forward to working with you, Michael.

I think uh we'll give you a task force for public work since you're really good at those.

Um so and again, when it comes to the low beer shelter, you know, I would say to my colleagues that that have some concern about that, we should definitely look into it.

I would say that when it comes to low barrier shelter, that is a hundred percent zero income going into that development, which is why it costs so much to do that.

When you look at other affordable housing projects, right, 30 to 60 to 80 percent AMI, there is still income coming in to finance that project.

For homeless shelters, there is no income at all coming into that.

So that's why those projects are are very expensive to do, and I think we should do of course our due diligence to making sure that's a good investment, but um we don't have enough.

And I'll tell you right now, most of this is concentrated in the center city.

And so when you have folks in my district at the edge of the city uh bordering the county, um, they're not gonna go downtown to the hotel here, right?

So we do have to kind of look at some mobility when it comes to shelters.

Uh and I think there's some good ideas on that.

And when it comes to the uh police, which a few folks have mentioned the 6040 plan is what's informing the growth of the police department currently.

Um and I know that was something that was passed um, you know, probably the last council.

Technically, there are six new people sitting up here that haven't had the benefit to see that plan or the details of that, or what's been done since that's been enacted.

Um and we talked about the proactive plan that UTSA did that we've been undergoing.

It has been my understanding that the officers who have been doing the proactive work at those hotspots have been safe officers, which this is adding to patrol, which is not safe.

So these are not officers that are doing that program.

So when we get to that presentation, I would hope that we have more information on that.

I'd also like to have more information on where we are with the core team uh because as we're talking about mental health care and mental health services, uh, and unfortunately, tragedies that continue to ensue with folks experiencing mental health crises, that's extremely important.

Uh that goes hand in hand with our the work on our homeless uh outreach.

So I'd like to see that.

And last night at the HOA meeting, someone else brought up the SAPD Explorer program.

They stated that parents um have covered their cost of the program, but the city has not covered their ends, so I don't know where we are with that program.

Uh, but I hope that that's not going away or if it is, we need to know that uh to explore that a little bit more.

And those are all my questions and comments for now.

Councilmember Galvan.

Thank you so much, Mayor.

And thank you to city managers, your team, as well as of course all city department leaders and staff members who did it's excruciating work throughout the entire summer.

I know uh there's a couple times when I was getting my my feet wet a little bit that I would come in uh and Marie and I would see each other going the opposite way later at night uh than we should have been.

Um but it speaks to the work that we're doing, right?

And so I want to say thank you on that.

I I feel silly for for jumping in after Councilmember, because a lot of those same points I echo.

So just all the points you said, make sure to add me on those.

The D6 and D4 on the same pieces there.

Um I wanted to mention, of course, my focus going into the budget process overall um and these future budgets as we continue to go forward with seeing kind of deficits that we're looking at or expecting is to ensure that any adjustments uh in our spending don't undermine our communities' health um and resiliency as much as we can.

Um I have quite a bit of concerns um around metro health, sustainability, DHS, and the parks adjustments, um, but I'll save those for those conversations.

Uh so I'm gonna focus more today, of course, on the structural changes presented.

Um first thing I wanted to talk about was the homeless uh services department.

Um Eric, can you clarify for me what the exact budget is for the department?

I think the presentation slide had 30 million, but page 56 of the budget says 14.69 million, the page 44 where it shows our chart has 4 million.

So I just want to figure out what that is for that department specifically.

Yes, so the total 30.4 million includes both um general fund, the homeless services and strategy department, but it also includes solid waste funding for their encampment cleanups and code and parks that they work on encampment cleanups.

So it includes that total uh direct investment for the city.

So on the actual homeless budget, the total homeless budget is on uh page for the department, it's about 26.1 million dollars, and that includes the general fund as well as delegate agencies, and then the funding for the low barrier shelter.

Okay, got it.

And then I know there was some clarifications in the budget documents too about outreach uh workers for that piece.

Um is that just the four million that we're focusing on there with the outreach workers, or I'm just a little bit confused of what the department specifically is working on in a day to day compared to the delegate agencies pieces compared to the partnership, the low barrier shelter piece.

I just want to figure out what the department itself is doing on a daily basis.

Um, like what are we directly funding into our from a general fund for that department?

Does that make sense?

Yeah, you you're just looking for it to be broken out.

Yes.

Yeah.

Okay.

Um we'll um all of those are in the the 30 million is the direct investment, regardless of source.

What we'll do is we'll take uh and we can email this to you guys this afternoon.

We'll take the the the portion that's in the homeless uh services and strategy office and break it out by between outreach, the the nonprofit support, the low barrier shelter.

That's what's making up that 20 some odd million dollars.

Got it.

Thank you so much.

That'd be super helpful.

I think upon first glance of looking at it, I was a bit concerned about if the scale of investment for uh homeless services strategy for the seventh largest city in the United States is four million dollars.

I think we're in deep trouble of how actually adjusting this piece and if more support is going towards encampment cleanups versus actually addressing the root causes that is another alarming uh piece there.

And so I understand housing uh NHSD will be supporting these pieces as well as other departments and adult agencies will be supporting but I want to make sure that our investments uh into the actual outreach and the case management is there.

And so I know we'll have the conversation when we get there, but something I really want to focus on with that is definitely the outreach worker positions.

I know we're not in the business at the moment of adding more positions, but I think it's it concerns me that when we're all representing each of uh colleagues on up here over 100,000 people each one of our districts gets one outreach worker for uh DHS work for homeless outreach.

I think that's a concern um given especially some of the large the geographic size of our districts I think about district three, district four and even district six right of course my own going from old highway ninety to our ranch is not that easy um if the highways are not closed.

And so I think that's just something I really want to look at um along with the case management piece of it.

It's one thing to do the outreach um connect with them find the folks who are on the streets make sure they have the resources they need to stay alive but also then to do the case management to make sure that they are going through the each of the steps.

And I know some of the partners do that work too so I want to just kind of figure out what that looks like a bit more and honestly figure out what I mean I think we have strategic plans or some other plans that we've done in the past of how we can really address these pieces.

But I want to kind of do a little refresh I think with the new colleagues up here or new council members up here to figure out what the internal work and external work is and how we can scale up services around not just the outreach itself not just yes the housing itself too especially for PSH specifically but the the work around healthcare the work around uh rehabilitation services the work around sobering centers the work around workforce development even justice related pieces too right thinking about diversion centers thinking about magistration processes and recidivism um how do we make sure that we're addressing all these pieces not only within a general fund but with our partners too and that way I think it just gives maybe just more for myself but also for maybe the full council a better understanding of where are we actually getting at with this what are the outcomes we're gonna get out of this funding.

And yeah and of course the low barrier shelter too and so uh I'm very grateful I will say despite my maybe what sounds to be critiques um I'm very excited to see this department be created because I think it's worth us the focused attention on this issue.

But I think that focused attention also comes with uh the thoughts of what can we do um so want to put those pieces out there and I'm excited to get into that work session.

Uh something else I wanted to look at with public works um it's a bit of uh it's a couple different things.

I was a bit alarmed on the traffic calming funding that I saw within the budget document or budget documents uh saying it's only a million dollars for traffic calming it can only relate to three projects in our city and I know there's other funding that we find other places to make that happen including the CIP funding so I think I want to make sure that that's also allocated in here somewhere.

But I I would like to see or I'd like to learn more about this could be an offline conversation about how our ATD or advanced transportation district can support traffic calming efforts, vision zero efforts and complete street efforts too.

I know some of those pieces are already happening but I would like to see a bigger investment in that if possible just so that we can really have a dedicated fund towards traffic calming towards complete streets and towards uh vision zero efforts um since they're all connected uh and they don't I would like them to not have to buttheads too much with um new uh infrastructure work that we're looking at with like new capital uh delivery department um the CPS policy I know the this council uh has had a lot of conversations about the CPS energy policy and I know uh maybe asking to do another conversation about it but I think it's worthwhile to have a conversation about uh the return of uh dollars that we were getting or giving back to CPS.

I know it here we have the clause in there that says that if we have some deficits that we'll be focusing that money back in our budget but I think uh it's worth a conversation about whether we want to can maintain that policy or not going forward especially looking at 2030 and these next several years.

Stormwater fee this is just something I wanted to throw out there.

Did we evaluate any adjustments to the stormwater fee.

We did not in the proposed budget Councilman but um that is potential discussion as we talk about uh investing in infrastructure we uh and a potential municipal bond.

Okay.

Yeah so we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna come to you on that day when we talk about infrastructure and capital um and throw that out there the stormwater fee is a um is a potential source of of revenue for for debt.

Great.

I think it's something that I really want to look into especially related to impervious cover which is what it does figuring out ways that we can incentivize a reduction in impervious cover.

And if it helps us with our drainage pieces all across the board that's absolutely figure out ways that we can do that without of course it being too much of a burden on residents and non-residents alike or non-residential ratepayers.

Um or non-residential ratepayers.

Um the cost of living adjustment absolutely support um Councilberg Castillo's request on the 3% as well as my other colleagues who supported it, as well as the mayor's piece on looking at a different kind of scaled view on it.

I think that's worthwhile uh taking a look at and just evaluating our options for three percent and even the two percent too, uh, to see what could we what does that money look like if we scale um the cola rather than across the board uh approach.

Um I would also like to see added dollar amounts uh in the presentation about that, seeing what that would look like for our employees, and maybe we can break it out in different pay scales or pay ranges.

I think it's just worth it really helped put in perspective what the premiums would look like.

Uh when Eric you brought that up, I mentioned the kind of cost that it could look like with five dollars or thirty-two dollars or et cetera.

So I think just seeing those numbers would be more helpful than the percentages sometimes.

Um see what time I got.

Okay.

One other piece I wanted to mention was the property tax relief.

I know I mentioned this in my budget goal setting comments was looking at way if there's any data actually before we look at the different approaches.

Is there any data that we have on the household income uh for recipients of tax exemptions?

There's not currently I would like to see that.

We'll have to look about that, Mayor.

Um sorry, councilman.

Um I don't know if we have access to that information.

We could make some we've got the the probably the assessed evaluation of those households.

Right.

And we could we could probably work with the appraisal district to geolocate it, obviously.

Um so we'll we'll look into that.

That'd be great.

I think I just want to make sure that we are doing these kind of relief efforts uh that are more targeted um for folks who desperately need it versus folks who maybe can't afford a bit of an increase in terms of the rising cost of living here in our city and as well as private tax evaluations.

Um I'll save that one for a little bit later.

I spent most of my time, I think, with some of the critiques and concerns.

I want to also mention my support for things.

I know I mentioned the public works changes, very excited for those pieces.

Uh the focus on vacant lot and building fees are really great, something that I really want to see done.

Home service department again supporting that new effort, the fire uh support as well with the enhanced squad units.

I believe I also saw in the budget document that fire station 44 district six will be getting uh some of those improvements.

So that's very exciting as well.

If not, let me know.

Uh we can have that conversation later.

Um ACS, absolutely glad to see that there is more support and continued support in that uh department.

I know it's very much needed.

And I definitely want to mention uh Council Member Gang's point about the kind of dedicated officers within ACS.

Um I know it doesn't necessarily affect district six, but I would like to see a way uh that we can look at maybe uh district five, district six west side piece of it.

Uh there's a lot of uh ACS issues that also relate in the edgewood part of my district as well as even the Marbach area, and so within Inter 410, I think that's something I want to figure out a way that we can do that work too.

That doesn't just stop at the district five borderline but goes across uh West Commerce too.

Um definitely support Councilmember Corra's point on the further neighborhood outreach.

That's something that I was able to do and very happy to have done as a staff member.

I'm excited to get back out there.

I know my staff are always cautiously reminding me that we need to make sure we're ready to go when we go back out to neighborhoods, but I am more than excited to do so and help out where I can with that too, personally.

And then of course as well with the street lighting piece, making sure that we are identifying ways that we can fund those pieces for street lighting too.

And I think I got all my comments in just in time.

Uh council member via Gunn.

Thank you.

Can y'all hear me?

All right.

As we prepare for the year 2026 budget cycle, I want to ensure we enter this session.

Ship ship ship ship ship ships.

As we prepare for the fiscal 20 26 budget cycle, I want to ensure we entered this session with a clear discipline.

Given the current budget deficit, we must confront the fiscal realities head on and make decisions about what remains a priority and what must be scaled back.

Or unfortunately eliminated.

Crafting this budget requires tough choices and thoughtful conversations.

I want to thank City Manager, um Eric Walsh, Maria, Via Gomez, and Justina and the finance department for incorporating the policy and direction provided by my council colleagues at our goals setting sessions.

We also have time for our budget work sessions.

Uh and I will have one of the first town halls Monday, August 18th on 2025 at Southside Lions at 6 p.m.

to discuss priorities.

Yeah, you can come back to me.

Thank you.

Council Member Councilmember, can you hear us?

Councilman.

Yeah, I can hear us.

Thank you, Mayor Camere.

Come here, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Budget.

Um, I'm glad to see that the city has identified redundancies and cut back where necessary without affecting city services.

I echo the city's guiding principles to protect essential and mandated services, minimizing the impact to vulnerable population, and avoiding long-term risk.

I know that as we begin this 30-day review, um, I want to set clear expectations on behalf of my residents in District 8.

Uh that is first and foremost that we ensure that our core municipal services, police, fire, infrastructure, housing, are fully funded, uh staffed, and accessible to residents without any increase in our tax rate.

So I have a couple of questions or a few questions and comments.

Uh the revamping on the street maintenance program, will that continue to come back to full council?

Absolutely.

Okay.

No, we'll do we'll we'll we'll solicit, we'll uh do the report and then uh recommendations from the consultant or the whoever we uh rely upon, we'll come back to the full council.

And does the increase in the just to confirm does the increase in the firefighters include more personnel for their heavy squad units?

Yes, the two enhanced squads that are being proposed include the addition of 12 new uh fire positions to go along with uh six at each of the enhanced uh squads.

And then I think you mentioned earlier the funding to cover some of those smaller additional infrastructure needs.

Is that correct?

Well, we have a deferred maintenance uh program that um keeps up with all municipal facilities, including fire stations.

Uh the the example I gave was that um with the number of facilities we have and square footage we're responsible for in the fire department that needs assessment of our facilities to identify um how we can prioritize and and identify those things that need to be done at the at the fire stations or in the case that maybe fire stations that the consultant may come back to say stop spending money on that old building, uh you need to replace it.

Okay.

I know I know um in District 8 uh fire station 34 and 37.

I know 37 is right on my way home every day, so we're supposed to get some much needed drainage work there and sewage multiple times.

So yeah, and and some sewage uh lift station work there.

Okay, and I know um there was talk about fencing around the firehouse and on firehouse 34.

34 and 35.

Yeah, okay.

34, 35, okay, thank you.

Um let's see, wanted to echo District One's point, uh, making sure that the hiring freeze doesn't create any delays uh in our permitting, and also supporting um her interest in looking at uh any of those fine increases for illegal dumping.

Um I know that we want a safe community but also as a clean community, so I know that's what district eight residents are looking for.

Um as far as the tabletop exercise, the community stakeholders will council have an opportunity to review or recommend any stakeholders to that group.

Yes, ma'am.

I think I think we need to frame out a little bit about what that tabletop looks like and who's involved and and lay out a potential scope, uh proposed scope.

Um and certainly I would envision the council weighing in on that scope.

Um, but I you know, frankly, I'd also like to be able to have the conversation with Ed Bonos at UHS and and Jelynn Jameson and Center for Healthcare Services to get their thoughts on uh what would what would be most productive for all of us.

Okay, thank you.

Uh let's see.

I think I also want to support uh knowing that our professional departments will be most impacted, uh want to make sure that we I support the civilian compensation increase to 3%, uh like many of my colleagues have mentioned.

Um, and considering the federal cuts that we're seeing, um, and support of maintaining funding to our delegate agencies.

Uh also want to make sure that uh Mike Shannon, you've been mentioned a number of times here.

So I welcome you to District 8 uh to share the news about your new role.

Um I know District 8 residents will be very excited to hear that uh we have a a part a department that is focused on uh delivery time, communication, community engagement when we talk about those big capital projects and um bond projects um that are so valuable to our community.

So congratulations on that.

Let's see, I want to last but not least.

I think there's also some uh UT Health approached us about we've talked about mental health services, UT Health approached us about a new opportunity for wellness and transitional care clinics.

Um I don't know if you've been if they've mentioned this to you at all, but related to our first responders mental health support.

Um so ma'am, but we can follow up.

Okay, yeah, if we can talk while talking about that one.

Um let's see.

I think that's it.

I mean, for me, it's really we're we've stated this before.

Uh we are living in unprecedented times.

Um, we're seeing cuts everywhere uh in federal programs and jobs and social services, uh, which really reaffirms my belief that everything starts and ends with local government and the work that we do here every day for our residents.

Um so I look forward to working with my colleagues over this next 30 days uh to bring a budget that uh bring back a budget and approve a budget that protects and strengthens our essential services that make sure that we keep residents uh safe, uh clean um and connected.

Thank you.

Councilmember Castillo.

Thank you, Mayor.

I wanted to chime back in to express support on the importance of county relations as councilwoman Spears emphasized.

Uh oftentimes with many of the delegate agencies, particularly around homeless services in District 5.

We've had conversations about um the contribution of the city as well as the county, and in terms of services being provided to San Antonio residents versus uh folks from outside of city limits to understand the contribution and expectation we should have from the county as well in providing services.

So I think there's lots of value uh in that coordinated effort.

I know uh our service of service providers do have that conversation, but I think a more robust uh agenda in terms of what our expectations are and what metrics we'd like to see would be of value.

In terms of the illegal dumping uh and enforcement, my understanding is we had set aside some funding for some monitors.

Do we know when those are anticipated to be uh put out?

Uh, because my my question concern, even with the increased fines and fees, is uh we need to ensure that um these fees don't remain uncollected, right?

So we're increasing them, but we also want to make sure we're receiving them.

So, one, right, do we know where um those trailers are and when can we anticipate them uh being put throughout our community?

Um, but also right for us to consider and think about how we're going to collect uh those additional fines and fees.

Um in terms of public safety, I I'm uh share the similar sentiment as uh the points rather that Councilman Mongue raised in terms of let's ensure that we're being intentional.

Uh safe continues to be our constituents' request, and if that's not being what's being proposed, I have concerns given that we have been working towards and through the UTSA plan.

So let's ensure that we're being consistent, not uh picking and choosing uh which pieces of the plan that we move forward.

Uh in terms of the arts department, I'm not quite sure, but uh Eric, if you could share, is this a policy discussion or a budget discussion in terms of increasing the hot contribution to the city's arts department?

It would it's more of a budget conversation, Councilwoman.

Yes, ma'am.

Because that's something that I would like to see is uh for us to reevaluate the hot contribution to the city's arts and culture department, right?

We are a city that's growing.

We keep uh continuing to incorporate pieces of the county into the city, and what we hear is the expectation desire for more art pieces.

We know that's uh a huge economic impact to our city.

It creates jobs, um, and we need to ensure that our arts department uh is uh adequately funded.

I know they do a great job with what the budget they have, but I know what I hear from District 5 residents and folks throughout the city is they want uh more support to the arts department.

So I hope I'm hopeful their support for that.

Uh and then of course, uh the CIP funding, this is a bucket of funding we've used to improve infrastructure in District 5, particularly around newly redistricted areas that just have a lot of failed streets, sidewalk gaps.

So it's something that I would like to see incorporated in the budget uh with the upcoming conversations because it's allowed us to meet uh so many needs from providing um shade structures at our parks for our kids and at our senior centers, as well as improving the streets and sidewalks in our community.

Um this is something that would drastically negatively impact District 5 residents if we uh don't see it in the upcoming budget.

It's essentially telling our residents yes, your taxes are going up, yes, your CPLs go, CPS bills going up, but your expectation of a sidewalk is going to have to be pushed further back, and I believe that's uh unacceptable.

So I'm hopeful that we can revisit and um implement uh CIP funding back into the budget.

Uh lastly, in terms of um the points that my colleagues have raised around uh homeless services and our outreach workers, uh again, right?

This is something we see evident, whether it's the Project Marvel Able City survey or the budget survey, homelessness is a priority.

Grateful to see that uh Mark Carmona will be tasked with the um deploying the services and tracking all that really important information.

Um but as my colleagues have mentioned, it's also about having the workers to conduct that outreach, facilitate engagement and to connect folks to the housing that we also need to invest in.

Um just want to ensure that we're not um uh burdening um our outreach workers, which each of us only have one of, and it's the one of the top requested uh items in our district that they have the support they need, whether that's additional personnel and of course the housing necessary.

Um those are the oh, I just wanted to highlight, right?

The public safety concerns uh in terms of the conversation around where we should be investing in public safety.

Um, no matter what district five neighborhood association I go to, their neighborhood uh public safety concerns are primarily around encampments.

Uh and I think it's important that we look into what that public safety concern is and how do we tie it back to the budget, which is supporting our outreach workers, and then of course providing the permanent supportive housing component because it's oftentimes, and I I think I've said this every budget, uh, it's our safe officer is essentially getting grilled about encampments, right?

Uh, and we need to make sure that the housing components taken care of.

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilmember Spears.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just had a couple of things I wanted to add.

Um, and attack on and echo councilman Mungia's point.

Um, D9 is often left out of this conversation surrounding homelessness discuss, but we do have pockets of need and poverty in district nine, and these people deserve to be lifted up as well.

So I would like to see a point-in-time heat map for district nine broken down by demographics, specifically to address different um groups of people that are facing housing insecurity, like our elderly and our veterans, and how we can best address their their specific issues that come up on how they become unhoused.

Um, I want to make sure we're being very impactful and efficient with our spending here.

It's clear we're spending a lot of money on this, and it's clearly an important issue to all of us, but it's complicated, and we need to consider how we're spending these dollars.

Are we just throwing money at the problem and it's not really solving anything?

Um, so I really am looking forward to diving deep into this, and um I really want District 9 to be at the table when it comes to this.

Um, I also want to echo the concerns about the CIP being left out of the budget.

It simply has to go back in.

Um, this brings up a point that I've talked about many times on deferred maintenance.

Um, maintaining our assets is much cheaper than full replacement.

So it's about infrastructure, and I think CIP is a vehicle for us to deliver these essential core services for our constituents.

And the last thing is I just want to remind my district that our town hall will be on Wednesday, August 20th at 6:30 at the Walker Senior Center.

So make time and come because we want to hear your voices.

So thank you so much, Mayor.

Councilmember White.

Yes, uh, real briefly.

Um, Councilman uh Castillo Angriano definitely willing to look into the TURS issue that that you raised that's over in your district.

Um the flashing stop signs that was mentioned earlier by councilwoman Castillo.

I think that that deserves uh uh some consideration as well.

And then I'll echo um Councilman Mungea and my colleagues on the on the CIP and thank you for uh for raising that because I think we uh each district certainly needs some um some CIP dollars.

Thanks.

Uh Councilmember Corr.

Thank you, Mayor.

Also, just chiming back in for support, echoing the inner city tours requests.

I know we were just at our inner city tourist board meeting, and one of the things that they're trying to do is really get some more land banking done so that they can try to continue that development, which is super needed on the east side.

So support that work and also some of the great um after-school programming and just weekend programming that they're doing to engage the community because as some of my council colleagues have mentioned, public safety is more than just um policing, and so we have to make sure we're looking at all of those components.

Um, it's a portion of it, but not the whole thing.

A couple of other things that I wanted to mention.

The I thank you, Councilman Castillo, for flagging that the um flashing stop signs and radar feedback signs were being eliminated.

I saw that 700K in it, and I was like, oh, it's budgeted, and I did not realize that that was in the budget reduction section.

Um, and so that is super, they have been delayed.

We have not been able to install them for the last eight or nine months because Rossi, we know this that the production people have not been able to get us the materials.

But I was at Los Angeles Heights last week, and literally they were cheering me on.

They're like, you got us two flashing stop signs.

Like they were so excited.

The community loves these and the radar feedback signs.

We know we don't have enough officers to go out and give speeding tickets.

So we have to think about more innovative ways to address speeding.

In all of my neighborhoods, residents always tell me, and sometimes it feels like folks are speeding way faster than they are, but people are speeding through our residential streets.

We can't just have a police officer posted up at every big um intersection.

So we need to have more ability to have those radar feedback signs.

So I could literally give you 20 locations right now, and I'm sure all of my colleagues could too.

So please let's look at those uh that funding amount and see if we can bring that back in.

The CIP dollars, also that uh thank y'all for flagging that.

I understand why it's difficult for us to put 10 million dollars into CIP because it's not equitable, it's just dividing it equally.

However, if we are going to do that, we need to have a sidewalk plan because we've talked about this.

Uh the thing that, you know, when people say, what is the thing that keeps you up at night?

I feel like I'm picking winners and losers with sidewalks because I have so many people say we need our sidewalk done.

We estimate it cost it out, and it's three, four hundred thousand dollars for one block or one or one to two blocks of sidewalk, and I only get a million, so that means I'm picking two or three winners a year.

And I and it's honestly why we've been sitting on our dollars, because I've been trying to figure out every single creative way to make a decision, quarter mile radius to a school, uh a tenth of a mile to a bus stop, a tenth of a mile to a university.

Like I've looked at all of those data points to try to make decisions on these, and we still have over 300 projects, and Eric tells me you got to make these decisions, and I understand that, but we need a sidewalk plan.

So if we're gonna take this out, we need to we need to figure out what our sidewalk plan is gonna be because uh I don't want to be the one making the decision, but I need someone to be able to say this is what we're doing to ensure that every single resident in the city has access to a sidewalk, the ones that want them, because I know some of our suburban neighborhoods choose not to have them.

But Eric, are you gonna make a comment on that?

I was just gonna I I didn't mention during the presentation, but you all recall that we have been working to develop that sidewalk plan in and and we started at the core city, then we did within 410, and then it's outside 410.

And and there's 17 million dollars in next year's budget to add sidewalks.

So I I just don't want the the public to hear that that sidewalks is reliant upon the CIP by council district.

We have 17 million dollars in the budget, but certainly there is 17 plus that there isn't there isn't enough, and it's about prioritizing.

And and I think I think to your point, the sidewalk plan and the 17 million, that's gonna get deployed based on access to schools, bus stops, hospitals, and those priority areas to make sure that those those connections are there.

But hearing you loud and clear, we'll make sure we cover that in the public works presentation.

And if that plan is being done, is it having funding associated with how much it would cost for all of that?

Well, incrementally, incrementally, we're doing that through our annual budget.

I suspect that could be to be potentially a conversation in the municipal bond program.

Yeah, I think we would need to know how much, you know, I understand they're doing an analysis, but what's the what's the cost?

What is it gonna take for us so that we know how much to budget for that?

Um, and then the last thing I didn't get to shout out Mark, so I I know some of my council colleagues already did, but I wanted to shout out Mark for getting um for leading this new department.

I think it's a great decision, Eric, and I love that you recommended it.

I think uh Mark has had some really great leadership in housing and having us really think about this as a housing solution, right?

Because it's not a houseless, an unhoused population and then um affordable housing.

All of that is intertwined.

So I agree with um my council colleagues' comments on that, and just wanted to say that I'm looking forward to seeing that work moving forward.

Thanks, Mayor.

Councilmember Mungia.

Sort of a couple points.

You know, a lot of our residents took the time to do a budget survey, and part of that survey included um, you know, top departments with the greatest need and the greatest improvement requested.

So I hope when we dive into this, we can kind of look at those departments that were on that survey and outline some things we're doing to improve services there.

I I don't think it would be helpful to residents if we saw that information and just decided to put that aside and and continue on.

Um real quick question This was funding last fiscal year and supposed to be this fiscal year for the chest nonprofit.

Is that this funding still included this fiscal year?

Okay, that's that's as long as you said yes.

Okay.

Um and when it comes to you know, another point on homelessness, uh, Mark, I'd love to sit down and talk to you more.

There was a survey, there was a CCR that I wrote as a staffer that talked about um working with uh religious institutions to do work with homelessness because there's a lot of folks out there that want to help.

Uh it's my argument that they are exempt from zoning laws and zoning rules, so they would be able to have more flexibility without going through the whole trouble of zoning battles um for homeless shelters.

And then yeah, would it accord, of course, when it comes to flashing stop signs, we've got to do more.

I've had to supplement that work a lot through NAMP.

So I personally have sent out a lot of NAT memos uh for flashing stop signs in our neighborhood.

Um and then the citywide program is 10 per district or was that individual stop signs, not 10 locations.

So if you have a four-way intersection, that's four, not one location.

So just a good point.

Thank you.

Councilmember Aldret Gabito.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just wanted to um also reiterate the importance of our CIP budget.

You know, uh as councilwoman core pointed out, sidewalks are so uh w keeps me up at night too, right?

Because they're so costly, but they're so needed.

Um there was a story that I saw this morning.

I don't know if it was on KSAT or Ken's, but it's about little kids biking to school, right?

Um, and how we need to have safe streets so kids can bike to school.

And it actually touches on councilman Galvan's point about safe streets, vision zero, all of this stuff is intertwined.

Um so we that it's imperative that we have our CIP budget because that is how we deliver on these crucial projects for our residents.

So just wanted to echo my sentiments there.

Thanks.

Councilmember Galvan.

Thank you, Mayor.

Just wanted to chime back in for some piece of support.

Um definitely the flashing stop signs want to support that piece too, and hopefully the ATD can help with that if we're looking into that.

Um also really want to uh shout out Council Mary Castillo for the piece on increasing the hot uh piece towards uh more arts and culture is something that I missed in my first 10 minutes uh because I have a idea that I want to run by staff soon with the C CR about an Office of Music uh and film to figure out ways that we can continue supporting the local contributions to film and music here in our city.

And I think that's a great way to do that.

But that is a policy conversation.

Uh there'll be a bit more of that.

I know City Clerk is doing some stuff with that too.

So we can always do dual efforts.

Um but making sure that's uh properly funded has a good pieces there to continue that work.

Um the last thing I wanted to mention was something uh I promised at my last ACS uh headquarters visit, which is I wanted to make sure I'm shouting out their marketing team for ACS to continue doing what they're doing, and that uh it's just an incredible piece of making sure that we're getting the services out there to our community, getting people to know what's going on there.

Um and they're just incredibly creative, uh, and so it's something that my team aspires to, as well as my personal self on how to make sure that we're marketing things that we do with city council.

Um but just wanted to mention, make sure I fulfilled that promise of the folks that I talked to there.

Thank you.

Great.

Have all members that wanted to speak spoken.

Okay, great.

Um I think you um heard today, Eric, uh uh quite a bit of interest in in plusing up some services, uh, whether they be core or or not core.

Um I I would reiterate to my colleagues, um, well, let me just say thanks again to all the hard work.

Um we have an opportunity actually, not only in these sessions, um, but also as part of our ongoing um discussions about economic development efforts uh to set ourselves up for success, not only ourselves up for success, uh, but certainly the council that'll sit in this seat in five, ten years from now uh when we look at things uh like not only the uh return on investment of of um city initiated tours or whether you're looking looking at the economic development initiatives uh that we provide for for private entities, uh and certainly as we are thinking about um uh the ongoing discussions with the Spurs and things like revenue sharing, all of those things which help which would go to help uh strengthen our general fund.

So whether you're talking about cops or a sidewalk plan or the arts, uh we can help uh not only our again uh be cognizant of ways we can strengthen that.

Um so I look forward to very thoughtful discussion with my colleagues um in this day though about potential offsets uh given where we are, the hard work that has been done uh to get to where we are.

There's frankly just not a lot of give.

Okay.

Eric, do you have the council direction that you need?

Yes, ma'am, we're gonna be ready on Tuesday.

Great.

Okay, let's move on to item four, uh, which is for action.

City clerk, please read the caption.

Item number four and number four is an ordinance setting the city's proposed maintenance and operation tax rate at 33.009 cents of per 100 dollar of taxable valuation, and the city's projected proposed debt service tax rate at 21.150 cents per 100 dollars of taxable valuation as recommended in the FY20 26 proposed budget.

There is no increase in the city's property tax rate.

Madam Clerk, do we have members of the public signed up to speak on this item?

We have one member of the public signed up to speak, Jack Finger.

Okay.

Mr.

Fingo, you have three minutes.

So now would be the time to speak, sir, if you'd like to.

Three minutes.

Madam Mayor, other members of our illustrious San Antonio City Council.

For the record, my name is Jack M.

Finger.

And uh I uh upon hearing the earlier conversations and upon hearing the uh looking at the backup documents.

I I uh I decided I would use some some audio visuals here to kind of uh help me rem offer my remarks here.

Uh this is what you saw a little bit earlier, property to tax prop taxable property values there.

Okay, you look at the toward the bottom of that page, it says cities rate remains at 54.159 per 100 valuation.

Well, we had heard rumors that it was gonna we were going to get a tax cut.

Very minuscule, mind you, but uh still tax cut maybe 0.0001 percent or something.

But no, we could not even get that from you, the city council.

And so now if you look further up in the middle of that page in yellow, it says uh base values, uh estimate to fiscal year 2025.

That means that the average property tax owner, his property tax bill increased about two or three percent, two point sixty-seven percent.

And uh uh f further on and and later on for the future, uh your your experts are predicting that in parentheses when it says in parentheses point zero z 0.9 percent, somebody's expecting a recession or or a lot of people to move out out of their homes and have a lot of vacant housing around.

Yes, uh uh that that's what we are being faced with.

But see, in other words, our tax bills have increased even though use advertised no no new taxes there.

Mr.

Audiovisual man, turn the page if you would the very next page.

There you go, property tax relief.

It says now you're gonna say, well, Jack, we give property tax relief, but uh not really.

If you look at this, those various uh categories, homestead exemptions, over age 65, disabled persons, child care percent.

Those are just a very small fra fractions, factions of the the big uh revenue that you have.

The average taxpayer, we we don't get anything decent.

We really if you really wanted to give us a decent tax cut, it'd be more than just a 0.000.

You'd actually give us uh something like 10 percent tax cut to to compensate for all the tax increases we we've had over the last 10, 20 years or so.

Uh continue the next page, Mr.

Audi Visual Man.

Yeah, maybe and if you really want to get give us a something good, why don't you give us back our CPS tax uh money that we that is essentially goes to the city?

Or even better than that, give us a ta our sales tax uh rebate.

I mean, shucks, why why not?

Huh?

You really want this is how we the taxpayer would get money to put back in our pocket, spend on things for the city, which you will in turn get more uh money from there.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there a motion and a second for approval?

Second?

It has been moved in a second to to approve item four.

I know this was discussed with item three, but is there any further council discussion?

Great.

There being no further discussion, there's a motion and a second for approval of item number four, please vote.

She's not joining us, she's not joining us.

Okay, okay.

The motion carries.

Let's move on to item five, which is for action.

Madam Clerk, please read the caption.

Item number five is an ordinance setting the date, time, and place for two budget public hearings and two ad valorum tax rate public hearings.

Uh Madam Clerk, do we have members of the public signed up to speak on this item?

There's no one signed up to speak.

Okay.

Is there a motion and second for approval?

Okay, great.

I know this was discussed with item three, but is there any other further council discussion?

Okay.

It has been moved and seconded to approve item five.

Um there being no further discussion.

Uh there's a motion and second for approval of item number five.

Please vote.

Great.

Motion carries.

The next item is uh city manager's report.

Eric, do you have a report today?

Yes, ma'am.

Uh two items uh that I wanted to share with the council.

Um this summer um here recently, uh, Metro Health received two national awards from the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

Um, one in the Model Practice Award and specifically around the department's initiative around uh employee engagement um and an employee engagement leadership program.

And the second was a uh promising practice award, which focused on Metro Health's work uh with the resource center at Via Coronado and uh was earned for its community-driven approach uh to addressing food insecurity in San Antonio.

So those submissions undergo a pretty rigorous process uh in peer evaluation.

So I wanted to congratulate uh Dr.

Dr.

Jacob and the entire Metro Health team for that recognition.

And then lastly, Mayor, uh just a reminder for the council.

The first day of school for our four our uh four pre-K for essay uh schools is Monday, August 18th.

Um if you've um if you haven't been to the first day of school at uh one of our pre-K centers, it um it's pretty amazing to see uh nearly 2,000 students show up uh for the first time.

Uh a lot of excitement.

Um and uh in other good news, the pre-K for essay did open up applications for uh infants and toddlers uh on Friday, August 8th.

And we'll be opening our new South Center uh with this year's school year.

So if you're interested in in attending or showing up, uh please reach out to Dr.

Bray or myself or Alex Lopez.

But it is uh certainly exciting to uh to be there on that on that opening morning.

That's the report, Mayor.

Thank you.

Congratulations to uh Dr.

Jacob Jacob and uh Dr.

Bray, Godspeed.

Um thank you, Eric.

Uh that is the conclusion of our business.

The time is now 12, 11 p.m.

and this meeting is adjourned.