San Antonio Budget Work Session on Fire, Police, and Municipal Court - August 19, 2025
San Antonio Budget Work Session on Fire, Police, and Municipal Court - August 19, 2025
The City of San Antonio held a budget work session on August 19, 2025, from 2:00 PM to 5:19 PM, focusing on proposed fiscal year 2026 budgets for the Fire Department (SAFD), Police Department (SAPD), and Municipal Court. Mayor and Council reviewed staffing, response times, crime statistics, and initiatives.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Joe Jones, President of the San Antonio Firefighters Association, expressed concerns about rising response times (currently 8:26 minutes) and the need for a fourth shift to alleviate burnout and workload on firefighters, who work 56-hour weeks. He noted that squads help but are not sufficient and emphasized that a fourth shift would improve safety and reduce stress.
Discussion Items
- Fire Department (SAFD): Chief Frosto presented the proposed $443.6 million budget, including two new squad units (12 positions) to reduce response times at stations 10 and 21, a needs assessment ($1.4 million) for staffing, equipment, and facilities, and drone purchases ($291,000). Medical calls constitute 80% of incidents. Response times are slightly above the 8-minute benchmark. Reductions include $1 million in overtime management and line-item cuts without service impact.
- Police Department (SAPD): Chief McManus presented the proposed $655.8 million budget, highlighting a 15.1% decrease in total reported crime year-to-date, continued addition of officers (25 in FY26, with a goal of 360 over 3-5 years to achieve 60% proactive patrol time), and infrastructure investments like the South Flores police station. Revenue enhancements include updated alarm permit fees. Reductions include overtime savings via shift restructuring and administrative adjustments.
- Integrated Community Safety and SA CORE: Maria Vargas and Jesse Higgins reported on the violent crime reduction strategy, including hotspot policing (10% violent crime reduction), problem-oriented policing at specific apartment complexes, and the SA CORE program (4,486 mental health calls dispatched, only 1 arrest, 2,303 follow-up engagements). The Good Neighbor Program addresses chronic nuisance properties.
- Municipal Court: Judge Obleto and Clerk Fred Garcia presented the proposed $13.9 million general fund budget. They highlighted specialty dockets (e.g., Road Ready, Community Court), juvenile diversion programs (371 youth participated), and procedural justice principles. Case filings are increasing. Municipal court handles Class C misdemeanors, code violations, and magistration services.
- Councilmember Questions and Concerns:
- Mayor requested data on medical incidents by age and geography, and analysis of fire department needs relative to downtown high-rise development.
- Councilmember White and others advocated for funding 65 new police officers (current plan: 25) to reach patrol staffing goals faster, costing an additional $2.1 million in FY26.
- Councilmember Castillo Angiano argued for investments in lighting over additional police, citing diminishing returns and a 30% safety improvement from lighting.
- Councilmember Viagran raised dual magistration duplication and requested data from the court to counter the consultant's report.
- Councilmember Galvan inquired about overtime drivers (minimum staffing and FLSA) and suggested increased staffing could reduce overtime costs long-term.
- Councilmember Core emphasized the need for innovative enforcement for speeding and quality-of-life issues, not just patrol expansion.
- Councilmember Mungia asked about proactive time documentation and the impact of specialized units (SA CORE, SAFE) on patrol workload.
- Councilmember Spears supported the needs assessment and highlighted the potential of MIH and fourth shift discussions.
Key Outcomes
- SAFD Needs Assessment Approved for Funding: The $1.4 million comprehensive assessment will proceed, focusing on staffing, equipment, and facilities to guide future investments.
- Police Officer Addition Debated: While the proposed budget includes 25 new patrol officers, several councilmembers pushed for increasing to 65 at an additional $2.1 million; Mayor directed staff to provide more data on staffing analysis and proactive time metrics.
- Follow-Up Items: City Manager Eric Walsh committed to providing a follow-up memo by Friday close of business, including:
- Breakdown of crime reduction by council district.
- Data on medical incident demographics for fire department.
- Analysis of officer per capita compared to other Texas cities.
- Briefing on dual magistration process with municipal court.
- Information on AI technology prototypes and privacy protections.
- Future Briefings: Council will receive a briefing on magistration efficiency and the AI pilot before final budget action.
Meeting Transcript
Good afternoon. The time is now 2 p.m. on Tuesday, August 19th, 2025, and the City of San Antonio budget work session is called to order. Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Councilmember Corps. Councilmember Castillo Angiano. Councilmember Viagran. Here. Councilmember Mungia. Present. Councilmember Castillo. Here. Councilmember Galvan. Councilmember Adarete Gavito. Councilmember Mesa Gonzalez. Present. Councilmember Spears. Councilmember White. Here. Ma'am, we have a quorum. Great. Thank you, Madam Clerk. All right. So this meeting is to hear about budgets for the fire and police departments and the municipal court. I think it's appropriate as we talked about our priority budgets. The first the three things that we have to do our guiding principles, which is one, fund our no-fail missions, make sure that those have the those that are keeping us safe have the resources to do that, fire police, EMS. Make sure we are minimizing any impacts to our most vulnerable and make sure that any changes in our budget, we minimize any long-term risks in our approach. So Eric, are you ready to begin the staff presentations? Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. We'll start off with Chief Rostow transition to Chief McManus helping a portion of Chief McMahon's presentation will be Maria Vargas and Jesse Higgins from Metro Health. And then we'll round out with Judge Obledow and Fred Garcia from municipal courts. Chief. To start, next slide, please. I will be covering a few topics today. We will be reviewing the staffing, the resources, the equipment, some of our capabilities, and the proposed budget for next year, as well as the initiatives and capital projects. So I'd like to start off by introducing my new command staff, which consists of three deputy chiefs. There's also six assistant chiefs. Deputy Chief Christopher Monister oversees the administrative services division, and uh Deputy Chief Brandon Murray oversees emergency services and all of operations, which includes fire, EMS, as well as MIH. In the center, uh the picture is Deputy Chief Brian O'Neill, who oversees support services. He is also our emergency management coordinator overseeing the the city's uh emergency operations center. Together, this leadership team is actively engaged on a daily basis with every division of the department, and like me, they're committed to maintaining effective services and excellent customer service. So next we have the department overview, and as you'll see, we'll we have close to 1,900 uniformed employees supported by 129 civilian employees, and this slide provides a good snapshot of everything that makes our mission possible. The majority of our staff operates out of 54 fire stations, and we maintain our own fleet in a constant state of readiness, and we also have specialized teams such as the aircraft rescue and firefighting, the tech rescue team, the Hazmat response team, and the wildfire response team as well. Obviously, behind every response is a steady pipeline of well-trained men and women who are ready to step up and serve. So here we take a look at the cadet classes and the paramedic training classes for fiscal year 2025. We have two cadet classes that graduated for a combined total of 80 firefighters and two paramedic classes. Next in uh fiscal year 2026, we are projecting two cadet classes with a combined total of 97 firefighters graduating and one EMS class of 20. The current class is the 25 Alpha class, which has 45 cadets graduating in December.
openpublica.com