The time is now 2 p.m.

on Tuesday, September 9th in the City of San Antonio.

Budget work session is called to order.

Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Council member core.

Councilmember Castillo Angelo.

Council Member Via Gran.

Councilmember Mungia.

Councilmember Castillo here.

Councilmember Galván.

Here.

Councilmember Alderete Gavito.

Here.

Councilmember Mesa Gonzalez.

Councilmember Spears.

Councilmember White.

Mayor Jones.

Sure.

Mayor we have corn.

Great.

Thanks, Madam Clerk.

This meeting is to hear about the budgets for the parks and recreation and solid waste management operations.

Eric, over to you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

So we'll start off with Homer and the Parks Department, and then Josephine from Solid Waste will give her a presentation.

Homer.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

My name is Homer Garcia the third director for the Parks and Recreation Department.

Want to thank you for the opportunity to present our uh fiscal year 2026 operating budget.

And uh before I begin, I do want to acknowledge and thank a few of our team members that are with us today.

So our executive team, Melinda Cerda over Park Operations is here.

Want to thank her for her work, as well as Nikki Ramos, our assistant director over recreation services, athletics, aquatics, uh, and also some other members of our senior leadership team and many that are listening.

Thank you for your work in helping us do what we do.

And this slide is a presentation overview.

And before I begin covering, I want to extend the thanks to Eric Walsh and the executive leadership team.

Thank you for your help in guidance and developing this budget.

Uh, we are one of four comprehensive budget review departments, and so we worked very closely with Justina Tate and her budget team as well as Kate Kinovate Kate Kinnison in Innovation and her team.

So just want to thank them again for their efforts in helping put together our proposed budget uh that I will review today.

So I'm gonna provide an overview of the department so you get a kind of lay of the land, certainly what our proposed spend plan is.

I will detail the findings of the comprehensive budget review.

We do have some additional reductions that are uh recommended, and then I'm gonna close and and focus really on our core services, our initiatives, key programs, and then provide a summary in the end.

I want to go ahead and begin by acknowledging the hard work of our team, more than 500 strong.

So in 2022, we became a nationally accredited department.

We are the second largest park system that is accredited, and that is demonstrating compliance with 154 standards.

We are up for reaccreditation in 2027.

That effort is led by Lynn Kinton, our park administrator, but it took everybody to achieve that mark.

I also want to highlight in 2024 that we became uh we have certified our safety certification effectively, and that's really critical because we really focus on safety first with our team, making sure that they have the resources that do their job.

It's not just about uh the the training and the commodity side of it, but making sure that they're have safety in everything they do.

If we're not taking care of our team, then they're not gonna be able to meet the demands and needs of the community.

And lastly, I want to highlight uh we are a gold wedding gold medal award finalist for this year.

A year ago, we received a state gold medal award uh from our state affiliate, which is a Texas Recreation and Park Society.

That indicated that we're the best in what we do in the state of Texas.

We are up for now a national gold medal award, uh, and we'll know the results of that next week.

So more to come there.

So we have uh our three executives here again, Homer Garcia Director, Melinda Certa.

She's over operations and maintenance, and this provides just a brief overview of some of the primary things that her team focuses on.

Certainly uh park sanitation, keeping uh access to our parks open, but making sure that they're clean and and functional for the community's use.

That includes our skilled trades team uh as well as our urban forestry division.

Nikki on the other side of the house is over recreation and community engagement.

So you'll see later in the slide.

We have a vast portfolio of programming in the department uh under her leadership.

It's not only our uh 28 recreational facilities, uh all of our pools and oversees our community engagement, and so all three of us work seamlessly in managing our team of more than 500 strong in support of them and certainly in support of one another and the work that we do.

So this is just a small sampling of our park system.

We are vast.

We have more than 270 parks, more than 260 miles of trail.

Little nuance here.

Many of you are familiar with our greenway trail system, which is more than 100 miles of built trail encompassing San Antonio.

This is inclusive of all trails within our park system as well.

So that means there's really a trail near almost everybody in Sanitario that wants to access one.

We have numerous uh pavilions which are great congregate setting settings for the community to come together and celebrate whatever the moment is.

We have 28 recreation centers.

I'll detail the profile of those here a little bit later in the slide, and also some other popular amenities such as dog parks, uh, and that number is continuing to grow.

This slide provides an overview of our general fund budget, and you'll see that this has grown by 21 million since 2119, and really this is a direct reflection of keeping pace with the resources needed to manage our growing park system.

I would do want to take a uh highlight a couple of them.

One of them is Clausen Stubing Ranch Park in District 9.

For those not familiar, that was really transformational for the community because there just was not a lot of open fields.

This changed that.

We also have uh the Berkeley V and Vincent M.

Dawson Park, um small acre uh in district two, excuse me, small parcel in district two located adjacent to the Hay Street Bridge, but there's a lot in there, so that was also very high profile project coming online for our park system.

And another example, of course, here downtown District 1, Civic Park.

Now, over this time, we have also opened up 45 additional miles of Greenway Trails.

So, again, this is a direct reflection of keeping pace with the resources needed to manage our park system.

So, across all funds, the parks department proposed budget is more than 111 million dollars.

I did highlight the the general fund at just under 74.

Want to take a moment to unpack just a little bit our restricted funds, that is at just under 18 million, and that is comprised uh of our environmental fund.

So that comes in right at 11.6 million, and for uh those that may not know, or as a reminder, this is the $1.50 environmental fee that appears on CPS bills for residents.

Also in these restricted funds is our city cemeteries.

Uh those dollars go directly to the operations and management of those locations, uh the historic cemeteries on the east side, and then uh as well as our tree mitigation fund.

I will detail that later in the presentation, but that's really largely what comprises those restricted funds.

I also want to point out uh part of this 111 million dollars is just under 20 million dollars for capital projects of particular note.

There is uh more than half of that, 10 million to be exact, is for continued protection of the aquifer uh Edward Dog for Protection Program, which again I will also detail that later in the presentation.

So across all funds, 111 million dollars to manage this uh vast portfolio.

So I'm gonna detail the results of the comprehensive budget review.

I mentioned earlier this process really started last fall, working very closely with budget office and innovation team, and 1.27 million was identified in reductions, and it's in three primary areas.

Uh the first being mowing.

When the current year budget was adopted, we had appropriated dollars in anticipation of a higher cost of service.

When bids came in, they were friendly, lower than we thought, and so these dollars are being captured back into the general fund, but the level of service and mowing schedules is not being impacted.

That is not changing.

Second is uh temporary staff hours.

We see here right sizing the budget to the tune of 200 623,000 dollars in fiscal year 24 and through, and that that's the data set, but through this comprehensive budget review, working with uh innovation and in the budget office, we identified uh several classes where there was zero participation, and and so for us, what that showed is we had a legacy approach in place to how we program these facilities.

The model was every room, every hour, and that presents an opportunity for us to hit reset as we look to how can we do things differently that meets the needs of the community and programming that they want to see and utilize, and then lastly, there was a data-driven approach to our uh how we maintain and keep our parks accessible, clean, and functional for the community to use, and that resulted in a reduction of two vacant maintenance workers at a price point of 116,000 dollars, and this was a data-driven process looking at time study analysis for how long it takes to get into the field, and then based on the size of the park, its usage, the amenities in the park, what does it take to actually provide services to to keep them clean and then move on to the next location?

And so, through this, again, we realize an opportunity to how can we better do that?

So we're looking at implementing a secondary reporting location right now.

All of that team, they report to our Ron Darner headquarters uh right behind Wolf Stadium on the west side.

In this instance, we have a facility in District 2 on the east side.

For anybody who's familiar with Wheatley Heights, uh on the south end, there's an administrative building that was not being used.

We are repurposing that and going through the process to stand up a satellite reporting location to get our teams out into the field quicker and providing services to the community.

Additionally, we have identified 480,000 in reductions.

The vast majority of that is comprised of six vacant positions.

Those are detailed on the slide, uh and that represents just under 400,000.

All of these duties have been absorbed by existing staff, meeting current service levels and not changing anything going forward.

There's been a commensurate adjustment in budget line items associated with that, uh, just over $92,000 on contracts and commodities, and then a slight modification there with our temporary staff budget.

So, all combined, in addition to the comprehensive budget review uh findings, some additional reductions are identified here.

So, one of the things that throughout uh it really is a reminder in the work that we do every day, but was a highlight through this uh process this past year under the comprehensive budget review is really focusing on our core services, operations and maintenance are a core service for the parks and recreation department, uh, and we focus on making sure that parks are accessible and clean for the community to use, functional.

We know that we have a team that goes out and makes sure bathrooms are clean and litters picked up.

Additionally, we have a skilled trades team that responds to repairs needed, whether it's identified through the community via 311 or things that we see when we go out that need attention.

That includes our urban, our uh urban forest and necessary tree maintenance.

At the same time, as we highlighted earlier, we know that we're one year further into the bond program than a year ago, and so there's uh just under $677,000 for keeping pace with the resources needed to manage that park system, this growing park system.

This reflect is a reflection of uh 1.7 miles of trails, one in district five.

This is a West College Link, which does include a trailhead, but also a trail connection to Salado Creek in District 9 also includes a trailhead.

We have two new projects that are also parks coming online in District 6 at Suzette Noor, and then uh Bush and Chutes Park, which is a new park via the bond as well.

And all of this is to say uh these are the resources needed to keep pace with the growing park system.

I talked earlier about dog parks being very popular.

We have two more coming online, one at Beacon Hill and one at Concepcion Park.

Uh so again, making sure that project delivery and demand by the community is being met in our uh planned programming and investments.

Another core service for the department is recreation programming, and the focus here is really looking at removing barriers to access.

As we go through this, and I'll detail some of this uh here shortly.

A lot of our programming, it's free or low cost, and so in doing so, we have that's what drives our work plan across 28 facilities, quick profile of our 28 locations.

We have 19 full service centers, and what that means is they're highly attended, and so we have programming in place.

This is where we have the legacy model for every room, every hour.

We also have five open play centers.

What that means is people can come in and tailor use of the facility to their liking, whether it's to read a book, connect to Wi-Fi, go to the gym and play, you know, game a horse.

Um, but we have little to no programming in these instances, but looking at our attendees to date in the current year, 70 percent 70 percent of them are youth ages six and up.

And then we do have four adult and senior centers serving uh ages 18 and up.

And so I talked about the comprehensive budget review and looking at focusing on quality uh not quantity, and so one of the things uh above and beyond that, we wanted to take an opportunity to look at well, how can we do that?

So we're looking at moving towards providing structured programming at peak demand times for all ages, and this includes toddlers and general recreational offerings.

So, under the new model, the 19 community centers will increase hours open to the community.

The current schedule of 2 to 9 p.m.

Most weekdays will move to 10 a.m.

to 8 p.m.

We're able to accomplish this by one simple thing adjusting staff schedules.

This enhances the utilization of the facilities of parks and in alignment with peer cities as well.

Our core service extends to programming beyond our bricks and mortar facilities.

We have fitness, athletics, and aquatics.

All in all, when you look at our offerings, more than 95% are free to the community, and that's not gonna change in the upcoming year.

Looking at free fitness classes, that will remain and continue.

Um athletics, again, we have flag football and basketball leagues, those are low-cost offerings to the community, and aquatics primary component of that is our pool season that just concluded, those are free and open to the community.

We provide free group uh lessons and low-cost individual swim lessons, and one of the things that uh we will also be introducing new in fitness is looking at expanding the hours of Woodlawn Gym.

So over the past year, we've utilized Wheatley Heights as a fitness hub, and based on programming in response there, there's opportunity to expand that looking at taking advantage of the captive audience and why people are coming to the facility.

So, again, that is something that we're able to expand and do as just part of our uh base budget and core service delivery.

I do want to highlight that apart from the bond, we have some additional capital projects that are funded to the tune of 8.7 million dollars.

The biggest part of that is gonna be uh year three implementation of a five-year program to introduce shade uh over playgrounds to date.

We have uh done this and completed 24 installations citywide in fiscal year 26, 11 more locations will uh receive shade over playgrounds.

That work will begin this fall and be completed by the end of May ahead of the hot season.

Additionally, Davis Scott YMCA located at Pittman Sullivan Park in District 2.

Uh, we have a identified in the budget 3.2 million dollars for boiler and air handler replacement.

That is a project that will be led by the building equipment and services department, but we're gonna be collaborating and working closely with the YMCA so that's a coordinated effort again with the goal of uh minimal impact to operations.

And while we have a vast system that we maintain, I do want to highlight you know some key projects that we have planned for this year, and again, I think demonstrates the focus on the parks team, uh making sure that our facilities is accessible and functional for the community to use.

So we have three listed projects here, uh, some improvements at uh Denver Heights in District 2, normal oil pool will receive some needed maintenance in district five, and also in district five roof renovation at South Send Center, these will not impact public access or operating hours.

I highlighted earlier in the presentation, and this is one of our uh restricted use funds, the Edwards Aquifer Protection Program.

So this program has been in the making since 2000, and during that time uh, or over this time and as recently as last week, uh we have continued to protect and add properties to our portfolio to date, 166,000 properties protected and more than 187,000 acres over the aquifer.

And as we move from a sales tax plan to funding it to a new funding model through the San Antonio Municipal Facilities Corporation, that is a 100 million tenure plan.

We are entering year four.

I mentioned earlier that of our capital budget 19.7, more than half is for aquifer protection, and and that's what this represents.

Uh, we as of right now, I have targeted seven properties based on willing landowners.

This is a voluntary participation program, and so proper property owners don't want to uh participate in it, then the land acquisition team looks at those that do targeting seven properties, nearly 2,400 acres.

And this moves us closer to significant milestone as we will be approaching 190,000 acres protected over the aquifer.

Um, and and I do want to highlight a couple things.

You know, in the work that we do where it makes sense and where we have opportunity, we look to leverage our local dollars.

Under this program, we've been able to successfully do so over the years with more than 32 million dollars additional to the city's um local dollars to protect the aquifer, and these are through partnerships with uh USDA, uh Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Department of Defense, and we anticipate that there will be future opportunities to continue to leverage these dollars.

And I do want to take a moment um to thank the conservation advisory board chaired by Dr.

Francine Romedo for their guidance in helping the team make sure that we're focused where we need to be uh and cities council support for continuing the program.

Similarly, I think uh from when I hear from some of my peers in the industry, I get asked a lot about our greenway trail system.

Uh this program also has been a quarter century in the making.

To date, we have uh more than 102 miles completed with additional ones coming online.

Uh, in the current bond, there was 103.5 million dollars that voters approved for continued investment and expanding this trail system, with the goal being a trail contiguous trail system around San Antonio.

And so uh currently 49 million dollars in production, and this will grow to 60 million over the next year.

Also want to highlight the uh county's contribution to seeing the value in our trail system and wanting to invest in that.

The in February of 22 council approved a tri-party interlocal agreement, the city, county, and the river authority, and the county in that uh in that ILA is looking at investing more than 83 million dollars over a 10-year uh tenure period, much like we protect aquifer in the same manner, they appropriate those dollars through their budget process, and so what's really exciting is um the first project is about to get out of the gate this fall with them, uh, and this is along Sassamora Creek from Adarete to Tierra del Sol Parks.

This is spanning districts five and six, more than two miles coming online, and 11 million dollars of counties investment in the trail system.

So implementing the plan as designed.

I also want to take a moment to acknowledge the work of the Linear Creek Advisory Board chaired by John Kent for their continued guidance and helping make sure that the plan that's laid out is actually what we're focused on delivering.

Earlier in the presentation, I talked about one of our restricted use funds, 6.2 million dollars.

Do you want to point out this is vastly uh lower than a year ago, and that is a direct reflection of available revenue tied to the development community, and and so I wanted to kind of provide a little bit of a reset on on what this restricted use fund is.

It is really focused on targeting the establishment and care of trees planted through the fund, both on public and private properties.

So on the front end, development services department, they're looking at these permits, they're tracking to see uh revenue coming into the fund on the back end, the parks department, we program those dollars, and um I'm gonna outline here exactly how that's done.

So, in the current or in the proposed, excuse me, uh FY26 budget, we will be getting more than 11,000 trees planted and adopted out into the community.

The focal point of that is really through our residential tree plantings, which will introduce nearly 1,200 trees, and we do that in two primary ways.

We have our uh enterprise approach, multi-tiered strategy through uh cool neighborhoods, working uh with our uh and our team in sustainability and resiliency to make sure that our we're bringing our effort to the table, and that is getting residents that want to participate in the program a tree at no cost to them, and that is done.

It includes utility locates, working with the resident to see what type of native shade tree that they want, and then we do the installation all at the convenience of the homeowner, and on when that's done, we're engaging them, making sure that they have the education uh needed to care for that tree going forward.

Also, apart from cool neighborhoods, uh, we have our community program, and that is a very very popular program.

And I want to highlight that um since fiscal year 20, so over the last five years, there's been a hyper focus on residential tree planting and making sure residents are getting them.

To that end, we've connected residents to nearly 8,000 trees, and we're gonna be adding to that in the proposed budget.

That track record has led us to uh state recognition uh with the community tree program.

We're receiving their gold leaf award.

This is through the Texas AM Forest Service, and that will be happening later this month.

Uh Ross Jose is with us today.

He does a fantastic job leading that team.

So I want to take a moment to thank them for the hard work, and again, a reflection of making sure that we're getting trees to those in most need.

Beyond residential tree planting, we also look to make sure that we're keeping pace in leveraging.

Talked about leveraging funds a moment ago in the Aqua Protection Program, same here.

So in the bond, we have identified projects that we can attribute and direct tree dollars to extend service delivery.

Uh, and so this represents 2.4 million dollars across parks, linear trail bonds, and street bonds.

And you know, I want to point out that you know what guides our work is not just the collaboration with sustainability and resiliency, but some of the work at UTSA.

So they have developed a heat vulnerability assessment tool.

So these projects that they more than half of them, or excuse me, all street bond and half of the park brawn are in these high heat vulnerability areas.

Examples include South Brazos from Alison Creek to Apache Creek in District 5, Calabra Road in District 7, and in the case of parks, Harlando Park located in District 3.

Moving on from leveraging these with other uh capital projects in education and programming, we continue to focus on making sure that there's education going out to the community relative to Oak Wilt.

Uh that's been a long-standing practice.

Uh, and also I would say almost equally uh competitive with our community program, our tree adoptions and giveaways.

So we uh will get out more than 8,800 trees to the community across 60 events citywide.

And I want to take a moment to talk a little about urban forestry explorers in the team.

We often try to look at where our business segments it's appropriate to cross-pollinate.

So a little bit of context here.

Um, this was delivered in our summer youth program and will continue in fiscal year 26, but it was really looking at engaging our youth so that they understand basic tree biology, the benefits of trees, and the overall wonderment of trees.

It is delivered over several modules, and at the end, they have an activity book to take home to share with their family.

So, this is something that we have received a very positive response for, and we will continue to do.

So, this work will continue in fiscal year 26, and that is something that the park parks department will continue to lead on and work with the vendor in in making sure again proper uh the the work plans being delivered as intended.

So to summarize, I want to just really reflect on, you know, our approach going forward is an enhanced delivery model across the entire department.

We've seen what that looks like in our operations team and also recreation services.

And we're doing that by implementing the recommendations and the hard work that came out of the last several months through the comprehensive budget review process that is a satellite location on the east side at Wheatley Heights.

And you know, one of the things that we're gonna be looking at is because we are moving to a new model way of doing business, is making sure that we're monitoring the effectiveness of that, and that we're calibrating appropriately along the way based on what we're seeing in the field once things are implemented and feedback that we're getting, whether it's from residents directly through 311 and certainly um city council relative to our uh community centers, right?

Above and beyond and outside of CBR.

We identified again, take a moment to reset and how can we better connect the community to our facilities.

And so we will begin working to implement uh those hours for or the new hours for our community centers.

We're not losing sight, we are an accredited park agency, and our goal is to remain the second largest uh accredited park agency uh when that opportunity arises in 2027.

And I want to close with our continued collaboration with our partners.

The work that we do, it goes beyond the 500 uh team members that we have.

You know, they serve as a force multiplier, frankly, to make sure that our partners are an extension of what what we can do and can achieve.

Most current example.

So Denver Heights is in District 2, and um the library we know has a renovation project going on the Carver where they had to, it's effectively almost a two-year project, and they were looking for a place to provide services still in the area of interest.

And Denver Heights was one of those locations that was more tailored use, not fully programmed.

So I reached out to Secret and offered Denver Heights, went and took a tour, a couple of short meetings later with their team and our team.

We now have Denver Heights open to the community, providing library services and not at the expense of park services.

So co-located, really building on a synergy or really creating a synergy that didn't exist before, frankly.

And I offer that as one example of how we go about our work and what's going to continue to drive that.

Um that is a good reflection of our parks work ethic that is guided by excellence, equity, empowerment, and engagement in all that we do.

This concludes my presentation.

Of course, the team will be here to answer questions, and I'm gonna turn it over to Josephine.

Thank you.

So good afternoon.

Ooh, good a little bit too loud there.

So good afternoon, uh, mayor and city council.

My name is uh Josephine Valencia.

I am the director of solid waste management.

Uh before I start my presentation, I just want to make a brief uh acknowledgement for the other members of the executive team out here.

I'm sure many of you know uh Nick Gallis and Andrew Gutierrez who work for our department.

Uh our newest member of the executive team, Andrew Gutierrez.

I don't know how many of you, I'm sorry, not Andrew with Gilbert uh Gilbert, um, who is work for our department for many years, but now he has moved into the assistant director position.

I'm sure you guys are gonna be working with him very closely in the future.

So today I'm gonna be uh giving you an overview of our department as well as our proposed budget and highlight our service priorities for next year.

So at a very at a very high level, uh we provide uh cart collection services to our residents.

We also provide curbside brush and bulky collection.

We operate four drop-off centers, a fleet division, and we provide a variety of services on demand by appointment.

Other services that we provide on a citywide basis include our illegal dumping and homeless encampment cleanups.

So our budget is consists of two uh two separate funds.

The operating and maintenance fund that is the main solid waste fund.

It is an enterprise fund, receives no tax dollars from the city, it is funded by user fees for our department.

We also have a separate fleet services fund.

This is an internal services fund that is funded by the work that we do for solid waste and other departments as well.

So our budget, our main budget, 64% of our main operating budget comes from is used to fund our curbside services.

That would be our cart collections as well as our brush and bulky collections combined.

The two funds are roughly just over 193 million dollars.

Okay.

So the positions.

With these with the split of public works into uh into two different departments that leads Solid Waste as the largest civilian department with 808 employees.

As I mentioned before, we are an enterprise fund.

So we provide cart collection services primarily to single family homes.

We offer our carts in three different sizes.

The smaller the cart, the smaller the fee.

So we currently are projecting about 382,000 solid waste ratepayers for next uh for next fiscal year.

In addition to the solid waste fee, there is a separate environmental fee.

This is a separate environmental fee from the parks fee.

So parks and solid waste both have environmental fees.

Our $3 environmental fee is assessed on a larger customer base.

So the solid waste fee is only charged to folks who get cart service.

The environmental fee is charged to everyone, including residents who live in apartments as well as as well as commercial entities.

So our three carts uh come in three colors, three services.

Garbage is our brown cart, our recycling is our blue cart, organics is our green is our green cart.

We provide weekly service for each of these uh for each of these services.

Combined, we come to your home almost fit almost 60 million times a year.

And 99.9% of the time we get your cart on time on the day that we're supposed to.

But when you're talking about such large volumes, when you're talking about 60 million collections, that 0.08 that are missed, that that equals a large number.

That's about a 49,000 missed calls a year.

Our numbers have gotten better, and we think we can do even better next year, and that's what I want to talk about next.

We are in the process of rolling out what we are calling the smart collection systems or SCS.

So if you look at the photograph on top, that's roughly about half of our drivers how they do the collections right now.

This system has been rolled out rolled out to about half of our trucks so far.

So the old system is basically a paper map and a pencil.

It's very easy for a driver to make a mistake when this is how they are providing their collection.

Our veteran drivers, they probably have their routes memorized, but our newer employees and even some of our veterans drivers who may be covering for someone else, let's say a driver is on vacation and they are driving a new route, we give them a paper map and hope for the best.

So what we're doing right now is we're we're rolling out a navigation system.

It's a tablet that you can see on the in the photograph on the bottom.

This is probably similar to navigations you may have in your car right now on your phone with a few extras.

I don't know if you can make it out on the photo, but there's dots on there are dots on this tablet.

Each one of these dots corresponds to a customer.

And as the driver stops in front of each house, that dot changes color.

So that gives a driver a quick visual assessment that lets him know whether or not he serviced the cart or not.

So while he is still in the area, he can, if he missed an area, he can go back.

This will eliminate the costly go backs at the end of the day.

The other things that are associated with this is service verification.

This system ties into our existing camera system.

So when the driver comes by the house, we have video we have video recordings of that.

So if a resident were to call later and say, hey, you missed us, we can pull up the video and find out did the driver really miss it, or is the cart not out when we stop by?

The other thing that the system does is log exceptions.

Because sometimes when we miss a cart, we didn't really miss it.

We left it behind on purpose.

Maybe, for example, the cart was a recycling cart full of contamination and we wouldn't collect it.

So this system would allow us to the driver to press a button, log that it's exception, and then the supervisor would know which addresses were not collected and allow us to follow up.

The other thing that this system does is assist with billing reconciliation.

As I mentioned, all of these dots are associated with a customer.

So let's say we have a driver coming by, he sees a whole bunch of carts on a new street, he'll absolutely service them.

But if there is no dot, that means there is no bill.

So that'll be able our staff on the billing office to kind of uh follow up with these locations to make sure that they are being built correctly.

I'm sure many of you are familiar with our brush and bulky collections.

That service is gonna be continuing unchanged for next year.

We are predicting that this year we would have collected at the curve about 80,000 tons.

So the tons that we collect from the brush and bulky system as well as the brown cart, they are all landfilled.

The city does not currently uh own and operate any active landfills.

We contract with two private landfills in the area.

What the city does own is a transfer station.

A transfer station is a facility where garbage from regular sized garbage trucks is transferred into larger vehicles, typically an 18-wheeler tractor trailer.

By transferring the waste into a larger vehicle, this allows the facility to take the waste to a landfill that may be further away outside of the city and potentially at a lower rate.

As I said, this facility is currently operated by a contractor.

The contract ends at the end of this month.

So what we have done in the budget, if you look in the capital outlays, we have set aside two and a half million dollars for potential repairs to the facility.

While we make repairs and upgrades to the facility, it will be closed.

But our plan for the future is to reopen it.

We will be issuing an RFP probably around January.

Future plans may include another long-term contract, or it may include city operation or some unknown use that maybe someone has an innovative idea for this property.

So we have a dedicated team that does outreach to the community.

We do presentations at schools, we do presentations at HOA meetings, variety of business groups as well.

This team also develops our marketing campaigns.

We have some dedicated literature for schools for at both a young elementary school children as well as high school students.

We are currently running two complementary but slightly different campaigns on illegal dumping.

We have one campaign on the top that is stressing the illegal portion of this and reminding folks that this is a crime.

We are also running a complimentary campaign, reminding folks about a the drop-off centers that we operate that provide a free and legal resource for residents to dump materials at.

Similar to what Homer mentioned before, we are also an ISO 45,001 safety certified organization.

We were the first organ, we were the first municipality as well as the first solid waste organization to achieve the safety certification.

And today we are part of a larger initiative that involves multiple departments.

So instead of each instead of Solid Waste having their individual certification as well as other departments under the risk management umbrella, we have multiple departments that maintain the certification, and we just went through the recertification process this year.

And one of the things that I think is really important from the safety perspective that I think might surprise some of you is that we run a driving school.

We are completely certified by the state to treat uh to train people to obtain a CDL license.

And this means one-stop shopping.

Our employees can take the permit exam on our site.

They can train via simulator, which you see in this photograph.

They can train on the road.

We have certified trainers.

We can do the final driving exam.

We can even print the temporary driver's license when they pass that road exam.

The only thing our drivers need to do is to go to DPS to get their photograph taken.

And this ties into the next bullet.

Not only do we have a driving school, and the reason we do that is because we have a formal driver apprenticeship program.

This is a federally registered apprenticeship program.

We hire temporary employees, uh, train them to get their that get their license, their commercial driver's license, and upon achieving their driver's license, they can get a job with the city with uh specifically with Solid Waste.

Since it is a formal apprenticeship program, it bypasses the normal interview process.

So once an employee obtains their license and meets certain uh milestones, they are able to they are offered a full-time job.

Since this program has started, we have 147 people have obtained their commercial driver's license.

Over a hundred of them have gotten employed with the department.

And even for the ones who did not gain employment with the department, I still consider this a win for the city because this means you have another resident out there with a marketable skill that will label them to get a job with someone in the in San Antonio and contribute.

As I mentioned earlier, we operate four drop-off centers.

Two of these drop-off centers accept the household hazardous waste.

The facilities are open Tuesday through Saturday.

They are only uh open to residential use.

As I mentioned, we have an environmental fee.

So to use the facility, we ask residents to bring a recent copy of their CPS bill showing that they are a ratepayer as well as some identification to match up with that with that bill.

In addition to the bulky drop-off centers, we all we also operate one brush drop-off center.

The main purpose of the brush drop-off center, though, is actually to process the materials that our crews pick up from the curb.

So all the brush that is collected from the curb as well as any brush that is dropped off by our residents is ground into mulch.

We have uh two levels of mulch available.

The we have a coarse mulch available that we distribute at no charge.

If you're coming in a pickup truck, we will load you up.

If you are a school or some other nonprofit or entity that it requires large amounts of mulch, we will deliver it to you at no charge.

We also provide illegal dumping and encampment cleanups.

I know there's been a lot of interest in this in the community, in the community recently.

We work in conjunction with DHS to assess uh sites, and we clean the sites as necessary.

There's a group of sites that we know are known illegal dumping problems, and we visit those on a proactive base on a proactive basis.

So roughly about half of the costs from illegal dumping that we assess come through 311 calls.

The other half are sites that we find are on our own, we hear from you, or that we just aware that our reoccurring sites.

Some of our lesser-known services are environmental services division, although we do not currently operate any landfill we have in the past.

So there are seven landfills that we maintain.

We do a variety of gas testing, water testing, erosion control, lawn maintenance, and so on.

It is our div, it is our department that maintains also cleans up the sidewalk litter cans as well as dead animal collection.

The final division that I'd like to talk about today is our internal services fund.

This fund supports uh vehicles for solid waste, obviously, but we do heavy equipment vehicles for every department for any department.

We we don't service uh light duty vehicles like sedans or or passenger vans, but any large pieces of equipment such as a street sweeper from public works or the SAPD mobile command center, all of those go through us.

I think one of the things unique things about our mechanics is that they are on a job progression program.

This allows them to promote based on skills instead of waiting for a vacancy.

Basically, we bake we break something on a truck on purpose and have the mechanics say, hey, figure out what's wrong with it.

So they are have to diagnose and make the repair within a certain time frame.

Those who are successful can promote into a new position from mechanic one to mechanic two and from mechanic two to mechanic three.

I think this has been very successful for us, and one of our initiatives for next year is to work on creating a formal apprenticeship program to kind of build on the success we've had in our driver apprenticeship program.

We've been working with HR OMB and ready to work on the parameters for this program.

I think the mechanics that we do are fabulous.

We have an availability rate of 91%.

When our mechanics work on stuff, they do it faster, better, and at a more cost-effective rate than sending it out to a private vendor.

And this isn't just hype from me.

I kind of have facts to back this up.

King and Queen here are the winners of last year's uh international mechanic competition.

Both of these gentlemen came in first place, first place in the mechanic in the truck division and first place in the off-road heavy equipment division.

They, along with some of our drivers, competed again this year in the statewide competition, and we brought home six trophies on that.

Our mechanics came in first, second, and third in the statewide competition.

They'll be and King and Queen are going to go defend their international title next month.

But in conclusion, it's not really all about the title or about winning trophies.

It's about our employees.

And every employee that works from us, for it from the maintenance worker to the fleet administrator to the driver.

We all play an important role in achieving that 97% customer satisfaction rate.

It is not just a statistic, it is a demonstration of what I like to call the triple Ps, professional, passionate and pride.

So that's not something I tell my employees.

That's something they tell me.

That's something they demonstrate every day when they come to work.

So in conclusion, there are no changes in our rate.

There are no changes in our service level.

And thank you for the opportunity to continue to provide great service.

That concludes my presentation.

Homer and myself are both available for questions.

Great.

Thank you.

Mr.

Garcia.

Thank you for the for the presentation.

Really appreciate the use of data to adjust your scheduling to allow for greater access and longer hours.

And it sounds like in line as you mentioned with what other large cities are doing.

Have our efforts reached the tipping point needed for the minimum effect that that research, I'm sure, would say, hey, you've got to get to here in order to see the impact that you're looking for.

So have we reached the minimum and how far are we from reaching the maximum impact in those areas?

I I don't have that answer for you, Mayor.

That is something that we will need to follow up in.

I do know that uh again for our team, um, resiliency, sustainability, they're they're listening, so that is something we'll have to follow up with.

Great, I appreciate that.

I mean, I think as we look at um these programs that we invest a lot of resources in, understanding again how how close we are getting to to goal is always important.

Um to that maybe you may not have the other the the other piece to this, but um, I know one of the programs, and and Eric helped me um remember the Metro Health Pro we help with uh resources for kids with asthma.

Is that federal it is that funded funded by federal grants, or do we pay for that out of our own funds?

It's uh it's uh locally funded, Mary.

Yes, exactly.

Yep, thank you.

Um I think it'd also be helpful for us to understand um, you know, frankly, as there are changes not only in regulations that protect our air quality, but in potentially potential funding.

Um I'd welcome understanding how our tree program is informed by rates of childhood asthma.

Um we know that uh unfortunately the the consequences for them are much more severe and and long lasting given they're still in development, so how can we help mitigate that?

Certainly through this uh tree program potentially.

Um we should try to help as much ourselves as much as we can.

Um the uh I understand the the elimination of um of of programs where folks were not showing up.

Can you give us an idea of what um was what are demands for programming that are going unmet?

I that are unmet.

Correct.

Um I'm not aware of any that are not being unmet.

We do know what has been very popular with the community in terms of programs that we provide.

Uh we do know based on the classes that we offered where there was zero, that was just not something that they were interested in receiving as an opportunity, but I'm not aware of unmet needs from a programming perspective.

Okay.

So at a at a center, if somebody were to say, hey, I I'd like to see this, it's not currently offered, or I'd like to see more of X, Y, or Z.

Um, and and that is not provided.

Those in my mind are are unmet needs.

So, how do we understand uh what people are asking for versus what we have, what we are providing?

Thank you for the clarification.

We receive that directly at the centers, and so our multitude of programming is reflective of what the community wants to see.

So we've got, for example, various um disciplines around arts or um physical and uh activity, uh cultural programming, all of that it changes daily.

We have a central programming unit that programs and and captures what are you hearing in your various centers.

They develop the curriculum and they go back out.

So for what we do, it is a direct reflection of what the committee does want to see, and it stays fresh.

It is not stagnant throughout the year.

Um this this comm, this question line of questioning is really informed by um when I went to the budget town hall in district five and heard from folks that again see um the programming and the the benefit of parks and rec in the context of addressing public safety challenges, right?

And so uh to the extent we are hearing or there is a request for more programming, um, I understand where there is not a demand based on people not showing up, understood.

Uh, but where there is an increase in demand for that type of programming, I'd welcome understanding how we're determining we're just not going to meet that um versus um uh determining that that may actually be beneficial to do.

Yes, and sometimes it's just frankly a dollars and cents exercise.

I understand that.

Uh but to the extent there's feedback from the community that is saying actually that 32% of that 79,000 uh that is that is going away, we'd appreciate if that we repurposed some of that in light of not only what people are hearing, but are also understanding of the other second and third order effects as the results of that program that programming specific specifically when it comes to public safety.

Um okay, Miss Um Valencia, please.

I am all about using data and uh and and trying to be as smart about how we identify how we can best utilize resources and make sure we're we're meeting needs as as much as possible.

Um the video though about uh video videoing people's homes as you're picking up their trash.

Did I capture that correctly?

Essentially.

Yeah, so we're not uh we're not video uh the there is a camera system on our trucks right now that do take video already, what this new system would do would make it easier to pinpoint the location.

Okay.

Um what what is captured on that?

We and I say that we've had several conversations around here about consent um and what is captured in that video um and ensuring people actually in fact know that you know something on their property is being recorded.

So can you give us a sense of what it's what's being captured?

So the original camera systems were installed as part of our safety system.

So they are captured as many cars also have video that capture uh going forward, and they also have a capture video on the side.

Since our trucks have a mechanical arm, we have a camera system that helps our drivers uh judge the arm.

Let's say they're picking up the can, there's a car, there's a mailbox, so there is a camera system on there that was installed for safety reasons to assist with the collections.

So we are not installing new cameras on the vehicles.

This is so to your question about what's it capturing, it's capturing basically what is adjacent to the truck.

That's not a new system.

Okay.

Um I'd welcome just a simple show me a picture of what it looks like.

Um were the homeowners asked about consenting to this in any way?

They were not.

Okay.

I'd welcome looking at the image, please, to determine if that's appropriate.

Because to your point, it's it's recorded to determine if if somebody says, Hey, didn't pick up my trash, you're gonna say, actually, we did, we got it recorded.

So I'd welcome just understanding again how long you actually keep it, what's actually being recorded, et cetera.

Um what was the same thing?

Go ahead.

The main this is kind of a secondary benefit of it.

The main the main reason for the camera system is for safety and collections to make sure that let's say there's someone standing by in a blind spot and we're not about to take out the arm and hit them, for example, or that we're gonna hit a car.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

Um the CDL training and apprenticeship.

Um, how much do we save as a result of doing that in-house?

I don't I don't know if I can quantify a savings from a number.

I think where our savings is on the recruitment side.

If I were to try to hire a hundred drivers off the street right now, I don't think I could do that.

Typically, we before the apprenticeship program, we typically only hire drivers that have a CDL.

So it's not like we pay someone, you know, here's a tuition reimbursement, go get your driver's license, for example.

All the folks that we hire either have a CDL coming in or they get a CDL through our apprenticeship program.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Um Chair Galvan.

Thank you, Mayor.

And thank you to Parkinson's solid waste for uh today's presentations and also uh thank you for parks for allowing my office to be part of your office as well, Darner.

Uh ways for not being too far away.

Um just had a couple quick questions, uh starting with parks.

Um for the classes that didn't have any participants in there.

What uh what were the participation participation rates for those programs in years past, whether it's last year before or several years?

Kate has an answer for you.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you, Kate.

Afternoon, Kate Kinnison, Office of Innovation.

Um they were the race were very similar in the years past.

So we looked at data for four years, and it ranged anywhere between 31 to 33% zero um class participation.

I see.

Thank you.

Um and I guess do we have any follow-up surveys or any reasoning behind why folks weren't participating in those programs, or just not showing up at all, or was there people who were leaving the program?

Yeah, I mean, we did look at the surveys that the parks had done through their planning and community input efforts.

Um it just it basically pointed there's a wide range of services.

Um everything from arts to yoga to fitness to nature events.

Um there's just such a breadth, and they were programming the spaces every hour of every day.

Um and what we saw in the community survey is that some folks would just want to use a room at a community center, maybe not use that class, but when every room in the community center had a class, they didn't have a place to play a board game or just meet with friends.

So there's not hard data on it, but it pointed to um and also we talked to comparative cities who were not doing quite the breadth of services.

They were um opening their cities more, their facilities more for multi-generational purposes.

So that started to pinpoint us um to a more agile um and data-driven approach.

Got it.

Thank you.

That's obviously the biggest one, but just wondering if there was any qualitative pieces about oh yeah, those programs maybe not intended to be or what I thought it would be, or if it was just people weren't showing up, period.

Yeah.

I think our biggest um recommendation right now is to continue to look at the data on a regular basis to make those adjustments that both you and the mayor have suggested.

Great.

Thank you.

Um I was gonna ask some questions about the residential tree plantings.

Um I really appreciate this program, and I know at a recent uh HOA and NA meeting we had uh within District 6.

Uh some residents ask uh, you know, we've seen these go up, and then we see them uh not always last as long as you think they would.

And of course that can come from uh different pieces with the homeowner who may not maintain it as well as they should be, or whatever the reason may be.

Do we track any data of where these trees go or how long they last in our community?

We uh do track where they go, so we know exactly where they're at.

As far as you know, how long they last within the community, uh we're not there yet.

So one of the things that we're uh will be doing here in this here in this upcoming uh fiscal year is taking a sampling so that we can go out and check on those more than you know, 8,000 trees since 2020, but also uh reaching out directly via mail to those residents so that they can contact us as well.

We do know that if a resident contacts us and wants a replacement tree, we we will do definitely that.

Um and just in large part, our goal is to you know have every tree survive.

Industry standard is that's generally anywhere between 80 and 90 percent.

Right.

Do uh I guess we'll find out with the sampling, right?

How much then we'll measure that against based on what the the industry standard is.

Sounds good.

Well, thank you for that.

Um, I was gonna ask actually uh do we have a district breakdown of how many trees were planted and are there any priority planting?

I mean, of course, I know the heat index piece, but anything around also schools or walking paths or anything like that.

Um are there any factors in there for tree plantings?

Yeah.

Um so you're asking if we have uh a breakdown of where the trees will be going.

Correct, where they've where they've been where you're where they've been sent, I guess.

The short answer is yes, we we can call them and get you that information.

Again, great we know the residents that are gonna be receiving trees.

Right in our proposed spend plan where they're going via uh roadway projects, so we can get a heat map together to show exactly and lay that out.

Thank you so much.

That's all my questions for parks.

Um for solid waste, um just a few questions around illegal dumping.

Um of course, a a big issue, and I think a lot of uh our communities, but I know for sure within district six along the creekways is always a big issue.

Um, and so I wanted to ask us a couple different things on it.

One being uh I know we started doing so the marketing outreach campaigns last year, maybe the year before too.

Uh what has been uh any response from that or any effect uh are we tracking any kind of data with that about effectiveness?

I think what we the the numbers that we can look at is we are seeing increased usage of our drop-off centers.

Oh, that's great.

So that part I think is uh that part is great.

I have unfortunately not really seen a reduction on the illegal dumping side.

Right.

But I think we are getting more people of the at the bulky centers.

Yeah.

Are we seeing any rates shifting in terms of recurring or new sites?

I don't know if that data is as strong, but unfortunately, no.

Okay.

Got it.

Um I guess the last question, I I don't remember if this was asked before in a different budget conversation.

Um, but uh do we have a cost for the like the hotshot crew and how much it costs for our solid waste to have to pick up a lot of legal dumping versus long-term solutions of like barriers or other kind of resources that we could try to we do have uh we do have costs for our illegal dumping per collections, and I can get you those.

Okay, that'd be great.

Okay, actually.

There you go.

So for the illegal dumping crew, the total budget for illegal dumping as well as a homeless encampment cleanups, it's about 7.8 million of that, about 2.2 million is for homeless encampment cleanups.

Okay.

Is it 7.8 and then 2.2?

Got it.

And then do we have a map of the hotspots for each district?

For uh I'm sorry, for recurring legal dumping sites.

We can provide you one.

Okay, great.

And I think those are all my questions.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mayor.

Yep.

Chair Core.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank y'all so much for the presentations.

Homer, I say this every time, but you and Parks do a great job.

You have an amazing team.

Um, love to see all of the awards and accolades that y'all get.

But uh, we say this about all of our thriving departments that you just set the bar high, which means we just gotta push you even higher, right?

Um I wanted to say thank you to your team that came out to our 95th uh celebration this last week at San Pedro Library, and I got to see the chart of um events that were happening just in the month of September.

And so to the point that Kate just made about like the breadth of events.

I had no idea that there were over 3,000 folks that are attending our parks events, um, and especially fitness in the park.

I've seen the fitness in the park events have great success, and so I just wanted to say shout out to the work that y'all are doing.

It would be great to see some of that data presented to us in terms of attendees and where they're going.

So if you could send us a little bit more of a breakdown by our district, I think that would be great.

Um, we love partnering on those events.

Um, so my push for you is gonna be thinking about how do we take our parks department to the next level in terms of innovation.

So one of the things that we know we struggle with, at least in a lot of our um area because of climate is grass.

And I think we have to start looking and exploring at different ways to do grass.

Whether it's turf and turf, people get a lot of pushback on because it gets heat resistance.

But I've been talking to with some folks, or because it uh gets so hot.

But I've been talking with some folks and with the innovation that is now existent with turf, I think there's a real opportunity for us to start looking at um pilot programs where we can try, particularly in areas that get used uh mainly in the evenings or um around uh that may not be direct sun.

So if there's uh grassy areas that are underneath trees or underneath shade to see if there's a possibility to start using alternative methods that'll help on conservation and also just on maintenance and operations, um, and thinking about where zero scaping is a little bit more possible for our park space.

So I was actually talking the other idea is I was talking to Gardopia yesterday.

Um they came to our office and they were telling me that I didn't realize the initial site that they had on the east side was founded based on the principle that kind of the mayor was just talking about, which is Cepeda.

I don't even know it was a thing, but crime prevention based on environmental design.

Um, and we were talking about how we can replicate, like how that space that they have there is maintained so well.

But we have a couple of community gardens that I know, at least in district one, that don't get that same kind of attention.

And I think it's similar because we don't have a uh system or a process to be able to maintain in the way that a full nonprofit can do on a day-to-day basis.

So we were discussing how we have that program for ADUs where um you know our NHSC department has built out.

This is what a template would look like if you wanted to build an ADU in your back in the backyard.

What would it look like for our parks department to do something similar?

Where if you want to create a community garden, this is the template that you can take to create a community garden and how the parks department can help partner with you.

We were actually looking at it specifically for a spot on Capitol Avenue in Beacon Hill with the help of NHSD and Homer.

We were able to, there was a property that was um foreclosed on because of a lack of property taxes that hadn't been paid.

And so we've been working with them to be able to redesign that space as an extension to the park there.

Um, and that was a spot previously that it's right by.

Um, there's a lot of in-house folks that were living there.

There was some fire concerns, um, and it was a concern for the community.

And so by being being able to create it as a park space, we're hoping to see that that area gets a little bit more um excitement and traffic because we know activation is a great way to address that.

So I'm excited to see what comes of that, and hopefully, we can use this as a pilot for uh something that could be replicated in other areas.

And um, to the council members' point about heat maps with trees, it might be interesting also to see if there's available spaces like this.

We talk about um vacant land, and I know vacant land may not always have grass on it, but could be an opportunity for at least the land that's in floodplains and other areas where there's high crime to be able to do things like um community gardens that the community manages because I know that y'all's budget line item did not increase very significantly, actually dropped a little bit this year.

So we want to make sure that you guys have enough support to be able to take that on.

But would love to start thinking about and maybe it's partnering with the innovation department to see how we can um try to pilot some of these new things for for the next phase of parks.

Absolutely, just quick comment.

One certainly open to it, so thank you for the call to action.

Number two, regarding turf, you're right.

We actually uh had uh a vendor that to your technology, some of the pellets, I guess, that are maintained.

They have a water component that kind of has a timed release over the the time of the day or throughout the day, so it kind of cools it a little bit.

Yeah.

We don't have that in place yet, but it's only something we can look at.

And we do have an existing partnership with Green Spaces Alliance.

So back to that template idea, I like that.

Maybe that's something that uh we can engage them in.

But we've got our notes.

Thank you.

I also wanted to give a quick shout out to uh Michael on your team, who is awesome.

He's always the first person to respond to all of our calls.

Mr.

Halinski.

Yes.

Okay.

Yes, we have the one Michael's making sure.

Oh, sorry.

He's listening, he's probably listening to that with us, but we'll make sure he um gets the note.

So thank you for the acknowledgments.

Yeah, he's we always get our calls about like, oh, a light's out or we need something, and and he's really great about working with Cameron on my team.

Um, and then the last thing I just wanted to push you guys on, considering from the innovation lens is just Wi-Fi in our park spaces.

I mean, obviously, if you're at the library, if there's one with the library there, but just having more connectivity in, especially the ones with pavilions where there's a place to sit that folks can access, it'd be great to see what that could look like.

Thank you, Homer, for everything that you do.

All right, solid waste.

Thank you so much, Justin, for the presentation.

You've been doing a great job.

You've been in full, I feel like for a year now as well.

And you took the reins and started to run.

Um, I love that we're finally doing things on us.

I would not be able to use a map.

I feel like the last time when I were going when you're using like printed out directions on MapQuest, like I can't even imagine having to do that.

I would have failed as a driver.

But I'm glad that we're using um glad that we're using technology now to help them.

One of you guys again do a great job.

You're right.

97% customer satisfaction, that's like the highest, probably across not probably, I'm sure it's the highest across the city.

But the ones that we have noticed that have been missing um some pickups are our senior walk-up program.

So we have some folks that sign up for the senior walk-up program where that they actually come up and get the trash.

Is there something that's a nuance there that makes it a little bit more difficult to track for folks for the drug?

It's the pay it's the paper map again.

It's having a they have a paper map and then they have a list of addresses on paper, also that says these are your senior walk-ups, don't forget these folks.

So that's gonna be another benefit of the smart collection system be able to flag those walk-ups to say not only that it's a dot, but it's like this is a dot where you need to get off the truck.

Got it.

Um, and how when does that gonna be fully rolled out?

So we're about halfway through on our implementation.

We're projecting that we're gonna be done probably by December or January.

Got it.

Okay.

Um, well, uh, thank you all.

I think the rest of the presentation was pretty self-explanatory.

The only one other idea that I had for you guys is like how do we work with them?

And Eric, we've said this all the time.

You guys, you said 60 million visits to our residents' homes.

Like it seems to me like it's the easiest way to get information to people's houses.

I wonder what it would take for like how much additional time it would take for um the the workers to be able to drop off a flyer at someone's home if there was something coming up.

So I I don't know if you guys already partner with like our new capital projects delivery department, but it would be great to be able to see if that's possible.

I'm not sure if that just completely throws off the time or I think it would throw off the time from the garbage collection side where there might be an opportunity is with the brush and bulky since we are already delivering flyers, and we have occasionally done that.

However, it takes us about 12 weeks.

So if it's a timely to cover the entire city, so if it's a timely message that like we have, you know, a meeting next week, we wouldn't be able to get it out on a timely basis.

But if it's a message that has a little bit of an evergreen quality, if you it can wait for a three-month rollout, that might be something we might be able to assist with.

Got it.

Okay, that's good to know.

Well, I appreciate y'all's work.

Thank you so much.

Okay, that's all I have, Mayor.

Thank you.

Thanks, Chair Corps.

Having visited Gardopia, um, can also appreciate it.

And frankly, if we had you know community gardens that were growing truffles, we might be able to close our budget gap here.

Um Chair Um Aldret Gavito.

Thank you.

Thank you for the presentations.

Thanks, Homer and Melinda and everyone at Parks.

I know we have a very close relationship with y'all.

Y'all have been great partners on a number of initiatives.

Um, I'm especially grateful for the collaboration and support with our research on on the egrets, you know, and making sure that we're not moving them from city park to city park, but finding a solution that works so that we can all coexist together.

Thank you for that.

Um, I'd also um want to thank you all in coordinating with the transportation department on our Woodlawn Lake bike path.

It's been long overdue.

So we're we're excited that uh that we're coming to fruition.

I know that last year we had a really big win with the ORLP grant, um, the 3.5 million, and it looks like we're getting closer.

Uh, just was curious why it wasn't on this presentation.

Um it was no intended uh an oversight.

And and and here's the other part of that.

I mean, we have a lot of grants that we have successfully achieved.

Um so thank you for the acknowledgement, and we are getting closer.

Yeah.

Um, thank you.

Yeah, no, well, we're just all we're all very excited about the um much needed TLC that Woodland Lake will be getting with that grant.

So that that's what we're looking for that.

Um, also definitely appreciate y'all's right sizing efforts.

On the topic of egrets, are there any plans to write size the clappers at Woodlon Lake?

Because sometimes we see like three or four people out there, and there's not very many birds.

Relative to our um management plan for bird deterrence, that is something that we are bringing in-house and will be directly managed by the parks department, as you're aware.

So that's a short answer is yes, and it's gonna be through our direct management with our staff.

Okay, and I I would just like for us to think differently um about how we do that because I know that we've worked with you all about clappers and the gunshots, and while they're deterring the birds, they're also um they're just not great for people walking their dogs at parks, right?

You know, that it's kind of a um not a great experience, especially for dogs who are scared and that kind of stuff.

So I just want to I want to plant that seed so we can maybe think of different methods going forward because that that while it's effective, sometimes there's also a big backlash, too.

Um I'm glad to see on slide 12 that we're expanding the weekday open gym hours at Woodlawn Gym, because I we me and my team get a lot of text about that and calls about that.

So thank you for that additional access.

Also excited about the additional shade structures in district seven.

You know, that was something I heard on on my first campaign trail is how many playgrounds don't have shade structures, and it doesn't make sense in Texas because little ones will burn their hands.

So thank you for making that right for our our kiddos.

Um on slide 15.

Uh there was a coffee with the councilwoman I had actually on a on this past election day, and holy mackerel, we heard so much about trails and trail safety.

So, you know, a lot of residents don't feel safe on the trail.

They've obviously heard about recent deaths and crimes along the trail system.

So, what is the parks department doing to increase safety um and security on the trails?

So there's a few things there.

Uh, one of the things in the uh 22 bond is looking at trail lighting along certain segments where appropriate uh on our greenway trail system, and so that is something that we're looking at in the bond.

Uh and I believe we've got a uh a planned segment along Sassama Sassamota Creek.

I need a don't recall the limits right now.

So looking at trail lighting is one.

Secondly, we continue to have our um volunteer, excuse me, we have trail stewards, we also have volunteer trail stewards, and the that those two work hand in hand to really just serve or provide an observant report function.

Our trail stewards, we go through uh little training with uh park police to make sure that when they're out on the trails, they know what to look for and how to properly respond, not engaging in incident, they see something, call it in.

And then finally, I meet regularly with park police, and one of the things that we discuss, trails or otherwise, is what are the trends we're seeing so they can be uh aware and have an appropriate response.

Councilwoman, as those trails continue to be built out, then um the um the additional staffing necessary for um park police as we transition to SAPD to ensure that we have the the necessary regular patrols there on the on the linear creek is also part of it.

Yeah, and and I understand that it's difficult to manage, you know, just a wide trail system.

But you know, I think that if as a as a runner, um I wouldn't call myself a cyclist because I'm not that great at it, but you know, as a runner or cyclist, if you see somebody every once in a while you feel safe.

I mean that you you run into this well, I wouldn't call it a problem.

You run into this at Phil Hardbrook, or you're you're constantly seeing someone on the trail, so you feel a little bit more safe, like that there could be help if you need it.

But um, I know that we we we have heard a lot of resident feedback of just um the feeling of of uneasiness and and not say not feeling safe on the trail.

So um, however, we can amp up those efforts, the better.

Um, congratulations on that state recognition.

That's no surprise.

Um, I know y'all are a great department.

Um slide 17, it's great to see the trees popping up around the city and reducing uh our heat island effect.

We're definitely looking forward to the next phase of planting trees at Woodlawn Lake.

My girls and I stop by the trees and talk to them and make sure that they're growing okay.

Uh we do talk to them.

Yes, you can talk to plants, it's it's a good thing.

Um I know that uh we do get continue continue to get asked about my oak wilt replacement program CCR by residents.

Um, we're seeing that the problem has even spread inside the loop in District 7.

So I anticipate a demand for this program to increase.

I know that it was approved by PCDC last year.

Um, at that the Oak Wilt replacement voucher program would begin.

So just wanted to check in on that.

What's the timeline?

That that program will be implemented uh in this upcoming year.

Uh and so one of the things we want to make sure is that the trees that we provide as replacement again that they weren't gonna come back with with an oak tree, yeah, uh, but making sure that it's a native shade tree, and it's gonna be commensurate in value with what we would do in our um residential tree planning program, so that it is funded, and the plan was always that it would begin in fiscal year 26 for implementation.

Okay, sounds good.

Yeah, because we we do get questions.

We also do set the expectation that they're we're not gonna replace them with more oak trees.

Um, but uh but we we get asked about that a lot.

One of the things that we also get um a lot of calls on is how parks and solid waste work together to prevent the spread of oak quilt through the brush collection schedule.

Sometimes you know, we have brush collection during um peak times for oak wilt.

So uh I just wanted to see how y'all coordinate because we we've gotten that feedback quite a bit.

Yes, so we uh do to your point collaborate with uh solid waste and on a quarterly basis, we go out and put door hangers so that people know when is the appropriate time to prune trees and then also provide appropriate uh cleaning techniques and tips and and just information so that they know to prevent the spread effectively.

But that is something that goes out quarterly, and we continue.

That's been a long-standing practice, and that will continue as well in the upcoming uh operating year.

Okay, and we'll my team and I will send you because sometimes it feels like there are misses in the coordination, so we'll be it we'll make sure to send you all that feedback just so that we know um and we can dig into for whatever reason why residents may feel it's a miss with with the oak wilt schedule.

Um thanks so much, Homemar.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Um for solid waste.

Thank you to Josephine and everyone at Solid Waste.

Uh your department is always so responsive and helpful every time we reach out.

A 97 customer satisfaction rate is no surprise.

I did not know our carts had names.

So my girls and I will be making decorative name tags for Bart, Glenda, and Kirby.

So thank you for that.

Um glad to know that there's no rate increase.

I know that we're fill, you know, our residents are filling the squeeze with CPS and saws, so this is that's definitely uh welcomed.

Um the on slide eight, the small compost spins were extremely popular among residents.

Me and my girls use ours every day.

Um so I just want to check with you.

How successful was that program?

I uh I have mixed feelings about that.

I think they were very popular, as you say, everyone loved them.

I didn't see that translate into a large number of food in the cart though.

So there was a great enthusiasm.

Everyone's like, yes, I want one, but I don't know what they're using them for.

Interesting.

Yeah, I um you know, I do think that the compost community can um, you know, there's a lot of tips and tricks, right?

Like I keep my compost bin in in the refrigerator, right?

Because I heard that from someone.

So I'm wondering if people um know to do all of those things, because if not, I mean if you leave compost out, then yeah, bugs will come and stuff like that.

So um, but if there's ways that we can share tips and tricks on how to compost properly so that people can actually utilize those bins, let us know.

I was also curious why we don't see compost bins at City Hall.

That would be kind of neat because I know that we have a lot of food here too.

I think it's it's it's on the logistics of trying to make sure we can get the food collected in a timely manner because we wouldn't want to have yeah, food sitting out.

Yeah, yep.

Awesome.

That was that was basically on my questions, but thank you so much.

I want to reiterate the ask um for the alternatives on on the gunshots.

I mean, obviously, we've got a lot of veterans in our community, uh, many who are uh unfortunately dealing with PTSD, uh, and that would be something that is obviously triggering and maybe deterring people from in fact visiting the park.

So welcome understanding how quickly you can transition to other options.

Thanks.

Uh Councilman White.

Thank you.

Um I learned a lot from that those questions.

Uh talking to trees and the compost community.

Yeah.

Um thank you for the presentations.

I'll start with solid waste just to change it up.

Um thank you for the the presentation.

And I gotta tell you, um my my constituent services team uh reached out to me this morning um as we were going over the schedule for today and said, please make sure um that I let y'all know how appreciative they are of how responsive your your department is whenever whenever we we reach out for for any concern, whatever it is, you guys are very, very responsive and and uh my folks appreciate it as as do the residents.

So thank you.

Um illegal dumping cleanups, it looks like increased um to more than 12,000 last year.

Uh is this are we having higher dumping activity or better reporting and response?

I think it's uh it's uh a little bit of both, but more on the more response more timely response.

More timely response.

Okay.

Um are we are we taking steps or or looking at different strategies so that all of our our resources aren't constantly tied up with these cleanups?

We are uh we are working with SAPD trying to crack the code on the prevention side and on the catching and the catching things.

One of the things that we as a department is we've deployed a game cameras in a in a variety of locations.

We are also working with SAPD yesterday.

Uh it was not successful, but we did our first attempt yesterday using drone technology and a known illegal dumping site to see if anyone could be caught that way.

So that we're gonna be doing more of those, like I said, yesterday was the very first attempt.

We are also uh working with SAPD on uh deploying a a camera trailer.

This is more on the turrent side, so it's the not just the camera kind of hidden in the trees, but uh but a big trailer kind of saying you are under surveillance.

Okay.

Well, good.

I mean, the more we can do to deter the activity the better.

Um I noticed in in in the budget there's a uh proposed six million dollar increase in uh contractual services.

What what's behind that?

Let me look that up.

That is mostly our our land our CPI for a landfill.

It's also a change in our in our balcony's recycling contract.

The the contractual price went up, or they're doing more work for us.

So from 25 to 26, we are looking at uh two and a half on the recycling contract.

It is a different contract structure than in the past.

It is an additional and an additional eight hundred thousand in the fees that we pay for CPS billing.

Uh we pay CPS for them to send out bills on our behalf.

Okay.

And I think just one thing to add, there's also of that two and a half million for the StarCrest, there's a million dollars for building maintenance and repairs to those buildings that are at the StarCrest.

Uh uh, okay.

Um more question is with uh curbside collection, it looks like is about 64 percent of the budget.

Um percentage of collections completed by 5 p.m.

has I guess lagged just a little bit.

Anything we're doing to uh try to consistently hit that that 88 percent target that y'all are looking for?

Uh two things.

Uh we need to fill some of our vacancies.

We've had a lot of uh employees retire, and as we bring on new employees, they it takes them a little bit longer to kind of get up to sc uh get up to uh their speed collection.

So that's part of it.

So it's vacancies, it's newer employees, but I think the smart collection system not only is it gonna help on the misses, it's gonna really enable our our newer drivers to know where they need to go.

So I think they'll be more efficient and c and that will help us get to that target.

How many vacancies are we talking about?

60 61.

And we're actively trying to parks, Homer, thank you for your presentation.

Um I should say you guys are also very responsive.

Every every time I call you, you guys are are are right on it.

Um I want to commend you for you know the budget review process that you did, and uh I know we've already talked about this these 32 percent of classes uh that had that had zero participants and looking at these other programs where there's uh you know low low low um volume of people that are that are that are participating, and and this is the kind of thing that I really think we've got we've got to continue to do across all depart departments across the board, and that the zero-based budgeting that we've talked about is really is really going to help us with to have money going towards these things where we're just not getting our bang for the buck is is doing a disservice uh to our citizens because again, the most important thing we do every year is is how we spend um their tax dollars.

Um did you and I apologize, apologize if I missed it.

Are we gonna adjust how we're offering the classes?

We're gonna do fewer, or or what was the plan there?

Yes, uh the the short answer is yes, by virtue of the reduction, that means it's gonna be fewer classes.

However, we're gonna be focused on quality, not quantity, and to some of the uh anecdotal responses and we heard um and and thank you, Kate, for all the the work going into it.

One of the things we found, Councilman, is you go in a center, there's five rooms, just randomly, right?

And you've got five programs to choose from.

And one of the things that we found in the case of some of our youth centers is once kids get out of school structure program, they want some downtime.

And so, you know, we're gonna be shifting and just what we're calling its tailored use, whether you want to read a book or somebody needs to come in and fill out a job application, whatever it may be.

So there's gonna be downtime in the center while we will still have presence and offer programming.

It's it's less programming, uh, and we will be focused on programming really for all ages.

And and by opening the playbook, so to speak, earlier in the day, uh, we have had some uh successful one-offs, if you will, where we've had taller programming or uh a example I think of a Joe Ward uh community center in District 7.

We have a senior prom by our historical definition, that is a youth center.

But this past spring we had a senior prom, about 50 seniors came in, loved it.

Um and so we're doing more of that.

One other kind of real example are adult and senior centers.

They don't have gyms, but seniors want to be active, so we'll transport them to the nearest center, and they'll do something like chair volleyball in the gym.

So again, there's real world opportunities there where we know that we'll be able to provide tailored programming, it's just not gonna be every hour, every day, every room.

Yep, more strategic approach to that's good.

Um completion rates, it looked like have fallen the last couple of years, 82 percent and down, and now it's 81 percent.

Um I also see you know, service requests completed on time.

12,000 was the target in 25, and we're only looking to target 11,600 this year.

Uh trees planted and adopted 14,000 twenty-five was the target, and only eleven thousand is the target this year.

Um and then what I just mentioned percentage of service requests completed within uh established time frames, eighty-five percent was the target in 25, 80 percent is the target this year.

Why are we at least it appears to me we're we're scaling back or we're not targeting doing as much in the coming year?

Yeah, so uh in the case of trees, when this measure was established, it was based on early in the budget development process when we were actually seeing what revenues were gonna come in and looked at.

So again, back to our like our tree fund budget, about half from what we adopted uh well in the current operating year is about to end.

So some of that, that's the reason why C decrease in numbers relative to um the completion request for uh work orders, that is reflective of really what our current ability is able to do.

We always want to do it higher, and if we can overachieve, we will, but looking at a historical perspective, making sure that in essence these are right-sized as well.

So last year we projected being able to complete 85 percent in time.

This year we're thinking we can only complete 80 percent in time.

That that's that's from what lack lack of resources being more realistic or or it's gonna be various things.

So right now we're on target.

We did plan to come in at 85 percent at the beginning of this year.

We're on track to come in right at 81 percent.

But it's gonna be from uh various things, could be uh supply chain issues, it's gonna vary specifically by the type of work order requests that we have.

Got it.

And okay.

I might follow up with you more on that offline.

Fair.

That's all I got.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Castillo.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, uh Homer and Josephine for the presentations.

Um likewise uh with Solid Waste, uh, my constituent services team say thank you to everyone over at the solid waste department for just all the work that you all do.

And oftentimes when we talk about uh you know, just overall operations of a city, solid waste is the backbone of any city, right?

If you shut solid waste down or solid waste employees do not show up, we have a public health uh issue on our hands.

So I'm just thinking to all the work that you and your team do.

I think the apprenticeship program and model that you all have established is something that we should look to replicate, Eric, with other city departments, particularly with neighborhood and housing services department, uh, in terms of the minor minor rehab programs and or some of the delicate agencies that we have to do things like guardrails and ramps.

I think there's opportunity for us to you know build up the skill set of San Antonians and to the point Josephine raised, right?

Whether they get hired on long-term or not, that's someone out in the community with a new skill set to um be more qualified and competitive in terms of seeking employment.

Um it's just all around uh applause for your team.

I'm uh grateful to hear that in terms of enforcement with illegal dumping that there are steps in place in terms of enforcement, whether it's the drones or having uh those stations that call people out uh when they're about to illegally dump.

Um, you know, in D5, and y'all are well aware because we work with your team, um, but on Delgado Street, uh Canavera Street, particularly within the historic west side of District Five, uh, folks come to that neighborhood and just dump, right?

And I think the part of it is we have a lot of uh vacant properties uh and it just serves as a host of so many other problems.

Uh but your team uh is very responsive and helped me to address uh that nuisance in the community.

So just uh thank you for all that y'all do and just uh we really appreciate y'all.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Um Homer, in in terms of uh the work that you all do as well, right?

Um we really value uh the work of your team as well.

And when I think about the renaming events that we have, right?

The the the importance and impact that that has in terms of honoring the history, sharing our values as a city, as a district, but also you know, telling that story of District Five through uh parks by um, you know, renaming and or naming.

So just thank you for the work that you and your team do.

Uh those events are just amazing and the families are always grateful to our team.

But I'm like, no, it's Homer and his amazing team who helped put this event together.

So thank you.

And in terms of the work for maintenance at the parks that you all do, um I just wanna highlight, right?

I love the three one one app.

I use it, I'm under an alias because I wanna know how responsive my and folks are gonna be to my ticket.

Um, but what I will say in terms of the repairs with the scale trades and staff performing those improvements, you know, I've made requests on the three one one app, whether it's a great that's uh unleveled or um you know, water is leaking from a fountain, and your team and the three one one team are very responsive uh in addressing those concerns that are reported through the app.

So just wanted to give y'all um y'all's thinks there and I do it because it's to see if this how the system's working, right?

Uh I know folks can always call our field office, um, but the goal is right, the app and 311 works.

So that's why I enjoy using it.

Um you know, as the mayor mentioned, what was very loud and clear and you were there and your team was as well.

Uh what was very clear from District Five residents is the value that parks programming plays for the residents of San Antonio beyond recreation, right?

It's public safety, it's ensuring that folks can be physically active to take care of their overall health.

Uh and the concern was we don't want to see this reduced or these classes that we're currently participating in uh be reduced.

Um so just wanna thank you for ensuring that you know those programs that folks are speaking out about uh will continue in terms of basketball.

Um and it was just overall um really good to hear from D5 residents, right?

To say, hey, like no, um D5 Parks, you know, serves as such a hub for community that we don't want to see parks programming that are active in full reduced from the budget.

And uh in terms of the tree program, uh I know I asked it during the code compliance meeting in terms of uh the community tree fund.

And I asked that to code because typically they'll offer it to our constituents, right?

If they're getting a violation for um a tree that's dying and or whatever the case may be.

Um so I just want to be sure I understand there's still funds allocated.

That is correct.

Current budget amendment, current year 300,000.

And so there's still funding available.

That program will continue and and that's gonna be administered uh through the park department.

Great.

And and I just want to ensure that if uh we get to the point in terms of like when we zero that out, if during the mid-year budget conversation we could look at replenishing that fund.

Again, it's something that typically code compliance officers connect our seniors to to help uh maintain or cut down their tree.

Uh and it's something that I know our residents uh are are really grateful for.

Um so just want to ensure that that fund, if we get to zero, we're replenishing it.

And um just again, overall super grateful for uh both Solid Waste and Parks uh and all that y'all do uh and grateful to see that there's going to be continued improvements.

I know they're not on the presentation, but um we're keeping up to date.

One that we're really excited about and that your team presented at the Memorial Uh Neighborhood Association on was the Greenway from Memorial along the trail, right?

From Memorial High School to St.

Mary's University, a literal pathway right to higher education.

So uh just really grateful uh to see many of these projects come to fruition.

Thank you.

Thank you, Homer.

Thank you, Mayor.

Castillo Angiano.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I just want to say these were by far my favorite presentations out of the entire budget uh work sessions.

So I just want to thank y'all for that.

Um Homer, I'll start off with you.

And it was awesome meeting you uh at the coffee shop the other day.

So yeah, that was really awesome.

Um let's see, let's see, let's see.

I think one thing that stuck out to me about parks and rec was that I don't think the East has gotten this much investment um in the past, and maybe it's because Councilman uh Mickey Rodriguez came in the picture and just you know went head in.

Uh but I just want to thank you for everything that you've done.

It's it's been really, really incredible.

Um, and then Councilman Galvan touched on the 32% as as other council members did because I was very curious as to why there was low cost attendance and whether there was any marketing that took place or what feedback we got, but I'm glad to know that it was all data driven and that that that's what you stuck with with um with the restructuring.

So that was really really awesome.

Uh the trails and bike, that is really really incredible.

I know I've set up on cyclists myself.

Um, and so I've almost uh um cycled around the entire greenway trails here.

Um, and I know that a lot of people in the community do century rides, so that's really really exciting.

So thank you again for that.

Lots of kudos today.

Uh and then I know that our libraries and parks are often the bridges to our low-income community, and so it's really really important that we uh make sure that our our investments in these two departments um you know are are just critical, and just you know, we want to make sure that we're you know, making sure our constituents just have a you know healthy and um still uh stable, you know, places to be.

Uh, but let's see, lost my train of thought.

Oh yeah, the uh world earth day event that was held at Woodlawn, that event was incredible.

Um there was trees being given out.

I actually took a cycling ride to Woodlawn, and that was really really incredible.

I don't even know that Parks and Rec hosted that, so that's really really awesome.

Um I don't think I have any more questions for Park.

Other than the last shout out for the Healy Murphy Park with the redevelopment.

So yeah, thanks again for everything that you do.

Uh I'll move on to solid waste.

Um let's see.

Oh, yes.

Um, so council member Aldreto Gavito touched on um, I guess how successful we are with our residents adopting the smaller carts and what parts of town saw more success uh in the adoption of similar garbage cards.

So I guess I just wanted to see like a follow-up on your thoughts.

Um, because I know you mentioned that earlier.

And then with illegal dumping, um I I forgot which slide it was, but it said that there was a team that does that.

What team is that?

And it or is that the hot shot crew?

That is the so we have three dedicated teams, three uh hot shot crews basically.

Oh, okay, okay.

Cool.

And are they received uh still receiving funding for that?

Yes.

Perfect.

Cool.

Um let's see.

And then um, I guess I wanted to see how we gauge the success of our legal dumping public awareness campaigns, um, and what metrics we're using to gauge those.

And then I know that we all like with the district too, they also created these signs um for speeding.

And so I wanted to see if uh we could possibly or if y'all are interested in this as well with creating um a similar ad campaign that would discourage illegal dumping, and I know that my office will be willing to work with you on that if that's something um that you would be interested in.

We'd be happy to collaborate with you or anyone who has some new innovative ideas.

I think this is a citywide problem, and it's gonna take collaboration from everyone and ideas from everyone to try to address it.

Yep, I agree.

I agree.

Well, I think that's all the questions and uh kudos that I have.

But yeah, oh, actually, the team wanted me to shout uh you guys out.

Who was it?

Uh Veronico Moreno from Parks and Lynn Cox from Solid Waste.

Uh they said that these two are the ones that they call for getting the job done.

So I just want to appreciate y'all again for everything.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilwoman Spears.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for the excellent presentations.

Um Josephine Salafa.

I started with you because it's short and speed.

Y'all are doing a great job.

Thank you.

I want to echo what councilwoman Castillo is saying.

Y'all are the real deal.

If you stop, the world stops spinning.

It will be a huge problem on our hands.

But you know, your approval rating is so high.

And my residents uh have no complaints um from the questions I had.

Um councilwoman Corr already asked about the walk-ups for seniors.

So I'm glad to hear about that.

And I probably will want you to come to a town hall or something to all the programs you offer.

So thank you.

Okay.

Um parks with Homer.

Um I had quite a few questions.

Are can you do like a neighborhood or community map identifying potential spaces in District 9 that we could repurpose or develop for parks and trails that we already have?

Yes.

Okay.

And um so I noticed in the budget book, you mentioned that you are implementing this essay tomorrow plan, but I didn't see it referenced in the presentation.

Can you speak to that at all?

Do you do you know the page number?

Uh so it's just in yeah, 550 four.

While we look up the reference, I will say generically for a lot of the work that we do in parks.

When you look at the various planning documents from an enterprise perspective, parks touch as many of them, so that's one of the things.

So the citywide goal of San Antonio neighborhoods will prosper through the community's long-term reinvestment and revitalization.

And so that you know, in part speaks to I think our strategy for where we make sure we're putting trees in the ground, residents, streets, parks, also speaks to the delivery of bond projects.

When we were looking and planning for the current bond, um, and you know, I think Cloud Stuartman Ranch Park is a perfect example of that.

It was making sure where is the need and continuing the investment where we already started.

So really that's what it speaks to because that tomorrow essay tomorrow plan, or like back to park touches many plans, and that's one of them.

I'm happy you mentioned that part.

That's on my list too.

Um so I I love that park.

Um it it is an all-abilities park, and we are having another disability focused park opening in another district.

Um, but I was curious how that park is seeing immense amount of traffic.

Um, people are getting parking tickets because we don't have a big enough parking lot.

Um, and we're we're being asked for more increased safety and maybe some additional stewards there.

Is there an effort because we're seeing some graffiti there as well?

And is there an effort?

Um, I mean, how do you kind of decide where you allocate resources like that?

Do you try to prevent those kinds of activities as opposed to just fixing them, bless you?

Um as opposed to just fixing them.

Um I guess I'm asking a lot about that part because it's getting used so much the useful life of the assets are going super fast.

Right.

And and so, you know, and that's why I mean we know back to the growth, when I talk about a general fund budget, that was really transformed that community because that was one of the spaces where we did not have enough just open fields.

Uh and that's why right now there's not a user agreement in place.

It was very clear the community wanted to just be able to come and walk on to use the field as needed.

So uh in the current bond, I believe, and we can get an update.

There is additional parking coming.

Okay.

Okay, so and we know it's a popular park.

Additionally, we have a dedicated team there, so they're listening.

We'll make sure that uh if you notice any patterns of when maybe misuse is occurring, okay, then we can adjust as needed, but we know what to look for.

Thank you for the feedback.

Um, and and we're gonna continue our efforts in making sure back to our core service, wherever the park is, in this case, Cloud Street Ranch Park, that it's accessible, clean for the community to use and it's functional.

I will say y'all did a great job protecting the cars features there too.

I like how you protected those areas.

Um so on that note, are we how how are you working to ensure that we're the UDC parkland dedication requirements?

Are they being fully enforced?

And are we tracking and monitoring when we're using parkland versus the philo and because it's important to my district, obviously.

Yes, the short answers, yes.

Okay, um, the fee in lieu of that is uh something that for our part we go through those plan reviews and we establish those fees that is in-house in parks, we make sure that we're collecting what we need to.

You know, back to general UDC, the regulatory side, um development services does a fantastic job of that.

And uh you know, I continue to work with now and mean very closely on any issue, uh, but yes, that is something that we directly manage in tandem, but on the fee side, that is something that we make sure that we're collecting what is needed.

Okay.

Um I want I I also want to echo what my what the mayor and my colleagues were asking about on how to increase the number of users when we're decreasing the number of programs, but um I did hear your response there.

And um, thank you, Councilman Gabon, for asking about the homeless encampment.

I too would like to see that map.

Um the use of the indirect costs.

And then on the Treble Creek Trailhead, it's hard to say three times fast, but how how I'd like to be able to have our residents have some input on that.

Is that still something that we could do?

That project is already designed.

And so from an input perspective, that is best captured at the front end.

If there is something that is, and and we can get you a profile of exactly what's coming online at the trailhead.

If there's something on there missing based on input from the community, you know, let us know because it again it just making up an example, but it could be as simple as there's not enough trees there, and yeah, we want to do yoga over here.

So largely the it's design.

But does not mean that we can't receive additional input and we're open to that.

Okay, because I'd love to have you out to talk about that because that's gonna be a really great opportunity for us.

But um thank you for all you're doing for the Edwards, especially from District 9.

We care so much about it.

So uh we really appreciate it, and we love parks and rec and we appreciate solid waste so much.

And think you all are doing a really great job.

And that's all I have.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Mesa Gonzalez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I'll start with solid waste.

Just quickly, just uh, you know, thank you for all the work you all are doing.

Uh 97% uh is a big number, and my seven-year-old would probably say it's a hundred percent because when you pass by and pick up, he's very excited.

So thank you for all the work you're doing.

I'm glad to see that you guys are using uh technology for uh instead of those uh that paper and uh map quest that you had going on.

Um and then also just on the apprenticeship program, agree with that completely.

I think that's a great asset in your department, and if we can use that in other departments, I think that would uh benefit us.

So thank you.

That's that's all okay.

Thank you.

Uh for parks, Homer, thank you so much.

Um I've said this a couple of times, and I'll say it again.

But District 8 is the only district without a community center.

Um, and we uh would absolutely love one.

I hear that from residents all the time.

And so if we can just think of spaces that already exist, like our Bonnie Connor Park, or even collaborating with IGO Library.

I know there's a lot of green spaces around that.

Um, that maybe we could uh put us uh community center, I think that would be helpful and um make it intergenerational, right?

Where we've got um we know that so like Cody Library, for instance, if you go there from about three to five, it's uh after school care.

It really is.

I mean, that's what it's used for.

Um, so if we can think of uh spaces in that way too, as far as community centers, right?

Um having a senior prom is probably not something that we thought you would have, but people use them.

Um, and so that's good to uh hear.

So um we'll always just continue to advocate for a community center uh as soon as possible.

Uh also I think it was mentioned in the budget town hall I had there was a couple of questions on splash pads in district eight.

If there was any um if there was one coming up or one being built soon or ideas, springtime.

Yes.

Uh so yeah, and right.

I was there, so yeah, on the panel.

And it was really looking at um back to where an appropriate space for that is, probably the most optimal location might be springtime.

Splash pads are so popular that they there are draw.

So we want to make sure that it goes in the right spot because we don't want a bunch of cars parked up and down neighborhood streets because we didn't think through it all the way.

So it really is gonna have to fit within the character of the space.

Okay, uh, but go beyond just the splash pad, but some complimentary things like parking.

Uh, and that is something that we can continue to evaluate.

Okay, great.

And then just one quick on Frederick Park.

Is there an update on the parking situation there?

I know folks just park up and down Frederick Park on the weekends.

That parking lot is just busting out the seams.

I remember going to it might have been, is it a bond project?

I can't remember the parking for that.

Yes, it is a current bond project.

I was confirmed my memory tells me because that was one of the things that was prominent in the planning process for 22 bond.

So it is a uh and so and we'll get an update from public works, but that is something you're right.

Um parking expansion.

Okay, yes all right, that's all.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

Chair Mungia.

We can start with parks.

Sorry, Umber, just sat down.

Um just a few thank yous right off the bat.

Um, you know, we work a lot with um Jackie and Sandy at Parks, and so we really appreciate their work.

Uh and a special shout out to Veronica.

I've worked with her since I started a council a long time ago, and she's just fantastic.

Um, and so I want to agree with um district one on the grass replacement, it's something I'd talk to you about briefly.

Not necessarily just for the fields, but there's so much uh areas in our parks that are kind of dead spaces that we won't really use for anything.

Uh and then the summertime it's it's uh you know just dead grass, and so we could utilize you know natural landscape in some of those spots.

Um I think that could be really helpful and add some you know beauty and aesthetic to the area, as well as educating folks about that uh and what it is.

Um the tree planting and loud and low air quality areas, I think is is a really good idea.

I was on a uh one of my residents did a toxic tour uh a couple weeks ago, and one of the things that someone brought up was the need for trees in that area because of the low air quality.

And also we know that they can also be a noise blocker.

So somewhere in the Quintana Lackland area, I think could be a good priority.

Uh and some of that is an easement area, so not necessarily people's private properties or residential homes, but looking at ways we can even work with uh Union Pacific in some cases to add that would be fantastic.

Uh and I know one of your slides had the uh playground shade projects for five years.

Could you send our office a list of what that looks like for the five-year program?

So I didn't see one in D4 for this year, but that's not to say that we haven't already had one or that we're gonna continue to get some in our district.

Yes, sir, we will.

And do you have an update on the county's um trail extension that's supposed to go from Pearsall Park down to Highway 16?

From Pearsall Park down to highway 16.

On your map, that's that's one of the plan segments of the county supposed to be doing.

Yes, I can get you an update, and and I'm familiar with the connection, but I'm trying to recall from my mind um where that's at, back to the county's tenure plan.

I got you.

Right.

It was kind of um, I don't know, I'm gonna say it was in the out years, but I can get you an answer on that.

And and that is a connector in the overall build out as you saw there.

And it's probably one of the last connections for for Leon Creek, especially looking at the map there.

And then if you can send me an update on the um Port San Antonio one that's then the design phase from the bond.

I don't know if you know where that is in design.

It's design only.

So the idea is that it would be shovel ready for the uh future bond.

Okay.

And is it the and I'll get you I don't know where it's at in design, but to your point, you're right.

It was only going to be designed through the current bond.

So we will get you an update on where it's at and the design process uh so that it's a critical part of the ring.

Yes.

We heard it here first.

It's a critical part of the ring for the next bottom.

It's a long connector.

Absolutely.

Um thank you, sir.

That's all for you.

Appreciate it.

And if we could have solid waste come up.

So uh want to give a quick shout out also to to Nick, um Gallus who's here today, um, Eddie Escavelle and Ricardo Masters for the work.

In addition to Andrew Gutierrez, because that is who I had always used to help, and y'all are extreme uh problem solvers.

Um every time we have an issue that work works with y'all, you guys show up and help us out, and that means a lot.

District 4 is is home to probably some of the most illegal dumping in the city.

Uh and so it plagues our community, and it's uh not great for the residents in the area, but y'all have always been there to help out with that, and we really appreciate that.

Um and Quintana is one of those sites, right?

We have uh history of illegal dumping over there.

It is also where the migrant memorial is, and I know y'all service trash at that memorial.

Thank you for that.

And you also regularly clean that up also.

Um and so that's extremely important to the residents there because that is the site of uh a mass casualty.

So thank you for adding some respect to that area.

And our office has been doing dialog trailers uh every month.

I'm not sure for how long we'll be doing that, but your team is great.

I was out there at the last one.

Um they're super helpful and happy to be out there serving residents.

So just thank you for that again.

And thank you for that shout out on the dialer trailers.

I would for everyone, we do have some additional capacity on the dialog trailers.

I know it's tougher to do it in some districts that don't have established homeowners' associations, but if there's something we could do to help you promote that among your constituents, because I would like when COVID hit, we suspended dialog trailers temporarily, and we've never been able to get back to the level of dialogue trailers that we were scheduling before then.

Yeah, and in my district, it's been tons, you know, of materials picked up so far, and it's extremely helpful.

And I'm optimistic and thinking it helps prevent some illegal dumping if folks are able to dump that.

Um and I think you know, with the solar lights that we have, that's an opportunity to help target some of the illegal dumping sites.

Um there are two vacant lots right in the entrance of my neighborhood that always has illegal dumping off of Ray Ellison, and there's no light in that first block.

And then of course same thing with King Dana there are just no lights out there.

So I think that'll be really helpful for that.

So thank you very much appreciate it.

Chair Vegadon Thank you thank you for the presentations I don't think y'all normally present together so when y'all present separately I was like oh parks you're my favorite and then Solid waste will come and I'll be like Solid waste you're my favorite now y'all are both here.

So I'm I'm really excited um I think for me you uh Homer you guys have done some great work I think one thing I want to see with the tree giveaway is make sure we put call before you dig 811 very close to where we deliver we drop off those we have them pick up the trees because I know that that's one concern I have is they're not calling before they dig and then there might they might cause a little bit of trouble.

The other is I want to give a shout out to the San Antonio Parks Foundation for all that they do and how they work with us it's such a good neighbors and what I I'd like to see is maybe we get if a survey or your team can kind of grade the swimming pools at so then when we're looking at where we need improvements or if San Antonio Parks Foundation comes we can we can look at the pools because I know they've they're getting a lot of use and I was really happy that we could pilot the this summer at Kingsboro the senior program and I think it started off slow but I'm very encouraged by that because those seniors really wanted um time to themselves without the kids in the pool.

And I'm happy to share that with well I want to keep it in district three if we need to move that from location to location to see where the best response is let's do that but I I'm gonna try and look for the funding to make sure I can get them there.

Basically get whatever they want but I told them no to an aerobics instructor this year.

So that that's one thing that I was I was excited about to see the other is the dog parks and really how we can let the animal lovers kind of enjoy that and maintain that so just keep up the good work if you could get us that list of shade structures and when they're coming I had a gentleman in one of my neighborhood associations get after me for about a year and I told him it was coming and then when it finally came I was like this is just how the city works there's a list and and it is it's coming so I appreciate that.

Just to follow up on your uh question so there are three scheduled for district three that includes Concepcion Park Highland Park and Southside Lions and then just to um follow up on council Mungia's question we did three uh shade structures in 24 and 25 and we've got several more scheduled for 27 and 28 in district four great and I think I I think you know just keep up the good work your team is doing really well I do want to look more explore more on the AstroTurf that we talked I know those that are running the softball fields want that and I know that we need to just continue to kind of see how the technology grows and works with our our office of our our city so thank you very much for your efforts and I look forward to meeting with your team probably pretty regularly again this year too.

So thank you.

Sounds good thank you.

Josephine thank you so much for your work and I just want to echo what you said about the dialog trailers we do that probably quarterly within the um within district three and we normally get a really good turnout but we do want to extend it out to our faith based groups and also to some of our neighborhood associations to do that.

I know it's short notice and we can't do this this year but I really think if people on San Antonio neighbors together want to make a dialog trailer either the weekend before or the weekend after part of their neighbors together thing it would be a really good thing to do.

So I'm gonna as I visit neighborhood associations on that night I'm gonna remind them that they can always you know find a parking lot and do a dialog trailer there.

So I want to thank you for that also for the efforts um regarding the um the cleanup of encampments and really want to work with your team about just how much we are finding shopping carts in the drainage dish ditches and the creeks and also patio furniture.

I know we're getting a lot of reports of a missing patio furniture property crimes on that and then we we can I can drive around district three and I see them in a drainage ditch that it has been set up on a drainage ditch.

So we really want to.

I'm working with different neighbors.

Um Mission San Jose Parish is very interested in helping to make sure that that we are um reducing those property crimes and then making sure that people are staying out of the ditches of the creeks along their way.

Um I want to thank you for the presentation on the CDL training and apprenticeship.

Uh rodeo was something when my dad was um with it was public it wasn't called public works then, but it's public works now.

He organized that one year, the rodeo.

And so when y'all started, I've been a couple of times, and if my council colleagues haven't, it's kind of this bike rodeo, but it's it's called the rodeo, and they use the big trucks to kind of maneuver.

And I'm like, oh my gosh, no.

It's it's so difficult.

But you can see where the training is needed and where the apprenticeship is needed.

And what is so funny is sometimes it's the same gentlemen or women, because we have some really good women drivers too, that win every year, and you can tell that the rest of the team is just trying is trying really hard to knock them off that that you know top spot.

But um, I and I feel like y'all are making it harder.

There is a zigzag one.

I was like, okay.

Um, but I think that's what we see, and and it goes back to why I'm I tell my my residents all the time please do not park on the street, please do not park on the street, park in your driveway, because it is it is such um it's such an ordeal to get through, and then we want it to be on time, and and so thank you for for your efforts there.

And then I do look forward to piloting.

Uh, and I've talked to uh David McCarry on this uh for our um hazard waste and drop-off centers because I really think we at District Three are willing to help where if we have a community group or a faith-based group that wants to help their neighbors get those hazardous waste to the um to the drop-off centers, that we would be willing to check and make sure and clear that they have um have paid that fee and and make sure they have a certified district three coupon that they can take three three households worth in their trucks.

So we really want to work with you guys on that because I think it's it's part of being a good neighbor, and as you know, district three has a lot of seniors in there, and if if I don't keep track of my seniors, they'll just let everything kind of build up.

And so I'm looking at that for the hazardous waste and then also for their medication, making sure we give them the right um tools and the pharmacies give them the right things to take care of their medications that they don't use.

But I want to appreciate I appreciate your efforts.

Um anything you guys can do to do uh dial a trailers would be so grateful because if it ends up in the creek, it ends up on the south side and in one of our creeks there.

And you know, we can all I can only ask the volunteers to go out so many times to clean up that river, and um anything we can do to help.

I get so excited, and I I've told um Josephine this story.

I get so excited because every tire I see go into a dialer trailer is one less tire that goes into the river.

So I'd appreciate your help and thank you for um your time and thank you for all you're doing.

Thank you.

Chair Galvan.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just got a couple quick things.

Uh doesn't want to echo uh Councilmember Castillo and Councilman Meso Gonzalez on the uh apprenticeship program piece and seeing what ways we can continue to do that work for more in-house uh apprenticeships um and workforce training uh throughout our city.

Um also wanted to know uh well of course supporting the turf uh that council member uh core mentioned talking about how we can use our green space.

Um but the other piece of it too was thinking uh when you mentioned or where she mentioned the uh uh community garden spaces or things similar to that.

I know of course Metro Health, uh community health work or the community health worker hub is kind of shifting at this moment.

Uh but thinking about ways that we can maybe utilize the climate uh climate neighborhoods, uh the ambassador program, the SAIS program to maybe help with those pieces if we're gonna look at ways to build up that um those kind of gardening groups.

Uh I think that's one of the biggest hurdles that there always are that is that as many people are getting as vault as we want them to be, or not in a structured way.

And so maybe that's something that we can utilize some of these different programs that kind of do this work already.

Uh that's maybe not quite going to gardening, but could be similar to it.

It could still help address uh address the issue and maybe even potentially work uh with youth as well to address public safety concerns.

Um make an impact of public safety.

Um the piece about uh I believe uh Council Record also mentioned Wi-Fi.

I I don't remember exactly.

I'm trying to remember when last time I was at the Green Line uh at Brooks in District 3.

I believe that they have I don't know if you could wrong if you're gone.

Uh the lighting along the trail has Wi-Fi within it.

And so figuring out ways that we can have some of those uh throughout our parks as well, whether it's on walking trails there or in the general whether it isn't lighting currently or next to the pavilions or some kind of technology similar to that to emit Wi-Fi as well.

So it's a kind of a dual solution.

I don't know how practical or B cost effective it is, but I would be interested in seeing what that would look like.

Um just throwing that out there.

Um the cutway Mr.

Gonzalez's point about community centers.

I know she's pushing for the district eight ones, so I'm not gonna knock around that by any means.

But I do think uh I I don't remember the parks master plan, or maybe it's essay tomorrow that's doing this work.

Um, but looking at places where there maybe is like a lack of access to either community centers or even to water play access, such as pools or splash pads, uh if there can maybe long range plans of how we can address some of those pieces.

Because I think about in district six, we have a lot of HOAs um more towards the inner part of the district going uh towards 410 and 151 that are disbanded.

And so a lot of the community centers that they once had under HOAs are gone.

And so there's not a community center in places, not a pool in places, no water access or water plate access unless they go further out.

And of course they have a great do a great job with pools in district six, but nonetheless, just trying to think about where some of those pieces could be where they could go, um if that if that work is already being done by parks to kind of see uh are are there are we evaluating access to these places already as our landscape shifts in terms of community community activities within HOAs or private spaces kind of going away?

Sure.

And and I speak so the short answer is yes, and one of the things, and I know we talked about the SA tomorrow plan.

We have our park system plan that is updated every 20, excuse me, every 10 years.

And um the current system plan was adopted in the spring of 2019, and you know, we don't it and it probably takes about two years to develop that.

So we're not there yet to update it.

We're starting those discussions.

So I think one of the things that we can look back is what does our current park system plan say and where we at in that process as we look ahead to planning and updating it.

And you know, one of the things that as an industry standard, just again for uh one perspective, uh it is really looking at providing um access to aquatic amenities, really focusing on splash pads.

Yeah, they have a longer access.

So we're talking about access to right.

We keep splash pads open here uh March to the end of October uh roughly, and then they go dark, we winterized them, and it's really looking more at that than pools because pools are so have a short time period uh of course apart from nadatoriums that uh the city has access to.

So those are a couple of things from a planning perspective that guide the work that we do, but we can go back and look to see relative to our adopted park system plan, how it addresses that.

Yeah, that'd be great.

That just because I know like it it's something that I think is happening maybe more in north side neighborhoods, right?

Where HOAs are um but I think particularly in D6, as our district has changed over time, we're seeing it kind of go from Meadow Village to even Piper's Meadow, uh to Timber Ridge where just HOAs have disbanded for different reasons, right?

Participation, cost, and so those centers that were once there are gone.

And so they're looking for community centers.

I know Quay Arthur is the only one we have technically in the district outside of non-HOA ones.

Um I guess uh new territory's clubhouse too on the edge.

Um, but kind of in between, it's kind of a desert in terms of where those are, unless you're in the Great Northwest or other places that are HOAs.

Um but I think those are all my questions.

I did want to just use my last couple seconds to say uh on the point about where we can have places that are collaborative, uh like on the last slide you had about libraries and parks being put together, even though it's not necessarily a full scale.

I really appreciative that we have Maverick Library and the library's not here today within our field office at Tesla next to our trailhead because it just it gives that feeling to residents that all these pieces are together.

Uh Councilman Castillo Angiano.

Did you something to that?

No, I'm just saying sure.

Thank you.

Great, thank you.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

I just had two notes.

Uh going back, because I know we're all kind of mentioning um the the trails a little bit.

Um I do kind of look forward to having lights on the trails because I did uh like a like like a 50 mile race along the uh greenway.

Um and it was very, very hard biking back from Eisenhower because it was pitch black.

Um and so I know it's probably not something we could do uh within the budget this year, or maybe it is, uh, but I just wanted to you know throw that out there um that lights, you know, whether it's solar or something, um, seeing what we can do to light up our trails.

Uh but that's it for the parks, and then with solid waste, this one just kind of has to do with the encampment sweeps.

Um and I mentioned this in the uh in in the earlier budget session with the um with the new um homeless strategies um that I do think that we need to figure out another uh solution.

I don't think that encampment cleanups are a long-term solution.

Um and that uh was this the uh the uh encampment abatement sites.

Is this what you were looking for?

Count Councilman?

It's okay.

Well, if it just go down your emails um because they emailed the memo on the 22nd and it has the map of the reoccurring sites.

Um and then it also lays out the cost of it as well for the average cost of direct services for abatements being 2046.

Um so I just wanted to throw that out.

Um I just I do think that we need to figure out another solution here because if we're just going back and back and back to just clean up, you know, these folks are just gonna go right back to where they started.

Um so I I just wanted to throw that out there.

Um, you know, just for everybody's um, you know, peace of mind.

Thank you, Mayor.

Chair Corr.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I just had a quick question for you, Homer.

I I forgot that I had spoken to some folks and heard that Shakespeare in the park was cut from the budget this year.

So I I can't, I'm not the best one to answer that.

Asia needs to answer that.

What I can share with you is Shakespeare in the park, of course, at San Pender Park the last two years.

Um we have provided support for that.

And when I met with her, I indicated we want to continue to support it, but it would be through things that we do for any partner, such as in-kind operational support.

Got it.

Okay.

Well, if we can talk, maybe you and I can talk offline a little bit about that to see first opportunity.

It's I think it's it's a great event, and I want to see more of it.

So we can talk offline about that.

Um, and then one other question that I had for you is and this might be a big of a project, but we were talking about um updating the um water fountains that's at San Pedro Springs Park too.

And I was wondering if we had like a cost per fountain and if we could use our CIP funds.

Like, I don't know if anybody else has parks that um are affected by this, but if that's something that we could like bundle together, like I would contribute some of our CIP funds to upgrade the water fountains if there was uh an opportunity to do that.

So a couple things.

Yes, we we can get to the information and we do track uh a price for fountain, different styles out there.

We also have an active bond project, and I think we're gonna be meeting on that with public works here in the coming uh weeks to finalize scope and then map out what timeline looks like for construction.

I don't recall top of my head if that's built into it, but I also feel it's nominal enough that we can probably deliver that through the bond program.

But we can get you the pricing information.

I was just thinking of a way to expedite that rather than waiting for we'll make a note.

We'll go back and look at that.

Yes.

Thank you so much, Homer.

And then the last question, Justin, this is just a data request that I don't know if you guys have it.

Y'all helped us get those additional trash rep receptacles on North Alamo, which I was super grateful.

It was like a lot quicker than I expected, we'd be able to get that done.

But my question is have we ever thought about what the per unit cost of additional trash community like trash receptacles are?

Like if we wanted the the trash receptacles like on the st on the sidewalks and streets?

Not like just the cost to install it, but like the cost to continue to service it.

Like if we wanted to say add 20 more trash receptacles on an area where we know there is a lot of foot traffic to encourage people to use those, what it would additionally cost to service that we have not done that, but I can do some calculations and follow up with you.

Okay, that would be great to be able to see at for like individual for like one time what the cost is maybe that we could extrapolate, and then also for street sweeping.

I think you kind of like I'm trying to figure out if we were to focus some of that area as like how could if we were to spread out the charges, what it would cost folks.

We could talk about it a little bit offline, but thinking about entertainment like areas that have heavy F and B traffic, if we are being able to cost out some of our services to then be able to say this is what it additionally charges us to service the river north area or to service service the St.

Mary Strip, and how could we then create some kind of you know package for that?

Do you have a geographical area in mind?

I have multiple.

Okay.

So uh because you know that that's a that's and it's not just solid waste, it's it's public works on the street cleaning because we've done and I'll call them irregular regular cleanings um on the D5 side to the west.

And so there's uh the let that's let us put together some estimates on both the the trash and recycling receptacles and street sweeping about how we can apply maybe those services in other areas.

There is a cost, but right, but I think we could figure some of that out and then plan accordingly.

And that's something we bring back to you guys.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Let me reiterate that that ask.

I know one of the um community groups that's been particularly active on that is the North Main group um uh in the neighborhood.

So that'd be helpful.

Let me um uh Mr.

Garcia.

I should have asked this earlier, and my mom will critique me as the daughter of a longtime special ed teacher.

Do we have a strategic plan uh to ensure that we have sufficient programming for uh youth that have special needs?

Uh that specifically addresses that.

I I had the privilege of uh visiting the Mitchell's landing uh park in District 9, which is uh top tier, very expensive, I understand.

Um but frankly, look, as there are changes at the federal level uh that are making it harder to have for folks to have more agency and family planning.

We will see more children and we will see more children with special needs.

So I want to make sure that our parks and our programming um it accounts for that as as best we can.

So I'd welcome understanding um how we can uh what we are currently doing, how we might be able to better account for that, um, not only in the facilities but also in the in the programming.

And it sounds like you know you've got an opportunity with the two new parks, Suzette and Ore Park and the Mukinschutz park.

Yes, absolutely.

And in just one quick uh, I think example of that, and it wasn't in the presentation.

Another grant that we received is the aim to float grant that's due to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department two year um last year and this year, where we take youth in uh during our summer youth program, and they go and they learn how to uh kayak.

So we take them and bust them from centers down to a secur park uh right there uh at the river.

And part of that instruction, we include archery, we include uh water conservation module, and we've even taken seniors out to learn how to kayak.

And so there is again another example of a multi cost pollinating, if you will, some of our programming, and uh that is through an aim to float grant.

So we're looking at continuing doing those types of things, always scanning the environment of opportunities, uh, whether it's just something that we do through collaboration through a partner or uh certainly grantors.

Yeah, and I think it's important that we identify those those types of grants, um, but also ensure that we have a minimum level of programming that we are willing to fund ourselves just given the need in our community, especially with kids with with special needs, and especially in parts of the community that are um already um one under served, but frankly um under resourced to address those things themselves.

Um I think and I'll just say um I think this conversation really touches on some of the points that we had in the last conversation when when we spoke about tours.

Um, and you know, I I think when we think about um some of the minimum level of investments that we want across each of our districts, parks and rec or some of the other programming speaks to how we have opportunities to have more strategic conversations about um the revenue wherever it may come, but how it meets the need across our community to uh to a minimum level that anybody would be able to expect uh from their city, regardless of where they live.

So thank you for the thank you for the very helpful presentations.

Um I think that's it at this point.

Let's see.

Okay, great.

The time is now 4 23 on September 9th, and this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.