Good afternoon.

The time is now 2 01 p.m.

on Wednesday, September 10th, 2025 in the City of San Antonio.

Budget work session is called to order.

Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Councilmember Corps.

Councilmember Castillo Anghiano.

Councilmember Via Gran.

Councilmember Mungia.

President.

Councilmember Castillo.

Here.

Councilmember Glavan.

Councilmember Alderete Gavito.

Here.

Councilmember Mesa Gonzalez.

Councilmember Spears.

Here.

Councilmember White.

Mayor Jones.

Here.

Mayor, we have quorum.

Great.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

This meeting is to hear about employee benefits and compensation in all other departments.

Eric, over to you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good afternoon, Mayor Council.

So we'll start off with Renee Frieda, our Human Resources Director, and then we'll transition to Freddie Alfred Martinez, our assistant director of the budget office who will cover the balance of the presentation.

Brittany.

Good afternoon.

I'm Renee Frieda, and I'm the city's Director of Human Resources, and today I'll be presenting the proposed budget on employee compensation and benefits.

Overseeing these initiatives are Deputy Director Crystal Strong, Assistant Director Natalie Bullock, Assistant Director Irma Medetos, Principal Compensation Principal Dan Williams, and Assistant to the Director Christina Hernandez.

Here's a look at the budgeted resources that we use to support our COSA family.

Of the 252 million dollar departmental budget, the vast majority, 94% or 237 million, is in the employee benefits fund, which is used to pay claims for our self-funded medical plans for the city and LGC staff.

The remaining 6% of our budget is for departmental operations.

That 6% or $15.9 million is split between the varying divisions of HR, with 30% going towards personnel services, and 35% covering departmental assessments for health insurance, unemployment, IT, and real estate.

Whether we're building streets and sidewalks, encouraging responsible pet ownership, reducing waste, or educating our youth, our city of San Antonio employees are the ones who are directly responsible for delivering on our mission of providing quality city services.

Our COSA workforce includes 13,723 authorized positions, of which about 4,700 are uniformed, and about 8900 are civilian.

Of those civilian positions, about 8,500 are full-time, with about 400 being part-time.

The FY26 budget continues to fund the broad range of benefits that you see here.

When someone joins the COSA family, we are committed to supporting them through their career and into retirement.

By offering them development opportunities such as tuition reimbursement, student loan repayment assistance, and GED prep.

We hope to continuously grow them, allowing them to make a larger contribution to the city organization and earn a larger paycheck to support their family.

We're also helping them committed to helping employees improve and maintain their health through our health benefits and wellness programs that you see here.

Our generous leave package that includes 13 holidays annually, personal leave, and COSA care leave, allows employees to strike that important balance between work and home.

In fact, new employees are eligible to receive 27 paid days off in their first year alone.

And finally, our retirement benefits that include a pension through TMRS with a two to one match and retiree health care.

Allow us to ensure that in exchange for their loyal and dedicated service, our employees can look forward to a comfortable retirement.

Each of our benefits exist for the benefit of employees to help them meet their personal and professional goals, take care of themselves and their families, and navigate through the many obstacles that we each encounter in life.

Whether it's utilizing tuition reimbursement to secure their dream job, taking parental leave when growing their family, or utilizing a via bus pass to get transportation to and from work.

Connecting employees with their benefits can make a huge difference in their lives.

Pictured here, you see Brittany Barnes, an operations manager in animal care services.

Brittany began working with the city in 2015 as a rescue foster coordinator in animal care.

Since that time, Brittany's been promoted multiple times, serving as a lead animal care officer and a lead live release coordinator.

She utilized our tuition reimbursement and our student loan repayments programs, and we're proud of Brittany for completing her master's in organizational behavior from UIW in 2020.

Brittany was also able to take advantage of our short-term disability programs and our parental leave program when she started her first when she started her family and had her first child Nathaniel in 2023.

We're equally proud of Rogelio San Miguel, pictured on the right.

He started off in an apprentice program in 2021.

Our apprentice programs in solid waste and animal care services allow people who with a high school diploma or GED to come in and gain experience that would make them eligible for promoted positions.

Rohelio joined Solid Waste and was able to secure his CDL, and since that time has received two promotions within the department.

On top of that, he took advantage of the city's gear up wellness program for drivers and was able to lose over 100 pounds, come off blood pressure medicine, and obtain a one-year DOT Med Cert required to maintain his CDL position.

Ensuring that we have fair and competitive pay is an integral part of attracting and retaining a qualified workforce.

Our employee pay is primarily structured across two pay plans.

Pay Plan A includes employees in the clerical, paraprofessional, maintenance, skilled craft, and technician EEO categories.

Pay Plan A employees move through their range based on time in their position.

Pay Plan B primarily includes employees in the professional and managerial EEO categories.

Employees within pay plan B move through their range based on their relevant job experience.

In FY23, we performed a market study on all of our over 900 job titles.

And this resulted in a significant market, significant pay range movement based on our budgetary constraints at the time when the pay range is shifted to the right.

Employees with varying tenure and experience all found themselves relatively low in the range.

In FY24 and FY25, the city invested more than $13 million to make compression adjustments to have people slated within their range based on their appropriate tenure or experience.

The initial goal was to have to continue compression and have employees in pay plan A obtain the range maximum after 10 years in a position and those in pay plan B to obtain the ridge the range midpoint after gaining 10 years of relevant experience.

As an organization, we're committed to asking our employees their opinion and using it to drive our decision making.

We hear from them in a variety of ways to include conversations with employee associations like ASME, with our employee management committee, through HR listening sessions where I meet individually with small groups of employees from across the city organization, and through our biannual employee engagement survey.

These are the kinds of things that I heard this year.

Employees shared that they wanted us to continue offering wage growth that recognizes tenure and experience.

They also shared that based on the message delivered last fiscal year by City Manager Eric Walsh, they understand that an increase in health claims costs is necessitating an increase to premiums.

However, they asked that we attempt to ensure that those premium increases not negate any wage increase that is approved.

And finally, our employee management committee stressed that the most important priority to them was retaining city jobs and avoiding layoffs.

The FY26 budget includes 50 million employee compensation increases.

This 50 million to employ increase to employee-based wages includes the proposed 2% increase to civilian employees, along with the 8% increase to fire employees that becomes effective 10-1, and the 4% that becomes effective April 1st of 2026 for our SAPDE officers.

At the end of our last complete fiscal year, the average base compensation for our full-time civilian employees was $63,097.

The average base compensation for our firefighters was $22,936.

And the average compensation for our police officers was $81,696.

But base compensation is not a complete representation of the pay that employees receive.

On top of their base salary, employees may receive overtime, leave buyback, or allowances such as a uniform allowance or skill pay.

The average cash compensation for a civilian employee this last fiscal year was $66,887.

When you factor the value of their benefits, the average overall total compensation for a civilian employee jumps to $91,084.

That number is $164,867 for uniformed firefighters and $168,381 for our police officers.

In fact, for every dollar spent in compensation for civilian employees, the city spends an additional 39 cents on benefits.

For every dollar in compensation that we spend for uniformed employees, the city spends an additional 62 cents on benefits.

While the proposed budget included a 2% across the board increase for all civilian employees at a cost of about $13 million across all funds, I heard feedback from some of you asking for consideration for a 3% across the board increase.

That option is represented here.

A 3% across the board results in an increase to the proposed budget in compensation of about $2.9 million in the general fund and $6.3 million across all funds.

I also heard there may be a desire to seek a compensation alternative that provided a higher percentage increase to our lower wage earners.

As mentioned previously, it's important that we maintain that distance between employees that we began to develop through our compression adjustments and that $13 million that we spent over the last two fiscal years.

The alternative presented here was born out of discussions with ASME, Mondo and Carol and Chrissy, and our employee management committee.

It provides a 2% across the board, as mentioned in the proposed budget, as well as a $750 increase to base.

This results in an increase in the proposed budget and compensation of $3.37 million in the general fund and $7.48 million across all funds.

Under this proposal, because everyone moves equidistance, we maintain that distance that we created in our initial compression adjustments.

And our lowest wage earners, those earning the entry wage, would earn a 4% base wage increase.

So again, that results in 4% increase for those at entry wage.

Anybody earning $75,000 or less would see a 3% or greater increase.

Those earning over $75,000 would receive less than a 3%, but in no case would anyone receive less than a 2.21% increase.

If you look on the far left-hand side, those at entry wage would receive a 4% increase, and that $750 base increase would result from in a 4% to a low of just above the 2% that was in the initial proposed budget.

So to summarize, the proposed budget contained a 2% across the board at a cost of $13 million across all funds.

The 3% across the board presented today comes at a cost of $19 million across all funds, an increase of $6.31 million.

And the third alternative, a 2% across the board with a $750 base salary increase is at a cost of $20.57, an increase of $7.48 million over what is contained in the proposed budget.

Switching gears to health care for a moment.

As an organization, we take pride in offering benefit plans that meet our employees' varying health care needs.

All employees have the option to choose between our higher deductible, lower cost consumer choice plan, or our new value PPO plan.

Civilian employees can also select a third option, the Blue Essentials HMO plan.

Our self-insured medical plans are administered by Blue Cross Blue Shield, and our civilian employees pay premiums for themselves and their dependents under all three of the available plans.

Our police officers and firefighters enjoy free employee only coverage in both the new value and in consumer choice plans.

They can also ensure their dependents for free under consumer choice or elect to pay premiums for dependents under the new value plan.

The FY26 budget plans for a 5% increase to civilian employees and a 10% increase to uniformed premiums consistent with the respective collective bargaining agreements.

In speaking with employees, I know there's been some confusion surrounding the impact of a 2% increase to pay coupled with a 5% increase to premiums.

With the 2% across the board, the smallest pay increase annually in FY26 would be $748.

That number grows to $1,498, depending on the option selected for adoption.

The highest annual premium increase is $384, impacting 80 employees.

As you can see, no employees upside down as their pay increase exceeds the proposed increase to premiums.

On the left hand side of the slide, you see the proposed premiums and the and the monthly increase.

As you can see, the monthly increase ranges from 86 cents a month for employee only in the consumer choice plan to $31.97 a month for a family and new value.

58% of our employees would see a monthly premium increase of less than $5, and 93% would see a premium increase of less than $15.

All employees have the opportunity to switch between plans during open enrollment that begins on October 6th.

And as a department, HR is prepared to work with employees to identify if there are less expensive options that may meet their individual needs.

We're very excited.

We've recently launched benefit focus through SAP, where employees during open enrollment will have the option to choose a guided selection process.

Under that guided selection process, it will pull in their annual salary, their claims cost over that year, and their premiums, and it will provide the options to show them whether they could have got equivalent coverage for their needs and a lesser expensive plan.

So we're excited to be offering that this year.

Thank you, Renee.

Good afternoon, Mayor and City Council.

My name is Freddie Martinez.

I'm the assistant director for the Office of Management and Budget.

It's my pleasure today to present all other departments.

So these are going to cover the departments that we haven't covered thus far in the budget work sessions that we've had to date.

They're also all available to answer any questions at the conclusion of today's presentation.

So this is uh the you are here slide.

So now that we've heard from Renee and employee compensation and benefits, we've covered 96.1 of the uh $4 billion proposed budget through the first um I guess nine and a half work sessions thus far.

Um today I'll focus on the remaining 157.4 million.

However, keep in mind that this does not include internal service funds as those funds are supported by all other city funds.

So the 157 is representative of excluding those internal service funds.

Um today's presentation is comprised of 21 different departments and offices that provide uh community services, operating support, and internal services to the city.

So here's a list of all those departments.

Um we have um divided into three uh sections.

The first one community services, which includes 311 customer service, center city development operations, historic preservation, the new office of resiliency and sustainability, the integrated community safety office, and the World Heritage Office.

And then I won't rattle off all the other ones, but we have operating operating support services, which include things such as the city attorney, uh communications engagement, and the military and veterans are fair.

Then on the right, we have internal support departments, which is, of course, budget, finance, and innovation, just to uh name a couple.

Next, I'll go into each department in greater detail.

First, I'll start off with the 311 customer service.

So 311 connects residency customer service representatives that are ready to assist with service requests, such as fixing potholes, stray animals, traffic issues, solid waste collections, and many other city requests.

Their FY26 proposed budget totals 5.2 million and funds 60 positions.

There is one right sizing reduction included in the proposed budget of a little over 59,000.

The right sizes the temporary salaries budget within the 311 department.

However, there's no impact to services.

This is a right sizing based on historical spending.

On the bottom right hand corner, you'll see some performance measures and we'll have performance measures throughout the slides.

But for 311, just want to call out that you'll see you can see between the first two that they're anticipating to answer or receive over 1 million calls for FY25 and FY26.

With about a quarter of those calls coming from the virtual or are being handled by the virtual agent.

With a 96% answer rate, 311 estimates an average wait time of approximately 25 second 25 seconds for FY25, and to maintain that in FY26.

Next up is Center City Development and Operations, or CCDO as we call them.

They're responsible for the management of La Vieta, Market Square, the city's parking garages and lots, riverwalk operations, special event coordinating, and the leasing and the leasing of city facilities and both the cost and for uh leases at where we receive revenue from from tenants.

Their budget this year is approximately is about 33.6 million, which supports 156 uh positions within the restricted funds that 16.1, 9.4 is uh for the parking fund, 2.6 for market square, 2.7 in the riverwalk capital improvement fund, and 1.3 million for the city tower and garage fund.

You'll also note there that there's 4.4 million in capital projects uh lined up for FY26, and those include a $2 million repair to Riverwalk Gate 3, also 1.4 million for riverwalk sidewalk renovations, 800,000 to continue the structural improvements at the Houston Street Garage, and finally 230,000 for uh a riverwalk staircase renovation.

Next is historic preservation.

The Office of Historic Preservation protects and celebrates the city's historical, cultural, architectural, and archaeological resources.

Their programs include public education and outreach, design review, and the vacant buildings program.

Their budget for FY26 as proposed totals 3.5 million, which would fund 22 positions.

We do have a proposed uh reduction of about 179,000, which proposes to eliminate two vacant positions, as well as uh some right sizes of some contracts and commodities.

Next is the integrated community safety office.

They were established in FY 2024, and it includes nine positions and a budget of 1.55 million.

The office works with city departments to proactively address systematic factors that contribute to criminal activity and that enhance the quality of life of San Antonio residents.

As you can see there, major programs included for 26 include the violent crime reduction plan, downtown camera projects, and the good neighbor program.

And you can see for 26, the office is targeting to complete 50 good neighbor assessments with 25 of those properties abated.

Next up is the Office of Resiliency and Sustainability.

The FY26 proposed budget consolidates the Office of Sustainability and the Chief Resiliency Office into one office, a resiliency and sustainability.

To better align the work currently being completed by the two offices.

Some of their FY26 goals would be to advance municipal solar energy efficient retrofits, electronic excuse me, EVs, and resilience hubs.

Also to deliver and update the SA climate ready plan and to start the implementation dashboard in FY26.

Their $16.2 million budget includes $3.2 from the resiliency energy efficiency and sustainability fund, $3.2 million from the Energy Efficiency Fund, as well as $9.1 million in capital projects.

The $9.1 million in capital projects is dedicated to the municipal on-site solar project, which installs roofs, rooftop, and parking canopies solar panels across 42 municipal sites.

Our last community service department to highlight is the World Heritage Office.

The World Heritage Office programs include managing the World Heritage Center as well as the Mission Marquee Plaza and the Spanish Governor's Palace.

Their $3.2 billion, excuse me, $3.2 million budget, funds 14 positions as well as operating costs for the new World Heritage Center that opened earlier this year.

And as you can see, highlighted the performance measures.

They anticipate approximately 50,000 attendees at the mission market or mission marquee for various events such as the outdoor family film series, farmers markets, and other events.

Now I'll move on to some of our operating supporting departments.

First is the city attorney's office.

Their work includes representing the city in all legal matters and preparing documents, contract, and legal instruments for the city.

Their FY26 budget totals 22.0 million and it funds 93 positions.

There is a right sizing reduction of approximately 289,000 based on some historical spending patterns as we looked at as we looked at uh as we looked at their budget.

And then under performance measures, you'll note that the number of DART properties reviewed and the percent closed will stay consistent to the current year.

Next is the city auditor's office.

They are responsible for performing financial, physical compliance, and other audits as directed by the city council to measure the effectiveness of city operations.

80% of their audit staff hold professional certifications or related advanced degrees.

Each year, the city auditor prepares an annual audit plan that identifies audits for the upcoming fiscal year.

And they also provide ethics training and support to the ethics review board.

With the back with a proposed budget of 3.5 million, the plan for next year is to issue 80, excuse me, 34 audit reports in FY26.

Next is our city clerk's office and municipal elections.

The city clerk facilitates city council meetings, manages municipal archives and records, registers and issues birth and death certificates, oversees municipal elections, and operates the U.S.

Passport Office that's located in City Tower.

Their total FY26 proposed budget is 9.2 million.

This includes 1.4 million in funding to fund a potential bond election in FY26.

And then also just a couple highlights on the city clerk's office.

There is a mandate for about $135,000, which adds one position on operating costs for the new municipal archives museum that's slated to open in the fall.

Next is the city manager's office, led by the city manager, of course, who oversees the daily operations of the city as well as the over 13,700 employees of the city.

City manager's office for FY26 has a 4.3 million dollar budget, which supports 15 positions.

Communications and engagement or CE.

CE includes a communications team that handles all media, marketing and messaging for the city.

Their creative services team oversees brand management and design for the city's creative assets.

C and E also under Texas Public Information Act and provides public access television and live broadcasts, such as city council meetings.

CE, their FY26 proposed budget totals 10.2 million, which includes funding in the general fund and the public education and government fund, which provides capital resources for the city's public access channels.

You'll see there on the right under performance measures that CNE processes over 80,000 open record requests annually and operates over 300 TDESA Live Productions, as well as hosting over 100 community events each year.

Government affairs.

They are responsible for monitoring local, state, and federal government activities, developing the legislative program for the city that's approved by city council, and providing grant technical assistance to city departments.

For FY26, their budget totals 1.6 million that supports six positions.

And you can see some of the work that they did this year during the legislative session there on the bottom right.

Over 2200 state bills were tracked by government affairs this legislative session.

The mayor and council support budget total 17.4 million.

This supports 19 positions for operational and administrative report to the mayor and council offices, as well as the 99 positions for the local government corporation.

Military and veterans' affairs.

MVA collaborates with military partners to enhance mission readiness, protect installations, advocate for military issues at all levels of government, as well as support veterans and their families.

Their proposed budget is 5.7 million in FY26, 700,000 approximately from the general fund, and 5 million in capital projects.

The 5 million in capital project or capital funding is for the defense health agency project, which aims to renovate a building at joint base San Antonio to consolidate some positions for from Virginia to move here.

MVA plans to maintain their 266 military mission partnerships as well as conduct about 1,400 veteran recognition outreach events next year.

My favorite slide, the budget office.

Pretty simple, right?

So what do we do?

We uh facilitate the annual budget process, produce monthly and quarterly financial reports.

We also review all uh requests for council a session items, and um work with the Office of Innovation on comprehensive budget reviews.

Our 3.7 million dollar budget covers the 20 authorized positions that we have for the budget office.

Next is building and equipment services.

Um BESD, as we as we refer to them, provide building maintenance and custodial services for most city facilities.

They maintain and repair the city's light duty and administrative fleet and the acquisition and disposition of city vehicles and equipment.

Their FY26 proposed budget totals 150.1 million.

That's comprised of funding in the facility services fund, fleet services, equipment renewal and replacement, as well as the city tower fund.

And then there's another 9.6 million dollars targeted in capital project funding.

Within the equipment renewal and replacement fund, that's approximately $67 million fund for FY26.

That includes funding to replace $166 vehicles in FY26, which include just a sampling of those would be police cruisers, uh, automated side loaders for solid waste, various sedan and heavy truck replacements, as well as other vehicles.

Within their $9.6 million capital budget, there's $5 million for uh deferred maintenance projects.

Now, some of these you've heard about in other presentations, such as some of the repairs we're seeing at our fire stations, the maintenance and repairs at the Claude Black, Frank Garrett and Cafe College facilities, and then we also heard from the library of the FERT maintenance project, which is the Collins Garden Branch Library HVAC replacement.

There's also funding for uh maintenance at City Tower to replace the underground fuel storage tank at the Northwest Police Substation.

Um, another round of the uh electrical vehicle charging infrastructure at various city facilities.

Um those are the things that we have within that 9.6 million dollar uh capital project budget.

Next is the compliance opportunity and access.

Um they manage the city's disability access office language access services, which include American Sign Language and Spanish interpretation services, as well as providing technical and training assistance.

Their FY26 budget is uh proposed at 2.7 million, includes 17 positions, and you'll see that there is a reduction in the proposed budget of approximately 500,000.

This eliminates two vacant positions from the department, as well as right sizing uh certain contracts and commodities based on historical spending.

The finance department.

They provide accounting services, financial services, procurement services.

They work on with our public utilities, CPS and SALS.

There's a compliance and resolution section who perform hotel occupancy tax and citywide department process or contract reviews, and then financial uh operations, which provides vendor support, and our print and mail services are also included as part of the finance department.

Their FY26 budget is 33.5 million, which supports 190 positions.

Um, within their highlights, their proposed budget does eliminate five positions in the general fund and right sizes contracts and commodities with no impact to services.

Another highlight, the purchasing and general services fund includes 380,000 to replace two of the color color printers at the print shop.

Some of their goals are to continue to improve on the transition of paying our vendors with checks to ACH and wires, getting that percentage increase, and also to increase our on-time payments to our vendors.

Hopefully, we can get that to 90% next fiscal year.

Next is the Office of Innovation.

So you've heard a lot about the Office of Innovation this year with our comprehensive budget reviews, but they evaluate the effectiveness of city services and business processes to improve process efficiency and at the end to save taxpayer money and improve the customer experience.

They do internal consulting via comprehensive budget reviews.

There's employee training due to the innovation academy, and then there are research and partnerships such as the RD League.

Their proposed budget totals 1.5 million and funds eight positions.

Included in their proposed budget is a proposed reduction of $175,000 in RD funding with the remaining $75,000 in funding.

It's anticipated that they could do two to four research projects with that funding.

Another goal is of the innovation office of innovation is through next year's comprehensive budget reviews to identify $500 five million dollars of potential savings for the uh for the next round of the budget process.

Information technology services.

So they're responsible for our digital government customer experience, security for all city uh business systems, maintaining operations and critical infrastructure, including data center operations, all the enterprise application and support responsibility, public safety and court systems, and then portfolio and project delivery with governance and emerging technology.

Their proposed budget totals 1.67 million for 356 positions.

They do have a few different uh budget highlights within ITSD.

You'll see that there is 1.2 million dollars of mandates.

Um, this is to uh fund contract increases such as the physical security service for the care maintenance service and support of our operational electronic security systems, um the renewal of the Microsoft uh enterprise agreement, and then the computer aided dispatch system for the maintenance and licensing fees that we have to uh pay for in the coming fiscal year.

Their proposed budget also includes 4.6 million dollars in reductions.

This eliminates five vacant positions.

Um it accounts for contract negotiation savings.

So this is something that IT really did a good job with.

They scrubbed all their contracts, negotiated new contracts, and we were able to identify savings within their budget through that through that process.

Um we're also decommissioning the mainframe system this year that should be fully offline by the end of the year.

And also IT is reducing some of the professional service capacity for outside staff, and all this should be with minimal impact to services.

The Office of Risk Management Service Management focuses on programs to prevent injuries and collisions and to protect city assets.

They manage safety program and oversees the workers' compensation program and general and auto liability program.

Their FY26 budget is 32.7 million dollars, which supports 29 positions within the general liability and workers' compensation funds.

And as you can see under performance measures, they anticipate doing about 500 facility safety inspections annually.

Um finally, I'd like to review the non-departmental budget as well as the transfers to other funds.

Um, so this is the non-departmental budget that's located within the general fund.

So you'll see a list of the major expenses that are there.

They include $8.4 million for sales tax collection expenses.

So for the $400 plus million dollars of sales tax revenue that we receive, we pay the state 2%, a 2% fee based off those revenues that we collect.

There's also $6.2 million for building maintenance and utilities for city hall, municipal plaza, the international center and city tower.

$5.1 million to the bear appraisal district for the estimated city chair share of the Bear Appraisal District's FY26 budget, which is based off the pro rata share of the most recent um actual overall tax levy.

Then we have 1.7 million for property tax collection services, 1.4 million to support the Carver Community Cultural Center, $614,000 for the city's contribution to the public improvement district, $285,000 for credit card fees, and then $272,000 for various association dues that the cities participant in.

So in total, non-departmental for 26 would be 27.7.

And then the budget also includes a reduction of 600,000.

And these are just right sizing of some of the line items in property disability disposition, professional studies, and building repairs.

Then within the general fund, there's $7 million of transfers.

Um so these are highlighted by the 2.8 million at World War for debt payment.

You heard from Homer Garcia yesterday who was explaining the 10-year uh $10 million a year agri-crop for protection program.

So to fund that debt for 26, um, the general fund is supporting that with 2.8 million.

The general fund also supports a resiliency energy efficiency and sustainability fund through a transfer of 2.4 million.

We also have 1.6 million uh to transfer to support facility maintenance, and then uh a couple other smaller ones where we're supporting some positions in the DSD fund as well as a solid waste fund for uh professional support.

So with that, Mayor and City Council that concludes the presentation.

Um there's representatives from all 21 departments um behind me that and myself included to answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you.

Great, thank you, Ms.

Frida, and and Mr.

Martinez really appreciate all of the efforts in uh particularly on the FERS to make our city an employer of choice.

Um in particular, there was lots of discussion, and it's come up in many of the budget work sessions as we think about offsets and and trade-offs, uh, there being a real commitment to ensure that we're compensating our our workforce appropriately.

So I appreciate the the different options that you all have have helped lay out.

Um the can you speak a little bit to the compression piece?

Um again, my my frame of reference, this is not unfamiliar.

Um, you know, at the Pentagon, we're trying to make sure that our our most junior folks who would be experiencing some of the economic challenges the hardest, we could we could compensate a little bit more than others, understanding those some of the considerations of of compression that you're talking about, which frankly we we did not talk about.

Um less concerned about those.

So kind of well just kind of laying flat for us why we if we wanted to do more for our junior folks or those earning less, um, how we might be able to consider that in light of the consider uh compression considerations that you're talking about.

Yeah.

Um so the uh mayor, that's one of the things that we evaluated because when we again three years ago when we did our citywide market adjustments, and every position was in affected by a market shift, um, in order to fund that market shift of the ranges, what we did is we guaranteed people the minimum of the range.

So if their market if their range shifted significantly, everybody moved up to that minimum.

So maybe somebody with 10 years of experience and somebody brand new to the city both moved to that market minimum.

Now the last couple of years, we started in um two years ago, we took individuals who at that time uh and I'll take pay plan A, we took individuals who had met uh five years of service to the midpoint, and people with 10 years of service to the max.

Um, and we started to create that differentiation.

Then last year we came back with additional compression adjustments, and we took anybody who had hit 10 or 5 years that year to those same points.

Um our ranges within pay plan A are still relatively small because we have um increased that entry wage to $18.

So there's not much difference between a tenured employee and a less tenured, or between, say, a first-level supervisor and and their employee.

So we looked to see was there any greater increase that you could give a a lower wage earner and not impact compression, and there wasn't, because there may have been there were very small differences between maybe we're both maintenance workers, and I'm a three-year maintenance worker, and you're a seven-year maintenance worker, and any difference in what we received had one passing the other.

And we pulled lots of real life examples of that.

Um, this year I'll tell you there are employees who were expecting the next round of compression adjustments, right?

Because we had people who hit five and ten years this year.

Um, and those compression adjustments aren't included in the proposed budget because that was an additional 1.47 million.

And my hope is even though we're not doing compression this year, that whatever decision we make here, it doesn't undo the compression adjustments we've already done.

So that when we are financially able, we can begin those compression adjustments again and not have to re-level set because it was about again 13 million dollars to accomplish what we'd accomplished so far.

Um, and so what this does by shifting everybody equidistance, we're maintaining that alignment in our pay structure.

Um, and then we can pick it up again in future years is my hope.

Thank you for that explanation.

Um, what would be helpful for for me on on slide 17 is to understand what the workforce distribution looks like when you look at one, the pay scale, who gets what percentage-wise, but helping just us understand, you know, is 80 percent of the workforce in fact under 130k.

Right.

Um that kind of distribution helps us understand what this looks like and who we're actually most impacting.

I I think let me find the slide.

If you go to slide 15, one of the things that this slide shows you is because it says that 80% of our workforce, our civilian workforce would receive greater than 3%.

That's everybody earning over 75,000.

I mean under 75,000.

So you can tell that of our civilian workforce, 80% is 75,000 and under in-based salary.

Wow.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um on slide, actually, uh, for Mr.

Martinez, Mr.

Um, let me actually just one say one more thing.

I know we have a lot of the workforce um that are also veterans, and again, as we're just kind of thinking about the very difficult fiscal environment that we're going into, one of the things, and and maybe um Mr.

Ayala has some some thoughts on this, um, but helping ourselves by helping encourage folks to, if they haven't already um signed up for VA benefits, they need to do so.

Right.

This is a huge opportunity.

Again, uh, we visited with Dr.

Flynn at at the VA, and as much as we can reduce uh what Pete we pay out of city coffers in light of those services, one already being available and them already having access to that.

Um, and and honestly, I think there may even be benefit in in and um helping people understand what their disability is uh to be able to get all of those benefits that then we are not on the hook for paying for.

So I'd welcome hearing more about kind of what that outreach kind of looks like now, what it could look like, um, and again, the real dollars and cents that could be saved as as we ensure that our workforce is taking advantage of other health care options that could cover their expenses.

That is definitely outreach that we could do.

We've um about 12% of our full-time employees have identified themselves as current or former military members.

Um, and so we we could do that outreach to determine if and hold we hold benefits learning sessions um both during working hours and on weekends so people can bring their families, and that's something that we could partner uh with General.

Thank you.

That's a good question, Mayor.

Uh we do have access to the uh about approximately 1900 veterans that are part of our uh workforce here in the city, city of San Antonio.

Uh what we could do is certainly establish uh Bear County, who has the the experts on benefits, uh bring them down and I partner with HR and bring them down here to look at their benefits and your rights.

A lot of veterans will not claim uh their compensation because they're either too proud or because they don't know.

And uh so we can we can certainly set that up.

Great.

Thank you, sir.

Mayor, the other the other aspect of this and and Renee can add to it, but um if those veterans have access to TRICARE, yeah, then as we do the open enrollment, they take full advantage of that, and they're not on our health plan.

Um because that's a and a jet population changes, making sure during those open enrollment sessions, and generally they know the TRICARE a lot better than we do, but but ensuring that they're using that as primary coverage rather than us.

Well, yeah, that's my point.

That's exactly the ideal, the ideal outcome, yeah.

Uh Mr.

Martinez.

Uh why do we anticipate um this is on the World Heritage slide?

Um why do we anticipate so few um creative city of gastronomy programs in 206?

So why is that the target rather?

That'll have to defer to company, I think this year.

Oh, great.

Good afternoon.

I I asked this in the context of you know, revenue for us, and and it's such a because it's such a unique identifier, why we would um I target fewer.

Right.

Um my name is uh good afternoon, Mayor.

My name is Colleen Swain, I'm the director of the City of San Antonio's World Heritage Office.

That performance measure is actually made up of presentations, chef exchanges, and events and programs that we engage in locally, nationally, and internationally.

So this past year until now, I've served as the coordinator for all of the creative cities internationally.

With that, and prior to that I was deputy coordinator.

So during that those past two years, there's been an increase in invitations and interaction.

I anticipate that may decline as I rotate off being the coordinator.

And with regard to chef exchanges, um, just because kind of the overall state of things there, we anticipate there may be a decline in invitations and people coming to the US.

We wanted to be cautious, but we're optimistic that you know, similar to as we did previously, we will increase our local community exchanges and opportunities, and we can do some things virtually.

Let me just make sure I understood what you what you said.

I mean, fewer folks wanting to travel to the United States for whatever reason, which we think will impact our ability to conduct creative city of gastronomy programming.

For chef exchanges.

For chef exchanges, for chef exchanges.

Additionally, as coordinator, we received a lot, a lot of invitations to do presentations.

And so that as I rotate off the board or off being coordinator, we anticipate that might decrease.

Okay.

Well, again, because it's such a unique identifier for us, we're set with something we're very proud of.

I was thankful to be able to attend the ambassador luncheon.

Um, those are great things not only for those individuals but for our city, um, and we know that what that comes back to us many times over by continuing to invest in that.

So if there were other opportunities to make up that gap or at least get to where we were last time, I think we would well serve ourselves to try to do that.

So welcome thoughts on and documentation on how to do that.

Thank you.

Definitely, we will work to do that.

Um Mr.

Martinez on the on slide five 15 of the government affairs folks.

Can you talk a little bit, or maybe it's Jeff Coyle?

Um, whoever wants to do that.

Um, but the uh having engaged both at the at the federal level and at the state level, welcome understanding you know how we judge the ROI of the of the consultants that we use there and and how we determine that's the the right one moving forward.

Good afternoon, Mayor Sally Buster, the director for government affairs.

Uh that's a good question.

So each of the firms that we outsource and engage to do the legislative work includes a performance measures uh matrix, and so that information um as it's being measured, um, is exchanged uh between us and the consultants, and we're happy to share that information with you as well.

Yeah, I think it'd be it'd be helpful.

I mean, as we are anticipating again major changes at the at the federal level in in particular, making sure we've got the right team, and how are we understanding who we've got and you know, not just a bipartisan firm per se, but maybe in particular on the programs that we know we're gonna really need help with would be important.

So welcome again how we're understanding the most effective team in DC as well as in Austin.

Uh, thank you.

Thank you.

On slide 21 for the finance department, what were the five positions that were that were cut?

There are three positions in the compliance and resolution office.

Okay.

There's one rate analyst and then one program manager.

Okay, thank you.

Um, and then on the compliance opportunity and access department, uh, the 500,000 reduction is a significant portion of that office's um of that office's budget.

Um, and and given frankly, some of the communities that are going to be most impacted by those just say changes in the legislative environment, this office may be more important.

So, welcome understanding why such a significant cut to this uh to this office.

Um I know you're eliminating two vacant positions, um, but what is that due to the overall um capacity to answer these kinds of requests, which we anticipate may only increase?

So I'll ask the Dr.

Mata to talk about the impact.

Hello, mayor, thank you for the question.

Dr.

Jennifer Matha, Director of Compliance Opportunity and Access.

With regards to the positions, the the reduction in positions, we have been able to meet our performance measures, so there has not been any effect on the core services that our department is providing at this time.

Um can you repeat the second part of your question?

I'm sorry, it was on the side.

Yeah, I mean, um, so when we talk about disability and language access, some of the things that you um NDO ordinance, etc., some of the things where we may anticipate increases in needs for your services.

I wanted to understand how the reduction in your office uh helps us meet that need.

When I look at your performance measures, many of these are based on maybe I've misunderstanding it, but this is all just based on compliance meeting legal compliance requirements, is that right?

That's right.

Okay.

Um so based on what has been eliminated here, right?

You anticipate being able to meet increased need potentially.

Yes, we are continuing to meet needs, so that has not changed.

We will continue to monitor, see if there is uh a need to maybe revisit this at a at a later date, but as we stand right now, we are meeting our language access and our disability access uh performance metrics.

Okay.

What is immigrant inclusion look like?

Immigrant inclusion uh currently consists of one staff person, so they are the liaison that is not only connecting city services but also connecting uh external organizations to city services.

So right now they are in the process of developing a three year immigrant inclusion plan.

They've been in discussion with um community partners and other uh individuals to uh look at the city services we provide to find those gaps where we can improve uh immigrant inclusion.

Okay, that's helpful.

Thank you.

Mayor, if I may, I just wanted to add one piece to that.

Um of the 500,000 in reductions, the majority of that is gonna be that uh second bullet, which right sizes a certain line items to reflect historical spending.

So um the compliance opportunity to access department is a relatively new department, they've only been around for for a few years.

And so as we now have historical spending patterns for the department, we were able to right size some of their contracts and commodities to re to uh reflect what they've been spending.

I mean, this is traditionally EEO stuff though, right?

So it wouldn't necessarily be a new office, maybe done so done in a different way or not.

No, this is this is uh this is uh the the former DEIA office.

Yes.

Chair of has who has stepped out.

Okay.

Oh, okay.

Um councilman White.

Thanks, Mayor.

Um I want to begin just can somebody is there a total we have, Eric, of all the um money we've saved with these budget uh uh department efficiency uh reviews.

My total is 8.4 million.

Does that sound right?

Is that your total today or uh leading leading leading up to it today?

Well no, it's it's more than that.

We'll we'll run a quick total for you.

Okay, so it's more than eight million dollars.

So I again want to highlight um that that you know this is sort of a precursor to to the the zero base budgeting that I've that I've talked about that we're gonna talk about more and more in the fall, and this is significant money that we're finding that we can now put towards uh the priorities of the people of San Antonio.

And so I want to thank um all the department heads and everybody involved with these departments for for their work in in that regard.

Um I also want to just make a comment to the Office of Innovation.

Um my office uh got together with some of my colleagues, and we have a pending um CCR regarding uh formulating an artificial intelligence strategic plan or policy um for our city.

Um I'm all for looking at AI and and finding out how we can use it to make us more efficient uh here at our city uh with our city government.

Uh but of course it's got to be done in a transparent manner, right?

We can't have people uh calling the city and you know thinking they're talking to to a human, let's say, and and they're really not.

And so uh I appreciate the my colleagues that joined with me in this effort.

I look forward to moving this CCR forward, and I think it's gonna entail working with the Department of Innovation uh to really craft that policy.

Um this Office of Immigrant Affairs, what what exactly does this office do?

What's the scope of work?

And is this office responsible for coordinating with um with American gateways?

Um the immigrant affairs office oh, excuse me.

Uh thank you, Councilman, for the the question.

The immigrant affairs uh office was uh created in 2008 within the budget audience or ordinance.

The office works with um I'm sorry, I got a little nervous here.

The immigrant affairs office works with uh city departments, as I noted earlier to strengthen city services for immigrant inclusion.

They also touch base with community organizations to um assess how we are uh including immigrants within the delivery of city services.

And your second question is whether they work with American gateways?

Yes.

They they do work with American gateways in the sense that they do meet with them, uh attend their meetings, but we do not uh provide funding for American gateways, nor do we receive funding from American gateways.

So they are a community partner in the sense that we do have discussions to assess the situation for the immigrant immigrant community in San Antonio?

Are you saying your department doesn't provide American gateways funding?

No, we do not.

But so Eric, which department provides American Gateways funding?

So it's listed um they currently receive funding in the delegate agency budget in this year's budget, um, and it's proposed to be an extension uh of eight months into fiscal year 26 in alignment with um any federal regulations.

Okay, and the federal regulations I understand we're gonna be taking a look at.

And and I will reiterate my position uh that this city should not be using our citizens' tax dollars to provide lawyers really for any group of people, right?

I mean, we could have small businesses out there that get sued that need lawyers.

Um are we gonna provide taxpayer dollars um for them?

I I just I I don't understand why why it's a core function and where it is it it where it is in the charter that says we should be providing lawyers for for any group of people.

Finally, I want to talk about um to our communications folks.

And recently, I think it was this morning, um, I was sent uh this article regarding I I guess the mayor has retained a um an outside make sure I got it right.

An outside consulting group to do communications?

Is do I have that right?

You do, councilman.

What's the question?

I'm getting there.

I'm just gonna get there.

So so the mayor has hired an outside group for I believe um ten thousand dollars a month to do communications.

Is that is that your understanding?

Yeah, let me let me just lay let me lay it flat.

You can ask me because it's my contract.

Well I'm no hold on, let me answer your question.

Yeah, yeah.

So um uh like other mayors, right, who have had dec dedicated communications support, um, this is a uh a comms support that is being provided commensurate at the same level of pay previous that pre previous mayors have had.

So same level of support, same level of funding, and it's a bridge until we can bring someone full-time on.

Okay.

And so, and and it's it's ten thousand dollars a month?

In line with what previous mayors have paid for their own comms support councilman?

That's correct.

If you'd like to provide that, I think the CNE folks can all or HR can provide that for you.

Are you on it's in line?

You want me to ask them or you?

You asked me.

I answered your question.

If you'd like historical information about what others have been paid, you can be provided that.

And I'm telling you who would provide it for you, councilman?

Okay, I'll then let's councilman ask your question, we'll follow up and get it to you.

All right, my my question is is the is the cost ten thousand dollars a month?

Is my first question?

My second question is is the group that was hired a a local group or where where are they based?

My third question is it was is this something done with with campaign money or is this taxpayer dollars?

And then my fourth question is if it's if it's taxpayer dollars, is this where is this provided for in the budget?

Does does does Eric does your office have to have to approve it, or how does this get into the budget?

So I'll we'll get the answers to those questions, but I'll answer the last one.

So when that funding is out of the uh mayor's office budget, just like you all have your own individual budgets.

Okay.

Um the process and it it it it happens every once in a while.

The process to utilize a professional services contract within your contract within your budgets has to be authorized by me.

So in the case of of this contract, this was reviewed, vetted, um, approved by me and um and executed.

But we'll get you answers to the the first three questions.

So and then that and you hit on on a on a follow-up point I was gonna make.

So our offices can use outside consultants, but it's got to be vetted through you.

You you all do not have the authority to spend money for professional services contracts, and so I'm thinking about um I'm gonna sorry, Councilwoman Corps.

I'm gonna I'm thinking about the parallel world that we worked in for San Pedro Springs to do additional community engagement.

Um in that case, I proved those um, and that was for a couple of thousand dollars that and work that was being done for San Pedro Springs.

It doesn't happen often, but you all do not have the individual authority to do that.

Got it.

That's a procurement issue, and it's gotta come to the manager's office.

Okay, and so will this will this consulting group be coordinating with our internal communications team, or or is this is this strictly somebody working for the mayor's office?

Well, the the mayor's office, um, yes, they would coordinate with the with the city.

Yes.

With the city's team.

Okay.

And we'll get you answers to the first three.

Okay.

That's all I got.

Thanks, Mayor.

Chair Gulban.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you to everybody to the presentation today, as well as all the departments that worked really hard within the last presentation.

Uh I know there's a lot of good work that happens within the departments that are at the end of the presentations, and so I just want to say I appreciate all the work y'all did, not only for uh the presentation today, but also the work y'all do year round.

Uh it's always hard to encapsulate that within one presentation, but just want to say I appreciate the work y'all do.

Um starting off with the employee and compensation uh presentation, definitely want to echo my or yeah, I got my support for option two, um, making sure that we can get our city employees um paid and adjusted to the cost of living to where would they need to be?

Um I know it's tough in these uh in these times, and I think it's I'm really excited for uh our our work sessions where we're looking into the kind of requests that our whole body has made uh and see how we can make sure this fits.

And I think this one has to be top of the line.

I can't remember uh who said it two weeks ago or a week ago about um some of these reductions we're seeing uh within staffing, but also increased work, making sure that we're paying our employees uh adequately to compensate for that work as well as the cost of living.

I think it was via Gran, right?

I was like, I'm trying to remember to make sure, but um I think that's just absolutely critical.

Um and so I appreciate that line of thinking that line of thinking, and I hope we continue to move forward in that pace.

Um I I would like to see, I guess, um some of that compression conversation or data.

I don't have to be presented today, uh, but just in a follow-up, what that compression looks like between uh minimum wage workers, uh between supervisors, managers, as well as directors in the departments.

Um, I value everyone's work and I want to make sure that everyone's getting paid uh for that, but I want to make sure too that the compression rate is not too distant between uh employees and directors and everyone in between.

And so I just would like to look at those numbers if we can.

Uh and I think that's it on that.

Um, but yeah, I just want to show my support for option two.

Um and I'm grateful too to see that with these options we're not gonna be uh increasing wages, but having premiums surpasses wage increases.

So I'm really supportive of that work.

We want to make sure that uh those things are not uh going the opposite direction, right?

So thank you for that.

Hard work of getting there uh to not only uh HR but to everybody who is involved in that process too.

Um on the last presentation, had a couple different questions.

Uh for uh Office of Historic Preservation, uh, I know there's the piece about reductions in vacant building staff.

Um I know this body's talked a bit about of course vacant lots, which are different than the vacant building program, but some pieces or some requests have been asked about uh a bit more scrutiny on vacant buildings, and so do we anticipate any reduction um in meeting that demand uh within our city to address vacant buildings in our state with this reduction in staff?

Um thank you for the question.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

I'm Shannon Miller, the director of OHP.

And um to answer your question, no.

We actually um feel like the staffing because the vacant the vacant position, we've had a vacancy in the program for a while, and so we are able to cover the existing program area with the staffing as proposed.

Got it.

Thank you.

Um then uh for a question for the uh integrated community safety office.

Um I know I don't know if it lists all the work that you all looked at in terms of research and evaluation on our city programming, but I wanted to ask, I guess uh has that office have y'all evaluated uh the work of Stand Up SA, parks programming, youth programs, um, even home repair programs and their impact on public safety in our community, or has it been solely focused on this work so far?

We've had conversations with Stan FSA.

We do provide them some automated reporting on when gun violence is occurring within the community.

Uh, we're also looking at how we can further integrate these other programs more specifically with like POPB and the upcoming focused deterrence phase three of the violent crime reduction plan.

Okay, so that work may be within the phase three.

Yes.

Okay, great.

Um glad to hear it.

I definitely know I think we've had a lot of conversations, including yesterday about how some of these programs really help uh impact public safety in sometimes indirect ways, but also in just a proactive way.

And so I'm excited to see some more of that data uh come on out.

Thank you.

Um for innovation, I had a question about the RD projects.

I know on the slide it mentions that two of the four projects will be completed with remaining funding.

What happens when those two projects are done?

Is that funding then just completed and we're not doing any more research, or what is so that's a line item?

So that funding continues every year.

Got it.

Okay.

And what are the past projects that have been done with that so far?

Oh wow, there's been all kinds of things.

So in these um research projects are coming through a master research agreement.

So it's not only through the Office of Innovations funds.

Departments have their own research projects as well.

Um but the the Office of Innovation spearheaded that master research agreement, so we're pretty proud of that.

Um they've studied um straight animals and how to better capture and estimate where they are in our community.

Um we've been involved with the parks department and how their equity program works and how to be more effective.

It's all about evaluating effectiveness so it's in line with the work we're doing on the comprehensive budget reviews as well.

Got it.

Um, or just kind of forward thinking, kind of experimenting with new ways of um to your point the public safety.

Are there programs that we could be researching that might help um improve public safety?

So those types of projects.

Okay, great.

Well, I appreciate that.

I want to, you know, I know that sometimes uh there's some overlap between I think the work that we talk about when terms of uh communicating back with residents with 311 or even some kind of the application processes and making sure that those backend systems are as optimized as they can be to go across departments and even to council offices.

And I I know I've also saw the governance and emergency technology within IT.

So I wanted to make sure that those things were still happening either within your office or how those understanding how those kind of pieces go together with the other offices too.

Um what does that look like, I guess, when you do that kind of work?

Is it other departments as well that are assisting in this, or is it solely that goes into your office based on recommendations or things that y'all are seeing?

Um it's both.

Okay.

So once we set up the master research agreement a few years ago, we set up a portal where they can self-direct, um, they can find all the paperwork they need, they can run with it.

They don't need us, but if they want us, if they want to work with innovation, we're there to support sometimes that looks like matchmaking them with researchers that we know are interested in that field.

We actually have a whole research portal where you can go in and put in a community interest form, and we can start to facilitate uh matchmaking.

We have some funds, so um, in certain cases, we can share a contract.

Um, like there was a contract with the library, they paid for half, we paid for half half to study something.

I see.

Sometimes it's just directed out of the office of innovation.

It's there's a lot of variety, but at the end of the day, we don't want to hold departments back from doing it themselves.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, well, sound feel well.

Thank you for that.

Um let me see if I have any other questions.

On sustainability, um I know there was uh in the FY 2024 and 2025 budget, there was uh some points made within there about the comprehensive multi-year resiliency plan for the city.

Um what's the status of that plan and what does that look like in terms of the climate adaptation plan?

What's the difference between those two?

Sure.

Thank you, council member, for your question.

My council, my name is Laura Patino.

I'm the chief resilience sustainable chief resilience officer, um, and upcoming uh chief resilience and sustainability officer starting October 1st.

Um I'm gonna take the first part of that question and I am gonna ask Doug Melnick, current chief sustainability officer, to uh tag team the second part.

Okay.

Um we are in the process of transition.

Um for the past year and a half in the standing of the Office of Resilience, we have really looked at internal focus of establishing what resilience means for the organization, understanding the key shocks, which are the major disruptions to our systems, as well as the underlying stresses that impact um our operations.

Uh, we have developed uh preliminary resilience assessment um as well as a key set of tools that help us understand what are uh the different elements that uh departments individually can address to enhance their resilience, both internally as well as community resilience.

Um now moving forward, resilience is a core component of the SA climate ready um and the update of the climate action plan, and we will be working um in the new office to integrate those two to not just focus uh on climate action, but also highlight the importance of resilience and adaptability, especially during the current environment that we're facing with you know more of the impacts that our communities are facing on the day-to-day as a result of our change.

So um, Doug, would you you're good?

Okay.

Okay.

Is that answer your question?

Yeah, I think so.

Uh and I guess do we know what the timeline is for that?

Is that gonna be a public report?

Is that more internal work within departments or what?

Um we currently have uh a draft report.

It's being reviewed by uh departments for their validity for the validity of the information as uh well as their executive leadership team.

The goal is to be able to have that information available to you all in the public as part of the SA Climate Ready update as well.

Got it.

And Councilman, we'll probably work through the committee process and and likely bring it to a B session for for the full council, and we'll get that scheduled.

Great.

Uh looking forward to that.

I know we had the last conversation in May about the uh with the community health committee about the climate plan uh update, so excited to see how these two are coming together, making sure that they're moving in lockstep.

Um and those are for my questions for now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Castillo.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Renee and uh Freddie for the presentations, and just want to highlight the work of every department that Freddie presented on.

Just uh the district five team really values uh the director and the teams that you all lead and the work um in serving our residents.

Uh beginning with the uh civilian benefits and compensation.

I just want to thank Eric and Renee for meeting with AFSME.

I know during the budget goal setting that was one of the requests that we had is if HR can meet with AFSME and I know that's an ongoing uh conversations that you all do facilitate, but pleased to see that you all have come to consensus with uh what uh a path forward looks like.

So I would be supportive of the recommendation that um you all co-created with ASME uh in terms of the 2% uh and the 750 lump sum to all full-time and part-time based salaries.

Um, just really grateful for y'all's leadership on working towards a resolution and against consensus on this issue.

Uh moving over towards the Office of Historic Preservation.

I did have a similar question uh as Councilman Galvan regarding uh the vacancy with the vacant um building uh role.

Um this is a shared priority for many of us, and it's a huge issue in District 5.

I just want to ensure that uh as we continue to move towards addressing the issues that we have with vacant structures that uh Officer Krogi has like the support that he needs in terms of like ensuring that we are moving towards addressing these vacant structures and nuisances in our communities.

Yeah, absolutely.

Okay, all right, and well, I appreciate that because I know that's uh our team's working on a CCR regarding uh vacant structures, and I want to ensure that there's enough support to help uh address that concern in our communities.

Um with the World Heritage, um, just want to thank Councilwoman via Gunn for inviting counsel out to an event over uh at the site.

It was really informative.

Gotta listen to a panel in terms of how the whole uh vision came to fruition.

Uh just grateful for um leadership with um with the World Heritage team and of course Councilman Vietnam and her predecessor uh in bringing that to fruition.

Great to uh hear the questions that the mayor asked in terms of how are we going to support uh the initiatives that you all have put forward.

Um earlier today I was at a site visit on Ray Street, and we were there with the neighborhood and housing services department.

Uh but what was great is um they were doing uh public works was also out there um doing the cool pavement.

So just really grateful for the work of Office of Sustainability.

Uh at the Quintana Neighborhood Association meeting yesterday.

Um I I got a question from a constituent saying, you know, the Office of Sustainability has been doing great work in the Quintana neighborhood, particularly around uh the urban heat island.

Are we going to potentially see any cuts in terms of those services and programs that are offered?

Uh if someone from sustainability can help address uh or clarify uh anything in terms of will we see uh decrease in participation in the community engagement uh in our communities.

Um Doug Mellman, Chief Sustainability Officer.

Um, thank you for that.

Um we are are I think our good resource-wise um for the South Sand work.

Um the first year was planning, this year it's been implementation, and uh $25 are going to basically be setting the stage for implementation um through 26.

So I think it'll be a different conversation as we go forward into future budget years, but the work in South Sand and Quintana will continue.

Thank you, Donna.

Appreciate that.

And uh just broadly then, you know, because there is in this year's budget, there was a large focus on the cool pavement project.

Um that was um all the work that was done over the summer.

You know, uh I'll put a pin in the issue because one of the things that we need to look at that we're gonna do this come upcoming year is how we're scheduling out those the the street maintenance and the SMP.

And and you know, we've talked we've talked about this before, but where those areas were where roads are being maintained, um should the question should we be just applying those applications as part of the work?

We we have 122 million dollars in the budget next year for street maintenance.

So I don't think you know we the this year's effort was funded through that old reese funding.

We're gonna need to figure out how to sustain that going forward um and continue some of the the progress we made, particularly this year in District 3, District 4, and District 3 in those areas of high uh uh heat awareness.

Appreciate that, Eric.

Thank you.

Uh and also just in terms of the city clerk budget, pleased to see that there's going to be funding for a position for uh the municipal archives and really excited uh to see that move along as well.

I just want to thank Debbie and her team for all that they do, whether it's birth certificates or taking notes of our city council minutes, it's a lot of great work that you all do, and we just really value you all.

Uh, and then also always great to see the grants that you are going after in terms of the municipal archive museum.

So just uh really great to see that uh there's support in the budget for uh the city clerk's office.

Um lastly, um, I I did see Craig within the budget that uh there's five vacant positions that are going to be potentially or that are proposed to be uh zeroed out.

Uh I know there's ongoing conversations, whether it's with the public safety presentation on some of the innovative technology that we're looking at there, uh, the councilman's uh CCR on AI.

Um, do you feel comfortable in terms of uh working with the team you have now while there's a desire and expectation from council to continue to explore whether it's AI or to further review some of the technology that's being proposed in the public safety um budget presentation?

Thank you, ma'am.

Craig Hopkins, chief information officer.

The way we prioritized our budget uh reductions was really based on critical infrastructure, and so what we did is deprioritize some things that were more around uh uh planning and strategies and some projects that we're gonna be reduced going forward.

So the core technology, emerging technologies that we've referred to before, we are fully staffed for and ready to go.

Um, but we have a lot of conversation we need to have about how we want to use those as we go forward.

Appreciate that, Greg.

Thank you.

Uh and then lastly, with some of the savings from the zero-based budgeting, I will be putting forth an amendment to support and uh uh bring American gateways to where they were in the last budget cycle.

Thank you, Mayor.

Chair View Grand.

Thank you.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Uh, so I'll start with uh slide 16.

Thank y'all both for the presentations.

Um, you know, I think uh with uh Renee's, I'm sorry, Renee's slide 16.

Um I want to the employee compensation because that is what I've been talking about this whole time, and I am so excited about that because when I see a four percent increase for some of our employees, that makes me very happy because I think we need to continue to move in that direction.

So when consensus and collaboration happens, and thank you, Ask me for all your hard work and on there.

Uh if you guys stand up, so I can just give y'all a wave so I know y'all are here.

Thank y'all so much for the work.

Y'all, y'all heard me loud and clear on what I wanted, and I think this is key on slide 16.

What I'd like to see in terms of the um that 20 percent, 80 percent.

If we could get a breakdown by departments uh in terms of which departments are uh sit most of the employees because I think when we have something like solid waste that has a 97% um you know approval rate or the library, I would really like to see where they see the this on the scale because I know while some of people don't think merit pay is worth you know is what we should be talking about because it doesn't help with compression.

I do think we need to start moving towards that direction.

So thank you, Renee, for such a good job and making sure we address the issues.

I'll go on to the next presentation with all other uh 22 departments, and I'll take each department line by line.

I'm just kidding, I'm not gonna do that.

Um I'm just gonna highlight some departments that you kind of have heard from me before.

Center city development and operations.

I really think we need to start looking at uh the parking situation that we have.

I think that is gonna be key.

I think um our our office of uh sustainability and resiliency need to be part of those conversations as we move forward.

Um, because well, I think the Office of Sustainability Sustainability and Resiliency needs to be talking to a lot of departments within the city.

But this one in particular about where we have the walkability, where we are making money and where we where we can make more money because of the garages.

And I won't bring up my least favorite garage, but Eric, you know which one I don't like.

So on the integrated community safety office, I I really am appreciative of this and that we're staying here with with the budget that we have, but I think we do need to look at how even though we face a budget crisis, how we're going to to get more dollars towards those agencies that help with this process.

So any federal grants that are out there, any public private we can work for to support some of the agencies that are going out for foundation dollars.

I think we need to find a way to give them the data and the information that they need to do that.

I agree.

Looking for grants to fund opportunities was in our charter, and unfortunately, those opportunities evaporated a little bit over this past year, and we'll see how that continues to develop.

I've been in conversations with our academic partners who are also interested in this space to bear us in mind if they see anything that we can apply for in partnership with them.

Great, thank you.

I I really appreciated that.

And uh that gives me to my next department, Office of Resiliency and Sustainability.

Um, both of the chiefs, you guys have done a great job.

Uh we do the symposium every January, and I love that effort.

And then I just like to also hear universities are key.

That's how I began with uh this symposium, which was with Texas AM San Antonio and Texas AM College Station.

So are we looking at making sure that we continue to look within, and this is where I I keep on saying we need collaborations within the departments because there are things that Metro Health are doing, there are things that you know we're doing in housing that we can look for dollars when we talk about risk resiliency sustainability, which also means our our food, our energy, our water, um the heat islands that we're doing.

So are we continuing to look for opportunities for funding there?

Yeah, council member.

Uh we are continuing to map out the different activities and actions that we are taking citywide across different departments to identify where there are opportunities for alignment and leveraging funds internally as well as looking for opportunities externally, uh whether it's through a public-private partnerships as well as of course my my answer for federal grants is gonna be similar to what you just heard from the integrated community safety office.

Um not as many opportunities there currently, but we'll continue to monitor for what uh you know new opportunities arise in the current climate.

And I think as we as we move forward, uh especially at uh at the new businesses and industries coming in, uh, whether it's JCB, whether it's the solar over on uh Brooks campus, is we have opportunities to partner with them and bring some private dollars into some of the programming programs we have.

So I'll look I look forward to to working with y'all this year and making sure we move forward.

And then of course, Colleen with the World Heritage, I I do want to echo them the mayor's sentiment that we need to get creative on how we're going to take that uh creative city of gastronomy programs, whether it's I love the idea of YouTube more YouTube channels because right now y'all have a Tamali demonstration.

I'm never gonna make that to Molly, but it's a nice video.

But I think we we have opportunity there, and I think uh locally going around to Philadelphia and maybe nationally where this the cities are, and um encouraging some of our other Texas cities to you know look for designations because there are other designations within UNESCO that they could possibly get.

So thank you for all your efforts in moving forward, and then um on the city attorney's office, um I see that there's a right size there, and I do you are one of my favorite departments too because you keep us out of so much trouble.

But I do believe that there are dollars out there because of municipal courts that there are there are cases out there that we we do need to pursue.

So I think I I am all for right sizing, but in terms of Dart cases, in terms of you know landlords that are out of town that don't ever come and check on their partners, we need to start taking more action on that.

And I just want to make sure is the team ready to do that if if we if we start going after people that are habitually just stacking up the bills and the fines.

Do we have that opportunity?

Do we have the team ready to do that?

Yes, councilwoman.

Liz Provencio with the city attorney's office.

Yes, we're we're prepared to go forward, and just as a reminder, those um collections do not come to the city attorney's office.

Um, but nonetheless, for purposes of having to do the work, um there will need be no um impact on service with the decrease.

Yeah, we'll get somebody else to collect, but in terms of preparing that that case and and um preparing it to to move it forward.

I know you guys have to do a lot, and you do a lot of um mediation in particular with some of my cases that I've had beforehand before we get to the point of of uh of that.

So I just want to make sure we write size, but we make sure our teams are ready.

So thank you.

Um thank you for that.

Thank you for the uh I think there's still conversation to be had.

There are some line items I think we need to address.

Uh my my main point, I think was the uh employee compensation.

So I'm happy there, but I I hear my council members and their needs about what they want to see uh if there's funds available, and I do want to move forward on those and have some really good conversation next week before we vote on this on Thursday.

Thank you.

Chair Corps.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, thank you all to my colleagues that have already made some really important points that I'm just gonna get to echo, and I want to echo what Councilman Castillo said of you guys working with Ask me and coming to a negotiation or coming to an agreement in what we felt like what I think is uh a great solution.

So I wanted to echo her comments there, and you can just do that again in the spring when we're working with CIFO, that'd be great.

Um so uh of course, supporting the the recommendation that you all are bringing to us today there.

Uh just starting with some other departments.

Um actually, uh just one more question for you, Renee, on HR stuff.

Do we track um like on a quarterly or annual basis which positions are not getting filled or how many offers are being declined on certain positions?

We do track then the number of declines on positions that they're posted.

Um we could we could work uh with budget to determine what positions are vacant, but they may be vacant because they're being held for turnover or other things that are outside of our recruitment division.

Do we have the ability to separate out like vacancies by like our choice versus vacancies because we can't find um the right person?

No, because we give the department heads the authority and latitude to manage within their budget.

So it could change month to month, depending on what the what their budget is.

It'd be interesting to just see um the the decline offers then.

Um if you could present that of like how many offers were declined last year.

I'm just curious to see if the um I know some of us have faced that with LGC, but I wanted to see if that was also relevant for you guys.

Um and then I wanted to echo Councilman Viegran's um point about merit pay-based pay, and I we've talked about performance pay before and wanting to figure out exactly we talked about it, I feel like, um in several different capacities as well.

So thinking about how from leadership down we can start implementing that, even if maybe we started off as a pilot for one department or something, just let's and it's probably not the right way for um HR, but let's just figure out how we can think about what would that look like because I think that'll help also for some of these compression issues that are coming up.

All right, some of the other departments.

I also wanted to shout out our city clerk.

I know councilwoman Castillo already did, but y'all are doing an amazing job.

I mean, I'm pretty sure all 11 of us think you did a great job with the elections too.

Um but I wanted to say y'all do uh uh y'all do a y'all do great work.

Um I think sometimes your work goes underestimated for what all you do because you don't just help with meetings, there's a lot that goes on in the background.

So I want to thank you for that.

And I also want to thank the um council staff or council liaison office um with Emily and that team because I uh they definitely help us from everything from like uh Advil in the morning to making sure we are fully fed.

So and I know they get the brunt of our requests, but uh mayor and council support, we we definitely need them.

All right, some questions that I have for some of the departments.

Um I want to echo the vacant building.

Um that I think is just stark for all of us because it's such a big uh it's such an important issue for so many of our districts, especially our inner city districts, which is why I think you've heard three people now be like we we hear you're saying that it's gonna be okay, but there's still you can tell that there's that feeling of that's a really important program.

So we we need to make sure we're not um we're not gonna be hurting capacity there.

As far as sustainability goes, the um department I actually called Eric when the department when I heard the departments were being consolidated, and the only reason why that worried me, unlike Councilman Biagran, I'm like when we consolidate, does that mean they're not e individually equally as important?

And so Eric has reassured me that this is going to make y'all stronger, and so I'm we're we needed to hold to that.

I'm a there's a part of me that feels like we with the res funding and the changes in the res funding, that we don't have enough resources to make sure that, and particularly with what's going on, that you all could be more negatively impacted.

And one of the programs that we cut last year, we cut funding for.

I still I know we're still doing Doug, but with the community resiliency hubs, and we talked about like how we can continue some of those really innovative programs that were truly community built, um, that I think could make long-term impact.

So I know council member Galvan mentioned some strategies, but uh I want you to know that I think at least a lot of people on this council really believe in the work that you all are doing.

We cannot minimize it, and even when we are um we're even when it's really challenging, we have to continue to bring it up.

So whether that's making all of our fleet electric soon, hopefully, um what whatever that looks like, y'all have to keep pushing us so that it's at the top of our minds moving, continuing to move forward.

Um this is one question I have for the World Heritage Office, and I know it's been super exciting going to all the events right now.

Can you tell us a little bit about the poor Vida program?

We recently asked about this.

This was um, and I don't know if all of my council colleagues know, but this was a part of the program that encourages healthy eating that went through I think Metro Health and was a key part of our certification in getting our title of City of Gastronomy, and it's going away.

So, or is it going away?

Can you just give us a little bit of context on that?

Um, thank you, councilwoman, for that question.

Um Colleen Swain, director of the World Heritage Office.

So we don't manage that program.

PorVita existed before we received the designation.

And um what we did was in 2022, we worked with the health department to expand it so that it not only covers healthy uh items on the menu, but also working with reworks that there's sustainability, and we were able to um we have eight restaurants that are designated as creative city of gastronomy restaurants.

Thank you, Colleen.

I just wanted to add the program is not going away.

We did have a um reduction in funding, so the Metro Health Department won't be assisting the restaurants where actually putting together the recipes, but they're still gonna be reviewing those menus and making sure that the program continues.

Okay.

Um if maybe uh I know I'm not on check, but maybe this can go to uh an update to that committee so that we can see to ensure that it's continuing to move forward and that it's not affecting our status with the city of gastronomy.

Um for the city attorney's office, we we love the work that y'all do, but particularly the one thing I wanted to ask about was DART.

DART was a big focus for us, I think last budget cycle or maybe the budget before, and our community thinks it's super helpful, and it's it's I think it's such a great way to help our neighborhoods because it addresses the problem without making like a um, you know, it addresses a problem, I think, in the right way in a holistic comprehensive way.

But one of the challenges that I have seen is sometimes we get a property that's eligible for a DART and it we've got to schedule them like a month out.

Um, there's a it takes a lot of time, there's a lot of backlog, I think, at least from what I've seen for DART.

And and yes, you guys always work with us and try to bump things up if it's really urgent, but I just wanted to see is there any um do you guys feel like we're uh sufficiently staffed for DART?

The short answer is yes, councilwoman, and we can sit down and talk with you in terms about how we prioritize and work through with how that gets done to ensure that we're um staying in sync with where the priorities lie.

Okay, and if I could add to that, councilwoman, uh, to remind the council the DART program, although led by the city attorney's office, we work with a lot of city departments, including SAP D DHS, um, solid waste that uh and we use that team to prioritize working with your council office, what the Dart properties are we need to tackle.

But uh as with a lot of things, always the need out outpaces the resources, but uh we try our best we can to prioritize those properties again, working with council districts.

Okay, yeah, you guys do that.

You do a very good job of it.

I just feel like there's if there is a need, obviously, not in this budget cycle, it looks like, but in the next one, making sure we're continuing to to address that because I know some of us really um see the the value in that program.

Um it's helped us address some properties that have been real challenges for some of our neighborhoods.

Um other question for um the discipl from the access coordinator position, and I'm not sure this is maybe in the DEIA department or what the right term compliance COA.

Yes, sorry, I didn't say that in public.

Um COA.

Um, do we do we have um any uh additional notion on the accessibility coordinator position?

I'm sorry, could you clarify access coordinator position?

Are we um are we cutting that position?

Yes, that position has been reduced.

And is are we are we sure that we're still going to be able to address we got a um advocacy letter from one of our nonprofits saying that they were worried about um disability support if that position is cut?

Right.

As as we currently stand, we are able to meet all of our department core services.

So we will continue to assess and monitor the situation to see if we do need to uh uh take a look at the position again.

Okay.

Those subgroup populations are really important to us, and we did so much too with the I speak cards, and we've been doing a lot with your department.

So I just want to make sure that we're not uh we have the right staff in place to help support our subgroup population.

So if there's any way and if you'd like for us to talk to whoever reached out, so we can explain.

Yeah, that maybe that'd be great.

Maybe you can have a yes, yes, of course.

Yes, thank you.

And I appreciate your concern.

Yeah, and um, I was just gonna say the last thing on I agree with Councilman Via Grand's point about the parking structure.

I know Eric, we had a good conversation with some businesses downtown, so um let's work on this parking app.

Councilman Mesa Gonzalez.

Uh Mayor, if I if I may interrupt, can I ask Liz to come up and make a clarifying point on employee compensation?

Thank you, Andy.

Just by way of of clarifying, because we are happy and always welcome Apsumese input.

One of the the um parameters that we have to stay within is is not recognizing employee um organizations for purposes of negotiating.

So we just wanted to clarify welcome and you know appreciate the opportunity to do that, but but we're prohibited in recognizing employee uh organizations unless statutorily allowed, which you know the the comparison you made is for purposes of fire and police, those are statutory provisions that allow us.

So that's thank you.

Thank you.

Councilwoman uh Mesa Gonzalez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh just quick uh on employee compensation.

Just wanted to show my support on slide 16 for option two.

Uh glad to see that uh Renee and her team was able to work with AFSME.

Um and also the glad to see that no employees will be um upside down in this.

So thank you so much for that.

Um the other departments, uh quick shout out.

I know other council members have mentioned this, but Emily and her team do so much for me and my team and everybody on the third and fourth floor, so we're just really grateful for everything you do.

Um and also our city clerk's office uh for all the work that you guys do.

We know that uh you sitting in front of us.

Um is there's a lot behind all that, so thank you so much.

Uh for the C C DO slide five.

The downtown it what it was 16.1 and restricted funds.

What is that?

Uh sorry if I missed that.

So the 16.1 and restricted funds are for comprise of the parking fund, the riverwalk capital improvement fund, market square.

And I can give you the numbers here in a second just for that.

So the parking fund has appropriations in the proposed budget of 9.4 million dollars.

2.6 million for market square, 2.7 for the Riverwalk Capital Improvement Fund.

And I failed to mention there's also 1.3 within the city tower and garage fund.

And so the restricted means it's they can only be used for the purposes.

So, for example, parking that's just to operate our parking garages and lots.

We can't take that and use it for other general fund type of services.

Got it.

Okay.

And then what is uh reduced event funding by 20%?

So the majority of that is the biggest piece of that is that there's there were the department was um audio visual equipment for the Arnis and River Theater.

To my understanding, there's a project that's been completed this year, so that's no longer required.

And then the rest of it is uh 20% uh reduction in event funding for various events that the C C DO office uh supports doesn't get doesn't eliminate the Noesn't eliminate any right it was at those two items were actually approved at at this mayor and council's first council meeting at the end of June.

It was work at Arneson uh River Theater.

Okay, thank you.

And on the 311 customer service, does that 5.2 that includes the maintenance operation, I guess, of the app itself too, or is that it's everything in everything in the so um yeah.

Um then one last one on sustainability, just a quick on the energy management and sustainable transportation.

Are those internal functions?

Oh yeah, sure.

Yep, the um councilman uh the energy management is predomin predominantly our management of the city's energy efficiency fund, uh, as well as that division also um is overseeing um our municipal solar program as well.

And that fund is it's a revolving fund uh that was established back in 2011 using uh ARA funds and CPS rebates, and basically we undertake improvements in city facilities, quantify the savings, and those dollars are captured and then revolved back into the fund for more projects.

And then you said sustainable transportation was also sustainable transportation works very closely with um our fleet department.

Currently, they are overseeing our um uh blink contract uh for uh municipally um uh um our publicly accessible EV charging um stations as well as our um Department of Energy Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant Program, which has three transportation initiatives.

One is um airport energy master plan, one is our um expansion of our uh publicly accessible EV charging, and we have a uh an e-bike um pilot program for low-income residents that's currently ongoing.

Okay, great.

Can you send me more info on that one?

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you so much.

That's all thank you, Mary.

Councilwoman Spears.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um thank you for your presentations.

Um I just want to start with the compensation.

Um do we know how many people are taking advantage of our of our programs like the tuition reimbursement and student loan assistance?

Like meeting our demand there.

Give me just a second.

Do I have that number readily available?

Average of 200 reimbursement, 700.

Yep.

Yes.

Student loan uh repayment assistance is about 700 for this last fiscal year and tuition reimbursement.

It's been about 200 employees.

Do we know kind of like an average or outlay for that per person or I know it varies?

No, an average amount per person for tuition reimbursement.

We'd we'd have to follow up with that.

Okay.

Um my next question is I know you said that employees won't be upside down with the premium increases, but is that true that they have family coverage?

Yes.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um the center city development and operations.

So is our Arneson River Theater in good shape?

Are we are we may still maintaining the the plumbing and I was just there and we had to move a dance performance?

Yes, good afternoon, uh, Mayor Council John Jacks, director for Center City Development and Operations Department.

As as previously mentioned, a big piece of that is this AV equipment.

The AV equipment there is utilized not only um by us but primarily some of our um partners that use that facility in the past because of the the decline of that equipment.

We've had to um um kind of mitigate that by going out and contracting and renting equipment.

So the item that you all approved in June um goes a long way towards upgrading all that equipment um at that facility and that work started this week.

So that that'll be a big um a big help for um not only people attending, but the but the uh uh partners that put on those events.

Yeah.

Okay, good and then um so the city tower garage elevators that are out until January.

Are we is that not are they not focused on the no, I'm not sure.

The elevators at C City Garage are working fine.

I'm not sure.

Yeah, is that on good?

Oh, I think uh BSD is on upgrade, yes.

Good afternoon, council.

My name is Alexander Martinez with Building and Equipment Services.

Uh the City Tower Garage Elevator is gonna be out for about four weeks.

Uh and it's some major repairs.

So uh once is repair, we're gonna have basically a major renovations that is part of our deferred maintenance program where we're gonna renovate all the basically all the elevators on the city tower garage and also affordability.

And that offer is gonna take about a year and a half.

And we'll we'll ensure another access uh you know, like ADA access and and have a plan for that.

We encourage people to use the stir wells in the meantime and use the other two elevators that are available.

Thank you.

That sounds super fun.

Um thank you for that.

Uh the integrated community safety office.

Um I just would like some more information about the 50 neighborhood community engagement sessions that you held.

Like when you you'll probably have to pull this.

I mean, I'm I was just gonna ask if you could get me information about when they were, where they were, how they were attended, and how they were marketed.

So that projection was for the upcoming fiscal year, and that was adjusted from 50 events to 30 just due to the size of my staff and the amount of robust engagement that we want to have.

And so those are 30 engagements for FY26.

There'll be one in each city council district, and then there will be two in 10 selected neighborhood associations, which were selected from the city based on the um number of good neighbor properties that were located in those areas.

So those neighborhood associations had multiple good neighbor properties in their vicinity, and that's why they were selected for the robust engagements for at Fly 26, and then an FY27 will rotate to additional neighborhood associations based on the good neighbor data property, property data.

So do you have something that you could send over showing I do have a schedule and we are still attempting to schedule the citywide council district events with certain staff, but I do have a schedule I can share with you.

Thank you.

Ummunications and engagement.

The budget for public education and government fund, the capital outlay went up by two and a half million since 2024.

Do you do you have a breakdown of those planned projects?

I can get that breakdown for you.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you for all you do too, Elena.

I appreciate it.

Just um to answer your question.

So the um it includes um some live televised meeting equipment for production spaces, an HVAC reduct redundancy system to support TVSA equipment, uh construction and equipment at Calder Alley and upgrading studios uh as well as LED walls uh for studios to place green screens.

But we can provide you a full breakout of that.

It will include an explanation.

The the funding for that for that type of equipment uh maintenance and upgrade is um statutorily restricted.

It's it's it's uh funds that we collect from um cable bills, um yeah, cable bills, and it has to be spent on the maintenance and repair of our television equipment, uh, these cameras, and so forth.

Which cable company all of them all this is a whole new can of worms.

Well, awesome.

We'll include a little bit of an explanation of the follow-up.

Okay, thank you.

And councilwoman to answer your question about some tuition reimbursement.

We have about 450,000 budgeted each year, and we spend about that much uh annually.

Okay, good.

I mean, I'm glad of it.

I just just wanted to know.

Thank you.

Um I really just wanted to do a shout out to Military and Veteran Affairs.

Um, you're one of the lowest funded but most impactful, and um contributing 51.3 billion dollars to our economy is huge.

So well done.

Thank you.

I don't get any of it.

You don't get a percent.

You can't work in a half.

Yeah.

Anyway, excellent, and thank you.

Um I think that's all I have.

Thank you very much for all of your hard work.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Councilman Castillo and Guiano.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh thank you all for the presentations.

Um 21 departments is a lot, so kudos to y'all.

Um figuring out these these these budget presentations.

Uh but with the point compensation, um, I'll just fully support my proposal uh or the uh option two uh with a two percent plus 750 base increase yeah that one um because I think during the time where our city is experiencing a loss of capacity due to revenue shortfalls, I think it's important to just support the people behind all the work uh and who do the work in this city.

Um so I'm fully supportive of that one, and then I just want to give a shout out to Maria Vargas uh for providing excellent work to address safety issues by convening partners to achieve a holistic and coordinated response to public safety issues.

Anytime our team has you know come to you with a crime issue or a safety issue, you do you know thorough research and you're very very responsive uh to the concerns of our residents.

So thank you for that.

Uh but that's all I wanted to say.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Councilwoman Alderata Gabito.

Thank you.

Uh thank you to Renee and Freddie for the presentations.

Um, I also do want to stop and thank uh our city clerk and all of her team for all the work uh that they do, and also uh for this uh city council and mayor support staff.

I know that we um I guess we can be a demanding bunch every once in a while.

So thank you very much for all that that you all do.

Um on the employee benefits and compensation, thank you to HR and everyone involved.

On the employee benefits and compensation, thank you to HR and everyone involved on option on coming to an agreement about option two on slide 16.

We I think we talked about it, our city employees are going to be charged with doing more.

We know that as budget deficits happen, workloads increases and resources decrease.

So it's gonna be tough.

So I'm glad that we were able to make things work to see um and and protect our city employees in in the best way we can.

So thank you for y'all's efforts there.

I was also glad to see on slide 12 our firefighters' average wages went up after all of our efforts last year by um many of these members on city council, whether council member or on staff to secure a good deal for them.

So we're really excited about uh seeing that on slide 10.

I did have some feedback that we hear from city employees, and it is to it's important for the city to acknowledge tenure and experience, but also educational attainment.

So if someone obtains a degree while working here, their compensation should be reflected for that additional qualification, and oftentimes it's not, or you know, it's it's really tough to get it.

But you know, we have a lot of people who are working to get um higher degrees, and then there it's usually a want-wont, you know, because they're not getting any pay for it.

So definitely wanted to share that feedback for all other departments on 31.

Is there a reason we're not doing customer satisfaction surveys anymore?

I know it wasn't in the presentation, but it was in the budget document.

Um councilman, yes.

Uh, are you referring to the phone when someone calls us and there is an email that's being sent out?

Those are still being done, ma'am, and we do keep track of those metrics.

I'm not aware there's a other program.

Yeah, on in the budget document, it just says customer satisfaction survey, overall quality of 311.

So it stopped in fiscal year 25.

Um, so I was just curious what that was about.

Uh council, uh we understand what you're asking.

That's the um the citywide customer survey uh community survey that we do.

That was 311 score.

The last time we do it, we typically do it every other year.

Okay, 91% in FY24, I believe.

We did not do one this fiscal year.

I think we will so that was a citywide survey, and that was 311's score.

Yeah, of all city services.

Remember the presentation we give in the past about community satisfaction with sensors.

Thank you.

That that context is helpful.

Uh for C C DO, I see that one of the metrics is the tonnage of trash removed from the river channel.

Uh I was curious what steps C C DO is doing to be proactive from preventing trash to get there from getting there in the first place.

Um so just to explain that real quick that that is uh tonnage of trash removed by one of our boats.

We have a boat that's specifically designed to remove um trash from the river.

Sure.

Um, as far as preventing it from the river public works uh through their stormwater program has uh programs that attempt to prevent that from happening.

There's covers on storm um inlets and things like that to try to capture that that trash um before it gets in the river.

There's a um a trash collection device at the head of um at the top of downtown on San Pedro Creek to try to catch that trash before it gets into the river.

And then obviously working with our partner at the river authority on different um kind of marketing programs and campaigns to prevent trash from entering the river.

Yeah, and and and really that's what I'm leaning on is just more, you know, we all kind of grew up with a don't mess with Texas litter campaign, and I think that we need to um hone in on those campaigns again because um, you know, when you're littering, obviously you're showing disrespect for your city, and so I think that there needs to be a sense of pride instilled in San Antonians again to not um litter and and you know the one of the best places for that is is the river walk, you know, so that people know hey, hey, that's unacceptable behavior here.

So sure, yeah.

And our on our just at the river um edge, we've done a lot working with Centro, they help pick up trash before it can get in the river.

Yeah, it's usually a storm event, is how a lot of that trash enters the river.

Right.

Um so that's kind of the key area to focus on.

Yeah, and I know I I can't remember if I mentioned this in one of the other uh budget briefings, but you know, and this is for CNE.

You know, my my district seven office would love to partner with you all on some sort of campaign and push about again people having pride in not littering in our city because we see this again and again.

Um we we want a uh an effective campaign so that people aren't littering on our streets and our waterways because we all do spend so much effort, whether it's basuta bash, whether it's this picking up trash, and it'd be nice for all of us to take a step back and figure out how what are the ways we can prevent this citywide.

Okay, thank you.

Uh for OHP, the Office of Historic Preservation.

I want to echo the sentiments on the vacant building program.

Uh I know that we're there's that you we know that vacant buildings have been a thorn in a lot of our side.

We um we know that they attract crime and and lower nearby property values.

Um I'm nervous about eliminating that position.

What but also too, Shannon, I think it's Shannon.

Can you tell us what that position um was responsible for?

So um yes, it it was it's one of the case manager positions, like basically there are um case managers that take the cases based on geography generally.

Um and as you know, like some of them are assigned to different council districts, and so basically we're just we're going to divide it up differently, and then there's another staff position that does that supports all of the case managers with inspections.

And as I mentioned, we actually had another employee out on extended leave for a long period of time, so we've kind of been operating at the same level for a while, and so we've we do feel confident that we can continue to manage the caseload.

We also have um been working over the last year with Andy's team to um process more cases in municipal court, and so we're able to get better enforcement and compliance that way as well.

Okay, yeah, that that um is helpful context.

I'd still want to um push back on on eliminating that that specific position just because vacant buildings it may have been y'all meeting that satisfactory level, but I feel for a lot of my colleagues and I it's not a satisfactory level, so we'd hate to be won out, um, especially on such a nuisance problem for many of us.

Uh I know also too, you know, we we um had recently wrote a memo to increase the fines and fees on uh our absentee property owners.

I think a couple of my colleagues mentioned that.

So um even with y'all's recommendations, still hiking them up because they they are problems in our neighborhoods.

Um on the compliance opportunity and access uh slide, our disability access advisory committee appointee Melody Melanie Cawthorne raised some concerns about the elimination of the accessibility compliance specialist position.

Um how are we gonna assure that the the community that this reduction will have no impact on accessibility services to the community?

Thank you for the question, Councilwoman.

As I noted earlier, we are still meeting our core services.

I would like to add that when we're looking at the staff position, it has been vacant over a year, so we have been able to manage the workload that we are getting to continue the our core services.

Okay, sounds good.

That's fair enough.

And and you know, we'll be in touch if if if our um if that community has any um concerns.

Yes, of course, and I would expect no less.

Yes, awesome.

Thank you.

Um, those are all my questions.

Thank you.

Uh Chairman Gia.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Renee, can you come out have a question for you?

So at one of our budget meetings, we talked about some of the front-facing roles uh, like code enforcement officers, animal care officers, homeless outreach coordinators.

Uh, and so how do you base you know the market decision on the compensation for those employees?

Because I think one of the issues we're seeing is um it's a tough job, there's high turnover, uh, and there are some you know less intense lateral movements that they can make within the city.

So, how do you determine the salary for those specific categories of employees?

When we specifically go out and look at market, we have a purchased uh the Mercer salary survey, which is the largest um private uh private and public sector uh wage survey, and we compare to that, we also benchmark against other cities.

Um, and then we look to see, we do look at the vacancy rate, the turnover rate as it compares to to other positions.

And outside of just general, you know, citywide pay increases, have those specific roles had any adjustments in pay or hazard pay considerations based on the turnover?

Yeah, none of our city positions have hazard pay per se.

Um they are part of the positions that were evaluated for market um two fiscal uh years ago, and I would have to look back at the history of of their pay to tell you exactly what what type of market increase those positions got.

Yeah, I think that'd be interesting because again, you know, those folks are out on on our neighborhood streets every single day, and they're not allowed to be armed either, uh, and they're usually confronting very aggressive or upset people, uh, or in some cases obviously a very aggressive dogs.

Um so I think it's really worth looking at, uh, and those are some of the core functions that we as a council have asked to be increased or those metrics to be improved upon.

So I just wonder, you know, at some point if we can take a deeper dive into that also.

Um and I think you know, uh Councilman Corps kind of mentioned this, but I think all of our offices have had some sort of concern or issues with um LGC.

And being a former LGC employee, I know that June, you know, will be a vesting period for those that were here at the inception of the LGC.

So I do think it's it's a good opportunity to revisit our status with LGC for our employees, uh, maybe do a subcommittee again.

I don't think there is a subcommittee currently for that.

Let's just evaluate where we are with the positions and how we can make improvements to that, and if we need to change that system, you know, making sure our employees are well informed on that also.

So I would just say that that's something kind of coming up, and I think almost every single council member here agrees with that.

So it's it's due time for a review on that.

So thank you, appreciate that.

Uh is um C C DO John Jackson, you could come up real quick.

So, you know, and I'm sure they met with a number of us also, but um the Market Square Tenants Association has has met with us and me included, um, and there's dealing with a lot of issues uh with customers, especially because of the construction around there.

Right.

So I know you have extended the the lease forgiveness or some sort of program.

Can you tell me how long you've extended that to and what the plan is after that's done?

Sure, that's through the end of uh this month um to hopefully coincide with the end of the construction in that uh area as well.

So public work is supposed to be done with the construction this month.

Uh I think John's gonna address it.

Councilman, thanks for your question.

Yeah, the current schedule has them being completed at the end of this month.

Uh so they are diligently working on that.

I think you can expect both Dolorosa and Commerce to feel very different by the end of this month.

I think the question at this point for us is what does Santa Rosa look like?

It's gonna be very close, sir.

So if it's not done at the end of this month, we would extend it further.

Council, we'll have to evaluate that because um there is not sufficient funding in that in that um market square.

Yeah, um, and so I think that'll be a further conversation with um uh the tenants over there and and ultimately the council.

Because it is an enterprise fund, correct?

Yeah, they pay into so but we can add into the enterprise fund.

Sure, it's just got to come from somewhere.

Yeah, yeah.

So I just mentioned that because of the reductions in the budget, and obviously they are small businesses, and they've also you know relay obviously at some point has to go back, but not zero to a hundred in one month, I think is something we should also look into.

Um so I'm I just wanted to bring that up.

And uh, you know, when it comes to I want to echo councilwoman Castillo's um advocacy for sustainability and the quintena neighborhood.

So I've been to a couple of those meetings.

Uh the staff is really really great and helpful to them, and so I just want to make sure that we have your commitment that we'll continue to get some resources going to that neighborhood and some long-lasting support.

So yes, thank you, Councilman.

Uh the the key to that program is the city um had committed some funding to it, but it's we're leveraging it.

Uh we're leveraging it with external partners, and uh I think we have a lot of momentum, so we are fully committed to to that neighborhood.

Yeah, great.

And you have two council members that represent that area that are very, very committed also.

So let us know how we can help you with that also.

Uh I just want to also give a shout out to General Ayala.

We met earlier this morning, and I know that uh you know, Lackland Air Force Base is in District 4.

Uh, we have an ex high number of veterans across the city in District 4.

Uh, and so your mission to keep um the bases here is extremely important to the economy uh and to the livelihood of San Antonio.

So thank you for all your advocacy.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Uh and Dr.

Mata, if you could come up real quick.

I just wanted to say thank you for all the work that you do in your office.

Uh and you know, especially the immigrant inclusion, because while that has become an extremely politicized issue here in the state and and the federal government, uh, there have been three trailers found in my district.

Uh one resulting in one of the largest casualties this country has ever seen.

So two of those having to be right behind my field office on Quintana Road.

So thank you for your work on that and the continued efforts to make it a safer place for everybody.

Thank you, Councilman.

Thank you for your support.

Yes, absolutely.

And I think those are all my questions for now.

Chair Corr.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just could not believe I forgot to highlight my favorite department, and that's C and E.

I Alana, I just love the work that you do, and I feel like I'm with Councilman View Gran.

We always every day we have a new favorite department.

Um but uh Alana, you've done an amazing job.

You are such a small but mighty team.

I keep saying that we need to have, if we have again, I have unlimited resources.

It's not an actual amendment request, Eric, but I think that uh we need to have definitely more support for the work that you all do because it is so important, and you do it with such passion and heart, and you're really great at collaborating with all our offices and making sure that we're getting what we need and um really embody the it's not no, it's how, how can we figure out how to get the message out.

And we've been collaborating a lot on how to better connect 311, Varent, our systems that we use, and I know it's been a slow process, um, but uh we're getting there, and with Craig as well, we're gonna figure out a way to make sure that our constituents can sign up, get the updates that they need and they want, so that when there's uh emergency of a street that's not getting done well enough, which is never gonna happen with this new department, but um, in the event that it does, we're gonna be able to communicate with them in an efficient way.

So I just wanted to give you that shout out.

And also um with the C C DO request that uh council member just brought up.

I wanted to mention that we we've got to continue to explore how to better support Market Square and La Vita.

I know we've talked about this.

They are treasures to our community, and there's also a lot of challenges that they face.

So I understand like DSDs as enterprise fund, but taking a look at the comparisons of the of those types and seeing what what does it look like to better support them?

Because it I mean they come to us and they request that, and we always want to help.

We want them to thrive.

Um so maybe just thinking about what the right structure is for them, rethinking about that, I think would be helpful.

Okay, that's all.

Thank you, Mayor.

Chair Galvan.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, a couple quick things I wanted to just follow up on uh after hearing the conversation.

Definitely the point uh Council Advito mentioned about uh education obtained while uh being a city staff member, I think is crucial to see how we can increase the pay and accommodate the kind of work that they do.

Um we know, of course, tuition and assistance uh for the folks who do utilize it, it's always helpful to make sure that they're also receiving the pay that they also deserve for having the education that likely and typically does align with the work that they're doing.

Um I also wanted to echo Council Record's piece on sustainability.

I also had some just uh concerns of what it was gonna look like with resiliency jumping in.

Uh, I think of course it's a natural fit.

Um, but I think definitely on the point about CROs, uh chief residency officers nationally, right?

The work that they do is to break down silos between departments to make sure that sustainability efforts are happening.

And so just want to make sure that having them go from the city manager's office to uh the department uh doesn't impact that work that still needs to be done.

Um the conversations we've had about infrastructure, parks, other places uh that can have some of this dual efforts done.

Want to make sure those things are still happening, and I think it will.

So just wanted to express that concern too for a little bit.

Um course also want to shout out City Clerk for all the work they do.

I mean, just the even the present presentation he gave us the same for the record, it's just beautiful to me.

Um, but also the municipal archives museum.

I'm super excited for that uh as a history person myself, uh, that frequently uses the kind of uh past records we have to look at some old ordinances that are still in place, uh looking at the decision making process by city council members in the past of how they got there, helping form the work that we do here.

Um it's just one of the many things that the city clerk does.

Um it's something that I really enjoy using.

And finally, uh also want to shout out, of course, everyone in the LGC staff, definitely, of course, Emily and her team, uh, all the folks on all the council colleague and mayor's team, as well as the best team, district six, and all the staff on there, whether they're here at City Hall or at TESL or at Darner, uh, everyone uh all the work that they do uh is crucial and important to the work that we do for our constituents and my constituents recognize it every time at the neighborhood association meeting or HOA meeting uh or community event or on the phone with me, um, always recognizing that the staff reached out, got it solved, got it solved, and we couldn't do it without them, and I don't know how council members of the past got things done, frankly.

Uh but happy we have the team we have now.

So thank you very much, Mayor.

Chair Viehadon.

Thank you.

Uh there are two departments that I think we need to talk about in a B session or possibly an A session about as we move forward and as technology grows, and that's uh Office of Innovation and Information Technology Services.

I know uh Councilman White sits with me on the audit committee, and we're always getting requests for RFPs on CRMs and different programs.

Uh so I think we need to probably have a uh digger deep uh digger uh dig deeper on what we're our expectations are for the technology just because we have so much in restricted funds there, and we know I I am fully aware how well they do with security, but I think there's uh some user friendly and dashboard conversations we need to have as a council about what our our constituents uh expect.

So that I wanted to bring up that.

And the other thing which I heard mentioned by a few council members is councilwoman Castillo, myself, and Councilman Courage worked really hard on the LGC subcommittee to bring forward new positions so that we would have options.

But I think yes, the time is read is now for us to get together as a full LGC board because we are the LGC board and talk about our roles and responsibilities there.

So um I look forward to doing that.

I don't think I think everybody could give a little money from our budget to make sure we have a lunch that day.

But um I I think um I think it's time to move forward uh with that.

But the those are the things I'd like to see as we as we look at future budgets in terms of who's got restricted funds, how are we using those restricted funds, and also uh where we can uh cut, not cut, but really just get the most for our dollar.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Castillo.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh lastly, uh I wanted to provide support to councilman Dr.

Sick Core's point about the DART program.

This is a program uh that we have many nuisance properties within district five, and I I'm not too sure if it's a budget or just a streamlining conversation, but how we can move some of these properties through the process in terms of uh bringing the city resources to that property and then holding individuals accountable that uh need to be.

I'm also supportive of the re-establishment of the OGC subcommittee.

I wasn't on it with Dr.

Rocha Garcia.

Um, but I think there is uh value in reconvening.

Uh for example, with internships that positions that each council office has.

Uh, we I our office has had older adults uh uh express interest in the interim position to re-enter the workforce and it excludes them from participating within that role, and I think there's value in having conversations about how we can provide opportunity for all individuals uh seeking to intern with their offices.

And then lastly, uh I I do want to uh suggest that in terms of the market square vendors that are looking for additional support if there's opportunity with the tours that over uh sees downtown, if there's opportunity in the case that the construction runs longer, that the tourists could potentially support an offsetting the rent costs um that they're requesting.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Thank you again uh to our presenters.

Uh, thank you for again all the hard work uh as we look to uh balance the budget again.

26 is is not the challenge, it's it's 27.

So appreciate the ways in which you've worked to um make sure that we can cover the gap this time, ensure our folks are are well compensated and that we understand what this looks like um in a responsible way moving forward.

Um before we convene into executive session, I I do want to address a point.

Um Andy, um can you confirm um that your office has never approved a city contract expending resources for campaign activities?

I haven't been here long enough, Mayor, but I can't say you know we have we we we scrutinize that pretty closely, and so no, we we do make sure that our as we enter into contracts that we uh address uh any uh political activity that should not be funded from city funds.

Yeah, thank you for that.

And I just want to I want to make sure that in my colleagues, you know, if you may have a uh a personal um issue with with a legal contract that um in asking questions, you don't needlessly disparage or um needlessly question the professional integrity of the city staff um and the work that they do to well serve our city.

All right.

The time is now 4.20 p.m.

on September 10th, 2025.

The City Council of San Antonio uh will now uh meet in executive session to consult with the city attorney's office pursuant to chapter 551 of the Texas government code and to deliberate or discuss the following items.

Economic development negotiations pursuant to 55-section 551.087, the purchase exchange lease or value of real property pursuant to section 551.072 and legal issues related to litigation involving the city emergency preparedness and collective bargaining, all pursuant to section 551.071.

The time is now 5.09 p.m.