San Antonio City Council Budget Work Session – September 17, 2025
San Antonio City Council Budget Work Session – September 17, 2025
The City Council convened a budget work session at 2:03 p.m. on Wednesday, September 17, 2025, to discuss potential amendments to the FY26 proposed budget. The budget director presented six general fund amendments totaling approximately $11.5 million over two years, with revenue enhancements including an increase to the parks environmental fee and a maximum food/beverage fee increase. Council members debated priorities, including across-the-board employee raises, additional police officers, delegate agency funding, and infrastructure investments.
Discussion Items
- Employee Compensation: Proposed amendments included a $750 base salary increase and 2% across-the-board cost of living adjustment for all city employees. Mayor suggested capping the pay increase to those earning under $100,000 to save $1.4 million, affecting 760 employees (9% of workforce). Councilmember Via Gran and others opposed the cap, advocating for equitable treatment. The final consensus supported the full across-the-board increase.
- Public Safety: An amendment funded 15 additional patrol officers (total 40) at $3.1 million over two years. Councilmember White and Spears pushed for 65 officers, citing a staffing study and the city's 60/40 proactive time goal. Councilmember Corr and others questioned the number, suggesting a policy discussion on officer deployment. The city manager noted the proposed budget already included $2 million in overtime reductions. No final decision on the officer count was made; the issue was deferred for further conversation.
- Infrastructure and Programs: Restored funding of $500,000 for radar feedback and flashing stop signs, $1 million for minor home repairs, and $3 million in one-time funding for street lights. A position for the vacant buildings program was added to Development Services, funded by increased fees (residential fee from $250 to $400; commercial from $750 to $900). Councilmember Castellon Ghiano expressed concern about diverting funds from the SA Forward violent crime reduction plan.
- Delegate Agencies: Discussion centered on funding for agencies such as Big Mama Safe House ($144,000 new funding), For Her ($91,000), Rape Crisis Center ($56,000), and American Gateways ($50,000). City Manager clarified that most would be discretionary funding, with some considered core services. Councilmembers expressed support, though some urged prioritizing core city services.
- Alamo Promise: The amendment proposed moving Alamo Promise funding ($3 million) to the Ready to Work program in FY26, with data reporting requirements. Alamo Colleges representative Priscilla Camacho noted that job placement data is not available at scale but offered transfer data. Council supported the shift with adjustments to reporting timelines.
- Revenue Enhancements: To fund amendments, the city proposed increasing the parks environmental fee from $1.50 to $2.00 per month (generating $4 million/year) and raising food/beverage permit fees to the state maximum of 20% of gross sales (raising $433,000). Mayor directed the $433,000 to Metro Health for mental health support, TB control, and language access. Councilmember Corr suggested a smaller fee increase ($0.25), but the broader fee increase remained. Councilmember Castillo requested outreach to small businesses before finalizing.
Key Outcomes
- Employee Compensation: Maintained the $750 base increase and 2% across-the-board raise for all city employees (no cap).
- Police Officers: The proposed 15 additional officers were left for further policy discussion; no vote was taken on the number.
- Vacant Buildings Program Funded: A senior code officer position added to Development Services, funded by increased vacant building registration fees.
- Delegate Agencies Funded: For Her and Rape Crisis Center funded via 8-month contracts from reserve; American Gateways ($50,000) and Big Mama Safe House ($144,000) funded as new, discretionary items.
- Alamo Promise: Moved to Ready to Work funding with semi-annual data reporting on demographics, graduation rates, and transfer data (job placement data to be included when available from the state).
- Revenue Increases: Parks environmental fee increased by $0.50/month; food/beverage permit fees raised to state maximum, with $433,000 allocated to Metro Health for mental health and TB services.
- Infrastructure: Radar signs, flashing stop signs, minor repairs, street lights, and book festival restoration (via Visit SA partnership) were included.
- Next Steps: Staff will prepare a revised budget amendment memo incorporating discussed adjustments for adoption on September 18, 2025.
Meeting Transcript
Good afternoon. The time is now 2 03 p.m. on Wednesday, September 17th, and the City of San Antonio budget work session is called to order. Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Councilmember Corps. Councilmember Castillo Anguiano. Councilmember Villa Gran. Councilmember Mungia. Councilmember Castillo. Councilmember Galvan. Councilmember Alderete Gavito. Here. Councilmember Mesa Gonzalez. President. Councilmember Spears. Councilmember White. Mayor Jones. Here. Mayor, we have Quorum. Thank you, Madam Clerk. This meeting is here about potential amendments. The FY26 proposed budget. Eric, over to you. Thank you, Mayor. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. So Justina's going to walk you through a very, very short presentation. Hand it back to me. I'm going to cover some of the high points in the follow-up memo you got today. And then I'll turn it back over to you, Mayor, for the for the conversation. Good afternoon, Mayor and City Council. My name is Justina Tate. I'm the budget director for the city of San Antonio. Wanted to provide a brief overview of the budget amendments that are that were included in the list last night, as well as uh potential reductions and resources to fund those. So there are total of six budget amendments included in the general fund for a total over two years of about 11.5 million dollars. This includes increasing uh $750 for base salary for a total of $6.8 million. This restores funding, report partial funding to install new radar feedback and traffic signs as well as flash stop flashing stop signs for a total of 500,000. It would fund an additional 15 new police officers for patrol for a total of 40 officers. This would be about 3.1 million dollars over the two years, and restores funding in the amount of a million dollars for minor repairs. The last two amendments uh include restoring one position for the vacant buildings program to be added to the development services department, and finally includes three million dollars in one-time funding for street lights. Now this next slide provides a summary of the resources to fund these general fund uh amendments. This would include eliminating the inner city incentive transfer in fiscal year 2027, as well as moving the Alamo Promise funding to ready to work in fiscal year 2026. For revenue enhancements, uh this would include increasing the parks environmental fee by 50 cents, going from a dollar fifty per month to two dollars, two dollars per month, and this would generate about four million dollars in capacity in the general fund. So it would be about eight million dollars over the two years. So in total, uh these additional reductions as well as revenue enhancements would generate about 11.5 million dollars of capacity in the general fund. And finally, uh the last slide just illustrates the restricted funds and capital budget amendments. So all the restricted funds would include uh a 750 base salary adjustment for uh personnel positions that are funded through those restricted funds, and finally, uh the capital budget would include a million dollars for each council district for capital improvement projects for a total of ten million dollars. That concludes uh my presentation, and I'm gonna turn it back to the city manager. Thank you so much. Thank you, Justina. Um so we sent the memo to the council last night um that outlines what what uh justina just walked through.
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