Good afternoon.

The time is now 2 01 p.m.

on Wednesday, October 15th, 2025 in the City of San Antonio.

B session is called to order.

Madam Clerk, please call roll.

Councilmember Corr.

Councilmember Mickey Rodriguez.

Councilmember Via Gran.

Councilmember Mungea.

Councilmember Castillo.

Councilmember Galván.

Councilmember Alvarete Gabito.

Here.

Councilmember Mesa Gonzalez.

Councilmember Spears.

Here.

Councilmember White.

Mayor Jones.

Here.

Mayor, we have quorum.

Great.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Okay, so we've got two items today that are interconnected.

One, um, Melody and the team are going to brief on human services consolidated funding process, briefing and pre-solicitation process.

And then we'll go into the framework, the initial framework for a federal grants tabletop exercise.

As we as we are headed into a very challenging fiscal environment and begin to see the impacts of some of these federal cuts in our community.

We have to be thoughtful about one who is already experiencing some of these.

Many of you may have uh woken up to the same headline I did this morning where uh Meals on Wheels in our community unfortunately is lost out on on that funding.

Um, and we're already beginning to see um, but then actually you also see the importance of of what could not happen.

Just this morning, I was uh thankful to be able to attend the ribbon cutting for an opportunity home.

Um these were 11 homes on the West Side uh District 5, in fact, uh, and these were homes that people were able to buy.

And that was a program that was only possible because of federal grants.

So it's not only the the cuts that we will see on on meal programs, etc.

Um, as well as cut social security, Medicare, Medicaid, chips, SNAP, but also the opportunities that will not be able to be realized if these other federal grants go away, uh, whether it comes to home equity, the ability to have home equity and and so many other things.

So I'm really looking forward to to the discussion here.

And this is designed to help us do two things.

One, under help us understand um where we might have resources that could be used to help fill the gap that we know is is um is very likely to come when it comes to Melody's budget, for example.

Um the framework for the federal grants tabletop exercise, I think will also help us see um see ourselves better.

Let me just let me say that.

I was, and I've you've heard me say this, but I was um surprised in the course of our budget discussions that we did not have the the same level of fidelity and analysis, staffing analysis in particular, um, as we did when it came to our um SAPD officers.

And that was a very useful exercise and and something that folks were able to routinely point to and say, hey, hey, hey, we did this analysis, right?

We committed to this, and now we're not doing it.

Um it would be very helpful, I think, for us to have that same level of analysis in other places.

So we know 50% of Metro Health's funding, for example, comes from federal grants.

And if in the course of the the tabletop exercise, it becomes quite clear what the consequences might be for our community as a result of that money going away.

Uh, we could then say, actually, if that money goes away, we as a council are still committed to providing those services.

Eric then will provide us with a price tag, and that will be our analysis as we go into the FY27 budget about hey, we've got this analysis on police officers.

Oh, by the way, we now also have this analysis analysis on public health services, X, Y, and Z.

And similarly, if we wanted to look at um uh grants when it comes to uh affordable housing or or anything from HUD, that will help us also look at how we might provide those services if we were still committed to doing that.

So that's the intent of the exercise.

We're not going to be able to have all the answers to this, but what we can do in the course of these, and what these are all have always helped me do is under is help to reduce the uncertainty, right?

Let's identify the assumptions that we're making, but then also help us understand the severity of some of these things, if some of our county partners, but also some of our community partners may similarly be experiencing cuts to their own budgets.

And then we have the very difficult conversation of okay, what do we stop doing?

What may we potentially have to stop doing as a result of these cuts and how quickly then can we help communicate and manage the expectations of those in our community, many of whom are the most vulnerable that would be impacted as a result of the changes either at the federal level or in the changes in our own city budget to cover that gap.

So I wanted to lay that kind of before the the council as we kind of get our mind right into these two pretty pretty meaty topics.

Um with that, Eric, if you have any um comments or you'd like us to get go ahead and get started.

Sure, Mayor, just a couple of issues.

Um is just a little bit of a reminder about the first topic on uh delegate agencies and the consolidated funding process.

Um, and we've we've we've gone through a delegate agency process since uh the late 70s and have adjusted it over time to meet the needs of of the community.

Um, and and I want to I want to um share with the council that um it'll be a reminder for some of you.