Good morning.

The time is now 9 01 a.m.

on December 11th, 2025, and the meeting of the San Antonio City Council is now called to order.

Madam Clerk, please call roll.

Councilmember Corps.

Councilmember McKee Rodriguez.

Councilmember Via Gran.

Here.

Councilmember Mungia.

Present.

Councilmember Castillo.

Here.

Councilmember Galvan.

Here.

Councilmember Alderete Gavito.

Here.

Councilmember Mesa Gonzalez.

Councilmember Spears.

Councilmember White.

Here.

Mayor Jones.

Here.

Mayor, we have quorum.

Thank you.

I'd like to recognize Councilmember Alberta Gavito to introduce today's invocator.

Thank you, Mayor.

Today I am honored to welcome Father Jorge Haro from St.

Luke's Catholic Church in District 7 to lead our invocation.

Father Jorge is a Catholic priest and was ordained on May 14th, 2022.

He is a member of the missionaries of the Holy Spirit, a religious congregation dedicated to fostering spiritual renewal, pastoral service, and community accompaniment.

Father Jorge was born in St.

Nicholas Jalisco, Mexico, and raised in a bilingual Mexican American household.

He holds a bachelor's degree in philosophy and religious studies from Mount Angel Seminary in Oregon.

And a Master of Divinity from the Oblate School of Theology here in San Antonio.

At St.

Luke's Father Jorge is known for his vibrant pastoral leadership, his dedication to parish families, and his commitment to outreach ministries.

His outreach work includes homebound visits, community events, and initiatives to strengthen unity and faith.

He's actively involved in in creative community engagement, educational formation, and supporting the well-being of parishioners throughout the west side of San Antonio.

Father Jorge, thank you so much for your service to the community and for being here with us today.

I'll turn it over to you.

Let us give thanks to God for the gift of life for allowing us to be here another day.

We humbly ask you to send for your Holy Spirit, the spirit of wisdom, counsel and understanding upon our mayor, our council members, and all who serve in positions of leadership.

May the Holy Spirit guide their liberations, strengthen their resolve to pursue the common good, and inspire in them a deep respect for the dignity of every person.

We commend to your care the people of our city, our families, our elderly, our children, the poor, the vulnerable, and all who labor to build a community marked by justice, peace, and compassion.

Through the intercession of Mary, our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of the Americas, whose feast we are about to celebrate.

And Saint Antonia Padua, patron of our city and faithful witness to the gospel.

May we let our unity understanding an authentic service.

May your grace flowing through the power of the Holy Spirit accompany the work undertaken in this chamber today.

And may your blessing rest upon all who are present.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Please remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

There are no minutes to approve this week.

We also do not have any ceremonials, so we'll move on to the points of personal privilege.

Thank you.

Today I'm so delighted to honor District 7 resident and longtime friend Edward Eddie Arguello for his many contributions to business, culture, music, and civic life in San Antonio.

His story is so inspiring that it's that it's being brought to the screen in collaboration with actor, writer, and producer Jamie P.

Gomez in the upcoming film Badio Dogs, the life and times of Eddie Edward Eddie Arguello, Every Man is a Superman, now in post-production.

For more than six decades, Eddie has been deeply involved in our community.

In the late 1950s, he founded Triple A Records, an independent label that went on to publish over 70 songs.

Among them were major hits such as 96 Tears and Midnight Hour by Question Mark and The Mysterians.

96 Tears was later covered by Bruce Springsteen and Aretha Franklin.

His records under the Triple A label have become highly sought after by collectors around the world, with some selling for as much as $2,500.

In addition, his achievements in the music industry, Eddie has a successful career in leadership and business.

He served as the as facility management director for CPS Energy, overseeing multi-million dollar facilities and projects.

He also led his own company, Northwest Paint and Carpet Center, where he created jobs and opportunities for many folks throughout our city.

Eddie has always believed in supporting political leaders whom he felt could shape San Antonio's future.

He helped with campaigns for Congressman Henry Bing Gonzalez as well as several distinguished judges and other officials who served within our community with distinction.

He has also been an amazing supporter of mine, which I'm so grateful for.

The very first time I met their family, they were all in, and that just means that meant so much to me.

One of the highlights of his civic involvement was serving as an official member of the Papel Despida Farewell Subcommittee during the 1987 papal visit to San Antonio.

He worked with local businesses to ensure the success of Pope John Paul's second farewell procession, a historic event that brought the city together in faith and unity.

Early this month, earlier this month, Eddie contributed his music memorabilia to Totalite Hano Museum, which opened its doors this past weekend on Fredericksburg Road.

His memories and achievements are now on display for San Antonians to enjoy for years to come.

I can't wait to visit the museum and to see the documentary when it comes out.

Eddie turns 89 years old next Tuesday and continues to be an inspiration to those who know him.

His lifelong dedication to our city has left a lasting mark on San Antonio.

Thank you, Eddie, for your many contributions to the city and happy birthday.

And I also do want to recognize that this family also travels in packs.

It's so nice to see when I'm out at the election site, you know, a whole car will come in, and it's just so nice to greet this beautiful, beautiful family with hugs.

Um and all of it, you know, definitely stems from you, Mr.

Arguello.

So thank you so much for being here today.

And we have this um certificate to to do.

But if you don't mind standing, so we can give you a round of applause.

Thank you.

Councilmember White.

Councilmember White, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mayor.

Well, today I want to um share the exciting news again that we saw from a couple of weeks ago when we had the introductory press conference.

But it's an exciting opportunity for San Antonio with the upcoming Texas Space Summit, uh, which is going to take place on September 21st through September 23rd of next year.

Uh, the Texas Space Summit will bring together industry leaders, uh, policymakers and innovators uh to chart the next frontier, uh, strengthening Texas's role uh in the commercial space economy and building the supply chain to power the nation's future and beyond.

The gathering will turn mission critical ideas into high quality jobs and investment across our state.

Uh we've talked about this for a while.

Uh San Antonio is really well positioned to lead this effort.

Uh we already have world-class assets in aerospace, cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing, and education right here in our city.

Uh the summit's gonna showcase that strength and highlight how our city can continue expanding its footprint in space and defense-related uh innovation.

Uh it's also a signal that Texas is going to continue uh to lead the nation in space economy and in shaping policy uh that will build a robust Texas-based space supply chain.

Um I want to close by um saying how grateful I am to the greater San Antonio Chamber for leading this effort, uh in particular uh its chair Jeff Webster.

Uh events like this are really gonna help elevate our city's profile, attract investment, and create pathways uh for high paying jobs here in San Antonio.

Um they're also gonna strengthen our partnerships with the military private sector uh and our local universities.

And so I think I uh saw Jeff here um in the audience.

If you want to come up and uh say a few words and we appreciate our uh Texas Space Summit shirts that you got us.

Thank you, Councilman Mayor.

Thank you for attending the the press conference and being there, and a couple of the council members were there with kind of quick notice.

This is an exciting event.

And I'm Jeff Webster, I'm the president and CEO of the Greater San Antonio Chamber.

Joining me today is Tim Farrell, who leads our effort into space, uh running the uh committee for us, and Katie Farrier, who many of you see around City Hall addressing uh public policy issues.

Real quick, I'm gonna take up time, but we did this because the state of Texas was looking for somebody to take on this challenge.

The Greater Chamber took this on not as a chamber event, but as an event for San Antonio to support the great state of Texas.

Uh we are being led.

Our chairman of our board of advisors is Adam Hamilton, the CEO of Southwest Research Institute.

We have about 50 people on the board.

This would not be just the state event, this will be an international event.

So thank you.

We'll be encouraging and reaching out to all of you to participate.

We'll have elements that will include our youth and the STEM and how to engage them in the part of the conference.

But thank you to the city for being a willing partner and helping us out make this the successful event.

We expect up to 2,000 attendees to this conference in just a year from now.

So thank you very much.

Hope you enjoy your shirts.

They're in front of you with the new logo of the Texas Space Summit, and thank you very much for the support of the City of San Antonio.

Thank you.

And Jeff, there's a website set up, right?

Yes, there is.

Texas Space Summit.com.

Already active, uh already taking registrants and already taking sponsors.

This is a huge event for San Antonio.

You know, give us a chance to show off our economic development and our investment into this market.

So thank you very much, guys.

Wish you all the best of holidays.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Councilman White.

Um, Jeff, let me reiterate uh some of the comments I made that morning.

Thank you for your leadership um on this issue.

It was great to welcome members of the Texas Space Commission uh to our city.

Um, and is frankly somebody who spent their entire career in in national security.

Uh space is decisive.

Space is decisive, both from a military context but also from an economic context.

And so I just remember having breakfast not too long ago with uh with TJ Cox, who is now leading Texas Cyber Command right here in San Antonio.

So it is quite fitting that Military City USA, uh, the home of Texas Cyber Command will in fact host this Texas space summit.

Um the linkages between space and cyber are undeniable.

Um it also made me think actually during my last during the trip last week to uh to Mexico when we were thinking about uh the USMCA review, right?

Which I know the chamber and many other business partners will pay play a key role in as we look to ensure that that trade deal continues to pay disproportionate dividends to our community.

It's not just about protecting the supply chains that we have now at Toyota, et cetera, but also thinking about those advanced manufacturing sectors for to include space, by the way, that we've got to make sure we continue to reduce barriers to ensure that the we naturally are taking advantage of not only the lines of communication, but also the 99,000 members of our community that currently work in manufacturing, the 10,000 cyber professionals uh that uh that are part of our cyber presence here, the second largest out of Washington, DC, all of which make us competitive, not only to host a summit, right?

Not only to host a summit, uh, but to make sure that we have a say and have a significant proportion of the space manufacturing that will have to be done.

Those aren't just good jobs, uh, those are also key, key to the city's contribution to defense industrial sector.

So thank you again.

As you point out, this is more than just a summit.

It is really our opportunity uh to talk about San Antonio's unique role today and in the future when it comes to space manufacturing.

Thank you.

Um we've got another um point of uh privilege from D7.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

Um, and I did uh quickly want to invite Mr.

Aguello to come up and say a few words if you wanted to.

Sorry, to close that out before another point of personal privilege.

This is a big celebration, it's a big day.

Thank you to all uh City Council Person, Lady Mayor.

Thank you.

I just want to say uh it's been a long long road.

Most of my contributions have been because of the love that I have for the city.

And everything that I have accomplished, I have accomplished for or tried to for my nine kids.

I have a family of nine, beautiful wife who is responsible for everything that I've done.

So I want to thank you for the recognition.

Councilwoman Langarete.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

And thank you, the city council.

Thank you, the city of San Antonio.

As it continues to grow, I'll continue to do the best to support everything that I can do to help our city prosper and look better.

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much and for sharing that.

I also am so proud today to recognize City Education Partners for a decade of local K through 12 education.

If y'all don't mind coming to the podium.

Joining us from City Education Partners today are CEO Dahlia Flores Contreras, Julian Duran, Chief Investments and Operations Officer, Gladys Hernandez, Director of Talent, Lizette Ekman, Executive Assistant, and Jennifer Limas Mota, Director of Advocacy and Communications.

There are also several board members here with us today.

Thank you all for being here.

City Education Partners was founded in 2015 by a coalition of local visionaries.

The nonprofit emerged in response to an urgent question.

What if every San Antonio student, especially those in historically underinvested communities had access to an education that prepares them for a choice-filled life?

That vision continues to guide city education partners' essential work today.

As an education champion, this organization connects the dots between school quality, talent, policy, and parent power, building bridges between traditionally siloed systems.

With great schools as its North Star, City Education Partners make space for educators to innovate, parents to advocate, and philanthropy to invest boldly.

Over the past 10 years, City Education Partners has supported local public schools in creating more than 25,000 new high-quality seats for San Antonio students, trained or recruited more than one uh 1,100 new teachers through CEP supported initiatives, including innovative paid residencies that graduated more than a hundred new teachers, invested in parents and families by providing microgrants to connect students to online learning during COVID-19, training more than 200 parents in education advocacy and supporting parent-facing organization in amplifying the family voice and catalyze national philanthropy through local investment with an average of seven dollars in funding from national philanthropic organizations pledged for every dollar invested through CEP local donors.

While the City Council traditionally engages most directly with early childhood and higher education, often viewing K through 12 as a state's responsibility, it gives me great pride to recognize the consistent intentional work happening in our local schools.

Today is a reminder that there are meaningful ways for which city leaders for how city leadership can support and elevate K through 12 efforts in our community.

City Education Partners offers us a roadmap to supporting educational transformation, whether that be building relationships between schools and nonprofit profits, investing in initiatives that address challenges identified by CEP and its partners, or simply by elevating the issues facing our K through 12 students.

I am grateful for City Education Partners' continued commitment to building quality schools, teacher talent, and family advocacy.

In celebrating the first decade of impact, City Education Partners has also doubled down on its pledges to lead boldly and focus on what students need.

I look forward to continuing to work with City Education Partners to help ensure every student in San Antonio has access to education to the education they deserve.

Thank you for all that you do for our K through 12 students.

Dahlia, I'll turn it over to you to say a few words.

Thank you so much, Councilwoman Alarete Gavito, for this recognition.

We are super excited to hear you elevate the role that the city can have in advancing and ensuring the quality of education for K-12.

We're so excited to celebrate 10 years of city education partners in San Antonio.

It means that we've had 10 years to engage with familias, with educators, with leaders, and with community leaders like yourself to ensure that every child in San Antonio does have access to that quality education and to catalyze the conditions necessary for them to thrive.

And that has been recent, but also each and every one of you have touched that through your district.

So thank you.

We are super excited about your commitment to that.

We want you to know that we stand ready to support you all in any initiative that you have that's going to advance opportunity for youth across the city.

So our team that's here, our board that's behind us, and many friends that are actually sitting in council today.

Um we just invite you to come to us and let us know how we can support your efforts to make San Antonio the city that our city our children deserve, and we're so well on our way there.

So thank you.

Thank you so much for making time to join us this afternoon.

Um the work that you do uh in terms of making sure that we support K through 12 education in our community is exactly why I set up uh the educational opportunities committee, uh, which is chaired uh by our very own councilman uh Rick Galvan.

And so when we think about the many, many inequities in our community, the sources of that and the future of addressing those things, you're right.

The city has a role to play in that um because if we don't, we deal with the consequences later on.

So thank you for your work.

I look forward to you uh to your collaboration uh with the educational opportunities committee, um, and you know, where there are potentially disagreements with with ISDs, we work on those together.

Uh Chair Galvan, would you like to say a few words about uh the group?

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Mayor, and thank you to all the folks who are here today.

Uh of course, I'm always grateful to be in the room with folks who are championing education here in our community and working on ways to continue to expand educational opportunities in our community and expand educational achievement.

I know something that we will continue to work on, and as we're especially mapping out some of the data that we talked about yesterday at our meeting, we had a very uh robust conversation in the educational opportunities committee about how we can make sure that not only are we tailoring our programs, but you have the data ready to also do that work.

Uh, because we do have some programs, right?

When we look at K-12 that hear the city with parks or with DHS or with Metro Health, that we are working on the not only direct service uh to students in their educational journeys, but also the family engagement too, right?

So, how can we make sure that those things are being done in such a way that is effectively working with uh folks who desperately need it, uh maybe sometimes more than others, some communities more than others.

It's something that I'm really excited to continue working out with my committee as well as with the entire city council and with you all as well.

So thank you all so much and looking forward to continuing collaboration with you and many other educational advocates in our community.

Thank you, Mayor.

Yep.

Thank you, Councilman Govan.

Okay, we'll move on to the consent agenda.

Is there any objection to taking the consent agenda before the individual items so that we may clear the business for the day?

Okay, there being no objection.

Items four through twenty four are on the consent agenda.

This means they will be considered as a group and there will not be a staff presentation unless pulled for individual consideration.

Are there any items council members would like to pull from the consent agenda to be heard individually?

This is not the highlights, these are those to be pulled individually.

Okay, hearing none.

We will move on to public comment on consent.

The first individual is Kristen Benno.

I'll call individuals in order of the sign-up and all items uh to sign up for all items on the consent agenda.

So again, the first member is Kristen Beno, um, followed by Jack Finger.

All individuals will have three minutes to speak, and groups of three or more will have a total of nine minutes.

Okay.

Thank you so much for having us.

Uh, my name is Kristen Bino.

I'm the development director at Magic Theater, very familiar with Councilperson Carr.

Um, we are just here because there is something on the consent agenda that concerns Magic Theater, and we wanted to make sure that if there were any questions, we were here and present for it.

Uh, with me is our board member Pam Bramble, who is our immediate press president and our treasurer Doran Bine.

And that's it.

We just wanted to be here, be available.

Thank you.

Um Jack Finger.

So you've signed up for three items, um, but you have three minutes total.

Thank you.

Very good, madam mayor.

Um the big item on your agenda today is item number 23.

It's about uh uh remaking Bandeira Road, a major artery here in San Antonio.

First, uh a little bit of background here.

You know, about a hundred years ago, 120.

Uh we as Americans, we started using something called automobiles.

Uh these were a great improvement over the horses and buggies.

We didn't have to hitch up uh horses to to our buggies.

And uh over time, the automobiles allowed us to go anywhere we wanted to go any time we wanted to go.

Um Ms.

Gavito.

So, yes, um we didn't even have to take uh public transportation.

We didn't have to force grandma to ride her bicycle in freezing weather uh to travel to several miles from her home.

Um we um we could do anything we want to, however, it looks like what you're trying to do today with it number 23 is restrict our freedom to do such things.

Yeah, um I'll just to take see currently over in the Mr.

Audible I should show that uh right now on Bandera Road, we have three lanes that dedicated to two cars that wish to travel that's going northbound on Bandera Road.

And your plan, what you want to do is uh restrict that uh to only to only two lanes with one of them being a bus zone.

You take a close look at that, you'll see there's a bus and lane number two and then a whole lane that they devoted to buses and line number three.

What's motors supposed to do?

What if some jerk decides to travel do the illegal example of traveling in the bus zone?

Uh, who's gonna stop him?

Is there going to be a cop on every corner telling him no to not to do that?

What else should Mr.

Autovisu manager try to show that?

What how many lanes are you gonna restrict us to?

Well, well, you notice that right now we at least have three lanes going up and down Bandeira Road.

You want to put a median in there, there'll be no left turns if a person wants to get to the other side of the side of the road with their car.

Yes.

Uh what else are you gonna show here?

Well, let's see.

Well, uh what you have to blow that up a little bit, Mr.

Audiovisual management to see what it says.

Uh yeah, you can if you can read it there.

Let's see.

Yeah, it just simply says uh you're gonna reduce, yeah, reduce our speed limit from 45 to 35, a 10 mile an hour decrease.

And yeah, yes, uh here's another one.

Frequently asked quick questions there.

Yes, about uh yes, the construction of mediums can lead to an increase in U-turns, especially when mediums restrict left hand turn access and specific intersection of drivers.

However, this design is intentional.

U-turns are intentional.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ray David Cardona, followed by Montana Montana Williams.

Good morning, Madam Mayor.

How are you doing?

Uh my name's Ray David Cardona.

I'm representing uh speaking on behalf of ST Engineering San Antonio Aerospace, where our maintenance overall uh maintenance repair and overhaul facility here in San Antonio uh airport.

Uh I'm actually uh advocating for the ready to work program, uh how it's benefiting us, the industry in general, uh providing funding and training for um uh up and coming talent here in the city of San Antonio providing work.

We're actually leveraging that talent to uh increase the workforce for the aerospace industry.

Uh and I just want to say thank you to the Red of Work Program for providing um uh those mechanics and those individuals.

Uh we're using it for training like uh Gem FAM systems, 80 hours or airframe and power plant training.

We're also using that funding to uh for our apprentice pro apprenticeship program.

It's a six-month program that we're have here at the city of San Antonio, uh ST engineering, and then also uh we're using it for um simulator training for engine run processes, um, really building the talent here in San Antonio.

So I want to say thank you, and I want to advocate for the program so we continue using this funding.

Thank you.

Montana Williams.

Thank you.

I'm actually I need to switch the ordinance from 23 to or 24 to 3.

But I'm Montana Williams and part of the HR team at Frost Bank.

I just wanted to take a moment and share more about the SA Ready to Work Program and what it has meant for Frost Bank.

This program has truly been exciting to be a part of.

As many of you know, Frostbank is deeply committed to giving back to the community and taking care of people.

The SA Ready to Work Program has given us another meaningful way to do exactly that by helping us provide long-term opportunities in investing in individuals who are eager to grow.

We began partnering with SA Ready to Work Program in 2024, and through that partnership, we launched an apprenticeship program.

We hired three participants from that program, and each of them now have grown to from an apprentice into a new contributing role within Frost.

More recently, in October, we began partnering with a placement agency through the SA ready to work program called TriStar.

They actively provide us with resumes of qualified candidates for our contact center.

This has been a great partnership since we hire cohorts for our contact center each month.

This collaboration has not only streamlined our hiring efforts, but has also allowed us to offer career growth paths for individuals, higher paying opportunities, access to competitive employee benefits package, and a company culture that really cares about these individuals.

I want to extend a sincere thank you to the City of San Antonio and the SA Ready to Work program for their continued contribution to our community and for giving individuals the resources they need to build better futures.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That's all the um individuals that have signed up for this portion.

Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda?

Make motion to approve.

It is moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda.

I know we have several uh council members that would have that have highlights.

Are there any other questions about the consent agenda, however?

Okay, we'll move on to highlights.

Uh District 2.

Thank you, Mayor.

I am absolutely thrilled today to highlight item number eight, the approval of a construction contract for our brand new state of the art veterinary hospital and renovation of their existing clinic.

Uh back in 2021, I took a tour of the animal care services campus, and it was such a privilege to meet with the staff to see up close their operations, the work they that they do day to day, and especially at that time, the way that they operated throughout the pandemic and the winter freeze of 2021.

Uh I did get to see their veterinary clinic, which not a lot of people had the opportunity to do, uh, where they were performing surgeries far beyond what they uh actually had capacity for.

And when I asked if they could have anything, be it budget or bond, they said we really need a new veterinary hospital.

So when the opportunity came up for it to be presented to the bond committee on a short list of projects from the council, I was very disappointed to see it was not on that preliminary list.

Uh it was then that I made the plea to my colleagues to prioritize this project.

And so I do want to thank my colleagues past and present, every bond committee member uh and the voters who approve this project.

Though it is not in my district and is actually quite far from my district.

Uh I was proud to champion this hospital because we know that the needs of ACS are great, and when they don't have the resources that they need to perform the work our community expects and needs, it is a detriment to morale, uh, to trust and to community safety.

Uh, I look forward to a great uh a groundbreaking, and I am expecting an invitation, uh, and I look forward to all of the good that will happen as a result of this item today.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Councilman Corps.

Thank you, Mayor.

I have a couple of highlights.

One of them was already mentioned a little bit, but I want to highlight item number five, which is um uh an item granting an ordinate granting some funding to be allocated for the Magic Theater's renovations to finally begin, which I know they have been eagerly waiting.

They are actually going to be shut down while this occurs because they're making it ADA accessible and working on HVAC, which somehow Mike figured out a way to help them get their scope of program that they needed in this bond funding.

So I want to thank city leadership for continuing to persist to get them what they needed out of this round, and that way we can get on to the next round and start planning for what's in the future.

I want to thank y'all's leadership.

You guys are relentlessly supporting Arts for Our Kiddos and making sure that we all have access, all of our kids have access to what the amazing programming you offer there.

So I can't wait to see um dragons love tacos on the road this spring, and uh, we'll be definitely sharing it with all of our school districts as well.

Um, I also wanted to highlight item number 14, which is reappointing um a board member of ours, Katie Syracus to the small business advisory board, and then lastly is Crystal here.

Um, Crystal Crystal Jones, is she here?

Okay.

Well, item number 21, y'all.

I was skeptical, and she somehow figured it out.

So I just wanted to shout out Crystal for her work on the cultural arts grants.

Um, she she just did an amazing job getting us through the last few months on that, and I was very pleasantly surprised.

So thank you, and uh staff let her know that I said thank you for her leadership there.

Thanks, Mayor.

Councilman Viegeron.

Thank you.

Uh, I know they all left, but I do want to acknowledge.

No, I see Katie there for District 10.

All the points of personal privilege and all the good work that the council members brought forward.

I think uh Mr.

Aguello and the documentary city education partners, uh, the space summit.

We have a lot to celebrate here in San Antonio, and I didn't want to um let that opportunity go by before I could say that.

But I would like to highlight another celebration is the appointment of Ashley Don Perez District 3 to the San Antonio Arts Commission for the remainder of the term of the office that expires in May 31st, 2027, and then hopefully she wants to continue and move on.

Um representative has been asked by her councilwoman um to which is me to sit on the small business advisory board because I felt like we needed an arts leader uh and an and uh someone that has that experience to be part of small business as we talk.

And she took up that challenge, and then Ashley decided to take up this challenge for this appointment.

And it's very important because she has worked so hard to help enhance the story around the World Heritage Trail through public art and through her partnership with the Department of Arts and Culture.

So if you haven't, you can come by my office and see a piece she did in conjunction with other artists, and you can also see um drive by where she has put out the sculpture, and it's called Kindred, located at the intersection of Half Avenue and Mission Road, and it depicts the rippling waters of unity across time and culture.

And I think as we share our points of personal privilege, as we share our stories of our city in real time and not after we lose people, it's important that we see that in the public art that's going on.

And the beauty of this one is the design draws inspiration from the hands of Mission San Jose descendant Vincent Queizar, who passed away this November.

So if you haven't seen the video, because I know uh the World Heritage Office recorded it, you can kind of see our celebration of Mr.

Wiesar, of the art piece, and of the city of San Antonio.

So thank you, Ashley, for agreeing to serve, and thank you, Council members, for your support.

Councilman Mungia.

Uh Councilmember Castillo.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good morning, everyone.

There are several items I would like to highlight this morning.

I would like to begin by congratulating Eduardo Jimenez for serving on the ethics review board.

He brings a wealth of legal expertise to this committee, so we're extremely grateful.

I would also like to give a big shout out to Stephanie Caratero, who's here today with us on her appointment to the higher education.

If you'd like to stand, Stephanie would be recognized.

We'd that'd be great.

And she's being appointed to the higher education student advisory board.

Stephanie is a pre-law student at St.

Mary's University and has interned with Senator Menendez, Judge Melissa Science, and she's now interning with our council office.

We're extremely grateful for her leadership in public service.

And Stephanie also serves as a soccer coach, so um, a youth soccer coach.

So we're just extremely grateful um for her work and leadership to and commitment rather to public service.

So we're so proud of you, Stephanie.

I'd also like to highlight item 13, rather, it's an ordinance accepting funds for um DNA testing grants for sexual assault kits.

Uh, this is one of the few SAPD grants that goes unmatched, and I highlight this item to highlight the importance of ensuring that we continue uh to do all we can to support victims of sexual assault uh and just highlighting the importance of this grant to the city of San Antonio and our residents.

Uh, those are all the items.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, Councilman Alderta Gavito.

Thank you.

I have two items to highlight today.

First, I want to highlight item number 17, appointing Pastor Jonathan Pyle to the City of San Antonio Commission on Strengthening Family Wellbeing.

Um, Pastor Pyle, if you don't mind standing to be recognized.

Uh Pastor John, Pastor John is a beloved member of the District 7 community, serving as the community care pastor at City Church on Bandera Road.

He received his bachelor's degree in international relations from the University of Southern California and a master's in biblical studies from the Grace School of Theology.

He started his career in the private sector, but transitioned to working in the church in 2011, and he hasn't looked back.

Pastor John is a pat is passionate about providing both spiritual and tangible care to individuals and families in our community.

He has a deep understanding of the importance of meeting people's basic needs in order for them to be able to thrive.

Pastor has led a large faith-based campaign for the San Antonio Food Bank called Feed SA and has been engaged in community service throughout his life.

A loving husband and father, he regularly volunteers at his children's school.

He has led a life of service and brings comfort to so many in our community and has also been an amazing partner to our District 7 team.

Pastor John will be an amazing addition to this commission, and I'm so honored to appoint him today.

Thank you so much for your willingness to serve, and thank you for everything you do for District 7 and our city as a whole.

Please help me give Pastor John a round of applause.

Thank you.

I had uh one more quick item.

I also want to highlight item number 23, adopting the Bandera Road Corridor Plan Phase 2 as a component of the city's comprehensive master plan.

Anyone who has driven up the stretch of Bandero Road between Luke 410 and Culebra knows that the lanes are wide, that cars drive fast, and it is not friendly at all to pedestrians or cyclists.

I want to be clear that approving this item is just approving the plan.

We still have a lot to do of work to do in partnership with TechStot to put this plan in action.

That being said, I want to express my support for the vision as it lays out.

As long as I've been in office, I've advocated for a more walkable bikeable corridor with more tree covered to mitigate the heat island effect.

Thank you to the planning department for your work on this, and I'm glad to see the plan moving forward, and I look forward to continuing the momentum to make sure it comes to life.

Thank you.

Councilman Spears.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I just wanted to concur with my colleagues about this space space summit real briefly.

This is a major opportunity for San Antonio, and it showcases our strengths in cybersecurity research and what we're doing at Port San Antonio and JBSA.

I'm excited about the STEM pathways and workforce opportunities for students and young professionals, and I'm excited to see what our local partners and stakeholders start participating and taking advantage of the visibility and economic opportunities it brings to our city.

But I also wanted to highlight items 11 and 12.

Um, these are two public safety items on today's agenda, I think that are very important for our community for continued coordination between the city, the state, and our regional partners.

The first is the ordinance that's accepting roughly three million dollars in grant funding from the Office of the Governor's Public Safety Office, Homeland Security Grants Division for the Texas Anti-Gang Program.

And I've been on one of the anti-gang unit ride-alongs, and it is I encourage all of you to go.

It is remarkable what they are able to do and how they actually support our community in so many ways.

This funding allows the city to continue critical anti-gang prevention, intervention, and enforcement efforts, and it also strengthens local and our local cooperation agreements with the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Bear County Sheriff's Office.

The second ordinance authorizes the acceptance of grant funds in an amount not to exceed 200,000 from the Office of the Governor's Public Safety Office for the fiscal year 2026 for our TK DNA testing grant program for that same period.

This funding supports timely and accurate DNA testing, which is essential for solving violent crimes, supporting victims, and ensuring integrity and accountability within the criminal justice system.

Together, these items reinforce our commitment to public safety and effective use of state resources and strong collaboration across agencies to protect our neighborhoods.

You can stand up if you want, Drew.

And your whole family's here.

Lily and Clark.

Lily's the long friend of my daughter and his wonderful wife Catherine, who serves on our commission on education as well.

But we're here to honor you, Drew.

Um Drew holds a BBA in a management information systems from Baylor University and a JD from UT Austin.

He's an attorney since 2002 with six years on active duty as a judge advocate and 17 years as a reserve judge advocate.

He's a civil litigation attorney in San Antonio since 2009, and he recently retired from the Air Force Reserves, where his greatest satisfaction was leading and mentoring junior airmen.

He's also a longtime community volunteer through Habitat for Humanity, the Children's Hunger Fund, and Sunday School Teaching and Youth Basketball Coaching.

And I'm excited that you're going to serve District 9 on our ethics review board.

So thank you, Drew, for agreeing to serve.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay.

That completes all of that.

So there being no further discussion, uh, there is a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda.

Please vote.

Motion carries.

Please read the caption.

Item three is an ordinance extending the term of the San Antonio Ready to Work Advisory Board, amending the board member composition and term length, approving board member appointments for terms ending May 31st, 2029, reappointing Alexander Perez to the community organization seat, reappointing Jerry Graber and Amanda Wright to the current or previous city workforce development program participant seats and waiving the residency requirement for Jerry Graber.

Appointing Maria Jimena Science and reappointing Jennifer Ganthu, Stephanie Gaines, and Benjamin Peavy to the local employer in demand occupation seats and waiving the residency requirement for Benjamin PV.

Reappointing Priscilla Aguilar to the training provider or higher education institution seat, appointing John Champion to a newly added training provider or higher education institution seat.

Okay, great.

So motion and a second for approval so we may begin discussion on this item.

I make a motion to approve.

Okay.

It has been moved and seconded to approve item number three.

Um we'll take a staff presentation at this point.

Morning, Mayor, Council.

Thank you for the opportunity to be before you this morning to present the advisory board action item.

The board was established in December of 2020 and currently sunsets December 31st, 2025.

The recommendation by the Economic and Workforce Development Committee on October 15th was to extend the board term to December 31st, 2030, and amend the board's composition to add the following seats training provider, higher education institution, category reserve for applicants with experience serving individuals with high barriers.

The board member term will align with current council member terms.

Next slide.

Additional seats being requested to be added, a training provider, an additional training provider and high education institution seat and a high barrier serving organization position seat as recommended by EWDC.

The nine appointments recommended today, Ali Perez for community-based organization.

Current previous city workforce development program participants, Jerry Graber and Amanda Wright, and then the four in-demand employees sees Shinifer Cantu, Stephanie Gaines, Ben PV, Hamena Sands, and Training Provider High Education Seat, Priscilla Aguyar, and an additional seat if approved by the council John Champion.

There's no fiscal impact.

Staff recommends city council approve the ordinance to extend the advisory board, amend board composition, and to appoint the board applicants.

As a follow-up to the November 12th B session, we heard council's feedback on the program generally to re-evaluate the incumbent worker training program, was echoed by the council, members who were able to speak.

Um job placement improvement was critical.

Focus on the highest performing occupations and eliminate low performing occupations.

Our staff and advisory board have begun follow-ups to that B session, and the RWT program will be eliminated beyond the current awards on the job training and participant cohorts with employers and internships will continue.

The advisory board moved very swiftly and during during the week of Thanksgiving, formed the working group that has met to begin reviewing the occupations for swift action on December the 16th.

That working group, which is composed of leadership from the board, the prime partners who are actually conducting the work, and some city staff members will be making a recommendation to the board subcommittee on December the 16th for those cuts.

And on January the 20th, the full advisory board will make their official recommendations.

Staff is working to identify relationship between participant barriers and job placement.

We're going to market the highest performing occupations to increase enrollment in those career pathways, starting from the top.

We'll continue monitoring prime partner performance and evaluate contract extensions beyond the current expiration dates in June, July 2026.

That concludes my presentation.

Thank you all so much for your support.

Thank you.

And then we'll move on to council comments.

And then Erin Albrecht, if you'd please line up after her so we can move through this expeditiously.

Thank you.

Good morning, Mayor and Council members.

I'm Romanita Mata Barrera, and I serve as the Chief Business Advancement Officer for Greater SATX, and we are here representing the many employers that you see here who have joined us today, as well as speaking from a perspective of the mission that we have for this community in the city, which is the recruitment and the retention of the diversification of key industries who are representing high growth high wage jobs in our community.

And I will say that from the very beginning, we have worked very closely with many of you, council members and the ideation around what is ready to work, and very closely also with the staff.

And for us, it's a critical differentiating factor when we look at how we position San Antonio more competitively to compete for jobs.

It's a competitive landscape, and I will say that we have seen a shift in what companies would look for in the past, which was mostly around incentives to today.

It is all about workforce, is the number one criteria that companies will utilize to locate themselves here in our community.

And as a proud San Antonian myself, I work in a very purpose-driven position to see and make sure that it is San Antonians in our community who are able to take on these high-wage jobs and with good employers that we are recruiting to the San Antonio community.

And so I would say that for us it's become a competitive and differentiating advantage.

Other communities have other kinds of workforce resources that they can offer.

The state of Texas, if you look at any other community, will also offer uh company skills development fund, but the one differentiating factor is ready to work that differentiates us from all other communities that we are looking to compete with.

And just as importantly, for the employers that we have here in our region, that's what I directly oversee is business advancement.

As our team is out meeting with companies, the number one assist that they ask for is help us with workforce, help us uh identify the right resources, the right talent pools, and help us readily connect to that.

And I would say uh that is another key factor to why we feel that it's important.

We work very closely with the team in providing labor market information and ensuring that the city of San Antonio and our residents are not just being prepared for the jobs that we have today, but really always forward looking.

What are the come what are the jobs and the key occupations that we see?

I'm proud to see, and you've heard already from different employers from different key sectors from uh aerospace to uh frostbank and the financial services sector.

You'll hear from other employers, and I will uh mention one specific company guidehouse that we are so proud of that we were able to recruit over a thousand professional jobs, a key factor for why they chose San Antonio.

They did not for ask for any incentives.

It was specifically uh knowing that we have access to great workforce programs, and so we are uh here to say we are a great partner to ready to work and happy to continue to do so.

Thank you.

Erin Albrecht, followed by Errol Sykes.

Errol Sykes, if you'd line up, please.

Thanks.

Good morning.

I'd like to apologize.

Aaron Albrecht could not make it here today, and I would like to ask permission to speak on behalf as ma'am.

What is your name?

Tabitha Laum.

Oh, um ma'am, you haven't signed up to speak, and we cannot just allot your time, so um you won't be able to speak today.

Thank you very much.

Errol Sykes, followed by Shamika Ellison.

Errol Sykes.

Okay.

Shemika Ellison.

Followed by Renna Odin.

Good morning, Mayor and Council Members.

My name is Shemika Ellison, and I want to sincerely thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today.

In 2024, I enrolled in the community health course through the Ready to Work Program.

At the time I was living in the shelter with my five children.

It was a challenging period getting to and from class wasn't always easy, but thanks to the unwavering support of my case manager, those barriers were removed.

With the support I was able to complete my training and internship with the YWCA San Antonio's Ready to Work Program.

Initially, I didn't fully grasp the magnitude of this initiative, and that changed when I was offered an apprenticeship, where I completed an additional 240 hours of formal education and hands-on experience.

The opportunity led to something even greater.

On May 13th of 2025, I was hired full-time by a YWCA San Antonio.

Today my children and I have a home.

We have stability, and for that I am eternally grateful, not just for the opportunities given to me, but for the future that's been made possible for my family.

Now, as a proud and dedicated employee, I stand before you to advocate for the extension of the ready to work advisory board's term.

When this initiative launched, it was more than a workforce development program.

It was a promise.

Through strategic guidance, community health care, technology, and skilled trades and beyond.

But we all know that true workforce transformation doesn't happen overnight.

It requires sustained effort, long-term vision, and consistent leadership.

Extending the advisory board's term isn't just a procedural step.

It's a strategic investment in the future of our city.

In short, ready to work is not just a program, it's a movement.

And every moment, every movement needs steady hands to guide it.

Let's not lose the momentum we've built.

Let's extend the advisory board's term to reaffirm our commitment to a stronger, more inclusive San Antonio.

Thank you for your time and for your continued service to our community.

Thank you.

Rena Oden, followed by Christopher Mammon.

Good morning, Mayor, Council.

I'm Renee Odin, Macedonia Baptist Church.

I am a cops metro leader.

In 1992, thousands of workers were immediately immediately without work when the Levi Plant and Kelly Air Force Base were closed.

Cops Metro with both state and city funding founded Project Quest to help San Antonio residents gain skills to meet the needs of employers in sectors of the local economy.

They supported community residents in completing those programs, passing certificates, passing certification exams, and obtaining jobs.

A 14-year study by Economic Mobility Corporation concluded, Quest's overall impact was driven by participants who were the least likely to succeed on their own.

Project Quest has the greatest impact on earnings for participants who were ages 25 and older, and particularly those age 35 and older.

Quest participants earned on average nearly a hundred and thirty-nine thousand more than the control group.

Especially in the service and the hospitality areas.

With one eighth cent sales tax available, Cops Metro worked with the mayor and city council to use the Project Quest model to start San Antonio's ready to work program.

In November of 2020, voters overwhelmingly approved sales tax funding proposal at the rate of 77%.

Ready to work was to provide free job training and placement for residents in high demand fields, offering education, wraparound services, and connecting participants in training partners for jobs and paying at least $15 an hour with the career ladder.

Cops Metro has and will continue to hold the program accountable.

One of the strongest allies of the program, along with Cops Metro, is the Ready to Work Advisory Board.

The appointment of several members of the Ready to Work Advisory Board is the reason we are here today, and we urge the council to approve these wonderful hardworking community volunteers.

Thank you.

Christopher Mammon, followed by Priscilla Camacho.

Good morning, Mayor and Council.

Thank you for uh letting me speak today regarding the uh ready to work program.

My name is Christopher Mammon.

I'm the executive director of the D Howard Foundation.

We're an aerospace workforce development and education pathway organization focused here right in San Antonio.

We represent organizations and industry partners like Boeing, Standard Arrow, Night Aerospace, Southwest Research Institute, Education Partners like Alamo Colleges, UTSA, Hallmark University, in making sure that we're leading individuals into high demand high-wage roles in our community.

We heard earlier about uh the new space conference that's coming to San Antonio, and that's leading directly into roles that may not might not be here today, but that are growing in the future, and we're contributing to uh that growth.

Speaking to the appointment of the ready to work individuals, the appointment and reappointment of the people, individuals on the board, they've listened and learned and led our community uh through the many years of ready to work.

Some of them have been involved in things like train for jobs as well, uh, prior to that, and we've learned what works and what doesn't.

I was looking at the uh the dashboard today this morning, and over 3,500 or nearly 3,500 individuals have been placed into roles uh with wages that start at 21 dollars and fifty cents per hour.

That's important for our community's growth.

That's important to serve the underserved individuals, those with uh who we've heard from already today who have barriers uh to employment and to education pathways, uh, and these leaders on the board uh and appointed uh will continue to lead ready to work uh in the right direction for these high-demand high wage roles.

So thank you for your support of ready to work uh and for all industries in San Antonio.

Thank you.

Priscilla Camacho, followed by Ali Bukhari.

Good morning, Mayor and Council members.

Uh my name is Priscilla Camacho, I'm the chief legislative, industry, and external relations officer for the Alamo Colleges.

And behalf of Dr.

Flores and the 6,000 employees, 89,000 students that we have across the Alamo Colleges district, we are proud to partner with the city on this initiative.

Um we know that it works.

We know that every that our citizens need opportunity, and that sometimes it's a paycheck, sometimes it's the zip code that they live in.

We recognize and we are partners with you on this effort.

We are really proud of also that you as a city, the council and the mayor of the city of San Antonio are the only city to invest in the most important infrastructure we have, which is our human talent.

We have never seen anything across the country that is doing this kind of work, and it is hard work.

It's not easy work.

And as you heard my colleague Christopher Mammon mentioned earlier, we've had an incredible board, and we're very supportive to see it extend into 2029, and they have learned and they have given us feedback every step of the way, making us improve every step of the way in what we do for our citizens and for the learners that attend our colleges.

And so I want you to know that on behalf of our district, we're committed to continuing to make changes.

The good thing is the state and the federal government are hearing the same lesson.

They're telling us to do the same thing.

We're focused on performance.

Our students create completing those credentials of value and are they completing those credentials of value in occupations and areas that are going to lead them to family sustaining wages.

You have as a council committed to us that we need to focus on making sure that citizens get those wages after they complete the program, and we're right there with you.

We've changed our own policies.

And we are having serious conversations with our industry partners of how do we continue to reevaluate the program's time to completion because time is always gonna be the enemy to completion, especially for learners who have been away from the classroom for an extended period of time.

And so with that, I'm not gonna take much more time because I know you have a lot of partners here that wanted to speak their mind, but just know that we are committed to being partners with you in this effort, and anything you need from us, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Thank you.

Ali Bakhari, followed by Katie Ferrer.

Good morning, Mayor, Council members.

Uh I'm Ali Bukhari.

I'm an executive at Guide House.

Um we are a uh a global technology and advisory company.

We have 18,000 employees globally.

Um we opened up operations in San Antonio just about a year ago, and in February this year, we announced our commitment to create a thousand jobs over the next five years.

Um I'm happy to say this year we've added uh over 200 already.

Uh, but what I'm really thrilled about is uh so far, eight soon to be ten of those jobs have really been created out of the ready to work program.

Um we have focused our program initially in the area of medical coding.

Um you know, the the individuals, one individual had been um uh a caregiver for 10 years, had been out of the workforce.

Uh you know, she's now in the workforce with benefits with upward mobility.

Uh another individual was uh doing a minimum wage job at Taco Cabana, uh, is now employed by us, you know, in and thriving.

Um we are going to be, we've we've already um you know spoken to our partners and um uh with TriStar and others and and the um ready to work program for the city.

Um the three other cohorts that we're looking forward to this coming year.

In addition, we will be expanding the scope of our work to include technology uh and other areas as well.

Uh that's that's really exciting.

And as Romanita said earlier, um, you know, you know, we looked at a lot of locations before we chose San Antonio.

We did not apply for uh, nor did we receive any incentives to be here.

The big pull to to come to the city of San Antonio was the commitment of the city on workforce development.

And uh, you know, we're certainly an advocate of it.

Um it's uh it's a fantastic program.

Uh, and um, you know, we are committed to continue to grow and and leverage the program, and uh, you know, it's phenomenal, and we would appreciate your continued support of it.

Thank you very much.

Katie Farrer, followed by Jennifer Cantu.

Good morning.

My name is Katie Farrier.

I'm here to represent the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce in support of extending the efforts of the SA Ready to Work Advisory Board.

Our chamber supports the city's continued investment in workforce development, and we recognize essay ready to work is an important part of that ecosystem.

We're not here to give a blanket endorsement of every element of the program, but we do believe the initiative should continue.

We appreciate that SA Ready to Work has helped thousands of participants enroll in education or training programs.

We also recognize some success in job placements and industry certifications, but there is room to refine its alignment with employer needs and strengthen accountability for outcomes.

The program should continue shifting toward demand-driven training that directly reflects job openings in the San Antonio region and engage employers and education advisors in how best to prioritize pathways that support upward mobility.

It remains critically important to involve employers early in the process, especially in designing training pathways and validating that curricula match real world skill requirements.

We hope the advisory board will consider faster on-ramps for in-demand credentials that lead to immediate employment, and please don't shy away from transparency.

Employers, taxpayers, and participants all benefit from clearer, more frequent reporting on job placements, wage gains, retention, and completion rates.

Consider sunsetting programs that consistently underperform or do not lead to family sustaining wages.

We encourage reporting by industry sector so we can better understand where outcomes are the strongest and where adjustments are needed.

Employers I speak with often report challenges with soft skills, attendance, transportation, and child care, and the program should expand wraparound and retention supports in those areas.

The greater chamber stands ready to strengthen employer engagement and share labor market insights from our members.

For example, we'd be happy to convene sector leaders and give direct feedback on in-demand skills and hiring trends.

Our goal is to not simply continue the program, but to help make it better, more accountable, and more responsive to employer needs.

Thank you for your leadership and for the opportunity to support a stronger workforce in San Antonio.

Jennifer Cantu, followed by Francisco Martinez.

Hello, Mayor and Council.

I'm Jennifer Cantu.

I'm the San Antonio Market Executive for Bank of America.

I ever see all of our community engagement in corporate philanthropy.

I also have had the honor and privilege of serving on the advisory board for the last three years, and I am the uh co-chair of the employer engagement council.

Thank you for the opportunity to be in front of you today.

As we've heard from several people mentioned that this program is very unique in the investment that we are making here in San Antonio in workforce development.

It's like none other across the country.

However, I would argue that it's also about the broader ecosystem that we have created here in San Antonio around workforce development and upskilling our local residents.

Starting all the way from early childhood with early matters to pre-K4SA to the Future Ready Initiative, to the Alamo Promise Initiative, to the Ready to Work Initiative.

It is about creating a pathway from early childhood all the way up to our adults to ensure that they have the same access and opportunity.

It should not determine what zip code you're born into, determines the rest of your future and your outcomes.

And that is why Ready to Work was born was to be able to work with our participants.

Keep in mind that the average participant in Ready to Work is over 25-year-old and a female Latina.

That is significant in the population we are looking to serve.

There has been a lot of talk about job placement and how do we increase that and move that forward.

And let me first say that no one wants that more than all of our partners, Project Quest, Workforce Solutions Alamo, Alamo Colleges, they are the experts, and they are the ones guiding us in that conversation.

I also want to make sure you hear from someone on the board, and as Mike has said, and we continue to reiterate we hear you and we are moving and taking action.

With that, I want to make sure you all are aware that over the last three years, since the program has gone on, we not only look at the data at the top of the house and then by occupation and by each of the partners, we also go into each occupation and understand what training providers are underneath that.

What are the five or six or ten training providers for each occupation, and then how are they performing?

Since the program began, we have cut over 400 training providers that did not meet our standard.

We also heard you loud and clear that we needed to do a better job of partnering with our business community and bringing them on earlier on from the beginning.

That is why we have created cohort models where we have brought in businesses like Frostbank, like Guide House, several others that have come on board to say we will start early on in the process with you, commit to a cohort, and then build from there.

We also are continuing to look at how do we amplify and promote the occupations that are doing well that have that higher job placement.

So we are looking at ways that we can market and promote and do more to engage the community on what those opportunities are for those job placements.

And as Mike mentioned, after following the B session, we created a working session that met weekly.

I can't tell you the number of calls and meetings I've had, uh, sometimes multiple times in a week in order to evaluate so that way next week we can pull back up with our advisory board and make stronger recommendations how we continue to refine this process.

Thank you for the opportunity to have this role and continue this work.

Francisco Martinez, followed by Rudy Duarte, Ruby Duarte, excuse me.

Good morning, City Council and Mayor Francisco Martinez, President and CEO of Project Quest.

I stand here uh to share the good work that's been done.

San Antonio is known for a lot of good things.

The Alamo, the riverwalk, uh cybersecurity space, all these work that we continue to work that make us unique.

Unfortunately, San Antonio also has a side of one of the most economically segregated communities in the country.

And we've known that.

And folks like Cops Metro made that work uh a call for them, a call to action that created Project Quest 33 years ago.

And since then, ready to work has been lifted up by the community, by the voters, uh supported by this council and the previous council, uh, and we urge the support of the folks who do the work who answer the call to civic duty of the advisory board to keep us accountable.

As been mentioned before, there's a lot of work to continue.

We can't overcome decades of economic regulation in three years, possibly not four years.

Quest has been added for 33 years at a small scale, but the unprecedented size of the Ready to Work Program, the investment, the commitment, and the fact that we have a community group of individuals who have stepped into the ring, who have taken ownership of helping guide the program through, help keep us accountable.

Accountability is important.

No one wants more accountability than those of us doing the work to ensure that we are doing the work for the right reasons for the right people who need this program more than ever.

The program will continue to deliver on its metrics.

The city has formulated a structure that is keeping us accountable for ultimately the goal is job placement.

So we urge your support, and I stand here in support of those individuals who have volunteered to stand in the arena and take on the responsibility of helping guide, helping support, but also keep us accountable.

So I urge the council to continue that work to make your footprint in this program.

The fact that we commit to the community group who helps keep us accountable, who helps keep us moving forward, and who ultimately will be the folks to see this program through and to make sure that this program continues to be a success.

As we know, as a study has been documented, we know this works.

We know it takes time.

We know it's not easy.

If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.

If it were easy, we'd be one of many cities attempting to do this.

The work is not easy because we work with people who deserve more than an easy answer.

Yeah.

So thank you very much and urge your support.

Okay.

Ruby Duarte, followed by Daniel Herrera.

Good morning, Mayor and Council members.

My name is Ruby Duarte, and I'm here today as a proud participant of the Ready to Work program, a single mother to a five-year-old son, and a first generation Mexican American soon-to-be graduate with a bachelor's degree in leadership and project management from UIW.

I'm standing in front of you today because Ready to Work didn't just help me, it changed my life.

When I first applied for Ready to Work, I was struggling to balance everything on my plate, raising my son, working full-time, and trying to find a way to return to school.

Like many single parents, I felt stuck in the cycle of wanting to advance but never having enough time, money, or support to take that step.

Education felt like a luxury, not something actually attainable.

Ready to work turned that around.

This program didn't just offer financial support, it offered hope, stability, and a real pathway forward.

It removed the biggest barriers that often stop people like me from continuing their education.

It helped me cover the cost of school, provided career guidance, and allowed me to focus on being a student and a mother instead of constantly worrying about how I was going to make it all work.

Because of Ready to Work, I was able to stay enrolled, stay motivated, and stay on track.

I was able to study at night after putting my son to bed, knowing that the program had my back.

Ready to work made it possible for me to do both.

And now, I will be graduating with my bachelor's degree in leadership and project management, an achievement that once felt impossible.

This program didn't just help me, it helped my son.

He gets to see his mom work hard, stay committed, and accomplish something big.

He gets to grow up in a household where education is not only encouraged, but molded.

This is generational impact.

That is community impact.

Ready to work has helped thousands of San Antonians just like me.

People who want to improve their lives, contribute to their community, and build a stronger future for their families.

These are people who go on to join the workforce and high demand fields, strengthen the local economy, and break cycles of poverty.

San Antonio is stronger, more skilled, and more hopeful because of Ready to Work.

I am living proof that when you invest in people, they come back and invest in their community.

When you give people opportunity, they build something meaningful with it.

Thank you for your time and thank you for supporting programs that truly change lives.

Daniel Herrera, followed by Jerry Graber.

Good morning.

Good morning, Mayor and Council.

My name is Daniel Herrera, and I'm here as a supporter of the Ready to Work Program.

In my national role at Results for America, I work with governments across the country on workforce evidence-based policy and implementation.

That perspective gives me a deep appreciation for something this city council has already recognized.

And that is that good ideas only matter if they are carried out with rigor, with data, and with a clear understanding of how real people move through complex systems.

So from that national vantage point, I can say there are no large-scale workforce programs in the country that achieve 90% placement within 90 days for broad high barrier populations like the type of folks that ready to work serves.

And importantly, ready to work currently sits at about a 70% job placement rate for participants who complete their training.

And that aligns with national evidence with programs serving similar populations with significant employment barriers.

So this means that the program is working and performing within the expected range for its mission and target population.

And part of that mission, as you've heard, is to break intergenerational poverty for families in San Antonio.

But there are models that reach higher placement rates when those are employer design and employer-committed cohorts are used.

So your push for clear employer alignment, for focusing resources on models with demonstrated placement success, and for removing barriers that slow down hiring is exactly the kind of implementation discipline we see in the most effective cities.

As you know, breaking poverty is complex and rarely linear, but ready to work is making steady, measurable progress, one credential, one placement, and one family at a time.

As someone born and raised on the west side of San Antonio, thank you for investing in the people and working families of San Antonio.

Jerry Graber, followed by Jack Finger.

Morning.

Thank you, Mayor, Councilmembers.

My name is Jerry Graeber.

Um, and I serve as board member for workforce solutions Alamo, Vice Chair of San Antonio Ready to Work Advisory Board, and I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you today.

I have this three-page speech that I was going to read to you today, but I see there's a lot of glassy-eyed folks here.

So I'm gonna just gonna hit on some high points for you.

Um ready to work is one of the most significant long-term economic mobility strategies our city has ever undertaken.

At its core, the program is about strengthening San Antonio's workforce.

Um wrote in here eliminating generational poverty, right?

That is one of the things that we were gonna hit on the most.

When this thing rolled out five years ago, that's one of the things that we were gonna hit on, and I think we are doing that, and eliminating it, it's gonna be a tough challenge.

I think putting a detonant, definitely.

Um, the advisory board was established to ensure oversight, accountability, and alignment across partners.

Uh, we have focus on accountability, and we are doing that.

The board acts as a bridge between city staff, workforce experts, higher education leaders.

Um I want to commend city staff, training partners, and community-based organizations for the commitment to delivering a program of this magnitude with integrity and responsiveness.

Uh, as vice chair, I see firsthand the dedication and collaborative spirit among our partners.

We're building something meaningful and the momentum is real.

Um urge the council to approve the extension and reaffirm your support for this once-in-a-lifetime generation investment in our workforce.

Um, I'm gonna go off script here real quick.

I understand and I realize you guys have questions and concerns about this program, and I respect that.

I urge and recommend you guys attend our meetings.

Give us our liaisons, attend our meetings, join us so you understand and know what's going on with ours.

That's all I ask.

Um, thank you for your leadership and continued commitment for ready to work.

Thank you.

Jack Finger is our final speaker.

Well, Madam Mayor, another members of our illustrious San Antonio City Council.

For the record, my name is Jack M.

Finger.

San Antonio Ready to Work Program.

What does the report card say about it?

That it is a large, resounding success.

I don't think so.

I think the reports I've read say it's a large resounding flop.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The numbers promised to the voters years ago, they never materialized.

The the re the recruited trainees never came forward.

And the commensurate uh good paying jobs never came forward either for for them.

So and I I don't recall the the board or the advisory board advocating to the state legislature things that really work, uh such as school choice when they were deliberating upon that.

No, uh instead of uh ordering the local public works department to stop by the roadside and pick up this roadkill, as I call it.

What are y'all going to do?

You're all going to say, we know what we will reappoint the same people who got us into this in the first place.

And not only that, we'll extend their terms by twice.

Twice the amount of time.

Yeah, um here's a suggestion.

You might uh in your your uh capacity of city council, uh place on the ballot one more time a uh a measure asking the voters to take away this whole program that it once approved.

Yeah, just eradicate it and uh and have the uh the money saved go back to each and every taxpayer uh the the proper amount amount that they would have paid paid for it to in the first place.

See if it passes.

I I think that would be uh uh I if you really wanted to be honest with the voters, you might choose as such an initiative.

Of course, it's a little far fetched, but uh what the heck I we we we see all kind of kinds of four-fetched far-fetched things come before you every every week over here.

Yeah, um try that if you would.

Thank you.

That's our final community speaker.

Uh we'll move on to council comments.

Um let me express my thanks uh to the ready to work board members uh for their service and for their willingness to serve again.

Um I think when we had the initial discussion um a couple weeks ago at the B session about um initially actually this was just uh the the action was just to appoint uh approve rather the reappointment of the board.

Uh but frankly for the exact comments, Jack Finger.

We're gonna agree on something here.

Uh take note.

Um, but there are many folks in the community that have sentiments very similar to Jack Fingers, um, and they're valid, which is why before I had this con this council um vote on reappointing the board members, I really wanted us to level set on where this very important program stood to ensure that we in fact had the right folks on the board moving us in the right direction.

Um, because the numbers um uh are not what we would expect them to be, right?

I think we take great heart in success stories like uh Ms.

Shemika um Ellison and Miss Ruby Dwarf thankful, thankful for your personal journeys and and what the meet the program has meant to you, and we have to balance that with the um investment that also shows us that after a full year, 25% of the folks are still not in an approved job, and we have to explain that to our constituents, right?

So again, we are heartened by your success.

Understand though that the ROI we must show much, much um frankly, better numbers to our community to justify this investment that could be invested elsewhere.

Right.

Um I would push back.

I think there's a gentleman that said there is no program that has 90% of folks in a job within 90 days.

Actually, in fact, uh Mike Ramsey has showed us actually there's a couple of occupations in this program that have that.

Um and now as we look at being much more disciplined in the implementation, um, I am thankful again that the board members want to serve again, and I'm thankful as importantly for your willingness to listen, your willingness to listen.

You heard the feedback at the B session.

I am thankful that you are eliminating the incumbent worker program.

When we saw the hundreds of thousands of dollars that were being invested to give somebody less than a 50 cent pay increase, you can imagine our disappointment that that's not what we signed up for.

That's not what the community signed up for.

So thank you for listening to the feedback.

And again, a very regimented approach that ensures that we are meeting numbers, making ourselves as competitive, competitive as possible, and are moving in the right direction.

I will say to the board while I have you, I am a little bit concerned that had we not had that program overview that I requested, we would not have had a discussion about the incumbent worker program, and we would have not had had the opportunity to kill it.

So when I talk to the board, you know, the direction, my direction at least, is that those are the kinds of things that should be brought to us, not that we should have to ask about opportunities to improve the program routinely.

Okay.

So thank you again for your willingness to serve.

We look forward to the staff's recommendations on ensuring that we are meeting placement.

Um and I recognize that when this program started, I mean, we're in a totally different environment, completely different.

And so your willingness to do this and listen to the feedback as well as look at additional resources, economic analysis, uh, labor statistics, et cetera, that help ensure we are moving in the direction that does meet the initial objectives of this, which is to address general generational poverty.

Okay, with that, let me move on to uh here from my so you can also hear from my colleagues.

Um, let's see.

The first one we've got councilwoman Via Gran.

Thank you.

I share of the as chair of the economic workforce development committee, I stay closely informed about the ready to work program through regular updates and remain engaged with its ongoing progress and impact.

Let me tell you the number that means that matters to me.

Let me tell you the data that drives me and my decision as the chair of the economic workforce development, as the elected official that has been here for four years and watch the city grow.

A 20% poverty rate of that 20% poverty rate, 50% women.

So when the city came in 2020 and said they had an opportunity to address this as we got out of the pandemic, I was not sitting on that council.

But the individuals that were decided this was the right move forward.

And among pivots and among adjustments, and among a lot of accountability with different faces, because you have seen a number of faces here since 2020.

We have continued to move forward, and this board has continued to serve.

And my partners, Alamo Community Colleges, Project Quest, Workforce Solution Alamo, Restore Education has continued to serve.

When Shamika came up and said this is a strategic step, I was like, I don't even have to speak.

She is telling the story for me.

It is a strategic step and it is a movement.

And that is what we're here today.

You heard from the council, and with the help of the council, we are gonna move forward, enhancing the programs and the efficiency.

We're going to expand the access to residents that are needed, and we'll still have and continue with that education.

But we can talk a lot a lot about numbers, but the one number that we have to have in front of us is that 20% poverty rate.

And how do we get out of that when we live in a state that has what a $7 minimum wage?

So we as the city has been creative and we have been collaborative, and we have asked you to do this, many of you sitting on the board for no pay or stipend for hours and hours.

So I'm asking my council colleagues today to recognize the work of this organization to continue to give your input on how we need to make changes and make inputs and and make adjustments, but understanding that the shamikas and the rubies and all of the others that have that are going through this program, they matter.

And if I and if it just took two, I would still spend the money.

But it's we know it's bigger than two, and we know it's only gonna get better.

And again, I could give the history a lesson of why we're here and why we have to invest.

Because up until this point, women weren't sitting on this dais.

Southsiders were at it was it was not uh a it was a not a fair thing about who could vote.

But we are voting and we're using our voices, and we could take this back to the to the voters, and they'd still say yes, but we don't have to.

They've said continue, make the changes, and allow us to use this.

So I am looking forward to moving this here today in my district alone.

We've the program participants who have secured employment are earning an average starting salary of 44,684 dollars.

And some of you are sitting there and go, that's not much.

It's a 242% increase from what they were making before.

So we want to talk about disparity, we want to talk about equity, we want to talk about moving the city forward.

We support this program moving forward, and we understand that the talent pipelines come with working with our employers.

So I am glad that we had this conversation.

But next time we want to have a ready to work conversation, do this.

I will have more than 13 speakers here.

I will have 30.

You see, they were all charged and sat here today.

So let's get this done today and start moving forward with this program.

Thank you.

Councilman Castillo.

Uh thank you, Mike, uh, for the presentation, uh, as well as to all the ready to work partners, whether you're an employer or providing the workforce training training, we're extremely grateful for your work and leadership and ensuring that we work towards addressing the social and economic disparities that we have in the city of San Antonio.

And as many folks mentioned throughout their public comment, this is about reducing poverty in the city of San Antonio, and that's why I'm grateful for the current amended composition now includes one seat for a high employment barrier focused organization.

Uh, I'm extremely grateful for councilwoman Misty Spears who served on the subcommittee within the economic development committee, um, because what we know speaking to participants of the program and my constituents in particular is that folks do have access to the training and the development, but when it comes to the hiring part, they're facing barriers because some of them may have a criminal record or an additional barrier.

So I think we need to continue to work with our employers on how we can reduce those barriers, and with those reduction of barriers, we'll see more participants with placements and earning higher wages.

Because the statistic that sticks with me is that one in seven US adults have been jailed andor incarcerated, and one in three US adults have a criminal record.

And when I speak with my constituents, that's one of the many barriers, despite having certifications, despite having degrees, face barriers in getting hired.

And I think there's opportunity and room to work with our employers to ensure that folks that are looking to get back on their feet have that opportunity.

Um, but it's going to take continued work, and that's why I'm grateful as the councilwoman mentioned of the work of the committee.

Uh, I think with this new makeup, there'll be uh more opportunity for um sharing that information on how we can really reduce those barriers.

I believe with this makeup and the adoption of it, it's a step in the right direction, and it will also complement some of the work that we're doing in terms of second chance hiring uh in district five.

Uh D5, of course, is home to the county jail and as by it cited rather by Steven Huerta is home to the highest concentration of formerly incarcerated individuals.

And when we look at the high poverty rate in district five, many of these issues intersect, and it's going to take all of us, uh providers, the city uh and employers in particular to ensure that we continue to move San Antonio forward.

Um, again, just grateful for the work and leadership of the economic development team because it's a huge task.

Um, and I believe with this makeup, it's reducing one of many barriers, um, but it's a step in the right direction, ensuring that there's a voice at the table to make sure that we don't leave any folks uh out of the conversation.

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilwoman's uh core.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you all so much for the presentations, and particularly the folks that came out and shared their lived experiences.

I think it's always um that's the most touching for us, and it makes the work that we're doing real.

So really appreciate you being vulnerable and willing to share your story.

So thank you so much.

Um, thank you to Mike and your leadership and also the advisory board members that are here today.

We know this is really tough work, and I think the um we've had multiple conversations about ready to work.

I've had the opportunity over the last couple of years to dig into the data.

And you know, we've received rewards for the dashboard, the information that is up there up there.

I still think there is work that we could be doing on how we are showing the numbers.

So, i.e., some programs take two years to finish, and those are seen as incompletions right now.

But I can't go in and say I can't go in right now and figure out of the people that have started three month programs, how many of those have completed.

Of the people that have started two-year programs, how many of those have completed.

Um, I think there's ways that we could splice the data differently to be able to show where folks are on their trajectory.

Um, I didn't get a chance to speak at the the last B session because we lost quorum that day, but I um was reflecting on the conversation that day, and the thing that I wanted to make sure I iterate is that just like when we talk about schools and families and even us as adults and which jobs that we pick, and we have all had the luxury of choosing to be able to put our name in the ballot to serve here.

I think that's very important that the community, regardless of where they are in their income bracket, have that exact same choice.

So even though IT, I get it, IT jobs are really incredibly difficult right now, and that is hard for folks to place, and we should be coaching people to make sure they know that information ahead of time.

That when we are putting, if you are choosing to go down this pathway, it is not the same thing as getting a CDL where we any school district will hire you if you get a CDL.

There's plenty of positions for those.

But as long as that coaching is occurring, I do believe in individual will and choice to be able to make sure that what if you want to be in the IT, if that is your whole heart and passion that you have the opportunity to do that.

So I think what the advisory board should really focus on is making sure we are doing everything we can to work with our partners so that the that is communicated on the front end.

And I understand when there's so many um when there's so many people in the program, it's hard to assess, but we've got to figure out a way to continue to monitor and see what our individual coaches are doing because they're the key pieces in this puzzle.

The from the intake through following them throughout the whole process.

The other day at Educational Opportunities Committee, I guess that was just yesterday, um, we were discussing uh the uh care program for folks that need child care.

And what we heard from some of our partners is that if the person who is doing the intake doesn't really upsell that and the opportunity, the individual might not know that that child care is available to them.

And and the council before us actually put a lot of funding into that, and I think we could really advertise that more with our providers to say we are providing child care, and we will help you find a high quality high quality child care that you could send your kids to while you're going through the program because I'm sure even for some that's a barrier.

And so, all of that to say I think we need to be um continuing to push and continuing to figure out how can we uh show how can we work with our coaches hand in hand so that they know how to provide and support for the folks in the program, and how can we really market the developments of the program because the program has evolved so much.

I think another part of the challenge is continuing to share the updates to the program and things that have been changed and altered.

So the so last thing I've got I get to serve as an appointment, I think advisory council member on the board with council member white.

So I'm excited to be able to continue to dive into the data and how we can show it more differently.

But I just wanted to really quickly clarify from B session, and this has nothing to do with the appointments, of course, it will support the appointments, but from OG from the OJT and incumbent worker training.

Is it okay if I just ask a couple of questions about that just so I can better understand?

Because I saw the B session results, and I didn't know we were completely scrapping the program.

I thought we were trying to figure out, and the reason why I'm asking is because one of the challenges I've heard from providers is that when folks leave and graduate the program, they have no experience and what in the skill.

So my understanding was these two programs were to help get the experience that they need to then be able to get into the higher paying job.

So I understand, and I went back to the B session slides and looked up the 50 cent increase.

So can you just help us refresh our memory on those two programs, what the challenges are and what next steps are, Mike?

Thank you, Councilwoman, uh, for the question.

For incumbent worker training, um, it is for workers who are existing workers within organizations who have been there for longer than six months.

The purpose of the program was to help employers to upskill those individuals so that they could have the tools they needed to number one earn more money in the future and potentially be promoted, creating more entry-level opportunities for our ready to work participants who are looking for entry-level roles.

Um, the on the job training program is an incentive program provided by council to employees who hire participants who have just completed their training through ready to work to get continued training on the job with those local employers.

Right.

Um, that's the difference between the two.

Well, we what we gathered from the B session was sentiment generally, and it's a it's an art to try to gauge where the full council is.

There's no vote, but we got the sentiment from council that RWT was not something that was supported, and that's why we moved swiftly to eliminate it.

So we did eliminate it already.

Um for future awards, that is correct.

Okay, okay.

I missed that.

And that was just because the it wasn't showing the success that we were hoping for with actual promotions in the jobs.

Incoming worker training is a long-term uh investment.

Our contracts are only 18 months in length.

Some of the trainings didn't occur until the back end of that 18-month agreement.

So it takes time for those promotions to occur.

And the general sense that we got from council was that the 35, 34 cent raise is those images seen was not enough.

So we moved swiftly to shift in pivot directions.

Okay.

Okay.

So we're still doing on the job training, we're still doing the OJT program.

That is correct.

Okay.

Well, I I mean, I think the OJT program was real uh was very important, so I'm glad that didn't shift.

I would like to see what we are, and I saw this base salary for our um incumbent worker was around 33 already, so it was a little bit higher than what our OJT folks are.

Um but that being said, I appreciate the pivot, and I guess that was the it was a little bit of a confusing day, but I again appreciate, like the mayor said, that you guys were hearing our feedback and would continue to like to see how we can grow the program.

Um at the end of the day, what I think the biggest target, if we can get to is completion of the training, if that is the one target that we're looking for and breaking that down to really see how we can increase the number of folks increasing the in completing their training.

I think we have a high success rate of actually getting them into the job.

So any other barriers that come up.

And the last thing I'll mention is Councilmember McKee Rodriguez and I, like a I like last year or sometime before that, asked for folks that didn't to do some qualitative research for folks that didn't actually complete in X amount of time.

And now that we are several years in, I think we should dive a little bit more deeper into the folks that aren't completing and doing some individual surveys to say what would be what would have to have been true to help you to get to um finish so that we can more learn from that even more.

But those are my comments.

Thank you for y'all's work.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Councilwoman.

Um, and it wasn't on the slide, but um, as a result of doing away with the incumbent worker program, that'll save three million dollars.

Um, additionally, I didn't see it on the slide, but in case it's helpful for anybody else, one of the other things that the program is going to start doing is to um allay this this misconception that uh people are leaving our community.

Um, is there going to be tracking um where uh folks are after they complete the program uh to give us some assurance that yes, people are taking advantage of the program in San Antonio, right?

You got to be ready to work in San Antonio, not Houston or other places.

So I really appreciate uh those two modifications and again being willing to listen to the feedback.

Councilwoman Spears.

Thank you, Mayor.

So I've said many times that I want good paying jobs for our kids and grandkids.

And so this is what really fuels my passion for economic uh development and the workforce development.

And I'm proud to serve on the economic and workforce development committee.

I want to thank Councilwoman Castillo for her collaboration on this subcommittee with me to address the makeup of the board.

I am excited to see what the high barrier population seat can bring to the table.

And I did champion to add the academic, the higher education uh additional seat uh to champion to ensure that academic pathways and workforce pathways are aligned for success.

But what I'm really excited to see is the revitalization revitalization of this advisory board.

I know they're y'all are gonna work hard to align with our stakeholders, that we're gonna remove barriers for employment, that we're going to change the trajectory of generational poverty beyond providing job training and placement, which is necessary and important, but also we have to help our participants see their potential, build their self-confidence, and secure the participants' hope and their futures here in San Antonio.

This benefits San Antonio, our residents, future generations, and enables this body to grow our economic footprint in Texas and our nation overall.

So I want to thank you, Alex, and to all of our advisory board for your service and commitment.

And I look forward to seeing the improvements to this program.

And I do appreciate the invitation to attend your meetings, and I look forward to participating.

So thank you.

Councilwoman Mesa Gonzalez.

Thank you.

Thank you to a ready to work team who's here today and board supportive of us moving forward with this item.

Also, I saw a lot of our ready to work partners here.

So Methodist Healthcare, Alamo Colleges, Hallmark, Workforce Solutions Alamo, Greater SATX, Restore Education, Project Quest.

I think Goodwill San Antonio was here in Cops Metro.

Thank you for your partnership with Ready to Work and all of the work you do in our community.

So I am also very supportive of this high barrier population serving organizations positions that were added.

And we know that the barriers that uh these folks coming into this program have and the resiliency to complete this program is key.

The ready to work, the ready to part of ready to work is where I think we should focus so much of our time.

Uh because finishing these programs is what makes it a ready-to-work program, honestly.

So I just want to commend everybody here.

This has been a uphill climb.

I know I remember when this program started.

Um, but uh we've been steady, um, you've been listening to folks, and like the council uh woman said, uh, you've seen a lot of faces on council since this program started.

So uh thank you for listening to us and um just very supportive.

So thank you.

Council uh Councilman Galvan.

Thank you, Mary, and thank you, Mike, and all the folks here uh who not only presented today, but also gave their comments, uh, whether you're on the ready to work advisory board or a member of the public, uh, or I've been involved in the beginning of um making this uh project come to life and continue to see it through uh through its uh biggest challenges and biggest opportunities as well.

I'm great, very grateful to see the kind of pivots we're making to make sure this program is success is as successful as possible.

Um I think I've talked about in the economic workforce development committee, or maybe during that B session, this is something that I really do believe in, and I want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to make this uh program work as effectively as possible to again move that needle right on addressing poverty here in our city and ensuring that as our city continues to grow, as our economy continues to grow, that our residents are gaining to uh in that growth and are uh are able to live more quality lives and are able to live more proud and successful lives too here in our city uh that we all call home.

One question I had just uh clarifying one.

I know during the B session we talked about um uh phasing out different occupations, and there was a point on there about on this current presentation about focusing on the high uh occupying or the high doing well uh programs uh or occupations currently.

Um Mike, uh are we I know we're gonna be marketing those ones more, but are we gonna be phasing out the other ones?

The ones that are doing performing as well.

Uh that's correct, Councilmember.

Okay.

Um one of the bullet points was eliminating those occupations that aren't performing well, and that's the work that the advisory board and the work group that they've have formed starting immediately after that session, and we'll have some action on that in January.

Okay, and do we have a timeline?

About well, maybe it was the January conversation, but just wanted to know if there's any timeline currently on that.

Uh January 20th.

That's when the board will make their official recommendations.

Okay, and will it come before us to kind of review as well, or would it just be through uh a board action?

Um we'll make sure we update the council.

We'll provide a memo of what that action was, and that board meeting, of course, is open um to the public, and your input would be greatly appreciated there.

Got it.

And Councilman, I think that the results of that we will be updating the uh EWDC committee.

Perfect.

Sounds good.

Do we have a list of the target occupations currently that are uh being looked at at the moment?

Um the entire list is being reviewed by the board.

Right.

Um there's some that are super high performing that they're gonna focus on that greater enrollment um task that we have at hand um and that entire list is being scrubbed and reviewed by the board as we speak.

Okay.

I think something that's really important to me, and I think we were talking about a little bit about it during the education opportunities committee as well, is that focus on building out their education workforce as much as possible.

Of course, easier said than done, right?

As it all is.

Uh, and if we're not seeing the kind of growth there, then it's always something that we take in consideration, right?

If it's something we it's we're aspiring to, but we're not seeing the growth there.

We gotta figure out what's going on there in general, not necessarily something that we have to figure out through ready to work fully, but I I it's something that's majorly important to me.

Um we hear it through child care, right?

We hear on the emphasis there about how do we make sure that we have effect uh really strong early child care here in our city, it comes with the workforce component.

So education all across the board, and we know that.

We've talked about that before, you and I.

Um, and so I just uh I worry about if that's a program that's gonna be phased out or occupation to be phased out given its high importance as well.

But I'm interested in just kind of just looking at the data, seeing what things were the barriers there.

Um so if we can just stay up to date with that, my office and and you all to kind of just see where that's going.

That's one of the big focuses I have on this particular point.

Um otherwise, I think we're doing a great job on this, and I absolutely uh understand, of course, making some efficiencies here to ensure that we're uh making this program as effective as possible.

Uh so let's just stay in touch and I'll be very excited to see it come to EWDC and kind of back end support as well uh before the 20th in January.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mike.

Thank you.

Uh Councilman McKee Rodriguez.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'll be brief.

Um thank you and congratulations to those being appointed.

We are absolutely grateful for your service.

Uh District 2 represents the largest share of participants, and I appreciate uh all the lives that are being changed uh through this program.

I also appreciate very greatly you hearing me at the B session uh and eliminating the IWT program.

Um I do look forward to us all working together for continued improvements so that lives can be tangibly and markably remarkably changed.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

I think there were several calls for the uh the elimination of that.

Um Councilman Aldrete Gabito.

Thank you.

Uh I just wanted to quickly acknowledge the board members who are stepping up.

This is hard work.

Um, you know, one of the things I would often tell uh Mayor Nuremberg is that you know this this uh program, while it does have a lot of opportunities, is the first of its kind, and I appreciate the intent of trying to change uh just generation generational poverty.

I mean, that is not an easy task.

Um so I do definitely want to um thank the board members for all of their efforts, their time and dedication.

Um, you know, we all know what it's like serving on a board, and it's a lot of countless hours in the back end to to make sure that this goes right.

I also want to thank the partners for ready to work because um they can't do ready to work cannot be successful without you all and and your contributions.

So thank you for um your willingness and all your efforts to make this program successful.

I do want to acknowledge the folks who came and shared their personal stories.

Thank you.

Though that is uh that that makes this meaningful for us.

Um and I I just want to also thank you all, uh Mike and team for listening to the feedback.

Um there's probably more feedback coming.

Uh but thank you for uh pivoting accordingly.

Uh that that's that's an important piece of it.

And um those are all my comments.

So I just want to again acknowledge the the board members in their efforts.

Thanks.

Have all council members who'd like to speak on this issue spoken.

Okay.

Thank you again uh to the board members in attendance.

Thanks, Mike, uh, to you and your team again for uh being uh quick uh in listening and implementing the feedback as I think you hear here this after this morning, rather, a real commitment uh to ensuring all that we're doing all that we can to upskill frankly the most vulnerable in our community and put them on on the path.

Um thank you.

Okay, something else?

Okay.

Okay.

Uh there being no further discussion, there's a motion and a second for approval of item number three.

Please vote.

Okay.

The motion carries.

The next item is the uh city manager's report.

Eric, over to you.

Yep, thank you, Mayor.

Uh, three items, three quick items.

Um, the first I wanted to share with the council that our uh communications and engagement, uh, and specifically our TBSA team has recently been awarded 10 state awards, uh, which was the highest number of awards we've ever received.

Uh San Antonio as a city competes in a budget category against other large Texas cities here for these uh uh uh uh efforts.

Uh I won't mention them all, but uh some of the item or some of the issues or projects that uh resulted in uh the top place award uh included uh how to pronounce street names, uh our pothole patrol coverage.

Um please keep it down in the back.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, and a number of other uh arts and entertainment categories.

So congratulations to the TVSA uh team.

They every year we continue to capture more beach in terms of awards.

Uh secondly, um, and I want to thank Councilwoman Castillo and Councilman Galvan who uh participated with me and uh Dr.

Jacob on our reaccreditation efforts with the health department.

Uh the public health accreditation board uh did announce that Metro Health.

Sorry, excuse me.

Um if you'd please go out into the foyer.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um the uh uh the public health accreditation board, FAB, um, which is a national nonprofit organization that evaluates uh public health departments.

Pretty rigorous uh process from top to bottom in terms of policies, uh procedures, um activities, uh services.

Um it's a voluntary process and the Metro Health uh initially uh received this accreditation status in 2019 and reaccreditation is every five years.

So it was a huge lift for the department.

Um and thank you, council members, for participating in the the QA that we were interviewed by the accreditation board both from a management perspective, but uh both council members uh uh Councilwoman Castillo, um, the uh prior chair of the uh council committee and councilman Galvan, the current chair, um, were able to lay out uh how Metro Health intersects with that council committee, um, and they did a very good job of um laying out how the transition of power was occurring and no gaps uh within that.

So thank you, council members.

And it frankly, it's it's another opportunity for us to reinforce the city's strong investment in in work in that department.

So congratulations to Dr.

Jacob and the entire Metro Health team.

Now Dr.

Jacob is also has been very active on that national board and so continues to profile us uh broadly.

And then lastly, uh our spotlight video.

Um there are very few.

Uh most employees only have one job.

Um, and uh Laura Slavin, who you'll see in the video, does have one job, but she takes on two responsibilities for us.

Uh she works in our IT um department um and um does a whole lot of stuff.

She's worked for the city for about uh nine years, um, but she's also been very instrumental in her time with the city as being a foster uh for ACS, and uh she does a great job of doing both jobs, and um certainly uh we're thankful for her volunteering for the work she does with ACS.

So let's roll the video.

I work for ITSD.

I'm an infrastructure and operations engineer.

I like doing those little small projects that kind of help another department along.

Recently had the opportunity to volunteer as a foster with ACS.

They do a program a couple times a year where they reach out to employees to get them to foster dogs for their big events.

The one that just happened was Dog Toberfest.

266 dogs got adopted at that event, and my foster's was one of them, and I was very excited to see her find her forever family.

I've been fostering with ACS for several years now, and I've seen them go through process improvements, partially supported by our department, which is great to see that in effect in other departments and helping in the community to keep the animal population here safe and help families find their pet.

They've gone through things like improving their wait list process or going to clinic services or picking up supplies for your foster.

And they provide everything when you're fostered, so it's a great opportunity to work with them, and I love doing that.

One of the things that I've seen our department have an impact on recently is process improvement at ACS.

And I've seen them implement a lot of things that IT has been able to help with that has made the fostering experience easier and more effective.

I will be back next year or maybe sooner to foster with them again.

So frankly, I want to thank Laura and the other city employees that participate in fostering animals for large events like uh Doctober, Dogtober.

Um, and uh want to thank them for their leadership.

Thanks, Mayor.

Great.

Thank you, Eric.

Um, I'd ask my council colleagues to remain seated while I take us into executive session.

The time is now 1104 a.m.

on December 11th.

The city council of the city of San Antonio will now 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 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 115 uh p.m.

on December 11, 2025, and the San Antonio City Council will now reconvene in open session.

No official action was taken in executive session.

The time is now 1 15, and this meeting is adjourned.