Telling you everything.

I see it with steel.

I'm hearing his voice.

Telling me everything.

Like on the noise.

Only steals.

Telling you believe in his brilliance.

Believe in his source.

I see what's still.

I'm hearing his voice.

Telling me okay.

Good afternoon, good afternoon.

If my colleagues can please make their way to their seats expeditiously.

The time is now 2 10 p.m.

on Wednesday, April 29th, 2026, and the City of San Antonio B session is called to order.

Madam Clerk, please call roll.

Councilmember.

Councilmember Bia Gran.

Here.

Councilmember Mungia.

Councilmember Castillo.

Here.

Councilmember Galvan.

Here.

Councilmember Aldarete Gavito.

Councilmember Mesa Gonzalez.

Councilmember Spears.

Here.

Councilmember White is here virtually.

Here.

Mayor Jones.

Mayor Pro Tem McKee Rodriguez.

Present.

Mayor Pro Tim, we have quorum.

Wonderful.

This meeting we will hear.

Well, first off, thank you all for being here today.

This meeting we will hear two briefings and discuss them separately.

The first is the Human and Homeless Services Strategy and Services and Strategy Strategy Consolidated Funding Process.

Eric, do you want to get us started?

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Um good afternoon, Mayor Council.

So this the first briefing is a post-solicitation briefing on our delegate agency process.

If you'll recall, we had a lot of conversation as part of last year's budget and a pre-solicitation with the council.

Um in this year's budget, agencies are funded for only partial uh part of the year.

Um so the RFP solicitation you'll get an update on today.

Um we'll eventually recommend funding for the rest of the fiscal year from June 1 to the end of the fiscal year.

Um fiscal year 27 pending um council allocation of funds through the 27 budget and then an extension period afterwards.

Uh the request for proposals was issued in on December 1st and closed at the end of January.

Um Mel and Justina will walk through the post-solicitation.

We had a number of outside groups that were involved in the screen and the review.

Um I will um turn it over to Mel to walk us through the presentation.

Good afternoon, Mayor Pro Tem and Council members.

So I'm Melody Woosley, Human Services Director, and this is a joint um process, and so Patrick Steck, Homeless Services and Strategy Assistant Director is also here to provide detail on homeless service recommendations.

This presentation provides a briefing on those funding recommendations that Eric mentioned, and I will start by saying that we received an unprecedented number of really good and thoughtful proposals for very important community services.

A five-year funding history and program descriptions, the QR code that's on the back of your binder.

Sort of it unlocks the uh dashboard for performance of consolidated agency funding.

So this afternoon, I will provide a brief background on the process, consolidated funding process, review the available budget for consolidated funding, information on the solicitation and evaluation processes, funding recommendations, and conclude with next steps.

The funding pool invests in community-based services that support human and homeless services programs and priorities.

The fiscal year 26 adopted budget included 12-month contracts for designated programs and eight-month contract renewals to competitively awarded programs.

In October, I provided a pre-solicitation briefing to gather council feedback on a revised funding strategy.

We issued the fiscal year 26 and 27 requests for proposals on December the 1st.

The RFP closed on January 26th, and we evaluated proposals through February and March.

And so the 26 adopted budget includes 24.5 million in total for consolidated funding.

First, the 20 million is general fund and 4.5 million is grant funding, primarily from specific homelessness services.

Throughout the adopted budget, City Council designated 12-month awards to eight agencies, totaling 10.3 million to ensure that continued support for critical services in the community.

The funding pool was also reduced by a total of $741,000, $500,000 based on a history of underspending by agencies, and 241,000 from budget amendments.

After designating agencies and applying reductions, $14.2 million remained for essential and discretionary awards in fiscal year 26.

Almost 10 million was allocated for those eight-month contract extensions, and the reserve balance of 4.3 million is intended to be awarded through this solicitation.

Next week's A-session item requests council approval of 16-month contracts for the period June 1st, 2026 through September 30th, 2027.

Designated funding awards are not part of this RFP and will be considered in the 2027 budget process.

Clearly defining designated and competitive funding to enhance strategic alignment, categorizing essential services that directly support city programs, and discretionary services that align with city priorities but are not tied to city programs.

The RFP also requested city-funded programs, prioritize referrals from city initiatives such as next level youth opportunity program or city council offices.

We also diversified engagement strategies to use existing feedback, such as the SA Speak Up Budget Survey, gather more information from and feedback from nonprofit partners, and continued strengthen our work with other local funders.

Reducing the number of metrics collected to capture the most important data in the simplest way possible.

We don't need to ask agencies to submit two or three different reports to two or three different entities for the same program, and updating RFP scoring to include points for programs, demonstrating sustainability, collaboration, and return on investment.

Oops.

And so just briefly, at the October briefing last year, you heard from the Kronkowski Foundation about the important work that is in progress with community funders to align investments, including City of San Antonio investments towards collective impact.

We continue to participate with local funders, including Kronkowski, San Antonio Area Foundation, and the United Way to move towards streamlined processes, common reporting, indicator dashboards that reflect collective outcomes, and shared training to help partner agencies build capacity.

And so this table shows the amount of funding that's available for fiscal year 26 and fiscal year 27, consolidated funding compared to 2025 levels, and it's organized by designated essential and discretionary programs.

Overall, the table is showing the impact of changes to designated awards, and that included the family violence prevention services moving from competitive to designated, the applied reductions, and small increases to grant funding.

For FY 2027 proposed contract awards are contingent upon city council approval of the fiscal 27 adopted budget.

There we go.

So this is a high-profile solicitation process, and we are recommending 19.1 million in awards for 16-month contract terms.

This includes the 4.3 million held in reserve, plus the 14.8 million estimated for fiscal year 2027, and I hate to be repetitive, but this is subject to City Council adoption of the fiscal year 2027 budget.

Human Services and Homeless Services and Strategy in coordination with finance held one pre-submital conference and three training and technical assistance workshops.

We received 125 proposals from 72 agencies requesting over 55 million.

Finance and the city auditor's office conducted due diligence reviews with no material findings identified.

Staff recommendations, if approved, would award funding to 81 programs.

55 are currently funded, plus 26 new programs.

13 programs funded in 2026 budget are not recommended, including seven programs that did not apply.

External reviewers included individuals with lived experience and representatives from boards and commissions, other government organizations like adult protective services, educational institutions, colleges, universities, and school districts, nonprofits such as LISC and Centro, and community funders, United Way and Workforce Solutions Alamo.

Direction to panel members before they did their proposal reviews, emphasized that they should focus on programs, alignment with city priorities, and on purchasing services and areas of identified need rather than funding agencies.

Total proposal scoring was 100 points.

It included points, the points for sustainability, collaboration, and ROI, and uh additional 10 points for the local preference program was included this year.

Funding recommendations also include new programs and agencies who have never been funded or have not been funded for a number of years.

For example, American Indians in Texas, Texas Diaper Bank, Lighthouse for the Blind, Children's Shelter, House of Neighborly Services, and San Antonio Youth Centers.

So a total of 6.5 million is recommended for 16-month awards to fund 39 children and youth services programs.

In fiscal year 25, funded programs provided an array of services to almost 14,000 children, youth, and their families.

These programs support City of San Antonio initiatives, including the domestic violence collaboratives, referrals for child abuse prevention, and education training, soft skills, and counseling for opportunity youth at next level, as well as caregiver respite, parent education and supportive services for at-risk and special needs and medically challenged children, out-of-school time programming for children and youth, mentoring and paid internships to prevent school dropout, and career exploration college and military readiness.

1.8 million is recommended for 14 programs from 12 agencies in the strengthening families category.

In 2025, programs in this area provided services to over 13,000 households and individuals.

Recommended programs directly support city initiatives, including domestic violence collaborative referrals for crisis intervention, financial empowerment centers offering free one-on-one financial counseling, and volunteer income tax assistance.

In addition, the integrated community safety office violent crime reduction plan is also included.

3.1 million is recommended to support senior independence.

Through the RFP, human services specifically sought proposals to provide programming in city operated senior centers.

13 programs are recommended for funding to provide activities and education at the centers and supportive services for members and their caregivers.

In fiscal year 25, 11,600 older adults participated in classes held by the agencies, including fitness and arts, technology education, monthly food commodity programs, and referral services for members who may need to transition out of senior centers.

And we are also requesting council approval of a 16-month contract with Beal House Arts and the amount of $100,000 to maintain arts programming provided at our centers.

Bill House did not apply for funding, and no agencies submitted a proposal through the RFP to provide arts classes.

This is from 10 agencies for services that support the goal of ending homelessness.

Almost 11,000 individuals were served through these programs in fiscal year 25.

Recommended programs support city initiatives and community-wide strategies to address homelessness in our community.

Services for chronic homeless are prioritized, but recommendations also support services for homeless youth, families, veterans, and those living with HIV AIDS.

These services include prevention and rental assistance, basic needs such as showers and meals, emergency shelter and rapid rehousing, and street outreach with case management and supportive services.

And looking ahead to the fiscal year 29 and 30 consolidated funding cycle, and subject to city council direction, we will explore outsourcing of discretionary contracts to an external funder to manage the process, which would include selection monitoring and fiscal oversight.

Based on initial assessment, potential benefits could include leveraging our local philanthropy network, greater clarity of the funding landscape to avoid avoid duplication, and consolidated application and reporting processes for funding for funded agencies.

Potential considerations may include higher administrative costs to manage and monitor contracts, which would or could decrease the amount of funding available to purchase services.

And the city may have less control over investment decisions.

And so our next step is to bring recommendations for essential and discretionary competitive contracts forward to city council for consideration next week.

Pending approval, human services, and homeless strategy and services will negotiate and execute 16-month contracts with fiscal year 27 funding subject to city council adoption of the budget.

Contracts would begin on June 1st and go through September 30th of 2027.

And fiscal year 2028 funding renewal would be subject to performance funding availability and city council approval.

That concludes my presentation, and Patrick and I are happy to answer your questions regarding this process.

Thank you, Melody, for the presentation.

I know for many of the organizations in the audience and those watching and who have been engaged in this process.

I know that for a number of our partners and organizations that provide very necessary and vital services, the funding landscape is very challenging.

And that's in part, I imagine, one of the reasons we receive such a large number of quality applications.

As an educator, one of the investments for next fiscal year that makes me proudest is our investment of over of over $5 million in opportunity youth, 1.2 million dollars in youth dropout prevention, and almost a million dollars in college, career, and military readiness.

When we invest early in youth, I'm certain that we'll find out that years down the line, we are saving millions in the need for services.

By investing in youth, we're proactively addressing future poverty rates, education attainment levels, domestic violence, crime, homelessness, and so much more.

And so for all the organizations who were ultimately chosen, uh, thank you for your service and congratulations on the selection.

Uh for the organizations who are not chosen, please know that we value your efforts and the work that you do in our city, and we hope that as opportunities become available in the future that you maintain that desire to partner and work with us.

The need is absolutely greater than the resources that we have available to us.

And so as we navigate this budget deficit over the next several years, one of my personal goals will be to preserve funding for our nonprofits who we know provide services that we as a city don't always have the capacity to, uh, but are also absolutely necessary to achieving our broader goal of a much more prosperous city.

Shifting my hat back to District 2.

Uh I am interested in as much data that you can provide on services provided within district two, and for each of the for each of the council districts, I imagine as well, that information will be helpful for each of the organizations who are selected for awards.

Do we have an idea of how quickly you might be able to provide that information?

So through the RFPs, we did collect data on uh by council district number of people served.

But given the number of applications and the amount, we're gonna need to go, we can we can add all of that up, but it it won't be as high.

So we need to go back and negotiate the contracts.

Um this is how much you're receiving, what's the change to the number of people you're so you'll serve?

But just looking at it briefly, I can tell you that it looked like district two is about 10% of the proposed clients.

Through negotiations, we would be um asking agencies to make sure they're serving those areas of needs that are identified in the proposal.

And so that may change some of those percentages.

Thank you.

I appreciate that and I appreciate you um having that 10% number at least uh somewhat ready, even if it's not a hundred percent accurate.

Um, when I think of 10%, I think of an equal share of the pie, and that doesn't quite read as equity to me, especially when uh my team and I are fielding calls and we understand the need that exists in district two and in many of our inner city districts uh is much greater than maybe 10%.

And so I want to ensure that we're viewing all of our investments through a lens of equity, and I'd like to convey to all of the awardees and to you certainly as you navigate those contracts that the communities that are most in need are the ones who are being served wherever they may be in our city.

Uh we don't want to see any communities left behind, and I know for sure what has been conveyed over the years to me is that district two is left behind in these investments and uh is not always at the forefront of um the minds of some of our leaders.

Uh so moving on to other questions.

One of my requests uh was that we utilize these funds to help us achieve our crime prevention goals.

And I saw that mentioned in one of the latter slides.

Um I'd like to know how we plan to work with these organizations as we move towards phase three of our violent crime prevention plan.

Will organizations be expected to reserve funds for their involvement as needed within certain hotspots.

What would that look like?

Well, there'll certainly be used to prioritize them, and I think Maria Vargas is here.

Do you want to speak to how you want it how you plan to do that?

Good afternoon, Maria Vargas, Director of Integrated Community Safety.

One of the primary reasons we're looking to leverage this consolidated funding process is for phase three focused deterrence, which looks to conduct outreach to violent offenders in the community.

So these are individuals who have criminal histories for violent offenses.

And what we're looking to do is what some in criminology refer to as pulling levers, which is where you essentially offer the individual two options.

If they continue to commit offenses in the community, whether they are violent or petty, we look to intervene with law enforcement and let them know that it's not going to be a lenient punishment, that we are scrutinizing their activity, and that we do intend to uh provide per criminal justice procedures with the DA the appropriate but swift punishment for those crimes, but that they have the option to take a service or a variety of services.

And so these delegate agencies can provide those services with us.

So whether it's education and employment opportunities, meeting basic needs, which oftentimes is the case, such as housing stability, immediate food or family needs like diapers or child care or transportation, so that they can go to those GED classes or those um courses to get certificates for employment, or if it's something like mental health counseling, which is something that's also a common need with these individuals who not only may be offenders or perpetuators of violent crime, but often victims of violent crime themselves.

So mental health counseling or even physical uh medical needs.

And so the spectrum of services is quite broad, as you just heard, and so these agencies can help us to provide those services based on that individual circumstance so that they have an opportunity to choose a different path.

Thank you.

That is um I'll say that is very pleasing to me to hear.

Um, and so I do want to make sure that um everything that I heard remains true throughout the entire process and that uh as we prepare and finalize those contracts that uh SAPD and the Office of Integrated Community Safety is engaged to ensure that these organizations effectively help us address uh our violent crime program.

Um yeah, that's wonderful.

Can you please run back slide 15 for me?

What originally caught me by surprise, and this is uh an area that council is being asked to provide feedback.

Are you hoping for this feedback today or in a future at a future meeting?

It would not this one, the one it was the one that was just up.

Yes, they brought it up and I changed it.

So what was the question?

I'm sorry.

Um the question is is this feedback that you're looking for today, or is this feedback that you're looking for you'll be looking for in a future meeting?

Uh this is something we would do over the next couple of years to prepare for fiscal year 29 and 30, and we would look for council feedback today or or next week at a session on whether you want us to do that.

And I guess in effect, what the difference would would be between what we do now and what we would be doing here.

So the difference would be what we would recommend is only outsourcing the discretionary portions, so that's about five and four and a half million.

Um those are the programs that are meeting city and community priorities but aren't necessarily tied to our individual programs like ICSO violence prevention or next level youth opportunity or our senior centers.

We wanted we would recommend keeping those in-house so that we can have more control over how they're working uh along with our programs.

But discretionary um, like I said, is not tied to current programs, and so it could be worked into another um local funders processing a pool of funding for another for an outside entity to allocate those funds.

Right, right.

And potentially so United Way is an example, they also serve funds that serve youth, um, safety net, uh family strengthening.

Um there's a lot of similarities, and they would I potentially integrate those funds with the process they're already running.

Councilman, just and uh the council talked a little bit about this last year, um both during budget and during uh the the uh the pre-solicitation.

Uh I don't think it would be as as um as easy as just let somebody else allocate it.

I mean, we we have we would have city funds, um there would be the benefit of having a community effort, whether that's with Kronkowski or United Way or these other funders, but but I guess part of the conversation that that some of the council members had last week, and I think it or last year, it kind of makes sense in my mind.

We we would, if we participated, these are the things we would tell them we want to achieve, right?

These are the things that are important, or these are our five priorities, it wouldn't be as as easy as just allocate our dollars and let us not go.

So we we'd have to give some, I think I think it would make sense for the council to weigh in and give give directions and spending priorities.

It would just be maybe saving on some of the administrative overhead, both here and at other uh the other funders.

Um I think other funders probably find themselves in a position where we're all funding agencies, and sometimes the question is are we funding the same thing for the same agencies?

So how do we how do we deconflict that?

But but I don't but I think we would have if we went down that path in 2029, it would have to be with a lot of guidance from the council and the city.

Thank you.

I have a few reservations about um about that concept.

Um but if we did take that path forward, what I would imagine I would like to see is that of course we do have that conversation as a council about what our priorities are, how we expect that money is spent and what goals we're hoping to achieve through it, uh, and that we have measurable, we have uh ways to hold that agency accountable to achieving those goals.

Um I would love to begin council discussion, but no one is signed up in the queue.

Councilmember Audrey to Gritta.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh thank you, Melody, for uh this presentation, and I definitely want to commend the work of DHS and all the nonprofits in in the community.

Uh prior to me serving on council, I was a nonprofit executive director, so I I understand the grind extremely well.

Um and and I do want to say that the not the nonprofits in our community, um it goes without saying they impact so many lives um in the city of San Antonio.

So thank you so much for all of your work.

Um that being said, you know, I know that I have uh been vocal in that you know our our city budget is not meant to be all things to all people.

We have to focus on our core services.

Um, you know, right now I have a project in District 7 of a stretch of sidewalk that has been promised to residents for years now, and we're four million dollars short.

And I mean the the this uh stretch of road is extremely high traffic.

Actually, we just got um an image from a resident yesterday about a four-car pileup right there, right?

And so, you know, you you just have um these stretches of roads and broken sidewalks that we all have in our in our districts, um, and and those are services, sidewalks are uh is infrastructure that residents um expect the city to solve for.

And so, you know, we can outsource police, we can't outsource firefighters.

So those are those are uh again core services that the city needs to solve for.

And so um, yes, tough decisions have to be made because we are coming up on a budget deficit and we cannot um our budget cannot solve all things to all people.

I would challenge us that this is the time to get innovative, right?

I mean, in times of of hardships, this is the time to think differently.

And so, you know, I've had many conversations with different nonprofits who have come by our office and and have um put that challenge in front of them of like how can we think differently?

Because there's no doubt that the work is important, it's just about the funding sources that we're that people are getting it from.

So um there was a couple questions, uh Melody that I I did have on oh god on slide five, city council uh policy direction.

I know that we had talked about this in the past, but you know, there were some other ideas that we talked about, and I'd love to hear what y'all's recommendations are in terms of sunsetting some of these nonprofits.

I think as a nonprofit executive director, it's extremely important to have clear expectations.

And so if they know, hey, the city can fund if I'm gonna go in for city funding, maybe they fund me 60 percent the first year, 40 percent the next year, 20 percent this year after, and then I'm done.

Uh have we done anything or um do we have any proposed recommendations on that?

We have looked at that um in the past and recently also talked about what those options could look like, and so we can put that together and and provide that follow-up before um a session next week.

Perfect.

Yeah, that's definitely something I would like to for us to look at again to um so that way we are setting the proper expectations with with our nonprofits because we all have extremely tough decisions to make um as we're preparing for this budget deficit, and so I think working with our partners as far in advance as possible is is a is is something that um would be helpful.

On um on slide number five, under strategic alignment, it says prioritize essential programs supporting council priorities and city programs.

So where do where do we see those um council priorities and city programs that were mentioned?

So it's uh it's the things where we have um strategic plans.

So there's a strategic plan um to end homelessness, there's strategic senior services plan.

Um there's the uh violence prevention plan now.

So those are the kind of things that we're trying to support.

Um in addition, we operate programs ourselves like next level opportunity youth center and our comprehensive senior centers is probably the best example.

If we don't have um agencies, we don't have activities in the center if we don't have those programs.

Okay, yeah.

Yeah, I definitely like to see you know the plans that we're trying to align these nonprofits to, just so that we all are very clear on on how on the buckets that they fall into.

Because, you know, um again, for instance, you know, I'm seeing like SAMSAT, SAMSAT, the Science uh San Antonio Museums uh Museum of Science and Technology, they do great work.

But you know, when I'm seeing that in um, you know, uh family violence work, you know, I'm I'm kind of scratching my head a little bit on on why we're awarding uh funding that way.

And and also too, I'm curious about for some of our nonprofits, if they do have other options for front for funding sources, how are we kind of pushing them to look at those other options?

You know, um again, these are all very difficult conversations, but um, but I think that as far in advance as we can have those conversations, the more helpful it is not only for us, as we have to make tough decisions on core services, but also um for them so that they can have those um those expectations.

Do uh thank you for the breakdown of the um agency summary, how much we're giving them.

Uh one of the other questions I had is that you know, like for instance, and this is not an I'm just using it as an example, like communities in schools does amazing work.

Um, but we see two big chunks of money in two different buckets a $300,000 allocation and a $200,000 allocation.

So half a million um for that program.

Can you explain to me like uh why why we we broke that down?

Sure.

So the larger contract supports the next level opportunity center, they provide the coaching, mentoring, soft skills training, counseling services for youth who go through that program.

Goodwill is the other agency that we contract with to provide education and workforce coaching at the center.

The other program CIS has school-based, and so that that program is helping out-risk youth prevent dropout.

Okay.

So even though we see their total of close to half a million, they're just applying for different um buckets, different stuff.

Different programs and services.

Okay, got it.

Got it.

Is it possible for us to see um and and I'm not sure if we ask this on the application because I do think all the applications are public.

Uh, I don't know if there's a breakdown here, but I'm curious for these nonprofits, how much of their funding is going to help San Antonians and how many San Antonians.

So for you know, there has to be a ratio there for how much we're giving them and how many people are actually taking advantage of the service.

Right.

So we so when we fund an agency, they report monthly on who they're serving, districts one through ten, if they are serving anyone outside the uh city of San Antonio, they report that as well.

Okay, it's generally a very small percentage.

Um, for example, our senior centers are uh we're funded by the federal government for meals to serve Bear County.

So we will have more um Bear County balance of bear folks there.

But for them for the most part, the agencies are serving districts one through ten.

Okay.

Yeah, it and it you know, it'd be interesting to see, especially as our our funds are gonna get tighter to see, you know, if we're funding them X X amount, how much how many they're serving with that, and and I don't think that's the only KPI we should be looking at, but but I think it is an important data point so that we can see as our funds are getting tighter where we're getting the most bang for our buck.

Um because you know, I I'm not sure we're able to sustain all the nonprofits, you know.

So um yeah, so if we could look at that ratio, that would that would be helpful.

Sure, and that's a measure that we track with every single agency.

I was gonna say, I'm sure you'll have the data, it's just uh putting it together so that way we can look at that.

Um let me see.

I we did get some feedback, and it's and it's it's not negative feedback, it's just a it's a just a place of not knowing about the after-school challenge.

I see that they're designated a pretty um significant award.

We have heard some mixed reviews, and so are they able to present to us in a B session or or a different um or in community health or whatever, just so that way we can fully understand their impact.

I think that'd be a good idea.

Perfect, thank you.

Um, the requirements.

Give me one second.

One of the things, you know, that I do think is important is that a lot of these programs that are being funded to help with youth education.

Obviously, youth education is extremely important.

Um, and we know that our public education system is extremely underfunded by the state.

Um, but I think that there's a case to be made on why we need to be putting youth education on the city of San Antonio's legislative agenda, because it's like the state's not paying for it, and so it all falls on us.

And so when it falls on us, then we can't pay for sidewalks that residents want, or we can't pay for enough ACS patrol officers to prevent dog attacks, right?

And so I do think that we need to start getting extremely aggressive on pushing this at the state level.

Um, so that way uh I mean, again, residents are demanding ACS officers, they're demanding sidewalks, and so those are the things that we we need to prioritize.

Thank you.

Those are my comments, thanks.

Thank you.

Councilmember Mesa Gonzalez, followed by Councilmember White.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.

Um thank you to um Melody and your team for providing this um input.

I'm supportive of of our funding our delegate agencies, and appreciate the uh slide six on the community funders alignment because I just think it's crucial that we are aligning with those folks doing this day in and day out, whether it's United Way or Krumkowski, and so I'm glad to see that there was uh alignment there.

Um I had a couple of clear just questions on the to clarify, you might have missed this, but the four million is that on the the federal grants that's part of that four million numbers you're seeing.

So one or can you clarify how much of it is in federal grants?

It's 4.5 million.

4.5.

And what um it that's state and federal, but most is federal.

Okay.

And can you provide some examples of what that goes towards?

So the the state dollars come from TDHCA, the homeless services and shelter shelter program.

Um that's about 280,000.

Uh the rest of it is federal grants through HUD, um, housing opportunities for persons with AIDS and emergency solutions grant, which primarily funds emergency shelter.

Okay.

And the I'm glad to see the children and youth success, especially that college career and military readiness.

I think we've obviously as a city invested in pre-K, we've invested in ready to work and Alamo Promise, and so that college and career military readiness is in the middle there, so I'm glad to see that in there.

Um on the and our largest bucket is in ending homelessness.

I guess for all of the buckets, can you prioritize I guess how do we prioritize within those buckets?

So on October 15th, when I did the pre-solicitation, we talked about you know, uh, based on FY25, this was the percent of the total pool that went into each bucket.

Um homelessness has been the highest, and part of that is because if you add in the designated agencies, Haven for Hope has a very large uh allocation.

So about half of it ends up being um homelessness.

The it and that's just been based on council priority and and goal setting.

But within that homelessness, ending homelessness 6.73, and we have homeless youth, families, chronic homelessness.

What's prior, what's the priority within those?

Who's getting the most?

Does that make sense?

I'll let Patrick give you a little more.

I guess for all of them, I'd ask that.

Sure.

And so for in the homeless bucket, the um the discretionary spending is about 5.1 million, and most of that is the the four and a half in in federal grants, federal and state grants.

So we do follow the first is the grant regulations, so what they can be used on.

Um much of that's for people with HIV and AIDS, the Hoppo grant.

Um, but then within the um the emergency solutions grant that Mel mentioned, um, our priority is driven by our strategic plan to the earlier point, um, with a so strong emphasis on chronic homelessness.

Okay.

Uh and then families and and youth as well, but the strongest emphasis being on chronic homelessness, those are the folks who we see on the streets the longest.

Okay, thank you so much.

And on I appreciate the uh theater classes for the senior independents.

We know at Bob Ross Senior Center, uh, what is it, seniors in play?

Um, I mean, that is just the the folks light up in those classes, and it's just if you ever need to feel good one day, just drop into one of those classes because I'm telling you, it'll it'll make you feel good because uh our seniors really enjoy that time um and to bond with folks to interact, um, it really does help.

Um, as far as on slide 15 on the outsourcing, I mentioned this in um B session when we talked about this, and I thought it was important to utilize our you know, fillethrap philanthropic partners um in this way, and so I would be supportive of exploring outsourcing these discretionary funds, and I know other cities do this.

United Way, um, I don't know if you guys have this information on um, but I remember asking United Way too at the time, you know, hey, do you all do this in other cities?

And I seem to believe that they did.

I don't know if you have any background on how they provide this services in other uh municipalities.

I know there are a couple of cities, and I want to say Baltimore is one of them, but I don't have a lot of information on it.

That would certainly be part of any review of outsourcing would be benchmarking and comparing.

But other cities do this, correct?

I think I I think so, yes.

Okay.

So okay.

Uh those are all my questions.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Councilman White.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Town.

Um, I want to thank uh Melody for the presentation and say it at the outset again.

I think all of these organizations uh that receive funding are um they serve a great purpose.

There's obviously a lot of folks in need, and and I understand uh the value in these programs.

Um that said, I do think 20 million dollars coming from the general fund um for these delegate agencies is uh is too much, um especially considering the uh the public safety, uh the infrastructure uh and economic development needs that uh that our city has.

Uh specifically related to economic development, I think many of us recently uh got to meet with that group who's providing some guidance to the city on how we can do things better from an economic development perspective.

And at the end of my meeting with them, I I said, Well, you know, what what can we do better?

And they told me you guys have to allocate more resources to economic development.

Uh and I would say that um that's exactly right.

And you know, when we look at spending 20 million dollars from our general fund here, when we could add a few more million dollars to economic development, create jobs and things like that for some of our residents, uh, I think that would uh help with um you know a lot of the needs that uh that we see and that we're talking about today, providing jobs for our citizens, um you know could help alleviate some of some of those requests down the road.

Um with that, um couple of of comments here.

Uh it looks like uh the presentation showed 26 new uh programs from 22 agencies while cutting uh 13 currently funded programs.

So are the new programs replacing services of those other 13 expanding the services and and what's sort of the thought here in adding additional um you know additional programs, especially in this deficit environment.

So we we stick to the city's procurement process, and we have evaluators that score proposals, they rank the proposals, and we stay very close to that ranking in order to make funding recommendations.

And so in some cases, you're going to have proposals from someone new that is stronger than a proposal from someone who's been funded for 10 or 15 years.

And so that's that's how we ended up with that many new agencies.

And and so are the are the new agencies the services they're providing replacing the services provided by those uh those 13 that we're cutting.

So in the in if we're talking about a central programs that are supporting city initiatives, um we're you're not gonna see as many new programs.

We so goodwill and communities and schools with next level um as an example, they've done a great job.

They're funded again to continue doing that work because they're we're very they're very ingrained in the work that we're doing.

Most of the new programs will be part of the discretionary funding, and so they're not necessarily replacing one for one.

I I will say we had a lot of proposals for parenting education.

So if we look at it that way, there are there is or are parenting programs that are being replaced by new programs.

On slide five, I saw the 50% match requirements listed as a continuing policy.

Uh, what what percentage of the currently funded agencies are are meeting that that percentage and what happens if they don't?

The delegate agencies that are in this process, 100% are meeting.

Um it we have very few agencies that are even close to 50% of their um budget coming from the city.

Most of them are um well over a million dollars.

And if they don't meet the 50% match, well, what happens?

Um so we would not re not reimburse them for the programs for the work they're doing.

Um they don't have to have the match on day one, but they have to show us when they're invoicing that they're meeting the match, and we would only pay up to the amount of match that they provide.

All right, my um thank you for that.

My last question is uh the timeline states uh FY28 renewal based on funding availability and performance.

Um performance really isn't defined anywhere here in the presentation.

I guess is that on a contract by contract basis and and what what metrics are we are we looking at for these for these agencies to hit so it is somewhat on a contract by contract basis.

We um part of the work we've been doing is been doing is trying to standardize.

So for example, if we have several programs that are providing parent education, they would have this uh similar metrics going forward.

Um and we would ask them to report those same things so that we can compare the performance and also have a better idea of you know of um how much is being done, how what are the outcomes that are being um performed for the uh category of funding?

Um but some of the programs are unique, they don't necessarily fit into a certain bucket.

Um who measures the performance and and what would trigger non-renewal or or mid-contract clawback?

So they set goals at the beginning of the contract.

Um if they're not meeting their goals, we do quarterly, we get monthly reports, we do verification to make sure that the numbers they're reporting are really happening.

We look at quarterly um, you know, we do more analysis so that we know if they're on target or not.

If they're not on target, maybe they're falling below 80 percent of what they've um set as a goal, then we ask them to do corrective action plans, and we continue to monitor through the fiscal year.

So as we go into the next year to make recommendations, we would have agencies that um we would recommend not funding if their performance hasn't improved, but we also provide a lot of technical assistance to help them get back on track.

Okay, all right.

That's all I have.

Thank thank you for that.

Sure.

Thank you.

Councilmember Corps, followed by Council Member Via Brown.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.

Um, thank you all so much.

I want to start off by thanking all the nonprofits that are here for all the work that you guys do.

Uh, I can't say enough how important it is, and I think it's really important for us to remember that we're never going to reach the targets that we have set for our communities without partnership and support with you guys.

So I want you to know that in district one, you have a committed person to making sure that you guys are adequately taken care of as we go through these tough times so that we can continue to service all of our students because um particularly you guys know my background with kiddos that uh the the more background services we can provide, the less we'll have to be spending money on officers 10 years from now because we'll be providing preventative support for them.

Um all that to say um I I love all of our nonprofits.

I just have some questions on how decisions were made and kind of what I've been digging into the applications.

I want to thank you all for the time and effort you put into these applications.

They were all very thorough.

And some of our programs in particular.

So that being said, though, I do have uh uh several questions on pro, and I I'm sorry, I said I was gonna get you guys this beforehand, and I didn't, so I'm sorry.

Um so from the rubrics, how do we translate from the rubric score that they got to what they are actually being funded?

So that that part of that is how they ranked, you know, generally the higher ranking um agencies, we were at least trying to fund at level funding.

Um if they were previously receiving a contract.

Um for the new programs, we have most of them at $50,000, which is our minimum funding amount, and it gives us the chance to see, especially new agencies, their capacity and and work with them on any concerns about financials or match or anything else.

So that's that is that has been our starting amount, um, although some of them asked for significantly more than that.

Yeah.

Um it doesn't fully translate, and I don't like, you know, um, for example, Girl Scouts, I love the Girl Scouts, but their funding amount, they were ranked 10th out of 13th, and their funding amount is the sec uh the third highest.

And so I uh I understand some of them are new, but I just do we take into consideration like to what was being asked, like number of kids served, where they're serving them, so that and how does that math play into the amounts?

So far as far as math, um it's it's really more about sitting down, talking to the panelists, what did they like about the proposal, what um what part of the program really appealed to them, and then you know, we are also looking at budgets, thinking, you know, wow, that's way too much administrative costs.

Um we we want to see things more focused on services, and so a good example is Oates, Oates asked for a significant amount of money, and about 44% when we looked at the budget was administrative and non-instructional.

And so we reduced um the amount that they were funded previously to fund only what we felt was appropriate.

They also had um asked to for funding for centers that were not operated by the city, and so we removed that as well.

Got it.

So I guess my thought is like if we're thinking about our strategy and we're saying college readiness, college and military readiness is our strategy.

What is our goal that we want to see?

Right?

So college and military readiness is affected by all spectrums, right?

By by all up until the point where you are at that.

So you could be doing um pre-K work that could be supporting college and military readiness, and you could be doing direct college coaching.

So what do we think about if this is our goal, what is the target that we want in this goal, and then how can we fund accordingly within that kind of strategy to say we're pushing, we're hoping that this percentage in this area will get direct support versus this this amount of this funding is for preliminary support.

We have um breakdowns of how much is going to dropout, how much is going to college readiness?

We stuck pretty closely to that based on previous years' funding.

Uh but the you know, the big categories were it was a priority to stay focused on so when there was funding for children and youth, and within that we have dropout and military readiness or college career and military military readiness.

Um we didn't say, okay, these kindergarten readiness um contracts will also support economic development.

We stuck to what was asked for in the RFP, which listed under college and career uh readiness, mentoring, counseling, um, those types of programs that first help students graduate and then help them move on.

Yeah, I guess I'm saying, like, are we using a goal-driven strategy where we're thinking this is our goal and this is how we're providing funding to attract attack that goal?

Yes, we have we have our we have long-term outcomes that we're trying to achieve.

What's the one for college and career readiness?

Do you know?

Let's see.

So, for example, college and career readiness, you know, we are the the things that are reported to us and then we're asking for to meet our goals is the percent reporting increased interest in attending college, um, following a particular career path or enlisting in the military, attending post-secondary education.

And so we're asking uh programs to track the work they're doing to the point where they know if people have if the program has actually worked and people have actually entered college or entered the military.

Because this the things that they are reporting back on the performance metrics are different for each.

So, for example, Girl Scouts is that pre- and post-survey, um, but for um boys and girls club, they have additional like students who are in their senior year of high school students increase in interest, so they have different respondents in that it performance metrics than others do.

So when are they submitting what they want to track, or are you guys saying this is what we want you to track?

It's a negotiation.

So they will start out by submitting what they want to track, and we sit down with them, you know, with every agency and say, well, that's not that doesn't really fit our plan.

But I'll let uh Jessica talk about it more.

So just to add councilwoman, so we use a results-based accountability method that's similar to the method that United Way uses.

So we have long-term outcomes, as Mel mentioned, in the college career military readiness, that's 70% of students in the the um high schools graduate, determined to be college career and military ready.

What we then do or are identify proxy measures.

So we had agencies propose, but again, looking at what we're funding, the type of services, we're gonna standardize that across agencies.

So they're really telling us how their services tie to that long-term outcome, that community indicator.

Yeah, I guess that for the future, what I'm looking for is like, okay, this is our long-term outcome, these are our proxy measures, this is how these dollars we predict are going to affect them.

So a little bit closer of a correlation to the impact of what this funding is doing and what we are projecting to serve in terms of the number of kids, and so how we can increase that number, like a little bit more clarity on that metrics.

Um, and then the last thing I'll ask about this, and I know I um I'm already pretty much out of time, but do we know why urban champions didn't get their local preference program points?

I actually don't know, but we will follow up on that and include it in follow-up information.

Okay, both them and students of service on the final matrix as zero for local preference points, and if urban champions got that, they're um they were ranked 12 and they would have moved up to nine.

And so they're an example of um an organization that I think is doing like very specific targeted college readiness work in the summer.

So I that's kind of the thing I was trying to understand.

Where like they're an organization doing um immediate work for kids graduating, and some of these other ones are doing like we're doing a session in uh early on, and so how do we uh determine what is more pointed and what is truly going to address that um that goal that we have for college and career readiness?

Got it.

Okay, I'll buzz back in for a second.

Thank you, Councilmember Via Gran.

Um thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you, Melanie and Human Services for your work to do.

This is always um I think I I don't know if you're always first in the budget to to go forward, but this is always the hard part.

Uh we know we face um deficit, we know we have to make some hard choices and for you to begin in terms of delegate agencies.

Uh I'd like Ruben or Justina, I don't even know.

Uh what is the City of San Antonio budget overall?

Good afternoon, Council One Council.

Uh the total city budget is about four billion dollars.

Four billion dollars.

So that four billion dollars, what percentage is the what is it, 24.5 million that we're talking about today?

Oh, it's less than one percent.

Less than one percent.

Thank you.

So my big question uh so this is necessary.

We should be at two percent.

We should be at 5%.

Any conversation had that we should take this money and put it somewhere else isn't it's not even worth debate.

This is less than 1% of our budget.

To back to our residents, who pay taxes, if not through property taxes, through um sales tax that work in our cities, that take our buses, that shop here.

So I'm just it just kind of makes my skin crawl when people say we shouldn't be doing this because we should, and we should be doing more of this.

And Melody, the fact that you have to come and you have to cut some groups that we know are working really hard to serve our community.

And I want to thank all of the nonprofits that are here.

I want to thank the faith-based groups that are serving with our community that aren't here, that do this without the accolades, that do this without the city help, because our applications are just too long.

Um thank you.

Thank you for being here and for coming here today.

And we and we face some very difficulties because while we have Texas has one of the largest GDPs, we're still waiting for our money for 2026 to come back to us.

So as we have this conversation, I understand you had to make some difficult choices.

I I go back and forth on whether or not we need to get a third agency to help.

Um, as we've discussed and I've seen the the groups, I do have questions, but you know, mainly the question is what do we now, what do we need in terms of our delegated delegate agencies immediately now because of the economic crisis we're in.

And I know everyone's like, yeah, well, not everyone, but you know, yes, let's ask the college and military and career readiness.

We are actually at war.

So I don't know how many kids actually want to go into the military right now.

College, it is just getting more expensive.

Do are we starting with the college readiness of our Alamo community colleges?

Like there, there's just a lot of uncertainty going on.

So, of course, my focus is going to be while I want all of these agencies to continue.

Perhaps we need to focus on our kinder reading, our kinder readiness and making sure that we're strengthening the families and that the parents have the programs out there that are helping with the children because one thing we do know for a fact is that child care is we are facing these child care deserts.

So anybody that has a program and you know mentioned before urban champions, as I know they do after school, because they're they're dealing with kids in soccer.

So maybe we kind of look at that.

So I think right now, as we move forward, looking at what immediate needs we see within the next two years as we are in this um unpredictable era.

The other thing is businesses as chair of economic workforce development, as chair of audit, talking with businesses and communities.

They want to come to a city that they feel safe and accepted at.

And part of that is having a variety of programs for their children and their parents and the different generations.

And I think the city is working on that.

So I I really am encouraged about what you're doing.

I think we need this is gonna be something where we periodically need to do, and I I appreciate that you're trying to get all the specifics, but at a notice, it may change in terms of what our delegate agencies need to do.

So in being in constant communication about what we're seeing is the impact as we go through the current economic crisis we have.

I do not envy you or your job.

Thank you so much for making the cuts that you have, but less than one percent of our budget goes back to to help actual programming residents.

That is not acceptable.

We should be at 1%, 2%, 5% at least, but we're not there.

And yes, we need to be committed to bring better, better business, better economy, better growth, but we we only do that if this be is a city that people feel welcomed at, and that doesn't happen by cutting our delegate agencies.

So thank you for the presentation.

Uh I look forward to hearing more and discussing this during budget.

Thank you, Councilmember Castillo, followed by Council Member Spears.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem, and thank you, Melody, for the presentation.

Just this morning I was listening to the sermon which highlighted the power of the person in the purse and how budgets aren't neutral documents, they represent principles and values.

Uh and it's how you spend those dollars.

And when we talk about priorities, and when I think about the budget town halls that we have in District 5 in particular, and when we dig into the weeds when we hear district five residents prioritize public safety, community investment, and what that looks like to them, it looks like the work that many of these delegate agencies do in the services that they provide.

And when we dig into uh the weeds, for example, for uh children and youth success, strengthening families, um, what comes to mind, and I was pleased to see um, particularly for opportunity youth was Chrysalis Ministries.

Um, it's uh a nonprofit out in District One, had an opportunity to go visit with Nino and to see the work that they're doing.

Uh, not only do they provide resources for at-risk youth, but for adults that have been formally incarcerated, as well as providing support to uh the families of incarcerated individuals, and they are partners with ready to work, right?

So when we talk about workforce development, many of these nonprofits are working with our community members to get them back on track, get a skill, get a trade, uh, and and earn money sometimes with some of the trade programs while they learn.

So I I I hear the priority of workforce development, um, but many of these delegate agencies are that vehicle to that workforce development opportunity.

So uh wanted to highlight that nonprofit in particular, um, but also how they provide support for at-risk youth.

Again, they're able to give us a tour.

This was about a year and a half ago of the services that they provide to youth, how they have restore education also housed uh at the time they had them housed there in their nonprofit as well.

Um, but again, right, the goal when we talk about public safety is ensuring that folks do not re-offend.

And that's why I value the work of Maria, because uh again, it's not just about the incarceration piece, while it may be important depending on what the offense is, um, but it's about how do we get these folks not to commit the same crime again to where community members aren't worried about public safety in their community?

Um but it takes a holistic approach uh in terms of of how we get there.

Um so I I again uh I I did have one question, particularly with next level opportunity.

Um, can you share?

Is there a wait list for that program?

Uh and if so, what does that typically look like?

The wait list right now is two months.

Two months.

Yes.

Yeah, and I think uh in terms of investment, this is a program that has great impact that goes beyond uh several council districts.

Uh and again, it goes back to ensure that we invest in our youth and our future workforce.

Uh so I I would be hopeful that we can work towards increasing the funding to address that wait list because I believe it's every year there's a wait list to participate uh in next level.

Uh and again, that also has a workforce component as well.

Um so uh and I going back to Chris's ministries, um, do we know if that was the full amount that they applied for?

Uh and if so, if if it was if it wasn't rather um what was the total amount that they were seeking?

Well um look that up real quick, but I can tell you I think any agency received the amount they applied for.

So this was awarded 50,000.

Okay.

Do you know the amount?

We're looking.

Wonderful.

We'll get it for you.

Okay, and then I I think offline leading up to the next uh briefing under a session, I'd like to understand um which delegate agencies the total amount they applied and how much they are awarded, so that way uh I just can see those numbers.

But um in short, uh I think this is uh a bucket that we should be looking to increase support for, um, particularly when we look at the numbers of disengaged at-risk youth, and again connecting that to that is our future of workforce.

Uh, and if we want to look at economic development and incentivizing businesses, encouraging them to invest in San Antonio, it requires us investing in our workforce.

And again, by proxy, these delegate agencies uh are going above and beyond with that work uh and often working uh doing much with very little, um, and that doesn't mean that we should accept that and we should be increasing their their funding and support.

Um but in short, I just appreciate the work of all the delegate agencies and um whether it's senior independence, ending homelessness, youth, and success or strengthening families, uh, this is where we should be uh increasing funding uh and uh delegating much of our resources again.

If we want to chip away at those public safety uh issues, uh our dropout rates, so on and so forth, uh, this is where the work is.

Thank you, Mayor.

Just to answer real quick, the Chrysalis had applied for about a million dollars a little over.

And if you look at tab five in the binder, that shows all of the agencies that are funded, the amount they requested and the number of proposals.

Thanks.

Thank you, Councilmember Spears.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.

Um thank you for the presentation.

I just I just had a couple of questions about um on I guess it was in the backup.

Can you tell me how we're gonna continue with the communication and coordination since the um American GI Forum isn't focusing on homelessness anymore and being absorbed by SAM ministries, how we're gonna make sure they're taken care of.

So we have not funded American GI Forum um for several years now through this through this process or through our department.

Um we are recommending SAM ministries for funding uh for rapid rehousing services as well as outreach services and uh services to people with HIV age.

So they've been handling that for them for a while, or they've been under SAM ministries for a while.

No, they're two separate agencies working closely with with each other and with us in the homeless response system.

Okay.

Um can you also then tell me?

I saw we're still funding American gateways.

What is what are we doing for them?

Where what's the funding going towards?

So American Gateways was the only agency that applied to provide legal services, but we are only funding um their know your rights education work and uh defense services for people with legal status.

So we after after last year's budget was adopted, we ended the uh funding of um deportation and uh detainment services, legal services, and only allowed um know your rights and legal services for uh residents with legal status.

Okay, thank you.

Um I mean I I think there's no question that many of these services are providing much needed programming.

Um and but local government really has a very specific roles and core services have to come first because you know, at the end of the day, this isn't personal, it is strictly business, and um we've got to make sure that we're meeting those core services.

I want to echo what Councilwoman Aldretica Vito said about um meeting those first, and and I agree also with the um looking at that sunsetting approach.

I wonder if we ask um how much what percentage of the delegate agency overall budgets are coming from our tax dollars from the tax dollars.

Do we ask that question?

So they provide a program and an agency budget with their application and then also with their contracts, so we can look at um you know, add all of that up and understand how much is coming from federal government, how much from state government, local government, philanthropy, um fundraising.

So we we asked for those large categories, so we can provide that.

And so I would hope we were would be considering the the groups that are able to sustain themselves and that we're more enhancing their programs so that we can see them continue to grow and and receive support out in the community and in the other funding um buckets that are available to them so that it's less and less reliant on tax dollars because you know our budget's tight and we do have to cut back in in things that we can't do everything, we just can't do it all.

So it has to be core services, and I'm not saying I think a lot of these are gonna meet that benchmark.

It's just um you know, where do where are some of these agencies crossing over and doing the same kind of work and really should be consolidating down into one?

Um I I'd like to really understand that better.

Um I mean, you could dive so deep into this, which I guess is why you want to get the out outsourcing piece there, which um I had some questions on that too.

That's slide 15, right?

So you're you're wanting that.

Well, are they also going to help assess ways we can you know start to scale back tax dollars when they're looking at that?

Because I see they are gonna be able to look at duplicative services and I mean to clarify, we're not necessarily recommending that we do this.

It's just we're rec we're asking if council wants us to explore it.

What does that mean though when you want to explore it?

So there's been discussion um about possibly outsourcing the program, and that's that's happened a couple of different times.

So we put it out there as something the council can give us direction on.

So if you would like us to you know dive deeper into that uh for the next cycle, we can we can do that at your direction.

Okay.

I'm curious about it.

I could be sub potentially be supportive of that.

Um, I and I know like you talk about senior services and and what that does for our senior centers, and and I mean I I'm fully supportive and understand that.

It's just um, you know.

Again, it's hard, it's hard for me to say um, yeah, we'll use I just really want to be accountable and transparent on how these dollars are being used and make sure we're being efficient and that they're meeting core services and um you know how it's being used within different departments.

Um I'd like to see us rewarding those those agencies that are coordinating their effort, really showing and showing an understanding that this is at the end of the day, tax dollars.

And um so those are the kinds of things I'm looking for and can be supportive of.

But I do think that's that is a great idea that that councilwoman Adrete Cavito was talking about is the sunsetting of some of these agencies and really focusing on our core services.

And you know, a lot of these fall within that that I believe.

So I do thank you for your for your presentation.

So thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Purden.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Councilmember Moghea, followed by Councilmember Galvan.

Thank you very much.

Um Melody, earlier you talked about um one of the art folks uh that does artwork in the senior centers, what was it called?

Build house arts.

So they did not apply and are gonna receive some funding based on the services we're kind of needing from them.

Yes.

Um it's pretty the arts and crafts classes are pretty popular in the senior centers.

So either that's an option is uh for council to go ahead and approve that contract.

Uh but we wanted to be up front that they didn't apply and not just slot them into the process.

Well, I think it's very important.

I think every senior center has artwork posted by seniors, so I think it's very, very valuable to the seniors.

Is that the only nonprofit that is gonna get funding that did not apply for funding?

Yes.

Okay.

Um in the course of working with some of these nonprofits.

Have we uh gotten to the discussion or asked them what would happen should city funding for their nonprofit be sunset?

I mean, we hear from the nonprofits, um, we know the impact of loss of funding based on the measures or the outcomes and the performance metrics they report.

We know okay, this this agency has a goal of serving 500 students, and those 500 students might not be served.

But the other side of that is you know, they would um look for funding somewhere else.

But um they probably do that now already.

Yes.

So if they haven't gotten funding from somewhere else, I'm sure having their local municipality strip away funding probably won't help them get funding from other places.

That's a good point.

Do you find that to be pretty accurate with your work with nonprofits?

Yeah, I think a lot of funders, well, we when we um issue RFPs, we ask for um information on past performance.

And you know, if you're reporting that you weren't funded due to performance issues, yes, that would impact.

I think some of the national, you know, endowments or things of that nature aren't gonna be look at the budget meeting and see that the city had some budget shortfalls and they decided to take away funding.

I think they're just gonna see the city stop supporting a nonprofit for a very important uh issue in the community.

So I think that has a negative a net negative effect.

I think it can have a domino effect that we don't we don't know that we would see that here, right?

We kind of we we can't forecast that.

So the recommended budget for fiscal year 27 for these is is what again, I'm sorry.

14 point is 14.9.

And fiscal year 26 was 24.5?

Oh no, that uh the 24 million is the total funding pool, and that includes the agencies about 10 million dollars for designated funding to agencies.

So when you strip that off, you have to do that.

So is it roughly equal from last fiscal year that you're proposing for 27?

It is from if you look at fiscal year 25, it is less because of the $500,000 reduction for historical underspending.

That's a permanent reduction.

Okay.

And those folks that were going to get that funding, they're not able, they're not really applying for something similar to for the funding they were getting from that $500,000.

It it it's not tied to a certain sector category or agency.

It's a drop in the pool.

And so when we make the funding decisions, there's less money.

Okay.

So there's going to be less money in 27 than there was before.

In 25.

So it it'll be actually a little more money in 27 from 26.

Okay.

Because the 26 reduction also included those one-time budget amendments that were reduced from the reserve.

Okay.

And going into 27, uh, remind me again what was your reserve amount.

There's no reserve amount for 27, but the total pool is 20 estimated to be 24.4 million.

Okay, gotcha.

And another question, I was looking at some of the backups.

Did every nonprofit who's getting awarded um score higher than those that did not?

So is there anyone who scored higher than somebody who's getting money that is not getting money?

So there are a few that um were skipped.

And that was because with restore education, they applied their applications were generally in the mid um range, but ready to work provides it's significant amount of funding to restore education.

And since we're encouraging our programs and our own programs to enroll people who are interested in furthering education in ready to work, they should have access to restore education through ready to work.

Okay.

So maybe in the backup the memo you send us, you can put each of those nonprofits that scored higher that are not getting funding, and a reason why that is.

That actually was a design is a designated agency, probably shouldn't be on the list.

Um the way through, and then it yeah.

They declined their um contract early in the fiscal year 26.

Okay.

And so we didn't include them for 27.

And why would why did they deny the contract again?

I think they just decided they weren't getting a uh it was less than 100,000, I think, and they just felt like it wasn't worth the the work.

And which are the four ISDs that are getting the after school challenge?

It's um San Antonio ISD, Edgewood ISD, Harlandale, and Southwest.

And uh those are going to be roughly the same amount that they got in the prior year?

Yes.

Okay.

Excellent.

Well, thank you, Melody, appreciate that.

Uh you know, and I'll just say that since we're on the subject of sunsetting and taking away funding from people.

Um, you know, I think it it's difficult to relate this to an infrastructure piece of infrastructure that doesn't currently exist.

Um so there's plenty of streets in my neighborhood that don't have sidewalks.

And um, while I'm sure people like to have them, you can have a sidewalk, but if it's going to be at the expense of somebody trying to get help from the rape crisis center, or American Indians in Texas not being able to teach their, you know, good parenting, good fatherhood classes, or folks not able to get help through the beat aids coalition, or children not getting services to the child's bereavement center of South Texas, or kids not being able to go after school programs at communities and schools, you know, people who are in house not able to get Gotaswal Ministries help, uh, which is by the way, I think the number one and number two budget survey priority was homelessness, homelessness surveys.

You know, people who are in house not able to get quotas on ministry's help, uh, which is by the way, I think the number one and number two budget survey priority was homelessness, homelessness surveys.

Um, you know, that's that's quite different than not having a sidewalk or wishing you did have a sidewalk to get to somewhere.

So I just want to say that that is quite different.

And I think you know, we can see it on a paper what that cut would look like, but the the net result and the results for five, ten years after substantial cuts to these programs would be pretty detrimental.

And I think it would have to really primarily affect kids living inside 410, if I can imagine where the services are going and who's benefiting them from that.

So that's probably uh most of us up here who have people in residence in Fort 10.

So just want to add that piece.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tim.

Thank you, Councilmember Galban.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tim, and thank you, Melody, for the presentation um and for all the work on the back end too with staff uh to make this presentation as well as uh conducting this work every single day.

Of course, thank you to the nonprofits who are here and all the folks who are watching at home or from work.

Um really appreciate all the work you do every day, day in and day out for our community, um, whether it's our youngest children or our oldest folks in our community uh or our adults uh who may need some extra support here and there as life continues to change for all of us.

Um we know the work that you all do is incredibly important.

And I think it's you know incumbent upon us to find ways to continue to support the kind of grassroots organizations that are here in our community doing this work day in and day out, uh, to communities that otherwise you know may not have trust with other entities.

Um but the folk the work that you've done so far uh and for so long has enabled that trust to be able to get the support when it comes to educational needs and support or for workforce development um or for re entering uh life after being incarcerated or any other kinds of support that that all of our nonprofits provide.

So I just wanted to say that, and I really appreciate um our continued efforts in supporting many of these nonprofits here in our community.

And while I know, of course, we're having our own budget conversations later this year, and we continue to kind of talk about them uh through our conversations here on council.

Um I don't think these uh should be looked at as for the first to go.

Um it's easy to say that when they're external partners, and of course, there's always critiques that we can have on our folks that we're supporting and figuring out how can we make the best alignment there as possible to meet the goals that we have here.

Those I think are regular conversations to have, but I think um being too hasty on saying we're gonna pull the plug on a lot of these programmings uh that's gonna be too impactful to our community and detrimental to them uh in a time where we're seeing our economy continue to shift in a direction that is uh very harmful for the folks who are often the ones being served by these uh nonprofits is just probably not the right path to go, at least I don't I don't believe so.

Um this conversation also reminds you a little bit about um the Education Opportunities Committee and even community health committee conversations we have often about many of the organizations and many of the work, as much of the work that is done in this kind of space in social services, um, and how many of our council members and I are trying to figure out how can we best uh fund these programs to make sure they're getting the best impact possible, um whether it's for oral health for our kids, uh, to be able to focus at school um or it's uh finding ways to support our libraries and certain ways to support the school nearby them uh so we can help the literacy rate um both inside of school and outside of the school.

Um because you know that there's our partners in our community that are doing this work that cannot do it all.

Uh and while me can't do it all, we can try to figure out a way to do it uh to get it to where we reach the best impact possible.

Um there are thousands and thousands of kids who are impacted by our ASR programs, by our uh oral healthcare programs, by our uh S T D prevention programs, by all kinds of different programs that are both health department as well as uh many of the nonprofits here that are human services department supports.

And so I I think we just have to continue finding ways to how do we scale them up.

And I think that's something that I heard from a couple of my colleagues a bit about understand the kind of larger tracking with this.

Um of course I know we put a lot of uh a lot of requests on our folks that we fund to figure out what kind of work that we're doing there and how it's moving the needle, but I think figuring out a little bit more uh or doing a bit more digging into that kind of outcome tracking that I believe Council Record was kind of talking a bit about seeing how does that direct dollar amount really impact um X many families, students, etc.

Um, and get them to the best outcome possible, whether it's uh moving them out of a range of poverty or getting them into a safer place to live in our community or whatever it may be, um, and understanding what that looks like at scale, right?

And I think we can continue to shift our priorities here and there um with different nonprofits over funding based on that.

Um, so we can see that that real return of investment on that.

We've now housed this many people, we've now done this much um support that ultimately supports our public safety or our health or our well-being here in our community.

Um that I mean, that's continuous work that I think it can happen.

Um, and I think it's absolutely necessary so we can figure out whether where our dollars are going as best as possible.

And I guess it leads to me to the slide 15.

One as we look at the outsourcing of some of the discretionary funding.

But I wanted to ask Melody uh is what's the I mean I understand the the considerations here when we talk about um making sure there's a streamlined process here for all the folks to be able to apply to.

I think that makes a lot of sense to make it as easy as possible.

Um having one agency kind of doing that collecting um and monitoring.

Um how much of an administrative burden is it on us to do that kind of communication with either area foundation or United Way or other folks?

Um is it in terms of time, is it in terms of like different priorities on what we're looking at there between the two or the multiple entities that we're coordinating with, or I guess can you walk me through what that current coordination looks like now?

Sure.

We work with um those core funders, Area Foundation, Kronkowski, United Way, um, even HEB Foundation.

And so there's there's a number of funders that are part of a funders group, and we participate in those work groups.

Uh so we're we're pretty connected to them.

The the most overlap well overlap's not the right word, but the the closest we come is mirroring United Way.

Similar funded um programs, not always necessarily the same program, but we might be you uh working with the same agencies.

So it's important for us to be there, and we're gonna be there anyway.

So I guess that's my my concern or maybe not concern, but just my my questioning along this one is uh if that communication is already happening, what what's missing from that?

That's I know we're looking to see if we're kind of double dipping in some way or whatever it may be.

Uh we're not getting that information now, or what what is the what's the breakdown in communication in terms of being able to see, okay, we funded X group and so did this agency, but we funded them for these things within their program.

I'm just trying to understand a bit more about what the So they're they're engaged in uh asset mapping so that we have a better understanding of what Kronkowski funds, what you know way funds, what area foundation funds, what we fund, and all of the other organizations uh more involved in discussions about how we align metrics.

So, you know, back to we don't need to ask if if we're funding the same program, we don't they don't need to have three different reports.

Um so that's really the goal is trying to bring those things together.

And that makes sense, right?

Also getting away from the three applications as well that are all uh lengthy and maybe have different questions or kind of form of format of questions, um, but similar questioning.

Um I guess my my question is is that not possible to do in-house already uh with our partners, or is it preferred to do it externally or you just kind of walk into the document?

I think we don't know yet um until we walk you know, walk through it, but we absolutely do that in-house now.

So that is that's part of our funding process for the whole pool.

Yeah.

Um, is to have those conversations.

The funders participate on our panels and our reviews um in our uh community feedback, we participate in theirs, so that we're all seeing what each other is doing.

So that that, like I said, will continue regardless of whether we outsource or not.

It it doesn't change that part.

Got it.

And I guess my I get concerned when I see the uh the considerations portion of slide 15 when we look at the less control over investment and the kind of decreased responsiveness for city priorities.

Of course, I think those things can be worked out, but it does make me a bit nervous about um how much it's gonna take on our end to continue kind of trying to figure out okay, are we getting all the information we need?

Are we still being able to track it?

When we could do hopefully the alternative, at least I believe, um, to bring to be the kind of facilitator to be the table and have folks come around towards us and be able to be able to maintain that.

And I I don't know if it's maybe comes down to budgeting within our own budget about like who's able to do that.

Do we know how many staff uh typically administer discretionary funds in this way from city staff?

I don't have a breakdown between all of the contracts and just discretionary, but we could we can take a stab at that.

But it's it's a lot of people, and we have contract officers and fiscal people are involved.

Right.

When we do the process, the city attorney's office, procurement, all of those groups are involved.

Um what we would have to figure out is what do we are we going to expect the same level of monitoring and fiscal oversight that we provide.

Um and if that's the case, then uh there, I think administrative rate might tend to be higher than ours.

So that that's a that's an important comparison that we would take a look at.

Yeah, I think that'd be helpful for any kind of follow-up conversation or memos here and stuff like that, with just understanding a bit more about you know how many folks are engaged here, whether it's on the city side to understand the full cost of it, because if that's I think the ultimate uh point here.

Um that'd be good for us to know a little bit more, or at least for me.

Um we've done that um calculations, so yeah.

We know what we spend.

Yeah, yeah.

Just to give you some context, so we did look at how much it takes for us to administer the entire program, so both discretionary, essential, and consolidated.

So there's about 16.

It equates to about 16 full-time equivalent positions, and it's about 1.5 million dollars that we spend on it.

So it's about 5% of the of the um total delegate agency budget.

Is it five percent of the total delegate agency funding?

Correct.

Okay.

Okay, thank you so much for that.

Um I think that was my main question there, just trying to understand a bit more about that option.

Um I'll have to get back to you about what my full thought is.

I mean, I'm still leaning more towards keeping it in-house just because I think it's helpful uh to have it all lined up.

But thank you so much for the answer to the question today.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Any further comments?

Questions feedback, Councilmember Corp.

Thank you.

Just a couple more things that I'd like to request prior to y'all coming back to A session.

Um, one in the domestic violence prevention.

Um, if y'all can explain to me in the rubric the difference between Bear County Family Justice Center and for her was a.2 in points.

So at five was 90.8, and at six was 90.6.

So for point two of a point for point two points to not get any funding, I just but like to better understand.

I know their request was I just looked up the request, it was 220,000 to serve 300 um 24 people in, sorry, 360 people in counseling and support services that they provide.

Um, and then on the other hand, we are proving Catholic charities for their Grace Counseling program, and it's they requested more for less people, so I'm just trying to better understand how that determination was made.

Because I think you had mentioned that the application was, I don't know what was there was I know it was mentioned in my briefing, but I forgot what the um thought behind that was.

And then in the other category for dropout prevention, um, if I could better understand why um RISE Recovery, which is a direct service provider for dropout prevention, uh, wasn't uh included or what for their funding as well.

And I think that was it.

There was maybe one other one that oh, and the other one was um Empowerhouse SA, their funding was dropped, but they're also doing direct work for social emotional learning in schools at at Tefoya, they're actually um in SEISD schools.

So for me, I'd like to in partnering with Maria's point on like which places we're gonna be able to give recommendations to.

I feel like Empower House would be a good one because they're in schools doing social emotional learning work, and they call them like peace rooms that they develop at schools, and so I think we should take that into consideration as we are also providing this funding to say like which ones are gonna be able to be providing a direct support for our kids in terms of our big goals.

And then just on all of the conversation about where we should be providing our funding and if one percent of our budget should go to this, I think this is why the conversation we're having at Educational Opportunities Committee is so important regarding data and showing how the data makes a difference.

When we just kind of when we don't have clear goals and targets set aside and show the correlation between this is where Guardian House is doing work, and as a result, this is the impact that we see.

When we can't clearly show that to the community, the community doesn't see the value in the input.

So the reason why we ask for better tracking and for being able to overlay what we're providing is so that we can sell the work and make a case for it.

We we haven't really done a lot with data since you know we stopped funding SA 2020 and we used to have citywide metrics.

And I know a partnership isn't in the budget proposal this year because they're not providing direct services, but we can lean on them for data support, and especially in the college and military readiness, because we want people to be tracking where their kids are going because we can show more clearly the correlating factor between going to their program and then graduating and then making it into whichever opportunity they make it into.

But if we can't show that, which we I think have a deficit in right now, it's hard to communicate to folks how less than one percent of our budget is making an even bigger impact.

And so I think that would help better um give us the tools that we need to continue to get to who at Councilman Viegran was saying five percent, right?

How do we show the long-term impact of a kid being in a mentorship program, preventing them from being in our criminal justice system and what the value in the difference in cost of those investing in the mentorship versus having to uh put someone in jail for X amount of years?

Okay, I'm done with my rant there.

And for outsourcing, I mean, this is a lot of work, and the stuff that I even just asked you is a lot of work, right?

How do you make these nuances and decisions?

And so, I mean, if you guys feel like this is something that we could use help with in an external group that is more aligning on funding, and how do we make sure our core programs are getting our um our programs in our community are getting funded?

I mean, I'm all for it finding us the best way to get to the right solution to really track our priorities in a way that is communicated back to us so I can better defend what we the decisions that we're making.

Thanks, Mayor Pratim.

Thank you.

Any other uh questions, comments, thoughts to share.

Okay, I'll close out by uh thanking everyone for a very robust and lively discussion.

Uh, I know it's been mentioned a few times that we value the work of our partners, past, present, and future, uh, even those who we haven't entered into contract contracts with.

Uh, I can't tell you how many organizations we've worked with who have provided services uh with a great sense of urgency and a quick turnaround time when a constituent has reached out to um our office with an emergency.

Um as you are navigating fiscal challenges, we are as well, and so how we navigate that challenge is going to say a lot about um us and our values.

And a few weeks ago we had a conversation about police hiring, and since I've been in office, we've hired over 200 police officers uh to improve our response to crime.

Uh, we've also invested hundreds of millions of dollars uh into services for our residents most in need and most at risk, and a large portion of that was ARPA funding.

Uh because of that, we've seen a reduction in crime.

If we cut funding for our nonprofits, we will see desperation rise, we will see youth dropout rates rise, we will see theft rise, we will see bad decisions and risky behavior rise, we'll see violence rise, we'll see homelessness rise, and we will see crime, violent and nonviolent rise.

So we're already reaching that point where these organizations are losing funding and will have to reduce their services one way or another.

And though we won't be able to fund all things, we should mitigate these losses as much as we can.

And so I would advise my colleagues to not focus on a single tree and uh at the expense of the forests.

So thank you.

And Eric, did you want to um summarize what you heard today?

Yeah, just real quick.

Um we were intending on based on today's conversation, bringing it to full council next week.

We may we may push it back one more week.

Is there a number of follow-up items?

And given that we post for the agenda tonight.

I want to make sure we have time to circle back with the council members and get those questions.

So we'll push it back to the second week in May and get you all the follow-up.

Uh the second item, uh, Mayor Pro Tem is uh is a presentation um on Visit San Antonio and the tourism public improvement district.

Um, both Mario Bass, uh the president and CEO of Visa San Antonio, um, as well as Patricia uh Mousquish Cantor, our um convention center uh director will kind of walk through the elements of our agreement.

Uh that agreement expires later on this year.

Uh the visit of San Antonio has been uh has transitioned or transitioned in 2016 um into what they exist uh uh as today is Visa San Antonio.

Um we will need to renew the agreement with Visa San Antonio this year, but it allows us to continue to build upon the success and leverage and their expertise and the established industry relationships that are very important to not only uh the city but our uh city's economy.

Um and uh so we're gonna talk through some of the basic elements and kind of where they're at in terms of their strategic plan.

And then uh Patricia will wrap it up with a couple of additional points.

We're looking for some kind of feedback from you all.

I do intend uh or anticipate and intend to bring back um a negotiated agreement as part of the uh proposed budget.

So a lot of that work will be done during the summer.

Of course, most of it, if not all of it, is tied to dollars and the hotel occupancy tax.

Um so wanted to get this item in front of you all to get some feedback.

Thank you.

Uh thank you, and thank you for being here.

Um, I want to acknowledge we have public comment at five o'clock.

So I know you only have about 12 to 14 slides.

Uh if as quickly as you can, I would appreciate that long.

Thank you.

Thank you, City Council members and staff.

It is an honor to represent Visa San Antonio to speak to the importance of tourism to our city's economy and quality of life since our establishment in 2016.

Since our establishment in 2016, Visa San Antonio has remained focused on one clear mission, driving meaningful economic impact to our city.

And for nearly a decade, that is exactly what we have done.

These numbers before you are more than just metrics.

They represent opportunity.

They represent small businesses that are growing, jobs that are being created across all ten council districts, and a cultural economy that continues to thrive.

Tourism strengthens the quality of life our residents experience every day, from our arts and culture to our culinary and entertainment offerings.

It also delivers real financial relief to our residents, offsetting more than a thousand dollars annually in taxes for the average household.

This is the impact of one San Antonio's largest and most important industries, and one that visits San Antonio is proud to lead.

That brings us to a very important question.

What role specifically does Visa San Antonio play in delivering these results?

The answer is clear in the outcomes.

Over the past nine years, Visa San Antonio has generated $7.6 billion in total economic impact.

That represents a 25 to 10 on investment for the city through our convention sales, marketing, and public relations efforts.

In close partnership with the Convention Center team, we serve as the primary driver of major convention business, helping position the center at or near capacity while generating record revenues.

Our convention sales team also supports hotels citywide, connecting them with group businesses that fills rooms and drives spending across our community.

On the marketing side, Visa San Antonio is the only organization dedicated to promoting our city to both leisure travelers and meeting planners at scale.

Through advanced data and technology, we can now directly measure the impact of our campaigns, tracking more than 6 million visitors influenced by our efforts in recent years.

Our team also drives the national and global visibility of San Antonio through strategic media placement.

That New York Times story about San Antonio being the must-visit spring break destination.

Well, that would be Visa San Antonio.

The recent USA Today award of the San Antonio Riverwalk is the number one river walk in the country, as if there's any other riverwalk in the country.

When CBS News features San Antonio's Day of the Dead, also a product of Visa San Antonio's work.

Together, these efforts in sales, marketing, and communications have delivered $7.6 billion in cumulative economic impact for our city.

Those efforts represent only part of what Visa San Antonio delivers, however.

Once a meeting or a convention is secured, our destination experience team works closely with planners to connect them with local businesses, ensuring that the economic impact reaches deep into our community.

Our leisure department expands access to San Antonio by ensuring our hotels and attractions and experiences are bookable across all global travel platforms.

We work hand in hand with the airport team to demonstrate demand and support the growth of new and existing air service.

In 2021, we have also taken on the responsibility of producing major riverwalk events, further elevating one of our city's most iconic assets.

This contract assignment, resulting from the Riverwalk Association merging into Visa San Antonio, will now be formally part of our master agreement with the city.

And as a leader and a voice of San Antonio's tourism industry, we also work day in and day out, as you and your staff well know to advocate for our industry, our members, our colleagues, to local, state, and federal governments.

Simply put, when tourism is strong, San Antonio is strong.

That is where we are today.

Now let us take a look ahead what's next in the decade.

San Antonio's tourism landscape has evolved significantly, particularly over the past five years.

The good news is visitation is projected to continue to stay steady in growth as we expand and elevate our global story.

With transformative investments at the Alamo Hemisphere, downtown, and of course, our airport, the outlook for the next several years is very, very strong.

These efforts underscore an important truth.

Tourism is indeed a team sport.

Our success is driven by coordinated investments from partners across the city, including the airport, UTSA, Greater SATX, just to name a few, and of course, our growing industry base.

At the same time, we must remain clear-eyed about emerging challenges, and we have plenty of them.

Economic and political headwinds may impact travel demand and shifts in federal research funding are already affecting attendance amongst key medical and scientific meetings.

Competition is also intensifying as destinations across the country continue to invest in new facilities and experiences.

I'll touch more on that in just a moment.

In addition to the physical convention center needs staying top of mind for meeting planners, is also very, very critical.

In response, our convention sales team has been realigned geographically, allowing us to broaden our reach and secure larger, more diverse group business.

On the leisure side, we continue to lead by inspiring travel across our core drive markets and prioritize domestic and international audiences.

This approach is working.

During the most recent spring break, San Antonio ranked first in hotel occupancy amongst Texas markets, outperforming the state average and drawing strong visitation from key regional cities.

The regional market remains our foundation, with 79% of our visitors coming from Texas and neighboring states.

These travelers drive consistent weekend and short term demand.

At the same time, we are seeing a structural shift in lodging preferences.

Short-term rentals have grown from less than 1% of demand at 62,000 room nights of demand in 2016 to nearly 1.1 million in 2025, making up 10% of our total lodging forecast.

This trend is driven largely by leisure travelers, particularly particularly younger visitors and larger groups seeking space, flexibility, and neighborhood experiences.

While this reflects national trends, it has a disproportionate impact on San Antonio, given our high concentration of leisure travel.

Addressing this shift and driving hotel stays will be a key area of focus moving forward.

At the same time, we must continue to expand beyond our regional base by growing higher yield domestic and international markets, including our top international source market, Mexico, as well as Canada, the UK, Germany, and China.

These visitors indeed do stay longer, plan further in advance, and are less affected by seasonality.

As promised, I will briefly address the challenges in our convention business.

The 2016 transformation of the convention center greatly improved functionality and flow, allowing us to better serve meeting planners and attendees.

That investment has been successful.

In fact, it has been so successful that many of our long-standing clients are now outgrowing our facility.

As attendance grows, we face a real risk of losing these conventions to other cities that can accommodate their needs.

While our sales team continues to deliver strong booking results and fill future dates, our competitors are expanding and increasing their capacity.

As seen on the convention center pace outlook on the screen, we're doing well through 2030, when Austin and Dallas begin opening their shiny new convention centers and attracting greater percentage of meetings.

The reality is clear.

Expanding the convention center is not an option.

It is necessary.

Though the convention center expansion is not explicitly a part of our visit San Antonio contract, it is important for you to be aware that without it, the growth of San Antonio's meetings and conventions output will be significantly constrained.

As you have heard from me today and from previous meetings, Visit San Antonio is prepared and ready to continue, bringing tourism dollars and other benefits to our community.

My thanks in advance for your consideration of renewing Visa San Antonio's partnership with the City of San Antonio.

Now at this time, I'd like to follow up on TPID.

2016 feels like a lifetime ago.

Sure does.

But let us remember that when Business San Antonio transitioned to a private model, the goal was very clear.

Move faster and diversify funding beyond the hotel occupancy tax.

Today, HOT supports 68% of our total funding budget, making private funding essential to compete with markets like Houston, Dallas, and New Orleans.

Since branching off from the city, we delivered on that promise, utilizing diverse avenues, including our membership program and other revenue sourcing, and the creation and management of the tourism public improvement district, also known as TPID.

TPIT is a private sector tool led by our hotel partners designed to supplement, not replace hot funding.

Visa San Antonio executes the program with the city oversight through annual hearings and service plan approval.

This tool has been critical to our success.

Without TPID, in fact, San Antonio would not have been able to host a massive economy-driving events such as the 2023 IPW, which was a huge success, the 2024 and 2025 SEAVEN conferences, and the upcoming meeting professionals International World Education Congress taking place this June.

The TPIT Service Plan and state law ensures accountability, clearly defining how funds are used, and guaranteeing they remain incremental to existing HOT efforts.

And it's working.

TPIT is delivering a minimum of a 7 to 1 return on investment, most oftentimes much higher than that.

As we look to uh toward the reauthorization, our focus is competitive is competitiveness.

Adjusting the assessment to 2% aligns to San Antonio with other major Texas cities.

Strengthening TPIT creates a dual benefit.

It fuels aggressive sales and marketing, while also growing hot revenues that support city services and community priorities.

Finally, increased flexibility between marketing sales will allow us to respond in real time, capturing new business and maximizing economic impact for San Antonio.

Today marks a very important first step as Visa San Antonio concentrates and continues working in partnership with council and city staff toward our contract renewal.

We hope this presentation provided clear insight into the impact of our work, driven by a dedicated team committed to ensuring San Antonio is recognized and valued through the world while we deliver meaningful economic benefit to our community.

We look forward to the upcoming TPID reauthorization process, beginning with the uh petition collection in May and Visa San Antonio contract vote in September.

And with that said, I am pleased to turn it over to my colleague, Patricia Muscuis Cantor to finish the rest of our presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mario.

Again, Patricia Musquis Cantorum, the director of the convention and sports facilities department.

As the department responsible for uh monitoring uh the agreement with Visit San Antonio, I want to start talking about the importance of this partnership.

It has been nearly 10 years since the creation of Visit San Antonio as a nonprofit.

In establishing Visit San Antonio, the city not only recognized the critical role that tourism and hospitality play in San Antonio's vitality, but also the role that Visit San Antonio has in driving that related revenue.

That importance has only grown over the past decade.

As the current contract approaches its expiration, our focus must be on continuing this partnership in a way that strengthens its impact.

Monitoring and growing hotel occupancy tax collections is essential for the city's financial health.

When occupancy and collections rise, the city is uh better positioned to fund vital tourism initiatives and fund facility projects.

Just as importantly, this revenue stream helps reduce the burden on local residents by shifting some of the cost to visitors who benefit from these services.

When we examine the hotel occupancy tax collections over the last seven years, we see that the San Antonio market has navigated a turbulent path.

Pre-pandemic, the city enjoyed healthy hot collections.

By the height of the global travel restrictions, hotel occupancy collections declined sharply.

Then, fueled by pent-up demand, the market rebounded in 2023.

A closer look at this data also reveals that collections from short-term rentals have provided an important dividend.

Over the past three years, collections from traditional hotel demand have held steady at about 95 million, while collections from short-term rentals have climbed 4.4 million between 2023 and last year.

Another contributor that uh to strong uh cle tax collections, though not visible in this chart, has been the growth in the average daily hotel rate in Metro San Antonio.

Since 2018, it has risen from 115 per night to nearly 120 132 in 2025.

Because traditional hotel demand delivers the greatest economic benefit to the community from supporting local jobs, restaurants, retail businesses, and transportation services.

Strengthening hotel demand must remain a central part of visit San Antonio's mandate moving forward.

That mission becomes even more important when we consider the uh competitive environment around us.

Cities such as Austin, Houston, Dallas, and Fort Worth are collectively investing more than $7 billion in the transformation of their convention centers.

It has become an arms race and for good reason.

Group business currently produces greater economic impact because attendees stay multiple days and spend throughout the community.

Moreover, in periods when leisure demand softens, the group business at the convention center can stabilize hotel occupancy, sustain employment, and protect local revenue streams.

However, it is important to note that we are currently, the convention center is currently operating at maximum capacity and are limited to accommodate more events and conventions.

That is why the expansion of the convention center is so important.

An update to the feasibility study for the expansion is currently underway and results will be brought before City Council in September.

While our immediate goal is to see these agreements extended, the broader objective is to ensure San Antonio remains a premier global leisure and meetings uh destination.

To accomplish that, we believe that the next contract should place greater emphasis on increasing hotel occupancy tax collections, expand economic impact, and enhance performance metrics, as well as create a stronger customer-client process to attract, retain, and support events.

Taken together, these efforts will position the city in even greater success in future years.

Lastly, moving forward, we have some important next steps.

Beginning next month, visit San Antonio, as Morio said, will be gathering TPID uh petitions while completed petitions are planned to be submitted to the city clerk in August.

Then in September, um, as you mentioned, also we will return with a comprehensive visit San Antonio package for your consideration.

But before that process begins, we would welcome any of your fit feedback.

This concludes our presentation.

Thank you for the opportunity to present this briefing to you today, and we welcome any questions that you may have for us.

Thank you.

Thank you both for the presentation.

Um most of my comments will be uh with regard to visit San Antonio and the contract.

Um thank you for all the work that you do to tell the story of San Antonio and all of the divide the diverse communities that uh make San Antonio the beautiful city that it is.

I'm honored to serve as a board member and look forward to opportunities for more in-depth uh engagement about how we can boost tourism and travel to uh share our community with the world.

Uh, I understand the fear that other cities in Texas are opening new convention centers, so I want to convey two things.

One is we obviously have Project Marvel, which is beyond the Spurs Arena.

It also includes improvements to the convention center, which we've uh communicated as a priority to varying degrees, each of us.

Uh we're planning it, we're working it.

Uh it may not be moving as quickly as everyone would like.

Um, and but I do imagine that once construction is underway, uh, we're going to experience a lot of inconveniences and will be limited in the in the events we can do in the scale that we can do and how productive the convention center can be.

Uh, and so I need you to be preparing for that right now.

Um, there are things we can do beyond the issue of the convention center, and I see you've listed uh on one of the slides uh goals to protect our market share, expand our reach across the United States, uh, and bolster our influence in international markets.

Uh to that end, I would love to encourage expansion into untap untapped markets.

Think black tourists, LGBTQ plus tourists, other minority groups.

Um, we are a community with something for everyone, and I know that we can be creative in how we more effectively and expansively achieve that goal.

Um I'd love to see, much like we have sister cities across the globe.

I'd love to explore part uh explore partnerships with cities, uh even within the United States, known for their tourism and figure out how we might best build relationships and mutual partnerships.

And I'll give an example.

Uh, what would it look like to coordinate with leaders in a state like Hawaii?

Um, there is a strong military presence, they have over 10 military bases uh and hundreds of thousands of people connected to the military, uh, and they could connect to us as a military city USA.

Uh, and they're also a state that is economically driven by tourism.

So, how can we benefit one another in that way?

What does our presence in their airport look like and vice versa?

Um, how do we connect with these types of communities in new ways in new and creative ways?

Um, I also look forward to working with you as chair of the intergovernment intergovernmental relations committee uh to advocate in Austin against legislation that will hurt tourism in Texas and especially in San Antonio every year, whether it's um an unreliable grid or its attacks on the LGBTQ plus community or the killing of black and brown people by police, the deregulation of guns coupled with rises in gun violence and school school shootings or increased uh ice presence.

People are making the active decision to avoid Texas uh for their own safety, and that impacts us as a city.

And so um I look forward to working with you to uh advocate against very harmful legislation and also for legislation that's gonna bolster tourism and uh engagement with our city.

Uh on that note, we'll begin council discussion, uh starting with council member white.

Thanks, Mayor Pro Tim.

Um on VSA, Mario, we we we talked about this the other day.

My point here is that people come to San Antonio by themselves because we're close, because they know about the Riverwalk, because they know about the Almo, et cetera.

Uh I'm simply interested in how we show that VSA's work is directly leading to uh there's a direct link between that work and dollars being spent here in our city.

Um you walked me through the other day that's that slide with the 7.6 billion, right?

And I guess that's that's still um y'all's take on on direct impact of uh BSA's work, right?

Most likely understated because the only thing that's worked into those figures are a direct correlation to someone who's putting a head in a bed, right?

So that's that's probably understated based on the fact that you really can't track that when you're doing television, uh billboards, things of that sort.

So it's it's a pretty simple math calculation.

Yeah, so so a conservative number is what you're saying.

Yep.

Um and again, the reason this is important because when you're looking at a at a contract of this size, and when we're talking about 30 plus million dollars a year and then 10-year contract, you know, it's hundreds of millions of dollars um that's that's at play here.

I think it's important that uh we can verify that the city is is getting its its bang for its buck.

And so on that note, um, and sort of along the same the same lines as what I just talked about on the 7.6 billion.

Uh I know performance metrics were added to the contract several years ago.

Um, what are some of these metrics and has VSA been meeting them?

So and if if I can address actually the uh visitation that's already coming, right?

Uh before I get into that just briefly.

Uh we we are very fortunate.

We have 45 million Texans in the surrounding area that consider San Antonio their second home and and we're blessed to have that.

But it should also be noted uh these groups that come and visit uh in 2025 alone, almost 50% of them are new to the city of San Antonio.

Never been here, first time to experience our city.

Uh that's a growth of 74% from 2022 when we started to track new business coming to the city.

So, yes, we're blessed to have a uh customer base that continues to visit, but we also are very active in pursuing those groups that are new uh to the city of San Antonio.

In terms of let me and let me if I can jump in there.

So a bunch of new folks coming here from around the state.

Uh, what about from from around the United States?

Yeah, no, that's that's all a part of that visitation, right?

That's 70 70 to 80% of our visitation though, is locally uh right through, which is you know, during these economic times of uncertainty, we're blessed to have, right?

They might not be jumping on an airplane due to the cost.

Yes, gas is very high, but still uh they are coming because uh driving to San Antonio within two to three hours makes fiscal sense for them to do.

So uh again, we're very blessed with that.

In terms of the metrics, we are a metric heavy organization.

Um we have a total of 30 plus metrics that we report out to the city of San Antonio quarterly, all around uh room nights, number of events booked, uh economic impact jobs uh that are associated with our industry, as well as uh that portion with the convention center, but also those metrics throughout the city of San Antonio, leads created, and that's just on the group side.

Uh there's metrics that are associated with the marketing, our marketing efforts, such as engagement, uh impressions, things of that sort, uh, which lead to that visitation number that we talked about earlier.

Uh in addition to um the reality is uh our performance is very much predicated on hot tax collections.

Our budget is based on up to 35 percent of hot tax collection.

So it behooves us to make sure that that is strong and and and impactful for the city of San Antonio.

Uh let me ask you this.

Uh I was recently um in Bernie and met with um some members of the Bernie uh City Council, and we got to talking about a regional approach to attracting people to to our area.

Um Bernie, Fredericksburg, San Antonio, um, New Braunfalls.

Is there any thought that you know if we when we do our marketing, we bring somebody down, um, you know, they could visit Fredericksburg and then also make a day trip uh to San Antonio and and kind of everybody wins in that scenario.

Are there any talks like that going on with some of these surrounding cities?

Our focus with visit San Antonio is 100% focused on San Antonio.

Um it doesn't mean that travelers don't come and go to the hill country, right?

For those offerings, which is fine as long as they're staying in San Antonio.

So we ensure that our marketing uh unmistakably San Antonio is focused on on that closure ratio.

God love the Hill Country, but again, hyper focused on the city.

No, a hundred a hundred percent.

We obviously want them them here in our city, um, but attracting them to the region one one way or another, I think, you know, potentially looking at at any collaboration with with surrounding cities may pay some dividends uh here here for us.

It can.

Again, with the visitors coming to San Antonio, they're doing all the things that they have here, but they they will make a a day trip.

I will I would prefer it to be a day trip if they are going into the hill country and not staying overnight, right?

I want the heads and beds and the hot tax collection here.

But yes, that is another resource that a visitor would look at.

Yeah, of course.

Um question on the uh convention center.

Yes, sir.

Uh I I'm with you.

We we we gotta get this thing, uh we got to get this thing done, and and I hear you on how important it is to uh uh to to the city and to who we can bring here.

Uh in the um I'll say unlikely event that it were to not happen, what what would be our backup plan?

I'd rather not focus on that backup plan.

The um the reality is is this um the slide that I showed you uh is not based on assumptions.

Build it and they will come, right?

Um if we've talked about if you add another 200,000 square feet to the convention center, that there's a billion dollars of estimated economic impact, another 94 groups that we would be able to go after, which is great.

Somewhere between one to 94 at Visa San Antonio, we would be charged with booking.

But and there's closure ratios.

We typically close on about 50 percent of the total lead volume that comes into our funnel.

But we're not even talking about that.

That slide is purely what's happening to our group pace today uh based on these other cities selling into their convention centers today that open up in 30, 31, 32.

And then that chart inverses.

New beats old.

We know we're at capacity in terms of occupancy at the convention center for the economic health of this city, and certainly our industry that that convention center expansion needs to happen.

Okay, real quick last question.

TPID, is there a cap on how much of that can be spent and who oversees that?

So yes, uh both the hot tech collections as well as TPID, there's state statutes uh that are very much prescribed uh on how that can be spent.

If you're okay, I'd like to call up Scott Jostlov, the president and CEO of Texas Hotel Lodging Association, just to really walk through some of the details on that, because it's nuanced.

Well, I I I may leave that up to the mayor pro ten because I know we're running short on time, Mario.

And maybe you and I can just uh go over that, or we could get a one-pager on on how that works as a follow-up.

Um I know we have an exact session and public comment coming up, and I don't want to keep the public waiting, so maybe that's the best way to do it.

You got it.

We do have a board of directors, uh, a 14 person board of directors, hoteliers that uh manage the oversight of the uh strategies and tactics that are utilized with that funding.

Okay, that's good enough for now.

Thanks, Mayor Prote.

Thank you.

Councilmember Aldorate Carito.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Temp.

Uh thank you uh for this presentation.

We know that obviously tourism is such an important part of our local economy, so it's important that we invest in the sector's growth.

So thank you for all that you all have been doing.

You know, as um councilman White had mentioned, and also that you all mentioned, I mean, we we have to invest in in our in our convention center, because it's important that we don't get left behind.

You were mentioning the drop that we we're fixing to see in 2029 if we don't do something about it.

So um, yeah, it's extremely uh important that we um uh invest as needed so that way we're uh like I said, we're not left behind.

So the feasibility study on the convention center, that's still targeted to be presented in September, right?

That is my understanding, yes.

Um of the things that I wanted us to talk about today is that we're seeing these articles about like the Thompson Hotel closing and and hotel occupancy rates being really high.

Can you um help us understand that?

Absolutely.

Um the good news is um you you're right, councilwoman.

If you read the uh newspapers or the anything in the in the news as of late, as it pertains specifically to hotel demand occupancy, you would think we're in the middle of our own mini pandemic, uh, and it's only affecting San Antonio, and that is not the case.

Um much too, but you see a slide about hot tax collection continuing to increase.

Uh what we're facing is that visitation visitors are just lodging differently.

Um that number that I gave uh in the presentation, it even if you move it up in 2019, we had 400,000 room nights of uh short-term rental demand, people staying in short-term rentals, 400,000 room nights in total.

Fast forward to 2025, we have 1.1 million.

Um that exact number has moved out of hotels.

It's almost, if you look at the at the uh math on it, it's almost identical to the exact uh number.

So they're coming here.

The good news is they're coming here.

Um they're just lodging and staying differently.

Yeah.

Um so uh I'm I'm encouraged uh by that.

With that being said, um we still need a at Visa San Antonio, we need to drive hotel demand.

Yeah, and the fastest way that we know how to do it, the fastest way I know how to do that is through group.

Right?

God love the 45 million visitors that we have in our backyard.

Uh but leisure travel can be fickle based on the economy, based on the weather, based on all the reasons why we may or may not take a trip.

But a group customer is coming because there's a contract in place.

So we want to get more group, and certainly that convention center expansion discussion is a part of that.

Yeah, that's extremely insightful.

Thank you, because you know, and and I'm glad to know that you all are still tracking how many visitors are coming to San Antonio and and that we know that they are still coming, but that they're staying different.

So it's just sounds like we need to um put in some work like you're mentioning group rates or other other ways that we can get them to stay in hotels.

But you know, we all know headlines can sometimes be misleading, and so thank you for for that important context.

Because I think I think it's important.

Same thing that happened with taxis, right?

When Ober came on the scene.

Yeah.

Taxi cap drivers were where all the visitors they're here, they're just not in your vehicle.

Yeah.

Right.

So the industry changes and movies like all other industries.

But yes, ma'am.

Awesome.

Well, thank you.

And thank you all for all the the great work, Eldu.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Councilmember Viergran, followed by Councilmember Spears.

Uh thank you.

Thank you very much.

Uh I want to thank you for the presentation, Mario.

You can have a seat.

I'll just say a few words.

Uh, as many of you know, I am I do sit on the board with Councilman McKee Rodriguez.

It's fun times there at Visit San Antonio.

Um, I was on staff with Visit San Antonio pre-pandemic, uh, lost my job because of the pandemic.

And so I'm really glad to see the slide with the numbers and where we come back to.

Um, Patricia, I think you're doing a great job filling that convention center and the dome as we move forward, but we understand that these times are very uncertain, as we talked about earlier, and it's just it's very difficult to get people over here.

And as many of y'all know, it's sort of it is the jet lag.

I was in uh Dubrovnik in Croatia.

They get something like 80,000 visitors a day on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Never never have I been so grateful not to be on um on a border port town, because that is just a lot of people to maneuver.

But looking at that and seeing what they're doing and then seeing how San Antonio is is managing our tourism and how we get people here is it's good questions to ask and see how how do we do this and how do we do this well.

And I think with the current team we have here at Visit San Antonio, we have a team that is doing the work.

Once a city department, now they can move faster, they can be more efficient, they have their own team, and we don't have to sign off on everything.

So I look forward to continuing that model and moving forward with you guys.

And as stated before, but your number one client is the city of San Antonio, and as a board member, I often remind them of that.

So y'all don't have to worry.

Um, and when when we talk about plan B or option B, that means trying to get money from the county.

And Eric's not here, but he would be making a face right now.

So we're gonna stick with uh the city of San Antonio and how we're working and what we do.

And I do want to just uh give acknowledgement.

Um Scott Joslav is here from the Texas Housing Uh Hotel and Lodging Association.

So if y'all do have any questions about how this money comes down, that's why he's here.

Uh Scott, thank you for coming and being available to answer questions.

A number of council board members have been here and were here.

Uh Taryn from elsewhere and elsewhere too is here.

Michelle Madsen from San Antonio Hotel and Lodging Association, Deborah Amawali Jarman from SACAM was here.

I don't know if she still is, and Don and Latios, I believe, was here from Texas Restaurant Association.

And if I missed any other um board members, raise your hand.

Not you, Jalen.

I I I'll oh Crystal, well, of course, of course, there's a number of city staff that sit on the board.

Um, and I think uh Shannon is here too, and they all serve and we work together to make sure that we bring um the world to San Antonio in this current climate, the world is we really the world that we need to focus on is the United States, and then trying to get our friends from Canada and Mexico to continue to come here.

Um again, being overseas globally, the appetite to come over to the states isn't it just isn't there, y'all.

They're not clamoring to come here, and that's unfortunate.

And it'll I I'm hoping it'll change, but as of right now, that's not how it is.

So I think it's important that we focus on that drive market.

I think it's important that when we talk about the Hill Country and our and our cities to the south, that they understand they can be members of Visit San Antonio and be part of that and um pay a membership fee and and get people up there or do the the day trips, and that's where we want to kind of build those bonds.

But the priority right now is what we mainly use is the heads and beds, and so we do want to get those conventions in.

We do want to help our hotel providers with the TPID to motivate and get those small groups in, whether it's a family reunion, a wedding, um, uh an association, a smaller association group, this is what we need to focus on and get them to the hotels.

of Visit San Antonio and be part of that and um pay a membership fee and and get people up there or do the the day trips and that's where we want to kind of build those bonds but the priority right now is what we mainly use is the heads and beds and so we do want to get those conventions in we do want to help our hotel providers with the TPID to motivate and get those small groups in whether it's a family reunion a wedding um uh an association a smaller association group this is what we need to focus on and get them to the hotels and I think I'm positive like Councilman McKee Rodriguez that um even though maybe they it did downtown might be a little difficult to navigate we have some really great hotels with great venue spaces by SeaWorld by Fiesta Texas that we can put people in so making sure we look at that for the future um and then I don't want to forget Andy um Heron I believe he's here from T Pit there you are Andy and that T Pit is why we want to do that because these are the hot it and what I love about T Pit is it's not necessarily visit San Antonio staff it is the city's group uh it is the hotels groups that are doing the group sales so this stuff that the city can't do this is really what visit San Antonio does and the complexities of that it really makes it easier when we contract out for this so I look forward to this I look forward to to being creative and I I challenge my council members that these are the opportunities where you can get creative and think of tours and think of of ways to highlight your district and and maybe bring a community it's a great community meeting we have Riverside that did their little arts and culture art deco thing that I think we I think uh they sent some influencers out to take photos and stuff so this is what you can do in your district too is as we talk about elevating and telling the story with San Antonio so um one thing um I do have one question in terms of short term rentals Mario um as we move forward with sure as we move forward and talk about short-term rentals uh does visit San Antonio have a plan in terms of to kind of talk about the struggles that we're going to see um with the hotels saying too many short term rentals and then on the other hand I have residents that are saying I don't want any more short term rentals in my neighborhood either.

So they're they are a part of the lodging landscape right now right um our mission and you mentioned it uh clearly is to bring the world to San Antonio and and by the numbers with visitation continuing to increase uh as well as all the other metrics we're we're doing that um I don't know if the consumers gonna change but in terms of right a family of five choosing to stay in a 300 square foot hotel room or each person gets their room I don't know that'll ever change but I think that's where it's critical to the success of the city is growing that group demand and again I'll I'll I'll stop here with that plug for the convention center expansion but that's that's really the path to getting more heads in bed specifically in the hotels.

Yeah and and what I'd like um Mario to you you to think about and and maybe Michelle and Scott as we move forward is we're gonna need to go into the communities especially in some of our areas um uh in and around downtown because what we're seeing is it's not a home like in the commercials where it's like oh let's have a home where everybody gets their own room it really is a casita or a room and so we really need to get that short-term rental kind of under control and and in the neighborhoods uh adjoining the the downtown area and the river area and we may need your help to go in and talk to the community in terms of if you're looking at turning a piece of your property into short-term rentals or what our market can bear because uh a home with uh with five bedrooms great that's gonna be possibly in the King William that's gonna be possibly in District 8 it is not going to be on on Lorraine Street in on the south side of San Antonio it's gonna be one room if if they're doing a short term rental there.

So I think we need to have that conversation and how we tell our neighbors what to report and and if they're going to do that how how do they invest uh in a short term rental sometimes uh simply the tipping point of of demand supply and demand right might might end up there yeah so thank thank you and thank you uh mayor pro temper thank you council member spears followed by councilmember mesa conzalezing thank you mayor pro ten uh thank you for the presentation you said one of my favorite words um airport so how critical is a functional airport with plenty of air service availability to what you're doing and then how closely do you work together we it's super critical right uh one of the things that visitors look for whether on the loser side certainly on the group side is that air connectivity right um as critical as a convention center expansion uh so uh extremely excited by the investment that the city's making into this airport it's gonna be a game changer for us to say the least uh when we're out there pitching to these uh uh you know respective groups about

One of the things that visitors look for, whether on the loser side, certainly on the group side, is that air connectivity, right?

As critical as a convention center expansion.

So extremely excited by the investment that the city's making into this airport.

It's going to be a game changer for us, to say the least when we're out there pitching to these, you know, respective groups about visiting San Antonio.

Well, into the future, the airport comes up.

So we have a strong speaking point to be able to sell.

We work very closely in terms of the air development, uh, working with Jesus Science and his team in terms of uh determining the routes that have the greatest impact that have the greatest uh opportunity for flights to be filled uh to go after those uh to continue to get those direct flights here.

We work hand in hand with them very closely.

That's great.

Part of our mission.

Yeah, I'm happy to hear that.

Um let me ask you this.

On slide eight about the TPI, can you articulate in simple terms what the average increase will be on an average nightly hotel stay?

Um thank you.

Um taking it from that 1.25% assessment up to 2% will not be a competitive disadvantage for us at all.

Uh the rest of the state, uh aside from Dallas, is already at the maximum 17% in total taxes that's allowable, allowable allowable by the state.

Um you're probably talking about maybe another 50 cents on a 200 room rate.

That's yeah, that's very important to note because you know you hear percentages and people get have a skewed sense of what that could mean, but 50 cents is tangible.

Our our hotel owners, our hotel GMs, uh, when we go out for that petition, we'll need 60 uh a minimum of 60 percent of their approval on that.

So we've already been having those discussions and uh along with Visit San Antonio, we do not um it's just not a competitive disadvantage at all.

Do you have an idea of how much additional revenue you anticipate to do?

We do.

We're anticipating that uh going from that 1.25 to 2% will uh provide another six million of estimated uh sales and marketing dollars to sell the entire destination.

That's great.

Yeah, that's significant.

We need that.

Um and then I had a question on slide six.

Can you speak to the protect San Antonio's regional visitor market share a little bit more?

Absolutely.

Um, one of the challenges for an organization like Visa San Antonio, um, when you have so many members, uh a little over 900, and and obviously we we sell and market the city at scale, is that if you're not careful, you could become a jack of all trades, a master or none.

And the best thing we can do for this city is be hyper-focused on selling and marketing the destination.

Uh part of that is ensuring that we own our own backyard.

That regional uh drive market for us is super uh critical.

And as of late, coming out of uh COVID, certainly our uh competitor cities have noticed that that's also a sweet spot, and from a leisure standpoint have gone aggressively after that.

So we again are hyper focused on uh San Antonio is your second home, where there's something different about San Antonio, and it's not just the Riverwalk and the Alamo, and we're blessed to have uh many of those assets here, but it's really about our people.

But yeah.

Thank you for that.

Um I'll just say, you know, there's no place like home.

And but we are seeing in today's market that that home is often someone else's, but I agree that to stay competitive, we do have to push people back into the hotel and convention space.

So expanding our convention center, I think is completely necessary and um not optional.

I I think our economic development and tourism are intrinsically linked.

Um I saw that in my in my traveling to Taiwan, but um it's important for attracting an employers, um, including Fortune 500 companies.

Driving that consistent business travel here.

I mean, if I I understand that we we're competing with our other large markets on corporate travelers, and so I would encourage all of us on the council to look for oper uh opportunities to collaborate and integrate into the groups that do come here that we might have a link with, and to the extent we can find out more from y'all about who's coming and when and how we can maybe go you know roll out the red carpet in some way as as representatives for the city to maybe drive economic development here when they're here visiting us and seeing how fantastic San Antonio is.

Um I think that's opportunity for us too.

And um, you know, our there's also something to be said about sports diplomacy.

So um I'm happy to see that as we move forward with these big projects we're doing with um the baseball and basketball that I think that will help drive us even more, and this is just an extension of that.

So I think you know, it's gonna take a lot of coordination to close this gap with the convention recruitment uh given what everyone else is already investing, we'll kind of we gotta hurry and do it quickly.

So I feel that sense of urgency.

And um, you know, we've got to lean into I always say, you know, instead of getting nervous about trends that we see, we have to lean into it and be pragmatic about it and find our way to take the opportunity that's before us.

So I'm glad to see y'all doing that.

Um so I'm supportive of that.

I'm supportive of everything y'all are doing, and I think you're really important to the future of San Antonio.

So thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Mesa Gonzalez, followed by Councilmember Corps, thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.

Uh, thank you for the presentation.

Just uh a couple of questions.

I clearly I think uh tourism continues to play a vital role in our economy, and so I appreciate the slides on the on the data on the job creation and the economic impact.

Um I think that's important for us to just remember.

And uh what are there is Texas cities are moving forward on that similar proposal of uh the two percent increase?

So currently um so currently all Texas cities are at the two percent Dallas is the only one that isn't at the maximum of 17 percent in terms of uh total uh taxes, uh which is allowable by the state.

Okay, but everybody's at a two percent.

Okay.

So we're one of the yeah.

So when we when the TPID was created, great question.

Um when the TPID was created uh for San Antonio, it's called it 1718, uh Dallas was the only other city that had a TPID.

So we went in at a 1.25.

So we're we're conservative.

We wanted to make sure and be cognizant that it wasn't a competitive disadvantage to bringing business, specifically group business to the city of San Antonio, uh and leisure, I guess for that matter.

Um now um TPIDs are widespread.

You name a city, they they have a TPID, it seems uh to be the case.

So now at the going up to that two percent, we're just now playing catch-up in the in that regards.

Got it.

Okay, thank you.

And can you clarify how the TPIT funds are allocated versus the hot tax funds?

In in which way?

Just to make sure there's no duplication in those yeah, uh, fair question.

So uh the TPID was never set up as a uh replacement for the hot tax collections.

Our um our owners, our hotel owners, our hotel GMs, the expectancy with the T PID and signing up any hotel with a hundred rooms or greater uh that signs a petition, their expectation is it's there to uh supplement the hot tax collections and to bolster the sales and marketing efforts that are associated with the current hot tax collections and our visit San Antonio budget.

Great, thank you.

And and you know, obviously tourism is a major economic driver, but how are we ensuring, and I'm glad there is a district eight representative on your board with uh elsewhere too.

Uh but how are we making sure that it's felt in all of the 10 districts and not just downtown?

Or is that even the right way to think of tourism?

Uh it is.

Okay.

Uh we're we're very cognizant if you look at our visa San Antonio website and we talk about all the neighborhoods, all 10 districts, but certainly in as it pertains to T.

TPID, uh, it is a 42-person board that's made up by two zones.

Zone one, which is essentially the central business district of San Antonio, and then outside of that.

So on that board, we have representation from zone two, those that sit outside of downtown.

Um, and they are uh helping drive the strategy and tactics that we would put forth as an organization to impact them.

So there's representation and making sure.

There's times where uh an opportunity comes through, like anything where uh it's a convention center-based opportunity and and downtown's gonna benefit.

But then there's large citywides that push out uh into the outer core of downtown that the TPID uh funding also helps get here.

Okay, great.

Um and on the Airbnbs, you know, as we we know we've got hotels that are being built.

We just there was an article about the JW, maybe taking over the IBC bank, right?

So how are we how are maybe this is offline, but how are how is the industry kind of rethinking how they're building these hotels considering what folks are looking for now with you know Airbnbs and is there a different way that they're well I I think I think it's two things.

Um we know visitation is coming, right?

Besides 2025, where we took a dip, certainly in hotel demand, or just visit, you know, hotel occupancy demand, certainly start uh short-term rentals took a hit also.

But the rest of the country did, right?

Everything happened.

Economic uncertainty, tariffs, international sentiment.

Um with that being said, you continue to see hotel development being here in the city.

And I can assure you there's not a hotel developer who's doing it uh with the thoughts of losing money.

Um they understand the investment that the city continues to make into the airport and to the uh sports and entertainment district.

Um and the convention center expansion that would help drive that group demand.

A lot of that is factored into the development that you're seeing.

Um the hotels uh, you know, each hotel is different based on different uh business models and and PL statements, but they are ultimately charged with trying to figure out what is the guest experience that's important to them to their customer segment, right?

Not uh not every hotel is all things to all people.

So each one has a specific luxury hotel has amenities that are specific to drive that uh visitor to their destination.

Who manages the city pass?

Uh City Pass, great question.

I have to get back to you.

I'm not sure.

I didn't know if you guys did that.

Definitely not on Visa Sentence.

I'm a huge fan of City Passes whenever we travel.

So we do one, we do do one on the group side, right?

For our group customers.

So group customer comes in, uh we'll reach out our destination experience team will reach out to uh all the participating um entities on the riverwalk and say, hey, we have 18,000 Texas high school coaches coming in.

Uh do you want to offer a discount of some sort?

So definitely on the group side, we are a part of that conversation.

Okay.

All right, thank you so much.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Councilmember Corr, followed by Council Member Castillo.

Thank you so much, Mayor Pro Tem, and thank you all for all those that you've been spending your afternoon with us.

Hopefully you've been able to multitask for some of it.

Um but we want to really appreciate the work that you guys are doing for our downtown economy, which is to Councilman Messi Gonzalez's point, really our overall economy because it does impact so many of the other communities in um our city and how we especially as uh World Heritage site with the our missions.

We know that they're also going to different parts of um the city when they're here, which we love to be able to show off.

Uh I also want to say that I think um the growth in the work in our collaboration efforts working with the city and visit SA has been um greatly improved in the three years that I've been in office, and I am noticing a trend with uh my partnerships with some folks, and that leadership truly does matter.

And I said this at um uh a a ribbon cutting a couple weeks ago, and it it it really does impact how we collaborate together, and I think the willingness to have tough conversations with us is important because we want to be involved and we want to ask the hard questions, and so um we appreciate that uh working relationship that you have created, Mario.

Um I have a couple of questions on the some of the questions that council member white was talking about, and I was wondering if you could go to the economic impact slide.

Which slide?

Um I think it was the first one.

What number?

It was number one, economic impact there you go.

This, yeah.

Oh, three.

Um on this slide, can you like roughly just explain?

So I'm assuming every time a leisure trip is uh booked, you have an estimate for that amount that that leisure trip would contribute to the economy.

That's that's correct.

Uh and or group.

And or group.

Yeah.

And so is that estimate different for each um for the time of year, or do you kind of use like a baseline estimate through throughout the year?

It's baseline, right?

It's um if if there's any variations to that, it's more in the segmentation, right?

The leisure traveler travels differently, stays a certain amount of time, three and a half days, spends a little bit differently than the international traveler who tends to spend more time here, spends longer, less less uh affected by seasonality.

And so that is broken up into different segments that you it is.

So and this is independently done.

This isn't done by uh Visa San Antonio.

We provide some of the data, but then it's given to Trinity University's economic uh department who provide that information and has been doing so for at least 10 years.

It's the next slide that I'm looking at.

And then for the total total, yeah, total events booked.

Um how do you also segment that out based on how long the event is, etc.?

Uh that that so what we do is we run um any of our events that are booked through uh destination international's economic event calculator.

Uh and it will you plug in all the information, right?

Number of attendees, how long they're staying, all that information will generate the economic impact on it.

Okay.

And um this is 2025, or is it fiscal year 26?

Or what is that?

If you go to this slide there, uh that is 24's data.

Uh it's always a year in in the rear uh in the rear view mirror because it takes a year for that information.

So this doesn't include the final four?

This does not include the final four.

I'd be curious to see if we could actually actually I take that back.

It does.

It does include the final four.

Okay.

It does.

So we did get that data already.

Yeah, I was just kind of wondering how that made an impact, just because we have um the CEO of SA Sports here, and we know that uh we are getting our volleyball championship coming up soon, which we have, I know Councilmember McKee Rodriguez is T one of his team members has been really heavily involved in working on making sure we get some low cost tickets for that.

But anyways, I wanted to see what the impact of the Alamo Dome, because we talked about the convention center, but thank you for everything that you're doing over there, but I also want to see like how the Almo Dome also makes an impact on some of these uh totals.

Certainly there's there's a lot of money in sports, and and thank you to the efforts of San Antonio Sports, Jenny and her team who do an incredible job of of being um the keeper of that, right?

Uh for the city of San Antonio and for our destination.

Um along those lines though, even for the Alamo Dome, um, the concerts that they have been uh Patricia and her team have been getting from Bad Bunny to Bruno Mars coming up, that concert uh uh that that concert lineup uh it it drives demand.

You're starting to see folks that will d uh come in for that concert and put a head in a bed, which we're excited to see.

So a strong concert lineup in the fall is good for lodging.

We definitely felt that with Shakira on the reverse.

Yes.

Um okay, so the question that I the next question that I was going to ask was um this is an amazing impact.

What do we is there a way to quantify the increase in TPID's change to this?

Um Do you think it'll be a one-for-one?

Well, at a minimum, right?

Uh TPIT is required to provide a seven to one return at a minimum.

More oftentimes than not, it's it's in the double digits, especially when you're talking about bringing in a large citywide and utilizing T PIT funding to help with the hosting obligation and securing that.

Um you could do an estimate, I would think, but let me give that some thought.

I'd be just curious to see, and maybe we could even come back if it goes through to see like a before and after.

Because I'm wondering if it's like a one-to-one improvement for amount of dollars spent to the actual output.

And also wondering, like while the convention center is closed, if we are able to move forward, what does that do to um economic impact in the community?

So currently the plan is that uh the convention center would still be open.

Okay.

You're adding to the convention center.

We wouldn't do a model like Austin where you just shut down any portion of it.

Would there be a disruption or a possible disruption to group uh attendance?

Absolutely.

Group customer would be uh concerned about noise and all that, and we would work through that with the convention center team.

Um but it'd be a lot less impactful than if you were just shutting it down.

Okay, that makes me feel a little better because I so we were trying to figure out what conventions were coming up.

My um my brother-in-law is a neurosurgeon, and so he's like, I'm coming for this convention.

I'm like, what convention?

Um and it's this weekend, and I just looked up convention calendar, and there's a website, convention calendar.com.

Who manages that?

Like, do we input do we send them the information?

I have to take a look at it.

Um y'all do.

Okay.

Um so I mean, we have a lot of conventions coming up in the next several months, and I it's really cool.

You can see the number of people that are gonna be there.

And so the thought that I had, because I was actually talking to um a hotel owner.

How do we communicate out which conventions?

Like, do you have a monthly newsletter that you're saying like these are this is who's in town?

This is San Antonio.

You guys do that.

Yes, so we are a membership model, right?

So we do when when the group's booked, and then as it's coming in, our destination experience team and our membership team work together uh to send out to any of the small businesses that are members, uh, any of the river walk.

Hey, we have this group in, here's the number of attendees.

You might want to maybe stay open later, offer a lunch special, do something of that sort.

So, yeah.

We can.

Absolutely.

I just want to see what's I want to see who's in town.

I mean, you see them walking around.

I'm like, I wonder what group they're with.

I I met with uh councilwoman Castillo and she she brought up a really good point.

Um it would be great to have y'all come see a large convention center, load in, load out, so you can understand with your own eyes this whole discussion of occupancy and being maxed out and what happens when you have two groups that are trying to load into our current convention center.

Yeah.

But we can definitely add you to that.

Okay, awesome.

Thank you.

And then um, I was going to say one last thing and I just forgot.

Um the oh, I do remember.

The one thing that I've asked is there's a lot that's upcoming for changes with Marvel or what sports and entertainment district, because everyone hates the term Marvel.

But the one thing that I've asked for whatever funding is increased, how can we continue to put some of it back?

Like we've talked about creative ways to give funds for artists to participate in the new um doing art in the new spaces, uh, if there's any way to add funding for our local micromobility options or our our shuttles and trolleys to see how we can get people, we've already been partnering to do some of that when the conventions are here.

But just different ways where we can uh use whatever dollars are possible, because I know they all have strict ties to figure out how do we invest some of that back into our local so they feel the benefits too.

Like we understand it's a long, it's an economic benefit to our whole city through our budgets and through all the the revenue that we get, but tangibly, how can we allow our small businesses to feel the same benefit that those and I know it also sometimes comes back to engagement, and we've talked about this on like who's engaging and who's putting in the effort, but uh even just thinking about like art and architectural perspectives and how do we make sure that that we we can fill the the spaces with color as much as possible and useful information.

The only one thing uh I'll end with is like in the convention center.

If we put up more um like I I was I remember where I was visiting late recently, but showing exactly how to get what what's happening, how to get around and more clear signage, I think would be really helpful too around the convention center.

We're excited to have Crystal with Departments of Arts and Culture on our board of directors, which opens up a whole nother avenue to this conversation, which is great.

All right, thank you so much for your work.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Temporary.

Thank you, Councilmember Castillo, followed by Councilmember Galvan.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, uh Mario, for the presentation.

I uh really appreciated our uh one-on-one and uh Justin as well for walking us through many of the initiatives that you all have been tackling.

Uh grateful for my colleagues who serve on the board and many of my questions have been answered in our one-on-one as well as through council discussion.

But I did want to take an opportunity to highlight the work uh in partnership with having Crystal Jones on the board in terms of how can we highlight and elevate local artists.

Uh, I was reminded uh of a conversation I had within the first month of being uh in office about four years ago with a coalition of West Side artists who felt that uh there was a lot of opportunity to get plugged into the work that visit San Antonio was doing.

So just grateful um, of course, with the leadership of both of you all um that we're now going to to have those conversations about how we can invest in local artists and telling the story of the city of San Antonio.

Uh in addition to that, grateful for um the work and you bring that uh to my attention in terms of uh the convention center and the need for growth and expansion.

Uh and what I shared with Mario was having worked in the service industry downtown, it's the college games that bring in the large tippers, right?

But it's the conventions as well.

Um and there's uh the interconnectedness as we talk about the role of hospitality in the city of San Antonio, it's it's the the conventions that are brought here that then go into the pockets of the servers, the hostess, uh the housekeeper, so on and so forth.

So um just wanted to highlight the role and impact that you all have in that greater economy, um, especially within the hospitality industry.

Um looking forward to the tour, and of course, showing you all around District 5.

Um looking forward to the tour, and of course, showing you all around district five, uh, and I know you're very familiar with it.

Um but just to highlight some of those community gems and um lastly just wanted to highlight I appreciate uh you and Alex Lopez in terms of uh talking about how we can work with um boxing promoters, for example, uh to showcase the history of how many world champions we have, how many boxing jibs in close proximity to downtown, uh, but also how we can tell that story and of course um bring some of those large scale events that can go from twelve to fourteen days to the city of San Antonio and hopefully connecting them to hotels.

Uh I said lastly, but lastly um I appreciate you providing context in terms of the short-term rentals and the overall impact that has with hotel occupancy.

Uh and it reminded me of the conversation around short-term rental uh fees.

I think there's opportunity for us to re-evaluate what that looks like because we do have some of the lowest fees in the state of Texas.

Uh and I know in district five, similar to what councilwoman Via Gran mentioned, uh there's um there's uh concern in uh D5 and Southtown in particular about how we're removing uh long-term housing options for short-term rentals, and I think seeing the connection and how it's impacting hotel occupancy warns us uh revisiting that conversation.

Uh but those are all my comments.

Thank you again, Marion.

Thank you, Cynthia as well.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Councilmember Galvan.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem, and thank you for the presentation and the conversation today uh related to visit San Antonio and overall tourism here in our city.

Um I know you talked a little bit about the of course the requirement for 60% of the folks uh who are part of the TPID to approve this.

Um what is the conversation been like?

I know you said you're already having some of them.

Uh has there been any concerns about it?

Has there been any excitement or a request already for this kind of to take place?

What's kind of been some of the conversations with the hotels?

By and large, uh our hotel owners um and general managers and uh the T Pit board certainly, as well as San Antonio Hotel Lodging Association, they they understand the competitive state we're in and not only from as an industry, but certainly our state of Texas.

Uh so they know that this is necessary to keep us competitive.

So again, the competitive uh no competitive concerns about that increase.

Got it.

Um it's something that we need to need to move forward with, yeah.

Okay, well great.

Um do you have uh any data on which hotels part of the TPID have requested the individual hotel incentive?

Um of course within zone one and zone two, and then how often they typically request that?

So yeah, we we we have a running list of of those and essentially uh a hotel can apply uh for up to 75,000 to uh be applied to uh get a group uh to come to their part specific property.

Uh that fund or that incentive is paid directly to the customer.

Okay, not to not back to the hotel.

Uh so we do have a running list of of who those hotels are.

Okay.

And they're they're in they're in both zones, zone one and zone two.

Okay.

I just really interested to see what the kind of um what the map looks like there, as well as how often uh certain parts or certain hotels or sorry, certain customers request that and where they end up going.

Um I know of course the return has to be seven to one, and so I'm interested in on that one too, the results of without incentive plus recentive, uh just what that kind of looks like.

Um beyond that, I know we talked a little bit about this in the kind of conversation around downtown versus the larger uh the full footprint of the city.

Um what kind of strategies uh, if any are be implemented on these kind of micro-level tourism markets looking at um of course downtown strategies versus uh 151 and Sea World strategies versus airport strategies, what kind of things are done through the TPID for each of these kind of smaller areas?

So again, we're very fortunate to have representation from both outside right.

So uh our TPID board is extremely engaged, very vocal about ensuring that the uh funding is good for the entire city as a whole, but obviously they also represent their zones.

So uh the sales and marketing efforts as we go through them and we vet, we go, okay, that's good there.

What else are we doing?

We annually set up a strategic uh strategic plans and actions associated with how you're going to execute on that funding and drive visitation to the city of San Antonio.

So through those uh annual sessions, uh summer retreats, we're able to vet out okay, how is this all gonna play out and be to the benefit of all hotels throughout the city?

Okay, well maybe we can talk a bit more offline on the too about the kind of of course I'm just looking at 151 and C World and our part of the district or part of the city, um, and wondering a little bit about you know uh what has that been looking like.

Of course, I've heard different things with different folks in the area about the kind of general concerns about uh hotel and lodging, uh the state of it nationally, right?

Not just uh in that particular area, but understanding a bit more too, are there any kind of um needs there that would be helpful to ensure that more folks are heading that direction, whether it's groups or just getting heads in beds regardless.

Um understanding maybe if it's infrastructure needs or uh transit needs, etc.

Being able to understand that and seeing what that impact could then be on getting more folks out that way would be interesting just for me personally.

Uh yeah, no, for sure.

Team sport.

Yeah.

Tourism is a team sport.

Yeah.

And then uh I think on the similar note on hotel occupancy, of course.

I know we talked a little bit about this already, but understanding a bit more, you know.

Are there we're the primary reasons that we're seeing kind of hotel occupancy dips um over the past couple of years is the primary economic reasons, political reasons, uh, or the local needs here and there.

So the hotel occupancy dip is again, if you look at it is a shift just straight out into short-term rentals.

Okay, it's like the the exact number.

Uh it's interesting when you really get into the data and it it's uh a direct correlation.

Now, what happened in 25 happened everywhere.

The entire country uh felt that impact, whether you're in Orlando, Texas, wherever it was, and that had to do with the economic uncertainty.

Uh certainly uh tariffs play into that conversation.

Government funding is a huge piece of that.

If you look at the recent articles that have come out, they're talking about uh hotel demand that decreased in the fourth quarter of last year, October through December.

Um and if you just look at the data, you're like, man, nobody came and we have a major problem here in San Antonio.

That wasn't the reality.

The reality is we had multiple medical groups that were lined up back to back.

In fact, in July of 25, as you looked at the fourth quarter, we were thinking we're gonna be up at least two to three percent in overall revenue based on it.

Medical groups tend to spend more, pay higher rates, all those things.

Um those groups typically pick up about 85% of their room block when they come to the city.

They ended up picking up 50% of the room block.

Uh a lot of that had to do with government funding, right?

They just didn't have the funding for students to attend, whatever the case may be, and we saw that.

But it wasn't that people weren't didn't want to be in San Antonio.

It's just we were a product of what was happening in the uh the rest of the uh economy.

Got it.

Well, thank you so much again for all the work you're doing and for answer the questions today.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Any other questions, comments, concerns from my colleagues?

I guess just two uh comments as I've uh listened to my colleagues speak uh over the past several minutes.

Uh one on um sports.

I know uh council member core mentioned the volleyball uh championship, and Jolene on my team has been uh very engaged and uh the effort that I think she wants what I think she wants to convey and what I want to see beyond just the volleyball championship is how do we increase accessibility to the community to participate in experiences that are gonna motivate and inspire them.

And so we have uh volleyball teams in schools throughout throughout the city.

How can we get them into the championship so that they can see professionals and they can see uh that they too have a future there that they can and they can participate in something that maybe at one point was exclusive and not accessible to them.

Uh and so I want us to think about every experience that we bring, whether it's to the Alamo Dome, Frost Bank Center, any new arenas or stadiums uh or any other uh events, how do we make it as accessible as possible for the broader community?

Um second to that was arts was brought up quite a bit today.

Um I see Jeff uh we've had a great conversation about this, and he's heard he's not gonna be surprised by any of this, and he's actively uh working through and thinking through the issue.

But uh I was at the airport last week uh for a wedding uh to travel out for a wedding, and I was in line at an airline, I won't say which one, uh, and the airports are all beautiful, it's decorated for fiesta, there's art everywhere.

We know that there's a great value in art and that it's demonstrated in our investments at the airport.

Uh but one of the airlines had a poster for Fiesta and it was very clearly AI generated.

And that was that's off-putting to me.

Um as someone who values the arts and uh we know that cultural and art arts tourism is uh a big motivator for travel and tourism.

Um the quickest way for me not to go somewhere and not to support something is to see an AI generated image.

Uh especially when we know that there's needs and there's uh a desire in our artistic community to uh participate in whatever ways that they can to either create the graphic designs or to create our work, the like.

And so I say all that to say as an and as an anecdote, I would like for all of our partners to think through that.

How can we prevent uh generative AI from integrating itself into the way that we tell our story?

Uh that's important to me, and I I hope it'll be as important to you.

I think it'll be uh important to a growing number of travelers as time as time goes on.

All that being said, Eric, do you have any uh further thoughts, questions, concerns?

No, sir, this has been a great conversation.

We'll take the feedback and start working on some of those issues with Mario and the and the group.

Thanks.

Thank you so much.

Uh we were supposed to have an executive session today out of respect for that.

We have a number of speakers signed up for public comment and we're a little over time.

We won't take an executive session today, we'll move that to tomorrow, but we will take a quick recess just so we as council members can be as attentive to you as possible uh while you're speaking.

We will be right back at 5 30.

So the time is now 5 19 p.m.

Uh and this meeting is adjourned.