San Antonio Budget Work Session: Fire, Police, and Municipal Court Budgets - September 10, 2026
San Antonio Budget Work Session: Fire, Police, and Municipal Court Budgets - September 10, 2026
The City of San Antonio held a budget work session on Thursday, September 10, 2026, from 3:45 PM to 5:20 PM, presided over by Mayor Jones. The meeting focused on the proposed FY2027 budgets for the San Antonio Fire Department (SAFD), San Antonio Police Department (SAPD), and Municipal Court. Presentations covered operational priorities, proposed fee adjustments, staffing changes, and strategic investments. No formal votes were taken; the session informed upcoming budget amendments.
Fire Department Budget
Fire Chief Valerie Frosto presented the SAFD proposed budget, noting that about 75% of the budget supports fire suppression and EMS. Medical calls make up the majority of incidents, and non-medical calls are rising. The department responds to over 2,000 positions and aims for an 8-minute or less response time; the FY2027 target is 8:39. Proposed fee adjustments include raising the EMS transport fee from $1,500 to $1,700, introducing a new lift assist fee (billed to facilities, not patients), and increasing various fire prevention fees—many unchanged since 2004. These changes are projected to generate over $3.1 million in additional revenue from EMS/fire fees and nearly $2 million from fire prevention fees. Reductions of about $3.7 million are proposed, primarily through overtime management, which will not affect frontline services. The department will invest $1.6 million in nine new positions: one fire inspector dedicated to school AED inspections and eight positions for training, education, and recruitment. Infrastructure updates included progress on fire stations 52, 53, 21, 33, and 10, with stations 52 and 53 expected to complete in Q1 FY2027. Chief Frosto confirmed that the compassionate use program has minimal staffing impact. Council members discussed response times, the needs assessment (pending resolicitation), and requested a heat map of EMS calls. Councilman White noted that the nine new positions cost about $1.4 million, compared to $1.6 million for ten police officers.
Police Department Budget
Police Chief Salome presented the SAPD proposed FY2027 budget of $752.2 million, a $44 million increase largely driven by the collective bargaining agreement, healthcare, and second-year costs of officers added last year. Year-to-date NIBERS crime is down 6.3%, property crime down over 10%, and crimes against person slightly increased. Emergency response time is projected at 5 minutes 25 seconds, with a target of 5 minutes 20 seconds. Proposed revenue enhancements of approximately $4.9 million come from adjustments to fees for towing, alarms, records, and e-citations. Reductions of about $5.3 million include $822,000 from eliminating an underutilized public notification system (service will continue via other means), $618,000 in operational right-sizing, and elimination of six vacant support positions. The department is adding 49 officer positions: 27 for the future airport terminal C (funded by airport and COPS grant) and 22 from the parks transition. Additionally, six patrol detectives will move to homicide and special victims units, and three civilian crime scene investigators will be added. The department is expanding its drone program from 10 to 20 hours per day, shifting workload from helicopters (costing $1,200/hour) to drones, with estimated annual savings of $150,000 to $500,000. Council members discussed the impact of additional officers on crime reduction and response times, with Councilman White advocating for 10 additional safe officers (one per district) at a cost of $1.65 million, suggesting funds could come from identified reductions. Councilwoman Spears and others emphasized the need for more officers in their districts. Assistant Chief Earwood explained that drones can be deployed as first responders, providing video before officers arrive. Mayor Jones inquired about understanding call volume decreases in relation to ICE enforcement activities; Chief Salome acknowledged a possible effect and agreed to analyze deeper. Councilman Castillo asked to observe drone operations and requested a briefing on privacy protections.
Municipal Court Budget
Municipal Court Clerk Fred Garcia and Presiding Judge Carlo Bletto presented the court's proposed FY2027 operating budget of $17.6 million, a 4.8% increase ($627,000 for Linebarger law firm contract and $286,000 in personnel costs). Reductions of $455,273 include eliminating one court manager (shifting tech support to ITSD) and two vacant warrant officer positions (enabled by new Web MAG system). An additional $135,401 in line item reductions includes travel and education. The court recommends increasing the online transaction fee from $4 to $5 (current cost $5.15 per transaction). Judge Bletto highlighted the court's work on animal dockets, code enforcement, juvenile services (truancy prevention), and magistration. The juvenile diversion program has an 88% success rate (140 cases closed satisfactorily). Magistration volumes have grown: DPS intakes rose from 30 in FY24 to 708 by August 2026. The court processed over 1,200 citations through Linebarger from January to July 2026, collecting over $173,000. Discussion included the Linebarger contract (30% contingency fee), collaboration with delegate agencies for youth services, and the court's role in domestic violence cases. Council members praised the court's community outreach and truancy programs. Mayor Jones asked for recommendations on aligning youth services with delegate agency funding.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken; the workshop informed upcoming budget amendments scheduled for the following week.
- Councilman White indicated he will propose an amendment to fund 10 additional safe officers (one per district) using approximately $1.65 million from identified SAPD reductions.
- The fire department's needs assessment is pending resolicitation; council members expressed interest in its findings to guide future investments.
- SAPD will explore expanding the drone program more quickly and will provide a deeper analysis of call volume trends related to immigration enforcement activities.
- The municipal court will provide a list of community partners used in juvenile services to align with delegate agency funding.
- The meeting adjourned at 5:20 PM.
Meeting Transcript
All right. Good afternoon. The time is now 3.45 p.m. on Thursday, September 10th, 2026, and the City of San Antonio budget work session is called to order. Madam Clerk, please call roll. Councilmember Corps is here virtually. Councilmember Mickey Rodriguez. Councilmember Via Gran. Councilmember Mungia. Councilmember Castillo. Councilmember Gavon. Councilmember Alarete Gavito. Here. Councilmember Mesa Gonzalez. Councilmember Spears. Councilmember White. Mayor Jones. Here, Mayor We have Corum. Great. Thanks, Madam Clerk. This meeting will be reviewing the San Antonio Fire Department, San Antonio Police Department, and the Municipal Court proposed budgets. Eric, over to you. Thank you, Mayor. So three items of three departments this afternoon. We'll start off with Chief Rosto on the fire department, then move to uh Chief Salome with the police department, and then uh we'll wrap up with municipal courts. Both Fred Garcia and Judge Oblato will tag team that presentation to you all. Chief. Good afternoon, Mayor and members of council. My name is Valerie Frosto, Fire Chief for San Antonio Fire. Thank you for the opportunity to present the San Antonio Fire Department's proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Today I'll highlight our priorities and the investments supporting our personnel, operations, and community. Before I get started, I also want to recognize members of my staff who are here with me today. A lot of work goes into putting this together, and I appreciate their work and support throughout the process. With that, I'll begin by providing overview of the fire department. This slide gives you a quick snapshot of the fire department, our staffing, our apparatus, and the resources that we have in place across the city. It's a large operation, and as San Antonio continues to grow, making sure we have the people and the resources in the right places remains a priority. This slide here gives you a better sense of just how much we do. We have a wide range of specialized teams, capabilities, and services that allow us to handle very, very complex incidents right here within our department. You'll also see our two accreditations reflected on this slide. Those are important because they provide an independent measure of how we operate and the standards we hold ourselves to. So when we talk about being a full service department, it really speaks to the level of service that we work to provide our community every single day. And about three-quarters of our overall budget goes directly to fire suppression and EMS. The balance supports all of the functions that make those frontline services possible from communications and special operations to prevention, training, safety and wellness, and emergency management. Overall, this budget supports just over 2,000 positions and the resources that we need to continue providing that full service capability we just talked about. On this slide, we have the total number of incidents our department has responded to over the past five years, broken down into medical and non-medical calls. As you can see, medical calls make up the majority of our workload, and those numbers are consistently high. However, at the same time, we continue to respond to thousands of non-medical incidents, such as fires, rescues, hazmat, and other types of emergencies. Non-medical calls appear to be rising faster than medical. This supports the need to keep fire suppression and specialty teams fully prepared, and it also shows that the current programs in place are working. That being the clinical dispatchers, good SAM, MIH, etc.
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